Sermons
Cloak Dropping Beautiful
So, in the previous encounter that we read and talked about last week, Mark kind of answers these questions by showing us who Jesus is not and how we should not relate to him. He is not our own personal ambition fulfiller and glorifier. We should not relate to him by seeking out how prominent and revered He can make us. His call is one for service, not one which asks us to reap in as much recognition and accomplishment as we can. The last shall be first in the Kingdom.
Dude, you (don’t) Rule
Both are off course wrong. They are wrong because they are blanket statements. Not everybody that is wealthy is wealthy because they did things pleasing to God to get wealthy. Some are wealthy because they evade taxes and hoard up money and do not compensate people fairly. Also, people that are poor are not always poor because they are lazy and immoral. Some of the most morally upright people don’t have much. But wealth can also be acquired by virtue rather than by vice. And yes, poverty can sometimes be due to vice like laziness and victimhood rather than virtue.
Form And Content
But even though he found in each their essence, he did not find in one of them an essence that matched his own. God created man in His likeness and therefore God shared an intimacy with man greater than He did with animals. Because man had the likeness of his relational essence. And in Eve God gave Adam that joy (also vica versa). If that is not enough to have a man break out in poetry what is?!
Have you ever thought about responsibility in terms of God? If God is more mature than anybody could ever be, -and we believe He is-then it follows that God is super responsible. God responds to our reality and to humankind in life giving ways. He responded to the sin and depravity humankind found themselves in by sending His own Son to sacrifice His life. What could be a more life giving way to respond to that? I mean it is easy to respond with excitement about something happening that you wanted to happen and welcome. But how a person responds to something happening they did not want…now that is a real testimony of character and maturity.
What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Knowledge is to be aware that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is to know not to put tomato in a fruit salad. The way in which one acquires knowledge is also different from the way in which one acquires wisdom. You get to know that that tomato is a fruit by reading up what a dedicated community of botanists who studies plans for their bread and butter, say about tomatoes. You learn not to put tomato is a fruit differently. You learn it through first hand encounters, experience and relationship. By helping your loving mother make a fruit salad and other salads for instance. You cannot learn it is a fruit just by tasting a tomato. You cannot really learn to not put it in a fruit salad by reading a book on why one shouldn’t put tomato in a fruit salad.
Mark 8:27-38 A Better Aligned Life
If so many people across history, races, genders, ages and ethnicity all have a strong and rather positive view of Jesus, it has at least one important implication. We simply cannot ignore Jesus. A Man that touched so many people across so many divides, is quite simply a man that forces you to answer the second question put to the disciples: “Who do you say I am?”
Mark 7:24-37 Why Jesus did good when He called a woman a Dog
So here in the beginning of Mark 7 it is stated that Jesus sook solitude. He went to an area where he wasn’t known and to a house that He wouldn’t be discovered in. By the looks of it Jesus was quite desperate for a little solitude and rest. Who can blame Him? Can you just imagine the weight of responsibility and toll of his mission on his physique as well as on his emotional and spiritual well-being? So, in comes a woman and falls at his feet. She wasn’t part of the plan to rest or even to minister to. She was a Siro-Phoenician woman, one not considered a Jew, part of God’s people Israel. Credential wise and status wise and gender wise, she had nothing to stand on.
Jesus’s Worst Sermon…
Maybe the first mistake the people hearing these words made and the first mistake we make, is to relate it only to what we should do and what is expected of us. “eat my flesh and drink my blood” is at least as much a statement about who Jesus is than it is a statement about how we should follow Him. There is this pattern in the gospel of John where Jesus does and says things that reveals his identity. It gets misunderstood and then gets clarified by Jesus. It is definitely the case here. So maybe it is better to first ask what Jesus says about Himself than to ask what he expects of us with these words…
Mechizedek
But even though this yearning is so common and so strong, we often fail to even get to the bridge. There are so many counter forces and distractions that draws us away from the bridge. Sometimes our fears of inadequacy and complexity makes us hesitant to venture there. Sometimes other people’s experiences discourage us from venturing out onto the bridge. For various reasons we need help getting on and walking on this bridge. This is where priests come in.
Sometimes God Says “No”
But it should be in our repertoire of understanding that like children, unable to see all the consequences of the things they want, we too sometimes want things that we think will be good for us but aren’t. And sometimes a door closing is not evil trying to steal what God wants for you. Sometimes it is God who knows better and says no. It is hard to accept when you believe the thing you want will be really good for you and for others. It must have been hard for David…