MARK 12: 13-17 & 28-34

Marginally Mark…Pentecost + 24…Revised 2018

(for JN 11:32-44 (All Saints) see: jottingsonjohn.blogspot.com)

What a contrast between the characters in the 2 sections here! In the 1st, unholy alliances between normally steadfast enemies who unite only to bring Jesus down. But succeed only in making fools of themselves in front of Him & us all! In the 2nd, a lone Scholar - let’s call him ‘Daniel’ - breaks ranks with his colleagues, & earns high praise from Jesus. What’s the difference between someone who thinks they’re a saint, but aren’t; &, someone who knows they’re not, but is ‘close to God’s rule’? 

In vv.13-17 we see what a lateral & imaginative thinker Jesus is. Do we think so laterally & imaginatively in matters of Faith & Life? As I understand it, no ‘good’ Jewish person of that time should be carrying a Roman coin. If we’re asked to turn out the ‘pockets’ of our lives, will we find things that embarrass us? Show us to be hypocrites, too? How do we as Christians keep that balance between the things of God & the things of Rulers that Jesus demands not just then, but now, today? 

We used to visit a house once lived in by Jewish folk - now long gone to God. High up inside the front door, & only if you have it pointed out to you, is what’s left of a mezuzah. Painted over again & again by re-decorators; unwittingly, I hope. A web-site on the subject puts it: ‘a mezuzah declares ‘the people who live here live Jewish lives’. We’re so impressed by that spirit, that for some time now we’ve had a small ichthus plaque by our front door to remind us ‘the people who live here live Christian lives’! A reminder at each going out & coming in. When ‘Daniel’ of vv.28-34 recites the commandments to Jesus, isn’t he using a kind of verbal mezuzah? A check-list of what it means to live a godly life. He measures up very well indeed! Do we, measure up as well as ‘Daniel’ does, ‘mezuzah’ or no ‘mezuzah’?

Put the two sections of the reading together & we might wonder if we’re trying to live life as a kind of board game where some laws, attitudes, given us by God count more than others. Jesus is warning us here that life & faith are not like board games! Faith is a calling to live Christian lives according to the Way Jesus lives, not as we might pick & choose to suit ourselves!

Afterthought: ‘Daniel’ gets it that God’s Kingdom, God’s Rule, is a relationship we enter into - or don’t! Jesus’ enemies, of vv.13-17, on the other hand, think they own the ‘board’ & have the right to manipulate the rules. Are you & I living in very close Relationship with God’ (like ‘Dan’)? Or are we playing the board & manipulating the rules like those who earlier think they can outsmart Jesus? It’s time to choose!

Brian

MARK 10:46-52

Marginally Mark…Pentecost + 23…2018

Forgive if you find this a more personal approach than usual to this passage. My records tell me I preach on our passage on my first Sunday ‘back on deck’, four months after highly successful (Laus Deo!) open heart surgery in 1985. Appropriate is it not to the day Bartimaeus has his physical & spiritual eyes opened by Jesus. My 1985 notes show I’ve not only had my physical heart opened, but my spiritual eyes have begun opening anew in the process! Jesus asks Bart, “What do you want me to do for you?” Bart says, “I want to see again”. I feel very akin to him; back then, my reply to God being, “Let me go on living!”

My notes from ’85 tell me I’m preaching too long! The Scriptures are the Word of God, & Jesus is the flesh & blood Word of God, but I’ve fallen into the trap of being wordy. From that day I turn over a new leaf! Really! I do! Point to ponder? 

I also find I’m sharing with the congregation things more personal than I remember doing before. Like: A few days before my surgery I’m in a department store. As I ride an escalator, our Lord’s words to Paul (2 COR 12:9) take possession of me: ‘My grace is sufficient for you; my grace works its purpose in weakness’ (my translation). God is revealing to me what Paul once heard in his time of need. Now when I need to hear it in my own time of crisis! (I assure you I don’t normally wander in shopping centres quoting Scripture to myself!) How are our spiritual ears to hear, & eyes to see, whatever the state of our physical faculties?

It becomes personal when we discern God knows the ‘thorns in our flesh’, physical & spiritual. In Paul, in Bart, in me, & in all our lives, better than we do ourselves. Recently we’ve heard Jesus telling a rich young chap he needs to give it all away before he can follow Him. Then James & John learn they need to give up seeking places at Jesus’ right & left hand before they’re ready to follow Him as He demands to be followed. Today, without being asked, Bart (symbolically?) - throws off his outer coat, likely the one more or less respectable possession he has, seeing he’s blind & a beggar. Without being asked! Are there ‘outer garments’ we need to discard before Jesus can do for us whatever it is He needs to do for us? By the way, let’s preach Bart as ‘Bart with his sight restored’, rather than as ‘a blind beggar’. Give him his dignity restored, too!

Like Bart & many others, my need at the time, & it being met by God’s grace, opens me up to a new experience of, a new dimension of, spiritual life as well as physical. Our calling is to preach about that, & in the context of today’s Gospel, let’s be open enough to God & each other to follow in Bart’s steps. And, less ‘wordily’!

Afterthought: Soon after my return to parish & pulpit I come across a copy of ‘Lazarus’, by Morris West. A tale of a Pope who also undergoes successful heart surgery & finds new spiritual life opening up in the process. Worth a read, even if we’re not aspiring to a papacy!  

Brian 

MARK 10: 32-45

Marginally Mark…Pentecost + 22…Revised 2018

Include 32-34 for the context - always important! The scene is set when we’re told the apostles are puzzled, & other followers frightened. Before Jesus follows up earlier hints by openly declaring His commitment to going to Jerusalem to be His kind of Messiah! In our day, now, is there still something about Jesus & His teaching that puzzles us - or frightens us ? Have we got Him, got ‘it’ all ‘taped’? Honestly?

MT (20:20-23) tells the James & John story quite differently; transferring the blame for their seeking positions of honour onto their mother. But MK’s account has the ring of truth. Though not one of the twelve, Mark may well have been there that day. His version, & MT’s probable fudging of it, raises at least two questions. Firstly, that of seeking ‘places of honour’. Then, that of telling the truth, even if it reflects badly on ourselves, or someone we’re inclined to protect.

 Are questions we might explore from our pulpits issues like: *How does the world keep getting into such a state of power seeking, grabbing, holding onto, at so many levels? Including the spreading use of lies, & fake news? *Can we simply blame over-use & misuse of the expanding availability of ‘IT’? *How do we get out of such a state of affairs? *What’s the point of Jesus being our Messiah if the world’s still getting worse?

If James & John had been granted their request, logically, shouldn’t we expect them to have been hanging up there beside Jesus on Golgotha, rather than the two who were in fact His companions up there? Not the positions of honour J & J had in mind! Is the risk of ‘bringing ourself undone’ a consideration in our own discipleship? 

Has our understanding of Baptism, & our approach to it become a ‘soft option’? If so, Jesus isn’t into soft options! Are we doing anything in our faith community to enable not just our children, but adults, too, to grow into their Baptism?

If Jesus is a Servant Lord, doesn’t it follow that we’re to be a Servant People? Isn’t that Jesus’ expectation of us? ‘God of the gaps’ has long been a put-down for a lack of theological acumen that simply slots God as the solution into ‘gaps’ in scientific & other kinds of knowledge. Here’s the chance, though, to use the term in a positive sense. Let the activity of the Servant God’s Servant People be to identify, & make good, gaps we discern need filling in our society. What gaps are there in our wider community that we as Jesus-followers should be working at filling in the service of others? Where & when do we start? 

Afterthought: Wanting No.1 spot on the Jesus ticket rears its head taking many forms & many manifestations in our churches. Does our congregation & denomination have its own versions? Our reading suggests wanting No.1 spot could be a risky business, take what form it may!

Brian

MARK 10:17-31

Marginally Mark…Pent + 21…Revised 2018

Normally I like to give un-named biblical characters a name. Everyone deserves a name & a face! But in today’s case I reckon Jesus means us all to see ourselves in the ‘someone’ who runs up to Him. One thing this chap gets right, & deserves credit for, is that he discerns eternal life as something we inherit, not earn! The irony is that in turning his back on Jesus, & walking away, he is turning his back on eternal life, too. Perhaps we could begin by asking ourselves, & our congregation if we discern eternal life as something inherited from God, our Parent. Or, if we’re trying to earn it, are we actually turning our backs on it, as well as Jesus?

Eternal life is a quality of life, not a length. The chap of our story appears to be making a pretty good job of living a godly life - as he sees it & tells it - but Jesus wants us all to go further. To discern that everything we inherit is for sharing. Not least with those who are least in our earthly kingdoms, but not least in God’s eyes. 

It springs to mind, no, to heart, that eternal life, this God-given quality of life, is not something we will inherit one day if we’re ‘good’, but have already inherited. In our birth, our baptism, & our spiritual growth into the image of God. It’s already begun. There’s no ‘pie to be had in the sky in the sweet bye & bye’. 

At the heart of the dynamics in today’s story is that Jesus loves this chap. Even if he’s failing something vital in God’s eyes. Doesn’t it follow that God loves us, too, what-ever our failings? Jesus’ love for us, God’s love for us, is unconditional. And it’s that love, & our acceptance, our welcoming of it, that’s at the heart of what we inherit from God & are lovingly bound to pass on. Not least to those who are littler, even than us, in the world’s eyes.   

We can interpret our story as Jesus not wanting us to be like the chap in the story. But let’s be more positive, & recognise Jesus is telling us, “Be like Me!” Life in Jesus, being like Jesus, is our eternal life. Right Now!

 To move to the end of our passage, how does ‘the last being first, & the last first’ sit with today’s ‘win, win, win, gold, gold, gold at all costs’, mentality? Is this approach to life something we’re inheriting, too, but from sources other than God? Where will that inevitably lead us? The question is not, ‘Where does our friend’s story go from here?’, but,‘Where is our story going from here?’ 

Afterthought: If we miss the humour in Jesus’‘camel & needle’ imagery, are we also perhaps missing the real-life, eternal life, possibilities of needles of faith passing  through the eyes of camels of impossibilities? 

Brian