MK 1: 40-45 

Marginally Mark…Epiphany 6… Revised 2018

 (for The Transfiguration see MK 9:2-9)

Reuven - let’s give him a name & a face - is more likely, we believe today, to be suffering from psoriasis or similar. Enough, though, to push him beyond the margins of society. It makes no difference to Reuven whether he has leprosy or psoriasis; under the law he's one of the living dead! In even approaching Jesus, Reuven puts himself still further out, & pulls Jesus out there with him! Jesus is no stranger to our margins! Out there in a sense Himself, now, through being approached by Reuven, He is nevertheless filled with compassion for him & heals him.  Note, though, that Reuven’s ‘If…’ is a statement of faith. Are the big ‘Ifs’ in our lives statements of faith, or hints of doubt about God & what God is capable of? 

How do we feel about ‘outsiders’ whoever they are? Compassionate enough to do what we can for them? On the spot? Or are we among those who want to keep them at bay? Shut them out behind bigger & better walls, turn back their boats, & the like?

That Jesus' response is to snort with anger rather than compassion was probably the earlier - harder - textual reading. Jesus' anger or indignation is His on the spot reaction to the state Reuven’s in. No-one should be consigned to live like that! Not Reuven, not any human being should have exclusion imposed upon affliction! Jesus’ anger then expresses itself in compassion. I don't have any problem with a truly & fully human Jesus losing his cool in compassion. If He can do it, so can I! If we're truly Jesus' friends, maybe we ought to be madder about a lot of things happening to people ‘out there’. If  healing is to take place for some people, that may mean getting our reputations as well as our hands dirtied as happens in Jesus’ case here. 

In telling of Jesus sending Reuven off healed, MK uses the same expression as he does of Jesus being 'thrown out' into the wilderness for His testing ([1:12]. Are we, as today’s disciples driven - in the Biblical sense used here of that word - to either go out into some wilderness, or maybe to come in from one? Jesus knows what a test Reuven’s return into society's going to be for him. As He was tested & then had to return back into society to minister among us.

I’m tempted to hang more loosely today than in a previous existence from a church become too institutionalised; too much organisation, too little organism. Jesus' instruction to Reuven to comply with the Levitical law, though, warns me not to undo the tie that binds me to the behemoth too completely! Perhaps the issue is whether that tie brings freedom as it will do in Reuben's case, or simply binds us still tighter to a law that brings more bondage than the freedom Christ brings?  Ironically, in a sense we end, here, with Reuven & Jesus swapping places in so far s who’s in & who’s out!

MK captures Reuben's sheer excitement at his cleansing. Are we living out, celebrating, telling about the healing freedom of Christ, who resolves all our ‘Big Ifs’? Or is spiritual psoriasis binding us instead of freeing us?

MK 1: 29-39 

Marginally Mark…5th S. after the Epiphany…Revised 2018 

MK’s use of one of his favourite words, ‘immediately’ in vv. 29 & 30 is a timely reminder of the immediacy of Gospel. God’s time is always Now. Now is as important as any other dimension when we study Scripture, &, better still, live it out. 

Other preaching possibilities I see here are those of healing, the need for time apart for quiet & prayer, & today’s ‘demons’. Jesus takes them all in His stride. Can we make ourselves available anywhere near the Jesus scale without ‘time-out’ for spiritual ‘exercises’? Work-aholism isn't one of the gifts of the Spirit! How's the work-load, what are the work practices, of those who minister in our congregation, small or larger scale? Including ourself?

'How does healing work?' Some explanations leave me craving a holiness I know I don't have. Others make me tear out the little hair I have left! At this stage of my journey, the closest I can get to how it 'works' is to believe that healing takes place when God's Love, God’s Healing Energy, is brought to bear by any means to make us more whole. Whole as God is Whole. It might be the touch of a hand (as here), well targeted medicine or surgery, or a host of other ways. I’m one of those who believe the time Jesus was physically present among us on earth is a dimension unique in itself - see para 1 above. I believe, too, God's energy brought to bear with love & integrity still heals. There is no set formula; it’s always an act of grace. No-one need feel bad or guilty when someone we pray for isn’t healed, or even dies. We haven't failed if we've done what we could do. Nor has God failed them or us! Healing takes love, integrity, effort, grace, & a lot of persistence! We mortals may even have to die, physically, to be healed or have our healing, our wholeness, completed . 

Some of the too-easy answers can ‘stitch people up’ whereas God raises us up - one way or another, provided we hone our spiritual insight & co-operate. Healing, wholeness isn't a commodity, any more than Jesus allows himself to become a commodity when He opts out of what people are chasing Him for in vv. 36-38. A person on whose behalf God gives us the grace to apply the healing energy of love in any form may still die; but they will die in a state of grace because real healing has taken place, & have become whole in a new & living way.

The many kinds of 'demons' people ‘house’ today are every bit as destructive as the kind 1st C. people believed in & fell victim to. Remember, God’s time is always Now. How can we preach & minister, how can our congregation operate in healing ways? Ways that will encourage those 'bound' today to face their ‘demons’, name them, & accept the Good News that by grace Jesus can 'cast them out' like the ones of old? 

God isn’t an Observer of our lives. God is a participant, through the Spirit of Jesus, unless we shut the ‘Holy Three’ out. Doing which leaves us out in the cold, too! ‘Hell’ can perhaps as often be experienced as cold rather than hot! 

MK 1: 21-28 

Marginally Mark…Epiphany 4…Revised 2018 

Though often at odds with the 'official' church of His day - maybe to be true to God we will all need to be in that situation from time to time - Jesus is remarkably faithful in His grass roots worship. Part & parcel of His being of the earth, earthy, in church, & out in the margins of life. 

Here Jesus is teaching within the framework of His church when confronted by a person in the 'too hard' basket. Let’s not consign him there; instead, let’s call him ‘Ben’ (everyone deserves a name no matter which basket anyone puts them in!). The irony in this incident is that Ben - evil spirit, or not - discerns the God-ness of Jesus. Better than officialdom does!

For some reason I visualise a ‘selfie’ of Ben taken with Jesus. Not the usual ‘look at me’, often narcissistic, selfie! This time, one where Ben is pleading with Jesus, “I need help!” 

Perhaps some of the selfies we take of ourselves with another person are also pleas for help in their own way? 

We don’t have to understand Ben as possessed by an unclean spirit. We don’t need to think in 1st C. terms about sicknesses any more than we need to belong to the Flat Earth Society! Over-simplistic ‘brands’ of Christianity can promote not only misunderstandings, but distortions of faith, too, by clinging to the un-clingable. As Ben confronts Jesus here, in turn, Jesus, a 1st C. person with regard to His humanity,  confronts the darkness, the evil He sees in Ben. Cares enough about Ben to break out of religious straight-jackets others want to put on Him even when compassionate action is what’s really needed. Jesus is way out of line in the eyes of those who think they’re His religious superiors! (Joke!) Does it ever become time for us to step out of line as Jesus does to meet someone’s need? 

Are we prepared to confront evil any way we’re able to, in whatever shape it takes, on behalf of today’s Bens; those in its grip today? Or are we too afraid of someone or some-thing to step out of line? Jesus frees Ben from that dark side of himself - whatever it’s name, & whatever causes it -  that’s been holding him captive. Frees him to be that child of God we’re all born to be. Is something, anyone, holding us back? 

One lesson from Ben’s story is that becoming that child of God we’re born to be depends on recognising Jesus as the One who best expresses what it means to be like God, the Source of our Being. Ben’s calling Jesus ‘God’s Holy One’ acknowledges His God-Full-ness. Maybe he’s not so sure about those who run the church of his day! 

What kind of word is out in the wider world today about us & our Christian community? Can those out in the margins, as well as those closer in, recognise us as being like Jesus? And move on to recognise Jesus as being more ‘full of God’ than anyone before Him or since has ever been? If they can, knowledge of God & practising God-like-ness will spread as it does after our Ben incident.

MK 1: 14-20 

Marginally Mark… Epiphany 3…Revised 2018

After disposing of John the Baptiser (at least, until 6:14+) MK calls us to focus on Jesus as Jesus follows on from where, in a sense, JB has left off, & calls His own first followers to join in His unique God Campaign.

MK summarises Jesus' Good News ‘Manifesto’, one that calls us into our own true lives, & into God’s life too, as: 

* God’s Time is always Now! Live in God’s Eternal Now! Not in our own or anyone else’s timing, be it past, present, or future! 

* God’s Rule, God’s Authority, is never any further away than God is! If God & God’s Rule don’t appear as close as that, it’s not God who’s moved! 

* Turn your heart & your life back in God’s direction & away from whatever's distracting you.

* Believe in, not about, put your trust in, God’s Good News. For Jesus, believing in the Good News means doing it! Becoming it. Being it! Now, at ground level. 

Jesus' ‘Manifesto’ is more powerful than Karl's because it's a revolution based on loving relationships with God & each other, not simply politics & economics. God’s Economy does come with its own cost-effects. This might be a starting point for a story of the personal & economic effects, lakeside, as these first disciples Jesus calls leave their fishing boats, their livelihoods, & their families. God’s economy has a different set of values, but will be costly one way or another. In our personal & family lives does the world’s Economy swallow up God’s Economy? Or does God’s Economy influence & help shape the world’s Economy for the good of all, not least those at the bottom of life’s pile? 

Those preaching in Australia, with Australia Day, Jan. 26th looming, may like to explore how relevant Jesus' ‘Manifesto’ is to Oz society today. Can we apply it, live it out, today in ways that may build trust between the dispossessed ab-original people & all those others of us now living here? What hope does Jesus’ ‘Manifesto’ offer for healing past wounds, in Australia & everywhere else?

MK 1: 4-11 

Marginally Mark…Baptism of Our Lord / Epiphany 1…Revised 2018

(For the Epiphany - MT 2: 1-12 - see matthewinthemargins.blogspot.com.au)

As MK sees it, the Gospel begins not in Bethlehem but out beyond the margins of society. Out we go, as Jesus does, following the Baptiser into the wilderness across Jordan. Some see this as the Baptiser offering out there a down-to-earth, grass-roots, folk alternative to the Jerusalem cultus. A geographic, political, & religious challenge to the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, the big smoke! Does Church need to take more alternatives into account for today’s situations? (There are many ‘situations’ around!) We need to be prepared to move ourselves physically & spiritually to get to where JB is, even if it’s seen to be ‘political’ - (what isn’t?) Is it Crossan who suggests the Hebrews have to change the direction of their hearts, re-cross Jordan, & re-enter the Promised Land to re-conquer it for God? This time by a changed direction of life.

Locusts & wild honey are an alternative physical diet for JB. A baptism that turns our life around in God’s direction may need an alternative spiritual diet for us. In most of our cases, it will mean 'growing into' a baptism that's already happened to us, maybe long ago. Letting it really happen to us! Speaking of alternatives, those who go out to JB wondering if he's the Messiah find themselves pointed in an alternative direction. To Jesus. A Messiah different from any they may have expected & in the end, couldn’t cope with! Many today may need to be pointed to the kind of Messiah Jesus is, rather than the soft option we may sometimes be tempted to preach. That is, if we / they are to turn lives around in God’s direction. For God’s sake & our own!

JB's humility in what he says about Jesus, & the way he points people to him, is an authentication of his message. Pointing as it does to the kind of Messiah come among them. To that humility at the heart of Jesus' life & ministry. Servanthood. JB & Jesus Himself are both conscious of whose servant they are! Are we?

To focus on JB’s colourful figure, though, is to go against what he himself  points to. Let’s focus our preaching on the One Greater. The One whose sandal JB isn't fit to stoop to untie. The One who will baptise with Holy Spirit. The One at whose baptism into His role as Messiah, the very heavens can't contain their joy!

Theophanies don't sit too well with us today, but Gospel will only become real, true, & meaningful for us when we have such a change of heart that we experience, as a consequence, 'the skies opening' in some way for us. Hear God telling us we're His beloved son or daughter; that God's well pleased with us!

MK 1:1-8 

Marginally Mark…2nd Sunday of Advent…Revised 2017 

For MK & those who’ve followed & succeeded him & his ‘brand’ of Christianity down the years since Jesus’ presence on earth, the Gospel begins not with Bethlehem but with the arrival on the scene of John the Baptiser. JB echoes earlier prophets Malachi & (2nd) Isaiah, promising, & at the same time, warning, that Someone will succeed him & baptise with Holy Spirit rather than water.

If ‘coming-ness’ is a main theme of Advent (as I believe it is) today our thrust may be that the coming-ness of people to JB will be succeeded by, & in a way, fulfilled by the coming-ness of God in Person in the Son of Humanity, Jesus the Christ. In whom the coming-ness of God’s quality of time (kairos) superimposes God-self on human subservience to, & fascination with, length of time, chronos. God’s will is only done on earth as it is in Heaven when God’s time & ours are aligned. Heaven being wherever & whenever & by whom-ever God is to be found.

If ‘MK’ makes a choice of where to begin, the other three gospels also make their own choices. Leaving us to answer the question, ‘Where does our gospel begin? Our own, personal, experience of gospel? Is there something symbolic in our uncertainty about where MK’s gospel ends? We do need to identify where gospel begins for us, but true Gospel doesn't have an ending, does it?

 In starting as he does by quoting Isaiah, MK straightway draws our attention to how much Jesus builds on the message - there IS just one message - of spiritual giants gone before. Experience tells me we can't assume our hearers know & understand the connectedness & continuity of Scripture & life.

I think it's John Dominic Crossan who somewhere points out there's a religio-political edge to people being called out across Jordan to JB, & then, after baptism, having to re-enter the Promised Land & reconquer it for God. This time with changed hearts, not swords. The real way to 'make God's paths straight'. Living out God’s politics is what it's all about. What we're meant to be all about. Ched Myers1 makes a related comment: ‘…the new order of the kingdom does not rise from within existing power relationships but quite independently of them, at the margins of society.’

None of this is a matter of ‘What’s in it for us?’, but, ‘What’s in it for God?’ When we're called, baptised, Spirit-filled, then we too can point beyond ourselves & our strengths or frailties, & those of our world & its politics, to Jesus, the Christ of God among us by His Spirit. As Jesus points us beyond Himself to God the Source of all Being.

1 Binding the Strong Man, Orbis, Maryknoll, NY, ’97 edn., p.122

MK 13:24-37 

Marginally Mark…Advent 1…Revised 2017

Many, of course, will see ‘Mark’ tweaking what Jesus has said long before to hold out both encouragement & hope for times becoming more & more difficult. Jesus hasn’t ‘come back’ yet, & the young church is walking a hard path as is the Jewish nation. Brendan Byrne¹ puts it: ‘What is described here in highly apocalyptic language is not ….to be taken literally. This does not mean it has no relationship to reality. The gospel’s describing a transcendent reality - the establishment of God’s Rule on earth  - & employing the only language suitable for expressing that reality: the language of symbol & myth.’ 

All this adds up to the need for a great deal of imagination in our preaching. Advent calls us to wait hopefully. Wait & hope for Whom? Wait & hope for what? How are we to wait? What’s the significance of a Church heading towards Christmas with a passage leading up to the end of Jesus’ earthly life?  

Jesus is drawing on the Scriptural heritage of His people & the tribulations they've already experienced & weathered over the centuries to challenge disciples of His day. Two millennia later, He’s challenging us to face the realities & consequences of the politics of our day, too. What encouragement can we gain from the picture ‘MK’ paints of Jesus back then? What kind of encouragement does today's Community of Believers walking a similarly hard path need?

Heavenly powers of any kind don't seem to cut much mustard today, do they? Before we take refuge in apocalyptic, remember there are always more signs on the ground than in the heavens! Today's signs may be different, for the church & for the world at large. But they’re still signs; for those with spiritual eyes & ears to see & hear! Christ is born in squalor, raised amidst terror, despised & rejected by most of those He came to, crucified beside a rubbish dump, & raised from death to show God’s grace & love & ultimate power. Can we serve such a Christ if we’re failing to care for His fellow-belittled? In our chronos while we wait for God’s kairos to triumph? Jesus’ 'fig tree' allusion is an illustration of a principle of God's Rule: being ready demands being ready now, in our chronos, & God’s overlapping kairos.

Advent isn’t about Christ coming at Christmas, back again in Resurrection, or even at the ‘Last Day’. But it is about ‘coming-ness & coming-together-ness; God’s way(s) of coming. It is about God’s kairos, when necessary, over-taking & over-riding our chronos situations.

¹ A Costly Freedom, Liturgical, MN, 2008, p. 207