I’m
sure you’ve heard the term “white privilege” thrown around a lot over the last
several months. After listening
carefully I’ve learned that the term has different meanings for different
people. For me, the way you define it
determines the extent to which I agree or disagree with it. One thing I have become aware of though, is
that I do easily assume there will be a certain safety and stability to
life. The truth is not everyone can make
such an assumption. Perhaps this
pandemic makes us all aware of how stable our lives usually are – or how stable
we think they should be. Life in
instability is frustrating and exhausting.
Perhaps
though that helps us understand our gospel reading for today. Mark 4:1-34 is a collection of Jesus’
parables. Or perhaps we’d be better to
call them “riddles” for the Greek can be translated either way.
Jesus
makes a very challenging statement.
Loosely quoting from Isaiah 6 he says, “To you has been given the secret
to the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in riddles; in
order that, ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but
not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”
What?!? Is Jesus deliberately teaching in a way that
excludes people? Is God damning people
and then hardening their hearts so that he has all the more reason to do
it? No, of course not! So what is going on here?
In
the same way we want our lives to be settled and stable – and unconsciously
think we deserve to have them be that way – so too do we tend to want our faith
to be settled and stable. And,
unconsciously think we deserve to have it be that way! We like to know what we know. We want faith to fit inside reasonable mental
and emotional categories.
Not
so!
At
least not as Mark’s gospel portrays it!
Whenever
you read Mark’s gospel it may be helpful to remember that you are dealing with
something that is not entirely tame and controlled. Theologian Karoline Lewis says of Mark’s
gospel that it is not housebroken. The
gospel is not housebroken because God is not housebroken.
Indeed,
let’s look at what is going on in this very moment. I am here at church. There are only a couple other people in the
sanctuary with me. And all of you are at
home. For years we have been taught that
the church is not the building.
And yet, do we not consider the building to be a more holy place than
our homes? Does it not feel more fitting
to worship in a special set-aside place for worship with its own unique
architecture and instruments and furniture?
These
days remind us that God, and worshipping God, is not only possible outside of
church, but that it can be full and completely valid in our own homes. You can worship in your pajamas with a cup of
coffee in your hand!
We
make a mistake when we want to confine God to buildings, or rituals, or tried
and true stable things.
A
few weeks ago we read the beginning of Mark’s gospel. We heard that at Jesus’ baptism the sky was
ripped apart and the Holy Spirit descended into Jesus. That Spirit then drove Jesus into the
wilderness. There’s nothing tame or
controlled about all of that. Theologians
like to point out from this beginning of Mark’s gospel that God is no longer
contained where we humans think God is supposed to be contained. Instead God is going to be anywhere and
everywhere, and in a full and complete way.
Healthy places, unhealthy places,
good
places, bad places,
clean
places, unclean places,
safe
places, dangerous places,
living
places and dead places.
God will not be contained!
Mark’s
gospel is a gospel of chaos.
I
don’t know if I totally agree with Karoline Lewis’ description of God as not
being housebroken. I remember the first
dog my family ever got. She wasn’t
housebroken and we put vinyl tablecloths over all the carpets. She made messes everywhere. Only after a few weeks when she began to show
some control did we begin to pick them up.
I do not want to give us the idea that God is going to come into our
homes and pee all over everything. (Then
again, God is God!)
No,
perhaps God is a bit more like my current dog Jack. Jack is a Jack Russel Terrier/Beagle mix; and
definitely some other forms of crazy thrown in too. He’s tamed down a lot as he’s aged, but he
was completely out of control when we first got him. Actually, he was deceptive. When we first looked at him at Happy Tales in
Canandaigua he was as sweet and controlled; energetic and a little naughty but
okay. His naughtiness was trying to steal
a treat from the worker’s jacket when she knelt down. On the whole he was well controlled. The staff said he was energetic but he was
remarkably controlled with us. So we got
him and brought him home.
Upon
entering the house immediately ran into the living room, leapt up onto the back
of the loveseat from the floor in a single bound, and with another single bound
propelled himself from the back of the loveseat all the way into the dining
room, landing solidly on top of the dinner table. He continued to jump and bounce all over
everything like a ball banging around in a pinball machine. I wondered what we had gotten into! But it was too late to take him back.
I
think when we contemplate our faith we tend to imagine God as something like a
basset hound, or maybe better a well behaved Labrador. You know how they are: controlled, gentle,
predictable, loving, and loyal. Yet we
make a mistake to so domesticate God!
Keep that in mind and let’s look at just one
of the parables in the gospel - the parable of the sower. It’s detailed and it’s familiar to us. We can connect to it too. Even if you’ve never scattered seed in a
field or even grass seed in your lawn, you can get the picture. You also get the absurdity – the untamedness
- of it.
If
you’re seeding a new lawn you would not scatter the seed so crazily that it
flies out onto the street or the sidewalk.
That’s pure waste. And if there
is a series weed problem somewhere, or too many rocks, or whatever the case may
be, you’re probably not going to waste seed on those areas. Maybe you landscape it rather than seeding
it. Or maybe you dig out the rocks or
put in another layer of soil overtop them.
Whatever the case, even though grass seed isn’t overly expensive, you
still don’t waste it.
But
the sower in the parable does. The seed
is God’s love and he scatters it wildly – on places no smart person would waste
a valuable commodity. I’ve never seen a
person mow the grass in the street outside their house. A bit of grass may grow in a crack in the
pavement, but not a lawn.
Jesus
wants all his hearers to know that God sows indiscriminately. God’s goodness is for those who think they
deserve it, and for those who people would say don’t deserve it. God’s goodness goes where it is likely to do
some good, and it also goes where it will probably do no good at all. The key is that it goes there, everywhere,
because you never know.
God
is not to be domesticated into church buildings or rituals or controlled
intellectual ideas.
There
is a certain amount of insanity to faith!
In
Mark’s gospel Jesus uses parables with the crowds but only reveals the true
meaning to the insiders, his closest followers.
The outsiders don’t get the full meaning. They don’t understand. That may not seem fair to us. But remember this, we are treated like the
insiders. We get to hear the full
meaning.
I
think there is a subtle but important lesson there.
The
life of faith - the calling of faith - does not fit within our society’s normal
domesticated idea of pure and proper upright Christian faith. Our society likes to keep God in the box of
churches and do-gooder service projects.
But God is not so limited. Faith
breaks into anything and everything. To
someone outside the life of faith your actions and decisions may make little
sense. Your life may be a parable or a
riddle of sorts. However, to any other
person of faith your acts of discipleship will make perfect sense.
Do
not try to domesticate God. God will not
be so domesticated.
Do
not try to domesticate Mark’s gospel.
Mark’s gospel will not be so domesticated.
And
do not think a life of faith is easy and domesticated. It is full of surprises and new things!
No comments:
Post a Comment