Mark 3:16-35
16 So Jesus appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), 17 James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder), 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who handed him over.
20 Then he went home, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21 When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons."
23 And he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27 But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
28 "Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin"— 30 for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."
31 Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you." 33 And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" 34 And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."
What's good news to you?
What's good news to you?
We're in Mark's gospel year!
Mark has been our main gospel since a new year of grace began on the first Sunday of Advent. During the Great Fifty Days of Easter, we heard from John's gospel; now we're back in Mark as we start the six month long season of the Spirit. This is the green and growing season of Pentecost, when the church comes into its own with the Acts of the twenty-first century apostles. That's us!
First, Mark opens with "the beginning of the Good News, the gospel, of Jesus Christ, Son of God."
What's good news to you?
• Mark is the earliest gospel and the shortest one. It has no birth account. No genealogy. No resurrection in the earliest sources.
• Mark includes a lot of miracles, healings, and exorcisms.
• Mark is about the end of the world as we've known it!
• In Mark's gospel, Jesus' journey to Jerusalem and the cross is incessant and focused. For Mark, his passion, cross, and death by imperial powers that be provides the best understanding of Jesus of Nazareth's purpose and identity.
• Our baptism into Jesus death and resurrection provides the best understanding of the church's mission and identity.
• We are the people who continue this written-down "beginning of the Good News."
What's good news to you?
According to the evangelist Mark, we don't find God in the Jerusalem Temple. God is not far away and unreachable. We cannot find God in any religious, social, cultural, political, or economic establishment.
Mark tells us we find God:
• in the cross
• in the wilderness
• outside the city limits
• in the stranger
• in the unexpected
Mark's Jesus brings the end of the world as we've known it.
Mark brings us the great good news of the Reign of Life.
Where are we now?
Two weeks ago on the Day of Pentecost and the fiftieth day of Easter we celebrated the Holy Spirit symbolized with wind and fire. We anticipated full diversity and inclusion. The first Christian Pentecost happened when some early Jesus followers were in Jerusalem for the Jewish Pentecost, the annual celebration of God giving the ten words of the Sinai covenant through Moses. The commandments that shape our life together. And they were in Jerusalem to celebrate the wheat harvest that fed and sustained their physical lives.
The fiftieth day of Easter, the Festival of the Spirit gets us ready for the green and growing season of the church…
…baptized into the HS of Pentecost, we follow Jesus into the world abounding with the good news of the end of the dysfunctional parts of the world
We follow Jesus to the edges, the margins, the wild places, and we continue to minister right here in this space, in our homes, in our workplaces, in this neighborhood. We help create the end of the world as everyone has known it.
Back to today's reading. We're near the start of Jesus' public ministry and we hear,
"THEN" Jesus went home. Then? After what?
• after John's baptism by John in the Jordan River
• after forty days in the wilderness–an even more remote location than the Jordan
• after teachings and miracles
• after interactions with powers that be
Most important for us, then Jesus went home "AFTER" he called disciples and sent them out.
Today's cast of characters that we know about includes:
• A packed crowd
• Jesus' family of origin
• Religious leaders from Jerusalem
all of these people followed disruptive provocative Jesus home to Nazareth!
We could write a book about Jesus and the people who crowded him
About Jesus and his biological family in this reading and elsewhere
People have written books about the religious leaders' reaction to Jesus' home invasion robbery parable that we heard today.
Because tying up and immobilizing dysfunctional aspects of economic, religious, political, educational institutions is central to Jesus' ministry. Those actions are especially vital to the cross of Good Friday and the empty grave of Easter. They helped create the end of the world as everyone had known it and expected it to continue? Were Jesus' actions blasphemy against the HS? Some onlookers thought so.
But we're at the start of the second half of the church's year of grace, so let's consider Jesus' words and actions. He wondered:
33 Who are my mother and my brothers?
34 Looking at those around him he said, "here are my mother and my brothers."
35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.
Did you noticed Jesus never excludes his biological family?
"Church as family" sometimes doesn't sit well, especially given traits of some biological and adoptive families. But we are Jesus' family, joined to him and to each other in our second birth by water and word; filled with the HS in baptism.
Mark's gospel opens by announcing the beginning of the good news
What's good news to you?
• a new family arrangement?
• a new family?
How about the end of the bad, dysfunctional parts of our economic, religious, political, educational systems?
Something different from the disappointments of your last half dozen years?
What's good news to you?
Those early Jesus people gathered on the Jewish Pentecost. Pentecost celebrated the ten words or commands of the Sinai Covenant that still bind us to our God and to one another and charge us:
• to do justice
• to act with mercy
• to love God by loving our neighbors
Whether the neighbor is human, plant, animal, or water. We're still caring for the LA River, right?
To love the immigrant and the refugee and that annoying person at work
When we love creation, the ground, the waters, the cities and the outskirts, a bountiful harvest will help feed us and our neighbors.
Today Jesus invites us to the table of grace for the good news of a taste of heaven on earth.
In the Lord's Supper
• all are forgiven
• all is healed
This Holy Communion, this Eucharist is good news.
Amen? Amen!
To God alone be glory.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment
thanks for visiting—peace and hope to all of us!