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Pastor Eric Fjeldal's February 2012 Sunday Sermons
Pastor Eric's sermons are presented here in reverse chronological order...in other words, the most recent sermons are at the top of the list, working backwards through time.
February 5, 2012 "We Need Them Both"
Mark 1: 35-39
Jesus has just begun his public ministry. Following the arrest of John the Baptist Jesus has called Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John. While teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath he drives out an evil spirit totally amazing the crowd. He immediately goes to Simon Peter’s house where he heals Simon’s mother-in-law. When the Sabbath ends the sick of the town come to be healed; and finally early in the morning while it is still dark, Jesus goes off to be by himself to pray to God. The disciples come looking for him annoyed because they don’t understand.
Peter and his friends are astonished at the behavior of Jesus and come to restore
him to his senses. This is the first instance in Mark of Simon Peter correcting Jesus
(implicit here); it will not be the last (8:32). Simon knows what Jesus should be doing,
and it is not sitting in solitude and prayer. Anxious crowds await his ‘immediate’ attention.
Simon and his friends find Jesus as if he is lost and has forgotten his task. In typical Markan irony, Jesus points out that he is not lost and that his task is not simply to respond
to the incessant cries of a crowd. He has come to preach (1:15) and will not be constricted
to one locale and confined to the expectations of anxious disciples. This is the first time
in Mark that the disciples want Jesus to do something different from his own desire;
it will not be the last. (6:36)
(Gary W. Charles, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 1 pg. 337)
The message is clear, if one does not stay focused on what is truly important, outside pressure and the immediacy of the moment can cause us to lose our focus, our purpose and direction. We know this when it comes to so many aspects of our lives. We know it so well we try to help our children and youth see this. Yet, when it comes to nurturing one’s faith most people let it slide. They don’t take the time to nurture their faith and then at those crucial moments their faith does not provide what is needed because they don’t know how to make faith decisions. It is very tempting to look at how other people fail to nurture their faith, but it is wiser for us to look at ourselves and how well we nurture our own and each other’s faith.
The disciples thought they understood what Jesus’ mission was. They wanted him to stay there and be a local hero, healing and taking care of the local folks. The disciples too would benefit. They would in their own ways be local heroes for having followed Jesus. Mark makes it very clear that Jesus had a different mission. Jesus has come
not to draw a crowd or perform stunning miracles or rewrite Jewish history and tradition.
He has come to preach and to cast out the demonic in people and in systems that diminish
or distort that gracious reign of God. (Charles, Feasting, pg.337)
We often think or imagine Jesus going off to pray as some peaceful, tranquil event. That is not the case. Jesus is not going away for some quiet time. He is searching; perhaps even struggling to stay the course. Mike Graves describes it this way.
The Gospels do indeed portray a Jesus who prays regularly, but we may be
domesticating what Mark clearly sees as anything but a quiet time. The time frame
is described as ‘dark’, a loaded phrase in Mark’s Gospel. It is later used when the
religious leaders hand Jesus over to Pilate (15:1) and to describe the women coming
to the tomb where Jesus has been buried. (16:2)
The location where Jesus prays is described as ‘deserted’. (v.35) Already in Mark’s
Gospel we have heard this same description for where John the Baptist appears (1:4)
and where Jesus is tempted (1:12-13). This description of Jesus at prayer does not seem
to be a ‘precious moments’ image suitable for framing. Rather, the disciples seem to
have discovered Jesus in a time of his own searching, even as the disciples inform him, “Everyone is searching for you.” (v.37) (Feasting, pg. 337)
The kind of reflective praying that Jesus does is not for the casual believer. It is deep, reflective, challenging; the kind of praying we who take our faith seriously need to be about because
(O)ur work in the proclaiming the gospel in word and deed inevitably leads us into
conflict. Discipleship involves struggle against the power of evil in the midst of
social structures that call us away from the demand of the gospel to love God with
all our heart, mind and soul and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Our culture
stresses the need to get ahead at all costs, to accumulate and hoard belongings,
to look out for number one. In contrast, the gospel stresses Jesus’ ministry that
begins in the small towns of Galilee and leads those who experience God’s healing
into serving around them.
(Galbreath, New Proclamation, Year B 2012 Advent through Holy Week, pg. 89)
Today’s story reminds us that such faithfulness is a constant struggle; one that is impossible unless we stay connected to God in a meaningful way. Staying connected in this way is something we are reluctant to do; and in our reluctance we like the disciples choose to focus on other things. We choose to focus on some of the nicer, safer and more socially acceptable aspects of faith and faithfulness because
(T)he work of promoting God’s righteousness and love that reaches out to the marginalized, forgotten, and ignored will run into conflict with the constant pressure within our Christian communities for success, bigger buildings, balanced budgets, and growing endowments.
The problem is too often
(W)hen we accept society’s benchmarks for effective ministry, (often times) we turn away
from the messy, demanding, difficult portrait of Jesus’ ministry in Mark’s Gospel.
(Galbreath, pg. 89)
We turn away in part because of other’s reactions. Part of the struggle comes when our attempts at faithfulness results in others being becoming uncomfortable, angry and frustrated with us, and we are left asking, “What do we do now? How do we respond?” This morning’s story tells us. We love them, recognizing we are not responsible for their reaction; and then trusting in God, we encourage them to find their “deserted” place that they may pray about it.
Balancing the call is a struggle. It is hard to strike the balance between maintaining the institution known as the Church while at the same time remaining faithful to God as we engage in a lifelong struggle for God’s righteousness and love to take root in our lives, our communities, and our world. ((Galbreath, pg.89)
I am not as successful at striking this balance as I would like to be. I try and I struggle, as I suspect you do as well. I see Jesus’ example and while I know I am not called to be “a little Jesus”, I am called to ask, “What would Jesus have me do?”
The answer is found in today’s story, specifically our remembering that Jesus’ example of proclamation, healing ministry, and confronting evil in its manifestations is balanced by times of prayer and meditation. (Galbreath, pg.89) This reminds me you can’t do one well without the other. We need them both.
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. (v. 35)
I know I am more faithful when I remember to do the same. How about you?
Sunday February 12 “True Compassion”
Mark 1: 40-45
Filled with compassion Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man (v.41). This is more than just a nice healing story intended to warm our hearts; more than a reminder of what we are called to do, which is to respond with loving acts of mercy. This story is a call to break down the barriers that exclude, even if doing so puts us at risk, for in touching the leper Jesus was making himself ritually unclean.
The depth of Jesus’ emotional response is lost in our attempt to translate the word “compassion”; for there is no English equivalent to the Greek word used. What is being described here is a mixture of anger, mercy and pity. It is a profoundly intense emotional response that viscerally propels one feeling compassion into action on behalf of others.
The compassion of Jesus is no sentimental pity for this poor man. His compassion compels Jesus to reach across the boundary of disease to touch an untouchable, violating Jewish law and in the process to make himself an untouchable, ritually unclean. In this perilous act of solidarity, instead of confirming the man’s exclusion by shunning him,
Jesus reaches out and symbolically draws him in. He shatters the traditional boundaries of purity and in the process rewrites the book on the nature of God’s beloved community.
(Gary W. Charles, Feasting on the Word, Year B, vol. 1 pg. 359)
We lose sight of the depth of Jesus’ reaction; for as John Walters declared:
This is a healing story with passion in it. It is not just any healing story. Jesus is frustrated and upset when he heals the man; and in the process of healing him Jesus breaks down walls that have been carefully built and scrupulously preserved by well-meaning religious types,when he touches the leper. He dares to do the unconventional, and in fact, the unlawful, so that he may accomplish the unlikely. (P.C. Ennis, Feasting, pg. 358)
In this morning’s story Mark presses his readers to see the compassion of Jesus, not merely as a matter of temperament, but also as a discipleship orientation. Disciples of Jesus are called to break down all barriers - religious, social, economic, political – between human need and God’s liberating mercy. (Charles, pg. 359)
This is an important theme that we or I have discussed many times before, so this morning I invite you to hear and see this story from a different perspective, that of the leper’s as we explore his response; why it is he goes forth and tells even though Jesus tells him not to.
We know very little about this man, only that he is a leper. His illness makes him unclean, an outsider, isolated. He suffers from a social illness as well as a physical one. As a leper he is a source of danger and contamination for his family. He could not pray in the temple or go to the synagogue, or share with healthy relatives their tables and bed. (Ofelia Ortega, Feasting, pg. 356) He was for all practical purposes a separated species, cut off from community and companionship.
Sadly at one time in our society cancer patients were treated this way. Most of us can remember a time when people would whisper, “she has the big C” as if saying they word or saying it out loud would cause the listener to become infected. Sadly today in some places and situations those with HIV and AIDS are still treated this way. But there are other non-medical reasons why our culture treats people this way. They have to do with the social, religious, educational and economic systems with which we live, all of which leave “outsiders” feeling powerless and dominated by their condition, that which makes them different.
This is important because while each of us has something that makes us different, most of the time we are able to hide it in a way that allows us to be accepted, included and welcomed. We are able to keep that which makes us different in the background, so it is not as obvious and apparent to those we encounter. At the same time we all have moments when that which makes us different emerges so we have some sense of what it means and feels to be excluded. No longer in the background our differences come to the foreground and others use it as a way of labeling us. As we hear today’s story our having had this kind of experience is important. Hopefully it gives us an appreciation for what is needed and offered.
When the leper sees Jesus he recognizes him intuitively not in spite of, but because of, his great need. He comes to Jesus on bended knee, begging for mercy. With his brokenness and need in the foreground, this man recognizes Jesus as the one who embodies God’s coming kingdom. This emphasis on perception might also explain the next twist in the story. Jesus orders him to be silent. Why? Is it because he knows that the crowds have confused foreground and background? They will come seeking a miracle worker with the power and authority to grant them their wish. Jesus, as Mark makes abundantly clear, is not this kind of Messiah. His judgment is expressed as mercy, his power revealed in weakness and his glory apparent only in suffering. Because he is not the warrior king many people expected, those who cherish power and might want nothing to do with him. (David J. Lose, Christian Century, February 8, 2012, pg. 22)
As we think about ourselves and our culture this is something for us to ponder, maybe even with which to wrestle because we are not encouraged to think about our vulnerabilities and weaknesses; those aspects of who we are that make us by society’s standards “less than.” Instead we are encouraged to push to the background those elements of our lives that we might project strength, success and security, even at the expense of being dishonest with ourselves about our needs. Commenting on this David Lose writes:
Don’t we too seek, if not power, at least security, comfort and assurance? Jesus offers mercy, weakness and suffering – things we try to keep in our background. Yet these things are part and parcel of our lives. We don’t know what kind of life the leper led before he was a leper, but he too lost all. Are we any different? Jobs are lost.
Relationships end. Success disappoints. Friends come and go. There is an end to all things. God comes in weakness because this is where we vulnerable, fragile children of dust live, and because God doesn’t want simply to make our lives a little better but actually intends to redeem them. (Ibid.)
We are so use to doing, so busy trying to redeem our lives that we don’t allow ourselves to think in terms of God redeeming us. The world in which we live discourages us from thinking in these terms which is one of the reasons the barriers continue today classifying clean and unclean, included and excluded.
The good news is today as in Jesus’ day God in Christ is still at work casting out whatever stands against God’s kingdom and releasing health and healing in its stead. (Ibid.) Redemption is offered. Like the leper we can undergo this change in perspective, release our claim to power or entitlement and perceive God at work in the broken places of our lives. We can be freed from the need to deny what we need because when we do (T)hen everything changes. We recognize that we are loved not because we have earned the right to be loved but because God is love. We perceive that we are forgiven and accepted not because we have paid our debt or merited it but because God is forgiveness and mercy. (Ibid.)
As we experience this we too begin to understand the deeper meaning of what it means to respond with true compassion as we begin to break down the barriers, not because we have to, but because we choose to; simply because we have begun to understand that when life overflows with grace and mercy, you can’t keep silent. (ibid.) You just have to go forth and tell.
February 19, 2012 “Listen and Witness”
Mark 9: 2-9
The Transfiguration story comes midway in Mark’s gospel; halfway between Jesus baptism and his resurrection. It also comes right after that famous passage in Mark 8 where Jesus says that to follow him means “denying yourself and taking up your cross.” This message is reinforced in today’s story as a voice from heaven tells Peter (and James and John) to “Listen to him!” – that is, to believe Jesus’ words (which Peter had disputed) that rejection, suffering death, and resurrection are integral to his (Jesus) messianic mission, and that the way of the cross is equally integral and inescapable for all who would follow him (cf. Mark 8:34-38).(Rodney J. Hunter, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 1 pg. 452)
On this last Sunday before we enter Lent is a good time to reflect on what the Transfiguration is telling us, what is and is not meant by his call to listen and also the call to take up our cross and follow. To follow Jesus is to put ourselves at odds with the world. It is about more than just a call to exhibit a passive love that simply tries to be good and avoid evil. (Ibid. pg.454) It is much more transforming than that. It is a call to take up our cross and follow Christ, to walk in his way that in one way or another will provoke the powers against us, but that ultimately discloses the eternal truth and trust-worthiness of God’s nonviolent love and justice in the midst of evil. It is important, however, when speaking of the way of the cross, to be clear about what it does not mean. It does not mean that we should seek or regard suffering as a spiritual good in itself or as inherently saving and redemptive. Jesus did not die because his suffering as such could purge the world of sin and evil. He died because the powers of evil sought to destroy his witness to nonviolent love, justice and truth. His passion (death) revealed, not only the ‘evilness of evil’ – its intrinsic, deadly violence – but the transforming power of divine love, a powerful, assertive love that does not dominate and defeat evil so much as challenge, expose, and seek to transform it. Such love alone ultimately carries the day; it alone is truly redemptive and saving. (Ibid.)
This means that to listen, to take up our cross and follow is about serving, which is more than just doing nice things for others. It is about more than just being kind and generous, giving from our “extra” so that others may have. It is a call to live a life that is concerned with “the least of these” in a way that seeks to break down the barriers that perpetuate a system which allows the existence of “the least” to be acceptable. Jesus may have said, “The poor will always be with you.”, but he did not say that it was acceptable.
The Transfiguration tells us Jesus’ ministry transcends that of Moses and Elijah.The Transfiguration not only confirms Jesus’ status as God’s Beloved Son, but underlines, with disruptive splendor, God’s affirmation of Jesus’ way of the cross. As Jesus stands alongside Elijah and Moses, his word about the cross stands alongside the Law and the Prophets. (Stanley P. Saunders, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 1 pg.455)
The Law and Prophets as important as they were in Jesus’ day did not fulfill the new paradigm. This new paradigm challenged the disciples then and us today to embrace the call to be merciful and compassionate in a way that goes beyond following the law. We are to respond in ways that transforms whatever part of the world we touch. Such transformation happens when we go beyond doing the right thing to doing the loving thing.
Of course none of this can happen if we stay or try to stay on the mountaintop. The message is clear we can’t and aren’t supposed to stay on the mountain. Service happens in the real world not the mountain top experiences. As David Lose has written: Most of life is lived in the valleys and on the slopes, not on the heights. Mark’s Gospel has sometimes been characterized as preaching a message of ‘glory through suffering.’ A better designation might be ‘glory through service,’ because Jesus regularly invites his disciples to follow his example of meeting the needs of those whom society has ignored. We are not called to seek out suffering for suffering’s sake, but (recognize that) our service to those whom society disdains may lead us to suffering. God meets us in the valley and is at work there. We humans imagine that we must retreat from society in order to meet God, maintain purity in order to stand in God’s presence, or achieve some measure of moral or religious holiness in order to merit God’s attention. Yet in Jesus the flow of the action is reversed. Rather than retreat from society’s needs he embraces them. When we meet others in solidarity at the places of disjuncture and fracture in their lives and our own, we find God waiting for us.(David Lose, Christian Century, February 8, 2012 pg. 23)
Make no mistake the story of the Transfiguration is one of those mountain top experiences and like most mountaintop experiences it doesn’t help us unless we own it; unless we find some way to weave it into the tapestry of our lives. It needs to become not something we store away to savor, but something we use and from which we learn. This means that while it is good to celebrate these experiences, it is more important to use them; to take the lessons they offer and incorporate them into our lives and allow them to help us as we live in this messy world. This is how we go from being nice people who try to do good to faithful people who seek to serve a redeeming God, by first listening to what Jesus said and then witnessing to the power found in the love, justice and truth he proclaimed.
Listen then witness. This is the call that is extended to us as we begin our Lenten journey.
