John Shearman's Lectionary

INTRODUCTION OF THE SCRIPTURE
SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY
JANUARY 17, 2010

ISAIAH 62:1-5. The return of the exiles and the rebuilding of Jerusalem is the constant theme of Second-Isaiah, as scholars have named the unknown poet-prophet of Israel’s exile in Babylon. He either composed or inspired his disciples to write the poetry now contained in Isaiah 40-66.

This is part of the last of a trilogy of poems in Isaiah 60-62 emphasizing the promised return and reconstruction resulting from Israel’s special relationship with God. Vss. 4-5 of this passage likens this relationship to a renewed marriage covenant. This special, intimate relationship with God motivates much of the tenacity of many Jews have for the modern state of Israel today.

PSALM 36:5-10. The steadfast love of God for Israel and for the whole of creation brings praise to the lips of the faithful and a prayer that this love with continue for “the upright of heart.”

1 CORINTHIANS 12:1-11. Paul had many difficulties teaching the new converts in Corinth just what it meant to believe in Jesus as Lord and follow his way of life. A major disagreement had arisen as to which of the gifts of the Spirit were the more important. Here Paul points out that all gifts come from the same Spirit of God, serve different purposes in the Christian community, and yet contribute to the common good. The issue still has relevance for our modern congregations. Each member may have a different role to play depending on his or her particular talents.

JOHN 2:1-11. John’s Gospel took its shape from a series of signs revealing Jesus as the Messiah, Son of God, and Saviour of the world. This miracle story described the first of these signs. Some regard it as the moment of Jesus’ revelation of himself to his own family and to those who knew him.

The marriage feast at Cana symbolized that the messianic age had begun. The changing of water for ritual purification to wine for the marriage feast indicated that Jesus would reinterpret Jewish religious tradition for the new age he inaugurated.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS

ISAIAH 62:1-5. The themes of return of the exiles from Babylon and the rebuilding of Jerusalem resound through all the writings of Second-Isaiah, as scholars have named the unknown poet-prophet of Israel’s exile in Babylon. Much of the latter part of the Book of Isaiah (chs. 40-66) are believed to have come either from him or from a coterie of his disciples, sometimes called Third-Isaiah in scholarly circles. This brief passage joyfully reiterates this promise of return and reconstruction.

 The trilogy of poems in Isaiah 60-62, of which this excerpt formed the last part, emphasized the promised return and reconstruction resulting from Israel’s special relationship with God. This stands out in vs. 1 where the prophet, speaking for Yahweh, declares Yahweh’s passion as the initiator of this historic event. This further divine action in Israel’s faith-history occurred so that Israel might fulfill its divinely appointed mission. Vs. 2 clarifies this special role among the nations as ordained by Yahweh. The returning exiles will receive a new name indicative of a renewed relationship with Yahweh in accord with Yahweh’s eternal purpose. Since names in the prophetic tradition had special significance and tended to define the nominee’s character and purpose, the giving of a new name was, in effect, a confirmation of this purpose. (Cf. Gen. 32:28; Is. 7:3; 9:6, etc.)

The mission was to be messianic in the monarchical rather than a salvatory sense, as “the crown of beauty … a royal diadem” in vs. 3 states. The image is that of Israel as the crown in the hand of Yahweh, sovereign of the nation, in much the same way that the image of a protective patron deity of ancient cities crowned the city walls.

Vss. 4-5 introduce a different image, likening the relationship of Yahweh and Israel to a renewed marriage covenant. (cf. Hosea 2 and similar metaphors in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.) Though all the names in Hebrew in this passage ended in ‘AH,’ (or YAH) representing Yahweh, the new relationship was represented by the new names Hephzibah, “My delight is in her,” and Beulah, “Married.” These names revealed Yahweh’s love for Israel above all other nations. There may even have been undertones of the pagan sexual relationship with deity found in other traditions of this period.

The passage has relevance for the current crisis in the Middle East. The special, intimate relationship with God motivates much of the tenacity many Jews have for the modern state of Israel today. Yet it has to be admitted that most people, even in Israel itself where a majority are non-religious Jews, do not share a similar view. History is rarely kind to religious ideologies. Is democratic idealism always the will of God for every nation?

The issue in the Holy Land today has become one of a geopolitical conflict between a strong religious nationalism and the rights of Palestinian Arabs. The Arabs moved aggressively into a vacuum left by the decline of Roman and Byzantine empires. But most Jews had been driven out of the land to become a global diaspora long before that. Twentieth century geopolitics recreated and has sustained Israel as a viable state. Both Arabs and Jews now claim the right to live where their ancestors settled long ago. After more than six decades this conflict still festers as both parties often function as pawns in much larger geopolitical struggles.

Christian churches have not helped by taking one side or the other in this conflict. Most have been motivated by differing theological stances. Even when one believes fervently in God as Lord of history, events in the world are always the result of human interaction, rarely motivated by profound discernment of God’s will and purpose. On the other hand, it is never easy to discern where justice lies or how one position or the other relates to the divine will. The debate regarding the involvement of Christians in political issues between Karl Barth and Reinhold Niebuhr has never been satisfactorily settled. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one who struggled with this issue in a very personal and sacrificial way.

PSALM 36: 5-10. The steadfast love of Yahweh for Israel and for the whole of creation brings praise for the goodness of Yahweh to the lips of the faithful. The psalm concludes with a prayer that this love with continue for “the upright of heart.”

This abbreviated reading provides a fascinating counterpoint to the first four verses of the psalm which have been excluded from the lectionary. Most commentators agree that the two parts probably represent two originally separate compositions which a later editor brought together. Yet they complement each other in such a way that two conflicting ways of life are cast in bold relief. The first (vss. 1-4) is said to belong to the category of Israel’s Wisdom literature, with special affinity with Proverbs. It emphasizes the way in which people of lesser moral character flatter and deceive themselves, and secretly plot mischievous misbehavior. This theme appears to have been picked up in the concluding verses (vss. 11-12). The part included in this reading (vss. 5-10), reflects the sovereignty and universalism of divine providence characteristic of the later prophet-poets like Second Isaiah and Job.

Vss. 10-12 raise a question that still troubles many modern Christians. Does God love only the faithful and morally upright? Is divine love exclusive? The covenant motif of the OT did have a strong ethical component which finds wide expression in the psalms. The opening verses of this psalm exhibit this aspect of the Hebrew tradition. The second part of the psalm reveals a more tolerant view found in the prophecy of Second Isaiah. Vs. 6, for instance, extends Yahweh’s steadfast love to animals as well as humans. Vs. 7 includes all people, not just Israel, within the purview of divine protection and providence.

The New Testament goes much farther. The Gospels in particular show unequivocally that God’s love extends even to those most alienated from God and immoral in their behavior. Is it not possible that the Islamic prayer Sadam Hussein offered on the gallows which seconds later ended his life were sincerely offered? However, God loves sinners like us so that we may respond to that love by changing our ways and seeking to follow Jesus in all we say and do. Jesus came to reconcile us all to God by revealing just how much God does love us and wants us to learn from Jesus how to live in a loving relationship with God, with all other people, and with the planet Earth on which we pass our years.

1 CORINTHIANS 12:1-11. The New Testament has a great many references to the body of Christ and many different meanings to that phrase. In general the phrase connotes the many-faceted relationships between Christ and those who believe in and belong to him, their relations with him as members, and with one another in the wide fellowship that bears his name. It is, perhaps, the most prevalent metaphor in the NT, in the Pauline corpus especially, for what was to become within a few decades of his death and resurrection the institution which has endured for the past two millennia. An examination of the many texts, however, would show how the understanding of the various authors changed from decade to decade. The unique aspect of its usage, however, is that the NT Greek word soma which normally translated the Hebrew basar had no counterpart in classical Hellenistic Greek. Furthermore, contrary to Hellenistic and most modern thinking, in OT and NT usage, there was no distinction between the true self or soul and the flesh or body.

While the word soma does not appear in this passage, that is certainly the metaphor toward which this passage points. It also speaks to our time as forcefully as to the middle of the 1st century AD when it was written. Today, secular paganism challenges us as it did the apostle Paul and his Corinthian converts. Here the apostle almost seems to wring his hands at their obstinacy and obtuseness. He had a great many difficulties teaching them just what it meant to believe in Jesus as Lord and follow his way of life. The chief problem cited in this passage was a disagreement as to which of the gifts of the Spirit were the more important. Paul points out as plainly as possible that all gifts come from the same source, the Spirit of God. They may serve different functions in the Christian fellowship, yet all contribute to the common good.

The issue still has relevance to our modern congregations. Each member may have a different role to play depending on his or her particular talents. It needs to be noted, however, that the use of these gifts in not to be exercised exclusively within the institution. The mission of the church is to the world, not to itself. Perhaps that was the main reason why the Corinthians had so much trouble with the great variety of gifts they brought to the apostolic church. Like so much of our contemporary gifting, it concentrated on themselves and their own fellowship rather than equipping them for the ministry of love for the world. They were in it for themselves and for their own little community, not for what Christ could do for the world through them as part of the wider Christian fellowship.

Another important feature of this lesson is the role the Spirit plays within the community. The word Spirit occurs no less than ten times in these few sentences. This tells us most poignantly that nothing beneficial can happen within the community or in carrying out its mission to the world except by the activation of the Spirit (vs. 11). That was the fundamental issue with which Paul had to deal so forcefully.

What really did control the witness of Christians in Corinth, or, for that matter, in any of our cities, towns and villages today? At the heart of the matter was the lordship of Jesus without whose Spirit none of the gifts of individual believers were of any value. As Paul states so clearly in vs. 3, even confessing that Jesus is Lord is the work of the Spirit. The contemporary leader of the World Community for Christian Meditation, Laurence Freeman OSB, reaffirmed this simple truth in saying that the Holy Spirit runs though every instant of time and every cell of life.

At the same time, it is wise to remember this prayer posted on the Internet on January 1,2010 by Quinn G. Caldwell, Associate Minister of Old South Church, Boston, MA: “Lord, I thank you that you are God and I am not. Help me to trust that you are saving the world even as we speak, and give me the grace and the resolve to play my small part in it. Amen.” (Stillspeaking Daily Devotional.)

JOHN 2:1-11. John’s Gospel takes its shape from a series of signs revealing Jesus as the Messiah, Son of God, and Saviour of the world. This miracle story is the first of these signs. Some regard it as the moment of Jesus’ revelation of himself to his own family and to those who knew him.

In the NT, a sign designated an outward manifestation of a hidden and usually divine purpose. Jesus himself was a sign that, as in the past, Yahweh had again taken redemptive initiative in the Israel’s history. In his prologue in chapter 1, John had made this revelatory statement that would infuse the whole of his narrative.

We meet this concept first in the birth narratives of Luke 2:12, 34. So also the miracles of Jesus were themselves signs that the dynamic reign of divine love was in process of being fulfilled in human affairs. Not only the person of Jesus and all his works, but also his death and resurrection were signs that the prophesied Day of the Lord when all history would be consummated was at hand.

The marriage feast at Cana symbolized that the messianic age had begun. Behind it lay the whole panoply of purification rites so prominently described in the Torah. Wine too had liturgical significance included in the daily sacrifices offered as victuals for the deity, although never offered alone. This custom had undoubtedly been adopted from earlier Canaanite and other non-Israelite traditions. In the Hebrew tradition, it may have substituted for blood sacrifice. Wine had a major place in religious feasts celebrated in every home as well as in the temple cult as a libation. However, it was not used in the Passover feast until Hellenistic times.

The changing of water for ritual purification to wine indicated that Jesus would reinterpret Jewish religious tradition for this new age he had inaugurated. For John, the miracle was nothing less than an open declaration that Jesus is the Messiah. Hence his curious reluctance to follow his mother’s anxiously informing him that the ordinary wine for the wedding feast had run out. She believed in him, so she told the servants standing-by to do whatever he told them. Was she also concerned that she about to lose her control of her son?

This seemingly insignificant aside can be seen as the way for Jesus to differentiate himself from his closest human relationships, even his mother. He appeared to reject his mother’s counsel and yet also as indicated that she did believe in him. The steward supervising the serving of the feast and the bridegroom were quite ignorant of what had happened. This served to establish the pattern so obvious throughout of John’s narrative that there would always be some who believed and would follow Jesus and some who would not.

Our post-Enlightenment Age minds have yet to grasp that biblical miracles cannot be explained in terms that exclude the supernatural. As Tom Harpur pointed out in a column in The Sunday Star (Toronto, January 4, 2004) symbols and metaphors have power. It is what they stand for and the power they represent that is important. John and his contemporaries had no difficulty combining such spiritual and material realities as metaphors of divine initiatives in ordinary human affairs.

This was especially true of the Hebrew minds who authored the Old and New Testaments. Spiritual realities were as obvious to them as the water with which they washed and the wine they drank at their festivals or ordinary meals. The transformation Jesus effected appeared as a perfectly natural, though surprising and pleasing event.

Behind the miracle, however, was the messianic message John sought to convey to a later generation of Jews and Gentiles at the end of the 1st century. This was the spiritual truth that lay beyond the materialism of the event. The Messiah/Christ had come to change everything, to reinterpret for them in their particular time and place, the great traditions which God had initially revealed through the chosen people Israel. For Jewish Christians recently thrust out of their synagogues and for Gentiles eager to find a new, fulfilling life of faith, this was indeed Good News.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE
Proper 20 Ordinary 25
Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost
September 20, 2009 This is one of the few Old Testament passages which gives prominence to the role of women in ancient Israel. As pictured here, the supremely efficient homemaker receives the praise of her husband and children. It is definitely not in keeping with contemporary views emphasizing equality and the sharing of home and family responsibilities. Yet there is something very relevant to our time in the last two verses.

PROVERBS 31:10-31.

PSALM 1. This psalm is actually the introduction to the whole Psalter. It sets forth the theme of the whole collection of Israel’s religious poetry and hymnody as “a book for the pious.” As one commentator put it, this psalm speaks to all ages too in saying that we all “must reckon with the Lord, who is ever mindful of our ways and our deserts.”

JEREMIAH 11:18-20. (Alternate) This poetic excerpt appears to come from a longer passage ending at 12:6 and dealing with the plot against Jeremiah’s life by some of his own kinsmen from Anathoth. This brief confessional poem reveals something of Jeremiah’s nature. In vs. 20 he prays for the destruction of his personal enemies believing that his own enemies were God’s enemies too.

PSALM 54 (Alternate) This brief prayer for God’s help has the normal features of a lament: appeal (vss. 1-2); complaint (vs. 3); petition (vss. 4-5); and vow (vss. 6-7). There is no evidence of any particular date, although the late compilers of the Psalter found a fancied connection with David’s life to attribute it to him.

JAMES 3:13-4:3, 7-8a. This little collection of sayings springs straight from Israel’s tradition of moral wisdom. They may also be a list of virtues and contrasting vices similar to those found in Greek moral philosophy of the late centuries BC. True to Israel’s religious heritage, however, their real source was a spiritual relationship with God, as we learn in 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”

MARK 9:30-37. Bound for Jerusalem, Jesus continued teaching his disciples that the cross would be his inevitable end. Now that they knew he was the Messiah, however, they had another agenda. Which of them were to have prominence in the Messiah’s kingdom? It took a child set in their midst to show them what serving with really meant. To be with him in his divinely appointed glory involved humiliation like his. Naturally they didn’t get it.

Do we even now? If that is what is involved, who really wants the cross of discipleship? The principle of it all seems so out of touch with our age with its motifs of selfishness and success.

A MORE COMPLETE ANALYSIS. This is one of the few Old Testament passages which gives prominence to the role of women in ancient Israel. As pictured here, the supremely efficient homemaker receives the praise of her husband and children. This view tends to counteract some of the more negative attitudes found in other passages about women in Proverbs, particularly those which describe women as luring young men to sexual misadventures.

PROVERBS 31:10-31.

The poem was written in acrostic form in which the first letter of each verse follows the order of the Hebrew alphabet. Although not evident in the English translation, this had two advantages for Hebrew students: the style indicated that the teacher was dealing seriously with the subject; and it aided memorization.

The description of this woman’s activities outside her home is not in keeping with ancient tradition. A literal reading of vss. 16, 18 and 24 depict her as one who plays a significant role in the economic world. Her tasks, however, seem related to normal household duties such as weaving (vs. 19) and the making of fine clothes for her family and for sale (vss. 19, 21, 22 and 24). There is one exception: vs. 16 shows her engaged in a real estate transaction in order to plant a vineyard. This would have been her husband’s responsibility, not hers.

The passage is definitely not in keeping with contemporary views emphasizing gender equality and the sharing of home and family responsibilities. Yet there is something very relevant for our time in the last two verses. It can be used for a sermon bringing out the essential necessity of improving the role of women in the social, political and economic life of every community. Asked why so many radical feminists arose within the Jewish community, a Jewish colleague replied enigmatically, “A woman rules supreme in every Jewish home.” When pressed to explain, he would not elaborate any further.

This reading has been used as part of a eulogy at a devout Christian woman’s funeral service. It is questionable whether that is a legitimate use of scripture for such an occasion. It ranks with the passage from Ecclesiasticus 44: “Let us now praise famous men and our father who begat them.”

PSALM 1. This psalm forms the introduction to the whole Psalter. Although some scholars prefer to limit it as the introduction to the first collection (Pss. 1-41), it sets forth the theme of the several collections as “a book for the pious.” Its Hebrew vocabulary as well as its theme come from a time when zeal for the study of the law was paramount in Israel. This would indicate the period of Ezra, (5th – 4th centuries BCE) to whose influence it shows some indebtedness. However, it could be as late as the time when wisdom and the law were equated in the late Greek period about the end of the 3rd century BCE.

The “blessed” (Heb. = ‘esher) of the opening line conveys more than happiness, but a sense of being right with God and with the world. It may also give rise to a certain condescension toward others who do not meditate constantly on the law. The image of a tree by a stream and thus well watered would have been a powerful one in the dry climate of Israel. The contrasting image of the wicked who is “like chaff which the wind drives away” only reinforces its effectiveness.

In vs. 5 yet another image depicts the eschatological day of judgment when Yahweh will separate the righteous from the wicked. A similar image occurs frequently in the OT prophets and in NT parables of judgment (cf. Matthew 25). While having a negative connotation, this still must be considered a significant element of the Christian as well as the Jewish tradition. As one commentator put it, the psalm speaks to all ages in saying that we all “must reckon with the Lord, who is ever mindful of our ways and our deserts.”

In different times and for different traditions, such issues assume greater importance than at other times and for other traditions. The final image in vs. 5 is more comforting for the religiously devout. It could have been drawn from the exclusive temple Court of Israel where only circumcised males, b’nai b’rith (“sons of the covenant”), were admitted after having purified themselves according to the prescribed holiness code. Extensive water works in Jerusalem such as the pools of Bethesda and Siloam made provision for this ritual necessity.

The debate about the appropriate trinitarian formula to be used in baptism could well be regarded as a counterpart to this judgmental process. Is the correct formula to recite the names “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” or the functions of the Trinity, “Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer?”As vs. 6 of the psalm indicates from a Christian perspective, how a believer relates to God and neighbour, and shows this in his/her behaviour may be of greater importance to God than whatever rituals he/she may perform.

JEREMIAH 11:18-20. (Alternate) This poetic excerpt appears to come from a longer passage ending at 12:6 and dealing with the plot against Jeremiah’s life by some of his own kinsmen from Anathoth. This brief confessional poem reveals something of Jeremiah’s nature. In vs. 20 he prays for the destruction of his personal enemies believing that his own enemies were God’s enemies too. Jeremiah revealed this attitude in several other instances (17:18; 18:23; 20:11). Of course, he and the religious practices of his time fell short of the NT approach of forgiveness for one’s enemies. His attitude is still very common in the world of power politics and terrorism.

The hostility of Jeremiah’s kinsmen may have arisen from Jeremiah’s support for Josiah’s reformation and advocacy of the Deuteronomic centralizing of worship in the temple in Jerusalem. He came from a family of priests who served one of the local sanctuaries which this reform abolished. However, some scholars have seriously questioned this assumption because as a young man he would not have had the authority to take such a strong position. Other scholars believe that the Jerusalem priesthood was behind the plot against Jeremiah, to the point of making an attempt on his life (7:1-15; 26).

Some scholars have tried to rearrange the text by placing 12:6 between 11:18 and 19 to make of the whole passage about the prophet’s persecution read more cogently. These alterations are clearly seen in The Jerusalem Bible: Reader’s Edition (Doubleday 1968). They place emphasis on the persecution Jeremiah suffered from both his own relatives and his community. In 12:1-5 another question comes to the fore: why the righteous suffer while the wicked prosper.

PSALM 54. (Alternate) This brief prayer for God’s help has the normal features of a lament: appeal (vss. 1-2); complaint (vs. 3); petition (vss. 4-5); and vow (vss. 6-7). There is no evidence of any particular date, although the late compilers of the Psalter found a fancied connection with David’s life to attribute it to him.

Vs. 1 contains a reference to God’s name which stands for a virtual second self, agent of God’s working in the world. According to a Jewish source, nothing in the Torah prohibits a person from pronouncing the name of God. Following the destruction of the temple destroyed and the prohibition on pronouncing The Name outside of the temple, pronunciation of the name fell into disuse. Today, it is represented by the Hebrew letters corresponding to the English Y-H-V-H. The use of these letters remind people not to pronounce YHVH as written. By inserting vowels, German scholars gave this tetragrammaton the pronunciation of “Yahweh.”

Vs. 3 states that the cause of the psalmist’s appeal: an unexpected attack by some unknown enemy. This opponent in characterized with considerable feeling as insolent, ruthless and atheist. The psalmist’s faith brings solace, but with a measure of vengeance (vs. 5).

The poet’s trouble appears to have been in the recent past for a sacrifice of thanksgiving has yet to be made (vs. 6). This will not be done as a mere obligation, but as a free-will offering, and not without a sense of satisfaction that he has triumphed over his enemies. The whole prayer shows how human these ancient psalmists were in expressing their feelings so frankly.

JAMES 3:13-4:3, 7-8a. In his excellent study, The Way of Wisdom, the late Professor R.B.Y. Scott described the international context of wisdom literature found in many ancient Middle Eastern cultures. He noted that OT Wisdom bore little that was distinctively drawn from the background of the Law and the Prophets. This little collection of sayings springs straight from Israel’s tradition of moral wisdom within the broad spectrum of humanistic insights. Behind these lay a long history of lay folk wisdom about human experience and relationships. Others have seen in this passage a list of virtues and contrasting vices similar to those found in Greek moral philosophy of the late centuries BCE. Whatever their source and true to Israel’s religious heritage, they had been filtered through an abiding, spiritual relationship with God, as we learn in 4:8a “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”

The closest parallel to James’ moral guidance for everyday living may be found in the ethical teachings of the apocryphal book Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. As H.C. Key proposed in his introduction to this document (The Old Testament Pseudepigraphia, Vol. 1: Apocalytpic Literature and Testaments. James H. Charlesworth, editor. London: Dartman, Longman & Todd, 1983), it was probably written in Greek from Syria during the Ptolemaic period in the early 2nd century BCE. Rather than stress obedience to the Law as did the Essenes and the Pharisees, it presented a more universal humanist ethic similar to that of the Stoics. One of the highest virtues of this book is brotherly love which emphasized the negative and harmful consequences of hatred to one’s brother. Key also shows how The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs regarded the Law as “a virtual synonym for wisdom.”

Wisdom, not the Law, receives primacy of place in this passage. Human motivation and relationships receive similar emphasis. Moral conflict exists, James scolds, between the ways of the world and the way of God (4:4). He reaffirmed this distinction with an appeal to scripture (vs. 5), but the text has yet to be found in either the OT, the Apocrypha or any other known Jewish writing. He follows this with another quotation from Proverbs 3:34 as found in the LXX. Vs. 7 is very close to three different quotations from The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs. (Cf. Naphtali 8:4; Simeon 3:5; Benjamin 5:2.

Nonetheless, this least Christological of NT passages does recognize that God’s grace is the source of moral victory in the struggles of every day life. It summarizes this truth in what may be the one preachable text of the whole passage in vs. 8. It also expresses the same deep piety characteristic of earlier Wisdom literature. The devotions of Christians and Jews alike would be the poorer if this text and counterparts in the Psalms did not exist.

MARK 9:30-37. Bound for Jerusalem, Jesus continued teaching his disciples that his death would be his inevitable end of his ministry. If vs. 32 is taken at face value, this would seem to have only confused the disciples. How could this happen to a teacher and healer as appealing as he? On the other hand, if vs. 33 is an accurate description of what happened, one could develop a sinister conspiracy theory about one of the disciples having started the argument. Was it Judas Iscariot whose doubts were already laying the groundwork for his betrayal, perhaps inadvertently? Or could it have been John, the young fisherman who always seemed to stand second in line to Peter, yet wanted to be loved more than the rest?

Whoever it was, they all had missed the point of Jesus’ teaching that he would become a suffering and dying Messiah. Now that they believed he really was the Messiah, they had another agenda. Who among them would have prominence in the Messiah’s kingdom? It took a child set in their midst to show them what serving with him really meant. To be with him in his divinely appointed glory involved humiliation like his. Naturally they didn’t get it.

Do we get it even now? If suffering and dying in loving service to and for others is what is involved, who really wants the cross of discipleship? The principle of it all seems so out of touch with our age with its motifs of selfishness and success.

A few years ago, a lively discussion was carried on in the public media and on the Internet. One of the communications I received came from the moderator of a contemplative faith-sharing forum who had been a teacher in Roman Catholic schools and colleges. He began a discussion on the recent Declaration by the Congregation For The Doctrine of The Faith of the Roman Catholic Church, Dominus Iesus on the Unicity and Salvific Universality Of Jesus Christ and the Church. He said this:

“By now, I’m sure most of you have heard that the Vatican has come out with a statement to the effect that the Roman Catholic Church is the one true Church established by Christ, and the only one capable of guaranteeing the fullness of salvation. This is not a new teaching. The Vatican II documents said the same, as did the new Catechism, only Vatican II was much more affirming of the work of the Spirit in other Christian and non-Christian traditions. The Council also had a gentler, more inviting and dialogical tone to it.

“One reason for the document was that Catholic leadership was upset with some bishops referring to Protestant Churches as Sister Churches, and wanted to make it clear that the Catholic Church was the Mother Church and they the Daughters. Ugghh! (His exclamation.)

“I deeply regret this move by my Church! I’m not sure what good will come from it except to give the Catholic “Right” more fuel for their arrogance and triumphalism. It will also create hardships in ecumenical dialogue, and that is lamentable.”

Anyone who would counter the Roman Catholic Church’s statement by making a similar claim for one’s own faith tradition would do well to read again the words Mark attributed to Jesus in this passage. Faith is not about doctrine or power or privilege in God’s sight. It is about service to the point of sacrifice following Jesus’ example. This can be equally effectively expressed in individual experience and action as in denominational attitudes, actions and public declarations. Most of us will never have the opportunity to formulate our denomination’s stance on any given issue. Each one of us every day will have the chance to show our neighbours how the sacrificial love of God in Christ can bring reconciliation to this strife-torn world. We can do this clearly only with the greatest of humility, as Jesus did with the little child he set among the disciples.

A new book by Bishop J.S. Spong just off the presses presents another view of how Christians can still approach traditional views of the cross with a much expanded understanding. Here is an excerpt from Spong’s own preview of what he is trying to say:

“The cross was not a sacrifice to placate an angry God, but a living portrait of a human life that was no longer controlled by the innate drive to survive. Here was a life free to give itself away, a life with no need to build itself up at another’s expense. This was a new dimension of what it means to be human, what it means to live fully, to love wastefully and to be all that life was meant to be. When I got beneath the level of later explanation, which dominates the gospel narratives, and began to ask what was the Jesus experience that compelled his followers to stretch the words available to them to an infinite degree to enable those words to be big enough to capture their Jesus experience, I heard them saying we have met and encountered in the life of this Jesus everything that we mean by the word “God.”
(September 3, 2009. The Study of Life, Part 6.
Rethinking Basic Christian Concepts in the Light of Charles Darwin. http://secure.agoramedia.com/spong/week364story1_prev.asp)

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