5th Sunday of Lent - Year B (John 12:20-33)

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  All of what we mean by pastoral ministry is summed up in this brief statement.  All the desire, all the desperate searching, all the hopes and fears of the people who knock on pastor’s doors, who look up from hospital beds, who focus on clerical collars across airport boarding areas; all of this and more is to be found in these few words.  And what is the only possible response for the pastor?  He or she has no choice but to show the seeker the cross.

If all the world’s searching can be summed up in one brief statement, then, of course, the end of that searching can be summed up in one image, the cross.  In the cross we find all our trouble, pain, and death to be sure, but also healing, community, judgment, and glory.  The Evangelist does not minimize the suffering of the cross.  He is not what Martin Luther would call, derogatorily, a theologian of glory.  But that being said, he sees the paschal mystery in its totality.  The passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus are all of a piece.  As such, the cross is indeed where we see Jesus most clearly and personally.

3rd Sunday of Lent - Year B (John 2:13-22)

Raised a Roman Catholic and attending parochial schools, I was constantly reminded as a child that my body was a temple of the Holy Spirit. If, indeed, our bodies are temples, then perhaps we might do well to see Lent as a time for inviting Jesus in to clean house.  Augustine’s famous prayer “make me chaste, but not yet” is a reminder of the disruption such a house cleaning might cause in our lives.

Are we prepared to have the tables of our consumerism and trust in wealth overturned?  What about the animals of our lust, gluttony, and lack of concern for their consequences on the earth?  And then there are the coins of the realm; good looks, prestige, class, intelligence and health.  Can we face a life without pockets full of these coins?

Jesus can change us – literally tear down the walls, towers, altars, and idols we have constructed and rebuild us in his own image.  It’s no wonder, really, that I’ve never liked Lent.

2nd Sunday of Lent - Year B (Mark 8: 31-38)

Unlike the Lucan and Matthean versions of Jesus’ forty days in the desert, the Markan version does not provide any details about Satan’s temptations.  In year B, then, we must wait for the Second Sunday of Lent to learn more about what temptation looks like for Mark’s community.  And what do you know; when Satan arrives on the scene in Chapter 8 there are no horns, no pointy tail, and no smell of sulfur.  There is only Peter.

The temptation to reject the cross, it seems, often comes from the inside, from within the church, sometimes from its very leaders.  Christians are always seeking the easy way out.  Over and over in its history the church has succumbed to triumphalism (which Luther calls the theology of glory).  And, interestingly enough, the motive is not fear, but pride.  We all want to be on the winning team but, unfortunately for us, both the Church and the individual Christian are only really winning when losing.  If we are “winning friends and influencing people” it might mean that we have turned away from the shameful way of the cross. 

1st Sunday of Lent - Year B (Mark 1:9-15)

It appears that for Mark, the baptism of Jesus and the divine affirmation of his status as the Beloved Son, are somehow related to Jesus’ immediate move to the wilderness.  While the lectionary relates this account to the story of Noah and the flood, it might have been more appropriate to pair it with Exodus.  After considering the idea of a parallel between the Jordan and Red Sea, I was struck with the idea that no, this is not a parallel story to that part of the exodus but, rather the symbolic opposite of Israel’s crossing of the Jordan into the promised land.

After his baptism in the Jordan, Jesus leaves the promised land of milk and honey for the wilderness.  It is in the wilderness that Jesus becomes the outsider.  This will, of course, be the pattern of Mark’s gospel.  Just two weeks ago we saw Jesus himself become unclean by touching the leper in order to heal him. This is the pattern of the cross which Peter will reject.

5th Sunday after Epiphany - B (Mark 1:29-39)

I try to avoid reading commentaries in advance of my writing of these reflections because I want to focus on my heart’s response to the text.  If I were actually writing a homily I would then go on to the commentaries.  In a sense, this week’s reflection is an exception.  Having just finished reading Gordon Lathrop’s recent book, The Four Gospels on Sunday:  the New Testament and Reform of Christian Worship, I cannot help but immediately read the word “house” in this Sunday’s text as “church” or “assembly”.  Lathrop proposes that the use of the term “house” in Mark is always in some way a directive for the reform of the church’s worship.  In this particular instance, Lathrop might suggest that Mark is reminded the Christian community that their gatherings are not just Greco-Roman supper clubs but, in a very real sense, hospitals.  Further, this healing is not just for insiders, e.g. Peter’s mother-in-law, but for “the whole city.”

Who are the sick and possessed in our cities?  Are they welcome in our churches?  What would we do if they started showing up?  Is our worship community centered on itself or on the other?  These are the kinds of questions Lathrop suggests this Marcan text is asking of our churches. 

4th Sunday After Epiphany - Year B (Mark1: 21-28)

Anyone attempting to preach on this text has to contend with the question of authority, both in terms of what it means in the case of Jesus and what it means for those who have come after and preach in Jesus’ name.  I think there are a few things we can say based on the text.

1.  The authority Jesus exercises is not about rhetorical skill but comes directly from God.  It is also not about what we sometimes call “book learning”.  Neither of these things is bad.  On the contrary, they are necessary tools for the preacher.  Ultimately, however, the efficaciousness of our preaching, our authority, is God’s doing.

2.  This authority is not focused on the control of the hearers but rather on their healing and wholeness.  It is also not exercised for the benefit of the preacher.  We preach the good news, not to direct the behavior of the listener but to proclaim the good things God is doing in and through Jesus.

3.  Being recognized for the power and authority of your preaching is not always a good thing.  The powers of sin and death are the first to recognize the authority of Jesus.  It’s ultimately not about the preacher.  It is about God and the hearers. 

3rd Sunday after Epiphany - Year B (Mark 1:14-20)

The focus of preaching on this text is generally the call issued by Jesus and the prompt response of these first disciples to that call – immediately leaving everything to follow Jesus.  What sometimes gets overlooked is that it is John the Baptist’s arrest that sets the tone for the call story that follows.  From the very beginning, the call to discipleship is a call to the cross.  Secondly, the disciples are called in pairs.  The Christian vocation is not about me and Jesus but involves community from the outset.  Finally, ‘traditional family values” as well as the economic system are overturned as these two sets of brothers abandon their families and their livelihoods in order to create a new “family” living in God’s economy of abundance.