First Reading: Genesis 3:8-15
8{The man and his wife} heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Psalm 130
1Out of the depths have I called to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice; let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication. 2If you, Lord, were to note what is done amiss, O Lord, who could stand? 3For there is forgiveness with you; therefore you shall be feared. 4I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; in his word is my hope. 5My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. 6O Israel, wait for the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy; 7With him there is plenteous redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins.
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
13Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
1For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Gospel: Mark 3:20-35
20{Jesus} went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that {Jesus and the apostles} could not even eat. 21And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.” 22And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. 28Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” — 30for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.” 31And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. 32And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 33And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
Looking a Little Bit Crazy
For those who have been in my office and seen the cork board above my desk, you might have noticed that I have humorous clippings from newspapers and such, that have been given to me by various people. One that I used to have, and has been long replaced, was a photocopied sign that read, “You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps.” I don’t recall the particular conversation that led to someone giving me that sign, but I suppose, that in the church office, the words can take on a new meaning.
On one level, why not put a sign like this in a church? Many churches are finally returning to their pre-pandemic routines and can, at times, be busy, hectic, possibly even confusing places. Each week, there are facilities to manage, worship services to plan, educational programs to lead, choirs to rehearse, fellowship dinners to organize, and outreach efforts to facilitate. Planning is in full swing in many congregations, and things can get a bit frantic. The running joke at one particular church is that the staff keeps saying, “Next week it’s going to get quiet,” but the quiet week never comes. Several pastors I’ve talked with agree that the workload can become a bit crazy. And on a deeper level, there is a great deal of truth to that sign.
There’s something strange and different about the church. Hopefully, we never become just another club or civic organization. We also pray that the church’s view of reality is increasingly out of phase from a lot of the world’s prevailing views. In the church, we do and say things that doesn’t always make sense to people outside of these walls. Think about it. Here we are, gathered on the weekend, sitting on hard pews instead of lawn chairs. People we know are outside, soaking up the sun at the lake or the beach, or washing their cars, attending sporting events, while we gather here, inside, to lift our voices in prayer, praise, and song. As a lot of other people are planning barbecues or sipping a cold adult beverage, we come together on a morning like this to worship the God of infinite grace and mercy and to share in the Lord’s supper. To the world, all this must seem a little bit crazy. And according to the gospel text I read a few minutes ago, this perception may reveal something of what it means to be the church.
Mark tells us about the day when the Jesus’ immediate family came to take Him away in a straitjacket, as it were. The word on the street was that Jesus was “out of His mind.” Taking the Greek word Exestē literally, people thought He was “insane”. The religious leaders made claims that Jesus was possessed. And so, His family came to His house to take Jesus away, because the popular opinion was that He was “out of His wits”. That might sound like an odd assessment considering the totality of His public ministry, but it is central to how the gospel of Mark portrays the work of Jesus.
From the beginning, Jesus acted differently. He didn’t act or teach like the religious leaders of the day. As a matter of fact, He spent His entire ministry at odds with them. He ate and drank with the social outcasts, He had physical contact with lepers, those considered unclean, and had public conversations with women. Additionally, Jesus announced that God’s reign had come near, and He acted as if His view of the world was different from the world we have taken for granted. Recall some of the stories Mark tells.
One day, Jesus met the town lunatic in Capernaum, and He set the man free from forces beyond his control. Immediately, Jesus met a woman bedridden with a fever. The neighbors said, “I’m sorry; there’s nothing we can do.” But Jesus set the woman free from her sickness. He set her free for service. Then Jesus met someone with a skin disease so ugly that all its victims were quarantined from the temple. Jesus healed that person’s disease, and He set that person free from segregation (All three examples are from Mark 1). According to St. Mark, Jesus refused to accept the world as a place of sickness, sin, and evil. He acted as if God had begun doing something new.
According to John Dominic Crossan in his book, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, Unlike the peasants and beggars of His time, “[Jesus’] eyes lacked the proper cringe, his voice the proper whine, his walk the proper shuffle.” Jesus not only announced the nearness of God’s kingdom, He acted as if God’s reign had actually come. Jesus’ words and actions were countercultural. That’s why some people said, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the evidence still reinforces that appraisal.
For every disturbed person Jesus freed, there are twenty people who are possessed by forces outside their control. For every headache Jesus ever relieved, there are fifty more bottles of Aspirin sold every minute. For every ugly, isolating disease Jesus ever healed, a hundred more cancer patients are admitted to the hospital. There are forces still at work that hurt, cripple, and destroy human life. So, has the world changed? We as Christians choose to think so, but we, at times, also have a hard time convincing others of this fact. Take the family and friends of Jaco Pastorius for example.
A former altar boy from Fort Lauderdale, Pastorius emerged during the late 1970s as a bright new star of the jazz music scene. He was a phenomenal bass player, with a keen ear for harmony and an unsurpassed technical ability on his 1962 Fender bass. He joined the well-known jazz group Weather Report and gained instant acclaim for his musicianship. With the fame, sadly, came free access to cocaine and alcohol. As Jaco fell into a routine of drug abuse, he began to exhibit increasingly bizarre behavior.
His substance abuse aggravated an undiagnosed manic-depressive condition, which, in turn, prompted a tragic decline into psychosis, institutionalization, and self-destruction. The self-acclaimed “world’s greatest jazz bassist” lived the final years of his life as a homeless person in New York’s Washington Square Park. Pastorius died in September 1987, following a savage beating by a bar bouncer. A mourner sized up his life as “brilliant goods in a damaged package.”
There are untold numbers of tragedies that happen due to human sinfulness. Others occur by malevolent conspiracies against us. Jesus came preaching, “The kingdom of God is at hand!” But the evidence reveals God’s kingdom is a disputed sovereignty. Has the world changed? That’s the issue in the story from the third chapter of Mark. Back in Jesus’ day, the best theological minds summed up the evidence. They said, “It seems Jesus has great strength and ability. Still yet, the world hasn’t changed.
Evidence shows that Jesus has power over the house of evil. But the house of evil appears to have stone walls and an iron-clad gate. Jesus may be doing some good things, they added. But what if Jesus is a trickster? Perhaps the evil powers have sent Him to deceive us. What if Jesus is actually evil in disguise? What if He’s been sent to get our hopes up before dashing them once again? That is, what if this is the same gruesome, dark, demonic world that we’ve always known? Admittedly, this is a curious line of thinking, especially for the New Testament. Again, look at the evidence.
If the powers of destruction and death still rule over the world, what conclusion could make more sense? So, we’re back to the same question: Has the world changed? Is there anything qualitatively different with the coming of Jesus? I guess we will have to decide for ourselves. At least, that’s how Jesus confronted the issue. When the best minds of His generation accused Him of teaming up with the side of evil, Jesus responded in a way that let people decide for themselves. “Think of it this way,” He said. “A kingdom divided cannot stand. A house divided cannot stand.” So far so good. That makes sense.
“If I’m on the side of evil,” Jesus continued, “then the house of evil is collapsing, because I would be working against my own house. And if I’m on the side of God, then I would naturally work against the house of evil.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “Decide what you want about my ministry; decide whether or not you think I’m out of my mind. But either way, know this: the end of evil is already in sight. The house of evil has been plundered.” Is that true? That is the question. Is the end of evil in sight and has the house of evil been pillaged?
Has the world changed with the first coming of Jesus? If nothing has changed, then the future is an endless string of oppression, misery, and defeat. However, if the reign of God has intruded upon the status quo, then we can act like Jesus. We can do the will of God. We can joyfully recall our baptism and reject sin, renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises because God rules over heaven and earth. We can act in the face of death, because death has already been defeated. We can gather in a place like this and sing praises to a Savior who has already assured us of our redemption. We can stand around the baptismal font to claim God’s promises for our children. We can gather around the altar and receive the body and blood of Christ and celebrate “a foretaste of the feast to come.” Trusting in the final triumph of God, we can act redemptively even when the world calls us crazy.
Maybe that’s what we are: crazy siblings with our odd older brother, Jesus. When we live as if God’s reign is in the here and now, we find ourselves in this strange family we call the “church.” In our time, perhaps no one has seen the true social dimension of God’s kingdom more clearly than Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King confronted the evils of racism with a clear word of gospel justice. His work provoked allegations against his character and threats against his life. Yet he remained faithful to his vision until the day he was killed. The key, as he said in a number of his speeches, was a certain maladjustment.
According to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. there are certain things within our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and I challenge all the faithful disciples of Jesus to be maladjusted as well. If you will allow the preacher in me to come out now, let me say that I never intended to adjust to the evils of segregation and discrimination. I never intended to adjust myself to religious bigotry. I never intended to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intended to adjust myself to the madness of militarism, and the self-defeating effects of physical violence. And I encourage all Christians to be maladjusted as well, because it may well be that the salvation of the world lies in the hands of the maladjusted.
So, concluded Dr. King, “Let us be as maladjusted as Jesus of Nazareth, who could look into the eyes of the men and women of His generation and cry out, ‘Love your enemies. Bless those that curse you. Pray for those that despitefully use you.'” So, has the world changed? Each of us must decide, just as Dr. King made his decision. The truth is, we will live our lives by the beliefs we hold. If we believe that Jesus came and broke into the violence-prone, death-dealing house of evil, then we will act accordingly.
The other day I read about a pastor named Bill. He too has been accused of being a little bit nuts. Bill does workshops for churches on clowning. Not long ago, he was in a distant city, packing up after a workshop. The phone rang. Nobody was around. He answered. “Are you a minister?” somebody asked. “Yes, actually I am.” “Come quickly,” said the voice, “our child is dying of leukemia.” Bill dropped everything and went.
He ran out to his rental car and drove to the hospital. He parked the car, ran up the steps, through the double doors, and down the hall. Suddenly it hit him: he was still dressed as a clown, with a white face, a red nose, orange hair, and green suspenders. He didn’t have time to change. He had been told this was an emergency, so he kept going. He found the room, knocked on the door, and entered the room where a young girl in a hospital bed lay surrounded by her family. “We called for a minister, not a clown,” said the father. The child replied, “He’s better than a minister. Can he stay?” No one dared to deny her request. Bill sat on the edge of the hospital bed. He sang songs. He told Bible stories. He cradled the little girl in his arms until the end. When the last moment came, she made a final request. “Would you come to my funeral?” And that’s what he did.
Three days later, crazy Bill stood there with a white face, a red nose, orange hair, and green suspenders. He never spoke a word, yet he led the people as they laughed, and cried, and remembered the little girl’s life. A few people present thought it was wrong to have a clown at a funeral, much less lead the service. They murmured afterwards, “That minister is out of his mind! He’s crazy!” By all the proper canons of pastoral protocol, they were probably correct.
But there he stood, acting as if God’s absolute power has already defeated death. Was he crazy? You decide. All we know is that Bill heard Jesus say, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and he acted accordingly. No, you don’t have to be crazy to work in God’s kingdom, but it helps. Likewise, you don’t have to be out of your mind to do the work of Jesus Christ, even though a faithful life can provoke the world to think of you that way. When nothing in this world seems to have changed and the evil in this world conspires against you, listen closely. You’ll probably hear Jesus say, “For whoever does the will of God, they are my brother, sister and mother” (Mark 3:35).
Amen
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