The Child in Our Midst, September 20, 2015

Mark 9: 9-37 We routinely go through life aware of the people and things around us, without seeing them in the broader picture. When we see a child maturing as a youth or a loved one aging, whom we have not seen for a while, we notice changes unobserved in day to day existence. When we read individual verses, or stories as we always have, we sometimes miss what is there in the broader context. For the last several weeks we have been following as Jesus went back and forth across the sea, from the Jewish to the Gentile world, calling, teaching, accomplishing miracles and sending the disciples out in pairs with power to preach and teach and heal. Last time, we read together of Jesus asking the disciples “Who do they think I AM?” and Whom do you say I AM? With Peter's confession that “CHRIST” is not Jesus' last name, but Jesus' identity, he is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. After which Jesus told them of his suffering, death, resurrection, and different from healings where he said tell no one, they were afraid. Afterward, Jesus took with him Peter, James and John, going up the mountain, where the Transfiguration took place. They saw him changed in a blinding light, they saw Moses and Elijah with him, they heard a voice of affirmation from heaven: “This is my Beloved Son, listen to him!” And Jesus tells them of his being handed over to people who will cause his suffering, death and resurrection, and they were afraid in stunned silence. This morning, as they come down the mountain, they come to Capernaum. Jesus approaches a crowd, where his other disciples have been trying in vain to exorcise a demon from a boy who has been scarred by fire and water, and the boy's father is frustrated. I was surprised by the Gospel in the RSV using the word “Dumb” in the NRSV: “Stupid,” so I looked up the origin of the adjective. 1. The negative of one who is wise. And the last few weeks we have been focused on Wisdom! 2. Annoying, irritating, troublesome; 3. tediously dull, due to a lack of sense or meaning, pointless; 4. foolish, senseless; 5. in a state of stupor, stupefied, silent... Cappernaum was a small fishing village on the north end of the Sea of Galilee, like our being here at the north end of Skaneateles Sea. Cappernaum was the home of the fishermen who became disciples. Capernaum is where you and I work and play, where our children go to school, the ordinary places of our lives, where we try to make ends meet. The real place where faith and fears collide. Jesus does not spit on his fingers, or cry or groan, he prays to God. Later when the disciples ask, Why when we tried everything to cast it out, it did not work, but when you did, the boy was healed? And Jesus explained “With this kind of demon, it is very difficult, a demon without wisdom, can only be met with prayer.” There are times, when we try everything we know, we find the best doctors, the best advisors, and nothing makes sense. Prayer is not only for centering, and calming yourself, for anti-anxiety; but also for dealing with what is senseless, annoying, irritating, stupefying, scarring life. And the Scripture describes a very ordinary, shameless human ambition. Along the road to Capernaum, coming down the mountain from the Transfiguration, Peter, James and John were arguing over who is greatest. It may have been as simple as who is most loved, who healed the most people, challenged the greatest circumstance, who prays the longest, or the most eloquent. When we were little, our parents worked out that one of us got to divide a dessert or coveted thing, and the other got to choose first. Today, there is a horrific draught in California, we hear of it in fires, and rationing of water. I am told that controversy has arisen because most acres of grain are worth $1,000/acre to the farmer. But if you plant pistachios, they are currently worth $10,000/acre. Then again, pistachios take 10 times as much water to grow as do normal crops. In a time of draught, Hedge-funds have come in purchasing up individual farms, to plow under and cultivate pistachios, because it is worth 10 times as much, as you use 10 times the water. In the ancient world, childhood was a time of terror. 1/3 of all births ended in death of the child. 2/3 of children died before age 12. Disease and lack of hygiene exterminated 2/3 the total population annually. Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages described, “In a fire, your first responsibility is to save your father, then Grandmother, then wife, then your cow, and if there were time: children. In a famine, the strongest, the adults ate first, it was survival of the fittest. What Jesus said to the disciples was counter-cultural, a challenge to their most basic family values. To be my disciples, you must be without rank, without position. In Greek and Aramaic, the word for Child can also mean Servant, a non-person, a thing, as children and servants are unable to repay you, unable to elevate your status by showing you honor. When we hold up a child, it is not for how cute, or how perfect they are. An infant is without jealousy, or guile, without desire for honor or reputation, without memory of a moment before, life is a miracle that they are witness to. In the bulletin, we described that Jesus interrogated the disciples. Not simply that he wanted to know what they were arguing about on the road, but I believe what he was asking was WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF and also WHAT DO YOU IMAGINE IS THE NATURE OF FAITH? Because under our arguments, underneath our debates for dominance and control, are our fears. The opposite of Fear is Faith. The Opposite of Faith is not doubt, not science, not Law; the Opposite of Faith is Fear. Fear is ubiquitous through the Gospels. When the Heavenly Messenger comes to Mary, the first word is FEAR NOT! When the Heavenly Host appeared to the Shepherds in the field, they shouted FEAR NOT! Here again, and even at the foot of the Cross, Jesus' challenge to us is Fear Not, but Believe. Our Faith is not about having easy answers, telling you what you must do, how you must think in order to be perfect. But rather, to affirm that you are not alone in your doubts, you are in a community of living with questions, confronting fears, struggling to have fidelity and commitment to believe. Years ago, there was a man, who was filled with fear. He lived alone and raged at everyone. He would throw things, storm out of meetings, slamming doors, one Christmas Eve he spit in the Pastor's face. Finally, we asked why he did this? He immediately replied: Here you have to forgive. Family, School, Work, Neighbors, they can cut you off, if you demonstrate rage, anger, fear they will have no part of you... but here, here in the church you have to forgive. I named that in my experience, there had been tragedy at the very beginning of life, and the church extended love. Growing up, there had been mentors and teachers, a place of challenge and opportunity where you could explore questions and risk to say what was in your heart, knowing you would not be judged. Our whole point as the community of faith, is not to be a punching bag for others, accepting their anger, but to provide the faith, hope and love, that circumstance had denied, that fears had destroyed. Reading this Gospel passage, “Jesus put a child in their midst” My mind immediately jumped to The LionKing, with Mustafa the Baboon Priest holding the child Simba up before the world. Or The Movie Roots with Kunta Kinte lifting up his infant in this new world, holding him up before the stars, that also shown over his ancestral home in Africa. But I think what this is really about, are two other images. The first is that Jesus Called the disciples to gather in a circle, as if in judgement, surrounding the child as others had for stoning to death a sinner. But all the while, at the center of that Judgement Circle Jesus himself stood with the child. Whatever was to happen to the child, must also happen to Jesus. When I met John Dau's father in S.Sudan, Daniel was Chief of the Dinka Tribe at Duk Payuel, a Soldier, a Warrior, a Judge, a Leader standing 6'8.” His newest wife had a toddler. Daniel described, “What we need, is not for Americans to come in and carry us in their arms. What we need is simply a finger to hold onto and steady ourselves as we learn to stand and to walk and to grow without fear.”