Were You There As Jesus Prepared to Die?

Today's Scripture Passage:  Mark 14: 1-25

To read today's portion of the account of the Passion, click on the below link:
http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=200334750

Galilee is behind us.  The parade is long over.  There are no stars overhead to light our way.  The Passion has begun.  It's an odd term, from the Latin passionem, or suffering.  It looks similar to the word passive (Latin, passiuus), which definitely doesn't make sense to us.  After all, we're talking about Jesus!  But the words are indeed related.  The Passion, this time of suffering and being "handed over", is a movement from planned and intentional action to no longer being in control.  All of Jesus' actions are accomplished.  It is finished.  It is a time of waiting--waiting for others' response, waiting for our response.  We are called to enter The Passion, to enter this handing over.

"Christ in the House of Simon"
Dieric Bouts, 1440's
Staatlisch Museen, Berlin

And, so, in the first part of The Passion reading, Jesus prepares for what is to come.  First, he is anointed.  I really like the version that the Gospel writer known as John tells, but this is Mark's year, so we'll go with it.  You see, John names her.  John brings Mary into the story, into a relationship with Jesus.  Mary, or whoever this woman is, takes the expensive perfume and pours it onto Jesus.  Takes...and pours.  Where have we heard that before?  It is sacramental.  This simple act of holy extravagance brings her into the story, into life.  She is forever remembered not because she wasted the oil but because she was part of preparing Jesus to die.  With extravagant and self-giving love, she entered The Passion.  She poured herself out and handed herself over.  I wish I could be like that. I wish I could sit at the feet of Jesus and, without any regard to what is "appropriate" or "expected", pour everything out. I wish I didn't hold myself back.  I wish I could pour myself out with holy and even wasteful extravagance.

As the time for the Passover meal nears, the disciples begin to prepare and plan for the meal.  It would be Jesus' last.  The disciples didn't seem to know it at the time but this would be the final time that they were all together.  Don't you wander what the conversation was that night?  We'd like to imagine that it was rich and deep and profound, that it was prayerful and contemplative, theological and steeped with rabbinical thought, that it was something they would remember.  But last words are seldom like that.  They are usually profoundly quotidian.  Rather than resembling the life that we envision, they usually resemble the life that is.  That's probably what happened that night.  There were side conversations about family and acquaintances.  There were comments about the weather and whether it might have been unseasonably hot or unseasonably cold that evening.  And there were some speculations about the political environment and the tensions that hung in the air even that night.  They did not solve the problems of the world.  They just ate and drank and sat together. 

"The Last Supper of Christ"
Pieter Jansz.Pourbus, c. 1562-5

And then Jesus takes the bread and pours the wine.  Takes...and pours.  It is sacramental.  Yet another act of holy extravagance that brings us all into the story, into life.  But the story's ending is far from ordinary.  And to be part of it, we have to take and pour...We have to become the body and become the blood.  We have to take the cup from Jesus, this cup that has been poured out for us.

But behind the scenes, there is darkness and betrayal swirling in our midst.  We don't know what to do with this.  It is one of us.  It is one whom Jesus loves. It is one who has sat here this night and shared our meal and shared our lives.  Oh, please, do not let it be me.  As I dip this bread, let me become who I'm supposed to be.  Do not let it be me.

The truth is, we cannot be there with Jesus as he prepares to die unless we, too, are preparing for our own.  We cannot talk of this handing over unless we can let go of that to which we hold.  And we cannot take the bread and the wine unless we make room for it in our lives.  Were you there?  Were you there as love was poured out?  Were you there as Jesus took and poured?  Were you there in the betrayal?  It is too late to go back.  It is too late to change anything.  The Kingdom of God waits for you up ahead.  But you have to let go.  You have to die to self.  No longer can we just talk about something else and hope that death will go away.  We have to die to live.

So, on this Monday of Holy Week, how would you answer?  Were you there as Jesus prepared to die?  What part in The Passion did you play?  Are you preparing to die?  For that is the way that you will live.

Grace and Peace,

Shelli

LENT 4B: A Lesson in Snake-Handling

"The Brazen Serpent"
Benjamin West (1738-1820)
BJU Museum & Gallery, Greenville, SC

Lectionary Passage:  Numbers 21: 4-9
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

OK, this is just odd!  It's one of those passages that probably wouldn't have made it into the lectionary except that the Gospel writer that we know as John included it.  (We'll read that this week too!)  Personally, I think it's a little over the top--sending poisonous snakes.  I mean, it seems that the people were only asking for a little variety in their menu.  Isn't this a little out of proportion?  I mean, really:  complaining...bad; poisononous snakes all over the place...REALLY bad.

But from the very beginning of Creation, as one of the Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible explains, the snake has slithered on its belly and eaten only dust and yet it has done so without a word of complaint.  So, then, what better character to rule over the people who have murmured over a choice of food?  Essentially, the snake comes to teach humility and patience.  But we as humans cannot resist being more than a little squeamish at the character.  There is something about a snake that demands our full attention.  When someone mentions that a snake is nearby, we don’t ask what lessons can be learned.  Instead, we climb on the furniture or over one another to get out of the way.

Our full attention…to how many things do we give that?  And how many things would we rather climb on the furniture or run to get out of the way rather than dealing with them?  And it is interesting that in order to save the people from the plague of snakes, God gave them a snake.  So, when someone is bitten by a snake, he or she is to look at a snake.  What sense does that make?  Think about it…we are to look at our fear; we are to look at those things that tempt us; we are to look at those things that distract us and pull us away from God.  (Goodness…that sounds a lot like this season of Lent!)  And God, in God’s infinite wisdom puts them on a pole so that we cannot avoid seeing them.

But only in the wisdom of God do we counter something that we fear with that which we fear.  Here, God’s antidote for the snakes is a snake.  Isn’t that sort of paradoxical?   We have to look beyond that with which we are uncomfortable.  We have to look into a sight that brings such fear, such loathing, that it is hard for us to find God’s presence in it.  And, deep within it, is the sight of humility and patience, a creature that, according to Creation mythology, had resigned itself to surrendering to that which ruled its life.  And by looking into one’s fear, by looking into one’s death, one is freed—the ultimate paradox. 

It is notable, too, that nothing is said to imply that God destroys the snakes.  Essentially, God does not destroy the enemy—God recreates it.  Isn’t that an incredible thing?  You see, we need to recognize that the traditional Jewish reading of the “Garden of Eden” story differs from the classical Christian version.  While the snake has often been identified in both faiths as Satan (or satan), the Jewish understanding is not that of something or someone outside of God’s command or a rebel against divine authority.  Rather, it’s sort of a prosecuting attorney, entrusted with testing, entrapping, and testifying against us before the heavenly court.  It’s part of God’s way of maintaining order.  It’s part of God’s way of showing us a mirror to look at ourselves.  So, from that standpoint, these snakes or serpents are not enemies but, rather, part of our ourselves.  (On some level, maybe that’s more uncomfortable even than enemies!)

So, the simple equation is this:  the cure for snakes is a snake…the cure for something is to stare it straight in the face.  Where have we heard that before?  Centuries later, God did it again.  The cure for our death is death—death of those things that stand in the way of our relationship with God, death of those things that make us less than human, death of those things that are not part of who we are as images of God.  And, if you remember, the cure for a life of pain and suffering and temptation is life eternal.  Snakes for snakes; death for death; life for life.

Those whose eyes are fixed on the Son of Man as he is lifted up ultimately see God’s healing of the world.  The Cross is that thing at which we are forced to look, forced to see a part of us that we do not want to see, forced to see the way we murmur and complain about our lives when they’re really not that bad.  In an odd way, the cross is that snake on a pole.  So as hard as it may be, stand still.  It doesn’t make sense in this world.  It’s gruesome and loathsome and filled with danger.  But God, in God’s infinite wisdom, takes it and turns it into life.  We don’t need to become snake-handlers; we just need to be aware of that to which we should be looking.  So, walk now, toward the cross—the instrument of death that gives you life.  

On this seventeenth day of Lenten observance, go commune with a snake...no, just kidding!  Instead, give someone today your full attention.  Do not get pulled away by your cell phone or your watch or your calendar.  
Grace and Peace on this Lenten Journey,

Shelli  

LENT 5A: The New Dead

"The Raising of Lazarus"
Fresco by Giotto di Bondone, Italian, 1304-06

Lectionary Text:  John 11: 1-4, 17-26, 41-44
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”... When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”... Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”...So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

So, gray and brown are the new black; forty is the new thirty, fifty is the new forty, and hybrids are the new luxury car.  Things change.  The ways that we live and talk about things change.  There are always new perspectives bursting into our consciousness.  And Lazarus is the "new dead"...Let me explain...have you ever noticed the last part of this story?  "The dead man came out...".  It is not that "Lazarus came out miraculously alive again". He did not appear and then go back to work that day.  It says, "the dead man...".  Lazarus was still dead the way this world thinks of dead.  Jesus did not undo his death.  The point was that Jesus turned it into something new--a new life, a new way of looking at things, a new creation.  "The dead man came out....let him go..."  We can't even imagine how great it's going to be. 

Today would have been my grandmother's 102nd birthday.  She died a year ago in November.  I still miss her.  I can't even really describe how.  We were more than grandmother and granddaughter.  We were some sort of soul mates.  I still want to call her, to talk to her.  Now don't get me wrong.  Sometimes she made me so angry, downright infuriated me.  She had that fundamentalist bend that I just didn't understand.  I suppose I had that progressive bend that she just couldn't tolerate.  But we were more alike than we were unalike.  We had a kinship beyond our obvious blood connection. I enjoyed doing things for her toward the end.  I remember one time I was helping her go to the bathroom when we were away from her house.  (OK...that may be too graphic!)  But she looked up at me with those deep brown eyes and said, "You know...I used to do this with you."  "Well then," I responded, "it's time I do it for you."  Things change; people change; life changes.  I still grieve, still want to call her.  I've been thinking about her lately, grieving all over again.  I know she's gone.  And yet, not...

You see, the thing we had in common was our faith.  And that faith, that shared faith, tells me that there is something new.  I don't think this story of Lazarus was a miracle story, per se.  Jesus did not do some sort of magic trick so that Lazarus could walk out in his burial clothes.  The end of the story (although I've never noticed it and never even read any commentary to support this) says that Lazarus was still dead.  Death was not undone.  Lazarus did not get up and go back to his life.  Rather, death was recreated into life.  Recreation is not undoing; recreation is making something new.  There is still grief and wanting for what was, for the familiar, for the usual, for the phone conversations that we crave.  But this is better.  We justF have to live into it.  That's what faith is about.

This story is also seen as a foreshadowing of Jesus' own crucifixion and raising.  It's like he's saying, "Folks...stay with me here.  There are things that are about to happen that are hard.  In fact, we're fixing to go through crap.  (Sorry...couldn't think of a better way to say it!)  Your loss will be unbearable.  And it will not be undone.  I will not pull some magic trick out of a hat at the last minute.  I will not undo my death.  But, as I said...stay with me...look what I've done here.  The best is yet to come!  If you stay with me, I can't even describe the incredible things that will happen.  You just have to experience them for yourself.  Just stay with me. "

Death is not to be undone; rather, it is made new.  It is recreated into life.  It's the "new dead."  Isn't that better?  Do you believe this?

So, in the Lenten season, know that the best is yet to come!

Happy Birthday Grandmother!

Grace and Peace,

Shelli