The Choices is Yours

Wisdom 1: 16-2:1, 12-22; Mark 9: 30-37

I have been reading a book titled, A Beautiful Anarchy. The author reflects on the creativity of people and that through choices, with various degrees of risk, the creative becomes a life created. David Du Chemin considers that all people are creative with the power to create, not the specific outcomes of individual choices, but, the overall way one’s life will be. As any artist knows, when the spirit creates -not to make money, or satisfy the world- but, when the artist works from the heart, it is risky and sometimes it is anarchy, meaning it doesn’t follow prescribed rules. The art created – or in this case the life created- is one that is different.  Risky choices and following the heart, have opened a person to experiences which then, depending on the creativity applied, have become integrated into the depths of a person’s being. It is from these depths that life is created, where life becomes art. The artist’s life is full of a joy that comes from lived experiences of all kinds.

I have been reading this book in tandem with the Wisdom and Gospel reading we heard earlier. Simply described, my mind drew a comparison, between two kinds of people, and an either/or choice of which a person wants to be. We are presented with the argument and left to decide what life we create.

First, Wisdom introduces us to a group of people referred to as ungodly, a better term might be secular.

The book of Wisdom was written to them: them being, Jews living in the diaspora, likely in Hellenized Egypt, in the milieu of the culture of Alexandria. The author makes an appeal for Jews to be faithful to the Law and apply it to their contemporary lives. The author does this by appropriating the best of Greek philosophy and culture, adds doses of Jewish sacred text and story to make the argument.  The argument does not shy from the fact that such a choice and creating such a life is difficult.  It is risky and hard to remain faithful, however, the author stresses, through the use of wisdom and interpreting Bible stories, God’s concern for people. The author presents a view that Wisdom is the divine power that emanates through the world, and that God can be met and understood through Wisdom in the act prayer. In the end, immorality is expressed as a gift from God.

The secular persons, to whom this text is written, are not convinced. The text we read today describes them and their attitude to life.  Each lives for the moment with no thought of consequences, or life to come.  Their life is created by a set of choices- word, deeds, and an attitude- that life is short and sorrowful, and the life to come is no better. There is fleeting pleasure, but, no contentment. What really annoys them is the professed faith of others around them; and this annoyance is translated to feeling themselves judged as less than, of being burdened by the Laws, both religious and civil, which are enforced by the faithful. The secular feel inconvenienced by those creating a life boasting hope and lasting joy.  Quite frankly, the author describes this ‘ungodly’ group, as a group that gets so put-out and disturbed by the manner of life and the strange ways of the faithful, that they focus their creative power into devious schemes and manipulating circumstances to force signs and wonders and miracles – if they really do exist. “If God is God, let’s put it to the test,” they say; torturing the faithful, the patient, the gentle, the kind, to see IF, God will manifest God’s self. If the Messiah will really materialize.  The choices made, the lives lived, illustrate a people who lack hope, who fail to discern options, who are so blinded by the ways of the world, so much so that creativity to create true life is squandered and diminished.

In a few moments, our service will continue with the hymn, Children of the Heavenly Father. The writer of this hymn lived a different life compared to that of the persons described in the book of Wisdom.

Lina Sandell, daughter of a Lutheran pastor, was an accomplished Swedish poet and composer of over 600 hymns.  She used creative Wisdom to create life.

At the age of 12 Lina was paralyzed, confined to bed, and given no hope to ever walk again. When her family went to church, she chose to read the Bible; one Sunday she came across the story of Jairus’ daughter. If you remember the little girl was on her death bed, when Jesus healed her, and she rose and walked.  Lina believed the truth of the story, rose, and walked to church.

At the age of 26 Lina encountered ‘the event’ that shaped her life and work.  While crossing a Swedish lake the boat she and her father, a Lutheran pastor, where travelling on, tipped.  Her father fell overboard and drowned before her eyes.  Two years later her mom died. Her only child died at birth.  Later in life Lina was sick with typhoid.  She died in 1903 at the age of 71.

What makes her story special is that Lina’s pain and suffering manifested in deep faith. Her creative energy digested the suffering and created -it came out- in the texts of hymns put to simple tunes.  Her writing took on a depth that can only come from experiences of great emotion, that are reflected upon, and integrated into one’s being. The hymns, like Children of the Heavenly Father - circa 1850, and another of our favourites, Day by Day, whisper to the hearts of those who have experienced similar suffering. Lina’s use of Wisdom, the creative, created joy rooted in the depths of suffering and pain, not a happy-clappy silliness, rather, a quiet trust in Wisdom, in God’s faithfulness.

The disciples have been on the road and Jesus draws aside them to ask what they were arguing about.  The disciples were not fighting, rather, the disciples were in debate, a back and forth robust conversation, where points, ideas, and learning were shared. A very natural and cultural activity to engage in. While the premise of the debate, the philosophical dilemma of who is greatest, is a good one; the disciples veer into secular ideals when applying the reasoning to themselves. I am better. No I am, because…

Once again, we see the Gospel of Mark portraying the disciples as those who don’t get it; they fail to understand Jesus’ teachings, they are afraid to ask questions, they don’t really want to know more about this suffering servant, and they avoid being rebuked as Peter was weeks ago.  The disciples opt for not creating, taking less risk.  In doing so the disciples remain in a state of confusion. Their choices do not live or create, or even begin to understand that the reign of God reverses the ideals of the world. God’s ideals are a Beautiful anarchy.

I wonder where the conversation would have gone if the examples of those described in Wisdom, were set beside the life of Lina Sandell.  If the conversation went to a deeper level and the disciples talked from a place of suffering and pain.  The disciples had both kinds of people in their company, and each had a little bit of the ‘ungodly’ and a little bit of Lina, in themselves.  Judas, as a Zealot, decided to test the righteous; he pushes Jesus into proving he was the awaited Messiah, betraying him into the hands that will have him crucified.  Later other disciples take suffering and pain, Jesus’ death and their own persecution, and turn it to a quiet trust in Wisdom, that manifested in working to spread the Gospel.

This morning we are given a simplistic presentation of two ways to approach life. The presentation acknowledges that life is full of suffering and pain.  The texts are directive with the author presenting THE choice to create. One is not to live as the secular, the ‘ungodly,’ where life is short, sorrowful, and lacking hope.

The writers are convincing you of a truth they have experienced for themselves; that Wisdom is present in suffering and pain, and in the ashes of experience -when nothing is left but God’s faithfulness to never leave or depart- it is from here that Wisdom emanates through the creative, sprouting hope grown in the soil of substance.

The writers of these ancient texts are writing to impress upon the secular tendency of the people of their time – and ours, that the experiences of life are full of hope and promise. It is what present-day teachers are calling lifestyle design.  Lifestyle design embraces an understanding that it is within your creative power to decide and create the life you want, in the midst of suffering, pain, and a bombardment of secular understanding – create a beautiful anarchy.

The Scared texts take lifestyle design further, implying it is not just about you and your greatness. Lifestyle design is living a life created from the richness of Wisdom found in the depths of life’s struggles; God’s faithfulness to remain present when everything and everyone else washes away. It is taking this life created and expressing it in word, and deed, and attitude, for benefit of the common good.

David Du Chemin, the author of the book I’ve been reading, is also a photographer, he says:

It’s the difference between your wife’s passport photograph and the portraits you took when you got
engaged. Both may have been created with similar technology, but what stands in that great gulf between them are the passion you have for your wife, the knowledge you have of her personality, and your willingness to use your craft, time, and energy to express that. One says, “She looks like this.” The other says, “This is who she is to me. It’s how I feel about her. See how amazing she is?”

This is the difference in the life we choose to create. Do we live our passport picture- the life expected of us, demanded of us, less creative, not asking questions, staying confused, and living from moment to moment, with little hope, little risk? Or do we choose to live the picture of ourselves as those who love us see us – a created life that shines from a depth of Wisdom and understanding, power and might, fear of the Lord and joy in God’s presence.

The choice is yours.

Today we are open! A Dog Taught Us...

This sermon followed a time with the children where, Catie, a dog in training with the Canadian Intervention and Assistance Dogs, taught them about being a good neighbour.  She was accompanied by her human, Angie.  

Last week we began and ended with the word Ephphatha; be opened.

And today we are.

Would you have ever guessed that the church would be open to having dogs in church?

Would you have ever guessed that the church would be open to a dog teaching us how to be neighbour?

Would you have ever guessed that the church would be open to calling working dogs ministers of the Gospel?

In recent weeks Jesus has been approached as a healer and a miracle worker. In today’s lection Jesus turns his attention to teaching. This moment shifts the direction of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus teaches the disciples what lies ahead. It is a teaching that, although it goes over their heads, it plants seeds that will make sense in the months to come.

If I was classifying this Jesus’ offered seminar, I would be tempted to catalogue it as an elective in the school of economics.  Jesus teaches about the economy of God’s kingdom.  This class is one that poses difficulties to students: it is not that the teacher is inadequate, or that the concept is complicated, the reading list is not too heavy—the kicker is that the teachings are contrary to every other class and teachings being learned.  And although doable, the assignments are risky, putting students in awkward and uncomfortable situations. 

Jesus teaches that the economy of God, grows and flourishes in suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, following in Jesus’ steps, and losing one’s life for another. The fullness of God’s economy – abundance for all- was realized in Jesus’ journey to the cross and his death at the hands of human beings. To become Christ – conquering sin and death, opening the world to the fullness of God’s grace, compassion, and mercy - Jesus had to be open, vulnerable, and self-sacrificing.

In my last parish there was a woman who was a teacher; now she would never have used this word to describe herself. The woman was industrious beyond belief, quietly supported many individuals in the community, and lived from a sense of gratitude. Her life was a ministry of service and faith. She was a living example of God’s economy. There was always enough and more; plenty to go around.

This woman, this teacher, taught me how to sew knees back into jeans of an active five-year-old boy, how to easily replace coat zippers without having to take out the previous zipper; to use old pantyhose for quilt stuffing, to can vegetables, to crochet snowflakes and make starch.  She had a hundred uses for the paper bags that flour comes in, and with what appeared to be little effort she could feed as many people as showed up.

She taught me how to make change in church happenings – like new altar clothes, orders of service, renewed words for liturgy -without getting the congregation hot and bothered. She had a way of teaching those around her new ways, without them having a clue how much change they were going through.  She taught the community how to live together and be civil, despite family feuds.  She was neighbour to the grieving, the poor, the outsider, the struggling mom, the addicted, the abused, the prisoner, and the least lovable. With very few words, and most certainly contrary to the operating human views and values, she did all this.

She never stood in front of a class.  She didn’t preach or read in church.  She was not the first to offer ideas at Bible Study or at public gatherings.  She was a teacher – of skills, of usable knowledge, valuable for surviving and thriving, and making other peoples’ lives better. Her classroom was where she found herself, a place, open to entering someone’s suffering and pain; of visiting her own pain and vulnerability; and sharing all whole heartedly.  She taught by being open to losing herself for another. She grew God’s economy in this way.  God’s economy grew in happiness quotient, in community interaction, and in neighbourliness.

Today we are blessed to have been introduced to Catie and her ministry as a working dog. She has helped us to think about what it means to be neighbour. Catie and other four-footed colleagues, are taught to be open.  They enter vulnerable and sometimes dark places, to be present in the suffering of human beings.  Their ministry is to be a non-anxious presence, to be hope, to be light, to be safety, to be life – in the midst of depression, anxiety, flashbacks, and post-trauma experiences. In this ministry, dogs are teaching people how to cope, to find companionship, and to live in the abundance life has to offer.

Their ministry reminds me of a saying credited to St. Francis of Assis -the patron saint of animals, merchants, and ecology, “In all things preach the Gospel, when necessary use words.”

Reflecting on Catie’s ministry, and the story of the woman teacher, what do you know that you can teach? What can you teach that would be a ministry – in the sense that through the teaching you are sharing of yourself, growing a relationship, and offering skills to build community and lives full of gratitude and abundance.

This is teaching the economy of God’s kingdom.

Teach someone to read, to write, to paint, to sew, to mend, to knit, or to drive.

Teach another person conversational skills; the skills to grow, harvest, and preserve food; the skill of building shelter.

Teach others rules for living, the importance of community, presence, accompanying, and the skills to be open…vulnerable, to enter another’s suffering, and to lose one’s self for the healing of the whole world.

Teach others to be neighbourly – if you have to use words.

Ephphatha ---- Be Opened

Ephphatha … Ephphatha … Ephphatha

This is an Aramaic word remaining in the Greek text. Aramaic was the common language of Jesus, the disciples, and the people of Galilee. For them the word ephphatha meant, be opened.

There are not many Aramaic words preserved in Greek scripture; only a few in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. The Gospel of Mark is written in rough Greek, obviously by an Aramaic speaker and thinker. It has been suggested that the Gospel of Mark kept four Aramaic phrases because it was too difficult to translate a full meaning into Greek; this argument seems a little weak. Perhaps the words were kept, as eye-witness accounts of words heard by Jesus; their inclusion verifies the events. The words spoken deeply moved the hearers, such that they were remembered and passed on in the telling of the story.  Or maybe something entirely different is to draw our attention.

The three other times Aramaic words are used in Mark are interesting:

Jesus says to a dead girl, Talitha koum “little girl, get up.” And the little girl begins to breath. The Aramaic words come at the climax of raising a child from death.

Jesus uses the word, Abba, while praying that last night in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Aramaic word being a familial address, a heart felt prayer and conversation to ‘daddy,’ or ‘papa.’

And Jesus cries from the cross, Eloi eloi, lama sabacthoni, “my God, my God why have you forsaken me?” These Aramaic words were a familiar phrase from Psalm 22; for Jesus a hymn he knew by heart.

On all of these occasions, Aramaic words are spoken from a depth of emotion beyond human comprehension; the words are breathy – with sighing – the words come from a place of physical inadequacy and spiritual longing; from the depths of contemplation, with a desire to understand mystery, and to express a deep seeded compassion.

Ephphatha … Ephphatha … Ephphatha

This is an important word; one we are to pay attention to.  It is a word that comes at the climax of a building story.  At the beginning of the story Jesus is intentionally travelling to Gentile territory.  It seems that Jesus is taking a break from God’s Chosen People.  Jesus is going somewhere, where no one will ask him to interpret the Law or pose impossible questions to answer.  He is going somewhere, where no one wonders if he is the Messiah, where no one comes looking for signs and wonders in the form of a miracle. Jesus, for the moment, has closed-up shop; he is closed for business.

While Jesus is closed for business, word still gets around – his words and deeds proceed him.

Jesus encounters people who are open and seeking the God of Word and compassion.

An outsider, that is a woman, from outside the land of Israel, from outside the Law of Moses, from a people who are an ancient enemy of Israel, comes to Jesus demanding him to be open for business.  She is an outsider to Jesus’ frame of reference. She is an unaccompanied female who dares to speak to him, a stranger; and asks that he might heal her daughter of an unclean spirit. Jesus is closed for business.  One knows by the response he gives to the woman; face to face he calls her a dog.  Jesus is not open to offering Word or compassion to this outsider.  After the woman’s perseverance and wit, Jesus reluctantly grants her request.

Leaving the scene, Jesus continues to journey into the Gentile territory of the Decapolis.  Despite the interruption Jesus is still closed for business. And once again, Jesus encounters an outsider seeking healing and wholeness.  This time the outsider is a Gentile man who has been cut-off from society because he is deaf and has a speech impediment; communication is difficult.

At the height of the healing, after spitting, and touching the man’s ears, Jesus says: ephphatha. Jesus says the word aloud to a man who can not hear the word, remember the man is deaf.  Who is the spoken word for?

Ephphatha, at the climax of the story is the hinge -the point! Could the word have been spoken for Jesus’ sake?

Ephphatha, be opened! Be open to the outsider- to the woman, to the enemy, to the unclean, to the non-Jew…

In that moment, when the word passed Jesus’ lips, -in the sighing of the word- did something break within Jesus’ being?  Was something way down in the depths of his spirit changed? Within the heart of Jesus, a place opened, from whence compassion drown the judgement he had made of the outsider, and mercy trumped his preconceived notions and understanding of his mission. Compassion and mercy were for all people, no matter how much on the outside they seemed to be. To fulfill the Law, to love God and neighbour, Jesus had to hear, had to feel the command: Ephphatha, be opened!

This Aramaic word remains in the text because eye-witnesses saw that it was an occasion of great depth for Jesus.  The spoken word was for Jesus, so that Jesus’ ministry would move forward, working from the depths of his being.  Open for business, Jesus now journeys towards the cross, where compassion and mercy are freely offered to all.

The prophet Isaiah calls: Say to those of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear.  Here is God. God will come with vengeance and recompense. God will come and save you.“ Then will the eyes of the blind be open, the ears of the deaf unstopped, the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless will sing for joy.

A fearful heart --- Was this what Jesus experienced when he first encountered the outsiders? Is a fearful heart, one that is closed for business? Jesus was unprepared to offer compassion and mercy, as he had not contemplated God’s response.  The Isaiah passage reminds the hearer that God is here, that God will come and save.  It also says that God will come with vengeance and recompense – this response of God’s is to be understand as a response, not of smiting, but, rather, of restorative justice.  And as restorative justice is applied, - hearts are burst open- people are set free; and the eyes of the blind see, the ears of the deaf are unstopped, the lame walk, the mute sing. When hearts are opened, eyes see beyond bias and judgement, ears listen for the cry of the outsider, and feet leap to offer compassion, -- when hearts are open there is healing and wholeness for all.

The Hebrew root word from which ephatha comes, is a word translated, to open wide; to loosen, to begin, to plough, to carve.  It can mean to let go free, to break forth, to en-grave, to loose-self.

The word holds within it a sense that opening is only the beginning. Once open, one’s heart, can be ploughed – learn new things, be seeded with knowledge and new ideas; to be open is to have one’s heart engraved with compassion and mercy, in the meeting and loving of another, particularly those we see as outsiders.  To be open is to let go of oneself…to not be afraid…which means free to actively seek encounters with the outsider.

Jesus needed the word, ephphatha, to slip through his lips, to open himself as a conduit for the compassion and mercy of God, which opened the ears of the deaf man. Jesus needed to hear - to say- the word, to open himself for those whom he considered outsiders.  It is interesting to ponder that perhaps Jesus experienced, as Isaiah called it, “a fearful heart.” Was Jesus afraid to share the message beyond his people? Was Jesus afraid that if word got out, he would be unwanted by his own, and overwhelmed by Gentile peoples? Did Jesus fear, not having enough power, stamina, or compassion? Did Jesus have doubts about himself, wonder how big his ministry was to be, and worry about what other’s thought? Whatever the fear, the fear was dissipated with the word, ephphatha.

Could it be that this Aramaic word was preserved in the Greek text, as a way for us to dissipate our fears, so that we would be opened, to offer compassion and mercy to the outsider -whomever we may deem the outsider to be? All we need do is follow Jesus example, with a sigh – that means in deep breathes- to say the Word as prayer, as a command- and we will loose-self, to be overwhelmed with compassion and mercy, to be liberated by  God’s grace to be neighbour…may this be so.

Ephphatha…ephphatha…ephphatha