Wednesday
evening’s study group prayed the following prayer from Bp. Susan Johnson’s devotion
book, Praying the Catechism: (pg200)
Reconciling
God, too often we hurt or harm others, or they hurt or harm us, and we lack the
will to seek reconciliation. Instead, we build up walls, enter into long and
painful silences, cut off relationships, or triangulate others into our
conflicts. Give us strength and courage to seek reconciliation with those we
have wronged and those who have wronged us. Give us sincere words and actions,
and hearts full of humility. Help us to gracefully receive either forgiveness
or rejection, but do not let us further harden our hearts. Strengthen us to
strive for your peace with one another. In your overflowing forgiveness we
pray. Amen.
Strength and courage to seek
reconciliation
Sincere words and actions
Gracefully receive either forgiveness
or rejection
Do not let us further harden our
hearts.
If
I wrote today’s Gospel, I would have finished the story with this prayer. In
telling stories about Jesus, Mark starts by locating Jesus in his travels; then
Jesus went home - meaning his hometown. Then Mark does what Mark does, he
introduces a real life situation -in this case introducing a physical and
emotional dilemma for Jesus’ family- then immediately turns to Jesus teaching
something; Mark then goes back to finish the story of the real life situation
at hand. Its as though Mark understands that real life situations -heart
dilemmas- need space to breathe. Hearing a story the listener is pulled in by
the heartstrings, is then given something for their head to think about, before
returning to matters of the heart.
Today’s
Gospel focuses both heart and head to the theme of family.
Perhaps
you have heard the following adages. Family- Can’t live with them, can’t live
without them. Honour your father and mother. Family is forever. Blood is thicker
than water. And in more recent years the idea of ‘Chosen family.’ Family is a
system of complex relationships defined in the interplay of personalities, emotions,
differences of opinion, mental health and well-being, history and culture,
values and ethics, et cetera.
Today
we are given a snapshot of Jesus’ family. Jesus went home and was surrounded by
crowds. Home was small town Nazareth, we can assume that everyone knew
everyone’s business. Word spread quickly to his family, not of Jesus as a regional
hero who had cured the diseased, raised the lame, and cast out demons. No,
their family member was being accused of being out-of-his-mind and possessed. The
family – Jesus’ mother and brothers, having been judged as ‘that’ family, embarrassed
came out to find Jesus. Perhaps they came to protect him, care for him, to save
him from the townspeople; to bring him home and deal with him themselves out of
the public eye.
Honestly
as Jesus’ mother, or sibling, I imagine the real potential for hurt feelings
and broken (hardening) hearts. If I am honest with myself and who I am, as
either mother or sibling of Jesus, I would have needed the prayer I began the
sermon with. I know this because my experience of family is as a complex system
of relationships that is far from being a synchronized unit. I continually need
to focus and pray for:
Strength
and courage to seek reconciliation
Sincere
words and actions
Gracefully
receive either forgiveness or rejection
Do
not let us further harden our hearts.
Jesus
had a family – a mother and brothers who cared enough to come and find him; to unconditionally
love him, even if the townspeople’s accusations are true.
Their
love is a bold expression when set beside Jesus’ teaching and actions.
Jesus
uses his family’s arrival as an opportunity to develop a different
understanding and configuration of family relationship: Who are my mother
and my brothers? Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of
God is my brother and sister and mother.
Family
– the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. In
that crowd there were people without family or with strained family relations,
without mothers or brothers to come with unconditional love. The sick, the
crippled, the possessed, the unclean, the widow, the poor, those who could not
work, those who begged for food – for many such life situations meant that they
were without the social security of a family system. They did not belong to a
household. Jesus’ teaching was liberating to think about, and hopeful for the
heart. They could belong to a family – the people who formed community around
Jesus.
Family
– As the Jesus’ movement grew, particularly after his death and resurrection, the
concept of family reimagined and reshaped, was an important one. It was not
uncommon in the Early Church for people to leave their families, or be kicked
out of their families, when becoming Christian. Difference of faith, beliefs, and
practices divided families. Christian community and fellowship became one’s
family.
Family
– In Jesus’ time family was a household. A household was its own working unit –
birth relations, hired hands, adopted, slaves, boarders (couch surfers); any
person in the same living quarters. The household image was used for centuries
as a metaphor to think about God’s kindom. God’s kindom was considered a
household on a large scale. Jesus’ teaching turns to focus on spiritual households,
Satan’s and God’s. Jesus talks of big plans and how God acts to bring God’s
whole family under-one-roof, so to speak. Mark records many exorcisms and the casting
out of demons by Jesus hands. The action is Jesus, plundering Satan’s house,
taking power and restoring the household to God’s kindom. Jesus’ teaching implies
God’s household remains – the family of God.
The
Sacred Teaching that we have focused on in the liturgy today is honesty,
represented by raven or Kitchi-Sabe. The story is told that the giant Kitchi-Sabe
walked among humans to remind us to remain true to our nature; to be aware of
being ourselves and not someone we are not.
Honesty
and family – for me, I am most honest and most myself in the presence of family
– blood family, adopted family, chosen family, church family. I struggle most when
the complex system of relationships that are family deteriorate or are severed;
when it seems that unconditional love has limits when in human hands and
hearts.
Mark’s
Gospel commiserates with us that real life situations – family - can be challenging and complex. We are given
the insight that it was not Jesus but Jesus’ human family, his mother and
brothers, that demonstrate unconditional love in this real life situation. This
suggests there is hope for me. For the crowd, Jesus’ redefining and reimagining
family, to be chosen family, faith community as family is liberating and full
of grace; offering to those who do not belong unconditional love. This suggests
there is place for me. The interaction with Jesus’ family and the conversation
about family with the crowd turns to kindom talk. God’s household – this grand
vision of one family, God’s family. This suggests there is grace for me.
Let
us pause, to think of this faith family and give thanks; to call to mind our chosen
family and give thanks; to remember our family and give thanks; to think of our
households and give thanks. In an effort to live the Sacred Teaching of
honesty, I pray for my family – all families- all creation:
Reconciling
God, too often we hurt or harm others, or they hurt or harm us, and we lack the
will to seek reconciliation. Instead, we build up walls, enter into long and
painful silences, cut off relationships, or triangulate others into our
conflicts. Give us strength and courage to seek reconciliation with those we
have wronged and those who have wronged us. Give us sincere words and actions,
and hearts full of humility. Help us to gracefully receive either forgiveness
or rejection, but do not let us further harden our hearts. Strengthen us to
strive for your peace with one another. In your overflowing forgiveness we
pray. Amen.
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