Do Mark

Almost every day, I walk to the bus stop.  In this season of life, two of three children regularly ride the bus.  For any of you who have, do, or will relate to a bus stop, you know it is a nexus of news.  Students are exchanging news.  Parents are sharing news.  Bus drivers have news.  News is to trafficked in. Bus stops come together quickly and disappear as quickly.  Popup communities focused around getting students to school.

As we began this series two weeks ago, we opened our Bibles to talk about the good news – the gospel.  Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each of the four gospel writers knew their audiences and contexts presenting the life of Jesus in a way that would resonate with those who would hear it. Last week, we heard about Matthew who wrote from a Jewish background so that his audience would understand the fulfillment of the scriptures. Today, we turn towards the Gospel of Mark.

For those of you who have been with us all year, you know this voice.  We have been reading the Gospel of Mark this year.  Immediately, we have heard the urgency of the gospel and good news.  We have been listening to the voice of the prophet who did not begin with the birth of baby Jesus, but rather the coming of John the Baptist and the call to repentance.  A gospel voice that does not include the Sermon on the Mount or the Lord’s Prayer but rushes to make sure we know the Kingdom of God within the first chapter!

 

As the earliest gospel written, Mark historically is attributed to a companion and interpreter of the disciple Peter, who was executed in Rome in the year 64. Most scholars believe Mark is written for a Jewish and Gentile audience in the years during the suffering in Jerusalem.  Since Christians were non-violent until the 4th century, they were looked down upon.  In a Roman Empire, when war and conflict was all around them in the 70s, Jesus followers begun to be persecuted.  Christians were not holding up Empire values of War, but Jesus values of peace.  The Gospel of Mark sought to share the good news when all else was despairing.  (1)

The gospel speaks a strong word then and now to us when we feel as if the world around us is hopeless.For all of us who are thinking today about our brothers and sisters up and down the coast and inland, at this point, with Hurricane Florence.  We carry angst.  For all of us who brought with us personal fears and body pains, heartaches and broken relationships, concerns for children and global worries.  We carry anxiety.  The apostle Paul wrote the church at Philippi: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”   Paul cared deeply for the congregation at Philippi and was not just giving them broad, empty advice.

We know that worry can often take on a life of its own.  From person to person and generation to generation, worry can live beyond itself.  As Corrie ten Boom, the World War II survivor said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength”.  It is more often that our worries eat at us and our own feelings as we approach hope.  The historian Howard Zinn captures it this way, “To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.”  We pray that we are beyond what is foolish and romantic, but instead focusing on compassion and courage.

The apostle Paul was often giving more than practical church advice in letters to church plants.  This letter to Philippi is no different.  Directly before this exhortation for the good people to lean on God in prayer and not worry, he was advising two individuals (Euodia and Syntyche) in verse 2 to be of the same mind in the Lord.   Do you know what this means?  Wherever two or three are gathered, there is a possibly for conflict.

In the Gospel, Jesus found himself teaching with a crowd.  The Pharisees and scribes had been pressing and asking questions.  Rabbinically debating and wondering commandments and Torah with Jesus as time went on, they asked question after question.  Jesus said nothing that goes in you contaminates you – only what comes out of you.  Immediately, the conversation has turned back to the purity laws.  The Pharisees and the scribes are ready for the details, but sounds like a riddle – only what comes out of you can contaminate you.

The disciples gather Jesus close, like they often do when they want more information.  And Jesus expounds to say this does not relate to food, but rather to relationship and behavior – it is the thoughts and actions of humanity that matter most.  “Or it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’” What you think matters as much as what you say or do!

Incredible.  That means that every time you and I thought we were doing okay by not saying we really wanted the whole plate of warm chocolate chip cookies, instead of sharing them and just having one, we still have more work to do!  While we could use discipline, it never was about food.  Jesus reminds us again and again, it is always about relationships and behaviors.

Listen for the rest of the Philippians passage:  “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Our minds could easily get lost in fear and worry.  Negative news and unnecessary news threaten to overtake the good news of the gospel.  Legalism of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day is not so distinct from the legalism today.  Spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen says further: “The word discipleship and the word discipline are the same word, which has always fascinated me. Once you have made the choice to say, “Yes, I want to follow Jesus,” the question is, “What disciplines will help me remain faithful to that choice?” If we want to be disciples of Jesus, we have to live a disciplined life. But in the spiritual life, the word discipline means “the effort to create some space in which God can act.” Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you’re not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn’t planned or counted on.”  (2)

Making space to hear God’s good news and then share it can feel like a radical discipline.  It does to me!  Back to the bus stop, it is easy to give into inertia. To let bouncing balls, empty conversations, and climbing children run out the clock, we miss the intention of choosing to hope and faithful discipleship.   We could become like the religious leaders who only honor the part of the law.   However, the joy of the bus stop is I hear it first – what is going on!  To connect with others in community is a joy and delight.  For you and me as disciples, we are called to create space where God can act.  Then think on these things that are honorable, just, pure, pleasing, and commendable.

Where are your bus stop moments where you are connecting with others about the joy of Christ or creating space, disciple where God can act?

This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.

(1) Borg, Marcus.  Conversations with Scripture: The Gospel of Mark. Morehouse Publishing: New York, 2road09.

(2) Nouwen, Henri.  From Solitude to Community to Ministry address.

 New Testament Lesson:  Philippians 4:6-9

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

 Gospel Lesson:  Mark 7:14-23

Then Jesus called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”  When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Meditations For Your Week

Sunday, September 16 ~ Saturday, September 22

Sunday: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6. Consider how you might regularly fill your life with prayer, thanksgiving, and supplication.  Consider what ratio you have and what you may need to include.

Monday: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7. Pray for the mind of Christ Jesus for your family.

Tuesday: “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8. When the volume of negative news is overwhelming, how do you switch to include true, honorable, just, pure thoughts?

Wednesday: “Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:9.   Paul writes to the church in Phillipi a letter of encouragement.  Sometimes, we need to hear – keep at it.   You’ve got this!  Stick with it!

Thursday: “Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’” Mark 7:14-15.  Pray for those who are tempted to defile their bodies, their temples.

Friday: “And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles.” Mark 7:20. Consider what comes out of you.  How have you hurt others?  Where are your growing edges?

Saturday: “All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:23.  Pray for all those who speak.  Each of us an opportunity to speak too quickly and hurt another.