"Where your feet take you, that is who you are”

 

Reflection 21^st February 2021

 

Today is the first Sunday of Lent. And traditionally our minds may turn to the story of Jesus in the wilderness, residing there for 40 days and nights and being tempted. That is how the story is laid out in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. But with Mark it is a bit different. Mark seems to do everything quickly in his Gospel and in his relating of Jesus’ story, Mark has no time for the detail of the debates between Jesus and the Devil.

¹² At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, ¹³ and he was in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted^[a] by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. Mark 1: 12 – 13 NIV

Similarly, the account in Mark of Jesus’ baptism, carried out by his cousin John the Baptist, is very brief. And there is no reference to John being in the wilderness himself. There is no reference to John being the one:

“spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

‘A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.”’^[a]  Matthew 3:2 NIV

 

We all understand what a wilderness is. Even if it’s the bit at the bottom of the garden we never quite manage to tame. Chambers dictionary defines a wilderness as “a region, uncultivated and uninhabited; a pathless, unfrequented or unexplored region”

Reading that definition when preparing this Reflection, I was struck by the second part of it “a pathless, unfrequented or unexplored region”

For Jesus, the time in the wilderness was a time of physically being in a pathless, unfrequented, or unexplored region. But I’d suggest it was spiritually a wilderness too. The Gospel writers are silent on whether Jesus had any idea of how he would be tempted in those 40 days. Perhaps his time in the wilderness would be unexplored territory for his own faith? Perhaps he had no idea where he would be led?

One of the other readings suggested for today is Psalm 25. The language of the Psalm recalls the time that the Hebrews spent in the wilderness after their escape from slavery in Egypt. The Psalmist begs God for leadership in the paths of righteousness (see verses 4 and 9), which recalls the stories of Yahweh leading the people by pillars of cloud and fire. But it also recalls how during the 40-year period, the Hebrews were formed as a people, including how they were taught the paths of righteousness, before they were admitted to the promised land.

The Psalm is a useful reminder of how, during our own faith journeys, it is possible that we will enter times of wilderness ourselves. Times when we may feel alone. Times when feel distant from God. And of course times when we feel tempted in all manner of ways and by all manner of things.

We may well be in the wilderness. But the Psalmist reminds us that that the time in the wilderness can be important for us

⁴ Show me your ways, Lord,
    teach me your paths.
⁵ Guide me in your truth and teach me, Psalm 25: 4 – 5 NIV

In the wilderness we will learn, or learn again, the paths of the Lord. In the wilderness times we can refocus on God. In the wilderness times we choose to follow Christ. But it is our choice. If we look, we will find the paths and God will lead us down the right paths. But it is for each of to make that choice. The season of Lent makes it clear that no one else can make the decision of faith for us.

Verses 4 and 5 of the Psalm are a reminder to chose God’s way despite the many easier paths available. For those easier paths may not be the right path. In Matthew 7 Jesus said:

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matthew 7: 13 – 14 NIV

With God’s help we can discern the right paths to take us from the wilderness. But it is for us to decide once we have been shown.

Frederick Buechner in his 1970 book The Alphabet of Grace wrote:

“If you want to know who you are, watch your feet. Because where your feet take you, that is who you are”

Lent is a time to choose who we will be and whose we will be. Our identity is not defined by what we claim to believe, but by the road we take. We might prefer to bypass the cross and Calvary in our journey of faith and arrive at Easter. But Easter will not make any sense unless we are able to stay the course and go via Golgotha.

The call for patient trust, for keeping to the true path reminds us that our journey of faith does not promise quick fixes and results. Faith is more than mountaintop moments; faith also encompasses times of solitude and struggle. The right road will not always look like the right road.

“God’s goodness will be shown to the sinners and humble, and it will be shown with a road – a way through - a path that leads to love and faithfulness, for those who are willing to walk it.” Brian Erickson

Compassion and indignation

 

Reflection 14th February 2021

Mark 1: 40 - 45

We’ve been watching the drama series on Channel 4 called “It’s a sin”. It tells the story of a group of gay men over a 10-year period from the early 1980s to the early 1990s as AIDS takes its toll. It is not an easy watch, but it is an excellent drama. And for Anne it has stirred up some sad memories.

My wife started her nursing career on 8^th December 1980 as a student nurse at the Middlesex Hospital in Central London. (Just off Oxford Street, close to the BT Tower.) Sadly, the Middlesex is no longer there. But during my wife’s time it became one of the places specialising in the treatment of AIDS, as more and more was learned about the disease. However, my wife’s recollection was of young men coming into hospital with a mystery illness and, them being put into side wards and watching them slowly die.

Looking back, what my wife found most difficult was the way many of these young men were ostracised. Not by hospital staff, but in many cases by their families. Or even if the families were there, then partners (and friends) were excluded and not treated as next of kin. These are themes that are picked up in the drama series.

What “It’s a sin” conveys most strongly is the sense that those who were gay, and especially those who were gay with HIV / AIDS, were outcasts.

Maybe things are better now. (I hope so.) Certainly, the disease can be managed if not cured. And those with AIDS are not as stigmatised as they once were.

The passage from Mark finds Jesus being confronted by a leper. As you probably know, in the ancient world lepers were ostracised and made to live in colonies outside the town. (Though in parts of the world where leprosy is still a common disease, lepers are still ostracised and discriminated against.)

⁴⁰ A leper^[o] came to him begging him, and kneeling^[p] he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ ⁴¹ Moved with pity,^[q] Jesus^[r] stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Mark 1: 40 – 41 NRSV

You will notice how the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible says that Jesus acted out of pity for the plight of the leper. Whereas it is possible for Mark’s Greek to be translated as

⁴¹ Jesus was indignant. Mark 1:41 NIV

We perhaps understand why Jesus was “moved with pity” Whereas Jesus being “indignant” does not sit well. But Jesus was not indignant for being called upon by the leper. Jesus wasn’t angry with the leper. Rather Jesus was indignant, angry, about the way the leper was treated. It is perfectly possible to see why Jesus experienced both pity / compassion and indignation / anger. Jesus’ compassion heals the man while at the same time he feels indignant that this man, and others like him, were pushed to the margins of society by disease.

Jesus is demonstrating to us how we should feel and act. For example, it seems to me we should be moved by compassion for those needing foodbanks but equally we should feel indignant that in one of the richest countries in the world, people are made to rely on foodbanks to get by.

To go back to the TV series “It’s a sin” for a moment. A central character in the drama is a young woman called Jill. She becomes good friends with several of the gay men and her compassion is shown by the way she cares for several of them as they die from AIDS. But her compassion turns into indignation and anger at the way the men are stigmatised, and she is arrested on a demonstration trying to get drug companies to make treatments for AIDS available on the NHS.

Jesus’ indignation is shown by what he tells the leper to do after he has been healed

⁴³ Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: ⁴⁴ ‘See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.’ Mark 1 43 – 44 NIV

Jesus is telling the man to confront the priest, to demonstrate to the priest what the priest should have done. Ched Myers in “Binding the strong man:  a political reading of Mark’s gospel” says

“Jesus’ instruction to the leper only makes sense if the man had already been to the priest who had rejected him…. The cleansed leper’s task is not to publicise a miracle. He is to make an offering for the purpose of witnessing against the priests”

It is doubtful that the priests could have healed the man, but they could have cared for him and had pity for him. They could have looked beyond the disease to the person before them.

Jesus always met men and women on the level of their need, regardless of who they were or what they had done. He met everyone as human beings, never as stereotypes.  Stereotypes were as powerful then as they are now. Once a label is placed on a person the human being vanishes. Many labels were given to people in the New Testament. Labels as tax collector, Samaritan, Roman soldier, prostitute, rich young man, Pharisee, sinner, publican, and of course leper. They all appear in the gospel story, and every time Jesus completely ignores the label and deals with the person.

David H.C. Read points out that "Jesus knew the ugly side of society: the brutality of the occupation, the corruption of the tax system, the racial prejudices, the economic injustice, the religious hypocrisy, and the sexual degradation. But never once did these factors blind him to the reality of the human being, the unique son or daughter of God he saw before him."

Lonely places and deserted places

 

Reflection 7^th February 2021

 

The passage in Mark we’re thinking about today (Mark 1: 29 – 39) seems to be presented as “A typical day in the life of Jesus”. And in fact, if we were to see the complete day we should also read Mark 1: 21 – 28 which sets the scene for this passage. Jesus and his disciples are in Capernaum and they’ve been in the synagogue there. Now they leave the synagogue and go to “the house of Simon and Andrew” (Mark 1:30).

There they find that Simon’s mother-in-law is gravely ill. Jesus heals her and in response she immediately “began to serve them”. Mark 1:31 (By the way please don’t think “shouldn’t the poor soul be resting after being so ill?” She clearly is miraculously restored to health. And the Greek word translated into English as ‘serving’ is diakoneo. This is a word frequently used in the New Testament for those who have specific ministry of serving others. Peter’s mother-in-law is given the privilege of serving Jesus and the others as an honour, not a duty.)

Having eaten, that evening “they” (the disciples? Other people in Capernaum?) ³² …. brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. ³³ And the whole city was gathered around the door” And he cured many. Mark 1: 32 - 33

Then Mark tells us

³⁵ In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

Unlike in Luke, in his Gospel Mark does not make a big theme of Jesus praying. Nevertheless, it is clearly an important feature and maybe, (as we are in “A typical day in the life of Jesus”) perhaps Mark is suggesting that Jesus started every day with prayer? Mark clearly wants to demonstrate to his readers the importance of starting the day with prayer.

But “Simon and his companions” had other ideas. In verse 36 we are told, depending on what translation you read they “went to look for him” NIV or “hunted for him” NRSV. (“hunted” seems more appropriate as a more literal translation of the Greek katadioko is apparently “pursued”) Whatever word is used, clearly Simon and the others think they know what Jesus should be doing. It shouldn’t be sitting in solitude and prayer. There are crowds that require Jesus’ immediate attention.

It is almost as if Simon and the others think that Jesus has got lost and set out to find him and point him back to what his “job” should be. Being a rabbi in Capernaum and curing the sick there. (How often do we tell Jesus what to do when we are praying?) But Jesus reminds them that he is not lost, and he knows what his task is. It is to preach the Good News. And consequently, Jesus will not be restricted to one town and to share the Good News with the disciples solely.

³⁸ Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so that I can preach there also. That is why I have come.’ ³⁹ So he travelled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. Mark 1: 38 – 39

Let’s return to verse 35 for a moment:

³⁵ In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible calls it “a lonely place” as opposed to a deserted place. And when we think of it this way it takes on a quite different meaning.

The Dutch Christian writer Henri Nouwen stated:

"... the secret of Jesus’ ministry is hidden in that lonely place where he went to pray ...In the lonely place Jesus finds the courage to follow God’s will and not his own; to speak God’s words and not his own; to do God’s work and not his own." Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life

It is a lonely place as when Jesus goes off to pray, he might be physically alone, on his own. But all too often he feels alone, abandoned by his friends. And on one occasion, in the Garden of Gethsemane, even though the disciples are nearby as he prays, Jesus feels alone, abandoned by his friends.

The reason he is alone is that the disciples, those closest to him, have no understanding of what he is going through or what his mission is. And this for me shows us the humanity of Jesus that he is pained by the loneliness.  

It seems to me that loneliness has two aspects. There is the lack of other people around us – and we know as human beings most of us need that interaction with others. But there is also the sense of feeling abandoned or others not understanding what we are going through. To this extent it is possible to feel lonely even when surrounded by other people.

As far as we know from the Gospels, Jesus coped with his loneliness through prayer, through being able to talk things over with God his heavenly father. And I feel sure that prayer can play its part during our times in a lonely place. But equally, being able to talk to someone on the phone, or via Zoom, or even socially distanced, is good too.

That is where as a church family we must all play our part. To think about those who are alone and reach out to them. To phone, to write. We mustn’t assume we know what they are experiencing. But being prepared to listen and interact can mean so much. It can bring love to someone who is feeling unloved.  It can bring hope to someone who feels hopeless. It can bring much needed company to someone alone.

Henri Nouwen, who I mentioned earlier, also wrote these words:

“When we think about the people who have given us hope and have increased the strength of our souls, we might discover that they were not the wardens or moralists. They are the few who were able to articulate in words and actions the human condition in which we participate and who encouraged us to face the realities of life. Those who do not run from our pains but touch them with compassion bring healing and new strength. The paradox is that the beginning of healing is in the solidarity with the pain. In our solution-oriented society, it is more important than ever to realize that wanting to alleviate pain without sharing it is like wanting to save a child from a burning house without the risk of being hurt.”

As a wise lecturer at college once explained it to me. “Sometimes David, as Christians we need to climb down into the pit with our sisters and brothers in Christ and stand alongside them.”

Sometimes we all need our deserted place to take time to be with God and take time for ourselves. But sometimes when the deserted place becomes the lonely place that’s when we need Jesus and those he sends to be with us.

Picture: https://www.deviantart.com/tristancampbell/art/Time-is-a-lonely-place-142967500