"Crazy Talk?" A Sermon on Mark 3:20-35 from Littlefield Presbyterian Church

"Crazy Talk?"

Mark 3:20-35

         “Out of his mind.”  That’s what people were saying about Jesus, and his own family seems have to have bought into it.  They went out to restrain him. The way the Contemporary English Version translates it, “When Jesus’ family heard what he was doing they thought he was crazy and went to get him under control.”[1]

            Just a few chapters into Mark’s gospel, those around him are saying he’s crazy and want to get him under control.

            Now, saying someone is “crazy” or “out of his mind” is strong language. It can be a way to discredit people, to dismiss their views and actions, to limit or destroy their credibility.

            Karoline Lewis suggests that accusing Jesus of being “out of his mind” could have made sense, because a life following Jesus, a life lived for the sake of the Kingdom of God, a life committed to a Gospel way of being   doesn’t make sense” in the eyes of the world.  In the context of first century Palestine, how do you understand a life that seems to be counter to societal norms, the standards of religious righteousness and piety, and political orientation.
            So, what would it take for you to say somebody is out of his mind?  What if they hold very different beliefs from you? Or are at the other end of the political spectrum than you are? Do they behave in ways that are hard for you to understand?
            Jesus has been healing people and casting out demons and even doing these things on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees are accusing Jesus of breaking the Sabbath. The scribes are interpreting Jesus’ behavior as proof that he’s possessed by a demon, which in ancient times was often thought to be the cause of insanity.
            In the ancient world, people who were possessed by a demon, or born with some physical or mental illness or defect, were often assumed to be cursed or to have sinned. Jesus has been challenging norms about who’s in and who’s outside the realm of God’s grace.  He’s been forgiving and healing all who are in need. Everyone. No exceptions.  
            In an age when family was everything, Jesus was even re-defining the meaning of family. Those who do the will of God are his true brothers and sisters and mother.
            Jesus has been shaking up the people around him, and even his own family is trying to get him under control.
            Trying to get Jesus “under control” is exactly the problem. In The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky warns us that the Church and we Christians have often tried to tame Jesus.  As Presiding Bishop Michael Curry writes, “We want to manage the Messiah. But this Messiah won’t be managed.”[2]   Or, as Richard Holloway, former Primate of Scotland, once wrote, “Jesus goes on breaking out of all the tombs to which we have consigned him.”
            Now, before we’re too quick to judge Jesus’ family, we need to consider their reasons for being concerned, and the kinds of things Jesus was teaching and doing.  We know from the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus was in the habit of saying things like “Don’t resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”[3]  “The greatest among you will be your servant.”[4]
            What the world calls wretched, Jesus calls blessed. Blessed are the poor and the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who are merciful and compassionate. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst that God’s righteous justice might prevail. Blessed are those who work for peace. Blessed are you who are persecuted for trying to love and do what is good.[5]  To a lot of people, these ideas sound crazy! Some others might say, these are nice ideas, but they’re impractical or impossible.
            And yet, Jesus calls us to pick up our cross and follow. Be crazy enough to love like Jesus, to give like Jesus, to forgive like Jesus, to do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God--like Jesus.  As Bishop Curry says, we need some Christians who are “crazy enough to dare to change the world from the nightmare it often is into something closer to the dream that God dreams for it.”[6]
            Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in 1811 into a devout family committed to the gospel of Jesus and to helping transform the world. She is best known for her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which depicts the harsh conditions for enslaved African Americans. The book reached millions as a novel and as a play. It became influential in the United States and Great Britain, and energized anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South.
            Beecher Stowe once explained her anti-slavery writing this way: “I wrote what I did because as a woman, as a mother, I was oppressed and broken-hearted with the sorrow and injustice I saw; because as a Christian I felt the dishonor to Christianity; because as a lover of my country, I trembled at the coming day of wrath.”[7]  So, she did what she could to set the captives free.[8]
            In her fictional book, Harriet Beecher Stowe told the truth.  She told the story of how chattel slavery afflicted a family, of real people. She told the truth of the brutality, the injustice, the inhumanity of the institution of chattel slavery. Her book did what YouTube and Facebook videos of injustices and brutalities do today. Today, we’d say Uncle Tom’s Cabin “went viral.” It rallied abolitionists and enraged those with vested interests in slavery.

            Was Harriet Beecher Stowe crazy? A woman of her social standing was supposed to marry well, raise well-mannered, successful children, and participate in a few charitable endeavors, along with managing the household.  A woman of her time was supposed to write nice stories-- not stories that would disturb the conscience of a nation.

            You may remember that after the death of Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple, an old commercial from the 1990’s went viral on the internet. In the commercial they showed a collage of photographs and film footage of people who have invented and inspired, created and sacrificed to make a difference in the world. As the images roll by, a voice reads the poem that begins, “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes….[9]

            We could paraphrase the poem to say that the Christians who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.  I agree with Bishop Curry when he says we need some crazy Christians like Harriet Beecher Stowe. “Christians crazy enough to believe that God is real and that Jesus lives. Crazy enough to follow the radical way of the gospel. Crazy enough to believe that the love of God is greater than all the powers of evil and death.”

            Back in 1990, in my third year at Princeton Seminary, I was part of the touring choir that visited South Korea for ten days during spring break. Both of the Sundays we were there, we sang at four different worship services. On one of the Sundays, we sang at a 6:00 a.m. service. Mercifully, it was the second service of the day. The first one started at 5:00 a.m. 

            Following the service, our host church had planned a big breakfast for us. One of the church elders at our table grinned at us and said, “You must think we’re crazy to come to God’s house this early.”  Being a bit sleepy and wanting to be polite, I assured him that I didn’t think they were crazy. But that was the wrong answer. 

            This Korean Presbyterian elder said, “We are crazy!  Crazy for God!”

            To a lot of people, it’s crazy to say that God loves everyone the same, because this just isn’t how the world works.

            To a lot of people, it’s crazy to priotize the integrity of families--all families, even immigrant and refugee families-- above “border security.” To a lot of people, it’s crazy to think we could have enough food and decent housing and safe water and adequate health care for everyone-- enough for everyone.

            God’s dream inspired the Hebrew prophets who proclaimed “Thus says the Lord” when they spoke truth to power and courageously challenged injustice and mistreatment of the poor.

            The Bible and our Christian faith point beyond themselves to the vision, the purposes, and the desire of God.  Jesus talked about the kingdom or reign of God as the realization of God’s loving dream and vision for the whole human family and all of God’s creation. 

            I believe when we actually study the scriptures and listen for and hear God’s word to us, we will begin dreaming God’s dream, and maybe some of us will be crazy enough to trust in the dream and stake our lives on it.

            Then we can live into God’s dream for all of us. Imagine it: a world where no child ever goes to bed hungry again.  A world where everyone has a safe place to call home. A world in which poverty is truly history, a thing of the past. A world in which every person is treated and valued equally as a beloved child of God.  A world where we lay down our swords and shields and guns and bombs, to “study war no more.”  A world reconciled to our God and to one another, as children of God and brothers and sisters of one another.[10]

            Friends, are we crazy enough to catch a glimpse of the transforming, life-changing vision of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?     Jesus invites us to follow him…to witness to God’s amazing, inclusive love, and to work with him to fulfill God’s dream for all people and all creation.  

            We have Christ’s promise that he will be with us always. We can trust that God’s goodness is stronger than evil and that and God’s love will eventually conquer all.

            Thanks be to God!

        

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

June 10, 2018 

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[1] Contemporary English Version (CEV), 1995.

[2] Bishop Michael B. Curry, “We Need Some Crazy Christians,” in Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus. Morehouse Publishing, 2013.  (Kindle edition, Loc 166)

[3] Matthew 5:39

[4] Matthew 23:11

[5] Matthew 5:44

[6] Bishop Michael B. Curry, in “We Need More Crazy Christians.”

[7] https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/harriet-beecher-stowe/harriet-beecher-stowe-life/

[8] Luke 4:18

[9] https://youtu.be/cFEarBzelBs

[10] I am very indebted to Bishop Michael B. Curry for his articulation in Crazy Christians of some of the deepest longings of my life and faith.

"And There He Prayed." A Sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on Mark 1:29-39 on the 5th Sunday after Epiphany.

"And There He Prayed"

Mark 1:29-39

Mark’s Gospel moves at a breathless pace. One scene fades quickly into another and then another.  Over the past few weeks, In the sweep of a few verses, we’ve heard how John the Baptist gathers the crowds, preaches “the forgiveness of sins”, and announces the good news. Jesus arrives and is baptized and the heavens split and a voice announces “You are my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

            Jesus announces that the “good news” of God’s reign has already arrived and calls people to repent and believe the good news. Then Jesus calls people to follow him and fish for people, and immediately they followed him.  Then they go to the synagogue in Capernaum on the Sabbath, where the crowds were astounded at the authority of his teaching and his power to cast out demonic powers.

Jesus’ fame began to spread throughout the region of Galilee. 

            That’s where we pick up the story today. Today’s gospel lesson can be divided up into four scenes, in two settings.

            Scene 1. As soon as they leave the synagogue, they go to the house of Simon Peter and Andrew, with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law is sick in bed with a fever. Jesus heals her, and she’s restored and able to serve.  

            Scene 2.  That evening, they brought all who were sick or possessed with demons to Jesus.  Mark tells us the whole city was gathered around the door.  Jesus cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons.

            Scene 3. In the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and “there he prayed.”

            Scene 4.  Simon and his companions found Jesus and said, “Everyone is searching for you.” And Jesus answered, “Let’s go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do.”   And Jesus went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

            Jesus’ mission is to proclaim the gospel and cast out demons and bring healing, and that’s what he was doing. People who were sick, hopeless, and desperate came to him because he offered a glimmer of hope in a hopeless and dismal world.

            The demanding crowds came because they wanted something...  because Jesus had what they wanted most...   what they couldn’t find anywhere else-- health of mind and body.  Wholeness.  They came for his healing touch.

            The demand of the crowd upon Jesus' life was great.  So much so that "in the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place to pray.

            Jesus realized he couldn't give out to others anymore.  As I was working on this passage, I remembered the instructions you get when you fly, about the oxygen masks that drop down in emergency situations.  If I were flying with a child or an elderly relative or anyone needing assistance, my first instinct would be to take care of them first.  But the flight attendants caution you to put on your own oxygen mask first.  Otherwise, you could pass out before you have a chance to help anybody else.

            The whole city had been pressing in around the door-- people who were sick or possessed with demons.  Jesus must have been exhausted from ministering to those who were so desperate...  so needy.

            So, Jesus went someplace where he could be alone, away from the cries of the needy, the demands of people, the insistence that he do something. It wasn't that he didn't care about the needs of the people who sought him.  Rather it was a matter of staying connected with God, so that he could maintain a clear sense of purpose.

            How easy it is for our lives to be cluttered with the needs and demands of others.  We find ourselves going in several different directions at one time. 

            Pastors and different kinds of caregivers often deal with people who are possessed by grief or fear or terror that will not let them go.  People are struggling with addictions of various kinds, whether to alcohol or drugs or gambling or work or something else.  People are suffering from mental or physical illness.  Others are confused and agonizing over various issues. Some or desperately lonely.  People are poor...  hungry...  homeless or in woefully inadequate housing.  Everywhere we look, there is such pain...  such need. 

            In our families, our children, even if they're adults, need us.  Elderly parents and other relatives need our care.

            Such need.  Such busy-ness.

            Sometimes I wonder if we think we are the busiest people who ever lived on the face of the earth.  We end up doing a lot of things, but sometimes we wonder why we don’t have more of a sense of fulfillment or accomplishment.  We might feel overwhelmed…or find ourselves on the edge of burnout. 

            As someone pointed out, burnout isn't the result of too much activity.  It's the result of the wrong kind of activity.  Or it can be from how we approach it.  Instead of energizing and building us up, it can wear us down and sap our energy. 

            When I read the gospels, I get the impression that Jesus couldn't have been much busier if he’d had a smart phone.  Yet, in spite of his busyness and the nonstop demands on his time, Jesus knew he needed time to get away and put things in perspective...and to gain a clear understanding of God and God's purpose. 

            When we read through the gospels, we discover that there’s a pattern in Jesus’ life. He worshipped regularly with his community of faith, and he got away regularly for time alone to pray. This is how he stayed centered in God’s love and purpose and found balance in his life.

            If Jesus needed to do this, how much more do we need to do it?

            Yes, we're busy.  So busy.   But when we find ourselves feeling too busy to worship and pray, we need to ask ourselves-- are we busy doing the wrong things?  The images in the gospel story remind us that we need to do what Jesus did-- get away and spend time in prayer...  meditate...  and seek God's will.

            So often, over the years, I’ve heard myself saying, “When things calm down, then I'll have some time alone.  I'll have more time to pray and meditate."  (Although I'm happy to report that I hear myself saying it less than I used to.)

            In recent years, I’ve made it a priority to make a silent retreat. I find a time in my schedule when I can be away for a few days and call the retreat center to see if they can accommodate me. I pack up whatever work and reading I want to take, and food, and drive to Gilchrist. While I’m there, I have to walk over toward the office to get a cell signal. There’s no TV or radio. Just my playlists on my phone so I can listen to music from Taizé or Iona or other meditative music. I structure my day around simple meals, work, long walks, reading, and prayer.  Sometimes I go for several days without talking to anyone.  “And there, I pray.”

            Jesus knew it would never calm down.  He couldn't wait for that to happen.  He set time aside to spend in prayer and meditation, very intentionally. 

            "In the morning while it was still very dark."  This sounds like something I learned when I had a young child:  the only quiet time parents have is after the children go to bed at night   or early in the morning before they wake up.  That's when I got in the habit of staying up late to read and have my quiet time. 

            We need to be intentional in planning our quiet time.  Some folk find quiet time in their cars-- away from telephones and interruptions-- by turning off their radios and cell phones.  One or two of you have shared with me that you pray for others while you're commuting to work.  Others find quiet time when they walk...  or in the garden, as I do.  

            Why is this time apart so important?

            Look what happens here.  Just as we are likely to get interrupted by a child running into the room or the clock striking or the telephone ringing, Jesus' followers who were hunting for him find him and say, "Everyone is looking for you!"

            Some of us are in positions--in work or family life-- where someone always has something more for us to do. If we don’t learn to stop and discern and to occasionally say “No,” we’ll always be piling on more and more things to do.

            Sometimes, if we’re honest with ourselves, we need to admit that it feels good to be so busy and sought after. We might feel a swell of pride rising:  "Look at me!  I'm important!  I'm needed!  They love me."

            We run from sunup to sundown.  Chasing and being chased by responsibilities and expectations.  Sometimes it can feel as if we're possessed by all the responsibilities and by our need to be the important caregiver and achiever.

            This morning we come to the table of our Lord.  The pace is slowed.  It can be for us a moment of withdrawal...   a time to catch your breath.  A moment to reflect upon the bread, the body of Christ...    and the cup, the blood of Christ.  A time for our spirits to be fed!   A time for us to accept Christ's healing touch in our lives.

            God's love for us at this moment becomes so visible...  so personal...  so close...  and so reassuring.  We come to the Table, and God through Christ again offers God’s very self to us.

            This is my body, broken for you...

            This is my blood-- for you...

            Let us taste, and see that the Lord is good!

            Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

February 4, 2018

"What God Has Done." A sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church, on Luke 8:26-38

"What God Has Done"

Luke 8:26-39

During the Sundays after Pentecost, the lectionary gospel lessons focus on who Jesus is.  In the past weeks, we have encountered some people who recognize and honor Jesus:  a Roman centurion, a woman of questionable morals, and now a man possessed by many demons who lives among the tombs. 

            Hmmm….  Did you wonder? Are these the kind of people you’d expect a rabbi and his disciples to associate with?  And how did they recognize Jesus for who he is, when the disciples and a lot of other people are confused?

Here’s the context.  Luke tells us, “One day, Jesus got into a boat.  He said, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.  He doesn’t really say why he wants to cross over to the other side.   But they set off in the boat.

            While they were sailing, Jesus fell asleep.  A windstorm swept down on the lake and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger.  The disciples wake Jesus up, shouting, “Master, Master, we are perishing!”

            Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves.  They ceased, and there was a calm.

            Jesus said to them, “Where is your faith?”  They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, “Who then, is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”

The disciples still are not sure who this man Jesus is.  Yet quickly they meet someone who knows exactly who Jesus is.

            That’s where the story we just heard picks up, as Jesus and the disciples arrive at the country of the Gerasenes, which is on the opposite side of the lake from Galilee, in Gentile territory—not a place a Jewish rabbi would normally venture. 

            Once they get out of the boat, Jesus is met by “a man of the city”--  a young man who no longer dwells among the living in the local town.

It seems the people in the land of the Gerasenes didn’t want to associate with a man so possessed that they couldn’t control him.  They had tried to protect him and themselves by binding him with chains, but that hadn’t worked.  Eventually, the demons had driven him away from the community and into the land of the dead, and he was roaming naked among the tombs. 

            According to Jewish tradition, this young man was not only dangerous to himself and others, but religiously unclean, because he was possessed by an unclean spirit, living in an unclean place.  As David Lose puts it, this is the very last place Jesus should be-- which, when you think about it, is where God often shows up.  In moments of profound doubt, grief, loss, or defeat.  And even among those who may have had little interest in God.[1]

            Luke tells us that after this encounter with the man in the tombs Jesus and the disciples sail back home again to Galilee, which seems that the point of the trip across a stormy sea was to meet “this unclean man possessed by an unclean spirit living in an unclean and forsaken environment.”[2]

This man isn’t looking for help.  He doesn’t ask to be healed.  But as soon as Jesus saw the man he knew that he was possessed, and he ordered the spirit out.

When he sees Jesus, this naked, unclean man falls down before him and shouts at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I beg you, do not torment me”—for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.

It’s a strange story.  I can’t think of any other story in which demons were able to bargain with God. 

The demons begged Jesus not to order them to go back into the abyss.  Could they enter the herd of pigs that were feeding on the hill?  Jesus agrees, and the demons came out of the man and enter the swine, and the herd rushes down the steep bank into the lake and all the pigs drown. 

I told you it’s a strange story.

The man has been released from the chains of possession.  Like the woman at Simon’s house in last week’s gospel lesson, he is still at the feet of Jesus.  But now he’s “clothed and in his right mind.”  But the crowd that has gathered after they heard what’s been going on doesn’t rejoice.  No.  They’re afraid, and they beg Jesus to leave them alone.

What do we do with stories of unclean spirits and demon possession and deliverance?  There are people in our world who continue to believe in the possibility of demon possession.  But most of us don’t experience demons in the way they’re described in the Bible. 

What I’ve noticed is that all the “demons” Jesus confronts in the gospel stories have a few things in common.  They cause self-destructive behavior in the person.  The person feels trapped in that condition.  And they separate the person from living normally in the family and community. 

 I think for a lot of us, it can be helpful to understand “demons” as forces that have captured us and prevented us from becoming what God intends us to be.  Understood this way, demons can be a way of describing how it feels to be possessed and powerless by addictions or mental illness or anything that brings torment to individuals or families or communities. It could be a way of describing destructive habits or obsessions, overwhelming anxiety.

The way the gospels tell it, delivering people from demon possession is a central area of Jesus’ ministry.  He encounters people who are bound, and he sets them free.  It’s part of how Peter describes the Gospel message in Acts 10: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power…he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” 

At the beginning of this chapter in Luke, Jesus is accompanied by the 12 disciples and certain women “who had been cured by evil spirits and infirmities,” including Susanna, Mary Magdalene, and many others.

The gospel stories tell us that the people who are instrumental in Jesus’ ministry have been healed, set free, and delivered through their encounters with him.  I think in our own time, many people are like the man in this week’s Gospel story: they’re oppressed or imprisoned by whatevertra degrades and demeans life—our lives and others… by whatever voices tell us that we deserve to be overlooked or silenced… all that convinces us of our unworthiness…all that keeps us from living as free and fulfilled persons.  But then Jesus comes along and asks, “What is your name?”

The story we heard today isn’t just about an exorcism, but transformation.  The man goes from being naked to being clothed… from being out of his mind to sitting at Jesus’ feet, in his right mind… from living in the tombs to preaching in the city and telling people how much God has done for him.

            We live in fearful and sorrowful times.  Last Sunday we woke to hear that a gunman had walked into the Pulse Night Club and killed 49 people and injured 53 more. A few days ago was the one-year anniversary of the Mother Emanuel AME Church massacre, when 9 people were studying the Bible and praying when a white supremacist whom they welcomed into their midst shot them.  Brothers and sisters--beloved children of God— were killed because of who they were.   

            When we tune into the news, we’re bombarded with bad news in our nation and around the world.  Sometimes it’s hard not to feel trapped and hopeless about the destructive chaos we see around us.

            Because they are our brothers and sisters, part of God’s family, we can’t turn our backs on the pain and suffering and injustice.   As Dr. Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." 

            Jesus taught us that the greatest commandment is two-fold:  to love our God with everything we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves. (Mark 12:28-31; Matt. 22:34-40) We can trust that Christ, who is our peace and has made us one, is breaking down the walls of hatred that divide us, and entrusts us to a ministry of reconciliation. (Ephesians 2:14) 

            The good news is that there is nowhere that is forsaken by God.  There is no place God is unwilling to go, to reach and free and heal those who are possessed or broken or despairing.  God loves all people:  male and female, young and old, gay and straight; black, white, Asian, Latino, believers and non-believers, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs… the list goes on.   God loves the world.  (John 3:17)

In the wake of violence and tragedy, I believe God is always among those who are in the greatest pain and need.   This challenges us to prayerfully ask, “Where are we willing to go?  Whom are we willing to love?  In what ways can we embody God’s love to those in the greatest need?” 

 Friends, we worship an awesome, loving God.  God is with us, working through us to seek out those in need, to share God’s grace and mercy in word and deed, and to witness to the hope we have in Jesus.

            And that, my friends, is good news!

          

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

June 19, 2016

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[1] David Lose, “God in the Shadow Lands,” at in the Meantime.  http://www.davidlose.net/2016/06/pentecost-5-c-god-in-the-shadow-lands/

[2] David Lose, “God in the Shadow Lands,” at In the Meantime.