July 7, 2024
Pentecost 7
Friends, please be seated.
In recent days, we have encountered a marvelous assortment of preachers, each of whom has brought the Gospel of Mark to life, and our lives to the Gospel of Mark. Next week Pastor James will preach and in two weeks’ time, The Rev. Cynthia Haines Turner will preach. Her bio appears in today’s Bulletin insert. As you’ll recall …
Dr. Alicia Batten helped us to grasp the totality of Mark’s story and some of the landscape and context for the Gospel of Mark. Masterful!
Dr. Eileen Scully invited us to shine the light of God on our very real fears, fears shared by Jesus’ friends in the Gospel of Mark. Insightful!
Pastor and Chaplain John Lougheed marked the stark contrast between the powerlessness of Jesus’ sick unto death hometown friends and his own optimism at their plea for help. Powerful!
For my part, I pointed to the tension between Jesus and his own family, a tension rekindled in today’s Gospel. When Jesus says, “Prophets are not without honour, except in their own town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.”, he’s talking about his hometown, his own family, his own home and his prophetic voice. Jesus despairs of his own family. In fact, today’s Gospel represents the last time Jesus will have anything to do with them, according to Mark. He’s shaken the dust off his sandals for the very last time.
That’s our canvas for this morning: a kind of real-worldly acknowledgement of the truth of the earthen vessel of life, the clay pot with the cracks and the light shining through.
This morning, with all of that, I want to take us back to an observation that Preston made several weeks ago. You see me writing madly sometimes during the sermon. I’m trying to get turns of phrase down on paper, phrases I will capture in the Prayers of the People, and bits of insight which trigger my imagination and spark sermon possibilities of my own. I like to riff off my colleagues. So, Preston said, and I quote…
“Jesus is creative as the Father is creative.
We are to be creative as Jesus is creative.
Following Jesus is fundamentally creative.”
Creative. Creative. Creative. And then he said.
“Following Jesus is improvisational.”
I’d never heard that bit of wisdom before. “Following Jesus is improvisational.” It just makes so much sense. I love it. So, here we go. The riff.
A year ago, I introduced you to Cranky Jesus. Remember “Cranky Jesus”? When the one in ten returned to thank Jesus for being healed, Cranky Jesus didn’t say “You’re welcome. Have a nice day.” He said, “So where are the other nine.” Weren’t you all healed?’ He’s dumping on the wrong person. “So where are the other nine? Was no one else found to give thanks except this foreigner.” Ouch. He said that about the guy who showed up. Showed up to thank Jesus. Ouch. Ouch. Jesus is off his game.
I can imagine the other nine off showing themselves to the priests as required by the law and being so happy that they could go home to be with their loved-one, their friends, their neighbours which they had not been permitted under the law. They were just so happy to hug their kids that thank you wasn’t the first thing they thought of. Hugging their kids, kissing their partners. That’s what they thought of. And they had already shown their faith in Jesus. That’s what got them there in the first place. And I have to believe that in his heart of hearts Jesus knew that. He’s having a bad day so when he comes to himself, he says. “Go, your faith has made you well” to the one in ten who came back.
Sometimes, “Cranky Jesus” did “human Jesus” very, very, well.
Back to Preston. Following Jesus is improvisational. Cranky Jesus could suffer under the weariness of the world as it is. It could get him down. But Creative Jesus, picked himself up, and healed the crowd, all ten, the one and the other nine –all of whom had come to Jesus in search of a gracious God and the prophet, Jesus. Whether thankful or not, all ten, to my mind, were making their way in the world as best they could.
We are called to be creative as Jesus is creative. Following Jesus is fundamentally improvisational. So, what does that mean?
Well, I like the idea of doing improv as maybe Jesus did improv. Sometimes, you just have to sus out the situation, to make connections, to do your best given what you’ve got, and call on the grace of God that accompanied Jesus in his every moment of every day. Where Cranky Jesus was weary with the world as it was, Creative Jesus longed for the world as it might be. Jesus struggled for the world as it might be and died for the world as it might be. Creative Jesus did not allow the stuck-edness of past or present to interfere with the inbreaking light of the Kingdom of God, and the world as it might be.
Where Jesus’ family had given up on him–as is the witness of the Gospel of Mark–he invited his followers to pick up their feet, shake the dust off their boots, and to join him in his mission to this small part of God’s world and all the world that lay beyond. Jesus made his disciples family.
Jesus didn’t dwell in rejection or thanklessness. He didn’t refuse to heal when heal he could, or to try to heal even when he could not. esus was not a one-man success story. Jesus gathered a following, a sort of surrogate family, a band of women and men, and sometimes kids, who would not always get it right, not always be successful, but who would take his name and hold it close. There is an important witness, in the Acts of the Apostles, to people being baptized in the name of Jesus, the name of one they held dear, whose life they honoured, whose death they grieved and whose resurrection they proclaimed.
Now let me tell you something about improv. Improv is about using one’s gifts to suit the moment. Improvisation allows for improv artists to decide for themselves how to greet the moment and the people in it. Every situation is different compared to those of Jesus. So, following Jesus is not about doing as Jesus did. My gift of healing is not very developed. Jesus’ gift astonished. But my gift for empathy runs pretty deep.
Following Jesus is not about doing what Jesus did. It’s about doing what Jesus might have done, in our context, here and now and with God’s people here-abouts. Following Jesus is improvisational. The community of God’s people in downtown Kitchener is improvisational. Every day we’re about improv. And it’s all of grace. And everyday is different. It’s all about the real-world needs of people living and moving and having their being in this here-and-now.
I love that.
We all have skills and talents, ideas and insights, with which each one of us may greet the needs of the moment, and the needs of all of God’s people here-abouts.
We greet this world with such gifts as are ours, such gifts as will afford life to others, and life in all its fullness. Our community is blessed with all of the kindness and grace, all of the forbearance and forgiveness, everything required to make life work and to proclaim God-with-us here and now.
There’s no need to shake the dust off your boots, ever. ‘Cause we’ve got work to do. Work with the people in our neighbourhood. Work with the ancients of this small corner of Turtle Island. Work with one-another to grow our ministry as partners in God’s mission to heal the bruised and broken places in God’s world.
And we are more gifted and more capable than we might ever ask or imagine.
Our journey here began sometime in the last centuries in the last Millenium. We’re in it for the long game. A game which includes witness and worship and beauty and music as hospitality. And so very much more.
Silence.
And let the church say “Amen”. Amen.
André Lavergne CWA (The Rev.)
Honourary Assistant,
Church of St. John the Evangelist, Kitchener