Seventh Sunday after Pentecost.Yr B.-Br. Simeon

Homily preached by Br. Simeon e.f.o. at Springwood on Sunday 12^th July 2015

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Yr. 

Gospel:  Mark 6: 14-29

The death of John the Baptiser:

"Herod had sent men who arrested John, bound him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.”

A man named Jack was walking along a steep cliff one day, when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. On the way down he grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall. He looked down and to his horror saw that the canyon fell straight down for more than a thousand feet.

He couldn't hang onto the branch forever, and there was no way for him to climb up the steep wall of the cliff. So Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by would hear him and lower a rope or something.

HELP! HELP! Is anyone up there? "HELP!"

He yelled for a long time, but no one heard him. He was about to give up when he heard a voice. Jack, Jack. Can you hear me?"   "Yes, yes! I can hear you. I'm down here!"

"I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?"  "Yes, but who are you, and where are you?

"I am the Lord, Jack. I'm everywhere."   "The Lord? You mean, GOD?"

"That's Me."
"God, please help me! I promise if, you'll get me down from here, I'll stop sinning. I'll be a really good person. I'll serve You for the rest of my life."

"Easy on the promises, Jack. Let's get you off from there; then we can talk."
 "Now, here's what I want you to do. Listen carefully."  "I'll do anything, Lord. Just tell me what to do."

"Okay. Let go of the branch.""What?" "I said, let go of the branch. Just trust Me. Let go."  There was a long silence.

Finally Jack yelled, "HELP! HELP! IS ANYONE ELSE UP THERE?"

In the Name of God, +Father, +Son and +Holy Spirit. Amen.

This  story of today's Gospel reading, is outside the account of Jesus’ own death, the most horrific stories in the Gospels.

Between Jesus’ sending off the Twelve on their first missionary journey and their return, Mark inserts the story of John the Baptiser’s death. At first, this narrative seems out of place – but the account of John’s death serves as an important benchmark for understanding the meaning of discipleship and the resurrection.

The works that Jesus and the Twelve are performing have reached the ears of King Herod himself.  Rumours have been circulating that the Baptiser has been raised from the dead.   Mark recounts the details of John’s martyrdom and burial which make clear that a new chapter of human history begins in Jesus, that God has set in motion a re-creation of humanity in his Son, that the long-awaited but little understood reign of God has begun.  John is the precursor of the Christ event, not the event himself.

In Mark’s Gospel, John’s death foreshadows the death of Jesus (just as John’s appearance at the beginning of the Gospel sets the stage for Jesus’ coming on the scene).  As John pays the ultimate price for “speaking truth to power,” Jesus will give his life for the Gospel he has preached.  A similar convergence of fear, cowardice, hatred and manipulation that leads to John's beheading will end in Jesus’ crucifixion.

Not lost in Mark’s narrative is the reality that discipleship/prophecy exacts a heavy price.  But God promises that he will raise up the life of his martyred prophet/disciple in the fullness of his reign.

Ridicule, isolation, rejection, even death, can be required of every one – even us – for taking seriously God's call to be his prophets and the work of discipleship.

We often react to the Baptisers in our midst as Herod does: We know in our deepest being that they speak wisdom and justice and we desperately want to embrace it in our lives — but when their words become too demanding and too challenging, when they require of us a conversion that is well beyond our comfort zone, when their call

subjects us to ridicule or isolation, then we find some way to justify doing away with them. Authentic faith, belief that means anything, requires the would-be disciple of Jesus to live the Word we have heard and seen, regardless of the cost.

Like Herodias, we hold grudges; we keep score; we remember who slights us and we wait for the right moment to get back at them.  The grudges we keep seldom have the tragic consequences of Herodias, who manipulates her own daughter’s charms and

her husband’s arrogant behaviour to destroy John the Baptist — but we’ve let our anger divide our families, we’ve refused to surrender our need for vengeance for the  

sake of reconciliation, we’ve held on to our resentments until we got our satisfaction.

But God’s grace enables us to put aside our disappointments and let go of our anger (however justified) in order to make reconciliation possible, to speak God’s Word of justice, to be the means of peace in our homes and communities.

God’s reign continues to be established in our own Jerusalem’s and Nazareth’s because of the prophetic proclamation of the Baptisers and Apostles and all who have taken on, with integrity and conviction, the role of prophet of the God of life and love in our own time and place.

Amen.

Do We Know Who Jesus Is For Us? Demons Do!

 “Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,

Either before or since you have spoken to your servant.”

 Ex 4:10

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B:

4th Sunday after Epiphany Year B

Do We Know Who Jesus Is For Us? 

Demons Do!

 Gospel Mark 1:21-28

This week, the Lectionary calls us to the Book of Deuteronomy (18:15-20), the last book of the Torah.

We read; "Moses said to the people: 'Your God will raise up for you a prophet like myself, from among yourselves ... to him you must listen." As Christians we see these words fulfilled in Christ who came to serve and liberate others from whatever weakness, struggle or bondage they may find themselves in. In the gospel today (Mark 1:21-28) we discover that Jesus is not just a prophet like Moses, but far more than that. Mark tells us that Jesus had an authority in his teaching that went beyond that of the religious leaders, and even beyond Moses. In his power to heal and liberate the demonised man, Jesus reveals his divine authority. It can be tempting to take our experience of Christ and use it for our own ego glory, as if we are somehow better than others because we know Christ. The glory of God that is revealed in Christ is authoritative and powerful, but it is the power to serve, and, an authority to liberate.

Modern people tend not to like this type of story and dismiss it as fabrication or try to psychologise it away. Some will try to defend it and the sceptical reject it. We need to distinguish between the phenomenon and our interpretation of it. Often, I have felt the fear of something mysterious outside my ability to understand. It is not that these things like Jesus exorcising a demon do not happen, they do, but how do we interpreted with our western frame of reference. We have our conditioned prejudices,   that close us to certain truths and open us to others. All this changes the nature of how we read the story. We may not want to admit that our culture defines us, and what we can see. Still, we are able to say something about the events in the synagogue of Capernaum.

There is no question whether this happened. The witness of Mark is that it did happen. Now and then some people believe this, and some people do not. We are called to believe, to trust the report. It is not a question of what or how it happened. within our 20th century bio-medical healing model it is often unclear how healing occurs. In this paradigm we treat symptoms, but the healing is something else. The question we need to ask is; what does it mean? In the social setting of Capernaum and Galilee people are powerless, held in place by culture and convention with little or no opportunity to change. In the synagogue evil sits in the midst of holiness. The scribes have no authority.

Jesus comes with something new. Our experience of catharsis is that it is so often temporary or a violence against others and not real freeing or cleansing. In Jesus we see a real cleansing power that drives out the uncleanness that invades even our holy places. If we are honest all of us, are somehow powerless and enmeshed in the context of our existence. As we worship we have luxury that most of the world cannot afford. We are destroying ourselves environmentally. We often feel powerless, caught in the structure of where we are. Any attempt at change can cause deep pain and fear to arise and excuses to be made as we flee from the truth of the prophet. We need Christ with his new teaching and new authority, to break the bonds which hold us fast. His true healing brings together our many parts into a beautiful wholeness.

Jesus' new teaching is a truth which breaks into the pain and powerlessness of our personal conditioning and cultural structures. It heals our cultural structures and our separation from God and offers to make our social structures a supporting place to be, a place to be at home, rather than a prison of delusion and deception. One kind of "evil spirit" which we discern more easily today is the cry that can burst out of us or others when we are mentally unwell. It alienates us because of the separation and fear it causes us and others. In our culture, we tend to think of mental illness only in bio-medical terms− brain drug levels out of balance. However, much of what is experienced is a rupturing of relationships, a wounding of soul. Often this rupturing (dis-ease) is the key issue for healing. Drugs can sometimes restore the balance very quickly. However, the recovery of self-esteem, the trust of self and others, and the regaining of trust from others, is a much slower and more difficult task; and communal integrity is not so easily restored.

The healing Jesus gave to the demonised man was the weakening of the forces of his isolation. Something has to break into the void between and in us. In Mark, it is Jesus' resurrection. When our sickness is terrifying, and there is deep psychological pain, we need to let go of our security and reach out to an unpredictable other to find resurrection freedom. If we long for God’s reign to be seen in us, and happen through us we will have to let go of having things done “our” way. Yet, when we embody Christ’s liberating grace, by choosing to serve and live Christ's gospel values, the authority of Jesus can be most clearly seen in us.

Sermon Extra-2-At the Well

Jesus and Samaritan at Jacob's well

Third Sunday in Lent Year A

23rd March 2014

Reading 1 Exodus 17:1-7

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 95

reading 2 Romans 5:1-11

Gospel John 4:5-42

Readings here

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,

near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob’s well was there.

Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.

It was about noon.

A woman
of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her,

“Give me a drink.”

His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him,

“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”

—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—

Jesus answered and said to her,

“If you knew the gift of God

and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘

you would have asked him

and he would have given you living water.”

The woman said to him,

“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;

where then can you get this living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob,

who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself

with his children and his flocks?”

Jesus answered and said to her,

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;

but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;

the water I shall give will become in him

a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him,

“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty

or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus
said to her,

“Go call your husband and come back.”

The woman answered and said to him,

“I do not have a husband.”

Jesus answered her,

Jesus answered her,

“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’

For you have had five husbands,

and the one you have now is not your husband.

What you have said is true.”

The woman said to him,

“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.

Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;

but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus said to her,

“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming

when you will worship the Father

neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You people worship what you do not understand;

we worship what we understand,

because salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming, and is now here,

when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and
truth;

and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.

God is Spirit, and those who worship him

must worship in Spirit and truth.”

The woman said to him,

“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;

when he comes, he will tell us everything.”

Jesus said to her,

“I am he, the one speaking with you.”

At that
moment his disciples returned,

and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,

but still no one said, “What are you looking for?”

or “Why are you talking with her?”

The woman left her water jar

and went into the town and said to the people,

“Come see a man who told me everything I have done.

Could he possibly be the Christ?”

They went out of the town and came to him.

Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”

But he said to them,

“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

So the disciples said to one another,

“Could someone have brought him something to eat?”

Jesus said to them,

“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me

and to finish his work.

Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?

I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.

The reaper is already receiving payment

and gathering crops for eternal life,

so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.

For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another
reaps.’

I sent you to reap what you have not worked for;

others have done the work,

and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”

Many of
the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him

because of the word of the woman who testified,

“He told me everything I have done.”

When the Samaritans came to him,

they invited him to stay with them;

and he stayed there two days.

Many more began to believe in him because of his word,

and they said to the woman,

“We no longer believe because of your word;

for we have heard for ourselves,

and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

A woman
of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her,"Give me a
drink". 

Thus
begins the dialogue between Jesus and a Samaritan woman, in
which Jesus promises her “living water” which will last
eternally. This idea of “living water” is often taken as being
the main theme of this passage, or at least one of them, and
rightly so.

But for me, the fact that this encounter takes place at a well
puts the whole story in a different light. I am reminded of
other stories, Old Testament stories where the well was a place
for romance and courtship! Specifically, it was at a well that
two of the great love stories of the Book of Genesis began:
Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Rachel. (Jacob, of course, is
mentioned three times in this Gospel text) .

In the case of Isaac, it was actually a servant sent by his father
Abraham who did the courting. [Genesis ch.24]. Abraham, as you
probably know, had been called by God to leave his homeland and
settle in the land of Canaan, but he dearly wished that his son
should marry a woman from among his own people – from among his
own kin, in fact. When the servant reaches his destination, he
stations himself by the well outside the city, in the evening
when the women will come to draw water. He prays urgently to God
that the young woman from whom he asks for a drink of water
(note the parallel with today’s Gospel!) will be the one whom
God has chosen for Isaac. This, of course, means she has to
fulfil Abraham’s requirement that she should be a close
kinswoman. The story continues:

There was
Rebekah …with her water jar on her shoulder. The girl was very
fair to look upon, a virgin, whom no man had known. She went
down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up. Then the
servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me sip a little
water from your jar. “ “Drink, my lord,” she said. (vv
16-18a).Of course, it turns out that God has answered the
servant’s prayer: the girl is the daughter of Abraham’s brother.
After the negotiations are over, she leaves her home – with her
consent, mind – and goes with the servant to Canaan. When Isaac
meets her, we are told simply that “he took Rebekah, and she
became his wife, and he loved her.” (v. 67).

In the
case of Jacob, once again his father wants him to marry a girl
from among his own kinsfolk, and in this case, Jacob himself
goes a-courting. [Gen. ch. 29]. He arrives at his destination,
and again waits at a well. He enquires of some men there about
his uncle, Laban – this time, it is a relative on his mother’s
side – and, the story continues:

While he
was still speaking to them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep,
for she kept them. Now when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of
his mother’s brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother’s
brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the
well’s mouth, and watered the flock… then Jacob kissed Rachel,
and wept aloud. (vv. 9-11)This time, Jacob doesn’t return home,
but – as we all know – he agrees to work for Laban for seven
years in return for Rachel’s hand in marriage. At the end of the
seven years, Laban tricks Jacob into marrying his elder
daughter, Leah, instead – so Jacob works yet another seven years
to win Rachel. How’s that for true love?

Back to
the Samaritan woman at the well: one curious section of the
dialogue is the discussion about the woman’s “husband”, when
Jesus informs her that she has had five husbands and her present
one is not her real one (4:16-18). I always found this to be a
rather jarring note, until I did a Bible Study course some years
ago. The teacher was Michael Trainor, a priest (of the best
kind!) as well as a respected New Testament scholar. He pointed
out that in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), the word
“husband” was associated with God. God was often depicted by
means of the metaphor of the “husband”, married to his beloved
Israel.

I have
always loved that image. It can be found in some of the
loveliest poetry in the Old Testament, such as in the following
passage from Isaiah. The context is God’s promise of the
restitution of Israel after the Babylonian exile:

You shall
no more be termed Forsaken/ And your land shall no more be
termed Desolate/ but you shall be called My Delight is in Her/
and your land, Married/ for the Lord delights in you,/ and your
land shall be married./ For as a young man marries a young
woman,/ so shall your builder marry you,/ and as the bridegroom
rejoices over the bride,/ so shall your God rejoice over you.
(Is.62:4-5) This certainly makes sense of Jesus’ mention of
“husbands” in his conversation with the Samaritan woman. Jesus
is proposing a new “marriage” to her, a marriage with the God
whom he himself knows so intimately.

In the book of Genesis, when the Israelite nation was just
coming into being, it was important for the patriarchs Isaac and
Jacob to marry within their own kinship group. But now, anyone
and everyone can be drawn into union with God, even across lines
that separate people, such as Jews and Samaritans.

What’s more, humans will no longer be one step removed from God,
as it were – as a result of formal worship, be it in the Temple
or on the Samaritan mountain or wherever else. God now wants us
to worship “in Spirit and truth”. Each person can be intimately
and personally embraced by God.

It’s a love story that continues to this day.

Somehow I
felt this reflection needed a beautiful art work to illustrate
it. I came across a photo of a lovely and rather unusual
sculpture by Stephen Broadbent entitled “The
Water of Life”.

by CathyT ,
Adelaide, South Australia, Friday, March 21, 2014, 17:59