Who’s the Boss? Mark 9: 30-37  (NRSV)

Sam walks into his boss’s office. “Sir, I’ll be straight with you, I know the economy isn’t great, but I have over three companies after me, and I would like to respectfully ask for a raise.” After a few minutes of haggling the boss finally agrees to a 5% raise, and Sam happily gets up to leave. ”By the way”, asks the boss as Sam is getting up, “which three companies are after you?” “The electric company, the water company, and the phone company,” Sam replied.

The Boss of a small company was complaining during a staff meeting that people didn’t respect him enough. Trying to change the attitude in the office he came in the next day with a sign for his door it said, “I am the boss.”One of the employees who did not appreciate the thought put a post-a-note on the sign that said “your wife wants her sign back”

The CEO of a large company was walking to the cafeteria along with two of his secretaries. Upon tripping on a bottle, a genie appeared and asked the threesome if they would like to each make a wish.  

The first secretary excitedly exclaimed, “I wish I was on a beach in a tropical island!” Immediately her wish was granted. The next secretary proclaimed, “I wish I was on a tour of France!” Immediately her wish too was granted. Being that it was now his turn to make a wish the CEO exclaimed “I want both of them back in their offices right after lunch!”

One last one: One evening a preschooler, Krystal, and her parents were sitting on the couch chatting. Krystal asked, " Daddy, you're the boss of the house, right?" Her father proudly replied, "Yes, I am the boss of the house." But Krystal added "Cause Mommy put you in charge, huh Daddy?"

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”

But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.

Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

This is the second time Jesus has warned his followers of his coming passion and death. Imagine the stir it causes each time he does – the denial, the outcry, the promises to stop it, and so on.

How would you react if someone you were close to told you they were going to be put to death for something they believe in? (You’d watch them closely or suggest they get a screening for the booby hatch.)

I use to read these verses and wonder where the disciples got the topic/issue they were arguing amongst themselves until it hit me: they were either trying to figure out who was going to be the “boss” after Jesus dies, or what position to ask for when Jesus successfully comes into His kingdom.

Either way it is a job, they assume, that they must qualify for by being the “greatest” disciple. Holy smokes, not only is Jesus not dead yet, but he’s in the immediate vicinity, and they find out he’s heard them talking behind his back. Sounds like time for a “smack down!”

And deliver a smack down Jesus does. He tells them that leadership and places of honor in His kingdom are based on different criteria then what they understand. It is not leadership that is important but rather “follow ship,” that is, service to a greater ideal and care for others, and that God will always be the “big boss.”

 In using a child as an example of priority in hospitality Jesus is tweaking the Jewish social structure to get them to recognize their responsibility to the least of all people in their community as a conscious process. Children were valued and cared for in but they had a different status.

 

Jesus’ new teachings upped the status and prestige of children to a priority, and humanity in general. 

Alongside the value we place on gold (and money), we place freedom of choice to determine our own futures next, and God calls us to value others sometimes before ourselves.

At my house we have a running joke that Chylle started. She once said that Becky was in charge of making the decisions at our house. So now whenever a decision, choice, or suggestion is to be made, we usually drudge up some form of that joke in our conversations.

 As that once popular song goes, “Who is the boss of you?” Who makes your decisions? Are they made haphazardly or with purpose and commitment?

 Driving down a country road near Funkstown, I come to a very narrow bridge. In front of the bridge, a sign is posted: "YIELD." Seeing no oncoming cars, I continue across the bridge and on to my destination. On my way back, I come to the same one-lane bridge, now from the other direction. To my surprise, I see another YIELD sign posted. Curious, I thought, "I'm sure there was one posted on the other side."

When I reached the other side of the bridge I looked back. Sure enough, yield signs had been placed at both ends of the bridge. Drivers from both directions were requested to give right of way. It was a reasonable and gracious way of preventing a head-on collision.

When the Bible commands Christians to "be subject to one another" (Ephesians 5: 21) it is simply a reasonable and gracious command to let the other have the right of way and avoid interpersonal head-on collisions.

We learn to yield control to God and His values, His Kingdom.

In the summer of 1986, two ships collided in the Black Sea off the coast of Russia. Hundreds of passengers died as they were hurled into the icy waters below. News of the disaster was further darkened when an investigation revealed the cause of the accident.

It wasn't a technology problem like radar malfunction--or even thick fog. The cause was human stubbornness. Each captain was aware of the other ship's presence nearby. Both could have steered clear, but according to news reports, neither captain wanted to give way to the other. Each was too proud to yield first.

 By the time they came to their senses, it was too late.

In the midst of our dark and foggy times, all sorts of voices are shouting orders into the night, telling us what to do, how to adjust our lives.

On the sitcom “Malcom in the Middle” the theme song says, “You’re not the Boss of Me.” Well the truth is, Jesus does want to be the boss of you.

Jesus’ voice calls us through the tumult of our journey through life. “Choose my ways and follow me,” it says. “Allow me to be in control.” I don’t want to be your co-pilot – I want to be your pilot.

That voice happens to be the Light of the World, and we ignore it at our own peril.

Amen.

 

ARE WE REALLY IN TROUBLE?

This past week during my vacation I ran into 2 19-somethings who claimed to be members of the occupy movement. They told me they were voting for Obama because Romney was a "businessman."

Businessmen are bad because one of the characters of the movie "Wall Street" (Geeko?) was bad and thus all of them are are bad.

The upshot of this interaction (besides leaving a bad taste in my brain) is the delusional world most of these folks are living in -- given to them by others. We don't need to be labelled anything - and they think that categories define your life. Think of how governments classify things and people in order to handle them --- folks we in big trouble when our children classify themselves.

I didn't discuss politics with them but instead shared God's love and desire to have a relationship with them. Now I'll pray.

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Ronald Reagan said the 9 most terrifying words in the English language were:

"I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."

I disagree, the nine most frightening words I have ever heard are:

"I am Barack Obama, and I approve this message." Actually both campaigns are gyilty of this.

I know with certainty, all that follows will be blatant and unabashed lies. It will be an unapologetic attempt to portray the misery of these last 3 ½ years as success. It will be scarily simplistic, seeking to divide America along class lines. It will reek of racialism and bitterness and envy.

I will be diminished just by listening, and those who believe...those who believe, will surrender their humanity to the 'one,' and the world will be a poorer place for it.

And the saddest thing of all -- and the reason those words frighten me so, is that despite all that has happened, and all that looms on the horizon with this most disastrous of Presidents, when he says the words "I am Barack Obama, and I approve this message," many people will still believe what comes next.

11 years ago my wife and I were on the first airplane to leave Hagerstown after 9-11. We did it to express our confidence in our country and our desire to ensure the tryanny of terrorism would be overcome. Pause this week to remember those who died, those families that suffered, and how our lives have changed since this event. Renew your resolve to overcome the overt threats of those who would surplant our values, burn our cities, and destroy and subjugate our children.

Double-Disability

Mark 7: 31-37

I was on a plane when the pilot said, “We’ll be delayed for several minutes while we find a worker to sign off on a maintenance work request we assume was completed but not documented.” When I was in the Navy that type of “preventative maintenance” was a court martial offense!

But how about this airline experience: Taxiing down the tarmac, the jetliner abruptly stops, turns around, and returns to the gate. After an hour long wait, it finally takes off.

A concerned passenger asked the flight attendant, "What was the problem?""The pilot was bothered by a strange noise he heard in the engine," she explained."Oh, and it took a while to fix it?" said the passenger."Not exactly." replied the stewardess, "It just took us a while to find a deaf pilot."

A busy CEO named Harry is looking for a new assistant, but wants to hire someone who is sensitive about his deformity – he has no ears. Three men apply for the job, and Harry arranges to spend some time with each of them.

He calls the first man into his office and interviews him. The applicant does very well, but then Harry asks him if notices anything unusual about his appearance. Rather than be tactful and say no, the man says, ‘Yes. You have no ears.’ Harry gets upset and throws the man out.

The second man is called in and, the interview goes very well until Harry asks the same question. Again the man says ‘You have no ears.’ Harry throws him out.

The last man is invited in and the interview proceeds as before. Finally, Harry asks the question, ‘Do you notice anything unusual about my appearance?’ The man says, ‘Apart from the contact lenses, no.’ ‘That’s very observant,’ says Harry. ‘Not many people would notice I’m wearing contact lenses.’ ‘I didn’t,’ replies the man. ‘I saw the contact lens case on your desk and figured you couldn’t wear glasses without any ears.’

Understanding and dealing with disabilities is increasingly difficult in a politically correct and sensitive society. We have learned to walk on eggshells. Have you ever considered that Jesus came to address human disability:  (MARK 7: 31-37, NRSV)

Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.

They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech: and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, Be opened.” 

And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.The Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.

What a great scripture passage this is! There are three things we need to see as we read this passage. First, Jesus deals with this man privately; secondly the man suffers from a disability that seems to speak as a metaphor of the human condition; and thirdly, Jesus is revealing a messianic nature that would become clear after his death.

The Greek work (mogililion) used here for “impediment in his speech” isn’t that he can’t speak but rather that there is a problem in how he speaks. The man is functionally deaf (may hear but isn’t listening) and has garbled speech – he is not deaf and dumb. That is why Jesus’ physical acts of healing are so important here.

First, Jesus could have proclaimed the man healed. Instead Jesus used touch and a sign to show this man he is being healed. Clearing the ears as if they were clogged can’t  be misinterpreted. Using saliva, which the Jews felt had healing properties, to release the man’s tongue for speech would be understood immediately by the man and any onlookers even though he took the man aside privately.

Second, it can be said that the human condition can be said to be one of hearing but not doing God’s Word and Work, and that our human nature manifests itself in the evil things we misspeak. Think about it for a moment:

We don’t know God and His ways. We don’t talk and speak truth about ourselves or God. We are figuratively deaf and have garbled speech. God sees us as disabled.

And we see ourselves like the CEO who doesn’t want anyone to point it out or tell us about it.We think we don’t need healing or restoration. How arrogant we are!

As to the third point, Jesus knows that people will not truly hear, understand, or see the messianic prophecy He has fulfilled until after His death. The prophecy pointed at here is from Isaiah 35: 5-6 (HCSB):

 "Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, for water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;”

This is one of the many messianic prophecies Jesus fulfilled.

Jesus isn’t afraid of this act of healing becoming public but rather is alluding to the reality that the time wasn’t ripe for these words and deeds to resonate as they would after His atoning sacrifice and death.

Now I know that someone with a physical disability may chide me for using this analogy – but friends I ask you, what greater disability is there to not have eternal life secured in God’s Kingdom? It is to remain as man was prior to his encounter with Jesus, living in sin.

 Ephphatha! Be opened! Few more beautiful words have been uttered in the history of mankind than these. When Jesus opened the ears and freed the tongue of the deaf and mute man he gave us a gift.

Symbolically, the opening of the man’s ears is like when the unbeliever hears the goodness of the Gospel for the first time. The loosening of the tongue is like excited lips that preach the Good News from hearts on fire.

When Jesus shared his power and love with the disabled man, he gave us a picture of his love for us and how he would best express it on his cross. The last verse says that Jesus has “done everything well” using the same words that used in the Book of Genesis to describe God during the creation story. Jesus has restored creation as God intended.

So there you have it: Jesus meets the needs of this man and changes his life forever by doing away with his double-disability, the double-disability of humanity.

But the real question this day is for you:

What type of disability do you need to overcome? What type of heart, mind, or soul disability do you have that keeps you from full participation in God’s Kingdom?

A very worried man went to his doctor. “Doctor, you have to help me; I’m dying,” he said. “Everything I touch hurts. I touch my head and it hurts. I touch my leg and it hurts. I touch my stomach and it hurts. I touch my chest and it hurts. You have to help me, Doc; everything hurts.”

The doctor gave him a complete examination. “I have good news and bad news for you,” he said. “The good news is you are not dying. The bad news is you have a broken finger.”

 

If we only view the world through the brokenness of our humanity of course we discover that everything is full of sin, decay, and death.

The cause of our suffering and pain in this world is simple: we need to fill our God sized hole that leaves us incomplete and full of pain and uneasy.

Jesus is ready and waiting for you. All you have to do is admit your disability and ask Him to walk daily with you. Amen.

Good and Bad Tradition
Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Imagine having a mental image of Jesus sitting on God’s right hand like a ventriloquists’ dummy and you have an explanation of some church groups’ faith practices, as wrong biblically as can be but often how they expect Jesus to function. In seminary we were charged with thinking just such a thought as an exercise.

Our thoughts, ideas, expectations, and traditions are the result of our experiences, wants, hopes, and fears. Often we build our behavior on our personal perceptions of reality or superstitions. We continue to do things because it’s easier to “always” do it that way than it is to change. The danger: they overshadow truth.

Pretty soon traditions become habits, and habits become foundational reasons to do things only one way. Habits and tradition can be dangerous in church, and especially in worship practices because they become superstitious behavior.

Superstitions are defined as an irrational belief or collection of beliefs in or the occurrence of events brought about by a thing, object, or action that may establish a systematic and mysterious cause-effect link. The origin of superstitious behavior may be shrouded in long-lost mythology. Most of us laugh at superstitious behavior:

“knocking on wood,” “entering/leaving a house or building by the same door,” “throwing salt over your shoulder after a spill,” “carrying a lucky coin, bean, or some other talisman,” “putting a pinch more in a recipe for good measure,” “not walking under a ladder,” “not wanting a black cat walk in front of us,” “Friday the 13^th,” “walking on cracks,” “finding a 4 leaf clover,” “having an itchy palm,” and the thousands of others I could tell you about.  Yet they become habitual.

It is said something becomes a habit if you do it 37 times.

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda describes his battle with bad habits: "I took a pack of cigarettes from my pocket, stared at it and said, "Who's stronger, you or me?" The answer was me. I stopped smoking. Then I took a vodka martini and said to it, "Who's stronger, you or me?" Again the answer was me. I quit drinking.

Then I went on a diet. I looked at a big plate of linguine with clam sauce and said, "Who's stronger, you or me?" And a little clam looked up at me and answered, "I am." I can't beat linguine.

 

Indeed, many of us have trouble, myself included, in pushing aaway from that dinner table. 

Some of these habits and superstitions seem practical (stepladder), but others are shrouded deep in our folklore (4 leaf clovers/knocking on wood) and passed to us in conversation and culture as we grow up. We create these stories the way we want them with habits, traditions, expectations. We do it with religious ideology at our own peril.

Matthew Henry once said, "Consider: when God hates all the same people you hate, you can be sure that you've created Him in your own image."

 Martin Luther once called the pope "that fountain and source of all superstitions.”

Consider today your habit of church and God; listen to our scriptures from Mark:

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.

(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)

So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the traditions of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

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.”

“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.

In John’s gospel we learn of Jesus’ divinity and His revealed nature and purpose of sacrifice. In Mark we’re going to find out why sacrifice is necessary. Jesus reveals that man’s problems come from inside man.

As part philosopher and part theologian I feel qualified to say that humanity is in sad shape, and the 2,000 years since Jesus walked the earth confirm that diagnosis.

Each of us, and speaking for/about myself, struggle everyday to overcome a sinful nature that would rather keep us away from Godly things then to underscore the sinfulness of humanity that Jesus pointed out:

We will never be able to earn God’s salvation by the work of our hands or the treatment of those less fortunate than ourselves. Those things can be done, and frequently are, by those who have no need of faith and trust in God. Atheists serve at soup kitchens and give to charity. Good deeds can be done by those who hold malice and hate in their hearts and perform to receive some social benefit.

Our salvation must come from our acceptance of the atoning sacrifice and grace of Jesus Christ which creates a new person with new fruits and habits created by the perfection of God’s amazing love.

Good deeds and actions become normal as the human being is fundamentally transformed by the sanctification of the Holy Spirit and regeneration of the heart.

How do we know this is what Jesus means as he deals with the questions of the Pharisees and the scribes? Jesus’ disciples were accused of not following religious ritual and tradition before they eat which doesn’t sound like a big deal.

The term used here in Mark’s gospel relates both to a required amount of water and an expected proper manner of washing that is used. The hand was cupped, fist-like, to make the most efficient use of available water.

The practice was not derived directly from the Torah, that is the scriptures, but from the "oral law" -- the tradition of the elders, which the Pharisees regarded as having equal authority with the written law. To not observe the proper procedure was to be considered “unclean,”

Why this behavior was important tells us a little about Judaism and the Pharisees, just as a tour around our church with its vestments, stained glass windows, candle lit altar, and church bulletin with order of service does about what we hold too.

The Pharisaic ideal was to live such that their whole life would become sanctified, or Holy by their own actions. Their view of the tradition of the elders was not an attempt to make the commands of God trivial, but to apply it to everyday life.

We try to uphold the same ideals as well in our worship and church traditions and practices; some biblical, some passed down because that’s the way its always been.

 

Yet there is not a single altar cloth, lit candle, or organ that saves our soul. Only Jesus Christ does that.

Jesus' behavior and teachings convey - at least to the Pharisees and Scribes - disrespect for the law, threatening the whole Pharisaic system and (in their view) the Jewish way of life. It was a big deal. But it was wrong headed.

Changes to our own tradition and practices are often viewed the same way with the fear, superstitiously, of somehow losing God’s approval if you change.

The Talmud (kind of a users guide to Judaism) reports the following about hand washing: "The duty of washing before meat is not written in the law, but only in the tradition of the scribes. Yet so rigidly did the Jews observe it, that Rabbi Akiba, being imprisoned, and having water scarcely sufficient to sustain life given him, preferred dying of thirst to eating without washing his hands."

To Jesus, the Pharisees are holding up religious ritual and tradition to the level of superstitious behavior because humanity, being sinful, can never sanctify itself. So

Jesus, in a straightforward manner, explains where evil comes from.

In fact, Jesus further suggests that the more important superstitions are, the more impossible they become in gaining God's favor. God considers human deeds sinful: and will never be pleasing in His eyes.

We need to look around and find those types of superstitions we hold to, as well.

This is why we must accept Jesus into our hearts and minds to replace and blot out our sins. It is why we need a savior. It is why Jesus died for each and every one of us. Amen.