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Seventh Sunday after Epiphany

Mark 2
1Jesus went back to Capernaum, and a few days later people heard that he was at home. [a] 2Then so many of them came to the house that there wasn't even standing room left in front of the door.
Jesus was still teaching 3when four people came up, carrying a crippled man on a mat. 4But because of the crowd, they could not get him to Jesus. So they made a hole in the roof [b] above him and let the man down in front of everyone.
5When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the crippled man, "My friend, your sins are forgiven."
6Some of the teachers of the Law of Moses were sitting there. They started wondering, 7"Why would he say such a thing? He must think he is God! Only God can forgive sins."
8Right away, Jesus knew what they were thinking, and he said, "Why are you thinking such things? 9Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and pick up his mat and go on home? 10I will show you that the Son of Man has the right to forgive sins here on earth." So Jesus said to the man, 11"Get up! Pick up your mat and go on home."
12The man got right up. He picked up his mat and went out while everyone watched in amazement. They praised God and said, "We have never seen anything like this!"


One of the more troubling things in the news lately is the publication of controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Created in Denmark, printed in Holland, and now being reprinted in various places in the West, the cartoons are extremely offensive to Muslims. They create conflict, not simply between Danes and Muslims, but within individuals who value both free speech and religious sensibilities.

You may recall back in October I quoted one of Jay Leno's man-on-the-street interviews when someone asked to name one of the Ten Commandments said "freedom of speech." What I didn't mention was another occasion when Leno asked the same question and the response was "God helps those who help themselves." Now, while most know that "God helps those who help themselves" is not one of the Ten Commandments," there is an alarming number of people who believe that "God helps those who help themselves" is found somewhere in the Bible. It is, in fact, a quote from Ben Franklin.

Watching people on the street insist that the phrases "freedom of speech" and "God helps those who help themselves" are both commandments is very funny, to be sure. What is disturbing, however, is that both of these phrases convey what I would call an "American Gospel" where the constitutional guarantee of free speech and the folksy notion that God will only help you if you work hard at the same time seems to trump most other values. In many ways "God helps those who help themselves" is anti-Gospel, in the sense that God, through Jesus, will help even the least deserving simply because they are a child of God. That's grace, and Ben Franklin seemed to have a limited understanding of the concept.

Back to cartoons, it seems that the twin values of free speech and freedom of religion have come into conflict. We prize both, but surely freedom of religion in a pluralistic society means both tolerance for other's belief and treating religions with great respect. Clearly the media would choose freedom of speech ahead of freedom of religion, and in this case it is the media who both created the situation and are now reporting on it. Seems like a bit of "conflict of interest" and the media seem intent on making it worse for themselves (and the world).

One of the sub-themes of this whole story is the way in which we in the West seems to perceive Christianity. At some point, I would guess beginning with the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, it became permissible to mock religion. The same impulse that made it permissible to say awful things about the other side of the Catholic/Protestant divide eventually led to a place where it was possible to mock the Christian religion altogether. "Free speech" we called it, and allowed artists and writers to mock or condemn all aspects of the dominant faith of the West.

A telling example of this drift is an animated television series called Clone High (produced in Canada) which features the clones of famous people from throughout history attending the same high school: John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc and Gandhi. The set-up allows for clever and unexpected things to happen: Joan of Arc accidentally burns down her house and Gandhi needs a makeover to get ready for the annual prom. I've watched the show with my son, it is funny and clever (and being that we live in a small town, I know the producer).

MTV, who created the show, responded to criticism in India regarding the inclusion of Gandhi by stating that the show "was intended for an America audience." No one in North America objected, however, to the portrayal of Joan of Arc (one of the most revered saints among Roman Catholics) as a troubled high school girl pining for the affection of Abe Lincoln. Or the inclusion of a young Latino character name Jesús Cristo (Jesus Christ).

In our society religion is just one more category of experience that is open to parody and critique. What we fail to see is that while our attitudes and assumptions developed and took root the same thing was not happening in other regions and among other faith groups. We have found out the hard way that being the dominant culture is not the same thing as being right. Or at least I hope we have found out that being the dominant culture is not the same thing as being right.

***

Jesus was still teaching 3when four people came up, carrying a crippled man on a mat. 4But because of the crowd, they could not get him to Jesus. So they made a hole in the roof [b] above him and let the man down in front of everyone.
5When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the crippled man, "My friend, your sins are forgiven."

One of the confusing aspects of this passage is the casual link between the forgiveness that Jesus extends and the healing that takes place. One of the easy misinterpretations is that the man's sin made him ill and Jesus had to fix one to bring about the other. As hard as it may be in this passage, it is important to separate the two and understand them as unique. Notice that Jesus' words of forgiveness do not heal the man. His healing happens after the discussion with the religious leaders and involves a separate blessing. As one commentator put it. "this remains a story about Jesus [and his ministry] and not a story about the origin of disability." (Texts, p. 160)

6Some of the teachers of the Law of Moses were sitting there. They started wondering, 7"Why would he say such a thing? He must think he is God! Only God can forgive sins."

One of the things I treasure about Mark is the rather blatant way he seeks to draw us into the text. 'Who does he think he is?' the Pharisees ask: "He must think he is God." And there we are, reading along thinking "this is God! This is the incarnation of God, of course he can forgive sins!" Drawn in, we recall the command to the twelve to go out to the world and share to Good News of the coming Kingdom, to forgive sins and seek healing. Drawn in, we assume the mantel of the disciples and fulfill this mission of forgiveness.

I want to share with you some words from William Countryman:

What God says in Jesus is this: You are forgiven. Nothing more, nothing less. This is the message Jesus spoke and lived...God says something quite unambiguous: 'You are forgiven.' What is means is, 'I love you anyway, no matter what. I love you not because you are particularly good or because you are particularly repentant nor because I'm trying to bribe you or threaten you into changing. I love you because I love you.

The larger meaning underneath these words is that in order to accept this forgiveness, this unambiguous love, we need to forgive and love ourselves. This is what God extends to us, and unless we accept it, we're going to be unable to extend it to others. In other words, we enter a place where forgiveness becomes an ethos, a worldview, a paradigm. When we internalize this forgiveness, when we know it in our bones, then the impulse to forgive happens that much quicker.

If you will forgive me another quote, this one from Thomas Merton, we can begin to bring this full circle:

We must try to accept ourselves, whether individually or collectively, not only as perfectly good or perfectly bad, but in our mysterious, unaccountable mixture of good and evil. We have to stand by the modicum of good that is in us without exaggerating it. We have to defend our real rights, because unless we respect our own rights we will certainly not respect the rights of others. But at the same time we have to recognize that we have willfully or otherwise trespassed the rights of others.

How much of the cartoon controversy is rooted in an unwillingness to forgive Islam for altering our world? When an artist creates a picture of Mohammed with a turban shaped like a bomb, what he is likely expressing is the anger that most of us in the West feel when we remember the days before 9-11 and the so-called "War on Terror." Have we confronted what exists in our hearts when we see the news? We see the protests and the shouting and it seems to reinforce the ideas we already have about Islam rather than recall that this is a media story about a media story. Rather than look at our own bias and our own failing we cling to "free speech" and carelessly think that other religions should act the way we act because we somehow have it right.

Another quote from Thomas Merton:

We are already one.
But we imagine we are not.
And what we have to recover is our original unity.
What we have to be is what we are.

When you sense only unity you cannot help but forgive. We forgive our children because they are a part of us, they exist in a circle of unity where forgiveness and generosity is assumed. Jesus says widen the circle. Jesus says, through Thomas Merton, that we are already one and what we have to recover is our original unity. This is true for families, communities, nations and religions. If I respect myself I will treat others with greater respect. If I honour and respect my faith, it follows that I will extend the same honour and respect to other faiths. What we have to be is what we are.

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 6:12 AM