New Covenant—21 July 2024 (was 5 Jan 2020)
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54 When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, 55 and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
It’s 35 in the shade and Canadians are worried. You see, when I tell people back home that it’s 35 degrees out they imagine it’s like that fiery scene at the end of Indiana Jones when the evil French guy opens the Ark of the Covenant. Here, when I slip up and say it’s 35 in the shade I get some very puzzled looks, then eventual recognition, followed by a request like “Can you give me that temperature in American?”
Luckily, I’m thermally bilingual, so I can make that conversion. Actually, you can too: it’s the temperature in Celcius multiplied by 1.8 plus 32. Voila, the temperature in Freedom Degrees.
But it didn’t have to be this way. In fact, it wasn’t: in 1975 President Ford signed into law The Metric Conversion Act making the US one more happy nation with metres, kilograms, and temperatures that make sense to the rest of humanity. But there was one hitch: it was purely voluntary. Seems no one wanted a half-kilo of butter or 3.7 litres of milk. They didn’t want to drive at 120 (maybe they did), and they didn’t want their water to freeze at zero. In Canada, all the signs changed overnight, milk appeared in litre bags (ask me later), and the weatherman explained why 25 degrees is the best day ever.
I’m going to save for another day the story of how we launched one and two-dollar coins with barely a whimper, why we cheerfully pay our taxes, and why we dearly love being governed. There’s obviously more to Canada than litres of overpriced maple syrup, but it’s time to move on.
I share all this with you today because there are always things that are foreign to us, but known to others. Or things that we know well, but completely foreign to others. Like, for example, going to church. So far today it’s narthex, sanctuary, bulletin, pews, announcements, invocation, adoration and praise, and the Lord’s Prayer...I think you get the picture. And if you give this list to someone who has never come to church before, you might lose them at narthex and a bunch of other words that don’t make a lot of sense with the exception of announcements. Everyone understands announcements.
Now, this isn’t an evangelism sermon (not yet)—I simply want you to understand the extent to which we are engaging in a slightly complex endeavour that will be unfamiliar to most. Actually, it’s slightly less than slightly, but I don’t think there is a word for that, so we’ll go with slightly. It’s not complicated like Metric, but it’s certainly unfamiliar (to many) in the same way.
So what do you do? Some churches (like this one) have tried to eliminate some “insider language” like narthex, and opted for foyer instead (that’s English for foyer). And I guess that’s okay to eliminate insider language, but part of the joy of joining something and having a new experience is learning. It’s certainly part of the appeal of meeting people from different cultures, or travelling to new places. The hope is that learning makes the experience more engaging, not less.
And if you take away all the insider or churchy words that describe rooms and rituals, can you stop there? What about words related to faith and belief, do you take them away too? Grace, redemption, salvation—are these words too churchy? I expect few would want to ditch grace, even though it’s an insider word that describes God’s unconditional love for us. It’s part of the learning curve of faith, as is the word faith, now that I mention it.
Speaking about faith, one of the ways we learn the faith is through reciting well-known prayers, singing hymns, or memorizing a catechism. A catechism—now that we’re confronting churchy words—is a form of instruction, usually in a question-and-answer format. If you learn a catechism, you are engaged in catechesis. The adjective is catechetical (you undertake catechetical instruction), which is not only fun to say, but an important step in a life of faith.
So why have we arrived at catechetical instruction, of all places? Well, because Ephesians said we should. St. Paul (or more likely someone writing in Paul’s name) wants to tell us about predestination, unity, and glory, more or less in that order, and he wants us to understand how unique we are—with something that is available to everyone. So let’s do first things first.
No one is predestined to win $300,000,000 on Tuesday, but buying a ticket will increase your odds—but not by much. Predestination doesn’t work that way, because if it did, we could point to any misfortune and say ‘that was their destiny,’ it was meant to be. In fact, it’s more complex than that. Misfortune, and even good fortune, comes from a mixture of external factors, sheer randomness, and the choices we make in life with the ever-present gift of freewill. We live in the tension between God’s control over our lives, and the extent to which we live in a complex collusion of human factors.
So what does Ephesians say? First, we are called to praise the God who chose us “before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” In other words, this is our destiny: to be holy and blameless. And just to be clear, he says it again: “In love, he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” It is God’s desire (God’s will) that we be God’s children—not just to reflect what God wants, but for God’s pleasure.
In other words, we have been adopted as God’s children—this is our destiny—that we might be holy and blameless in the same way Jesus is holy and blameless. It brings God great pleasure to have this bond with us—in Christ, and to each other. And not just us, but all people, because there is no limit to this potential bond. And this takes us to unity, and what we are destined to experience together. Let’s listen again:
With all wisdom and understanding, God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
Again, reaching our destiny gives God pleasure, but in this case it’s a larger project than adoption, maybe the largest project of all—the end of time. Jesus prayed and said “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” and his goal was unity, “unity to all things” in this world and the next. It is, therefore, God’s desire (and our destiny) that this realm and the heavenly realm be one, and we each experience the unity this implies.
The question that follows, of course, is what do we do in the meantime? What do we do while we wait for the fulfilment that will come at the end of time? And for that answer, we need some catechism. Perhaps the most famous (in the Presbyterian tradition) is called the Westminster Shorter Catechism, originally written for the instruction of children. This is perhaps why it’s so profound, profound in its clarity and simplicity. And the author of Ephesians would approve. The first question is all we need:
Q: What is the chief aim of humanity?
A: To glorify God and enjoy God each day.
It’s certainly simpler than the difference between metres, litres and kilos, and that’s no accident. The first question of the “shorter” catechism is meant to stick with you, to live in your heart and mind, to challenge and guide in the face of the everyday. So taken in reverse, do you enjoy God everyday? It is actually a tough question, but one worth pondering. If half of my purpose in life is to enjoy God each day, how will I do it?
Giving thanks—that’s a great place to start. It’s not the obligatory “thank you” that your mother made you say, but the ‘Thanks!” that you spontaneously say when someone does something really thoughtful for you, when you are really enjoying the gift. And then there is wonder, the enjoyment we find in the people we love, or the things we treasure, or the time we have been given. And then there is mystery: enjoying God’s grace, the inexplicable, inexpressible, and often undeserved love God has for us.
And to glorify God? First, we glorify God by living well, reflecting God’s glory in what we say and do. And second, we glorify God because God deserves our praise. God is the author of all that is, the source of love and mercy, the light in the darkness—but mere words cannot express the glory that surrounds us. And so, we become students of glory, seeking examples of God’s glory and seeking ways to express that glory. All in the light of Jesus the Christ.
I want to ponder this idea of being “students of glory” and to do it we should maybe take a look at our Gospel lesson. Listen to a couple of verses again:
Now many saw [Jesus and his disciples] going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
Of all the names given to Jesus, teacher seems to be the most common. And when it wasn’t teacher he was usually rabbi, which means teacher or master of the Torah. So the earthly Jesus is first a teacher, then we might say a healer, and then we might begin to add prophet. Later, the people around him will add Christ or Lord, but throughout his ministry he is the teacher. Whether it’s hill or plain, lakeside or even sitting in a boat, he is the teacher.
What did he teach? He taught them about the Kingdom. He taught them about the scriptures. He taught them about the One he called Abba or Father. And he taught them what happens when God visits humankind and all that God might suffer. And finally, on the cross, he taught them that God can forgive what we did—in our utter failure to embrace all that we were taught.
Yet the hunger remained. Like sheep without a shepherd, the people were hungry for a glimpse of something more, some sense that what we see is not the sum of all that is. Too often we imagine that sheep need to be led, or coerced into staying within the fold, and not become lost sheep. There may be something to that, but in this context the sheep are students, eager to learn, eager to escape life without a shepherd/teacher by their side.
Now, the eagle-eyed among you’ll say, “yes, preacher, he taught the crowds, but what the crowds really wanted was healing.” And you would be right. Our passage ends with sick people from across the region, gathered from the towns and villages, the marketplace and everywhere else they were found. And they were healed, but there was an oft-repeated phrase that takes us back to where we began: Jesus said some variation of “your faith has made you well.” That’s faith in Jesus, the faith that comes with learning.
When we understand what it means to be chosen by God, we are more open to the healing and wholeness God gives. When we accept that we are adopted, when we are one with the Most High, we can set aside the soul-sorrow that comes with separation from God. And when we learn our destiny, that heaven and earth be joined at the last, how much more will we be able to join in the healing of creation, and in doing so, be healed.
Chosen, adopted, destined—we seek to unify heaven and earth, and in doing so, give God the glory, now and ever. Amen.
posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 6:23 AM
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