[Propertalk] 4 epiphany b rcl

[robertpmorrison at charter.net]

I may have omitted to post this draft for tomorrow.

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY  	              THE FOURTH 
SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY - B
DEUTERONOMY 18:15-20	                          		    	 
29th JANUARY, 2012
1 CORINTHIANS 8:1-13		                                                	 
PSALM 111
MARK 1:21-28

	 Did Mark leave anything out of the episode described in this morning’s 
Gospel passage? It’s really interesting to note where the emphases of 
the different gospels lie. Look at what’s uppermost in the writer’s mind 
– healing, no matter where, no matter when. Healing – making people able 
to get around and to put into play in society the resources with which 
God has blessed them. Healing – giving people the ability to make good 
decisions, not only for themselves, but primarily for the good of the 
community. Healing – so that – and this may be the most important aspect 
of it – healing – so that everyone can involve themselves completely in 
worshipping God, without being excluded for any reason whatsoever.

	But what is it that’s so intriguing about this story this morning? It 
happens on the Sabbath – and in the synagogue!! And not one word about 
breaking a rule – any of the six hundred odd rules which every faithful 
Jew was called to observe.

Not ONE word of criticism of Jesus!!! Simply astonishment of the 
astuteness Jesus showed when He interpreted the prophecies and then put 
them into practice.

Possibly what threw the worshippers so much that day was that they were 
shown by Jesus that there was a direct link between word and action.

I love words. I love trying to tease out their roots – from what 
language are they derived? Who used them first or most prominently? What 
is the context of that use? But I enjoy a good joke also, and if you can 
use one word to describe two apparently different situations, so much 
the better.

String words together, then, and you can come up with amazing stories 
which can excite, inspire, amuse, reform, even terrify one. That and 
more are all contained in the stories of the Bible. If we sat down one 
of these wet afternoons and actually read our way through a book of two 
out of the Bible, you and I would probably be amazed at the descriptions 
of God’s emotions.

I’m sure the synagogue attendees were in that category that Sabbath. 
They took scripture seriously. They must have memorized story after 
story, prophecy after prophecy. But it seems that that was where it 
stopped. Somehow they were unable – and, more problematic, their leaders 
were unable – to make a connection between what they heard and what they 
did in their work and home lives.
	
	That was what astounded all of them that day. Jesus spoke the words, 
then He put them into action when He turned and sorted out the life of 
the man who was incapacitated. The Bible came alive in the hands and 
mouth of Jesus. All of a sudden someone was doing something to pull back 
the curtain which shrouded the prophet’s concepts with mystery.

	Of course, not everything became clear. Perhaps only a tiny bit of it. 
But Jesus had the amazing knack of making everything seem relevant.

	I have a feeling that this is EXACTLY what we and the people around us 
in Albany need today. We need someone first to announce what God has 
said; but then we need someone to open that up and show us the power 
that these words have – power to encourage us, to transform us from 
apathy, or uncertainty, or depression. We need something – we need 
someone – to open up our minds and imaginations so that we can see and 
accept how God is loving us right here and now; and how God wants to be 
able to turn our lives around.

	I come back to my amazement, however, about the fact that no one made a 
single peep about Jesus taking on that man’s disability and doing 
something about it on the Sabbath. However many days or months later we 
don’t know, but within three short chapters in Mark’s Gospel we read 
that later, when Jesus tried something similar on the Sabbath, He was 
hauled over the coals for not telling the person to take a couple of 
aspirin and come back the next day.

	Everyone who was a part of that scene on that Sabbath must have been 
convinced of the absolute rightness of what Jesus was doing. Word and 
action HAD to go together, no matter what day of the week. So we’re 
given something truly remarkable for our own lives today, no matter how 
challenged we are. Nothing will stand in the way of Jesus bringing a 
sense of wholeness, a sense of purpose to all the decisions we have to 
make.

	How do we decide for whom to vote when the primaries finally make it to 
Oregon? What do we say to the city councilors about the use of the Pepsi 
money – assuming we’re not all Betty Holcombs and write letters to the 
Democrat Herald? How do we come to an understanding about priorities in 
our own lives – about relationships, and demands on our time and energy, 
and so on?

	I think one of the things with which a great many people have given up 
on here in Albany and around this nation, even the world, is that many 
people see a distinct disconnect between what they hear read as God’s 
word and what they see happening not thirty feet away in the Parish 
Halls of the various churches in town. They may have a very sketchy idea 
of what’s in the Bible, or the Koran, or any number of Holy Books. But 
they’re unable to translate it in any practical way – except, perhaps, 
unless they simply take every word, every story, at its literal face 
value. That IS one way of looking at such stories as Jesus read out to 
the congregation. But He really expected everyone to dig deeply into the 
story, to look at what else was being described in the context in which 
the story was set. Above all, Jesus wanted – and still wants – people to 
accept that God really does want people to experience wholeness in their 
relationship with God and with one another.

Nowhere did Jesus say that this would be easy, yet He asked us to use 
love, and patience, and compassion as lenses through which we’re to 
interpret how we see and hear God in our society today. And, again, to 
repeat what may be becoming obvious, neither Jesus nor His listeners let 
anything get in the way of their understanding and their practical 
experience of God’s love becoming real. And this may be one of the 
warnings to us – a warning OR an encouragement, we can interpret it 
either way – this may be one of the warnings to us as we live each day.

We can become so hung up on the snags that can prevent things from 
happening. The BAC comes up with an idea for a series of programmes; the 
ECW are inspired to engage people in the community schools in different 
ways; the Sunday School children and Patty Wheeler may think of 
something that can enrich both their own experiences and also those of 
others with whom they have contact on a daily basis.

Then someone says – but that’s not in the budget; or, have you looked at 
the age of the folk in our pews and up front there in the sanctuary? Or, 
whatever we might do is just a drop in the bucket and won’t make much of 
a difference, if any at all.

Our hurdles are just like the ones that have faced quadrupeds and bipeds 
since the time they first emerged from the primeval ooze. We fail to 
connect word and deed. Maybe that’s why I find such satisfaction in the 
Episcopal style of worship.

Go to a Presbyterian, or a Baptist, or a Congregational Church and 
you’ll find wonderful sermons, great stories told at such length that 
you may have paralysed buns by the end of the service. But take the same 
stories, even the same interpretations and struggles to understand 
what’s going on in the Bible passages of the day; take these in an 
Episcopal setting and place them alongside action – we call it 
“Sacrament” – take all three Scripture passages this morning, plus the 
psalm and the prayers and the hymns derived from words from the Bible – 
take all that and layer them on top of the recitation of Jesus’ 
historical celebration of a special meal; take all these biblical 
stories and merge them with Bread and Wine, and then we may begin to 
catch a glimpse of the sort of authority which oozed out of Jesus.

	Jesus simply couldn’t talk about God without referring to the woman who 
lived next door, or the child who was playing in the dirt across the 
street, or the family under pressure because they couldn’t pay their 
bills and still put simple bread on the table. Jesus looked that these 
people, and the line of sick and frightened who came to the door of the 
houses wherever He stayed; Jesus looked at everyone and was completely 
unable to separate talking about a loving God and what He felt He and we 
have to do about anyone who’s dis-abled in any way whatsoever.

	I could mention prescription costs; and the burden of bad decisions 
made in the past; or the stress of living with chronic pain which 
doesn’t seem to have any resolution in sight – I could mention these and 
any number of others, and I’d expect to be able to hear Jesus speak so 
clearly and authoritatively about how this morning’s Bible passages are 
directly linked to those things with which we’re wrestling.

	The point about Jesus’ life is that He never acted as if He were the 
greatest thing since sliced goat curds. The point about Jesus’ life is 
that He was always acting in such a manner as to show us how to act. 
“You think I’VE got authority? “ He might have said. “You have as much 
authority, AND as much responsibility for what goes on and how to deal 
with it. You have a question about voting? You worry about the flooding 
and the landslides on the roads? You wonder who’s going to take care of 
this and that?

	“Listen to the stories again,” I can hear Jesus saying, “but don’t ever 
stop there. Let them roll around your imagination and ask how they apply 
to every single thing you’ll encounter today. Then take a stab at doing 
something practical about it. But while you’re letting your imagination 
wrestle with it, why don’t you try to calm down and listen to what’s 
going on. And why don’t you pick up some Bread and Wine, and see what 
you can find in them to help and influence your decision-making.”

	A review in “The Oregonian” last Monday began, “Oregon Symphony music 
director Carlos Kalmar dispensed with his usual remarks about the 
program before the orchestra’s concert Saturday night at the Arlene 
Schnitzer Concert Hall, saying, ‘I don't think there’s anything I need 
to add to Haydn’s “Creation.” Just listen.’” 1

	That’s true, to a certain extent. But any great performance of any 
artistic endeavour draws the audience in to the creative act and makes 
each person a participant, even if on the silent, awe-struck emotional 
level.

  	The spiritual writer Esther de Waal wrote. “Anyone who loves words 
will tend to let themselves be satisfied by them, and as a result stop 
short of true satisfaction. For true satisfaction ... comes when I am 
silent and listen.... When God’s voice is drowned out by incessant 
clamor, whether inner or outer, in whatever shape or form, then 
continuous dialogue with God becomes impossible.” 2

	Jesus DOES call us to be quiet, and to listen, to discover all the 
wonderful sources through which God’s Word is being revealed. But Jesus 
also pleads with us never to stop wrestling with how to make these words 
come alive – for our own sake as well as the sake of the others around 
us.


NOTES:

1 	 
http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2012/01/oregon_symphony_review_haydns.html

2	Esther de Waal, from “A Life-Giving Way” quoted in “Voice of the Day”, 
Sojourners. http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2012/01/17/voice-of-the-day 17th 
January, 2012.



Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)