Health Tips for Churches Include Fasting and Avoiding Hell

18  Pentecost Cycle B Proper 21 September 27, 2015

Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29  Ps 19

James 4:7-12        Mark 9:38-43,45,47-48

 Lectionary Link
 

   One of the reasons that I am Episcopalian is because we as the middle way in between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, we have natural built in tendencies for being ecumenical.  By ecumenical, I mean that we look for common grounds with all people of faith to affirm what we believe to be good.  By composition we are rather mongrel in that we are constituted by what we have borrowed from other Christians who are in the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions.  Our very identity is formed by our chief heirloom, the Book of Common Prayer.  Our practice of the Book of Common Prayer essentially forms us to be people who are committed to pray together no matter what our differences are.  Because there are as many different Episcopal views as there are Episcopalians and since we do not have an "infallible" church leader to correct us, it gives us more flexibility to be a truly open communion.  And even though many of us believe that our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters have a ways to go regarding the roles of women and gay persons and married clergy in the church, (Remember we had permission to pray in English more than four hundred years before the Roman Catholics did, so their innovation process for some practices of church justice is quite slow), we can still rejoice in the witness of Pope Francis in our country this week.  We thank God for his witness to four American heroes, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton and to the values which each these persons espoused for the betterment of the common good of all people in our country.  We rejoice in his humility and his constant request of asking people to pray for him.  His humility was known after his election when he said he would never speak ex cathedra, which means he would never take on the mantle of an infallible pronouncement.  And this was a hearkening back to the practice of the last great Pope reformer, Pope John the Twenty-Third whose 2nd Vatican Council gave the Roman Catholic Church, finally Books of Common Prayer or liturgies in the vernacular languages.  Imagine that!  In the 1960's Roman Catholics were finally allowed to hear the liturgy in their native languages.  However, we need to remember in matters of justice for all people in the church, four hundred years is too long to wait for change, or that is at least what many Episcopalians think.

  But let us rejoice with Pope Francis for his bringing a refreshing new emphasis to what is important to all Christians.

  I believe the Gospel reading today is proof about the early ecumenism among the various Christian communities which were spread throughout the Roman Empire.  We find evidence in the New Testaments of Paul and Peter disagreeing about practices of Christians.  We find that Paul is often critical of his Gospel rivals even while we find Paul being thankful about the fact that Gospel was preached and not necessarily about how it was preached.

  The communities which brought about the Gospel of Mark understood the oracle of Christ to say, "Don't stop other people from  doing the good work of healing in my name just because we don't personally know them.  If they are doing them in the name of Christ, then that is the right motive.  They don't have to be sanctioned by you as official apostolic authorities."

  In almost every ecumenical discussion, the major area of disagreement has to do with the authority of the ministers.  It is very hard for churches to check the "ministerial egos at the door."  Churches are essentially divided about who are the legitimate successors of Jesus Christ and we use the Bible, tradition and communion size to establish our claims of authority and what do we often miss?  We miss the fact that it does not matter who the minister is, what is important is that the message of health and salvation gets accomplished.

   The Scripture reading gives us some hints on the practice of health and salvation within the communities of faith.  The great leader Moses was a singular leader like the Pope, but he realized that one person could not be Omni competent in ministry.  He realized that authority could not be exhausted by the head leader; rather authority was shared and diversified because the Spirit of God was available to all to bring their gifts for the good of the community.  In baptism, we believe each person is baptized into gifts and authority for special ministry.  Though leadership may be a certain ministry, the most important aspect of leadership is to orchestrate all of the gifts of the community for the common good.  Salvation and health in a community is known when everyone discovers one's gifts and releases them in practice for the benefit of the community.

  The music of Bach and Beethoven can be played and directed by many artists and conductors and still remain the beauty of Bach and Beethoven.  We may prefer certain interpretations of Bach and Beethoven even as Bach and Beethoven remain greater than their interpreters.  The same is with Jesus Christ; Christ remains greater than any of us who seek to heal and comfort in his name.  And Jesus Christ is the main reason for us to check our egos at the door and always defer to the greatness of the health and salvation offered by Jesus Christ.

  The Gospel reading today gives us a hint to healthy practices which might be summarized as fasting and avoiding hell.  Can you imagine a doctor writing this prescription:  Fast and avoid hell?  Probably good advice.  The words of Jesus are exaggerated language about the necessity of fasting in modifying our behavior towards excellence.  If your eye and hand offend you, pluck it out, cut it off.  AA is based upon the reward of permanent fasting called sobriety.  Sometimes we have to access the Higher Power at the springs of our will to simply give up doing things which are harmful to us.  May God give each of us the wisdom of health to know when, where and how long we must fast from harmful behaviors.

   And another good practice of health is this: Avoid hell, and not because we are afraid of little demons with pitch-forked tails.  The word for hell referred to the garbage dump near Jerusalem.  The literal meaning of hell is Waste.  Avoid wasting our lives at all costs.  This is the practice of good health.  Waste means that something gets discarded because it has been broken or is no longer useful.  Our lives in our bodies run out of energy soon enough, so let us not hasten the process by the misuse of all of the resources in our lives.  Avoid hell, let the notion of wasting our lives be the most literal frightening notion of hell for us.  
  Another key to personal and community health is to be at peace with one another.  Jesus called us to be peace makers and we are healthy when we know how to live in peace with one another.

  The Epistle of James gives us another good tip for the practice of health within our community.  Pray for one another.  Like Pope Francis, don't be afraid to ask for prayer and commit to pray for each other.  St. John's has a prayer chain hosted by Robert and it is a vital way for us to practice an orientation toward health.

  And what is another good health and salvation tip of Jesus?  Be spicy.  Be like salt.  When I eat plain popcorn, I might as well just eat a teaspoon of saw dust, but when I put some salt and butter on the popcorn it makes the popcorn a different experience for me.  Why do so many people seem to respond favorably to Pope Francis?   He looks like he's having fun.  He looks like he wants everyone to have fun in doing good.  That is what salty and spicy Christians do; they make others say to the waiter of life, "I'll have what he's having; I'll have what she's having."  Each of us need to find the source of spice in our Christian lives and then live as those who complement this life so others can see health and salvation in practice is not boring but lots of fun.  There is too much suffering in life for us and for everyone for us not to find the right ways to manifest the spicy fun of life.  I suggest that we look to infants and children to help awaken the fun sides of our personalities which can be so suppressed by adult problems.

   So now we have some practices of health and salvation for us.  Exercise our gifts for the common good.  God did not give exclusive and exhaustive authority to leaders.  Don't regard the goodness achieved by others to be a threat or competition to our own good works.  Submit to the wisdom of the practice of fasting when we need to.  Avoid hell; avoid wasting the resources of life. Live at peace with one another.  Pray for one another especially when we have special needs.  And be spicy.  Be the complementing zest of life for others to see how wonderful the health and salvation of Christ is.  Amen.