18 Pentecost Cycle b Proper 20 September 23, 2018
Wisdom
of Solomon 1:16-2:1, 12-22 Ps. 54
James
3:13-4:3, 7-8a Mark 9:30-37
Lectionary Link
One of the most difficult things for me to learn and remember about the New Testament has to do with the issue of chronological confusion. By this, I mean that I know logically that Jesus came before Paul and the church. But in writing of the New Testament, St. Paul's and the apostles' spiritual experience came before the writings which retold the life of Jesus. What this means is that the Gospels were written in a way to account for what had been happening in the early church. But they had to be written in ways that were not blatantly anachronistic, that is, they did not want to import into telling about the life of Jesus the obvious experiences of the much later church. How could the experiences of the church be told using the life and words of Jesus to anticipate the success of the Christian mission in the Roman Empire?
St. Paul did not see Jesus; he had mystical experience of the Risen Christ. More people had mystical experiences of the Risen Christ than had personal experience of Jesus in his own time. Jesus was much more popular after his Resurrection appearances than he was in his own time in the limited areas of Palestine.
How could the story of the success of the church be told using the life narratives of Jesus?
In the mysticism of St. Paul, he had a profound experience of identity with Christ. Paul said, "Christ lived within him." Paul said that "Christ was all and in all." Paul said that he lived "in Christ." How does one take this poetry of mystical identity and re-relate it through the telling of the life of Jesus of Nazareth?
One of the teaching illustrations of the Gospel is what I would call neo-natal, infant and child theology. John the Baptist before he was born leapt in his mother's womb in recognizing Mary who was carrying Jesus the Messiah in her womb. Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be "born again." Poor Nick wondered about how he as an old man could get back into his mother's womb. The Gospel writer showed Jesus saying, "Nick, it's not about literalism; it is about the mystical experience of new birth." Jesus said God had withheld the mystery from the wise and had revealed it to infants. Jesus said that one had to be like a child to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus told his disciples who were shooing the children way, "Let the children come to me; don't forbid them because the kingdom of God belong to such as these."
And in today's Gospel we have what I would call the sacramental theology of the child. We call the bread and wine of Holy Eucharist, sacramental because they bear to us the presence of Christ. While the disciples argued about who was going to be the greatest and have the best positions, Jesus took a child and said, "If you receive this child, then you have received me and the one who sent me." How many people presume to easily find Christ in the bread and wine and not find it in babies and children? Jesus was telling power hungry people that if they didn't take care of the vulnerable child as being important to their life, then they did not understand him or God, his Father.
I am blessed each day to be at the door of our preschool and welcome the children and the babies. I strongly believe in the theology of the child as promoted by Jesus in the Gospel writings. I think that the theology of the child is the most obvious natural spiritual theology of all.
If we discriminate against a person because of his or her age, then we will miss the ministry of the people in that age group. The disciples were adult bean counters; obvious adults like themselves are most valuable for the Jesus Movement. "We know who the Movement needs to be successful. And we are evangelist executives in our prime, so we are indispensable to the success of the movement." Each were saying to Jesus, "I want to be your main man."
And what did Jesus do? He brought a child in their midst. And what can a child do? The child can't preach. The child can't give any money. Maybe a child could be an errand boy or girl, but are they really important to the success of the Jesus Movement?
And what did Jesus say? "See this child. If you receive this child you have received me." The values of Jesus were different from his disciples who wanted to be great in the Jesus Movement. Yes, the Jesus movement is about preaching and teaching, but it is also an intergenerational community. The community needs everyone because each person bears the image of something important to the entire community.
What does a child do for the community? Children carry with them the state of living that has been forgotten by us adults. We adults have tasted the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. We have become hurt by life; we have become disillusioned, disappointed and we have become protective and sometimes even cynical. As adults we can easily lose the joy of living and the sense of wonder and curiosity. That is why we need children and babies; they bear the secrets of what we have forgotten or have quit trying to find with spiritual practice. Jesus reminds us that we will not find the kingdom of God as a parallel existence in this world if we have lost our ability to have wonder.
When we project upon a baby or child, we have to soften up; we have to put our adult aspect of personality on hold and access our child aspect of personality. And if we can do that we will understand Christ and we will be able to access the parallel world of the kingdom of God which coexists with all of the adult life of this world which is chock full of good and bad things.
The wonder of the child is beyond good and evil of our adult world. And we need to access this aspect of ourselves if we are going be able to integrate all the stages of the age cycles of our lives.
God has placed the agents of innocence in our lives in our babies and children, and even in our pets. These are gifts to us to project on them and recover what we might have lost with all of our adult seriousness.
Let us receive the witness of the child and vulnerable today as the Gospel lesson that Jesus wanted to teach this world. Let us tend to the children of the world; but let us also attend to the child aspect of our own personalities so that we might tap into an incredible capacity for new birth, original joy and hope for our future.
Come and find the presence of Christ in the bread and wine, but don't stop there; in the innocence of children and babies we can also access the wonder of the presence of Christ. Amen.
One of the most difficult things for me to learn and remember about the New Testament has to do with the issue of chronological confusion. By this, I mean that I know logically that Jesus came before Paul and the church. But in writing of the New Testament, St. Paul's and the apostles' spiritual experience came before the writings which retold the life of Jesus. What this means is that the Gospels were written in a way to account for what had been happening in the early church. But they had to be written in ways that were not blatantly anachronistic, that is, they did not want to import into telling about the life of Jesus the obvious experiences of the much later church. How could the experiences of the church be told using the life and words of Jesus to anticipate the success of the Christian mission in the Roman Empire?
St. Paul did not see Jesus; he had mystical experience of the Risen Christ. More people had mystical experiences of the Risen Christ than had personal experience of Jesus in his own time. Jesus was much more popular after his Resurrection appearances than he was in his own time in the limited areas of Palestine.
How could the story of the success of the church be told using the life narratives of Jesus?
In the mysticism of St. Paul, he had a profound experience of identity with Christ. Paul said, "Christ lived within him." Paul said that "Christ was all and in all." Paul said that he lived "in Christ." How does one take this poetry of mystical identity and re-relate it through the telling of the life of Jesus of Nazareth?
One of the teaching illustrations of the Gospel is what I would call neo-natal, infant and child theology. John the Baptist before he was born leapt in his mother's womb in recognizing Mary who was carrying Jesus the Messiah in her womb. Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be "born again." Poor Nick wondered about how he as an old man could get back into his mother's womb. The Gospel writer showed Jesus saying, "Nick, it's not about literalism; it is about the mystical experience of new birth." Jesus said God had withheld the mystery from the wise and had revealed it to infants. Jesus said that one had to be like a child to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus told his disciples who were shooing the children way, "Let the children come to me; don't forbid them because the kingdom of God belong to such as these."
And in today's Gospel we have what I would call the sacramental theology of the child. We call the bread and wine of Holy Eucharist, sacramental because they bear to us the presence of Christ. While the disciples argued about who was going to be the greatest and have the best positions, Jesus took a child and said, "If you receive this child, then you have received me and the one who sent me." How many people presume to easily find Christ in the bread and wine and not find it in babies and children? Jesus was telling power hungry people that if they didn't take care of the vulnerable child as being important to their life, then they did not understand him or God, his Father.
I am blessed each day to be at the door of our preschool and welcome the children and the babies. I strongly believe in the theology of the child as promoted by Jesus in the Gospel writings. I think that the theology of the child is the most obvious natural spiritual theology of all.
If we discriminate against a person because of his or her age, then we will miss the ministry of the people in that age group. The disciples were adult bean counters; obvious adults like themselves are most valuable for the Jesus Movement. "We know who the Movement needs to be successful. And we are evangelist executives in our prime, so we are indispensable to the success of the movement." Each were saying to Jesus, "I want to be your main man."
And what did Jesus do? He brought a child in their midst. And what can a child do? The child can't preach. The child can't give any money. Maybe a child could be an errand boy or girl, but are they really important to the success of the Jesus Movement?
And what did Jesus say? "See this child. If you receive this child you have received me." The values of Jesus were different from his disciples who wanted to be great in the Jesus Movement. Yes, the Jesus movement is about preaching and teaching, but it is also an intergenerational community. The community needs everyone because each person bears the image of something important to the entire community.
What does a child do for the community? Children carry with them the state of living that has been forgotten by us adults. We adults have tasted the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. We have become hurt by life; we have become disillusioned, disappointed and we have become protective and sometimes even cynical. As adults we can easily lose the joy of living and the sense of wonder and curiosity. That is why we need children and babies; they bear the secrets of what we have forgotten or have quit trying to find with spiritual practice. Jesus reminds us that we will not find the kingdom of God as a parallel existence in this world if we have lost our ability to have wonder.
When we project upon a baby or child, we have to soften up; we have to put our adult aspect of personality on hold and access our child aspect of personality. And if we can do that we will understand Christ and we will be able to access the parallel world of the kingdom of God which coexists with all of the adult life of this world which is chock full of good and bad things.
The wonder of the child is beyond good and evil of our adult world. And we need to access this aspect of ourselves if we are going be able to integrate all the stages of the age cycles of our lives.
God has placed the agents of innocence in our lives in our babies and children, and even in our pets. These are gifts to us to project on them and recover what we might have lost with all of our adult seriousness.
Let us receive the witness of the child and vulnerable today as the Gospel lesson that Jesus wanted to teach this world. Let us tend to the children of the world; but let us also attend to the child aspect of our own personalities so that we might tap into an incredible capacity for new birth, original joy and hope for our future.
Come and find the presence of Christ in the bread and wine, but don't stop there; in the innocence of children and babies we can also access the wonder of the presence of Christ. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment