14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 9) Year B

2 Samuel 5.1-5, 9-10
Psalm 48
2 Corinthians 12.2-10
Mark 6.1-33

Sometimes we try to diminish it, but physicality is important.

Again and again as we read through the sacred texts of Judaism and
Christianity we find a lot of importance given to physical things like
places and bodies.

Often folks talk about how God is everywhere and how we as individual
believers don't need to be in any one place to commune with God.
Well, we think that is mostly true. However, whether we look to our
own individual experiences or we look to the stories we find in
scripture, we see that while there is not necessarily any one place
people must go to commune with God, there are certainly places where
it seems to the presence of God is "more present" or more available or
more accessible or something.

And specific physical locations and specific aspects of our own bodies
seem to be important to our own spirituality and how we interact with
one another and with ourselves and with God.

As we look toward the Hebrew text for the week, it is no secret even
today how important the physicality of the dirt and stones and olive
trees of Israel or Palestine or Judea or Hebron or the City of David
are. For the Israelites, who were once slaves without their own
"place," the land is critically important and God-given. The
political stake of land protection and domination mixes and mingles in
this text with the spiritual connection that they feel for these
places. Truly, their geopolitical interests arise from their
understanding of what God has done for them. David's kingship over
these places is real because "the LORD, the God of hosts, was with
him." Think of the importance of place as we approach the birthday of
our purple mountain's majesty and amber waves of grain.

The psalmist writes in praise of Zion, the place from which God's
protection emanates. It is intriguing to us that it is the
expectation that it was the physical glory of Zion that would bear
witness to the next generation about the glory and power of God.
These praises are written, like 1 and 2 Samuel, as a reflection during
the reign of David, a uniquely unified time in the political history
of Judah and Israel. But the unity, the good times, the developing
infrastructure must have held great promise.

And then, in the gospel of Mark, we see Jesus returning to his
hometown. Many of us probably have feelings about "hometown." Maybe
hometown is a place of refuge and comfort. For others, it might be a
reminder of the things and places of the past that we choose to
escape. Jesus has been in ministry with the apostles and has been
teaching and performing miracles outside of his hometown. Perhaps he
was expecting to arrive in his hometown to be recognized for "Who" he
was. But they were sort of astounded by the teachings he brought, as
if he was somehow out of bounds as a carpenter and hometown boy to be
speaking and acting in the way that he was.

In Paul's second letter to the church at Corinth, he does not directly
address place, but he does talk about receiving a special revelation.
This sort of revelation via cosmic journey was sort of "in vogue"
among Jewish writers in the era in which Paul wrote. It was through
this revelation that Paul claims to embrace his weakness as a human,
to endure criticism, hardship and persecution because in Christ, he is
strong.

We are bodily creatures attuned to the places in which we dwell...our
work, our home, our hometowns, our holy spots. And we wonder, is God
equally present in all of these places? Do we invite God to be
equally present in all of these places? Or does God "belong" somewhere
specific in our lives.

What places seem sacred to you? Why?
Where are you at home? Is God's presence known there? Why or why not?


God of sand and trees and rocks and air...
Guide each of us as we discover, and return to,
the places we find and have found you.
Help us as we attempt to respect and rest in Your Presence
in us and in the buildings and people and mountains and rivers
where you have made yourself known.
Help us as we attempt to follow you.
Amen.

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 8), Year B

2 Samuel 1.1, 17-27
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 8.7-15
Mark 5.21-43

In a wonderful book titled All Our Losses, All Our Griefs, Kenneth Mitchell and Herbert Anderson work with this basic premise: All change is loss. All losses must be mourned.

All change is loss.

All losses must be mourned.

We can experience relational losses, functional losses, material losses, intrapsychic losses (losing images of one's self or losing future possibilities), role losses, and systemic losses (someone changes offices or a family member moves out of the house or a person leaves an important position in a church). Losses can be both avoidable and unavoidable. We can lose things that were important to us and we can loose things that were painful to us. Whether we liked them or not, when something changes a hole is created.

All losses must be acknowledged and mourned.

This week's lectionary readings show folks being confronted with and processing (mourning) different kinds of change in their lives.

The text from 2 Samuel is the beginning of a new chapter in the history of Israel. David is receiving word of Saul's death. This military defeat is seen as a defeat of the God of Israel -- David had respected Saul as "the Lord's anointed." Upon word of his death, David lashes out and has the messenger killed. Then he "intoned this lamentation" -- he sang a song of mourning and lament. He praised Saul and his son and called the Israelites to mourning. He pours out his own pain and anguish. If you read past the selected text, David then goes on to seek the Lord's wisdom for his next act, and after he is anointed king, he praises the community that had collected Saul's body and respected it with burial.

Psalm 130 is also a lament. The Israelites understood deep within their culture the importance of looking at their grief, speaking to it, naming it and laying it before God. In their laments, there is also hope. They look forward to a return to normal - not a normal that was, but a new normal that will be.

From the Gospel of Mark, we have intertwined tales of 2 miracles. Jesus has just gotten off the boat in which he calmed the stormy sea, and he's almost immediately approached by Jairus, who is beside himself because his daughter is dying. He has sought out Jesus because he believes that this man can do something. Imagine the scene - Jesus agrees to walk along with this man. Jesus is attracting crowds and people are curious about the rumors they are hearing. It would seem by now that there might be sort of a non-stop stream of miracle seekers stalking Jesus. As the crowd follows along, a woman reaches out in desperacy and touches his garment. And in a moment, she is cured of a lifelong bleeding problem and Jesus is somehow aware that healing power has just gone out from him. He speaks briefly to to woman, and assures her that it is her faith that has made her well (can you imagine?....what would you have left to talk / complain about if a pain you had known all your life was suddenly gone?). He then proceeds to Jairus' house, where the gathered are already in mourning for a dead girl. But Jesus shocks them all, sends them away and gathers the girl's parents to her side. "Wake up, little girl." And she wakes. Now these are stories not about seeming loss, but about restoration and gain. But how quickly everyone's circumstances changed. Things that people were living with - that they thought they knew - were changed, and all of them left the scene having to integrate these changes in to their lives.

Finally, in Paul's second letter to the church and Corinth, he is appealing to the community for money, a collection, to help the "poor." It's actually a stewardship Sunday speech that he's giving them, reminding them that Jesus humbled himself in death so that they can have life in abundance (grace). Out of that abundance, they can provide others with abundance in times of need. Not really about loss so much, right? Well, this letter was written late in Paul's ministry in the Mediterranean. That means that the early church is approaching a second generation of members past the death of Jesus. There are few left, if any, who would have known Jesus' teachings directly. What sort of loss do organizations experience when a leader goes away, dies, or changes? The epistles are largely Paul's counsel passed on to communities trying to find their way in changing circumstances. There are persecutions going on around them. There are false prophets claiming to have the next answer. There is the unfulfilled expectation of Jesus' return to set everything to rights. Change and loss are everywhere.

When something changes, a hole is created.

All losses must be acknowledged and mourned.

Where do you hide losses that you are unprepared to mourn?
How do you mourn? Who do you invite to mourn with you? Why?

Creator...I think sometimes that creation
is always about generation...
about new emerging from old or void.
And perhaps it is.
Perhaps new holes in my heart
are indeed new creation.
But it hurts
and you feel so far away.
Everything feels
so far away.
Help me find rest in this space
and time and emptiness.
Amen.

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 7), Year B

Job 38.1-11
Psalm 107. 1-3, 23-32
2 Corinthians 6.1-13
Mark 4.35-41

Wouldn't it be great if we could at least have a list of all the things we did not know? It seems like it would somehow be helpful to at least know what it is we don't know. Most of us have a decent grasp on the fact that we do not know everything, but it is often hard to specifically know exactly what it is we don't know at all or what we don't fully understand about the things we do know a little about. Maybe that would be a step in the direction of a little more humility in the world and in our relationships.

And speaking of things we do not know....maybe there are some things we just cannot know. No matter how deep or how far the methods of science and discovery can take us, maybe there are just some things that we as humans to not have the ability or capacity to grasp. Maybe we are not meant to fully understand how the univerise was created, maybe we are not capable of identifying genetic causes of all diseases, maybe it will always remain a mystery why there are so many single socks in our laundry room.

And, traditionally, in most belief systems when faced with a mystery, the response is often (some version of) "Only God Knows" or "Let Go and Let Yahweh" or "It is all in Allah's Hands", etc.

This week our lectionary readings have us look at some of the things we don't know and some of the things folks in the stories didn't even know they didn't know.

The first scripture is such a great example, we could stop with it. The story of Job is one that lots of folks swing around for a lot of different purposes. Often people want to focus on the topic of Job being "tested" or on how Job lost everything and then was returned to material wealth, but (for us) the important part of Job comes in the last three chapters. Chapter after chapter recount Job and his friends questioning each other and questioning Job as to why he lost his family and material success. And then we get to chapter 38 where it says "and God answered Job out of the whirlwind..." Job and his friends spent a lot of time trying to answer a question it was not theirs to answer. God responds to Job and reminds him that there are some things known only by God.

In Psalm 107 we have several verses that describes God Redeeming people from a variety of trouble and distress. It is a description of folks being "saved" from situations and contexts in which folks normally perish...it is a description of things happening that are not explicable by any human logic...some things are only possible and only understood by God.

In Paul's letter to the followers of Jesus in Corinth he offers many examples of the reasons he and his fellow followers of Jesus should have been killed or changed their minds, but somehow and for some reason they have made it through. Verses 2-10 are a beautiful testimony by someone who knows what he doesn't know. Paul knows that he shouldn't have survived those tests and trials and that it is only by the Grace of God that he is still there.

In Mark we see another Classic Bible Story. Jesus and the disciples get on a boat to cross the sea, a violent storm blows in, the disciples get frightened and ask Jesus to do something, Jesus speaks directly to the storm and the sea, and then Jesus points out to the disciples something that they did not know they did not know. Jesus stops the wind and the waves in a way that no human can do. And then he points out to the disciples a lesson they had not really been faced with so far--they did not know that Faith was something that they might not have fully developed, that they could develop and that with their faith, they might be able to overcome the fear instilled by a violent storm out on the sea.

The scope of what we do not know - what we cannot know - is sometimes too hard to comprehend and maybe (just maybe) our pride gets in the way of our admitting to what we cannot know.

Have you identified unknowable mysteries in your life? What do you do with those mysteries?
Are there things that you cannot accept not knowing? Why?
For you, what is the difference between knowledge and belief?

God,
There is so much before me every day -
so much that I cannot understand,
so much that I cannot know.
And what I cannot know,
I cannot control - and that is hard.
Help me to relax to be still
and to know that
You are God,
for some days,
that is all I can know.
Amen