17th Sunday After Pentecost, September 20, 2015

Collect for the Day

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Reflections: These days, Europe is reeling from mass migrations; an unprecedented number of refugees are fleeing Africa and the Middle East because of violence, hunger, and terrible poverty. We are entering a period of serious uncertainty and flux.

European countries are torn by conflicting imperatives: to welcome those who have had to leave everything behind, or to protect the economic and social wellbeing of the nation. You and I face similar struggles on a smaller scale every time we are confronted with need. May we remember that when we respond to the needy, we are responding to Christ himself. 

First Reading: Jeremiah 11:18-20

It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew; then you showed me their evil deeds.
But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.
And I did not know it was against me that they devised schemes, saying,
‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living,
   so that his name will no longer be remembered!’
But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously, who try the heart and the mind,
let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. 

Reflections: My first impression of the prophetic books—having never actually read them, was that they were tedious, wordy, and repetitious. Bizarre imagery didn’t help.

Then, during my studies at the Anglican School of Theology (in its heyday back in the 1980’s), I actually read them. Funny, how God confronts us with our prejudices. I remember the day I suddenly recognized the text of Jeremiah as poetry.

Now, that was completely different. We don’t bring the same expectations to poetry as we do, say, to a novel or a car repair manual. And because of that, we don’t read it with the same greediness for information. Instead, we allow poetry to wash over us—like music or the colors in a painting. That’s not to say poetry doesn’t have a message, but that it doesn’t speak to the same part of our brain. The most poetic passages in a prophetic text—unlike the passages in Numbers or Leviticus, for example—can drift deep into the soul when we give them the space and the time they deserve. 

Psalm 54

Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your might.
Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.

For the insolent have risen against me, the ruthless seek my life;
   they do not set God before them.

But surely, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.
He will repay my enemies for their evil. In your faithfulness, put an end to them.

With a freewill-offering I will sacrifice to you;
   I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
For he has delivered me from every trouble,
   and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies. 

Epistle: James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. 

Reflections: St. James, like St. Paul, contrasts the wisdom of this world—cleverness at getting ahead, crushing the competition, looking out for number one—with the wisdom of God. Admittedly, the wisdom of God may not bring any recognizable signs of success. It may even rest in people whom we would never consider successful. But the true reward, surely, is to be at peace with God, a reward that cannot be snatched by competition, only received with gratitude.

Gospel: Mark 9:30-37

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.’ But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’ 

Reflections: It is easy to follow Christ when we can reap rewards. We can feel righteous, be pious, needed, respected, admired, loved. Who wouldn’t want to be great in Christ’s kingdom?

But part of Jesus’ message didn’t appeal to the disciples, so they put it out of mind as soon as possible. We resist it, too. The fact is, we yearn to be somebody. It’s difficult to accept that our deepest “somebodiness” might lie in being entirely dismissed. Or slandered. Or even crucified.

          My mentor Lynn Bauman once told us, “The desire for power—even to do good—is corrupt.” Perhaps the source of real power is the desire to do good. I wonder where that desire comes from.