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I am a Lutheran Pastor offering reflections on what it means to be faithful in a changing world.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Jesus and the Grieving Process

Yesterday, I was at the weekly text study that local clergy gather for each week, to discuss the lectionary readings for the coming Sunday as part of sermon prep. 
When reading through the Gospel text for this Sunday I immediatley thought of last Sunday's Gospel reading and saw Jesus and the disciples in a light that I never saw before. 
An excerpt from last Sunday's Gospel text:  Mark 8:31-32
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.  He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
An excerpt from this Sunday's Gospel text:  Mark 9:30-32
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.

I have done much reading, studying and discussion about the Messianic secret.  The following reflection about these two texts is merely a personal reflection; by no means is it an attempt to be an academic contribution. 

What I saw yesterday when reading this text was a human Jesus coming to terms with his own death and needing to share this with his friends.  In the two incidents the Mark puts before us, I see the disciples react in a way that is completly normal when we hear of loved ones trying to grasp an imminent death.

In Mark 8, Peter rebukes Jesus, when Jesus speaks of the suffering and death he must soon experience.  I remember when my mom was undergoing intial chemo treatment and was wrestling with the sense that she could soon die.  Friends, loved ones, myself included, would rebuke her for saying such things!  It was something that we did not want to hear.  Last summer, I saw this as an outsider looking in, being a chaplain on the oncology unit of Reading Hospital.  Families would often rebuke their loved one when they would first verbalize and acceptance that they will soon die. 

In Mark 9, I totally got to where the disciples got when my mother deteriorated and we knew deep down that a comeback was unlikely.  Granted, the disiciples "didn't understand" but even though I knew what was going on with my mother, I didn't fully understand it either.  What jumped out on me in the two texts was that in the first text their is a rebuke and in the second text there is nothing, a fear to even ask or talk about it.  I remember as time went on my mother asking when she was going to die and myself and others just being quiet, there was no rebuking because we were beggining to recognize the truth about what was happening.  Even though we were still not ready to own or verbalize the truth about what was going on. 

Yesterday, when I engaged the scriptures I didn't just see a Jesus who was just prophesying his death, but a person who was wrestling with his death in a very human way.  This prophet, the Messiah, the Son of Man who knew that he would be raised from the dead still needed to deal with the fact that he would die.  I found it as a source of comfort that our God incarnate would need to grieve the loss of his own life in the same way we would need.  In this reflection I am merely saying that in addition to teaching about what was to happen, that he also wanted to share with his close friends (messianic secret) that he was going to die, and that he needed to say this to those he loved out loud. 

I find comfort and joy that the Risen Chirst, our living God, understands in a very intimate way what we face, when the reality of death draws near to us.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Initial Reflections.....

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!  I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long. - Psalm 146:1

The opening verse to Psalm 146 is a psalm I have gotten to know quite well over this past year because it was the psalm I memorized this past year for my Psalter class. 

Here at Salem we have two worship services that I have found to be very different.  Not different in the sense that one is "traditional" and the other is "contemporary" as many churches across the country have but because of those that are gathering for worship are different. 

On Sunday morning our worship struck me as a pretty run of the mill experience I have had most of my life as a cradle Lutheran. 

 On Tuesdays a meal is provided for people in the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods.  As the meal is being prepared people begin to gather outside as they wait to be fed.  Some attend a Bible Study at 4pm before worship which is at 5 pm which is before the meal that is served at 5:30 pm. 

I would describe the worship to be very abbreviated and informal.....announcements, reading, sermon, prayers, eucharist and sending to the meal many are anxiously waiting for. 

Some people that gather for worship are engaged, some are distracted and others are talking to others as if worship is happening in the background.  Now, I wouldn't considered the noise and distracted behavior demonstrated by some of those gathered as being rude or disrpespectful.  In many ways Tuesday worship and meal is one of the few times some get to see their friends, so in a sense they understand the community aspect of worship. 

On my first Tuesday at Salem I immediatley noticed the noise volume and this attempt for organized worship to break through all of the distraction.  I thought to myself "God is breaking through here, I hope people here see this and understand this."   

Then it hit me!  I knew then what God must feel when God is trying to get through to me on a regular basis.  In my daily life I am constantly distracted and fill my life with noise that can often drowns out God's voice.  As often as I would like to think that I "...sing praises to my God all my life long" as the Psalmist in Psalm 146 does I realize that I have a long way to go.


If there is a Gun Shot in a neighborhood few people care about does it make a sound???

Just the other evening I heard a gunshot in the neighborhood.  Now, I am "comfortable" serving in an urban setting but I am a product of the suburbs and for me part of my faith journey and understanding of where I am called to be in my vocation is that the gospel calls me to be uncomfortable at times.  So, my "comfort" in this context has been a process in wrestling with my discomfort and that tensions is always there and I was quickly reminded of that feelin when this gunshot went off the other evening. 

The next day I confirmed with a neighborhood parishoner that it was indeed a gunshot but heard no news of whether anyone was hurt or anything like that.

The gunshot brought initiated a conversation about the neighborhood with this particular parishoner and he imparted to me some street smart advice.  He said, "Adam, in our neighborhood be a witness to the Lord but thats the only kind of witness you are going to want to be."