The Interpretation and Performance of Sacred Texts
(*Scripture is not "Scripture" until the faith community interprets and perform them in Christian Practices).

New Testament Lesson for the Day: James 5.13-20
Gospel Lesson for the Day: Mark 9.38-50.

October 1, 2006

Salted with fire / healed with anointed oils

The Bible constantly pictures the people of God as beleaguered. So, as we begin today, we must let scripture interrogate us...realizing that quoting a scripture text does not end a conversation, it only begins one. Here we are dealing with the "hopeless situations." And, to quote Thomas Merton: "When the church is no longer teaching people how to pray, (in the middle of the "hopeless situations") then we will have lost our reason for existence."

We are facing, daily, what amounts to weather report in Scotland...if you can look out over the Firth of Forth and not see to the other side, it is raining; If you can see, it is about to rain. Distress or the dark clouds are never far away...

Psalm 124, a background text to today's readings expresses sheer astonishment for deliverance...and this, from the hopeless situations --- The language comes at us as an "act of liturgical playfulness"...The congregation is to "play with" the opposite possibilities: "What if' God were not at our side" --- ( which is different than to speak of God being on our side)...The power for life is not held in our hands. "God is "Our help and the life power" --- but not like you might so easily think. There is a sort of With-ness about God which is the comfort.

The tale of Esther (another of our background texts for today) represents a rescue from an impossible situation...God is never mentioned in the Book of Esther...only that behavior, the bold action, which leads to deliverance.

The God of impossible situations...How often have we wondered, "Where is God in all of this?" It is an ancient and profound question:

• In the Gospel of Mark, one of our focused readings for today, we are made aware of this kind of suffering with the metaphor: "salted with fire."
• The Letter of James is written within the larger context of proper speech in the community, advocating the how of our behavior toward "one another-ing one another." (Which, in fact, must always be the created context of our conversations)
• We are admonished by the text, not simply to "pray for each other." It is much more complicated than that.
• There is this scene in Albert Camus' The Plague, where the priest and medical doctor stand over a dead baby. The priest shakes his head: "I do not understand; I do not understand." Then Dr. Rieux says: "Even God cannot separate us now." The words come in on the radio for the quarantined city, where all are condemned to die from the plague: "Oran, we are with you." But are they really? What is the nature of this "With-ness" of the God who is "with" us, which alone has the power to redeem?
• "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective" or the ordinary person has available to him or her, the power of prayer. It is not a private possession of the saints. Several strands of tradition help us here. Paul refers to those who "work miracles," who have "gifts of healing" (I Corinthians 12.)
• If we press further into the impossible situations, and as this text reminds us, what of this question: If God can save, why is my loved one still suffering?
• Prayer and singing songs are offered or being cheerful and acting enthusiastic. Nothing.
• The Elders are called for and the leaders of the church and all the believers pray fervently (verse 16).
• And if calling for the Elders, the laying on of hands, and the anointing of oil, and everyone praying, and singing songs, is still not enough...what then?
• We can dare to look at these ultimate questions here because here is that kind of unique safety enabling us to do so.
• Then the text "takes a turn." The story of Elijah from the Old Testament is introduced, a clear example of the impossible situation, bringing rain for the desert).

Prayer is a gift and a power made available to the church and every child of God; but it is God alone who "raises them up" like God raised Jesus up. Healing comes from God. It is not magic, as if what we do and how we do it better is the issue, the many turnings of the prayer wheel, trying harder with what Jesus called mere "vain repetition." No.

The difference here is between prayer as a gift or prayer as a technique. (See the current book by Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking).

Prayer as a "gift" means it is God who "raises them up." Healing comes from God alone. There is no silver bullet.

Then the text abruptly strays from the larger topic of appropriate speech, and its discussion of prayer, to reflect upon truth-telling in general, that which is necessary when believers stray from the truth. It is about forms of discipline that one member of the body brings to the other; here is strong language about "rebuke" and "reprove": "Whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and (in so doing) will 'cover a multitude of sins.'" (v. 20).

So what about what we used to call: "Soul winning"? --- the sheer joy of seeing someone turn to conversations of eternal significance. For you see, how we talk to one another is important.

"Rescuing one another from death" (is more than having the right doctrine or even the right practices... it is to come along side of God's work, to discern when God is alive, sensed and sighted as active in the world, and to be with that.

Mark 9.38-50 Speaks of an unhealthy feeling of special - ness, as though God's love were somehow limited to a few. This narrative is loosely put together, and it reflects the problems in Mark's church. First there is the debate over who is greatest; then the interchange between John and Jesus about the alien exorcist, followed by a single saying about reward for those who welcome Jesus' disciples (v. 41). A warning is offered about the tragedy of leading "these little ones" astray--- (a code word for "new converts," verse 42), followed by warnings about patterns of stumbling "within and over one's self"...and the final two verses, a scatter-shot of disjointed sayings about salt and fire. Then the concluding benedictory: to be at peace with one another. It is a veritable Roller Coaster Ride!

There is a felt irony here in this text: earlier the disciples could not heal or exorcise the young boy and Jesus' offers a sharp rebuke: "This kind only comes out of him with much prayer." James moves beyond this question...even much prayer does not work. Now what?

The outside healer was forbidden: "We tried to stop him," the disciples said. Just as later the children were forbidden from coming to Jesus...

Space has to be made for mavericks and outsiders. It is only as the first century encounters the "different" that they are dragged by the Holy Spirit into mission. Nurture, then, this gift of hospitality, graciousness, generosity..."by so doing many have entertained angels without being aware of it." In the receiving of a "cup of cold water" along the way, a gift and practice of spiritual discipline has been experienced which the disciples should well emulate.

Instead of worrying about the ministries of outsiders, look to your own ministry --- that is the gist of it.

We are being asked to examine ourselves, or, paraphrasing Socrates, to know that an "un - reflective life is not worth living."

But we cannot afford to be tempted away from where this scripture is leading us. It is so easy to be distracted into chasing rabbits --- far a-field from the main thrust of this Word from God, which is: A WHOLEHEARTED COMMITMENT TO THE DIVINE REIGN OF GOD...God has a purpose for you...align yourself with it.

"Everyone will be salted with fire," warns of the coming persecution. Don't lose your distinctiveness (salt). Don't merely blend in; be a "peculiar people," and an alternative community. The question for the church is always this: what can one get here that is not to be had anywhere else...conversation over ultimate questions. Only by not being swallowed up by the culture do you have a chance to be a part in saving it from itself. It is not an easy assignment.

In the community of memory and hope, we cannot go it alone. So "be at peace with one another."

I was once asked to go up in to a hospital room and "get my father, who is dying, into heaven." What do you do? Well, you go. I could only talk about my own hope in the resurrection, why it made sense to me. We had a conversation. This ex-Marine, who was dying, reflected for a moment...His simple words in response were: "Well, that's a Comfort." The next day he died. He was not cured; but I have to believe he was healed.

In living the resurrection, as Christians, there is a difference in the conversations we will have with one another...

The words of an old Welch Hymn take us to this special place of reflection and hope:

Go my children with my blessing, never alone
Walking, sleeping, I am with you, you are my own.
In my love's baptismal river I have made you mine forever
Go, my children, with my blessing, you are my own.

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