Proper 20B
September 24, 2006
Mark 9:30-37
I seem to have the Old West stuck on my brain lately. And I don’t think it’s just because of Friday night’s Tent party. I seem to keep bumping into it and its themes. From the choice in my books to the movies on TV that seem to draw me in, even in the last remaining minutes of the campiest of Westerns. There is something about the idea of the Old West that fascinates me. Perhaps it’s the endurance of good versus evil that is represented in films like True Grit, or Rio Bravo, Stagecoach or How the West Was Won. If only it were so easy.
One of my disciplines in gearing up and studying for my sermons is to look to the history and derivation of the Collect of the Day, the opening prayer just read Jackie/Ned. You might be interested to know that this Collect is from the Leonine Sacramentary, and this is its first usage in the Book of Common Prayer. Written during the 7th century, its words reflect the adversity faced by the first millennium Church by barbarian invasions: even as Attila the Hun was approaching Rome, this prayer was said. Only one of these books is known to exist in all the world. Yet the prayers endure. This prayer was absent from our rotation of collects for nearly 400 years, it recently came back into use in our current Prayer Book. Even though the reformers and writers excerpted it from the Church’s usage, this prayer endures, and I am thankful for that.
The collect says that even while we are placed among things that are passing away, [we are], to hold fast to those that shall endure.
So, what are those things that shall endure?
The recent meetings of the dissatisfied Bishops of ECUSA last week in New York City makes one wonder if our Anglican Communion will endure. Closer to home the decision of our neighboring Episcopal Diocese of Quincy to seek alternative Primatial oversight only adds more salt to the situation. Closer still, literally 6 blocks from my apartment in Evanston, the incursion by a renegade and schismatic Anglican Bishop from Bolivia made headlines in last Monday’s Chicago Tribune. What will endure? Is this mere anxiety over earthly things? It is troubling b/c one wonders if these events are heavenly or things earthly
I think our Gospel today explicitly points to two specific things that endure. First is Christ’s presence in all persons, especially in the powerless and disenfranchised. Notice that the powerless child is right there with Christ and the disciples. Jesus didn’t have to travel to another side of town or walk a little further, the poor child was right there, face to face with God’s son.
The second thing that endures, in this passage, is the reality of the Cross. We all carry them. More often than not we ignore them or take the long way around them. Yet the cross endures. The suffering of the righteous, for the righteous, endures for the sake of justice. When we ignore the events taking place around us, chocking them up to “earthly things”, are we taking the easy route by waiting, are we skirting around the issues confronting our church, and even our country by taking the path of least struggle by ignoring the reality of the Cross?
What would Christ have us do in the face of such disagreement over polity and biblical interpretation and hospitality and inclusion of all people? What would Christ have us do, Church? Well, I imagine that Christ would do exactly what he did in our Gospel. We don’t need one of those WWJD bracelets to figure out what to do in the face of the Crosses before us. Christ would welcome the Child. He would welcome the least of society into his arms, into his presence; ignoring the earthly assaults and indignities. We must continue praying, and serving, serving and praying through the cross, despite the annoying arguments or infighting for status or orthodoxy among the Church today, the living Apostles. The power of love and hospitality transcends the ignominy of the Cross, because far more people are changed through love than through succumbing to the fear of adversity. Knowing that the struggle of the cross lay ahead of him and that all dignity would be taken from him, Jesus welcomes the Child; he ignored the sufferings of the future for the sake of comforting the powerless.
The thing about the Old West, at least the film portrayals of it, was the absolute certainty of who was good and who was evil. Evil was as discernable as seeing who wore the black hat. But real life doesn’t work that way. Christ turns all of those certainties upside-down. The weak become powerful, the powerful become weak, and God becomes man. In the end all earthly status and designations become null and void, but love endures.
Christ turns all society upside-down; Christ’s loving presence in the face of conflagration and chastisement; denominational and ecclesiastical disagreements transcends the humiliation and suffering of the Cross. The Crosses of our life and society are certain, but can be overcome by hope and love. Even as we look to the world and can easily name and designate evil in our midst, it will still be there; suffering goes on. Remember that while we the church bicker and fight over who can be in or out of the Anglican Communion, the world still faces its crosses. Focus on things heavenly, focus on service and ministry and care for the weakest among us. Serve God, serve your neighbor; and worry not about the things passing away.
