Memorial
Church
Harvard University
July
5th, 2015
Good
morning. If you are visiting Memorial Church let me welcome you. This place of
worship and teaching at the heart of a great university is unique and important
in American life and in the life of this city. This week-end it is a good place
to be and it is important to reflect together and to share prayers.
Jan and I
always enjoy our times here and this week-end is the anniversary of our move to
Boston from New Haven a very long time ago. We came for a year thinking that we
would then be drawn west and we are still here.
Beware of
decisions made off handedly as they can sometimes be the most important
decisions you make.
Let us
pray: Lord, may the words from my mouth edify and may the intentions of my
heart be appropriate for this hour.
Amen
Our texts
for the morning are at one level quite appropriate for the heart of a
university for they remind those of us who are parents to beware of what we
pray for. The hand we are dealt when we bring children into the world, when we
bring children into our lives in any fashion, often plays out in ways that
confound and surprise us.
David is 30
when he is called to rule the united kingdoms of Israel and Judah; it is some
years after he had been called by Samuel to rule a portion of the divided
kingdom. You want your sons and daughters to succeed, but no one in his family
thought this was what would happen. They are astonished even as they are honored, but given the course of the next 40
years we know that at least someone thought or said: wait a minute, are you
sure you want to be this successful?
Mark is the
gospel we are reading for a period on Sundays during this summer if we follow
the common Lectionary. Tradition has it that John Mark wrote the book while in
Rome and that it was drawn from the preaching of Peter. There are few actual
words spoken by Jesus. His teaching depends on parables which by definition
call on us to seek out understanding. These are stories that make a point and
may be carried in memory to be called upon when needed or when insight offers
new conclusions that bring new insight.
We are told that those closest to Jesus understood although their
actions later tend to make us wonder if that is true. Others are left to
ponder. We with the benefit of history can think through these tales as we do
this morning.
As Jesus
moves through Galilee he draws close to his home and we get a sense that all is
not right with his family. His mother and brother come to watch him worried
that all is not right. They are concerned about him. They are afraid he has lost his mind. It is
one thing to wish for a child to be a Torah scholar, but where did he get these
notions?
Think for a
moment of your dreams for your children, of your dreams for yourself. We have
so many. The poet Freyla Manfred sums up
the end of so many of our dreams;
Imagine
This
Imagine this: only one leg and lucky to have it,,,,
Smoothing down the sidewalk on a magic moving chair,
Teaching every child you meet the true story
Of this sad, sweet, tragic, Fourth of July world.”
And what is
the true story? Sounds a bit like the musings of a Marathon bombing
survivor. The true story is that things
often do not go as hoped in this “sweet, sad, tragic, 4th of July
world”. His family had hopes for Jesus;
he might become a great teacher. More simply they wanted him to do well, have a
family, live near home and here he is coming into town on a river of rumors,
stirring the gossip in the neighborhood with stories of what he has done.
Jesus
preaching in his own religious community left his audience gasping: not at his
wisdom but at his arrogance.
When told
his mother and brothers are there he redefines family: “who are my mother and
my brothers? And looking around on those near him, he said, “Here are my
mothers and my brothers!” How often have
we heard these stories as children become adults and redefine their lives in
“this sad, sweet, tragic, 4th of July world.”?
“Where did you get these notions, they asked?”
the question is appropriate and in keeping with the tenor of the gospel of
Mark. Held to be the earliest of the
gospels, Mark is also a minimalist text.
The book tends to offer few details, The other gospels expand and fill
in gaps in information but in Mark the story unfolds in short, terse paragraphs
leaving us to go elsewhere for details. We do well to remember than the church
in Mark’s day had no place else to go. It is only later that we enjoy multiple
witnesses.
And now he
is in town teaching at the local synagogue. He has come with tales of healing
and parables about seeds sown and an uncertain harvest. He speaks of the
smallest seed growing into the largest tree. People wonder who speaks for him.
Sometimes those whom he has aided have been told to tell no one: “remain
silent, tell no one.” Sometimes the word
is tell every one. He even healed a
woman who was not Jewish and left a leader of the synagogue waiting while he
did so. Now he gave life to Jairus’ daughter, but the symbolism spoke volumes.
The “A” list had been turned upside down. The other, the stranger was as
important as the conventionally religious.
His loudest
fan was a man who was said to have been insane. He had gone around the
neighborhood telling people Jesus had made him whole. He was about as welcome
as Donald Trump would be at a celebration of Cinco de Mayo. What is a mother to
do in this “sad, sweet, tragic 4th of July world.”?
Comparing
the world of Jesus’ day to our 4th of July world may be a bit
misleading. The 4th of July exudes triumphalism; there was little of
that in Nazareth. We know how the story ends, but forget how it began: in
defeat. Mark leaves out the details, but the prospects are not good. Jesus is
said to have been nearly powerless in his home regions; only a few told stories
of being healed.
When he
sends out the 12 on a mission they go not as conquerors, but rather as those
who may be ignored. If so, they are told not to act with power but rather to
move on to where they are welcome. Go on, do your work. What he is specific
about is that they are not to seek out the plush places, the comfortable B and
Bs but to stay among the people and do their work.
This 4th
of July we are grappling with enormous dislocation. The stock-markets hang on
the results of the Greek vote. We live
in fear of the other named Isis. And we
talk of Jesus who came home and was rejected. It is one thing to be rejected by
strangers, but these were people who knew him. And yet he continued to teach
and heal in a sad, sweet, tragic, 4th of July world.
Maybe
things would be clearer if he had spoken more pointedly rather than using parables, but people were challenged by
them: looking but not seeing, listening but not understanding and when they did
see; when did understand they turned the world upside down.
And if
Jesus came to Cambridge and taught in parables what might he say to us:
There was a
Bible study in a large city.
The great
and the small were gathered to share
Scripture,
And a
stranger came in and sat with them and challenged them.
When he
could not bear their words, he took
Out his gun
and killed them.
The nation
was shaken and uncertain, but the people of the city were steadfast.
There were
those still in pain who forgave the stranger.
And some
took down their flags, the long standing symbols of oppression.
And some
said, it was such a small gesture in response to such a great tragedy. Why did
it take so long?
That is the
way it is with the kingdom of heaven!
And the
Supreme Court said that those who love may have the protection of law.
And some
said God was displeased
having
forgotten that the Teacher when asked had said that doing justice was required of
those who loved God and the greatest commandment was to love the neighbor as we
love ourselves.
There was a
young man who committed a horrific act.
He was part
of our community though his origins were distant; he went to school in
Cambridge.
When
brought to trial he remained silent and showed no emotion as he heard the
account of his crimes.
And he
learned of the pain he had wrought.
When he
spoke he offered an apology-
He is young
and unschooled.
His words
were imprecise; his manner rough.
And those who
wished to hear him found the words
Unsatisfactory
and he remains a stranger to those who lived near him. He will die for his
crime.
The
forgiveness of Charleston does not reach to Cambridge.
That is the
way it is with the kingdom of heaven!
Let those
with eyes see and those with ears hear.
The word of
the Lord in our sad, sweet, tragic 4th of July world.
Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute
