Comfort and Construction
December 17, 2008
Rev. Susan Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Texts: Isaiah 40:1-11, Mark 1:1-8
Tradition…most of us like traditions. And these seasons, the seasons of Advent and Christmas, seem to have more traditions – with the attendant blessings and burdens – than any other time of year. Traditions can be very comforting – but traditions have a down side as well. Traditions can make it hard for new life to enter in. Who hasn’t heard, “The way we celebrate Christmas is like this” – followed by a description that doesn’t invite new ideas. It can be daunting to newlyweds to realize that the traditions each found comforting are seen as intrusive by the other. As families change, due to marriage, childbirth, divorce, moving, death, it can be challenging to find a balance between the comfort of traditions, and openness to doing things a new way – especially when the traditions can’t happen any more.
My favorite Christmas tradition was singing Christmas carols around the piano with the family while my grandmother played. I’ll never forget the year she fell on the ice, with only me watching, and fiercely told me not to tell anyone. She played the carols as always, and no one knew about her broken wrist except me. And several years later when she died… that tradition died with her.
The only constant in life is change. And all of us will have times when we find ourselves when the old traditions no longer work, for whatever reason, and we feel bereft – in a place of wilderness far from what home used to feel like.
It has always seemed strangely ironic to me that Christmas is the time that God burst into human history in a way that had never occurred before, and we celebrate it by doing the same thing year after year after year. Actually, if we were to honor the Biblical tradition at Christmas, we would do something new each year.
The Bible actually has a very balanced view about tradition – several traditions are divinely instituted, including Passover and Communion, and many other festivals – and they come with instructions for how to do these things again and again, with the admonition to remember … remember what God has done. I mentioned last week that during communion, different people respond differently to receiving the elements: most traditionally by saying either “Amen” or “Thanks be to God” – but I was always quite moved by a friend of mine who when she received responded “I remember….”
We remember the ways that God has worked among people…later this season we will hear the familiar narrative from Luke’s gospel, beginning, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all of the world should be registered….” Many of us can recite the story along with the reader, either from hearing it in church, or having it read at home on Christmas Eve, or even seeing the Linus recite the story in original Charlie Brown Christmas… again and again and again.
We remember. And of course, that’s part of the role of tradition – to remember the stories, and to claim them as our stories, and to understand that we are part of a living tradition that includes the past, present and future, so that we will also understand that our own stories – our lives – are part of that living tradition.
But there is another thread in the Bible – a thread that says, with the words of God in Isaiah 43: “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” This thread reminds us that we are not the only agents in the ongoing story of God’s creation – God interrupts us from time to time. God works in us, around us, through us, and creates a new way where there is no way that we can see. So we have to be open to seeing things differently, to new experiences – perhaps the new member who has a different idea about how to do something is part of the voice of God, challenging us to try it differently….We are really blessed here with Judy Bond’s music direction – for she models this pairing of tradition with newness in the way the choir helps to lead worship. We hear some favorites again and again, and the choir also introduces new music and new musical traditions to our worship.
The Bible has plenty of reminders that everything is not always the same. Mark’s Gospel is announcing a new trajectory in history, right from the beginning. We read the opening verses of this Gospel earlier. I’d like to highlight some things here that don’t necessarily leap right out –I’m just going to share some observations, and then reflect a little on it all. Most of these insights will come from Ched Myers’ Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus, or from my own reflections.
First of all, the opening line of the gospel is a dramatic announcement: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The original Greek uses the word for Gospel, euagellion, from which we get the word evangelism. There are questions about what Mark means by beginning – is he noting that he is at the beginning of this Gospel? Or is his point instead that the entire narrative is just the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? His book is a call to action, an invitation to discipleship, and if we assume the latter meaning, then Mark’s book is the beginning of the good news, and the continuing stories of all the disciples since then are the rest of the story.
And Mark’s use of the word Gospel is revolutionary – he is creating a new literary form. Up to this point, a euagellion was a form of imperial military news, a victory bulletin. Mark is appropriating what has been up until now used to announce the victories of the emperor, and using it to describe the story of Jesus. He is positing an alternative kingdom right from the start. And that becomes clearer with his description of Jesus: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for he has also appropriated the language that is used to describe emperors: Caesar was described in Roman propaganda as the “divine man”. As the Gospel progresses, we will see that Jesus describes himself most often as the Son of Man, which can be alternatively translated: the Human One. So we will see that although Mark posits him and his kingdom as alternate ruler and kingdom to Caesar and the emperor, Jesus will be seen as a very different kind of king, one who comes in solidarity with humans, not to exert power over them. But at this point, that is, in the first sentence, Mark has served notice that he is challenging the imperial propaganda, and will provide an alternate story.
Second, both the Isaiah text which Mark quotes and Mark’s prologue itself introduce the idea of a new way. Remember that the earliest disciples were known as People of the Way? And here we already have notice from Mark that he is describing a new way that God has for us to follow. We are being put on notice that this book is a call to action. By the way, an interesting observation about the Isaiah reading on this point – we often describe the role of the preacher as to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” – that is, preaching properly contains both comfort and challenge. This passage in Isaiah has them within the same excerpt -- Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." This is a reminder that the newness that God announces is also intended as good news – even when it is challenging.
As Mark quotes Isaiah though, he creates a composite quote – he blends in quotes from two other places that have significance – one is from Exodus, the freedom narrative of Israel, and one is from Malachi, whose prophecies foretold the coming of the Messiah. And both of these traditions, the liberation tradition and the Messiah tradition, are being referenced then as Mark opens the gospel narrative. Both quotes, in their entirety also describe a new way. Mark also changes one word in the quote, in verse 2. He uses a different verb than in the text, the original word describes the construction of a way – he is hinting that the new way will not be merely a different path, but an entirely new way of life.
Finally, Mark also introduces a new place for this new order – this new way is not being introduced at the hub of Hebrew life, in Jerusalem. It is being introduced in the wilderness – there are two important dimensions to this choice – first, God’s new way is not coming to Israel through the traditional religious apparatus of scribes, priests, temple…he is rejecting the religious power structures as well as the civil power structures. And the people are responding – when John the Baptizer is announcing this new way in the wilderness, “…people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him….” The margins of society have become the new locus of God’s activity.
Secondly, the wilderness, this wild place reminds us of the chaos into which God originally introduced creation. My colleague Stephen Wright, pastor in Wausau, described in his sermon last week that in the beginning of Genesis, “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form, and void,” or in the original Hebrew, tohu vabohu (in Hebrew): waste and wild. Dr. Wright shared that the Hebrew phrase for that early chaos, tohu vabohu is the basis for our word “brouhaha” – it describes an unkempt, wild place. When Mark begins his narrative in the wilderness, I am reminded of that earlier wildness, the tohu vabohu into which God introduced order, and light, and a world whose creation continues.
And so by emphasizing the wilderness so clearly alongside the construction of a new way, Mark is suggesting that God is creating something new that will emerge in the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
So in both these readings we find both comfort and challenge – both the comfort of the presence and participation of God, and the appeal to traditions that have been foundational to Hebrew faith and practice; and the challenge of constructing a new way, a way that is not going to arise from current power structures, but which will be built independently of them, that God is newly creating in the wilderness.
And just as the original creation story has the hint that the story continues into the present “When God began creating the heavens and the earth,” suggesting that this creation is ongoing, continuing even now – so too does Mark’s account hint that this gospel, this good news, continues on as generations of disciples continue in the way of Jesus: the beginning of the good news….God’s newness continues. So both the comfort/tradition thread and the “look out for newness” thread continue in this story as one story – so that we might be comforted knowing that one of the constants in our world is God, who is continuing to create, and continuing to call us to join in the Way of the new kingdom. Newness continues to be possible with this continually-creating God. Perhaps the Good News at Christmas isn’t so much that things are the same from year to year, but that we are not bound by the history or structures that brought us to this time and place. Even while we remember, we remember this God who made a way where there was no way, who was constructing a new way of life in the wilderness, and in whom we are called to share in the way of Jesus Christ. Comfort, O comfort my people, speak tenderly to Jerusalem… perhaps we can most fully experience the miracle of Christmas not in our continued traditions, but at those times when our traditions will no longer work, when loss or change has created tohu vabohu, waste and wild, in our lives. "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Thanks be to God. Amen.
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Texts: Isaiah 40:1-11, Mark 1:1-8
Tradition…most of us like traditions. And these seasons, the seasons of Advent and Christmas, seem to have more traditions – with the attendant blessings and burdens – than any other time of year. Traditions can be very comforting – but traditions have a down side as well. Traditions can make it hard for new life to enter in. Who hasn’t heard, “The way we celebrate Christmas is like this” – followed by a description that doesn’t invite new ideas. It can be daunting to newlyweds to realize that the traditions each found comforting are seen as intrusive by the other. As families change, due to marriage, childbirth, divorce, moving, death, it can be challenging to find a balance between the comfort of traditions, and openness to doing things a new way – especially when the traditions can’t happen any more.
My favorite Christmas tradition was singing Christmas carols around the piano with the family while my grandmother played. I’ll never forget the year she fell on the ice, with only me watching, and fiercely told me not to tell anyone. She played the carols as always, and no one knew about her broken wrist except me. And several years later when she died… that tradition died with her.
The only constant in life is change. And all of us will have times when we find ourselves when the old traditions no longer work, for whatever reason, and we feel bereft – in a place of wilderness far from what home used to feel like.
It has always seemed strangely ironic to me that Christmas is the time that God burst into human history in a way that had never occurred before, and we celebrate it by doing the same thing year after year after year. Actually, if we were to honor the Biblical tradition at Christmas, we would do something new each year.
The Bible actually has a very balanced view about tradition – several traditions are divinely instituted, including Passover and Communion, and many other festivals – and they come with instructions for how to do these things again and again, with the admonition to remember … remember what God has done. I mentioned last week that during communion, different people respond differently to receiving the elements: most traditionally by saying either “Amen” or “Thanks be to God” – but I was always quite moved by a friend of mine who when she received responded “I remember….”
We remember the ways that God has worked among people…later this season we will hear the familiar narrative from Luke’s gospel, beginning, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all of the world should be registered….” Many of us can recite the story along with the reader, either from hearing it in church, or having it read at home on Christmas Eve, or even seeing the Linus recite the story in original Charlie Brown Christmas… again and again and again.
We remember. And of course, that’s part of the role of tradition – to remember the stories, and to claim them as our stories, and to understand that we are part of a living tradition that includes the past, present and future, so that we will also understand that our own stories – our lives – are part of that living tradition.
But there is another thread in the Bible – a thread that says, with the words of God in Isaiah 43: “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” This thread reminds us that we are not the only agents in the ongoing story of God’s creation – God interrupts us from time to time. God works in us, around us, through us, and creates a new way where there is no way that we can see. So we have to be open to seeing things differently, to new experiences – perhaps the new member who has a different idea about how to do something is part of the voice of God, challenging us to try it differently….We are really blessed here with Judy Bond’s music direction – for she models this pairing of tradition with newness in the way the choir helps to lead worship. We hear some favorites again and again, and the choir also introduces new music and new musical traditions to our worship.
The Bible has plenty of reminders that everything is not always the same. Mark’s Gospel is announcing a new trajectory in history, right from the beginning. We read the opening verses of this Gospel earlier. I’d like to highlight some things here that don’t necessarily leap right out –I’m just going to share some observations, and then reflect a little on it all. Most of these insights will come from Ched Myers’ Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus, or from my own reflections.
First of all, the opening line of the gospel is a dramatic announcement: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The original Greek uses the word for Gospel, euagellion, from which we get the word evangelism. There are questions about what Mark means by beginning – is he noting that he is at the beginning of this Gospel? Or is his point instead that the entire narrative is just the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? His book is a call to action, an invitation to discipleship, and if we assume the latter meaning, then Mark’s book is the beginning of the good news, and the continuing stories of all the disciples since then are the rest of the story.
And Mark’s use of the word Gospel is revolutionary – he is creating a new literary form. Up to this point, a euagellion was a form of imperial military news, a victory bulletin. Mark is appropriating what has been up until now used to announce the victories of the emperor, and using it to describe the story of Jesus. He is positing an alternative kingdom right from the start. And that becomes clearer with his description of Jesus: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, for he has also appropriated the language that is used to describe emperors: Caesar was described in Roman propaganda as the “divine man”. As the Gospel progresses, we will see that Jesus describes himself most often as the Son of Man, which can be alternatively translated: the Human One. So we will see that although Mark posits him and his kingdom as alternate ruler and kingdom to Caesar and the emperor, Jesus will be seen as a very different kind of king, one who comes in solidarity with humans, not to exert power over them. But at this point, that is, in the first sentence, Mark has served notice that he is challenging the imperial propaganda, and will provide an alternate story.
Second, both the Isaiah text which Mark quotes and Mark’s prologue itself introduce the idea of a new way. Remember that the earliest disciples were known as People of the Way? And here we already have notice from Mark that he is describing a new way that God has for us to follow. We are being put on notice that this book is a call to action. By the way, an interesting observation about the Isaiah reading on this point – we often describe the role of the preacher as to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” – that is, preaching properly contains both comfort and challenge. This passage in Isaiah has them within the same excerpt -- Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." This is a reminder that the newness that God announces is also intended as good news – even when it is challenging.
As Mark quotes Isaiah though, he creates a composite quote – he blends in quotes from two other places that have significance – one is from Exodus, the freedom narrative of Israel, and one is from Malachi, whose prophecies foretold the coming of the Messiah. And both of these traditions, the liberation tradition and the Messiah tradition, are being referenced then as Mark opens the gospel narrative. Both quotes, in their entirety also describe a new way. Mark also changes one word in the quote, in verse 2. He uses a different verb than in the text, the original word describes the construction of a way – he is hinting that the new way will not be merely a different path, but an entirely new way of life.
Finally, Mark also introduces a new place for this new order – this new way is not being introduced at the hub of Hebrew life, in Jerusalem. It is being introduced in the wilderness – there are two important dimensions to this choice – first, God’s new way is not coming to Israel through the traditional religious apparatus of scribes, priests, temple…he is rejecting the religious power structures as well as the civil power structures. And the people are responding – when John the Baptizer is announcing this new way in the wilderness, “…people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him….” The margins of society have become the new locus of God’s activity.
Secondly, the wilderness, this wild place reminds us of the chaos into which God originally introduced creation. My colleague Stephen Wright, pastor in Wausau, described in his sermon last week that in the beginning of Genesis, “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form, and void,” or in the original Hebrew, tohu vabohu (in Hebrew): waste and wild. Dr. Wright shared that the Hebrew phrase for that early chaos, tohu vabohu is the basis for our word “brouhaha” – it describes an unkempt, wild place. When Mark begins his narrative in the wilderness, I am reminded of that earlier wildness, the tohu vabohu into which God introduced order, and light, and a world whose creation continues.
And so by emphasizing the wilderness so clearly alongside the construction of a new way, Mark is suggesting that God is creating something new that will emerge in the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
So in both these readings we find both comfort and challenge – both the comfort of the presence and participation of God, and the appeal to traditions that have been foundational to Hebrew faith and practice; and the challenge of constructing a new way, a way that is not going to arise from current power structures, but which will be built independently of them, that God is newly creating in the wilderness.
And just as the original creation story has the hint that the story continues into the present “When God began creating the heavens and the earth,” suggesting that this creation is ongoing, continuing even now – so too does Mark’s account hint that this gospel, this good news, continues on as generations of disciples continue in the way of Jesus: the beginning of the good news….God’s newness continues. So both the comfort/tradition thread and the “look out for newness” thread continue in this story as one story – so that we might be comforted knowing that one of the constants in our world is God, who is continuing to create, and continuing to call us to join in the Way of the new kingdom. Newness continues to be possible with this continually-creating God. Perhaps the Good News at Christmas isn’t so much that things are the same from year to year, but that we are not bound by the history or structures that brought us to this time and place. Even while we remember, we remember this God who made a way where there was no way, who was constructing a new way of life in the wilderness, and in whom we are called to share in the way of Jesus Christ. Comfort, O comfort my people, speak tenderly to Jerusalem… perhaps we can most fully experience the miracle of Christmas not in our continued traditions, but at those times when our traditions will no longer work, when loss or change has created tohu vabohu, waste and wild, in our lives. "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Thanks be to God. Amen.