Fourth of July weekend is just around the corner, and while for most of us it is about
fireworks, independence and backyard picnics we know it is meant to be about far more serious reflections. On this
Sunday before the Fourth we are asked to talk about grief, death, and the conflicts that arise within us in our
dealings with others.
We begin with the death of Israel's first King, Saul and his son Jonathan, David's best friend. The site of our
Old Testament reading, where this battle was fought has become a famous Israeli tourist attraction. Mount Gilboa
is a limestone ridge thrusting some 1700 feet above the Plain of Jezreel. Today the more enterprising may climb
the ridge by means of a footpath, but from the valley below even the naked eye can see a bare tree marking the
place where, as 1 Samuel 31:8-10 has it, the Philistines hung the beheaded bodies of Saul and Jonathan on the walls
of the fortress of Beth-shan.
At the base of the mountain in Bet-She'an National Park one can tour the splendid ruins of a Roman and Byzantine
city destroyed by a devastating earthquake in 749 CE. Over the centuries it became a place of life as much as death,
and then fell on hard times again. So much history unfolded there…joyous and terribly sad.
Today, one looks out over that former battlefield with the same sense one must look at Gettysburg, or Normandy,
or Hiroshima. Words like "necessity, courage, and honor"…may all ring true, but there is an undeniable
sense of overwhelming sadness and loss for all the lost lives that might have been.
It is this same sentiment that is being echoed again in our psalm for today, Psalm 130 .
In vs. 1, the reference to the depths brings forth the image of the engulfing waters of Sheol into which the dead
sink (cf. Isa. 51:10; Jonah 2:3). It also reflects the poet's deep sense of alienation from Yahweh. So he throws
himself on Yahweh's mercy and forgiveness (vss. 3-4) and realizes that on this alone rests his ultimate security
(vss. 5-6). All nations must accept the fact that there are things to grieve. We cannot hide all our past under
some happy face and expect to find authenticity. This is a great passage to talk about facing the fact that things
do go wrong not just on personal levels, but on national levels as well. Positive spins from a Biblical perspective
begin with personal honesty and integrity!
"Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord If you should mark iniquities, who could stand?" Clearly that's
a recognition of our sinfulness. Existential Guilt! We don't stand a chance without God's grace.
And it IS a message of hope and of certainty, for with You there is forgiveness. I may wallow around in the pit
for a while, but I know you will reclaim me. I can't wait - I'm more anxious than the watchers of the night. Any
time Lord! I need your forgiveness!
There are a lot of times when decision making reaches into the gray areas of life. Not everything is black and
white as much as we'd like it to be. My sense is that when we prayerfully consider taking action that is somewhere
in the gray area, we can only throw ourselves on God's mercy if we're wrong.
After John Wesley's failure in Georgia, he was back in England discouraged and broken. On the day of his Aldersgate
experience, that morning he read Ps 130. In Wesley's time, this prayer entitled *De Profundis* was sung at evensong
on the 27th day of each month. The paragraph in his journal began: "In the afternoon I was asked to go to
St. Paul's." The psalm in the version from the Book of Common Order follows. He would have known it by heart.
This record is found in the paragraph immediately previous to the one in which he tells of his Aldersgate experience
when his heart was "strangely warmed." Steve Brown suggests that Wesley learned of his helplessness -
vs 1-2, of his sinfulness vs 3-4, of God's sovereignty vs 5-6, and about the nature of the God of the universe
vs 7-8 through it.
Paul reminds the Corinthian community, "You know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ..." (2 Cor
8.9). Indeed, we see that generosity and mercy as Jesus not only heals the woman, but calls her "daughter."
We see that generosity and mercy as Jesus raises the little girl from the sleep that is death. Such is our God,
the one who calls us even out of death into life, new life in the body of Christ.
The problem for us is that we are not sure that such a sovereign is also a practical God in terms of acting as
we would have God act in our best interests? For example, in today's gospel…What endeavor can be more important
and more heart-warming than to save the life of a child? And yet, Jesus interrupts his mission to speak to an old
woman from the crowd, and in doing so, he lets the little girl die.
Did the crowd think Jesus made a bad choice? Did they even know? And what of the woman herself? I don't think she
really wanted Jesus to stop either;--all she wanted to do was to touch his robe,..not stop him. I guess, it is
reassuring that Jesus stops for anyone who has faith, whether they want him to or not…but what of the consequences?
On the other hand, there is the dead girl. Jesus never promises to prevent harm from befalling us. He is not the
Catcher in the Rye who madly tries to keep us from running off the cliff of our innocence. We will all fall. We
will all commit sin, suffer loss, and die. Christ does not change that.
A commentary on our Gospel lesson, the story of Jesus' raising of Jairus' daughter, suggests that "stories
like this one seem to promise too much." (New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. VIII, page 590.) One is tempted to
ask, "How much is too much?" In John's Gospel, Jesus says, "I came that they may have life, and
have it abundantly." (John 10:10b NRSV.) This story in Mark's Gospel is an illustration of God's abundant
generosity.
It might have been enough for Jairus and his wife if Jesus had ministered to them, had comforted them in their
grief and made it possible for them to remember with gratitude the daughter whom they had lost. But that is not
what Jesus did! Instead, Jesus restored their daughter to life and health. This story does not "promise too
much;" it demonstrates the abundant grace of God.
A traditional Passover song, "Dayenu," has been sung over a thousand years old. It begins, "How
many levels of favors has the Omnipresent One bestowed upon us." The lyrics tell the Passover story:
If He had brought us out from Egypt, and had not carried out judgments against them ...Dayenu! (It would have sufficed
us!)
If He had carried out judgments against them, and not against their idols ...
Dayenu! (It would have sufficed us!)
If He had destroyed their idols, and had not smitten their first-born ...Dayenu! (It would have sufficed us!)
If He had smitten their first-born, and had not given us their wealth ... Dayenu! (It would have sufficed us!)
If He had given us their wealth, and had not split the sea for us ... Dayenu! (It would have sufficed us!)
If He had split the sea for us, and had not taken us through it on dry land ...
Dayenu! (It would have sufficed us!)
And the song goes on for several more verses. It would have been enough, but God never gives us simply enough.
God does for us more "than we can desire or pray for."
We are called upon to live in the spirit of "Dayenu," to live a theology of abundance. Moses called upon
the Hebrews, and through his words recorded in Deuteronomy, God calls upon us to "give liberally and be ungrudging
when [we] do so." We are summoned to emulate God's spirit of generosity. Do we? Do we live as if we trusted
in God's abundance?
Bible scholar and author Walter Brueggemann is one who says that we don't, although the Christian story is one
of abundance. Rather, says Brueggemann, we live a "narrative of scarcity [which] posits that the past is barren
of miracles and the only way to get anywhere is to reinvent yourself and scramble for whatever you can get. A past
without gifts and a future without hope," he continues, "gives a present as an arena for anxiety--an
anxiety endlessly stirred by those who generate the great theology of scarcity--a theology which says our neighbors
are a threat; which creates more suicides, murders and prisons." (Kay Collier-Slone, "Stewardship conference
challenged to move beyond scarcity to abundance," ENS Release 99-064.)
The alternative is the narrative of abundance.
It is easy to believe in scarcity. Our culture, as Brueggemann said, encourages us to think that way. The philosophy
of consumerism encourages what Brueggemann calls a "love affair with commodity that is a spiritually demonic
force." But every once in a while, even the consumerist system contains a glimpse of the true story. Not too
long ago there was a Ruffles potato chip ad showing two Eskimoes sitting in the midst of a vast, uninhabited, frozen
waste. One fellow was having a wonderful time eating the contents of his bag of Ruffles, while the other was looking
longingly in his direction. In reply to his request for a chip, the first man declares to his lone companion, "But
if I gave one to you, I would have to give one to everybody."
Here are a few statistics that underscore how abundant our blessings are. In 1995, Americans spent $2.5 billion
on chewing gum, $4.9 billion on movies, $8 billion on adventure travel, $12 billion on candy, $20 billion on cosmetics,
and $49 billion on soft drinks. Now that's abundance!
At the same time in the 1990's, the average American church member spent less than $20 a year on global outreach--including
activities to provide temporal and spiritual aid to the 35,000 children who die of starvation around the globe
everyday. (Statistics from the Collier-Slone article.) So, I ask you again, "Do we live as if we trusted in
God's abundance?"
In today's Epistle lesson Paul writes about the Christians in Macedonia: "During a severe ordeal of affliction,
their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part." (2
Cor. 8:2) As Paul suggests, joy and generosity are linked. Our Psalm today makes the same point: "Happy are
they who fear the Lord ... They have given freely to the poor." (Ps.112:1,9)
When Jesus completed his act of abundant love in raising Jairus's daughter he turned to her family and said, "Give
her something to eat." (Mark 5:43) This is also what Moses told the People of God to do for anyone in need,
"Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land." (Deut. 15:11) This is what Paul called
upon the Corinthians to do, following the example of their Macedonian brothers and sisters who "gave according
to their means, and even beyond their means." (2 Cor. 8:3) This is what we are called upon to do.
It is what Christ does, when he offers us a second chance…MORE than enough! Christ picks us up, transforms us,
and gives us new life--both in this world and in the next. But he does so in a way that is equal and fair. Jesus
made titled and privileged Jairus wait so that an unnamed daughter, suffering and outcast for 12 long years, wouldn't
have to wait a single moment longer to be commended for her faith. Faith has no sense of entitlement, both are
healed - the one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little.
Barbara Brown Taylor in her book "Bread of Angels" focuses on the problem of dealing with miracles that
don't happen for the rest of us.
She writes, " Jairus just followed Jesus home and watched that unclean holy man do his work. Either way, the
high point was not then but much earlier, when Jesus told him, "Do not fear, only believe." If Jairus
was able to do that then he would have survived whatever happened next, even if Jesus had walked into his daughter's
room, closed her eyes with his fingertips and pulled the sheet over her head.
Her father's belief would have become the miracle at that point, his willingness to believe that she was still
in God's good hands even though she had slipped out of his.
"It helps me to remember that Jesus prayed for a miracle on the night before he died. "For you all things
are possible," He prayed "Remove this cup from me." Only when he opened his eyes the cup was still
there. Did he lack faith? I do not think so. The miracle was that he drank the cup, believing in the power of God
more than he believed in his own. It is always a miracle, isn't it, when we understand that God is God and we are
not. "
I do not expect any of us will stop praying for miracles. I hope not, because the world needs all the miracles
it can get. Every time you hear about one, remember that you are getting a preview of the kingdom. There is simply
no formula for success, which is a real relief for those of us who cannot seem to ring the bell. "Do not fear;
only believe." That is our job. The rest is up to God.
The Macedonians at the time of Paul were an interesting lot. Paul speaks of them when writing to the Corinthians
and reminding the Corinthians of their promise to support the starving Christians in Jerusalem. Paul says how surprised
he was by the Macedonians and their response to the needs of the church in Jerusalem. One gathers from reading
the text that Paul had refrained from asking the Macedonian Christians for a donation to the cause. They were persecuted,
under severe trial, and suffering from extreme poverty, yet Paul writes, they had overflowing joy, a joy that welled
up in rich generosity, and they gave as much as they were able to give, even beyond their ability, and further
they had, entirely on their own, pleaded with Paul for the privilege of sharing in this service, they had, in other
words, thrust their giving upon him, asking that they might have a part in the "grace of giving". That
is a different kind of response than the one that is often heard by a collector of alms and tithes - the response
that goes "I gave at the office". Paul explains it by saying that the Macedonians, before doing anything
else, had given themselves to the Lord and his service; and then, having done this, they made themselves available
to the needs that they thought God wanted met, the needs that Paul had spoken of. The lesson is clear: the grace
of giving arises out of the grace of dedicating oneself to Christ first and foremost and allowing his will to shape
one's actions - - the will of the one who, for our sake became poor so that through his poverty we might become
rich.
Paul interprets God's will and intention in this regard to Corinthians by saying: "Our desire is not that
others might be relieved while you are hard pressed; but that there might be equality. At the present time your
plenty will supply what others need; so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need." And he adds
about the gifts that they choose to offer, the gifts that will show the sincerity of their love for Christ: "If
the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has; not according to what one does not
have." The Macedonians had very little, but they gave from it, perhaps even more than they should have given,
to help others who were as hard pressed as they, and they counted it a joy to do so. They believed that it was
what Christ wanted them to do, and they believed that Christ would watch over them and take care of them as they
watched over and took care of those whom he placed upon their hearts. They counted it as a grace to give, and because
of that they received grace as they gave.
May we be empowered to do the same!
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