Under Pressure
6-7-15 (Pentecost 2, Ordinary10/Proper 5B Semi-Continuous)
1 Samuel 8:4-20, 11:14-15; Mark 3:20-35
It’s really difficult when you spend your life seeing all the things that other people have. You start to think, “It must be nice, having as much as they do.” There’s always something that we think we’d be just that much happier if we had, isn’t there? We see the neighbors who just bought the newest model truck - you know, the one that has all the bells and whistles, the GPS system in the dashboard, the satellite radio, the back up cameras, the self-parking feature… heck it almost drives itself now. And we start to wonder if maybe it isn’t time for us to take the old family wagon in and see how much we can get for it. Or we hear about the latest release of a new phone or a new computer, and then suddenly whatever one we have starts to look a little worn around the edges. It runs a little slower than it used to, doesn’t really do as much as you’d like it to do when you really get down to it… maybe it’s time to start thinking about getting the new model, right?
We complain, and sometimes rightly so, that our culture has created this atmosphere of dissatisfaction - such a constant influx of technology, of new things, of things that we just have to have… it’s making us into a generation of whiners, of people who are never happy, who always want something more. But as we listen in on the story of the Israelites and their desire for a king, perhaps there’s a familiar whining sound that we can hear echoing across several thousand years, after all…
The Israelites are whining, grumbling, and moaning… again. It turns out that the Israelites are looking over at their neighbors again and have decided that the neighbors’ setup is much nicer than theirs. Here the Israelites are with their judges… and, well… they’re alright, I suppose. After Joshua died, it was nice to have people who were willing to step up and lead the armies of the Lord into battle against their enemies as they worked to claim the promised land for themselves, sure. And they had some good stories out of it, too - who didn’t enjoy siting around the campfires and retelling the heroic stories of such heroes as Deborah, Gideon, and Samson, men and women who were mighty warriors for God, who rescued the people of Israel from slavery to their enemies, and who led their nations through times of great peace and prosperity till the day they died?
But the Judges weren’t what they used to be these days. Things had kind of fallen apart after Samson - Eli had become a judge for a while before Samuel took over the mantle due to the things eli’s sons were doing, and now Samuel was running into the same problems in his old age. His sons, the rulers he hoped to have take his place to continue the line of judges, were corrupt - they did not “Follow in his ways,” and the Israelites didn’t see them as fit to be their leaders. What the Israelites saw, instead, was much greener grass in other people’s fields - the countries surrounding them had kings. And with a king at their head, they had someone to lead them into battle, someone to speak for them, who would govern them, provide for them and ensure that they prospered. It was time to be done with the judges and to upgrade to the newest fad so that they could be like everybody else.
It’s easy to understand why Samuel was so disheartened - he must have been disappointed in the first place that his sons weren’t living up to his own expectations, but now the Israelites are putting down his own job, his own role as judge, and asking him to find them a King. He goes to God with his disappointment on his sleeve, bringing their request with reluctance, but bringing it nevertheless. And God tells him not to be disappointed - where Samuel thinks that the people have rejected him and his sons, God reminds Samuel that the people have really been rejecting God more than anything else. What they say to Samuel is just a symptom of a greater problem, which God goes on to lay out for Samuel in detail: the people of Israel have engaged in a systematic rejection of God from day one as God led them out of Egypt and out of their slavery. They’ve dragged their heels every step of the way, grumbling and complaining about all that God has done and is doing for them. Sure, they have their excuses - some of them even at least sort of reasonable ones, like Samuel’s corrupt sons. But ultimately, the one issue they keep coming back to time and time again is that of being able to trust the God who has led them all this way and continues to lead them in spite of their obstinance.
The Israelites have been turning a stubborn, unseeing eye toward all that God has done for them - no matter what God does for them, it seems they’re likely to be unhappy with it. After all, what is it that God had been doing for them with the judges if not giving them all the things that they were asking for in the first place? God had used the judges in exactly the way that the Israelites are clamoring for a king: they had governed the people of Israel; they had gone before the people and fought their battles; they provided a time of peace and prosperity for the people while the people remained faithful to God. But because the judges weren’t kings, they weren’t good enough somehow now. The Israelites were too stubborn, too sensitive, too sure that they knew what was best for themselves that they didn’t want to listen to the truth that was right in front of them, even as Samuel tells them plainly just precisely what will happen to them if they continue to desire a king for themselves.
Amazingly, this stubborn streak continues even into Jesus’ time - as Jesus begins his ministry in earnest, as he’s called his twelve disciples and performed his first miraculous healing, he’s starting to make waves, and of course, people aren’t too comfortable with the way that the boat has been rocking all of a sudden. People are starting to wonder where this power is coming from; they’re starting to not like the things that he’s saying, the fact that he’s challenging the religious authorities of his time and that he’s teaching something new, something different - in this case, it’s almost the opposite of the Israelites who wanted a king for themselves. They’re comfortable where they are - they’ve found a good place to be in to keep up with their neighbors and they don’t want to do anything to upset that now. You’d have to be crazy to go up against the Roman government with nothing else but a message of peace, of love, and of a Kingdom with the power to transform reality… maybe Jesus isn’t casting out demons because he has power from God, but because he’s in league with the demons, themselves!
Even Jesus’ own family is starting to get concerned - they don’t understand, or they choose not to understand, despite all the things that they’ve experienced so far in his life. Perhaps it’s the pressure they’re feeling from their neighbors, the desire to keep up with the Jones’s at work here, with people coming up to Mary and saying “Do you hear what your Son is up to? Why don’t you go talk some sense into him?” And they’re just concerned family who love Jesus, after all. They want the best for him, not to see him thrown into some jail cell for saying crazy things about the world and bringing the eyes of the Roman authorities down on them!
The problem is, though, that once again the Israelites are showing their stubborn streak - and this is what Jesus means when he says that they are committing an unforgivable sin by blaspheming the Holy Spirit. It’s not just that they’re denying Jesus’ power or authority by trying to explain it away; it’s that they’re denying God at work, both in Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and so they’re denying God in the process. By closing their minds to the possibility that God is doing a new thing, they’re closing themselves off to God - and for God, it’s not even that that’s unforgivable, but that the people are denying themselves forgiveness and relationship.
It’s easy for us to get caught up in the same stubbornness, the same refusal to see what God is at work doing in our midst because of all the things that we’re not seeing that we think we should be seeing. We want the best for our congregation and our church, after all. We want to be the successful church in town, the church that has everything going for it, that people proudly claim is their church. We want to be the church that has the booming youth group, the choir that people come specifically on Sundays to hear performing. We want to be the church that has the latest programs, that brings in hundreds and hundreds of people every Sunday, that fills its offering plates to overflowing and then uses that money to keep making the church a better place in the name of the Kingdom. And these are all fine things to want - there’s nothing wrong with wanting the church to live fully into its calling - but we have to be constantly asking ourselves and keeping our eyes open to know the difference between what it is that God is moving us to do in the church and what we think we want for our own congregation based on what we’ve seen our neighbors doing.
There’s a wonderful hope to be found in knowing that God can be at work just as strongly and just as powerfully in the small country church as the multi-mega church, and if we throw out all the things that we’re doing well as a church in order to fit a “more successful model,” then we’ve thrown God out of our church in the process. So let us hold onto that hope and that encouragement together, even as we seek to know where God is leading us each day - let us be confident in our identity in Christ together, to know that as we seek to follow God’s will, we are embraced together as God’s own family. And let us strive together to continue to carry out the mission of God, proclaiming the good news, loving God, and loving our neighbor, no matter what they may have that we don’t. To God be the Glory. Amen.
1 Samuel 8:4-20, 11:14-15; Mark 3:20-35
Under Pressure
It’s really difficult when you spend your life seeing all the things that other people have. You start to think, “It must be nice, having as much as they do.” There’s always something that we think we’d be just that much happier if we had, isn’t there? We see the neighbors who just bought the newest model truck - you know, the one that has all the bells and whistles, the GPS system in the dashboard, the satellite radio, the back up cameras, the self-parking feature… heck it almost drives itself now. And we start to wonder if maybe it isn’t time for us to take the old family wagon in and see how much we can get for it. Or we hear about the latest release of a new phone or a new computer, and then suddenly whatever one we have starts to look a little worn around the edges. It runs a little slower than it used to, doesn’t really do as much as you’d like it to do when you really get down to it… maybe it’s time to start thinking about getting the new model, right?
We complain, and sometimes rightly so, that our culture has created this atmosphere of dissatisfaction - such a constant influx of technology, of new things, of things that we just have to have… it’s making us into a generation of whiners, of people who are never happy, who always want something more. But as we listen in on the story of the Israelites and their desire for a king, perhaps there’s a familiar whining sound that we can hear echoing across several thousand years, after all…
The Israelites are whining, grumbling, and moaning… again. It turns out that the Israelites are looking over at their neighbors again and have decided that the neighbors’ setup is much nicer than theirs. Here the Israelites are with their judges… and, well… they’re alright, I suppose. After Joshua died, it was nice to have people who were willing to step up and lead the armies of the Lord into battle against their enemies as they worked to claim the promised land for themselves, sure. And they had some good stories out of it, too - who didn’t enjoy siting around the campfires and retelling the heroic stories of such heroes as Deborah, Gideon, and Samson, men and women who were mighty warriors for God, who rescued the people of Israel from slavery to their enemies, and who led their nations through times of great peace and prosperity till the day they died?
But the Judges weren’t what they used to be these days. Things had kind of fallen apart after Samson - Eli had become a judge for a while before Samuel took over the mantle due to the things eli’s sons were doing, and now Samuel was running into the same problems in his old age. His sons, the rulers he hoped to have take his place to continue the line of judges, were corrupt - they did not “Follow in his ways,” and the Israelites didn’t see them as fit to be their leaders. What the Israelites saw, instead, was much greener grass in other people’s fields - the countries surrounding them had kings. And with a king at their head, they had someone to lead them into battle, someone to speak for them, who would govern them, provide for them and ensure that they prospered. It was time to be done with the judges and to upgrade to the newest fad so that they could be like everybody else.
It’s easy to understand why Samuel was so disheartened - he must have been disappointed in the first place that his sons weren’t living up to his own expectations, but now the Israelites are putting down his own job, his own role as judge, and asking him to find them a King. He goes to God with his disappointment on his sleeve, bringing their request with reluctance, but bringing it nevertheless. And God tells him not to be disappointed - where Samuel thinks that the people have rejected him and his sons, God reminds Samuel that the people have really been rejecting God more than anything else. What they say to Samuel is just a symptom of a greater problem, which God goes on to lay out for Samuel in detail: the people of Israel have engaged in a systematic rejection of God from day one as God led them out of Egypt and out of their slavery. They’ve dragged their heels every step of the way, grumbling and complaining about all that God has done and is doing for them. Sure, they have their excuses - some of them even at least sort of reasonable ones, like Samuel’s corrupt sons. But ultimately, the one issue they keep coming back to time and time again is that of being able to trust the God who has led them all this way and continues to lead them in spite of their obstinance.
The Israelites have been turning a stubborn, unseeing eye toward all that God has done for them - no matter what God does for them, it seems they’re likely to be unhappy with it. After all, what is it that God had been doing for them with the judges if not giving them all the things that they were asking for in the first place? God had used the judges in exactly the way that the Israelites are clamoring for a king: they had governed the people of Israel; they had gone before the people and fought their battles; they provided a time of peace and prosperity for the people while the people remained faithful to God. But because the judges weren’t kings, they weren’t good enough somehow now. The Israelites were too stubborn, too sensitive, too sure that they knew what was best for themselves that they didn’t want to listen to the truth that was right in front of them, even as Samuel tells them plainly just precisely what will happen to them if they continue to desire a king for themselves.
Amazingly, this stubborn streak continues even into Jesus’ time - as Jesus begins his ministry in earnest, as he’s called his twelve disciples and performed his first miraculous healing, he’s starting to make waves, and of course, people aren’t too comfortable with the way that the boat has been rocking all of a sudden. People are starting to wonder where this power is coming from; they’re starting to not like the things that he’s saying, the fact that he’s challenging the religious authorities of his time and that he’s teaching something new, something different - in this case, it’s almost the opposite of the Israelites who wanted a king for themselves. They’re comfortable where they are - they’ve found a good place to be in to keep up with their neighbors and they don’t want to do anything to upset that now. You’d have to be crazy to go up against the Roman government with nothing else but a message of peace, of love, and of a Kingdom with the power to transform reality… maybe Jesus isn’t casting out demons because he has power from God, but because he’s in league with the demons, themselves!
Even Jesus’ own family is starting to get concerned - they don’t understand, or they choose not to understand, despite all the things that they’ve experienced so far in his life. Perhaps it’s the pressure they’re feeling from their neighbors, the desire to keep up with the Jones’s at work here, with people coming up to Mary and saying “Do you hear what your Son is up to? Why don’t you go talk some sense into him?” And they’re just concerned family who love Jesus, after all. They want the best for him, not to see him thrown into some jail cell for saying crazy things about the world and bringing the eyes of the Roman authorities down on them!
The problem is, though, that once again the Israelites are showing their stubborn streak - and this is what Jesus means when he says that they are committing an unforgivable sin by blaspheming the Holy Spirit. It’s not just that they’re denying Jesus’ power or authority by trying to explain it away; it’s that they’re denying God at work, both in Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, and so they’re denying God in the process. By closing their minds to the possibility that God is doing a new thing, they’re closing themselves off to God - and for God, it’s not even that that’s unforgivable, but that the people are denying themselves forgiveness and relationship.
It’s easy for us to get caught up in the same stubbornness, the same refusal to see what God is at work doing in our midst because of all the things that we’re not seeing that we think we should be seeing. We want the best for our congregation and our church, after all. We want to be the successful church in town, the church that has everything going for it, that people proudly claim is their church. We want to be the church that has the booming youth group, the choir that people come specifically on Sundays to hear performing. We want to be the church that has the latest programs, that brings in hundreds and hundreds of people every Sunday, that fills its offering plates to overflowing and then uses that money to keep making the church a better place in the name of the Kingdom. And these are all fine things to want - there’s nothing wrong with wanting the church to live fully into its calling - but we have to be constantly asking ourselves and keeping our eyes open to know the difference between what it is that God is moving us to do in the church and what we think we want for our own congregation based on what we’ve seen our neighbors doing.
There’s a wonderful hope to be found in knowing that God can be at work just as strongly and just as powerfully in the small country church as the multi-mega church, and if we throw out all the things that we’re doing well as a church in order to fit a “more successful model,” then we’ve thrown God out of our church in the process. So let us hold onto that hope and that encouragement together, even as we seek to know where God is leading us each day - let us be confident in our identity in Christ together, to know that as we seek to follow God’s will, we are embraced together as God’s own family. And let us strive together to continue to carry out the mission of God, proclaiming the good news, loving God, and loving our neighbor, no matter what they may have that we don’t. To God be the Glory. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment