Christ Church Cathedral 21st after Pentecost
October 25, 2009 Proper 30
Readings: Jeremiah 31: 7-9 Hebrews: 7-32-38 Mark 10: 46-52
What was it like to be one of Jesus disciples? Obviously we will never really know but in a sense this was also the problem facing the writers of the Gospels. They, too, had to recognize that their questions reflected different interests than those of the eye witnesses. All they (the Gospel writers) had to work with was a collection of stories in no particular order but ultimately framed in the experience of Jesus death and resurrection. The keepers of this information were several different communities which for reasons that are not fully recoverable held on to a variety of memories of those who were really there.
The earliest of these compilations is found in Mark which is already separated from the actual events by more than a generation. The great central section of his Gospel 8:22 - 10:52 can be seen as his attempt to describe what might be called the experience of discipleship[1]. This section begins and ends with the healing of a blind man's sight. John Meier suggests both instances foreshadow the healing of the disciple's inner blindness. So, the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida prefigures the partial healing of Peter's inner sight at Caesarea Philippi so the healing of Bartimaeus just before the Passion Narrative in a wider sense prefigures the full healing of Peter's blindness after Jesus death and resurrection. Along with the other disciples, he will finally see that Jesus the Messiah (Caesarea Philippi) is also necessarily Jesus the crucified and risen Son of Man Only then will he see and understand Jesus as Son of God .
Is this what really happened? Well...No and Yes. If we take Mark's narrative as an account of the actual events. The answer is clearly, No. If, however, we see him and his community struggling to relate the insight they have achieved as to the nature of the relationship between Jesus and his followers, we may be on to something It is not surprising the restoration of sight is the medium for this message. At its base it represents that establishment of that which has not been previously seen - here taken to mean "understood".. It does not necessarily require starting anew but rather the ability to function with newly acquired wisdom. Not an unfair description of the development of we call insight. Furthermore the acquiring of sight requires a basic trust that the path along which you travel will not be based on deception. Eventually, the disciples discovered what they said they were seeing was but a nano particle of full vision. At the same time they would have missed everything had they not trusted Jesus.
All of which is to say that there is something very Old Testament (pardon the expression) about their experience. Jeremiah reminds us in our first reading the full extent of Jahweh's faithfulness and in this sense these early followers were responding to Jesus precisely because he represented one in whom they could trust. Again John Meier points out the presence in this reading from Mark of two unusual instances of this jewish setting. Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus "Son of David" and later refers to him as Rabbuni. Which is Aramaic for my master. The term "Son of David" is even more interesting because it links Jesus with a tradition of healing that goes back to the greatest of the Davidic monarchs, King Solomon. He had a reputation in Jewish circles as an exorcist and healer. Thus, Jesus reputation as a wise teacher, exorcist and healer would make him a kind of latter day Solomon. Popular belief in this tradition could be the source of the idea of Jesus as descended from the line of David since there is not any genealogical source for this claim.[2] So it might be possible to argue that what is revealed in this compilation of Mark is a kind of Jewish Christology which does not require us to make him a freak of nature.[3] Remember there is no birth narrative in this Gospel. Much of the same approach is taken by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews particularly in the reading from last week. It seems possible to conclude that Jesus followers were very much aware of the traditions which their faith had accumulated over the centuries. They were often puzzled and confused by what they heard and saw, often jumped to conclusions which were incomplete at best and sought very much to understand him as the One promised to be Messiah, Son of David, Rabbuni. And, their trust was never betrayed.
So, let me ask the question again, this time in the present tense. "What is it like to be a follower/disciple of Jesus. Obviously there should be as many answers as there are those here today. But beyond the obvious, we have to acknowledge that without the sense of trust we have experienced and displayed, we would be nothing. Part of this trust is very "Old Testament" in that we know our trust has a history. The other is a faith in our community as a gathering of the trusting and trusted. Thus, betrayal of trust is a disaster from which we may never recover .In the world in which we live Trust has assumed a crucial role in determining who we are as people of God and Body of Christ. It is in this context that should examine the implications of recent Roman Catholic pronouncement on the status of Anglicans.
On Tuesday of this week The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith published a note on establishing Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans[4] This was in response to the request from both individual persons, parishes and dioceses concerned about the divisions which have occurred in our communion over the role of Gay and Lesbian persons of faith in our community. The recent history of the discussion which this situation has produced are well known. The Holy See has issued an invitations to the Anglicans who wish to become Roman Catholic can do so under circumstances which allow for the continuation of many Anglican practices including ordination of married priests. It allows for the creation of special jurisdictions in which Anglican polity may be maintained and of course of the expression of the common Catholic faith as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. That it is not without political intentions is revealed in the joint spin of Canterbury and Westminster which followed the next day.. However, while I find disturbing the comments basically minimizing the struggles faced by homosexuals throughout the world - there seems to be a huge closet in the Catholic church which provides all kinds of solutions to this so-called problem for them. It is, however the ordination of women which is the real issue. Here we have reached a point of no return. The issue of misogyny is the central issue moral issue of our time. The ordination of women in the Christian Church is but one small example of the need to change oppression into opportunity for women worldwide as the subtitle of a new book by Nicholas Krristof and Sheryl WuDunn puts it. Its full title Half the Sky[5] is based on a Chinese proverb, "Women hold up half the sky".[6] The challenge posed by the latest Vatican assertion of moral supremacy lies precisely in the attempt to clothe its failures in the mock garb of a rescue operation. It is a reminder that we need to be there for women everywhere and without reserve. It is a sobering challenge because the way things now stand, women will be called upon to do most of the dying in order to achieve this goal. But we also know something about our history and its source in the One Who is above all worthy of trust.
Perhaps we do share something more in common with the first followers of Jesus, who were confident in their trust and eager to voice their enthusiasm. When called upon to demonstrate their trust they had no doubt as to what they were to do.
[1] This summary is based upon comments of John Meier, Jesus, A Marginal Jew, Vol II, pp. 386-394
[2] Meier, op.cit. pp. 688-689
[3] The idea comes from Meier, op.cit., p.90 but I have carried it in directions which he may have not intended.
[4] Vatican Note on Establishing Personal Ordinariates For Anglicans, Published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, October 20, 2009
[5]Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas D Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Knopf, NY.
[6] I am endebted to a review of Carolyn See of the Washington Post as it appeared in The Guardian Weekly, 16\10\op. P.41 for this comment.
