My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.
I am sure we have all sung that song and I suspect there are a fair number of people who expect their God to be ‘so strong and so mighty’ that they don’t have to worry about anything, because their god will sort everything out for them.
Furthermore, their God will understand their unique perspective on life, and not only put them in charge, but help them get rid of the people they disagree with.
The last time I preached on these readings Donald Trump was campaigning to be president of the United States and by a miracle of the Common Lectionary he is at it again. Once again, he has phenomenal support from people who feel that he will govern their nation exactly the way they want and many even believe that is God’s plan.
I happen to know that’s not what Dan believes.
Furthermore, I was delighted to see a picture of Joan Baez on Facebook making a very derogatory gesture with one finger towards Trump Towers.
Joan Baez not only has the voice of an angel but as a young man endlessly listening to her recordings helped form my social conscience.
For Raewyn and I part of melding our social and religious values into family values involved moving from Wanganui and coming to Christchurch where I worked for a short time as photographer for the Presbyterian Church.
As part of that move, we purchased a house in St. Martins Road and of course began worshipping with our two small boys at St Martins Presbyterian Church.
In the miracle of serendipity which has both plagued and blessed our lives, we arrived just as the Rev Eric Chapman was about to go to Whanganui. He then worshiped at St James which was the church we came from. Most of our time here, and the growth we experienced, was during the ministry of Rev Gilbert Hay.
Both boys are now in their fifties. Geoff teaches history at Saint Kentigern College. He is currently serving as a house master and the serendipitous connections continue because Rev Dr. Wayne Te Kaawa, who trained at the same as me, is renting Geoff’s family home.
Right from the time Craig started at Opawa School to when he enrolled at Canterbury University he was less that impressed with school. He now lives in Millhill Lane on Huntsbury Hill and the irony of his early loathing of school is that his qualifications are a BSc. in Geography and a Master of Education.
What we were unaware of, when we worshipped here, was that the experience was part of ‘Introduction to the Presbyterian Church 101.’ Part of my preparation for a call to ministry. Neither did I suspect that the convenor of the Placements Committee, that sent us to Hamilton, would be the boy who delivered groceries to Raewyn’s family when we were all growing up.
It may well be Faith that sets us on a journey. but the Spirit drags us on that journey by a tangled cord of connected friends.
In due course I was elected to Parish Council and to my surprise sent off to represent the Parish at Presbytery. Much later as Presbytery Moderator I was taking part in Martin Cleland’s retirement service when he suggested that I should be sent to train for the ministry.
Faith well and truly set me on a Journey and St Martins Presbyterian Church was very much part of my Journey. Therefore, it has been a great pleasure to take a service here once a month and become reacquainted with so many friends.
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, and there’s nothing my God cannot do. But God also moves in mysterious ways, ties us in knots with the threads of friendship that grow around us, and speaks to us in our vulnerability.
The image Jesus gives of God, in this morning’s reading is not of a god is who is so big, so strong and so mighty but a vulnerable God.
Right from the turning point on the road to Caesarea Philippi and the climax of the crucifixion Mark’s Gospel focuses on the vulnerability of the God we image in Jesus.
Of course, the disciples do not understand.
Jesus talks about his execution and following Jesus’ rebuke of Peter the disciples are afraid to engage in the conversation or ask any questions. Instead, they argue among themselves about who is the greatest. Perhaps Jesus’ talk of his death prompted a discussion about succession.
Or perhaps they were still fixated on the idea of an all-conquering messiah who would become king when they got to Jerusalem. So, they were arguing about the cabinet posts they will get as his supporters. In fact, further along in the narrative, James and John come to Jesus and ask ‘grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory. (Mark 10:37) That is a fair indication that they still saw Jesus at least as a king and probably a god who is so big, so strong and so mighty.
Mind you it’s not just a deity that we expect to fix everything for us. I am struggling through some of Lee Child’s novels that I have been given at the moment. Struggling is not really the right term because I am enjoying them but reading them bothers my conscience. Child’s hero, Jack Reacher, is actually a vigilante. Of course, he only kills the bad guy but it is only Reacher who decides who that bad guy is. That’s why Child’s books are so popular. Reacher is so strong and so mighty, so nobody needs to worry about crime or serving on juries, police salaries or the effectiveness of crushing boy racers’ cars. Likewise, Superman and Batman deliver the villains directly to jail without the cost of a lengthy trial.
Superheroes are popular because they fix things for us but the God, we image in Jesus Christ, annoyingly involves us.
But the confusion about Jesus’ Messiahship and his followers’ role within it was not just limited to the disciples.
In her commentary on Mark’s Gospel Morna Hooker suggests that there probably was wrangling over status and authority in the gospel writer’s community. That would have been inevitable.
In fact, it is really difficult for any organisation to exist without some form of structured leadership. Perhaps Jesus recognised that when he gave the instruction ‘whoever wants to be first must be last of all and a servant of all.’ (Mark 9:35)
Ironically the way such leadership can work is demonstrated in our Proverbs reading where the strong-willed woman wisdom at the beginning of the book seems to have been domesticated into the dutiful wife in a patriarchal society. However, if we pay close attention, we find that the male who sits at the gate is not praised for his own achievements but because of the achievements of his wife. It is the dutiful wife who engages in property development and expands the family business while she keeps the household running.
The dutiful wife is equally as wise as the wisdom Spirit who speaks at the city gates. She is wise enough to be a leader of all, by being a servant of all.
I am very lucky to have married such a woman.
Leadership in Jesus’ community, and the community of those who would continue to take Jesus’ ideals into the future, must be leadership that first and foremost wants to serve. To serve both the gospel and those that the leader is called to lead. It must be leadership that, in the name of the God who is vulnerable enough to be crucified, welcomes the most vulnerable into the community of Christ.
To illustrate that point Jesus took a child in his arms and said, ‘whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me’. (Mark 9:37). Jesus was using the child as an example of the most vulnerable of people and in fact many communities don’t regard children as people.
I can still remember being together with my aunt and my cousins when the conversation moved to the approach of our 40th birthdays. My aunt’s surprised reaction was to exclaim ‘O my gosh, you are all almost people!
By today’s standards we were pretty much children when we lived in St Martins and with two strong willed boys we were certainly vulnerable. But Jesus’ reference to the vulnerable, by using a child as an example, did much more than alert us to the potential of vulnerable people.
The second part of the statement is ‘whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me’. (Mark 9:37). That verse makes the theological statement that we welcome Christ when we welcome the most vulnerable. We welcome Christ by caring for those some might call bottom feeders. The disadvantaged, solo parents, and the unemployable.
That is a concept that is more fully developed In Matthew 25:31-46 as the parable of the sheep and the goats.
That episode also highlights the reality that we cut ourselves off from Christ when we fail to welcome the vulnerable.
‘For I was hungry and you gave me no food’ and so on until Jesus says ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ (Matthew 25:45)
In today’s passage Jesus calls us to a sense of solidarity with lowliness and vulnerability and affirms, that in acts of caring and love, we come face to face with the divine. Jesus is speaking of a community which provides mutual caring, and support, and his own actions demonstrate such a possibility. This church was part of my journey towards living in a caring community that seeks to live the caring of Christ with all humanity.[3]
It is a mighty journey towards vulnerability that faith sets us on.
[1] Maurice Andrew The Old Testament in Aotearoa New Zealand (Wellington: DEFT 1999), pp.380,381.
[2] Marcus j. Borg The Gospel of Mark (New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2009) pp.77,78.
[3] http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MkPentecost17.html