Reflexion, A Spiritual Community

To fully appreciate what’s here, we need perspective

If we take an aerial view and rise high enough,
– we’ll discover in Jeremiah themes and sayings from Deuteronomy
• both use the metaphors of a circumcised heart and an iron furnace
• both lay great emphasis on God’s covenant with Israel
The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, who are all ...

 There were two times in the gospels when Jesus identified precisely what had to be done in the moment
- once, when he told a wealthy man, “you lack one thing”
(the man had to liquidate all his assets and follow Jesus)
- another time he explained to Martha, “one thing is necessary”
• then he defended the one thing Mary had chosen to do
- it can be a big relief to narrow down what’s most important now to one thin...

The first time I visited Shiloh in Israel, I loved it

Finally I felt something extraordinary in Israel--like an energy vibrating up through the soil
- that was on the path, before we had even reached the site
• one strong appeal that Shiloh that appealed to me was that there was nothing there but bare hillsides
• but for that same reason, Shiloh was a message of doom for Jerusalem
- I knew about Shiloh from this pass...

 In 1989 Bob Dylan released the song “Everything Is Broken” 
 - it’s a bluesy song that I love listening to when I feel down but not out
• when something that is important to you falls apart,
◦ or a lot of unpleasant things line up in your day, this song fits your mood
◦ lots of people, in different situations can connect with these lyrics
• it sometimes seems everything, everywhere is going wrong
- this was...

Every year, my dad directed a summer camp in Williams, Arizona

So that was our typical family vacation
- one year, when all the campers were assembled in the chapel,
• Dad began, “There was a murder in the forest last night
◦ he paused to let that sink in
• then holding up a carving knife, he said, “This was the weapon”
◦ and “Here is the victim” – and he showed us a twig from an apple tree
- he explained tha...

I always been enchanted with the way this chapter opens

If you look at the text, God’s speech is arranged in a poetic format
- Hebrew poems do not look or sound like English poems
• Hebrew poetry has a different structure and rules
◦ in chapter 1, Jeremiah had expressed his thoughts in prose (the ordinary written form of essays, etc.)
◦ but God’s messages were laid out in poems
(God's speech is always in gre...

There are several words in the Bible we don’t understand

They pose a problem for us, because they’re common words,
- and we assume we know what they mean
• that is why we get confused when we come to them
◦ for instance: "name," "fear" ("Am I supposed to be afraid of God?"), "holy," and "sons of"
• biblical Hebrew has a small vocabulary
◦ so it has to expand the m...

The book of Proverbs is a collection of pithy sayings

If you read it several times, those clever lines stick in your mind
- for instance, here is one that comes to mind regarding this last week:
Iron sharpens iron,
 so a person sharpens the face of a friend (Pr. 27:17)
• you might remember, last year, Guy Gray spoke here
◦ we met up again this past week -- Gut has been my friend for fifty years
◦ I was fortu...

About twenty years ago, Barb attended a seminar at work

A psychologist lectured on Compassion Fatigue Syndrome
- it is a common condition among healthcare professionals
• their encounters with the suffering of others takes a toll
◦ if they are not treated yet continue to work, they can become numb
◦ they stop feeling empathy for their patients’ pain and grief
• the speaker provided the audience with a list of sym...

Last week, God’s question to Elijah was, “What are you doing here?”

We’ll start with that question: “What are you doing here?”
- isn’t one reason that your here is because you came to hear what I have to say?
• Okay, I feel uncomfortable when I think that or say that
◦ not only because it’s like I have to give an oral report every week
(and feel like I'll be graded on it),
◦ but because I can’t take myself t...

We’ve come to the last chapter in Mark’s gospel

And to the enigma at the end of the book
- that’s because the story ends at Mark 16, verse 8
• you say, “Chuck! My Bible still has more verses”
◦ “Yes, I know, but read the fine print”
• the most ancient manuscripts that we have in our possession end at verse 8
◦ scholars tell us the quality of the Greek writing changes at verse 9
◦ the evidence supports the abr...

This story is about Christ the Victim becoming Christ the Victor

I’m going to jump right into my meditations on this chapter
My meditation: “I want Mark to use his remarkable storytelling skills to enhance the details of what is depicted here. I want him to enable us to visualize it and hear every sound. It would benefit us to begin to fathom what Jesus suffered and to feel the utter hopelessness of the cross. I feel it’s import...

 My first thought is that this is Jesus these religious leaders want to eliminate. He has done only good; he has opened windows to the kingdom of God; he has advocated for spiritual and humanitarian reforms; and he has healed countless people.
My second thought is the devious approach the religious teams use to eliminate him. There is something about injustice that disturbs me so intensely it keeps me awake at night. My feeling...

 The temple plays an important role in Jesus’ story

The one clear accusation brought against him at his trial was,
“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands’” (Mk. 14:58).
- but they weren’t certain what that even meant
Yet even about this their testimony did not agree (Mk. 14:59)
• I tend to think, if something was sacred, it i...

For the last few chapters, tension has been growing

The religious establishment has taken notice of Jesus
– in this chapter, the conflict leads to a public showdown
• this began at end of chapter 11 with priests, scribes, and elders
By what authority are you doing these thing or who gave you this authority to do them? (Mk. 11:28)
◦ so the ‘And’ at beginning of chapter 12 is a continuation of that encounter
◦ the ...

When Nicodemus visited Jesus, his first words were,
Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God

Nicodemus was correct -- Jesus is a teacher
- Mark tells us teaching people Jesus' “custom” – his usual response when people showed up
• that is what we witness as we watch Jesus move through this chapter
• Jesus never ran out of things to say
◦ and every word he spoke was enlightenment
- one of his te...