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“The Cycle of Nature”
Mark 8:27-38; James 3:1-12; Psalm 19
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time -
Theological Education Sunday
"Worship in the Barn"
September 17, 2006
I had been with my friend, Alma,
in her late nineties, as they brought her up to the floor at the hospital. I had
just left work, and discovered that she came into ER and had fallen. Her only
child, her son, had been contacted from Atlanta, Ga. to come. As a volunteer, an
Angel, and as a student pastor, this was a cherished memory for me, not long
ago. For now she smiled at me, yet I sensed that this would be no miraculous
recovery. As expected, a few half-hours later my friend died, I and her
care-giver at her side. But in this very brief window of life into death, and
death into new life, I felt the reminder, the reflection of God’s presence. As
I was with my friend, I reflected on the regularity of the cycle of nature; how
life is measured by character, time, events.
In pondering our texts, we know
the first part of the Gospel of Mark is about the crowds and their astonishment
with Jesus going about his life; his teachings, preaching to the multitudes, and
his wanting to tell no one, his quietness alone in the wilderness. But now, a
turning point in our text, though, is Jesus training the twelve disciples,
acting put-out at them; have they not seen, heard, or did they fail to
understand? It’s serious; Jesus passionately predicting his own death, not less
than three times in our Gospel, and Peter says, ‘But you are the Messiah,
Jesus.’ Peter is about love for Jesus, not suffering. It seems that here and
now, Jesus foretelling his death and resurrection is surreal!
And yet Jesus was crucified on a
cross, and we try to grasp this irrational, fantastic, somewhat grotesque
event–death and dying into new life of Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, this Jesus
of Nazareth. It is surreal. This one event, however, as we also know, did wake
the disciples up! Through their bickering ‘who of them’ was the greatest, who
was the betrayer, when all of the cycle of nature and life was before and around
them, these twelve disciples were demonstrating what we all do; the mixture of
bad and good going on around them and their obliviousness to perhaps the event
of all events. Jesus’ passion for them to know is quite clear.
Finally, the disciples realized
and said, ‘If we are to be like Christ, we must take on these burdens of
Jesus–what he accepted.’ This one fantastic, dramatic event, death into NEW
life, somehow brought them to reality that changed them. You see, death, AND
attaining new life, it seems, does this. It gets our attention. At the very core
of our being, dying is there for us to try to accept and experience. The bad and
the good are the cycles of our nature, happening at the same time, that bring us
new life in Christ. At OCPC we have experienced that in our own personal lives
in the last three weeks, with sorrows of death, and celebrations of newness in
life. In our Gospel, Mark was admittedly exposing the disciples weaker lives,
and in acknowledging their faith in the early church, in our Scriptures of Acts
( as one example), we see those two disciples, Peter and John, at their best.
In my pondering of the ‘ways of
people’, their lives in Biblical times, I wanted to know their minds, their
nature and ways of understanding each other, God. And in our text of James I
found that; their were different ‘mystery’ religious groups in Greece and Rome,
before the death of Alexander the Great ( 323 BC) not responding to the usual
gods, goddesses; things were kept secret about their rights, their teachings,
only known by these cults. Themes of the Orphic and Dionysiac mysteries and
others were of fertility, the seasons and nature, and the afterlife, and more
prominently, women were in these mystic cults. These competing religions with
the likes of Christianity were trying to understand the process of regeneration,
life’s further purification, and deliverance to salvation. A kind of release
after life and death, a physical re-birth experience.
Recently I was asked, by my
father, what happens to our souls and bodies after death? I told him
Presbyterians believe that ‘we are in life and death as Jesus was.’ What struck
me in the words of James, written (80-100 CE) with a proverbial nature in the
N.T. were the subtle truths, the pictures of nature and the actions of life; sea
froth, wilted flowers, forest fire, a horse’s bit, strong winds, a giant ship,
and a tongue of poison! These are simple, vivid and glamorous images of nature
aren’t they? They describe charges and changes in human behavior in our lives.
James obvious truth for us is in
taming the tongue, for it can bring perfection; BUT few accomplish it. He is
telling us about God’s gifts to us of wisdom, and works; one invisible gift, and
one very visible gift. These are gifts of the soul that transcend into actions
of our bodies, for and with others. For if we can speak consistently in our
excellent words, we do control our whole body; wisdom in speech and action can
create peace and not division. Have you ever thought that what comes out of your
mouth is really what’s in the heart of your body? I can’t say that I have
thought of this truth consistently, but sometimes I do speak without realizing
what’s going to be the impact upon others. It’s like the bit in the horse’s
mouth in obedience to their movements, or the rudder, small as it is, as the
mouth that guides the ship wherever the pilot directs. These images are
smallness in nature that control larger actions and entities. And most
importantly for us, they have impact. It is impossible to be perfect. We know
that in our nature of living.
Jesus, the teacher of the crowds
and disciples, James, as leader of the church in Jerusalem, our farmers and
helping hands, not necessarily in ‘uniform’, our teachers in schools begin their
roles in our educational systems this month; they all were/are trying to
enlighten their listeners, their hired hands, with important deeds; the cycle of
nature in life and in death. We ask what is the cycle of our nature, anyway? It
seems that we are hearing in our texts about our own self-control in life and in
death. And God’s presence is in life and in death to new life.
The good news of the Gospel for us
this day is that life is preserved, just as it is given away. The cycle of
nature for us is in life as it is found in our living and in our dying. Jesus
Christ, ‘Who do you say that I AM?’ is the Messiah, sent to save others, and us!
As prophets and teachers, as Christians in the name of Christ, in the cycle of
our nature, in our character, time, and events we can ask ourselves, “Who do we
say that we are?” AMEN.
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