Beyond the Patio

FACING OPPOSING FORCES
Mark 2:13 – 3:6

I grew up in a loving home.  I knew that my mother and father loved me.  I knew that my one brother, my only sibling, cared for me, so my first experience in the world was one of care, closeness and safety.  It wasn’t hard in those circumstances to think of the world as a friendly place, where people cared for one another and were concerned about each other’s well being.

As I experienced life outside of the family in school and in the community at large, I became aware that not everything was friendly and caring in the ‘the world’.  I made some friends but I found out that friendships often had areas of conflict when I didn’t agree on what was ‘right’. However, friends were important and if we were true friends we would work through those conflicts and remain close.  I became aware of bullies on the playground.  There was a couple of bigger kids that always wanted to beat me up even though I had done nothing to offend them.  It was never anything  that their victims did that brought on their violent behaviour, it was something within them and their circumstances in life that seemed to determine their actions. I learned how cruel parents can be to their children and  how cruel small children can be to one another. I also became aware of larger conflicts in the world because we were in the midst of World War II and all it’s atrocities.   Conflicts between people become conflicts between groups of people, then conflicts between nations that results in war.

There were many people went overseas to fight and never came back And there were a few that came back after the  that became violent predators in the communities where they resided. I can remember being told to always be careful and walk together with friends when coming home from Cubs because there was a man on the lose who raped and killed small boys.  The man was finally caught in a car that he had stolen from the garage of one of our family friends.

So, my experience in life seemed to be a mixture of opposing forces. On the one had there were many kind and loving things that people did often beyond expectations, and on the other hand there were many cruel and hateful things that people did . When I look at the newspapers today, it is the same story.  You see people save the lives of others through many acts of extraordinary valor and on the other hand we see people hurting, maiming, and killing one another in various ways.  On September 11, 2001, now referred to as 9/11, we saw an example of that contrast magnified in the nth degree. One the one hand the total devastation in the terrorist act that killed  many people and maimed many others  physically and  emotionally .  One the other hand, there were people ready to risk their lives in helping others, and in searching for those that might still be alive. Also, there was great hospitality and friendship exhibited to many people who were stranded when airports were closed down for a time. One such place was Gander Newfoundland where the people of that community opened their homes and hearts to welcome the people who were stranded there when many planes were not able to go to their destinations in the U.S.  Later a book was written about the experience named “The Day the World Came to Town”. In the pages of this book the strength and vitality of the human spirit was seen time and time again.

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In today’s Gospel of Jesus in Love and Compassion healing the man with a withered hand. We see  opposing forces willing to bring Jesus down for healing on the Sabbath.

They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him.

And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.”

Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Mark 3:1-6

Here we see the growing opposition of some of the religious leaders of that time beginning to question,  criticize and oppose the actions of Jesus because he threatened their power and influence.  It was a conflict which was just beginning to build in Mark’s Gospel and would eventually lead to his crucifixion and death a few short chapters later.  We see in this story  humanity’s capacity to love and care for one another and humanity’s capability for hatred and cruelty. Jesus, however, was able to act in compassion even when there was a threat of death in doing so.

We face these opposing forces everyday of our lives and it is easy to look at the tragedy and inhumanity in the world and say, “How can I believe in God when so many bad things happen in the world. To believe in a God who cares is to be involved with a tremendous fantasy.” It is easy to say like many do, “Life is a bitch and then you die.”  If life hasn’t dealt you not too bad of a hand you might even be inclined to say, “Pull the ladder up Jack, I’m alright , let the poor and the sick and oppressed look after themselves.”  We might even say, “What’s the use?  The wicked seem to prosper, the good are laid to rest, lying and cheating brings benefits, greedy grasping brings dividends, exercising control of others will assure me of having  more and more material wealth, prestige, and status. Go for it! What else is life all about anyway?”

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However, in the Gospel story not just these two opposing forces but we find something else. We find in Jesus, the power of God. The power of God is in Love rather than in control and force. I suppose God could exercise control and force and treat us all like puppets instead of self-conscious and self willed human beings. We find in Jesus’ life a willingness to act with Love in the midst of this world of the conflict, hate, arrogance and oppression.  We see in him the power to give life, to heal, to forgive and to act for the well being of humanity.  We see in Jesus the willingness to die in exercising that power.  We also see in Jesus that his crucifixion and death is not the end of it, and that this power of Love that he showed is still very active in the world today through his Spirit

I don’t always act the way that I should but I am committed to follow Jesus, to live in this world of opposing powers, giving myself to the power of love that I see in Jesus, and call upon the Spirit to lead me in acting under the influence of this power.  I don’t do this just because I started life in a loving home.  I do this because I have seen that the power of love in Jesus is stronger than anything that can possibly work against it.  I see it in the lives of others. I see that it is even stronger than death.  In fact I believe that it will be the one thing that remains when everything else is gone.

The great Swiss-German theologian Karl Barth delivered one of the closing lectures of his life at the University of Chicago Divinity School. At the end of the lecture, the president of the seminary told the audience that Dr. Barth was not well and was very tired, and though he thought Dr. Barth would like to be open for questions, he probably could not handle the strain. Then he said, “Therefore, I ll ask just one question on behalf of all of us.” He turned to Barth and asked, “Of all the theological insights you have ever had, which do you consider to be the greatest of them all?”

This was a remarkable question to ask of a man who had written tens of thousands of pages of some of the most sophisticated theology ever put on paper. The students sat with pads and pencils ready. They wanted to jot down the premier insight of the greatest theologian of their time.

Karl Barth closed his eyes and thought for a while. Then he smiled, opened his eyes, and said to the young seminarians, “The greatest theological insight that I have ever had is this: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!”

Tony Campolo,  Let Me Tell You A Story Word Publishing, Nashville, 2000, p. 22-23

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