Prospect
The Rev'd Robert Warren
Mark
1:1-8
"The kingdom of God barges into our lives".
I read that somewhere this week.
I'm a pedant - so if I read a phrase like "The Kingdom of God
barges in" I need to first
double-check that the verb-phrase "to barge in" comes from the
noun "barge" and not from some middle Danish verb that sounds
like beuorgen with an umlaut and an "o" with a line through
it, No - that's exactly where it comes
from - a barge - a not-overly-maneuverable boat with a flat bottom that
isn't easily stopped on a dime and which will take out any flimsy wharf that
sticks out too far from the bank. Older
sisters barge into bathrooms, brothers-in-law barge in with unsolicited political
opinions at Thanksgiving Dinner. You've
got to maneuver around these folks because they're bigger than you. They don't change direction easily.
The abruptness of the beginning of Jesus' ministry in Mark's
Gospel underscores the suddenness and novelty of God's action. The kingdom of God arrives. It takes up space. It is an event. Things must change shape to accommodate its
presence.
A sociologist of world religions who studied religious rituals
(both within and outside of Christianity) might conclude that they are designed
to stave off change. An art historian in
Florence or Venice who examined the many religious paintings which show Patron
Saints and sundry Virtues surrounding the reigning prince of the day might come
to the same opinion. Religious people
often demonstrate a keen investment in the present order where structures stay
more or less the same. They are forever
asking God to keep things on a steady, predictable and profitable keel.
It is one of the furrows into which religious language
and practice strangely settles - that our religious observance pleases a deity
who might otherwise upset our apple cart and cause things to change around
us. If we do our bit - behave ourselves
and offer appropriate worship - then God (or the gods) will do everything in
his ability to retain the shape of things so that they will still be there for
us when we wake up tomorrow. Both within and beyond Christianity God has often
been construed as the one who ensures that the harvest provides its annual
return, who ensures that the fish return each year to their streams, who Saves
Our King or Queen and who underwrites the inviolability of our Republics .
Pay attention. In
teaching-miracles and in parables, throughout the Gospel accounts we will read
together this year, Jesus points our attention to transformation, to
opportunity and to the presence of the New Thing. The old order? It can provide none of these.
God knows we don't like change or uncertainty. Jesus, however, tells us that he will turn
our worst enemy into our best hope.
