Taking Up Our Cross

Second Sunday in Lent (Year B)

Mark 8.31-38

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 13:40)

 

A couple of weeks ago, when we talked about the Transfiguration, we talked about how that was a pivot point in Jesus’ life and ministry. When his focus changed from being about his ministry of teaching and healing to being about his journey to Jerusalem. The journey we make with him during the season of Lent. Well, the real shift actually took place six days before the Transfiguration, in the events we hear in today’s Gospel. When Jesus tells his disciples for the first time that he will undergo great suffering, be killed, and then rise again. The first of three Passion predictions.

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Do We Really Need To Do Lent This Year?

First Sunday in Lent (Year B)

Mark 1.9-15

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 14:00)

 

Here we are. The start of another Lenten season. The beginning of another Lenten journey. The 40-day period when we specifically focus on repenting of our sins both individual and communal; with the threefold practices of prayer, fasting, and charity; and a time that we often associate with austerity and deprivation. Looking at the last 11 months, is what we have been through so different than what we associate with Lent? Only it did not come to an end after 40 days. No, here we are at Day 340 of the official “lock down” that we have lived through with varying degrees of intensity. What seems to be a never-ending Lenten season. In fact, when we began this pandemic existence, we were in the middle of Lent 2020. Our last in-person worship was March 15^th, the third Sunday in Lent. Sure, we switched to online worship and completed the liturgical season of Lent 2020, doing Holy Week and Easter services in a new way. But it still didn’t quite seem like Lent was over. Even though we celebrated Easter, it still felt like Jesus was in the tomb. Even though we celebrated Pentecost online, there did not seem to be much of a new spirit in the land. Even though we celebrated Advent, preparing for, anticipating, longing for new birth, the celebration of Jesus’ birth at Christmas just was not the same. Throughout it all, there was the specter of COVID. There was the reality of a global pandemic. There was an ongoing sense that we were in a time far more akin to Lent than to Easter or Pentecost or Advent or Christmas.

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Taking Up the Mantle

Last Sunday after the Epiphany (Year B)

2 Kings 2.1-12; 2 Corinthians 4.3-6; Mark 9.2-9

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 12:00)

 

Today we come to the last Sunday in the season after Epiphany. As we noted at the beginning of our Epiphanytide journey, the term Epiphany comes from the Greek, meaning “manifestation” or “appearing.” And in our Christian context, the Feast of the Epiphany and the season that follows focus on how Jesus’ true identity as the Son of God is revealed. Well, what happens today in our Gospel reading is the epitome of those revelations.

 

Just to set the stage, six days before going up the Mount of the Transfiguration, Jesus had revealed to his disciples for the first time that he would “undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mk 8.31). Now, six days later, for some inexplicable reason Jesus takes his inner circle, Peter, James, and John, up a high mountain. As we heard, while there, “he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white . . . and there appeared to them Elijah with Moses” (Mk 9.2b-4). As if Jesus being transfigured and the two greatest prophets in Jewish history appearing out of thin air to chat with Jesus weren’t enough to demonstrate who he was, a voice came from a cloud saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved: listen to him” (Mk 9.7). You can’t get a much more dramatic or definitive revelation of Jesus’ true identity. Well, you can, but we have to wait for Easter for that.

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Healing, Restoration, and Hope

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (Year B)

1 Corinthians 9.16-23; Mark 1.29-39

St. Gregory's, Long Beach

Live Streamed on Parish Facebook Page (beginning at 13:55)

 

I can’t help but feel sorry for Jesus. In today’s Gospel reading, we are told that he and his disciples left the synagogue and went to Peter’s house, where they find Peter’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever. Jesus heals her. Then, later in the day, he is inundated with those who “brought him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around him.” (Mk 1.32-33). This was obviously going to be a long day. Lest we forget, even as today’s passage begins, Jesus has already put in a long day’s work. Today’s passage is just a continuation of what we heard last week, where Jesus was teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath and was confronted by a man with an unclean spirit, which Jesus promptly dispatched.

 

And this was literally Jesus’ first day on the job. As I noted last week, the scene at the synagogue was Jesus’ first recorded actions in his public ministry. You’d think Jesus would want to ease into his ministry. Instead, there was so much to be done the poor guy hardly had a chance to catch his breath. And I’m guessing this was all pretty draining on him. Just teaching to a crowd can be pretty draining. Add on top of that having to deal with an unclean spirt, which I assume engaging and casting out demons is also a draining activity. It is certainly implied in other passages of scripture. So, I’m sure that when Jesus left the synagogue after a very busy morning, he just wanted to go back to Peter’s place, relax, and have a nice, quiet Sabbath meal. But no. Instead, he must deal with the sick mother-in-law. Then came the crowds wanting to be healed. They had probably heard about what happened at the synagogue, so came to see if they, too, could be healed by Jesus. Welcome to your public ministry, Jesus. A Messiah’s work is never done. And the way he deals with the events of this, his first day of public ministry, essentially sets the tone for the rest of his ministry.

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