Preacher’s Study – Year B, Proper 25 (30) 2015

Monday Morning in the Preacher's Study

First thoughts about next Sunday's sermon

(22nd Sunday after Pentecost, Oct. 25, 2015)

Frank Logue

Job 42:1-6, 10-17 OR Jeremiah 31:7-9

Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22) OR Psalm 126

Hebrews 7:23-28

Mark 10:46-52

In an extremely economical account of a brief encounter outside of Jericho, the Gospel of Mark gives the essence of the journey of discipleship. This otherwise unnamed Son of Timaeus not only regains his eyesight, but he also comes to follow Jesus as a disciple. For as I sit with this text and look ahead toward Sunday, the final words are the interpretive lens through which I see the passage. We are told in the more literal KJV translation that Bartimaeus "followed Jesus in the Way."

That the now sighted man follows Jesus in the way is no small detail as the early Christians referred to the Jesus Movement as "The Way." Mark, no doubt, expected that to resonate with his first hearers. I am wondering how to recapture the resonance that as the Torah once showed us "The way to walk" we now see most clearly that way by following Jesus.

As the reading starts, the blind beggar is the one who sees most clearly as he loudly proclaims Jesus' identity, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Then he shows even greater discernment as he throws off his cloak, the tail of which he would have been using to beg as a means of supporting himself. Bartimaeus has already named Jesus rightly and shown great faith before he asks to regain his sight. No wonder Jesus says, "Go; your faith has made you well."

Then Bartimaeus, who began the story "along the way" now joins "the way" in following Jesus—a conversion in five verses. I know as a priest that the practical steps I have seen most dependably lead to lasting life change are when one takes on disciplines as a means of discipleship. In taking on routinely reading through the Bible, daily private and at least weekly corporate prayer, and in service to others I find are how we move from being along "The Way" to actually following Jesus.

For Bartimaeus, the decisive moment came when hearing Jesus call, he threw aside his cloak and stood naming his deepest need to Jesus. As I work my way toward Sunday, I am wondering how I remain along the way, rather than following Jesus in the way. What would the equivalent to casting away a cloak? I will look at my own Rule of Life and contemplate how I might gently encourage others to do so as well. While the actual phrase "Rule of Life" may not (or may) be in my sermon, I know that I feel the challenge to point to discipline as a means of discipleship.

Frank Logue is an Associate member of the APLM Council and has served as its secretary. He worked as a church planter in the Diocese of Georgia, starting King of Peace in Kingsland, before joining the diocesan staff in 2010 as the Canon to the Ordinary.

Preacher’s Study – Year B, Proper 24 (29) 2015

Monday Morning in the Preacher's Study

First thoughts about next Sunday's sermon

(21st Sunday after Pentecost, Oct. 18, 2015)

Frank Logue

Job 38:1-7, (34-41) OR Isaiah 53:4-12

Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b OR Psalm 91:9-16

Hebrews 5:1-10          

Mark 10:35-45

With a touch of dramatic irony, James and John ask to be at Jesus' left and right in his glory. Jesus has just predicted his death for a third time. Mark gives not the slightest gap in the narrative before James and John begin their not too subtle grab for power. This is a helpful reminder of what we already know—Jesus will come into his glory on a hillside called Golgotha, the Place of the Skull. On his right and left will be thieves. After warning the brothers to be careful for what they wish, Jesus uses this moment to state clearly in words an approach he has made clear with his self-giving way of life: The path to greatness is the path of service. Care for others is paramount.

Yet here also for the third time in a short span, the disciples again seem unable to process Jesus words about that last being first. Rather than trying to be more humble than one another or out doing each other in service, two of Jesus' inner circle vie for even more honor.

As I journey toward Sunday I am reminded of a Bishop who told me of when he was as a young minister sent to work for a time among Mother Teresa’s community in Calcutta. Soon after his arrival, a nun assigned him to a team changing lepers’ bandages in the streets. One leper saw the minister working at the station and asked him to lay hands on him and pray for healing. Horrified by the disfigured face, he told me he retreated to the nun leading the group.

“That man wants me to lay hands on him and pray for him. What should I do?” he asked.

“What would our Lord do?” she asked in reply.

“I know what our Lord would do. I want to know what I am to do,” he stammered back.

“You want a medical answer, and I will not give you one,” the nun replied. “The man wants God’s healing touch. If you are a priest, you will do what your Lord would do. As you walk back over there, decide whether you intend to be a priest or not.”

For baptized Christians, we drink the cup each week in the Eucharist, the new Passover. But how does that cup change our lives? For though we may find ourselves in positions of power, we should exercise that power well. Yet the right use of any power or authority we may have will not usher in the Kingdom of God. Rightly using authority given us is good, but Jesus points to something more foundational. Whatever positional power we may enjoy pales in comparison to the coming Kingdom. Jesus came to turn the world upside down. Only in our powerlessness and weakness can God act in power and strength.

In the Garden of Gethsemene before his arrest, Jesus prayed, “Let this cup pass from me.” Then he prayed for God’s will rather than his own. For Jesus, drinking the cup meant partaking of all God had set for him to do. The cup was Jesus own life and he drank it to the full, fully offering all of himself back to God.

The life of the baptized is a life of service to others. Sacrifice and humility are its marks. When opportunities to serve arise, how we respond determines whether we intend to act like one who has been united with Jesus in his death and resurrection.

Frank Logue is an Associate member of the APLM Council and has served as its secretary. He worked as a church planter in the Diocese of Georgia, starting King of Peace in Kingsland, before joining the diocesan staff in 2010 as the Canon to the Ordinary.

Photos: Image of a woman begging in Rome and Chalice at the Church of the Annunciation in Vidalia, Georgia, by Frank Logue.

Preacher’s Study – Year B, Proper 23 (28) 2015

Monday Morning in the Preacher's Study

First thoughts about next Sunday's sermon

(20th Sunday after Pentecost, Oct. 11, 2015)

Frank Logue

Job 23:1-9, 16-17 OR Amos 5:6-7, 10-15

Psalm 22:1-15 OR Psalm 90:12-17

Hebrews 4:12-16

Mark 10:17-31

This week's Gospel brings up the cost of baptism as Jesus looks at a wealthy man and loves him.

The man had asked the Rabbi what he must do to inherit eternal life. After running through the parts of the Ten Commandments that deal with how we treat one another, the man assured Jesus that he had kept all these commandments since his youth.

Then Jesus looked at him and loved him. Jesus asks the man something that he had asked before at least twelve times. Jesus had asked this of Peter and his brother Andrew, and then of their friends John and James. He asked them to drop their nets and walk away from their fishing boats.

Jesus had already asked Matthew to walk away from his tax collectors booth, leaving the mounds of coins on the table for someone else to deal with.

Jesus asked each of his disciples to drop everything and join him on the road.

This rich man is being given a decisive moment, what Karl Barth would call a crisis. Let go of all that you are carrying to join Jesus on The Way.

The man famously turns away grieving, for he had many possessions. Jesus offered the man a prime spot in the history of God’s bringing salvation to the whole world. And the stuff mattered too much to him. He couldn’t leave it behind. The hold his possessions had on him was too strong.

It would seem that every one of us got off easy. None of us has had to face the day where Jesus gives us that big moment of decision, leave everything behind and follow me. But we do know better than that, right? Jesus still comes into each of our lives and asks us to follow him on The Way.

The Way is what the first followers of Jesus called their movement. Judaism had always talked about the life of faith in terms of following "hallakah", which means literally "the way to walk". There is nothing on Jesus’ Path that adds to the way to walk taught by the Jews. In fact, Jesus is teaching a simpler path where loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself are the signs that you are on the right path. 

This week's Gospel can also be heard through a bit of homiletical fiction. There is a much-repeated story that “Eye of a Needle” refers to a gate into Jerusalem. It seems that a preacher in the Middle Ages wrote that there was a gate into Jerusalem called “The eye of the needle” through which camels could pass, but only by hobbling through on their knees. The idea was that it is difficult, but not impossible and it had the added punch line of suggesting that rich folks who wanted into heaven needed to get on their knees. 

It’s a great little story, but it has no basis in archeology or any other known facts. The truth is Jesus was referring to the largest animal in Palestine and the smallest common opening. He meant a real camel and an actual eye of a needle. The idea is that humanly speaking it is impossible to get a camel through the eye of a needle.

As I journey toward Sunday, I am wondering how to convey that following the Way of Jesus still means making difficult decisions about how to live. As Bonhoeffer noted famously, that grace is not cheap, but costly through a well crafted passage in The Cost of Discipleship. Why has baptism come to be seen so cheap, and how might we recover the baptismal life as a life of following Jesus on The Way?

Frank Logue is an Associate member of the APLM Council and has served as its secretary. He worked as a church planter in the Diocese of Georgia, starting King of Peace in Kingsland, before joining the diocesan staff in 2010 as the Canon to the Ordinary.