Reimagining the Ministry of Jesus
by The Rev. W. Rian Adams
I’m going to be direct here, as long as there has been religion there have been people using it to create rules. These rules often damage others psychologically and spiritually. I propose a reimagining of the ministry of Jesus in light of the suffering around us and thereby offering the love that has so popularized the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, Michael Curry.
In this lectionary reading, Mark teaches a valuable lesson: it’s healthy to go against the grain of religion in order to heal humanity. In the Gospel lesson Jesus heals a man with a lame hand.
To me the hand is a symbol of our creative power. Some mythology suggests the right hand as the creative and the left as destructive. No matter, it seems the man’s ability to create, hold, caress, and express was restored to him. Rather than be happy, the religious leaders were upset that Jesus healed him on the sabbath. In essence, Jesus broke the rules.
As you read these two stories note: They are about the mentality of the Pharisees contrasted with the driving force behind the ministry of Jesus.
Look for it in the text, you’ll see it.
Lectionary Gospel: Mark 2:23-3:6. Proper 4, Year B.
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.
He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
Pharisees and persona
The Gospel writer makes it clear that the Pharisees are the main opposition to Jesus. They were a first century conservative sect of Jews. The Pharisees were popular on a grass roots level (although the religious power of the day rested with the progressive sect, called Sadducees). Jesus encountered Pharisees often because his ministry occurred among the people.
The Pharisees present a contrast to the ministry of Jesus in the Gospels. They keep the rules, while Jesus discards rules in favor of humanity.
Honestly, the Pharisees are low hanging fruit. They are easy to critique. I’ve beat up on them quite often in sermons over the years and used them for straw man arguments to make good points. The main point is that we shouldn’t try so hard to serve God that we can’t see our neighbor starving to death.
Yet the truth, as John Sanford points out, is that “there is a Pharisee in all of us.” Sanford went on to connect the religious persona of the pharisees to an “outer mask that inflates the ego.”
It’s easy to see others as Pharisees and hypocrites but the raw truth is that the Gospel calls us to see ourselves in the archetype.
I know American Christians who think Jesus is a Republican. I know American Christians who genuinely believe in Democrat Jesus. Both opinions are absurd.
Any and all attempts to see the Pharisee as “other” misses the point of internal spirituality. We become Pharisees when we fail to own the shadow side of the self that’s a judgmental rule keeper.
The human question vs. the institutional question
In his book Falling Upward (shameless plug for a very influential book in my life), Father Richard Rohr explores some of Carl Jung’s spirituality on the two halves of life. To boil it down, Fr. Rohr says that the first part of life is lived where structure and rules provide safety and sanctuary for development.
When we apply this first half of life spiritually, it means that spirituality begins with learning moral rules and ecclesiastical structure. The problem is when someone assumes that the institution of the church equals a spiritual arrival.
As we have seen, the Pharisees were a religious sect whose confidence in their rightness was only eclipsed by their disdain of differing opinions. This is what Jung and Rohr would consider a “first half of life” problem. We all know these people – they worry themselves over perception and are to claim moral high ground.
If we are brave enough to admit it, we not only know Pharisees but we can often be Pharisees. We can parrot creeds or political passions as if they are Good News. This misses the mark.
The second half of life is quite different. Jung would say it’s more of a deconstruction that pulls us away from our need for institutional validation. Instead, we fall into a difficult transition where compassion and mercy are hallmarks of faith. Spiritual growth in the second half of life occurs in letting go, not in validation. Love and mercy were the hallmarks of Jesus’s ministry to those in need, never rules or accountability.
A reimagining of Jesus’s ministry for today’s church implies an honest look into the way of mercy, healing, hope, and compassion.
Rules and wounds
This does beg a question… how should we care for those wounded by the Pharisee? I’m not sure there is an easy answer but it must begin with restoring the lame hands of creativity and expression.
A friend recently confided me that she was completely finished with Church. I asked why because I’m the curious type. “Because baby boomers control most churches.” she said. “And that generation, more than any other, cares about how they look. My parents didn’t care how they looked at home in front of their children, but they gave a sickening amount of energy to their public face, especially in church.”
Obviously she made some valid points about generation gaps in our churches. She also pointed out some of the challenges facing millennials who seek integration into church that expresses values of previous generations. But what she really said is, “I’d really love some second half of life spirituality, but the churches I visit seem hung up on first half of life issues.”
People ask me all the time how to get Millennials in church. Millennials are very spiritual. As such we do not want to be part of something that has even the faintest stench of inauthenticity. So, the fact is that we will come to church when the church tends wounds instead of creating rules.
The message of light
However, I do not propose to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The ministry of Jesus can and should grow into maturity in local parishes through spirituality that embraces the second half of life.
The wound is where the light enters you. – Rumi
The ministry of Jesus is a ministry of light entering our human brokenness. His ministry was not about Phariseeism and rule keeping.
The challenge is incarnating, with our active imaginations, a model of ministry that shines light onto pain. However, we do not simply expose it, we heal the hands and liberate their creativity and passion.
That is Good news. Or, as the Archbishop of Canterbury recently said in an interview with Presiding Bishop Curry, “There is nothing conventional about Christianity.” The ministry of Jesus is Good News… the ministry of Jesus is Mercy! That’s an unconventional message from a Pharisee.
Additionally, if my poetry can be of any use, please click here.
Pax,
Rian+
Healing Snakes: Christ and Healing from Bitterness
By The Rev. Rian Adams
The title says it all! Through the Christ and his love there is healing from bitterness. Today’s lesson is a prime example of how that can happen.
When the image of a snake comes to mind it usually carries a negative connotation. I had many lessons as a child about the dangers of snakes. But Jesus, like so many things in the Gospel of John, flips the reader’s preconceived notions to the other side of the coin. Snakes can also be a symbol of healing. As a matter of fact, Jesus likens himself to a snake!
The lectionary reading for this Sunday contains one of the most famous passages, John 3:16. However, in this post I want to focus your attention elsewhere. As you read, listen to how Jesus likens himself to a snake.
The Lectionary Gospel, John 3:1-17. The First Sunday After Pentecost.
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
A fight of consciousness
The story of Moses and the snake is in Numbers 21:4-9. It’s a familiar story if you grew up around church. To summarize it, the people of Israel were wandering in a desert after their escape from Egyptian slavery. Israel is in the desert with no food, no water, and no hope. So, they do what people do… they turn on their leader. They blame Moses for getting them in the situation. I suppose when things get rough it’s always easy to blame the pastor.
It’s ironic that when people are on the precipice of growth, the unconscious will often rebel and demand they revert back to old ways of thinking. Jung said in Psychology and Alchemy, that “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls.”
Case in point, Numbers says that the Israelites lusted after their slavery in Egypt. Oh the irony… some would rather be slaves and eat than have their freedom and go hungry.
Often growth means we will become uncomfortable. Perhaps to grow also means that we will come face to face with our greatest anxieties.
Healed by a snake
The deity of Israel becomes angry because of the attitudes of his people. Therefore he sends poisonous snakes among them to bite them. The story says some even die of the snake venom. They repent and then ask Moses to talk to God for them.
I think Israel failed to appreciate the spiritual journey and that opened the door to bitter poison in their veins. .
Moses forges a serpent out of bronze and places it on a pole. A miracle occurs and all who gaze upon the snake receive healing from the poison.
In other words, once you are willing to look at the true cause of bitterness in your veins, then healing can occur.
When we are willing to observe our pain, then we are able to find healing from bitterness. It’s often terrifying to accept one’s self. However, Israel had to observe the instrument of their own poison before God healed them.
The snake and myth
In the minds of many Christians the snake is a dubious creature because of the role it plays in the Garden of Eden. It’s often associated with evil. However, in the Eden story the snake even talks. I think this highlights the snake’s wisdom, but also it shows us the snake’s shadow side of patient deception.
Other cultures do not view the snake in such a negative light. For instance, the ancient Sumerians held a different view. the snake sheds its old skin only to emerge in a new one. In this way, the Epic of Gilgamesh presents the serpent as the one possessing the gift of immortality — always shedding its smaller self to grow into a new definition.
In Greek mythology the snake is found in the god Asklepius who often takes the form of a snake. Various cultures present the serpent as a symbol of growth, immortality, and healing. The snake can teach us wisdom. We shouldn’t over emphasize the snake as a one dimensional picture of evil.
Jesus even admonishes his listeners to be “as wise as serpents.” (Matthew 10:16).
Jesus and healing from bitterness
Enter Jesus! He speaks with a Pharisee named Nicodemus about spirituality. Their exchange has sarcasm… Jesus says, “How are you a teacher in Israel and do not understand the Spirit blows wherever it would like?”
To paraphrase, “Nicodemus, your sect has created a box for God, and through that box you have limited God to doctrines and behaviors. That won’t work because God will show up in other ways, in other cultures, by other means. If you’re not careful, you’ll miss it.”
Jesus goes on to say that following the Spirit would mean observing the healing power of the Christ crucified.
Like the snake, the Christ brings healing when we observe his sacrifice. The symbolism is clear, when we recognize that our propensity for persecution is based in our resistance of wisdom,
then we are able to find healing for the soul.
I think Jesus likens himself to a snake to teach an important lesson. That lesson is that when we observe the way of love and mercy through sacrifice of the self (ego), we can receive healing from the poison of bitterness, anger, and hatred.
God loves us. God desires to heal us of the areas of anger and bitterness. The challenge is often our willingness to observe the truth of it first. My poem Destiny touches on the subject. If you can find it here.
Follow the way of the one who heals the soul and gives it life… there you find healing from bitterness.
Peace,
Rian+
Soul: Finding Identity by W. Rian Adams
Lectionary Reading: John 15:9-17, Sixth Sunday After Easter, Year B.
Soul identity is confusing. It’s also often faked in light of a desired persona. Listen carefully to this week’s lectionary Gospel and you will hear a call to find the soul’s true identity in God. It is often the challenge of true spirituality to find the true self as rooted in the compassionate Christ. Jesus confronted this in the Pharisees and warned his disciples of the dangers of the false self.
The Gospel:
Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
Jung on Soul Identity
I am reminded of what the great Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, once said about identity. He suggested that “we cannot change ourselves until we accept ourselves. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.” When there is a refusal to see ourselves (and others) through God’s eyes of compassion, we oppress our soul’s identity. Oppression has been a theological buzz word for a few decades. Normally we use it in conjunction to liberation theology and we apply it as a stance toward the poor. However, I wonder what happens when we apply the theological idea to a personal spirituality rooted in self-compassion…
After all, good spirituality finds its root in identity.
It’s easy to identify with personal belongings, or the desire to attain them. I’ve heard, and probably preached, many sermons that reminded people not to become possessed by possessions. Sure, that’s a great starting point. The problem is we’ve heard it so much that it no longer resonates.
I suggest a different approach. I think it is helpful to hear the words of Jesus, abide in me as I abide in God, in light of our identity in God. His words are a call to accept our relationship with the divine.
But it doesn’t stop there. We are not simply connected to God but we are identified with God.
The English Christian mystic, Julian of Norwich, said “We are not simply from God, but we are part of God.” Julian knew that we are intimately intertwined with the divine. We know we are in and of God when the person of Christ comes out in action. Mercy and compassion were his hallmarks. The soul’s identity is the compassion of Christ. Not sacrifice, not condemnation, but mercy.
One of my favorite quotes is by John Sanford who said, “If we judge others, it is because we are judging something in ourselves of which we are unaware.”
-Rian