“A Troub lesome Trilemma” June 9, 2024
“A Troub lesome Trilemma” S
1 Samuel 8:4-20
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Mark 3:20-35
It was Carl Sandburg that once said, “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, then pound the table and yell like hell.” Now, I’m not so sure that what Mr. Sandburg said here totally applies to our lessons today, but I do know there seems to be a lot of table pounding going on. Let’s start with Samuel.
Samuel has had a good run as the leader of the nation of Israel. He has, by and large, kept the peace; the nation has prospered, and folks really don’t have a lot to complain about. But Samuel is getting old and it’s time for him to step down. His sons should traditionally be next in line, but the people aren’t too keen on that idea. Evidently, they have put their heads together and come up with a new plan: to replace their religious leaders with a good old fashioned king. It’s hard to say why. They aren’t too confident of the sons’ abilities? That could be. Maybe they are buckling under the pressure of wanting to be like other nations; to keep up with the status quo. That is, after all, one of the reasons they gave for wanting a king. My guess is that it was a combination of things; that and the fact that the nation of Israel was just bored. They wanted some action and a king was a sure fire way to do it. Samuel was flustered, of course, but the Lord spoke to him and told him not to take it personal. Israel was not rejecting him – it was rejecting the Lord. “So let them have their king, but before you do give them the facts of what this king can and will do to you.”
Samuel told them the truth of kings and he told them the
legal powers of this king. The law and the facts were against them, so what did they do? They banged the table and hollered like crazy. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said, “for we want to be like the nations around us. He will govern us and lead us into battle.” Like the man said, “We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.”
Likewise, in the gospel of Mark, there seems to be some considerable table pounding going on. Today, just as a reminder, is the 2nd in an 8 part series from the Gospel of Mark. I said last Sunday that Mark could be called “a whirlwind narrative,” and that holds true in our text today. In fact, it’s a bit much. So let’s break it down. After Jesus left home, you can bet that his family kept track of him. Word would come back of healings, of teaching with authority, of being a bit of a troublemaker. “Oh, he always was a special child,” you can imagine the neighbors saying. But now he was back and he’s changed. He’s changed, and his family is not so sure they like it. So when word comes that he is drawing crowds and healing people and now with the Pharisees, come all the way from Jerusalem, calling him possessed by a demon, it was time to intervene. I mean, what else could they do – they were family, after all. But it was a dilemma for them; especially for Mary. By going to get him and bring him home, it would make a scene & by doing nothing, he will make an even bigger scene.
Now, I have to be honest with you – we could spend a month or more on these 15 verses in the gospel of Mark. “A house divided cannot stand. Whoever insults the Spirit will never be forgiven. Who is my mother, who is my brother?” and finally, “Whoever does the will of God is my
mother and brother and sister.”
Do we argue the law, do we argue the truth as we know it, or do we bang our fist on the table and scream bloody murder?
Just as a dilemma is a choice between to options, neither of which sound good, you could say we are in a bit of a trilemma here. But I’m going to offer an escape from this trilemma. It came to me when I got to thinking about our relationships to that wonderful and complicated and sometimes aggravating facet of our lives that we call family. Jesus shows us in this account that to be in the Kingdom of God, we have to redefine family.
So let me tell you about Brian Shay. Brian was like so many other young men: married with a small child, had an OK job, and was a little on the wild side. His life changed, however, when one day he was driving home after having too much to drink and he struck a young girl who was walking on the street. Due to his blood alcohol levels, he was charged and convicted with vehicular manslaughter and was sent to prison. By the time he got out, he was divorced and his infant son was now a 10 year old boy. It took a while, but his ex-wife eventually consented to weekend visits for Brian and his son. On one of those visits, Brian’s son said out of the blue, “Dad, can we go to church?” Brian says he had no desire to do such a thing, but the boy kept at it and soon they found themselves at the Methodist Church in Corvallis, MT. under the leadership of Rev. Mick Gray. Brian thought one time would be enough to keep his son happy, but not so. They went again and then again and before long the love and genuine concern of the pastor and congregation started to work a change on this young man. “You know, I never had much of a family life as a kid,” he told us,
“but this church showed me what family can be all about. And it changed my life.” He became more and more active in church life and took on leadership roles in the Western MT Walk to Emmaus program, which is where I met Brian. “They never let up on me and they never gave up on me,” Brian said. He now works and is an incredible asset at the Trapper Peak Job Corps which offers young people from low income families a chance to finish their education and train for successful careers. It is a story of love, it is a story of forgiveness, and it is a story of the glory of God. I have to tell you, I have listened to Brian tell his story to groups and congregations at least 3 times now, and I have choked up every time.
My point is, we as the body of Christ are charged to redefine family. We are charged to hold our tribes and our nations and our even our families as being important parts of our lives, yes, but in God’s kingdom there is a higher loyalty because in the Kingdom of God the mother who loses her child at a border crossing is your mother, the refugee that drowns trying to escape the land of his birth is your brother, and the child that dies from a stray bullet is your child.
I saw a sign the other day that caught me off guard. It read simply, “What if we really believed?” That was it: ‘what if we really believed?’ I was hoping for more; for some clarification, some further explanation. But I know what it means.
It’s all wrapped up in vs 33 when Jesus looked at the crowd and said, “Who are my mother and brothers? Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Funny thing is, he really believed it. He really believed it.
Amen & Shalom
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