(Today is the birthdate of my mother, Doris Lynette Kennedy Paris, Jan 12, 1923 - February 19, 2013, Born in the Great Depression in Tatnall County, GA, died in the Great Recession in Rome, GA, a town she was not sure she could suffer but did. She treasured and managed what she had, held on to her faith, was a loving mother of two sons and wife of a great man, Grady Vaughan Paris who preceded her home.)
This post is for you, our beloved outcast remnant for whom my mother would offer a hand.
A lot of
people, frankly it seems mostly young people, suffer very negative
experiences in church as they approach and enter adulthood. Perhaps they are assailed for their political views, for being enamored with Goth attire
and demeanor, maybe have an odd tattoo here and there, have open arms of
fellowship with same-sex oriented friends, may have that orientation themselves or simply question things said by
their parents and church leaders that most congregants take and apply unthinkingly at face value.
Even if they
have not suffered ill treatment directly, they see the hypocrisy, something they sometimes forget we all have in our
lives, and turn away in their idealism.
Some of those
who have been hurt are pretty vocal about it. Many voice harbored anger. Others try to nurture
the internal hurt silently. Some simply fall victim to cynicism and just drop out.
I find a remnant of those people quite refreshing and remarkable. You nurture my faith. You are the ones who
suffered what I can only call tragic, intentional harm at the hands of
“faithful but uncompassionate” believers but haven’t really given up on faith, or
“the fellowship of believers.” (You may not put it that way and at times feel I'm one of those with a hammer when I get fired up.)
I mentioned
in an earlier post that I polled a group of students at our local university
about this. The written responses to my
question, “If you do not find comfort in a worship experience at present, can
you tell me why?" The responses are easily summarized. The basic two messages: “When I attended
church I never felt welcome, accepted or comfortable, only judged.” “I have not been
successful in finding a worship experience that feels right, but I know God
will help me find one.”
These
responses come from a select social stratum, college-aged educated people. They
have been beaten up, humiliated, even ostracized from their worshipping
community yet they harbor a glimmer of hope and really no hate. I call them our remnant faithful believers who are hanging on by the fingertips. However, I’ll wager if we expand
our experiment we will find similar ideas across the age, economic and
education spectrum.
This post is for you, our beloved outcast remnant. That is why I
suggest to our beloved outcasts to set aside their cynicism if for only the
time it takes to read carefully the Gospel of Mark. I hope they will find in this story
not only themselves, but also the message that are they loved and welcome among us and have an obligation to share
their own love that brought them to read the story. They are the power of the Gospel. Mark is a story completely
about their glimmer of hope for a loving home they hold onto against all their
trials.
Most biblical
scholars (not all) accept The Gospel of Mark as the first written Gospel. It is
a unique book and its structure certainly suggests this is probably so. Mark
ignores a lot of “human” details. There is no virgin birth scene (Mark
never identifies Mary as the mother of Jesus but lets us know in the
opening verses that Jesus is of Divine origin). there is no visit of the Magi. The epiphany is the baptism of Jesus. The story begins with Jesus meeting the messenger of good news sent by God, John
the Baptist, who baptizes him, and then as a voice says, "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased," the spirit drives Jesus into the desert. Is
the desert symbolic of life as we know it?
Mark is
the story of a man driven by a task with pressing, obsessive urgency, so much to do and so
little time, as if Jesus knows what lies ahead as his end. Mark uses the word
“immediately” more than any other gospel. There is so much to do in so little
time.
He presents a
story so preposterous that it seems the early believers had to re-write it (Mathew, Luke, John) to
give some rational explanation to the birth of Jesus, to tie up loose ends that perhaps should be left untied (as is the nature of hope) such as resolving the
perplexing end of Mark by putting in details that show Jesus really physically
returned from death.
The primary characters are Jesus, John the Baptist, the disciples (who are presented as a
little slow and dense), lepers and social outcasts, demons and errant, scheming religious
leaders, Mary the mother of James and her entourage, Pilate and us dear
readers.
Quite
remarkably at the end of the Gospel, there is no physical resolution to the
death and resurrection just an imperative command and a promise. Upon finding
the empty tomb after the crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus, the women, the only ones with courage, find an
empty tomb and a young man in a white robe saying, “He is not here. Go and tell
the others he will meet them in Galilee.” The women fled from the tomb in fear
and said nothing to anyone...end of story.
But realize
yourself as you reading this Gospel, something happened. We find even you, our abused remnant with no
good reason to believe in this church whose congregations abuse and chastise, still believing at some level of consciousness. We find you seeking to find or establish a form or worship, looking for home. For you, this dissatisfying end of Mark is
really all that is needed to keep the fire burning. Let's head to Galilee, all of us.
As Paul said,
I can’t prove to you Mark’s story is true. No one can. Even the other gospels
are only “comfort food or Pablum” that make it easier for the rational mind to make sense
of Mark's strange message of Hope. Mark can only nurture the message that is already placed in your heart,
Read Mark and
know why you are still looking for home.
God is good,
in spite of ourselves.
Grace and
peace
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