Proper 28B, November 18, 2012; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of Love, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Some weeks feel more challenging than others to be a lectionary preacher! The other day I was sitting with a group of colleagues who were all talking about how they had changed the lessons for this Sunday – to celebrate Thanksgiving or various other events in the life of their parishes. I thought glumly, “why didn’t I think of that?” It’s highly ironic to me to pray the beautiful words of the opening collect about scripture – to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest – on a day when our appointed Gospel lesson is the beginning of the apocalypse in Mark. Episcopalians generally don’t like dwelling on the fact that we have apocalyptic scripture.

This is the last we’ll hear from the Gospel of Mark for another three years. Mark’s clipped and urgent prose doesn’t quite cover the liturgical year the way Matthew and Luke do, and so next Sunday which is the last Sunday in our liturgical year, we will hear a passage from the passion narrative of Gospel of John. It is a jarring lectionary move – you’ll have to keep your knees bent slightly so that you don’t topple over!

Back to this week. In today’s Gospel reading we hear a part of a speech – a kind of farewell speech – that Mark reports Jesus delivering in the last few days of his life. Like Jacob and Moses and King David before him, Mark’s Jesus gave his hearers instructions for how to live – how to go on, facing whatever comes their way, after he’s gone. And he predicted that things were going to get very difficult. Although his prediction that not one stone would be left upon another at the great temple in Jerusalem was something of an exaggeration, life as they knew it surely came to an end when Jesus died. And life as they knew it surely would come to an end when the Romans sacked Jerusalem at the end of the seventh decade of the first century when this Gospel was being written. This passage is one of the proof texts for scholars who date the writing of Mark at about 70 CE.

Perhaps wondering how best to prepare, Peter, James, John and Andrew interrogated Jesus privately about when the end would come and what the signs of the end would be. Once again, Jesus’ response does not answer their questions. He seems to be saying again, without so many words, that they’re asking the wrong questions. Jesus seems to be much more about questioning the answers than he is about answering the questions of his followers in the Gospel of Mark! Instead, he says, “see that no one leads you astray by using my name.” Astray from what? Well my guess is astray from the feeding and freeing work that they are called to be doing: casting out polluted spirits and restoring health, widely proclaiming the love of God, and building up the beloved community. “Don’t let wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes in various places or famines disturb or startle you” and keep you from loving one another and loving God. This is a tall order! Even in the midst of catastrophies, violence and great suffering, Jesus’ followers are to continue to live in love knowing that love is always more powerful than death.

The fascinating thing to me about this speech is that Jesus uses the metaphor of childbirth here. And as it turns out, that’s a metaphor that really resonates with me! Jesus talks of birth pangs. Now “pang” seems a little light-handed, but his point is well taken: labor happens and it’s painful. He’s not really addressing why labor hurts, just that it does – that it’s one of the signs of change –of a new life about to occur – about to be delivered through a process of suffering. His stated purpose in his farewell speech is to reduce emotional anxiety. Jesus’ followers are not to be alarmed. The pain is normal. It most assuredly does not feel good – and that can lead to fear. But “do not be afraid.” is Jesus’ refrain. Pay attention, keep alert, use your eyes and ears – and don’t worry. Don’t be afraid. You have what you need. You know what you need to know. He’s like a birth coach!

And just what is “the everything” that Jesus has already told us? It’s in the part of Mark’s Gospel just before the farewell speech begins. The wise scribe says it and Jesus affirms it. I’ll tell it to you – but I know that you already know it: “Hear, O Israel (or translated differently, “Listen deeply you god-strugglers”): Listen, O my wrestling people: the [name which is too sacred to pronounce] is our God, the [Holy Name] alone; (and when you listen deeply) you are going to love the Holy Name your God with all your heart, and with all your life force, and with all your mind, and with all your very muchness. (When you do that) you are going to love your neighbor as your self.” That’s it. That’s all you need to know. Indeed, that’s all we need to know.

And with that knowledge, we have the ability to do something great today – every single one of us. If you’ve already done something great this morning, fantastic, you probably still have time to do another great thing. If you are alert – if you use your eyes and your ears and you pay attention, the Holy One will provide an opportunity to put aside your worry or your fear of war or rumors of war, of earthquakes in various places, and of famine, to go with only the clothes on your back, yes, empty-handed, open-handed, and to share who you are, and what you have, and what you know about the love of God, using words only if necessary. You can let your life speak, as the Quaker saying goes.

When will the stones come tumbling down? The thing is, they’re always coming down somewhere. If we could all be alert to the call to listen deeply to the Holy One, and to the love that comes as a consequence, nations might even stop rising up against nation and kingdom against kingdom. I want to believe that wars are not as inevitable as earthquakes. I want to believe that like famine, wars are preventable with just distribution of resources. Jesus and his followers might have believed that wars must take place, but I don’t.

Two and a half weeks ago I got an email from a perfect stranger. That is not so unusual, but this email really amazed me. It was a letter from a woman whose story I had heard and preached about some years ago. She found my sermon on our parish website. She was the mother of a son who had been shot with a gun and paralyzed from the neck down for refusing to hand over an Allen Iverson basketball jersey that he was wearing. Maybe some of you remember that sermon. He died a few years after the shooting as a result of a ventilator failure.

In a radio interview given only days after his death, his mother said that, not only had her son Kevin forgiven his assailants, he even befriended one of them, which was extremely difficult for her. She said that after the shooting she had wanted scrape together the money to bail out just one – any one — of the five assailants, to get him out of jail so that she could kill him herself. She was so angry. Her mother had died from a drug overdose. Her father had died from AIDS. Her son had been paralyzed by a senseless shooting over a dumb basketball jersey. It was Kevin who argued and argued from his hospital bed – and finally persuaded his mom, that the only way for the whole family to heal was to forgive. She said that she came to believe that God’s purpose for Kevin – Kevin’s reason for being — was to be an agent of healing. She said, “Kevin couldn’t get up and move on, but his mind got up and moved on – and healed – and healed the rest of us too.”

Toward the end of the interview I had heard on NPR, Robin Young asked Kevin’s mother if she knew about the little girl in Boston named Kai Leigh Harriott who was paralyzed as a result of a gunshot wound. The little girl had also forgiven her shooter. Kevin’s mother’s immediate response was, “No!” and then without skipping a beat she asked, “Does she have a van? Because I could give her our van. Someone who had lost a son gave it to me. Maybe you could find out if she needs a van.” Kevin’s mother had already donated her son’s organs. She said that her very first thought when she came home from the hospital after her son had died was, “we have to find someone who needs that van.” It turned out that the family in Boston had been using public transportation for three years, trying to save enough money to buy a wheelchair- equipped vehicle. Kevin’s mother gave Kai Leigh Harriott’s mother the van.

And two and a half weeks ago Kevin’s mother wrote to me. I will read you her email:

“Dear Rev. Pamela L. Werntz, Your sermon brang me to tears this morning. My name is Janice Meeks, but you may know me by the name Janice Jackson-Burke my son’s name was Kevin Johnson from Philadelphia. My son was killed in 2006. I was playing around at work (being bored) and was googling different things so I googled my name as I know of a lot of stories that was posted online some years ago and I came across your sermon.

Rev. Werntz your sermon touched me so much, with all that I’ve been through after Kevin’s death and even before… I had a good life compared to other people (I discovered). I have a wonderful life today, and was blessed throughout. I thank you for all your prayers and thoughts. I also want you to update your church and let them know that I am a BLESSING today (always); I went to college to obtain a degree in social work, I was blessed with TWO grandsons in the same year 2010 only 3 months apart named Jayden and Jaylen and Jayden who was born last was born on Kevin’s birthday!! Amazing right? Even though me and my then husband Wayne Burke didn’t hold on to our marriage, I am now happily married to the most wonderful man Dana Meeks. My family is happy, even though we all miss Kevin we know that Forgiveness is what brought us back to LOVE. I know that I could have never came out [of] what I’ve been through if it wasn’t for God, and all the prayers. Thank You!! Janice Meeks”

In his parting words, Jesus is making it clear that whenever the stones come tumbling down, it’s not the end with a capital E; it’s an opportunity for transformation. So, in the words of the writer of Hebrews, “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together…but encouraging one another, all the more.” According to Jesus, God does not invite us into abundant life by urging us to play it safe. [1] Do not be alarmed – love one another.

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