Draft outline of Sermon for 2nd Sunday after Pentecost Year B, 2nd June 2024 at
Indooroopilly, delivered by Canon Gary Harch.
Note: actual Sermon will vary from these notes.
The readings for the Day are: 1 Samuel 3: 1-10, Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18
2 Corinthians 4:5-12 & The Gospel Mark 2.23- 3.6
“One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way
his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why
are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And Jesus said to them, “Have
you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in
need of food, how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and
ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and
he gave some to his companions?” Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for
humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath, so the Son of Man is lord even of
the Sabbath.”
Again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered
hand. They were watching him to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath, so
that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand,
“Come forward.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the
Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with
anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out
your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out
and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
~~
Now we have completed the great Seasons of Easter and Pentecost the Gospel
readings will usually work their way chronologically through Mark. In reading
Mark’s Gospel will become aware of the many tensions that Jesus had to
confront from almost the very beginning of his ministry.
For over years I have been a member and/or mentor and trainer of Education for
Ministry (EfM) groups. These groups meet weekly to discuss in depth the
scriptures, Church history, doctrines, theology and reflect on the connection
between scripture, tradition, culture and our individual belief and practice.
Currently the group I belong to is based at the Cathedral. On Monday nights as
we walk in, we walk through the rough sleepers. This is not armchair theology
and it has had a formative influence on the group.
Every now and again as a group we do something different. It has been having
a meal at a restaurant that supports refugees or a different culture, a visit to
another religion’s place of worship, watch a DVD with a religious them.
Our group agreed that last Monday night we would go to a local cinema, start
with an early meal, and watch whatever movie was showing at 7pm. We
wouldn’t know which movie until a few days beforehand, but we committed to
watching whatever movie it was.
For a whole lot of unrelated reasons, it ended up being just three of us and the
movie was “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” None of the us had ever seen a Mad
Max movie. This movie is a prequel to one of the others. Fury Road.
We were standing at the door as the earlier showing finished; and a young man
came out and seeing us three older people he asked,
“what movie are you going to see.” “The Mad Max one” I said. “It’s great you will love it” he said.
I asked the other two with me, do you think we should tell him that he was
talking to a Priest, a psychiatrist and a psychiatric nurse and that we were going
to reflect about God after seeing the movie. Too late, he had walked off.
As we took out seats, at that stage being the only ones in the cinema, we
decided on how we would approach the movie by looking out for:
o Obvious references to or images of the Christian Tradition
o Subtle references
o Any of the great Christian themes Eg Creation, sin, suffering, judgement,
redemption
o Anything that leapt out to us from the last few weeks of our reflections,
eg. The Trinity, suffering world views.
We thought that might be a bit of a push, perhaps there might be something, but
at least we were ready. A few more people trickled in; and the movie started.
While I have had a few movie critiques printed in Focus, I’m not into movie
spoilers. You will have to watch it yourself to know the ending; or should that
be the start?
All of us were astounded by the movie.
There is a lot of violence. Being 15+ it isn’t graphic violence; unfortunately
what we see on the television news most nights is far more horrible than the
movie, because it is really happening, right now. Putting that aside and the
effects that violence has long term in our society, the movie is full of religious
and Christian imagery, our culture’s philosophy of war, understanding
vengeance, the power of family and what happens if you don’t have family.
It has been well worth spending the time reflection on what we saw.
Movies often remake scenes from previous movies. There was one scene that
took me back to a time when a child. As a special treat I went to see an
afternoon matinee movie. My recall it was about the Roman Empire? I only
remember one scene in that movie, about someone giving their life for the
emperor. At the time and ever since I never thought that was really a suitable
movie. That scene, with a Monty Python touch, came back to me in Furiosa. I
wondered how many other nods to movies were in this film that I didn’t pick
up, or maybe they were there, deep in my subconscious.
I reflected that watching this movie is a bit like somebody reading or hearing
the scriptures for the first time. I didn’t know the background, I knew there was
a lot more, but I was caught up in all that was happening. Towards the end I was
even hoping for a happy ending; then I realised that wasn’t going to happen.
There were three more movies already made. Perhaps I am conditioned to
wanting an ending where it all works out.
All that is part of the process of the Christian story.
There is a wide variety of religious imagery and language used in our culture
that those, not familiar with the church, will not immediately understand. When
we start to read or hear the scriptures in a community then there are often
moments of insight, “ah that is where that comes from.”
So we come to today’s Gospel. It seems rather innocuous. Jesus caught out on
‘working’ on the Sabbath refers back to “David and his companions who were
hungry.”
Let’s look up the reading. It comes from 1 Samuel 21:1-6
There is a fascinating side road we could go down because in the OT passage
Ahimelech is named as the high priest. In the NT it is his son Abiathar that is
named. What might this mean for our understanding of the accuracy of
scripture? Study of scripture often opens up other questions that we either put
on hold or put into a wider framework.
Leaving that to one side, the OT episode describes David on the run from King
Saul who is after his life. David is hungry and lies to the High Priest that he is
on a secret mission from the King, so that the High Priest will give him the
Holy bread that has reserved only for sacred ceremonial purposes. Hm, this
could make a good movie plot? You may wonder why Jesus uses such a role
model to support his own actions?
The background actions of David are minimised when that event is recorded in
Mark’s Gospel, as that story sits alongside two episodes from Jesus’ ministry.
These events show how Jesus is much more in touch with the people, (the
culture?) than the leaders who at that time were focussed on the perfection of
the ritual and how the ritual determined everyday life.
In my ministry I have been very much part of the supporting a formal approach
of the church, while at the same time also supporting grass roots efforts to
overturn governmental decisions. (Stories of involvement in protest
movements.)
These both deal with conflict with authorities and the understanding of the
Sabbath. Mark is very direct about conflict. Here, in only the 3rd Chapter the
story ends with two groups of religious leaders plotting together to destroy
Jesus. This comes much sooner than is recorded in the other Gospels. It is
likely that Mark is writing from and/or for a conflicted congregation.
We should be aware that while we don’t seek conflict it has been and will
continue to be part of the Christian Life.
For those who have seen the Mad Max Movies, maybe you will recommend to
me whether I should now start watching the whole sequence (now decades in
the making) or is this one exposure enough?
Contrary to the movie culture, one reading of the scriptures is never enough, as
we always seek to go deeper. It is why it is so important that whenever we meet,
the scriptures and particularly the Gospels are part of our worship.