NewCreation

Homily for Sunday 10 in Ordinary Time, Year B

The Homily for the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time Welcome, my sisters and brothers, to this the homily for the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time. And we're back, after the long pause of Lent and Easter, to St Mark's Gospel, to the continuous reading of St Mark's Gospel. And we've only jumped very, very few passages since earlier in the year when we started with Mark. But in order to understand today's passage, which is a particularly subtle and an interesting passage in many ways, I'd just like to remind you of one of the principles behind reading Mark's Gospel, which is what I call the double vision, the split vision principle, which is to remember that at the same time we are reading an account of Jesus's ministry, and we're reading an account of the disciples learning about Jesus's ministry after the resurrection. In other words, two things are always going on at the same time here. Remember that in Mark's Gospel, the young man in the tomb says go back to Galilee. That's where you will meet Jesus and that's how you'll find out everything. In other words, the going through again what happened the first time around is what will show you what was really going on all the time. And in fact, as we'll see today, we are both before and after Pentecost in reading what happens in today's Gospel. There's a tiny little background, because Mark does everything so finely with just words and tiny differences with words. To fill you in on what's gone on really in this chapter, in chapter 3: after healing the man with a withered hand in a synagogue, Jesus then goes to the seaside where there's a multitude of people. And the multitude of people is from Judea, from Jerusalem, Idumea, the Jordan, and beyond Tyre and Sidon. Huge crowds. These are from Jewish places and non-Jewish places. In other words, here already there is prefigured the post-Pentecostal movement away from the purely Jewish neighborhood. And we're going to see how that's going to become important in the passage we read. But what's really important here is that in this account Jesus has to get into a boat, or prepare a boat, in case he has to flee. The crowds are pressing upon him. There's the sense of considerable violence, of people desperate to get on him, to touch him, to be touched by him, so as to be healed. And he throws out all manner of evil spirits, and they are thrown out crying, "You are the Son of the Most High, the Son of God." And so he rebukes them and tells them not to let him be known. But there's this huge heterogeneous crowd already prefiguring the post-Pentecostal world, and there's something tremendously violent about the way that they're pressing upon him. And by contrast with that, what he does is he goes up to the hill. So we've had him preparing to cross the water, so it was pre-enacting the Red Sea. Then he goes up the hill, so pre-enacting the giving of the commandments. But here it says he calls to himself those whom he wanted, those whom he willed. And this verb "calling to himself" — we'll see that's important, because we'll see both in today's Gospel both a calling, a calling out as it were, and a calling to himself. And the difference between the two is going to be important. He calls to himself those whom he wanted. In other words, after all the chaos and crush of the people wanting a piece of him, as it were, now he calls those whom he wants and he sends them out. These are the Twelve. This is where he begins to introduce order, the order that will enable his mission to go forth in a way that's not a constant and panicky crush which can quickly turn dangerous. So he orders, he calls the Twelve, gives them their names — the ones written by name — and gives them the authority to cast out demons and to begin their ministry. And so then there's the list of the Twelve. So after he's done that, after he's begun to introduce, if you like, the principle of some sort of order with the Twelve, we start today's Gospel. And it simply says: then he went into the house — he went into the home. Okay, so please remember this is also — this is just him going into a home in Galilee. This is also, after the apostles have received authority at Pentecost, their relation to the house where Jesus is: the new house, the new Temple, the new place, which is an ordinary place. And their relationship with the crowd inside that, and how they are going to have to learn to interpret what is of God in the midst of that — they who have received the Holy Spirit. Okay, but so always remember the split-screen reading of this. But here it's just: he's gone home. There's no mention at this point of the disciples or the apostles, and a crowd came to him again so that they couldn't even eat bread. Okay, so just a fact — they weren't able to eat — but also suggesting that the whole thing was so crowded that even the Eucharist wasn't possible in the new house. And hearing those close to him, his relatives, about him, they came to seize him, because they had heard it said that he was out of his mind. So his relatives hear a rumor that he's out of his mind, and they come to lay hands on him. And again, this is a key word — a marked word — because it can have two meanings. It's the same word that is used by Judas when it comes to betraying Jesus: "The one upon whom I bestow a kiss, on that one lay your hands" — in other words, that's the one you should lay hold of. But that's, if you like, the violent word from outside, one coming from outside to lay hands on, to seize. But it's also the word on the inside, which is to lay hands, to take by the hand and raise up. In fact, when Jesus had cured Peter's mother-in-law, he raised her up. He took her by the hand and raised her up. He does the same with the little girl whom he raises from the dead, taking up of the hand. So the same word, depending on the circumstance, can be either a violent word from outside or a peaceful word from inside. Because they said to him that he's out of his mind, and the word existé can mean exactly that: he's out of his mind, he's crazy. It's actually the same word from which we get ecstasy — both, as it were, the poetic reality and the pill. He is out of his mind. But please notice: again, this same verb is also the verb that's used of the crowd's reaction in the face of Jesus's signs. When Jesus performs the signs, it says, "And they were outside themselves" — they were astounded, amazed. So the same word again can have those two meanings, depending on whether it's an accusatory word or whether it's a receptive, positive word of people who are admiring something. Remember the difference between the accusatory, violent word and the positive, admiring word. The question of interpreting which is which, and what's going on here, is at the center of today's Gospel. And the scribes from Jerusalem came down — coming down, so they came down from Jerusalem to visit this area. And again there's just a hint of the post-Pentecost. Those who were of Jesus's family, that's to say James and the group in Jerusalem, are coming down to try and inspect what's going on with these Gentiles who are being allowed into the Church. Anyhow, the scribes come down from Jerusalem, and they said that he has Beelzebul. Beelzebul could mean "Lord of the house" or "Lord of the flies." "Lord of the flies" was simply a corrupt, slang way of saying it. But the original was "Lord of the house." So we're going to see: the house is going to be important in this. What sort of house? What does it really mean to be in the house? Who is the real Lord of the house? "He has Beelzebul, and by means of the prince of the demons he is casting out demons." In other words: we interpret all that he is doing as the propagation of the work of evil. And then we have this gentle word. Remember that they're in the house, that there's a crowd in the house and they can't eat. And then it says Jesus called them to him. This is the gentle word for call. He called them to him. He wanted to talk to the scribes. He wanted to explain things to them. He called to them and he spoke parables to them, and he said, "How can Satan cast out Satan?" And of course some people have said, well, it's quite simple — Satan is a big arch-evil… And he has lots of little devils, and he can have any of his little devils cast out so as to give the impression that something's going on while he keeps control over everything. I don't think that's what's meant here. Jesus is making a rather more logical point. How can the principle of division be divided against himself? If you are the principle of division, of course, you multiply yourself by creating more and more and more and more divisions, but that's multiplying yourself — that's not being divided against yourself. If you're divided against yourself and you're the principle of division, actually, you do away with yourself. There's a genuine logical problem there. And if a kingdom is divided against itself, how can that kingdom stand? We'll see that there's probably a reference here to Egypt. Certainly in St. Luke's account of the same conversation, Egypt is referred to, because of course, naturally, there was an argument between Aaron and Moses on the one hand and Pharaoh and his magicians on the other as to whose power — who had the power of God. And every time Moses told Aaron to do a sign, Aaron did a sign, like turn his rod into a snake or whatever, and Pharaoh's magicians went and did the same thing. And this got really stupid, because after a bit Moses produced a plague of frogs which then turned sick and died, and so the whole of Egypt was completely stunk out. And this was a ghastly health problem, as you can imagine — imagine a whole country with a major waterway which had been turned to blood anyway, and stinking, dying frogs all over the place. This is too terrible. If Pharaoh's magicians had been really worth their weight in salt, they would have found a way to clean up Egypt. But no — imitating Moses, they managed to produce yet another plague of frogs, which of course was a kingdom divided against itself. They were not doing Pharaoh or Egypt any favors. They were making things worse for Pharaoh. So that was a kingdom divided against itself, and it was an attempt to go against the power of God by mimicking the power of God in a way that did them harm. And if a house is divided against itself, how can that house stand? And here the lord of the house — Beelzebub, the house, the temple, the house, the ordinary house in which they're standing — in other words, the Church. If the Church, this new gathering of people, the crowd from everywhere, is to be divided against itself, of course it can't stand. And that's what would be the case: it would be dividing itself and falling apart if it were a satanic project. And if Satan rises up against himself and is divided, how can he stand? He cannot. Stand, but is brought to an end. And again, very subtle language here: if Satan rises up, if Satan resurrects against himself and is divided — which of course would be a parody of Jesus resurrecting and giving himself out in portions, that is to say, the being divided, the Eucharistic presence of Christ who gives himself out — the parody of that would be Satan rising up against himself and dividing himself: it wouldn't work. And then he brings the key, which of course is only a parable at the first teaching and will be understood after Pentecost. "But no one can go into the house of the strong man and plunder his goods unless he's first bound the strong man, and then he can plunder his house." And this, of course — Jesus is talking about how John the Baptist, who had foreseen him as "one who is stronger than I, who was going to come and baptize you with the Holy Spirit" — he's going to baptize with her history by going to his death. By going to his death he will have bound the strong one, because he is stronger. He will have bound the strong one. He's taken away all the tools which death gives to create sickness, mental disturbance, division, scandal — all the powers that are associated with this he will have conquered. And once that happens he can raid the house. In other words, he will be able to start to heal all the people. And that is the sign that Jesus, by going to his death and by giving the Holy Spirit, is in fact baptizing you with the Holy Spirit. And that is what is going to enable the kingdom, the house, to be whole and to stand. And he says, very, very solemnly: "I tell you that every sin will be forgiven, everything will be forgiven for men, all their sins and the blasphemies which they blaspheme." In other words, I think that we forget this, because we always remember the bit about the sin against the Holy Spirit — we forget that Jesus is actually saying all sins can be forgiven, all sins, all blasphemies. Forget that stuff; that's your problem; that really is not a problem for God; all that can be forgiven. All your violence, your hatred, all of that stuff can be forgiven. "But whoso blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, that one's bound forever, that one's guilty forever, that one can't be undone." Because of course it's the whole dynamic of forgiveness that is being reacted against. Which is why this is a particularly strong parable for the scribes, and a particularly strong parable for the religious leaders — for Christian religious leaders thereafter — because of course it's religious leaders who are the ones tempted to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit by refusing to see people being forgiven and brought to creation. We throw around words like blasphemy as accusation. Why not forgive all our blasphemies? that's not a problem, but he so longs for us to be on the dynamic of being forgiven into created life. And this is because they had said he has an unclean spirit. Actually, that wasn't quoted before, but that's a good reminder that at the time of after Pentecost the question was: can good pure Jewish people mix with the impure, those who are unclean. So we have that little story now reenacted once again. It says his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside — these are the ones who had said he is outside his mind — they're standing outside, they sent to him calling him. They sent for him calling him. So whereas he had gone up to the mountain and called to him those whom he then sent, here they sent to him calling him. This is from outside. And the crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, "Behold, your mother and your sisters and your brothers are outside seeking you." And answering them he said, "Who is my mother or my brother?" Looking around at them sitting around he said, "Behold my mother and my brother. Whoever does the will of my Father, one that I have willed to come to me, that one is my brother and sister and mother." In other words, this is simultaneously what he's doing with relation to his blood relatives, but also an indication to those who are coming from Jerusalem and attempting to hold back Jesus's presence in the new house that he was building, as he was spreading the wholeness and holiness of God amongst all nations and all people. That is what the work of the Holy Spirit looks like. That is what is being brought into being: his family, his kingdom, the one where he is with his sisters and brothers and mothers. This brand new siblinghood, sorority, fraternity, which is what he is making possible. And the dynamic behind this, the creative spirit that is bringing into being by forgiving us, opening us up, plundering, taking out all Satan's favorite tricks to produce division, sickness, downcast, saddened lives — all of that is being done by the one who wants to open us up into belonging to his family. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.