June 2024 - From a Rocky Hillside

June 23, 2024June 23, 2024

The Death of John the Baptist

title slide with photo of rocks along shore of St. Mary's River at DeTour Village, Michigan

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
June 23, 2024
Mark 6:14-29

At the beginning of worship

Over the past twenty-some years, I have invested a significant amount of time reading Robert Caro’s lifetime work, a multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. As he was President during my elementary school years, this work provides an insight into the world of my childhood. To date, Caro has published four volumes (which vary between 600 and 1200 pages). He takes the reader from LBJ’s birth through him becoming President at the death of John Kennedy, and the 1964 election. Along with a lot of other people, I’m still waiting on his final volume which takes us to this death in 1973.

Caro’s interest in Johnson came from his study of how leaders use power. As with many people, Johnson is a tragic figure. He wanted so much to be President, but he also had a fear of being a failure like he saw his dad. His father may have been one the only honest politicians from Texas, and for which he suffered. Johnson couldn’t let that happen to him.^[1]

When those in power abuse their position to maintain their authority, innocent people become victims. It happens today but it’s nothing new, as we’ll see in our scripture this morning. Those of us who follow Jesus have a higher calling than to just maintain our influence. We’re called to be truthful, to acknowledge our failures and sinfulness, and to realizes that regardless of what happens, we’re accountable to God.

Before reading the scripture

As I’ve explained earlier in our work through the gospel of Mark, the book focuses on Jesus. There are only two passages in the book which isn’t about him. Both are about John the Baptist. The first looks at how John points to Jesus, so it’s still about Jesus. In fact, Mark’s introduction to John is more limited than what we find in Matthew and Luke because Mark wants us to focus on Jesus.^[2]

The second place in the gospel where Mark diverts from talking about Jesus is when writes about John’s death. Mark inserts this story into the meat of one of his sandwiches, between the sending of the disciples out two-by-two and their return. Here, in these verses, Jesus isn’t mentioned, except that reports of his ministry caused Herod to fear that John had been raised from the dead. This passage is about how John’s death foreshadows Jesus’ death.^[3]

Last week, we saw how Jesus sent the disciples out, two-by-two, to cover the villages of Galilee. While the disciples are away, Mark tells us this story. Immediately following this story, Mark’s metaphorical sandwich is completed with a second slice of bread consisting of an announcement that the disciples have returned placed on top.

Read Mark 6:14-29

Herod is paranoid. It seems to run in his family. His father, Herod the Great, fearing a rival, killed all the infant boys around Bethlehem after Jesus’ birth.^[4] While the Herod in our story today likes to be considered a king, he’s not really one. That was a title conferred on his father. But Herod Jr (or Herod Antipas as he is known—and this is confusing for there several rulers who go by the name Herod in scripture) rules a fraction of the territory his father governed. The actual title given to him (which is used in the gospels of Matthew and Luke), is tetrarch.^[5]

This Herod is cunning yet charming. Jesus refers to him as “a fox.”^[6] Sounds appropriate. Foxes can be cute and a pain in the rear, especially if you have chickens. He lures his half-brother’s wife, Herodias,^[7] to leave her husband and marry him.

To take a new wife, Herod had to dispose of the wife who was the daughter of Aretas, another regional king. This enraged his father-in-law. It led to a war a few years later. Herod’s troops were defeated. A few years after this, and either because of his military loss or his insistence on being given the title of a king, Rome had enough. Herod and Herodias were exiled to Gaul^[8] (which would now be France and parts of surrounding countries).

John the Baptist called Herod Antipas on the carpet for his adultery. Today, political leaders don’t like truth-tellers when it goes against their self-interest, and it was the same way back in the first century. So, Herod had John arrested as we learned of early in Mark’s gospel.^[9] John’s arrest set up the events for what happens in our story this morning.

The entire Herod clan were decadent. They seem to enjoy lavish dinner parties and the one in our story must have been something else. Herodias’ daughter, from her first husband, does a wonderful dance. She delights her stepfather and the guests. So, Herod grants her a wish, up to half of her kingdom.

She must have been young, for she runs and asks her mother what she should request. And her mother, who had willingly left her first husband for Herod, also had a problem with John. So, she asks her daughter to request the head of John the Baptist.

We can’t blame the girl here. She’s just doing what her mother tells her, but we can blame the mom who uses her daughter for such an evil act. Such parents are terrible and should never be a parent.

The request troubles Herod. But he’s a weak man and afraid how it would look for a so-called king to renege on his promises. He’s no better than his wife. He gives the order and John’s head appears on a silver platter. I wonder what happened to the appetites of the guest who witnessed the spectacle.

By the way, this became a favorite subject for artists during the renaissance.^[10] I haven’t seen or heard of any modern artists who have picked up on the theme, which is probably good.

Herod, a weak and paranoid man, hears about the deeds and teachings of this wandering preacher in Galilee. He immediately fears the worse. He thinks John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. The way Mark inserts this story, we look back in time at John’s death, which had already happened. Mark has told us in the first chapter that Jesus’ ministry only began upon John’s arrest.^[11] Now that Jesus has become famous, Herod Antipas is fearful.

The disagreement between John, Herod and wife parallels the Old Testament story of Elijah struggles with King Ahab and his wife Jezebel.^[12] In both cased, the leaders are weak, and their wives encourage them to commit atrocities. In both cases, God’s prophet confronts the powerful. Elijah prevails, but John loses his head.

There’s a parallel between John’s death and Jesus’ forthcoming death. In both cases, you have a man executed without having been convicted of a crime. Those who claim that Jesus is like someone else whom they think has been unjustly condemned overlooks this fact. Pilate, in whose hands Jesus’ fate was held, told the crowd that he found nothing to charge Jesus.^[13] Nor was there anything legal about John’s execution. It was a weak leader abusing his power to fulfill a promise and not look bad. Jesus’ execution was because a weak leader wanted to avoid a riot and appease the crowds. Neither man was found guilty in court.

There’s also a dissimilarity between what happened to John and Jesus. After his death, John’s disciples collect his body and provide a proper burial. Jesus’ disciples ran away and hid. It’s left to others, mainly Joseph of Arimathea, to bury Jesus.^[14] Mark may have been offering a subtle criticism of Jesus’ disciples for abandoning Jesus out of fear.^[15]

What can we learn from this story? First, as I pointed out, this is the center of a sandwich, fitted in between the disciples being sent on a mission and their return. Perhaps equating John’s death with discipleship, will help us understand what Jesus will later say in Mark’s gospel, that whoever wants to follow him must pick up their cross.^[16] Discipleship comes with a cost, and sometimes that includes our lives. For we must put Jesus first, over everything.

From the point of view of Herod, we learn not to write checks that can’t or shouldn’t be cashed. In other words, make no promises we can’t fulfill without resorting to evil. A simple promise to a young girl got him into trouble and ended John’s life. Perhaps this is why we’re encouraged not to make oaths and to just let our yeses be yes and our no nos.^[17] Furthermore, we learn that character matters. The stealing of another man’s wife and the adultery it entailed has consequences.

Finally, there are times when the faithful are required to speak truth to power even when it inconvenient or it endangers our lives. But if we don’t speak the truth, who will? We should trust God, place our hope in Jesus, and refuse to be intimidated by those in positions of power. Of course, that’s easier said than done. Thankfully there’s grace when we fall short. Amen.

^[1] I was reminded of LBJ’s struggle with failure in a post by Scott Hoezee, who introduced me to Caro’s biographies of LBJ. See https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2021-07-05/mark-614-29-3

^[2] See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/01/07/marks-prologue-preparing-for-jesus-ministry/

^[3] James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 183.

^[4] Matthew 2.

^[5] Morna D. Hooker, The Gospel According to Saint Mark (1991, Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), 159.

^[6] Luke 13:22.

^[7] Many of the more reliable ancient manuscripts have Herodias as also the daughter, but Mark is confused. Joseph provides her the name Salome. See Hooker, 158.2 and 161.

^[8] Edwards 184, notes the banishment occurred in 36 AD, three years after Herod’s defeat but gives no reason. Hooker, 159, suggests that the reason for banishment had to do with Herod’s desire to be called a king.

^[9] Mark 1:14.

^[10] See https://www.wikiart.org/en/Search/John%20the%20Baptist%20head

^[11] Mark 1:14.

^[12] See 1 Kings 16;29-22:40.

^[13] See Matthew 27:24, Mark 15:12-15, Luke 23:4, 20-24, and John 18:38.

^[14] Mark 15:32. See also Matthew 27:56-57, Luke 23:56, and John 19:38.

^[15] Douglas R. A. Hare, Westminster Bible Companion: Mark (Louisville, KY: Westminster, 1996), 75.

^[16] Mark 8:34.

^[17] Matthew 5:37

full view of shoreline of St. Mary's River near DeTour Village, MI, during snow — Snowing along the edge of the St. Mary’s River, DeTour Village, Michigan

June 19, 2024June 19, 2024

Camp Bangladesh

Ralph and Olga at "The Joint" in Randsburg, CA — Ralph and the bartender Olga at “The Joint” in Randsburg, CA in 2005. Ralph grew up and went to war (WW2) with her son.

I came across this piece that I wrote in August 1999, five years before my first blog. It brought back good memories. That summer, I played the role of scoutmaster for Troop 360, chartered by Community Presbyterian Church of Cedar City, Utah. Joining me as assistant that summer was my friend, Ralph Behrens. Ralph and his wife Pat were good friends of mine in Utah, and I often stayed with them when I would return to visit Cedar City. Sadly, both have died.

We took a dozen boys that summer to camp along Bear Lake in Northern Utah. The camp week ran from Monday morning through Saturday, so we loaded up after church on Sunday. I drove a 15-passenger rental van with the scouts and Ralph followed with his pickup truck, the back of it filled with gear. We made the 330-mile drive to Logan, Utah, arriving at dusk, where we stayed overnight at the Presbyterian Church. Early Monday morning, after a stop for breakfast, we drove Highway 89 up Logan Canyon and across the mountains, before dropping down to Bear Lake. This was an incredibly beautiful drive and the lake before us as we dropped out of the mountains was so inviting. My story will pick up on our arrival at camp.

I looked for the camp and it appears that it is no longer in operation. Probably because the Mormons pulled out of the Boy Scout program, there seems to be a consolation of councils in the West and fewer camps. This camp had a lot of strikes against it as it consisted of small spit of land between the lake and the highway. However, I am sure the land was very valuable as it had so much lakeshore footage. I have edited my story slightly. I’m also sure I have a few more pictures of the camp, but am not sure which of many tubs of photos they’re in. The one of my son preparing to scuba dive was in a collection of albums and the only one from camp that summer.

Camp Bangladesh
August 1999

A lot has happened in the fifteen years since I was last in a scout camp. Back then I was the Camp Director at Camp Bud Schiele in Western North Carolina. With grounds manicured like a country club and lots of trees, it wasn’t a bad place to spend the summer. However, after eight weeks in an all-boys camp with very few females, I knew the summer was winding down when the camp cooks, who were older than my mother, started to look attractive. In order to see what improvements made to the scouting program, I signed this summer for a week at camp with our local troop. I knew a lot had changed. However, I wasn’t prepared for what I experienced, especially girl counselors.

Ralph's truck on the "Hole in the Wall" Road in Central, Utah — Ralph’s truck on another trip

Ralph and I and a dozen boys arrived safely at Camp Bangladesh on a Monday morning. It was supposed to be an aquatic camp, but it felt like an overpopulated refugee settlement on the eastern shore of Bear Lake in Northern Utah. Greeting us at the gate was Gilligan, looking fresh and neat from his recent cruise on the S.S. Minnow. He wore Navy khaki, we assumed, because he didn’t meet the six-foot height requirement for the Coast Guard (and would have been unable to walk ashore if his boat had sunk). Gilligan directed us to our campsite and told me to report to the pavilion and check in. On the way, I stopped at the head (euphemism for latrine), where I quickly surmised that the U.N. and International Red Cross Refugee Commissions hadn’t yet inspected this site.

At the pavilion, the powers that be lightened my wallet as Robyn gave the troop a tour of the camp. Robyn substituted for our camp friend Randy who was, we later surmised, in the bushes with a female staff member. We never saw Robyn again; some think he got lost in the sage brush. Unable to see over it, he may have traveled in circles till he passed out. As for Randy, he and the Misses showed up hand-in-hand halfway through the week. We learned then that Randy was quite a philosopher and explained all the world problems as “someone must be smoking something.” We all assumed he was the “someone.”

At the opening scoutmaster’s meeting on the first day, I qualified for the BSA’s “Safety Afloat” certification by listening to a lecture. Little did I realize the camp practiced another form of safety afloat. They kept most of their boats in dry dock. They reserved the fully functioning boats for staff use. Our troop re-christened the small sloop named the “Ark” into the “Love Boat.” They had suspicion as to what the staff did on the boat that they kept safely moored offshore and off-limits to campers.

I will forever remember the galley experience at Camp Bangladesh. They served dinner in two shifts (called watches). If you’re unlucky enough to be on the second watch, as we were, it was like eating in an emergency canteen following a Kansas tornado. Another unique experience was dining in this open-air pavilion during a thunderstorm. Paper plates and cups flew with the wind, ridding the camp of rubbish by sending it all to Idaho. I’m sure it was from such an experience that the shifts became known as a watch, for we watched our food fly away.

The day following, the camp staff must have had a knife sharpening contest. The cook took first place. That night we were treated to beef trimmings, trimmings so fine we didn’t even notice them. Even the camp’s sole vegetarian seemed satisfied. In all seriousness, the night with the gluey noodles made up for the undercooking of the previous night’s rice, things have a way of balancing out in the end. Quality aside, the real problem was with quantity and our neighboring unit leaders resorted to rattlesnake hunting to supplement their boy’s diet. Ralph and I, being more practical, took our boys for milk shakes at the ice cream stand on the south end of the lake.

Of course, what goes in must come out, which brings me back to the subject of the rotten white buildings dotting the landscape and were a contributing factor for the outbreak of constipation that struck our campers. The smell of these buildings was so bad that I stopped using flashlights and followed the stench from one to another on the path back to our site. People had reported several large skunks along the highway east of the camp . They all facing east, obviously running across the highway afraid another skunk laid claimed the territory when they meet their demise under the tires of moving vehicles.

Our troop’s strawberry blonde commissioner was Ms. Pope. We could never remember her name, so Ralph and I started calling her Hillary, in honor of the First Lady. In addition to serving as our commissioner, she was also the commandant of the dining hall and ruled with an iron fist. Hillary was an electronic engineering technician student at Weber State (MIT on the Salt Lake). We found her knowledgeable about most everything except for the difference between a foot and a yard. If she gets that confused between volts and watts, we’re afraid she may be in for a real shock.

In addition to her commissioner duties and studying electricity, Hillary is looking for a good Mormon husband who will allow her to stay home and tend to a scout troop. If Robyn hadn’t gotten himself lost in the sagebrush, they’d made a cute couple. Of course, I’m sure Hillary would have wanted Robyn to grow up a bit, but until then they’d be shoe-in winners in a Dennis the Menace and Margaret look-a-like contest. However, I secretly doubt Hillary desires a husband. She really harbors ambition to be the first female Chief Scout Executive. I just hope she doesn’t get her sights on the Presidency of the U.S. of A, or our country will never be the same.

There were three classes of staff at Camp Bangladesh. The elite, like Hillary, wore Navy uniforms and look like they just walked out of a surplus store or off the set for a remake of McHale’s Navy. The second tier wear dark green sea scout shirts and various colored pants. Our favorite in this class was Hot Legs—the blonde lifeguard with a nice tanned body fitted into a red one piece swimsuit. When on duty, she looked more like a movie star posing than a lifeguard as she stretched herself out sunning on the pier. I never saw Hot Legs without large sunglasses. She wore them even when the sun wasn’t shinning. Our boys, seeing her without the glasses one day, reported that she had a serious case of raccoon eyes and better keep them on.

The bottom rung of the staff hierarchy was the kitchen crew. Without regular uniforms, their selection was based on their lack of speed and foresight. Or maybe they were pressed into service, like the British did to our seamen before the War of 1812. If that’s the case, they’ve decided as a group that indifference is a subtle way of protest. Or, maybe they really didn’t think we wanted nor needed anything to drink with our uncooked rice until the meal was nearly over.

Speaking of drinks, choosing the beverages of one’s choice was another interesting experience. Any other camp would have put labels on the coolers, but that would be too much work for the staff of Bangladesh. We learned that the way to tell what a cooler contained was to look underneath at the color of the puddle on the floor. Since we were the only non-Mormon troop in camp, the dining hall didn’t serve coffee. Suspecting such, I brought my own stove and percolator and fixed coffee every morning. I quickly became popular and found myself having to go into town to buy more coffee midweek as all the neighboring Mormon leaders decided to forgo their prophet’s word of wisdom and have a several cups of Joe a morning with Ralph and me.

Scuba divers on the dock waiting to dive — my son learning to scuba dive

Our patch for the week informed us we’ve been on an aquatic land cruise—I supposed it’s a land cruise because most that’s where most of the boats remained. But there were some good things about the experience. First, I wasn’t in charge and could blame everything on the camp director, Captain McHale himself. Instead, I passed the hours sitting in my camp chair or laying in my hammock, reading books.

Our boys averaged three merit badges and only one fight a piece and they all eventually got to sail on the one of the few fully functioning sailboats available for campers. I even spent a wonderful afternoon on a Hobie (that was reserved for scout leaders). For an extra fee, I allowed my own son to experience the underwater world as he took a scuba diving class. Now that I’m home, I’m hoping to break my Valium addiction by the end of the year.
—

Afterwards:

Even though I put a light spin on this, from my experience of working within the Scouting program in the Southeastern part of the states, it shocked me the camp passed the Boy Scouts of America’s rigorous peer inspection program. The waterfront controls were lacking, and I spent less time in my hammock and more time playing lifeguard than I hoped.

After this experience, I‘m not sure why, but we signed up for another year. In 2000, Ralph and I took the troop to a camp in the Ponderosa pines south of Williams, Arizonia. It was one of the best run camps I’ve seen. Sadly, there was no large lake, just a pond for canoeing and a swimming pool. But the food was great. After that camp, it shocked me to learn most of the boys preferred the camp on Bear Lake. But they cherished the freedom, and the lake was a great.

June 16, 2024June 16, 2024

The Challenges of Going Home

Title slide with photo of a rough mountain road

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry & Bluemont Churches
June 16, 2024
Mark 6:1-13

At the Beginning of Worship

The movie, A River Runs through It, is a great Father’s Day movie, as it tells the story of a loving father and his two sons. At one place in the movie, Norman MacLean has just returned from college in the East to his home in Montana. At a fourth of July party, he falls for the flirty Jesse Burns of Wolf Creek. As the two began to grow closer, Jesse’ brother Neal returns home for a visit. Both Norm and Neal grew up in Montana, but it’s evident that Neal hates the place while Norm embraces it.

Norm loves to fish and his relationship with Jesse almost ends when he’s encouraged to take her brother Neal with him and his brother, Paul, on a fishing trip. Paul is leery of the idea, betting that Norm will be a bait fisherman, not a fly fisherman, and will show up with worms. But he agrees to go because he’s been asked by his brother.

Sure enough, Neal shows up late, with a can of worms. He’s also drunk and with the prostitute he’d met the night before. He tells the brothers he’ll meet them later and they decide he’s not worth it. While they spend the morning fishing, Jesse’ brother gets himself into more trouble, for which Jesse blames Norm.^[1]

As those who have moved away from where we grew up understands the tension when we return home. Are we like Neal and want to be seen as making it in Hollywood or doing something incredible with our lives in a failed attempt to cover up our failures, which in his case was alcoholism. Or are we like Norm, torn between the academic world of the East and the wild rivers of the West. And do we worry how others might accept us when we return home, which caused Neal to put on airs.

Regardless of how we’re accepted, when you’re away and then return, things are different. Some people, like those in Jesus’ hometown, may be jealous, envious, or even question as to who we are and what we have done. And if they’re jealous or envious, there is little we can do to change the situation, as Jesus experienced in our text today.^[2] Here’s where the truth lies in Thomas Wolfe’s well quoted title, You Can’t Go Home Again.

Before the Reading of Scripture

Our text today contains two stories. The first involves Jesus returning to his hometown of Nazareth. If you remember, his ministry has mostly been focused in and around Capernaum, along the Sea of Galilee. Early in the gospel, we learn Jesus came from Nazareth.^[3] In Jesus day, it was a small village, with less than 500 people. Jesus left this village and headed down to the Jordan River where John was baptizing, then he went out into the wilderness to be tempted.^[4] When he returned to society, he settled in Capernaum, where he taught in the synagogue and casted out evil spirits.^[5] Now, he returns and teaches in his hometown synagogue. The reaction is mixed, but essentially, they reject Jesus. With the people’s obstinance, he’s unable to do any great miracles while among them.

But Jesus didn’t let this rejection get him down. Instead, he doubles down by expanding his ministry. He’s been training the disciples all along. Now he sends them out two-by-two, to hit all the towns of Galilee.

Read Mark 6:1-13

Our text begins with Jesus making the journey from the shore of Lake Galilee to his hometown. It required a twenty-five-mile walk. For us, with cars and paved roads, such a journey isn’t a big deal, but when walking, it would have required a long hike through rough terrain.

Once home, they invite Jesus to teach in his home synagogue. It’s always a daunting task to preach or teach to those who have known you since you were in diapers. I remember the first time I preached at Cape Fear Presbyterian, the church I attended from age 9 through college. There in the pulpit, I looked out and saw my sixth grade Sunday School teacher and former youth group leaders stare me down. It made me nervous. These people knew me.

By the way, I’m going back to preach at this church in October for their 80^th anniversary service. But by this point, most of those who taught me as a kid are no longer sitting in the pews, having joined the triumphant church in the life to come.

At first, the crowd in the congregation is amazed at Jesus’ teachings. In Luke, we’re told Jesus read from Isaiah and things went well until he proclaimed the prophecy fulfilled in their hearing. This was too much for the crowd and after a tense exchange, they tried to hurl him off a cliff, but he slipped away.^[6]But as we’ve seen, Mark often avoids giving us the details on Jesus’ teaching.

Instead, Mark shows how the crowd went from thinking well of Jesus, to questioning of his authority. How did this carpenter get so wise?^[7] After all, he’s just Mary’s boy, which may have been a slap at Jesus, as if they hinted Jesus was without a father (and you know what that would make him). If it wasn’t a disparaging remark, it could have been that Joseph was long dead; however, that doesn’t appear the case as we’re shown in John’s gospel.^[8]It appears this was an insult directed at Jesus.^[9]

In addition to knowing his mom, they also know his siblings. Here, we are given a list of brothers but not sisters.^[10] Although Jesus’ teachings and action challenged it, first century Palestine was a patriarchal society.

Furthermore, the acknowledgement of siblings seems to have been embarrassing to some, especially after the notion of Mary remaining a virgin throughout her life became popular in the early church. Some have tried to explain this away as the kids being Joseph’s sons from a first marriage, but that’s just speculation. Others suggest the “siblings” are really cousins, but that doesn’t fly because Greek has distinctive words for a sibling and a cousin.^[11]

Jesus responds, reminding them that a prophet has no honor in his hometown and among kinfolks. The people of Nazareth, who refused to believe in Jesus, were the ones who suffered as he was unable to pull off any great miracles. This isn’t because of Jesus’ lack of power, but because God works through us. If we don’t believe and reject God, we limit ourselves as to how Jesus might help us. However, Jesus does help heal a few people, so not all must have shunned Jesus. A few may have believed.

After such a rejection, most of us would probably slip away and lick our wounds. But that’s not Jesus’ way. Instead, he doubles down. It’s now time to expand his ministry by sending out the disciples two-by-two. This effort is to ensure that all the villages in Galilee may hear the good news and experience the miracles of grace.

Jesus gives the 12 what they need to be successful They have the power they need to take over his mission. He provides two instructions. First, they travel without preparation. They carry only a staff and the clothes on their backs. They are not to take food or money or a bag for possessions. In their travels, they must depend on God and the hospitality of those they meet.

The second instruction has to do with how they relate to those they meet. They are to honor everyone. If someone poor offered them lodging, they are to accept it and stay there even if someone else offers better lodging. It’s a way of honoring everyone! Furthermore, if the people in a village are not interested, they are to move on without making a fuss except to clean off their feet. This was a tradition of Jews leaving a gentile area. By the disciples doing this to the Jewish villages in Galilee, they remind the residents of what they’ve missed.

Their mission is successful with many demons cast out and people healed in addition to hearing the call to repentance.

Our text today reminds us that our Christian faith and ministry is more than just proclaiming the gospel. Jesus’ ministry always involves taking care of the physical and mental needs of those who also hear the good news of the gospel.

The text also reminds us that while grace comes from God, we must be willing to accept it. Otherwise, we’ll be like the folks in Nazareth.

Furthermore, while the gospel is a positive message, it also acknowledges the reality of evil in the world. Yes, we’re to lift up the positive, for there is much good in the teachings of Jesus and how we are to live and to get along with others. But we also must combat the negative which exists in the world.^[12] Evil, as I discussed a few weeks ago in a sermon, is out to destroy.^[13] It must be challenged in the name of all that is good, in Jesus Christ who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

^[1] “A River Runs Through It” was a 1992 movie directed by Robert Reford and based on the novella by Norman Maclean and found in A River Runs Through It and Other Stories (University of Chicago, 1976).

^[2] The idea of the envied person being trapped came from Scott Hoezee’s reflection on Miguel deUnamono’s, story, “Abel Sanchez” https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2021-06-28/mark-61-13-3/

^[3] Mark 1:9.

^[4] See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/01/07/marks-prologue-preparing-for-jesus-ministry/

^[5] See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/01/21/jesus-in-the-synagogue/

^[6] Luke 4:16-30.

^[7] A variant reading in a minority of ancient manuscripts read “son of the carpenter and Mary.” See Morna D. Hooker, The Gospel According to Saint Mark (1991, Hendrickson Publishing, 1997), 152.

^[8] John 6:42.

^[9] James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 171-172. For an alternative position (that it wasn’t an insult) see Douglas R. A. Hare, Westminster Bible Companion (Louisville, KY: WJKP, 1996), 69

^[10] His family has already questioned Jesus’ ministry in Mark 3:21, 31. See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/04/07/the-unpardonable-sin-baseball-doing-the-will-of-god/ Two of his brothers would become leaders in the post-resurrection church.

^[11]^[11] Edwards, 173, Hare, 69.

^[12] Hare, 72.

^[13] See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/06/02/jesus-and-the-man-living-in-the-tombs/

A two-track mountain road — A two track mountain road

June 12, 2024June 12, 2024

A Four-Day Hike in the Sawtooth’s

Title Slide with view of Hell Roaring Lake, Idaho

A car approaches from the north. I turn around and stick out my thumb. “Was this a good idea?” I ponder. I haven’t hitchhiked since the summer before, when I completed the Appalachian Trail. And now I could use a ride back to my car at a trailhead. Otherwise, I’ll have an eight to ten mile walk beside hot asphalt under an intense sun. But they’re few cars in this lonely country. The car rushes by, its wind providing a moment’s relief from the heat. With no clouds and no wind, it’s hot, even at this elevation. Heat rises from the asphalt, its waves blurring the scenery. I turn back and resume walking along the shoulder of Highway 75, south of Stanley, Idaho.

I hear another vehicle crest the hill behind me. It sounds like a truck. I turn around and stick out thumb. It’s an old jeep; this will be my ride, I’m sure. Jeeps always pick up hitchhikers.

I recall an autumn day on the beach, six years earlier. I’d been on a conference on Wrightsville Beach. A hurricane was offshore, and we had to leave the island. When I got in my car, I realized that I my gas gauze was on “E.” Shortly after cross the waterway bridge, the car sputtered and quit.

Out of gas, I crawled out of the car and hoofed it in the rain a mile or so to the closest gas station. They lent me a can and I purchased some gas and when I started back when one of those bands of blinding rain hit. About that time a jeep came by, without a top. He shouted for me to jump in, and I did. His windshield wipers worked overtime, but it didn’t make much difference for there was as much water inside the glass as out. I began to wonder if riding his open top jeep was a good idea. But it beat walking. The rain was so hard; I could hardly see my car parked on the other side of the road. I put the gas in and headed home. Thankfully, the hurricane turned and went out to sea.

This jeep in Idaho didn’t stop. “Son of a…” I started, and then thought better. I couldn’t believe he ignored me. I turned and continued walking south. A few other vehicles rushed by, but none of them stopped. Each time, I’d resume walking. Then I spotted a minivan. I didn’t expect them to stop but still stuck out my thumb. The driver flew by, then hit her brakes, pulled over to the side and began to back up. I ran up and noticed that there were kids in the back waving at me. This wasn’t who I’d expected to offer a ride, but I was thankful for not having to walk all the way to my car.

“I don’t normally pick up hitchhikers,” the driver confessed, “but the kids recognized you as the hiker on the ferry when we came back across Redfish Lake. Looking into the back seats, I smile. The oldest is probably eight or nine. We’d played some silly games on the ferry ride across the lake and they were curious about what was in my pack. I thanked her for the ride and told her my car was at Hell Roaring Creek trailhead, just off the highway about eight or so miles south. She then asked about the trip.

Hell Roaring Lake with the “Finger of Fate” to the right of center

“I started out four days ago, spending the first night at Hell Roaring Lake,” I began, “camping under the ominous ‘finger of fate’ peak. It’s a lone bent rock pinnacle could have served as a model for Michelangelo’s “Finger of God.” The lake was surrounded by dead tree trunks from winter avalanches. Many of those trunks were waterlogged, but the ones not provided plenty of firewood. Although open fires had been banned for the summer (Yellowstone and Hells Canyon were being consumed with flames while I was hiking) I counted four campfires along the lake. I was invited over to one’s family campfire. I joined them and was shocked to learn that one of men was a Forest Service employee.”

“The next day I continued hiking deeper into the Sawtooth Wilderness area, climbing over a steep pass. There were so many lakes, I can’t recall them all,” I confessed. “Imogene, Virginia, and Hidden were some of them, each surrounded by rocky peaks sparsely covered with gnarly trees. After leaving Hell Roaring Lake, I was alone with only the pikas keeping me company at night. I ran into a group of smoke jumpers, hoofing it out after having extinguished a small lightning fire deep into wilderness. We talked for a few minutes, as I picked up my pace to keep up with them, but then they left the main trail and headed to their pickup point.”

“It’s all beautiful,” I said, “but my favorite had been the Cramer Lakes, each with a waterfall outlet that spilled into the next lake.”

“We were there,” she said. “We took the ferry across Redfish Lake and hiked up to Lower Cramer for a picnic and a hike up to the falls.”

I’d been looking back at her kids as I talked. Suddenly she yell, “Oh my God.” I turned around and looked out the windshield. There was that jeep, lying on its back in the edge of a field. The dazed driver stood.

“I’ll check it out,” I said. “Park down the road a way.”

Jumping out as she slowed down, I ran over toward the jeep yelling, “Are you okay?” Another car pulled up. The driver, shaken and with tears in his eyes, begged for a fire extinguisher. No one had one. Drops of gas dripped onto the ground and the fire was began to burn under the jeep and in the grass. Without a fire extinguisher or other equipment, there wasn’t anything we could do. I told them I’d get a ranger and ran back to the awaiting minivan. I knew a ranger’s station was across from the trailhead from where I’d left my car. We flew down the highway, turning off and leaving a trail of dust on the dirt road up to the ranger station. I reported the accident and the fire. The ranger called it in and got into his truck.

Then the lady in the mini-van drove me over to my car. Rushing, I thanked her for the ride, I dropped my pack in the trunk and headed back to the accident site. There, I helped the ranger, and several other men dig a line around the fire. Luckily, as dry as it was, there was no wind, and the fire didn’t get out of hand. With everything under control, a fire truck arrived and hosed down the jeep and extinguished the grass burning inside the line we’d established. All that was left of the jeep, that I was so sure could have been my savior, was a charred pile of metal. I got back in my car and headed back to camp.

I think it was C. S. Lewis who said, “we’ll spend half of eternity thanking God for prayers not answered.” And I was thankful this jeep had not stopped to offer me a ride.

Another story of a solo backpacking trip during my Idaho summer of 1988

June 9, 2024June 9, 2024

A Healing and a Resurrection

Title slide with photo of Laurel Fork with Mountain Laurel in bloom

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry & Bluemont Churches
June 9, 2024
Mark 5:21-42

Sermon recorded at Mayberry on June 7, 2024

At the beginning of worship:
A group of retired men gathered regularly for breakfast and solving the world’s problems. One morning, the day after they had sadly said goodbye to John, who’d been a member of their group, they nursed their coffees and reflected on all the good things said at John’s funeral. Then they began to reflect on the end of their own lives and what might be said of them.

One guy, a retired physician, said he wanted to hear about all the babies he delivered who are now adults. Another, a lawyer wanted to hear about his honesty and hard work to protect those often overlooked within the legal system. A teacher wanted to hear from the students he taught. A contractor wanted to hear about the joy of the homeowners found from those houses he built. Around the table they went.

Everyone had chimed in except for Paul. All eyes turned to him. Finally, Paul shrugged his shoulders and said, “I want to hear someone say, “Look, he’s moving.”

If you caught the weird news of the week, you probably heard about the woman in Nebraska. She had been pronounced dead, her body was picked up, I’m assuming in a body bag, and taken to the funeral home. There, to the surprise of the undertaker, it was discovered she was still breathing.^[1]

Our text today contains two miracles: one involves a healing, the other a raising of the dead. The latter, I suggest, is different than misdiagnosing death as happened in Nebraska.

While our Christian hope involves life everlasting, we live out our faith in this life and in these bodies. Even the story of the raising of the dead found in today’s text is more out of a concern for the grieving parents than for the life of the one restored.

Before reading the text:

We have already seen a couple of examples of one of Mark’s favorite literary techniques, the sandwich.^[2] This is where Jesus starts with one topic or project, then goes off on a tangent, before returning to the main theme. This happens in our story today. We have a grieving father whose 12-year-old daughter is dying, and an older woman who has been ill for 12 years. Jesus cares for both. Our story can also be found in Matthew and Luke, the other two synoptic gospels.^[3]

These stories conclude a set of three set of miracle stories which began with the calming of the waters, followed by the healing of the demoniac. In a way, chapter 5 of Mark’s gospel, while not only including several major miracles, focuses on the ritually unclean. These are desperate people. One commentator suggested that chapter 5 should be the “St. Jude Chapter,” as Jude is considered the “saint’ for lost causes.^[4] But Jesus never met a lost cause.

All three of the miracles in chapter 5 require Jesus to ignore the Jewish restrictions. He encounters both the man of the tombs, which made him unclean,^[5] as well as the deceased girl and with women with ongoing menstruation. Jesus, whose continually places people over rules, immediately acts to relieve the suffering of others.

Another interesting tidbit about our text comes toward the end. When Jesus awakes the girl who was dead, we’re given the words Jesus used in Aramaic, a later version of Hebrew, along with its translation which was originally in Greek. In most English translation, the Greek is translated, “Little girl, get up,” while the Aramaic words remain as Jesus would have used them. It seems odd to have the original language and a translation, since Hebrew or Aramaic speakers wouldn’t need the translation. This has led some scholars to suggest that Mark is writing to an audience that’s more Gentile than Jewish.^[6]

Read Mark 5:21-42

One interesting thing about this text is that, except for the girl’s father, it involves women. In the Old Testament, we have stories of those ill and ritually uncleaned who are healed as well as those dead being restored to life.^[7] But they are all men. In the Roman world, women had little status. It was even common for girl infants to be abandoned, kind of like female infants in China during their one child per couple era. While such practice would have been considered an abomination among Jews, for pagan gentiles it would have been less so.

One way the early church set itself apart from the pagan world was to adopt and care for these abandoned children.^[8] In his ministry, Jesus showed the value of everyone.

Jesus is now back on the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee. Unlike on the other side, as we saw last week, where people wanted him gone out of fear, he’s welcomed back on his home turf. Again, as has happened throughout his Galilee ministry, a crowd swarms around Jesus.

Amid the crowd is a leader of the synagogue. He’s probably not a rabbi, but a local lay leader of the synagogue, who took care of the business end of the enterprise.^[9] But this also indicates he’s someone of status. The rest of the synagogue has placed him into a position of authority. He’s obviously also one who believes that Jesus has special powers, for his daughter is ill and he comes to Jesus for help. He believes that Jesus’ touch will be enough to save her.

But don’t forget that the crowd presses in on Jesus, so much so that he can hardly move. And while he heads off to help the girl, a woman in need comes and touches his robe. She was someone who had status. She had wealth, but in the past twelve years in which she had bleed, she had spent everything she had on doctors, hoping to find a cure. Now, she’s broke and Jesus is her only hope. She believes that if she can just touch the seam of his robe, she’ll be healed.

This interruption places tension in the story. The girl, we’re told is at death’s door. Jesus needs to come fast to save her. And while the crowd pushed in, Jesus realizes some of his healing power has left him, so he stops and asks who’s touched him.

To the disciples, this is an absurd question. Everyone has been touching Jesus; they can’t help it. It’s like being on a crowded train into Tokyo during rush hour, one of those where the attendants along the tracks push those crowding into the cars to make more room for everyone. But Jesus has felt his healing power leave, so he looks around, and the woman who had reached out to Jesus confesses that she was the one. She’s honest, but also afraid and only confesses with fear and trembling as she knees before Jesus.

Jesus, using endearing words, says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace and be healed.”

This interruption has cost precious minutes and now the father of the girl receives word that she died. They advise the father not to bother Jesus anymore. It’s time for him to begin mourning; but Jesus encourages faith and belief as he heads off with the man and the disciples to his home. There, the funeral home has already arrived and begun to arrange things. We can imagine neighbors and members of the synagogue hauling in food while crying out in grief.

You know, one thing about grief is that emotionally we shift around quickly. I’ve known this all along, but it became more evident with my dad’s death.^[10] One minute, we’re crying, the next, we’re laughing.

When Jesus asks about the fuss going on and suggests the girl is going to be fine, the gathered crowd goes from grief to laughter. They’ve seen the dead and the dead don’t crawl out of the casket, something Jesus’ ministry will challenge.

The wording here gives us pause to ponder if she was really death. Or perhaps she was like the woman in the Nebraska funeral home. Jesus says, she’s just asleep. But Mark is also making a point that Jesus’ power extends over death, so I take it he means that she is sleeping in the way we speak of the deceased “eternal rest.” Or maybe, as one commentator suggested, he speaks of her asleep to say she’s not “irrevocably dead.”^[11]

Taking only his top three disciples—Peter, James and John—along with the parents, Jesus goes inside to where the girl lies. And here, with his words which mean “Little girl, get up” he takes her hand. She rises and walks about. Jesus then tells them not to tell anyone what happened, but to get the girl something to eat. There’s aways a practical side to Jesus!

Mark may have placed these miracle stories—the calming of the waters, the healing of the crazy man, the healing of the woman, and the raising of the girl—back-to-back to point out Jesus’ divinity. But we also learn something else from these stories, especially the one we looked at today.

Jesus is concerned with individual lives and his concern extends even to those sidelined within the Roman world. If Mark, as many suggest, wrote primarily to a Gentile audience, the idea no one is excluded from Jesus’ love is welcome news. And it should be good news to us, too. Amen.

^[1] See https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/06/03/nebraska-woman-declared-dead-alive-funeral-home/73964988007/

^[2] For examples see Mark 3:20-35. (https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/04/07/the-unpardonable-sin-baseball-doing-the-will-of-god/) and Mark 4:1-20 (https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/04/28/the-parable-of-the-sower/).

^[3] Matthew 9:18-26 and Luke 8:40-45. Both maintain the “sandwich” structure found in Mark’s gospel. I preached the Luke text in 2022. See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2022/07/17/do-you-have-faith-or-are-you-just-a-spectator/

^[4] James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002),161.

^[5] See my sermon on this text: https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/06/02/jesus-and-the-man-living-in-the-tombs/

^[6] Edwards, 167-168.

^[7] See 2 Kings 5:1-19, 1 Kings 17:17-24, and 2 Kings 4:18-37.

^[8] Douglas R. A. Hare, Westminster Bible Companion: Mark (Louisville, KY: WJKP, 1996), 68.`

^[9] Edwards, 161.

^[10] https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/05/11/a-tribute-to-my-dad/

^[11] Morna D. Hooker, The Gospel According to Saint Mark (1991, Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), 150.

June 5, 2024June 5, 2024

Up North

Title Slide with photo of me along the shore of Lake Huron

I’ve been wanting to post something about my time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but things have conspired to keep me from writing about it. After a week of Continuing Education, I took a week of vacation to head further north.

Saturday, April 13, 2024

Looking at the Presbyterian Church in DeTour Village, MI — Union Presbyterian Church, DeTour Village, MI

After finishing up with the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, I meet up with Bob, a friend of mine from my Michigan days. I had invited Bob along on this trip, as I have always enjoyed spending time with him. Professionally, he’s an editor and a saxophone player. He has incredible knowledge of plants, with a fondness of carnivorous plants. And he’s a storm chaser. Bob had a friend bring him up from Hastings, so he wouldn’t have to worry about where to leave a car. He threw his sax and his suitcase in my car, and we were on the road. As it’s over five hours, I wanted to get as much driving done before dark as we headed north.

As the sun began to set, we could see we were entering a different climate zone, as farmland disappeared and hardwoods gave way to forest of paper birch mixed with pines and spruce.

We had a great conversation, talking about several topics along with listening to some Robert Raurk short stories from The Old Man and the Boy. We didn’t stop until after dark, picking up fast food at Burger King in Kalkaska, a town featured in two short stories by Ernest Hemingway. A hour or so later, we stopped for gas in Petoskey. These were our only stops and we arrived in DeTour Village a little after midnight.

Sunday, April 14, 2024

Ship heading up to the Son — Heading toward the Soo

In a way, my time off was a busman’s holiday. The church in DeTour has a nice manse overlooking the St. Mary’s River. I agreed to preach (I reused sermons I’d preached in January) for the opportunity to stay in the Dmanse and to relax for the week. This meant that we had to get up early on Sunday morning. Knowing that I was arriving late the night before, some people in the church provided food in the refrigerator so that Bob and I could enjoy bacon and eggs with toast for breakfast the next morning.

Church came early the next morning as we were both exhausted. I preached and Bob excited the crowd by playing a couple of songs on the sax. Afterwards, we had lunch and the Mainsail, one of two restaurants open this early in the season in Detour. Afterwards, we both retreated into our bedrooms and took a nap, before going out and spending some time exploring fins along Lake Superior. These wetlands that were separated from the shore by dunes are diverse with plant life, most of which was left over from last season. Bob pointed out several carnivorous plants: pitcher plants and sundews. While he continued to look around, I hiked out onto the rocks jutting into the water and discovered a nest laid by Canadian geese.

We can back to the manse for a nice dinner of cabbage rolls made by another Bob, along with his wife Nelda, members of the church. As Bob had never seen “A River Runs Through It,” and there was a DVD of the movie in the manse, we watched it.

Canadian Geese Eggs along the shore of Lake Huron

Monday, April 15, 2024

Monday, we set what would be our routine for the week. We spent the mornings in the manse. While Bob would work on his edits, I spent the time reading and writing. We’d take an occasional break to watch a ship make its way up or down the St. Mary’s River. Bob was especially excited when I pointed out the Arthur Andersen, the ship that was behind the Edmund Fitzgerald the night it sunk in November 1975. On my first day, I read The Cellist of Sarajevo. Later in the week, I started reading Danielle Chapman’s Holler, along with sections of Augustine’s City of God, along with some writing. The afternoons were reserved for hiking.

In the afternoon, we spent time exploring some of DeTour and the trails nearby. Then, as the day sun dropped lower into the sky, we drove to Cedarville for the grocery store. We had dinner at Snows Bar and Grill, located above Snow Channel, along the north shore of Lake Huron. The place was wonderful. I had the walleye special and a Great Lakes Brewing CEO Stout while Bob had the UP special, a Cornish pastry. Afterwards, we went back to the manse and watched “The Jesus Revolution,” a movie I had brought along with me to watch in preparation of using it on a movie night at church. Bob, who is more familiar with contemporary Christian music, knew more about those portrayed in the movie than I did (Chuck Smith, Greg Laurie, and Lonnie Frisbee). We discussed this movie several times over the week.

Walleye Dinner at Snow’s Bar and Grill in Cedarville, MI

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Tuesday afternoon, we hiked to around Cranberry Lakes to Caribou Lake, a walk of about 6 miles which I had done before. The trail takes us through cedar swamps with high ground consisting of paper birch forest mixed with spruce. It’s too early for wildflowers, but lots of smaller plants under the canopy have begun to brighten up after the winter.

After our hike, we head back to Snows Bar and Grill, where I enjoyed a wonderful Pepper Jack Burger with an Atwater Dirty Blonde. The burger was great, but the CEO Stout of the previous night I felt was superior to the Dirty Blonde. As there were a set of movies that featured Sandra Bullock. Since we both like her, we watched “Two Weeks’ Notice.” We were surprised to see Donald Trump in the movie, as he was featured much in the news with the beginning of his latest trial, as well as we recalled Sandra Bullock’s refusal to back him for the Presidency.

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Wednesday was a rainy day. I still did a couple of miles hiking in the rain, coming home to a hot shower. We stayed close to home for dinner, eating a great burger in the DeTour Bar and Grill, where we got into a conversation with locals. We watched Sandra Bullock in “Ms. Congeniality” in the evening.

The Arthur M. Anderson freighter — Arthur Anderson, a freighter built in the 1950s
and the last ship to see the Edmund Fitzgerald afloat in 1975

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Thursday morning, I received a text from my sister, telling me that our father would be having surgery. I called, but he was already being prepped for surgery for a blockage in his intestines. I talked with my sister and brother for a bit. Little did I know this event would change my plans for the next month. She later texted to say he came through the surgery and was doing fine. We went for an early evening dinner at Snows in Cedarville, followed by a stop at the grocery store there for food to serve that evening. A group of people from the church came over and we had desert and a Bible Study.

a 1000 foot freighter — 1000 foot freighter leaving Lake Huron

Friday, April 19, 2024

Friday, Bob and I spent the day on Drummond Island. After talking with my father in the morning, we caught the ferry over the island. David and Sandra, members of the church in Detour, picked us up and toured us around the island. Then they dropped us off at Maxton Plains for a hike.

Hiking in Maxton Plains

I was hoping to make it to the cliffs along the northeast side of the island, but the recent rains had created ponds on the alvar surface. Alvar is limestone pavement. The glaciers of the last ice age had smoothed the limestone leaving only a minimal amount of topsoil. At places the pavement is like smooth finished concrete, allowing plant growth only in cracks. Unfortunately, for us, water takes longer to work though the rock, so the rains of Wednesday and Thursday have resulted in ponds which we have to work around. We make it almost to the cliffs, when we are blocked by a larger impoundment of water due to beaver activity.

Beaver dam — A beaver swamp blocking our path

As it’s getting late and we’re scheduled to be at a dinner at 6 PM, we hike back. This is my second failed attempt to make it to the cliffs, as I’d tried to find them when in the UP in 2021.

We were picked up at the trailhead by Dave and Sandra and taken to a home on the lake where a group from the Lighthouse Church on Drummond was holding a potluck. There were a few musicians present, Bob got to play the sax with them. I spent the evening getting to know new friends, especially Scott, the pastor. A former Episcopal priest, he’d been the pastor on the island for 10 years and joked about how he no longer dresses up on Sunday morning. Instead, he just finds a clean pair of jeans. We had a good time with everyone and caught the 9:30 PM ferry back to DeTour.

Saturday, April 20, 2024

A ship going through the St. Mary's River, MI — A “Saltie” (grain hauler),
making it’s way up toward the Zoo

On Saturday, winter returned. We had several snow squalls. Bob was working on a project for a new client, so I left him and hiked out on DeTour Point, through a large Nature Conservancy protected area. At times the blowing snow, mixed with sleet, pelted against me. Then the sun would make a brief appearance before the wintry mix returned. I saw several ships, both salties (ships that travel across the oceans and enter the Great Lakes through the St. Laurence Seaway and the Wellington Canal, and lakers (ships that haul mostly iron ore, coal, and limestone and are too large to leave the Great Lakes Basin. I arrived back to the manse around 6 PM and grilled steaks for dinner. Then we began to pack up.

Photo of shoreline along Detour Point — Between snow squalls

Sunday, April 21, 2024

The next morning, we had a joyful time at church where Bob again played the sax. We then went out to lunch at the Mainsail, before packing up and heading back south. I dropped Bob off in Hastings, then drove to friends in Portage Michigan for the evening. On Monday, I drove back to Virginia.

An old laker heading south toward Detroit or maybe Cleveland

Previous posts on trips to DeTour Village

July 2021

September/October 2022

Photo of author of blog in a snow squall — Selfie during a snow squall

June 2, 2024June 2, 2024

Jesus and the Man Living in the Tombs

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
Mark 5:1-2
June 2, 2024

Sermon recorded at Bluemont on Friday, May 31, 2024

At the beginning of worship:

Bob lived on the edge of society in Virginia City, Nevada. Some people were afraid of him, but most just took pity on him. He was never known to harm or threaten anyone. Bob mostly wanted to be left alone. He lived outside of town in a shack but would come into town and dumpster dive for food and alcohol. He carried around a gallon glass jug. Going through the dumpsters behind the saloons, he’d search for whiskey or wine bottles and pour the dregs into his bottle. He drank this gross cocktail.

I once tried to invite Bob into a potluck we were having at church. He ignored me. A member of the church then suggested that we fix a plate of food and sit it out on the steps by the boardwalk. We did this about the time Bob would be heading by the church on his way out of town for the night. When the diner was over, the plate of food was gone. That was Bob’s way. He didn’t want a handout. He just wanted to be left alone.

I’m not sure of all of Bob’s problems. Some said his mind was fried on drugs. He had once been somewhat normal. In the early 70s, I was told, he had even run for sheriff.^[1] There are things that happen to individuals that we may be unaware. We must be compassionate, do what we can, and ponder what Jesus would do.

Today, in our gospel story, we see that folks like Bob and those even in worse shape didn’t scare Jesus. He saw something worth saving and using his divine powers, interacted with them and freed them from their bondage.

As the old saying goes, “God don’t make no junk.” And while we are not able to help everyone, we shouldn’t give up on anyone. Instead, we pray for them and do what we can (or what they will let us do) for them. As followers of Jesus, we should be known in the community as those who care for even those who society deems as unlovable.

After the reading of Scripture:
Last Sunday, we explored the passage of Jesus calming the storm as he sailed with the disciples across the Sea of Galilee. After the tempest calmed, they sailed on and arrived across from the water from Galilee. It appears evil wants to keep Jesus out of this territory. As I noted last week, large bodies of water were seen as evil’s domain in the Hebrew world view. So, the storm could be interpreted as evil’s attempt to keep Jesus away from this new territory. And, as we’ll see, once Jesus walks on shore, a man seriously infected with evil spirits confronts him.

Jesus and the disciples are in a territory unlike Galilee, which includes many gentiles. While not mentioned in the text, we know a Roman garrison is included among the gentiles. They stand ready to move into Galilee or to Jerusalem if trouble arose. Rome kept a smaller presence in the predominately Jewish enclaves to appease Jewish sensibilities.

As I read this passage, I encourage you to consider the humor in the story.^[2] I’ll explain what I mean in my sermon.

Read Mark 5:1-20

What does Jesus have against pigs? Four thousand hams and enough spareribs to feed Carroll County washed to sea. And think of all the bacon. Having come from Eastern North Carolina, where pig pickings are major social events and eating “high on the hog” isn’t an empty phrased, I’m saddened by such a lost opportunity. Just thinking of all those ribs sauced up and slow roasting over hickory coals makes my mouth water.

Of course, it’s obvious what Jesus had against pigs. As an obedient Jew, he followed the law which prohibited the eating of pork. As Christians, we can be thankful for Peter’s vision at Joppa, where he learns that such things are not profane.^[3] But that came later. When this incident occurred, the God-fearing people were under the old law.

Jesus and his disciples had crossed into gentile territory. Since gentiles didn’t adhere to Jewish law, they eat pork. I wonder if the presence of so many pigs, an incredible number of animals in the pre-factory farm days, was to feed the Roman garrison? It’s possible, and if so, those who hear of the story would chuckle at denying their enemy of a barbecue.

But let’s go back to the beginning of the story. Jesus steps off the boat and immediately a crazy man runs up to him. The guy must have been quite a sight, running around howling. Strong, he broke chains used to subdue him. He lived in a tomb, which makes him unclean from a Jewish perspective.^[4] But it may be the only place he can live because he’s been banished from the city. After all, who wants a werewolf running around. At least, as far as we know, the dead didn’t complain about his demeanor.

The dialogue begins, seemingly between Jesus and the man. However, it soon becomes apparent the dialogue is between Jesus and the evil spirits residing in the man. Mark provides enough detail about this encounter to show the power of evil. This possessed man is strong and uncontrollable. But Jesus’ power is greater.^[5]

There’s a jockeying for position going on. As I pointed out in an early sermon with Jesus confronting demons, in the Biblical worldview, names were thought to have special powers and to name someone or something implied domination.^[6]

So, the demons address Jesus as “Son of the Most High God,” as if by calling him out they can control Jesus. But Jesus has power and demands his name, which the demons respond, “It’s Legion, for we are many.” A legion was a unit within the Roman army that consisted of 4,000 to 6,000 men.

Of course, Jesus’ power from God transcends all other powers. He orders the demons to leave the man, but grants them their wish not to disappear, but to inhabit a herd of swine. For a Jewish audience hearing of this encounter, they would have thought this hilarious. The demons enter the swine and then do what evil does best. It destroys. Not only are the demons done in, but they also take with them a bunch of pigs to their deaths. Of course, Jesus doesn’t address the economic loss here.^[7] Instead the purpose of the story to express Jesus’ power.

There are three theological truths I’d like you to glean from this text. The first is one Mark has been making, Jesus is divine. As God in the flesh, Jesus has power to evil and has come to set about a change in the world. He dethrones evil.

Because of Jesus’ power, we can trust him to cure any troubled soul, and there was none so troubled as this man.

Second, the story confirms the nature and intent of evil, which is to destroy. Eventually, the demise of the pigs would have been the man’s destiny had Jesus not intervened. Evil seduces and then destroys. It often masquerades as good or desirable, and then, once in position of power, shows its true face. Scripture takes evil seriously, but at the same time shows us we shouldn’t fear it. When we sign up for God’s side, we are assured of the outcome. God’s power is greater than any combinations of evil spirits.

A third theological truth we learn from this passage involves the man. He was a victim. Jesus never blamed or condemned him. He needed help. Instead of blaming the victim for his own plight, as we too frequently do, Jesus freed the man from that which kept him in bondage.

The man is thankful and wants to travel with Jesus across the sea. But Jesus instead gives him a calling to tell what happened to his own people. Mission always starts in our backyard.

In addition to the theological truths of the passage, there are practical applications. Just as the man ran from the hills to meet Jesus on the lakeshore, we too are to take our troubles to him We don’t have to bear the burden of bondage by ourselves. We can trust Jesus.

And those of us who have experienced the grace of our Savior, like the healed demonic, have a story to tell. We are to proclaim and tell others what Jesus has done for us.

Finally, this passage reminds us that no one is beyond God’s grace. God’s love extends even to those shunned from society. So don’t write people off. Love them, like Jesus loves. Amen.

^[1] Long after I left Virginia City, I heard that a local sheriff deputy had a confrontation with Bob. Feeling threatened, he shot him. Bob died. People were so upset at the deputy, for no one had ever seen Bob be violent toward others, that the deputy had to leave town.

^[2] For a discussion on humor in the passage, see Douglas R. A. Hare, Westminster Bible Companion: Mark (Louisville: KY: WJKP, 1996), 65.

^[3] Acts 10.

^[4] According to Jewish law, contact with the dead required a period of cleansing. See Numbers 19:11-14.

^[5] Morna D. Hooker, The Gospel According to Saint Mark (1991, Hendrickson, 1997), 142.

^[6] See my sermon on Mark 1:21-28. https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/01/21/jesus-in-the-synagogue/

^[7] For a discussion on this see James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 159.

St. Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah GA, with azaleas in bloom — St. Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia during the Spring

Camp BangladeshAugust 1999