Sermon for 2nd Pentecost
Crazy for Us
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
How do you define “crazy”? Not what makes you crazy, but what you think of as absolutely crazy.
I ask because I think it is interesting that, just a few chapters into the Gospel of St. Mark’s story about Jesus, people around Jesus are already saying that Jesus is crazy. Mark tells us in today’s Gospel that people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind,” People were saying that Jesus has gone out of his mind. In other words, they were saying that Jesus is just plain crazy.
Saying people are “crazy” or, in this case the parallel, “out of his or her mind” is strong language. It is a way of discrediting people, of dismissing their views and actions. It is a way of trying to limit, if not destroy, other people’s credibility and influence. It is the kind of thing that you either say in jest to a good friend - “Don’t be crazy, we could never do that!” - or to – or more frequently about – someone you really do not like - “Don’t listen to him – the guy is just plain crazy.”
And this is precisely what people are saying about Jesus. And they are not just saying it here and there, or once in a while, or under their breaths. No, they are saying it out loud and in public. They are even saying it to Jesus’ own family.
Not only that, but Jesus’ family seems to agree. Mark tells us that Jesus’ family “went out to restrain” Jesus. They are moved to action because “people were saying,” as Mark notes, “‘He has gone out of his mind.’”
What does it take for you or me to decide that someone is crazy? Is it that they hold very different beliefs from us? That they are at the other end of the political spectrum than we are? Is it that they act and behave in ways that are threatening or, at the very least, hard to understand? Is it that they have a passion which is not just theirs but that they want, even insist, that their passion should be everyone else’s, too?
What does it take for you or me to decide that someone is crazy?
In Jesus’ case, it appears that people were calling Jesus crazy for healing anyone and everyone in need and casting out demons. And for doing all this even on the Sabbath.
Jesus is, in other words, breaking the rules to make sure everyone can experience God’s grace.
All of which sounds pretty good. Jesus is breaking the rules so that everyone can experience God’s love.
So why are folks saying that Jesus has lost his mind?
Well, think about it: In acting in wild abandon and extreme inclusion, Jesus is defying religious and cultural norms.
And all of this shakes up the people around Jesus, particularly, but not exclusively, the religious authorities, on at least two fronts:
First, Jesus is defying the norms of his time about who is in and who is out. In Jesus’ day, folks thought to be possessed by a demon and those maimed or born with some physical limitation or defect – these kinds of people were often assumed to be cursed, to be not natural, or to have sinned or even to be suffering from the sins of their parents.
Yet Jesus forgives and heals all who are in need. Everyone. No exceptions.
And, just in case folks were not sure about this before, Jesus then soon pushed his point unbelievably and quite literally “home” when he said, at the end of today’s Gospel lesson, when Jesus said that any and all who do the will of God were his true brothers and sisters and mother. This was a radical notion, a major redefining of what constitutes a family in an age when family was everything.
Second, Jesus is putting the needs of the people he encounters above the religious traditions that regulate the lives of the people.
In Jesus’ day religious traditions were important, useful, and valuable. Religious traditions were and still are a means to an experience of God and greater abundance in life. However, as we have seen when Jesus healed on the sabbath, an act forbidden in his time, religious traditions are not, are never, an end in themselves.
When we put following rules ahead of meeting needs, we have actually, even if accidentally, we have misused the very rules God gave us to help us flourish.
And this is all why Jesus is called crazy.
And this is why those who follow Jesus today are sometimes called crazy as well.
For example – as Christians, we put children and families above “border security.” I am sure that sounds crazy to many people. We stand for love, not hate. We even stand against hate of those identified by others as “the enemy.” That is certainly crazy talk. And we welcome and serve everyone, even those who some people might think of as odd or even crazy.
And it is definitely crazy to declare forgiveness for all our sins each week. It is probably even more crazy to say that God loves everyone the same.
This just is not how this world works. And yet, it is what Jesus does and calls those who follow him to do as well.
Perhaps the craziest – and most disturbing thing – about Jesus’ actions, of course, is that Jesus’ actions remove, for folks back then as well as us today, that Jesus’ actions take away our ability to judge and to fence other people in or out.
Jesus’ actions take away our ability to define those around us by how they conform to our expectations. In fact, what we discover over and over is that anytime we draw a line between who is in and who is out, we discover Jesus on the other side of that line, on the “out” side of that line, identifying with the people on the other side, caring for them, and loving them.
Just as Jesus loves us.
Make no mistake, we know that Jesus will pay a price for this. The Roman rulers have no tolerance for Jesus’ radical embrace and outlandish love. They will conspire, threaten, and eventually entrap and crucify him.
And you know what, none of that will stop Jesus. Jesus will die unjustly; Jesus will die in order to demonstrate God’s crazy love. And on the third day, God will raise Jesus from the dead.
Which may just mean that the cross has next to nothing to do with paying some price, or being punished in our stead, or satisfying God’s justice. Rather, the cross is the example of just how far we will go to get rid of those who witness to God’s expansive and all-encompassing love.
And that makes the resurrection the ultimate testimony that Jesus’ kind of love simply cannot be stopped, not even by extreme violence. Jesus’ kind of love simply cannot be stopped. Jesus’ love will eventually conquer all.
Jesus’ actions take away our ability to judge and fence other people in or out. Jesus’ actions take away our ability to define those around us by how they conform to our expectations. In fact, what we discover over and over is that anytime we draw a line between who is in and who is out, we discover Jesus on the other side of that line, on the “out” side of that line, identifying with people on the other side, caring for them, and loving them. Just as Jesus loves us.
Jesus is crazy? You bet. Jesus is crazy in love with you and me and everyone in this world. And that love will eventually conquer all.
Amen.
(With thanks to the Rev. Dr. David Lose)
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sermon for:
June 6, 2021
