The legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi, became accustomed to fans seeking his autograph.  One day while eating at a public restaurant,he spotted a kid approaching his table.  Lombardi grabbed a menu and quickly scribbled his name.  When the kid got to Lombardi’s table, the coach handed him the autographed menu.  The youngster said, “I don’t need a menu. I just need to borrow your ketchup.”

Sometimes it’s good to be known and to have a place in this world; it feels good to be recognized.  On this Truth Tuesday I must admit that sometimes I don’t feel like I fit in – when I’m at the gym, or in a committee meeting full of professors, or when I read the Bible.  I don’t always connect to the words in this book or find where I fit in the passages.  It can be discouraging to read story after story and not be able to relate to any of it.  And this, coming from a male perspective, is eye-opening!  If I can’t always relate to the text, I can only imagine the discouragement that women, African-Americans, Hispanics, LGBTQ,or any non-white-males may feel when they read the Bible.

What if, as we read the Bible, we were able to finally see ourselves within the story?  What impact would that have in the way we read the Bible and the way we live our lives?  As we read the following passage, I invite you to do just that: have open ears and open hearts, and take a moment to find our place in the story. 

I’m going to be sharing the text from a very different translation – it’s called “Young’s Literal Translation” by 19^th century author Robert Young, who, as the title suggests, wrote a very literal translation of the original Greek texts.  It may seem a little confusing in certain areas, and I have changed the ‘thee’ and ‘thy’ to ‘you’ and ‘your’ to make it a little more palatable.

“And again he entered into Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that he is in the house, and immediately many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door, and he was speaking to them the word.  And they come to him, bringing a paralytic, carried by four.  And not being able to come near to him because of the multitude, they uncovered the roof where he was, and,having broken it up, they let down the couch on which the paralytic was lying.  And Jesus having seen their faith, said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins have been forgiven.” 

And there were certain scribes there sitting, and reasoning in their hearts, ‘Why does this one in this manner speak evil words?  Who is able to forgive sins except one –God?‘  And immediately Jesus, having known in his spirit that they reason in themselves, said to them, “Why these things reason you in your hearts?  Which is easier to say to the paralytic: the sins have been forgiven or to say, rise, and take up your couch and walk?  And that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins,” (he said to the paralytic) “I say to you, rise, and take up your couch, and go away to your house.”  And he rose immediately, and having taken up the couch, he went out before all, so that all were astonished and do glorify God, saying: “Never in this manner did we see.'”

This translation may be a little difficult to understand because the grammar isn’t what we’re used to reading, but did you catch some of the cool things that are happening in this passage?  Yes, the miracle is cool (my east coast friend would say ‘wicked-awesome’), but I think there’s something cooler than that – did you notice how ambiguous the story was concerning the characters within it?  The only person identified by name is Jesus, but everyone else is unnamed and ungendered!

If you’ve ever heard this story before, think back on it and about the characters.  Had you always assumed the four who brought in the paralytic were male? Had you always imagined that the people who were listening to Jesus speak were primarily Caucasian?  Had you taken for granted that the scribes were men? Had you expected the paralytic to be an older man?  What ideas about the characters did you have, either when we read the text or that you already had in your mind?

What I love about this passage from Mark is the total ambiguity of the text.  When we look at the Gospel of Mark, it should be noted that we don’t have a clear understanding of who wrote the text.  The early church designated this as the Gospel of Mark, but within the text itself we have no name attached to who wrote it.  The name ‘Marcus’ was one of the most popular names in the Greek world at the time this work was written which leaves the doors wide open for authorship.  Even within the Bible itself, some scholars have said there are at least three different men named Mark.  While it could be said that the work is anonymous, we can safely say that it was written by a “Christian teacher who writes not as a charismatic individual but as a member of the community.”[1]  Who wrote these words?  A woman? An African?  A middle-eastern male?  Does this give us room to find ourselves in the story?

As we move into the passage itself, we can easily take up a variety of characters with whom we most relate.  Do you relate to the ones carrying the paralytic, or to the one being carried?  Do you envision yourself as one of the people in the crowd, and were you inside or outside of the house?  Were you one of the scribes, questioning whether or not Jesus had authority to say these words?  Were you the author of the Gospel of Mark,recording what was going on as you saw it happening?

Do you see the beauty of this passage when we insert ourselves into the text?  We are no longer bystanders reading some ancient text which has been passed down from age to age – no, we are now participants in the Word of God!  We are part of the story – we are part of God’s story!

If I’m to be perfectly honest with you, I have to admit that yes, the Bible was by-and-large translated by white men, who were more than likely attempting to maintain a patriarchal viewpoint.  But we don’t have to read it that way!  Instead, we should be reading it and experiencing it through our eyes – because that’s the way God desires us to listen and understand.  I should read it through my poor, white, male eyes.  You should read it through your powerful female eyes. You should read it through your queer eyes.  You should read it through your Hispanic eyes.

And we shouldn’t stop at our own vision and our own mindset.  What if we were to experience this passage through the eyes of someone else?  What if you were to read it as your co-worker? As your nanny?  As your mechanic?  As your mother?  As your neighbor?  How does this passage change for us when we look at it as someone else?

This passage from Mark is for us, it’s about us – it’s our story.  We are the paralytic needing God’s healing touch to our illnesses.  We are one of the four carrying those we care about to God. We are the crowd, witnessing God’s Word in this world.  We are the scribes, doubting in our hearts Jesus’ words.  We are the author, sharing what we see God doing in our world.

As we go out from this place, let us remember that this book – the Bible – is a book for all of us.  It is our story, our heritage, our witness to God’s promises. Let us find ways to see how we fit into this story and where God desires us to be within it.  May we see this book as our book.

much love. sheth.

[1] M. Eugene Boring, Mark: A Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012), 20.

In the fall of 1517, Martin Luther had some issues with The Church and wrote to his bishop – he was sure to include with his letter a copy of his now-famous 95 Theses.  Luther’s dissertation protested against the Catholic church and clergy selling plenary indulgences and began a movement to try Luther for heresy which eventually ended in his excommunication from the church.

Last year, many churches and organizations celebrated the 500^th anniversary of this Reformation; on my own campus we had a celebration with academic speeches and a fair where we could experience the Reformation in all its glory.  Each year there is a dedicated ‘Reformation Sunday’ that many mainline protestant churches celebrate year after year which falls on the last Sunday of October.

Being on a seminary campus, the word ‘reformation’ is used rather frequently, especially in the fall when the church history course is being taught.  While the subject matter causes intentional dialogue (and some heated debates), it eventually goes to the wayside as new topics and ideas are piled on our plates.

This Reformation thing intrigues me on a personal level because when I stop to think about it, how often do I re-form myself?  While it’s good to maintain a certain presence and to be comfortable with who I am, is who I am fully who I can be?  How often do I take a good, hard look at myself and acknowledge the things that are not good in my life, and how often do I change or remove them?  If I’m honest with myself, I’d have to admit that I don’t re-form myself as much as I should.

I don’t like change – once I find something I’m comfortable with, I’ll stick with it, even if it’s not the best for me.  Reform is uncomfortable.

I don’t know how to change – even when I recognize something in my life that needs changing, I usually don’t know where to begin.  Reform is daunting.

I don’t want to change – some of the things about me that need re-form are things I really like about myself.  Reform is challenging.

I don’t want to admit that I need to change – it’s tough work emotionally and spiritually to say there are things about me that need changed.  Reform is agonizing.

Martin Luther knew the importance of reform – he knew that the church needed reformation, but he also knew that people needed reformation: “…we are not yet what we shall be, but we are going toward it; the process is not yet finished, but it is going on; this is not the end, but it is the road…”  Reformation of the self is not working to change what is good in our selves, instead, it is to improve on what is there, and to change/remove what is bad in our selves.

This re-forming of our self is hard work, but it is worthy work.  We’re meant to be so much more than who we are and we’re meant to live an exemplary life.  We’re called to be the people God desires us to be, and to get there requires constant reformation.  May God work in us to begin our own re-formation: may we recognize what needs to change in our own lives and may we embrace those changes.

much love. sheth.

There’s this nifty little function on Facebook called ‘Memories’ – I can click on that and look at all the past things I’ve posted on Facebook on that given date (how old do I sound in this sentence?).  I like this because I can look back and see all the good things that have happened in my life: concerts, going on dates, international trips, meeting important or influential people, or hanging out with friends.  I can see past observations I’ve made, quotes I may have liked at the time, or how I felt about this or that political issue.  Sometimes, though, things come up that I don’t want to be reminded of: financial struggles, losses of employment, broken relationships, family hardships, dumb quotes, the starts of arguments…all the bad things that I don’t care to think about.

When I was a child, I knew that when I died I would have to account for my sins, but I wasn’t sure how God and I would review those sins.  Would it be a book – a pictorial sin-biography?  Would God just start rattling off my misdeeds and shortcomings and I would have to answer for each one?  My creative little mind came up with the idea that God would project them on a screen – a retrospective film of my life, starring me.  [And because I tend to make matters worse in my mind, I assumed everyone would be watching…and I mean EVERYONE, because we’d all be there in one place on the day of judgement]

I’d ask my Sunday School teachers about the consistency of God’s memory – was everything remembered…was there ever a lapse in memory…how big or small did a sin need to be for it to be remembered?  I mean, God remembered Noah after the flood and God remembered about Israel time and time again…God has a good memory!  Why wouldn’t God remember when I took that piece of candy, or when I told my mom I wasn’t at the park, or when I kept the dime meant for the offering plate?  I asked all the questions because I was worried about my sins and that God’s memory would prevent me from getting through those pearly gates.

Certainly God remembers, but it’s not in the same way that we remember, or the way Facebook remembers.  God doesn’t hold on to those memories and lord them over us; God doesn’t waive our mistakes in our faces; God doesn’t drop them in our minds to make us feel bad.  God has forgiven us of our mistakes the moment we confess them.  God has wiped them from the Divine memory as if they weren’t even there.

The truth is, the memories of my past sins are my memories, and I think they linger in my brain for a few reasons.  They’re there because I haven’t forgiven myself of my sins, even though God has; I can’t seem to let go of this or that and I beat myself up with the memory.  These are things I continually have to work on and ask God to help me forgive myself.

But the ‘sin memories’ are also there to remind me of the past – like Facebook – and to point me to the consequences of my mistakes.  They give me a base line for my future actions and they guide me in my decision making.

Most importantly, I think they’re also there to remind me of God’s grace and love: Hey, Sheth, remember that time you did X? And remember when God forgave you for that?  Well, God can certainly forgive you for this, too.  These memories keep me balanced, in a way – they make sure I stay on trail, and when I waiver and falter I know where the trail is located and how to get back.

May we forgive ourselves as God has forgiven us!  May the memories of our pasts not come back to haunt us!  And may our memories give us direction in life, guiding us along life’s paths!

much love. sheth.