As a third year seminary student, we all had the joyous experience of taking the GOEs—the General Ordination Exams. These exams are fraught with anxiety. For two years, all you can think about is what kinds of questions will be on the GOEs, who will read your responses, and if you’ll pass. Then there’s the fear that if you fail a section, what will happen…will you have to resubmit, will your Bishop decide not to ordain you, will you have “wasted” three years of your life, just to have it all come to a screeching halt because of one test!?! And then the week of GOEs arrives…four days to answer seven essays. These are the longest four days of your life! Your brain hurts daily. You develop cramps in your wrists and fingers from typing. You drool over dinner and collapse into bed each night just to do it all again the next day. My GOE experience, in case you haven’t guessed, was exhausting. But now, years later, I’ve forgotten most of the questions…except one. The ethics question was “Are there any acts which are intrinsically evil?” This question has haunted me because I failed the first time, I was given a chance to rewrite my answer, failed again, and then had to be flown to the Examining Board of Chaplains in Los Angeles to give an oral defense. They got so frustrated with me, that they ended up giving me a new question because I refused to change my answer. And my answer was “yes…there are acts which are intrinsically evil”. I based my answer on the writings and theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who believed that anything that took you away from the love of God, was an act of evil.
That’s what leads me to Sunday’s gospel. The authorities and Jesus’ family have been watching Jesus perform healings, touch the untouchable, eat with the outcasts, and preach about the Kingdom of God in a way that was pretty revolutionary for the time. There was concern that perhaps in all this, he had become possessed or lost his mind. Their concern wasn’t evil in itself, they were truly worried for him, but they were anxious that his teaching and behavior would bring down the system of religion that had been well established. They were concerned that he was working in a way that was contrary to the norm. And this is what was driving their anxiety and questions.
But Jesus responds with this great question, “How can a house stand when divided?” In other words, how can we be together if there’s in-fighting? How can you trust in God if you’re always second-guessing? How can you bring about the Kingdom of God when you can’t make the leap from religious dedication to openhearted love for all? This is the essence of what Jesus is talking about. If we’re too worried about who’s in charge, who’s in control, who’s in and who’s out, then what are we doing? How is that being responsive to the Kingdom of God? So yes, Jesus’ openhearted love and inclusion feels a bit chaotic. It’s unruly and messy.
And that’s what he’s getting at when he says his mother and his siblings aren’t his family. The children of God aren’t the ones who have it all figured out and know how to play by the rules, and know what’s “right”; the children of God are misfits, outcasts, and often marginalized. They are the outsiders and the imperfect. They are everyone…the disciples, you, and me. Those who surround Jesus, who dine with him, who are healed by him, who sit at his feet, are beautiful children of God in all their imperfection.
This lesson is also about discerning the acts of the Holy Spirit. As I’ve said before, the Holy Spirit is wild, powerful, and passionate. But when the Spirit is present, there is healing, love and welcome. When the Spirit is not present, there is anger, bitterness, and hate.
By now you may have heard about the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Oregon’s open table resolution. This resolution came from the diocesan convention that was hosted by St. Mark’s two years ago. At that convention, there was unanimous agreement that in this diocese, all are invited to the Eucharist…regardless of age, denomination, or baptism. Since then, the diocese asked a group to work together to create a resolution and theological reflection to be sent to General Convention this summer. As part of that group, I sent the materials to General Convention, and have since been interviewed about the work of the group and the diocese on this matter. I realize that for some, this is an incredibly difficult issue because it is unprecedented in our Episcopal tradition and church history. But I also realize that for others, and particularly for those who receive communion when they’ve been told “no” in other times and places, that this is a matter of Holy Spirit work. It is messy theologically, it seems chaotic compared to the “way we’ve always done it”, and some have argued that priests who practice distribution of Holy Communion in this manner should not be ordained. Very similar arguments to what Jesus was facing in the gospel passage from Mark. And yet…the Holy Spirit always finds a way to unbind us, to show us how to heal and love and welcome one another.
Desmond Tutu once said, “Goodness is stronger than hate”. The love of Jesus, present in the acts of the Holy Spirit, is stronger than the evil that binds us. The Holy Spirit overcomes those acts which are intrinsically evil…hatred, oppression, exclusion, domination, and all the “isms” of our world, when we are open to receiving it. When we are bound up by evil, we are a house against itself. A family not united. We will fall apart.
But goodness is stronger than hate. Jesus’ invitation to us to be among his family, children of God, overcomes our struggle with evil. Jesus invites us to witness and participate in the Kingdom of God through actions guided by the Holy Spirit, bringing us back to the love of God.