Liberation and addiction

Gate Pa Presentation of our Lord at the Temple

4^th Sunday in Epiphany

Readings:

Psalm                          24                                                                                                       

First Reading:                         Malachi 3:1-5                         

Second Reading:                    Hebrews 2:14-18                    

Gospel:                                    Mark 1:21-28                         

What I want to say:

I want to briefly explore Candlemas, finishing with the importance of Christ the light  - how does light Christ enable us to see ourselves and the world we live in. I then want to use the article The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think by Johann Hari to talk about what it is that Jesus might be liberating those in the story and those hearing the story from

What I want to happen:

People to reflect on what cages Christ is both liberating us from, and what we are being invited into?

The Sermon

1.     Introduction:

today and tomorrow Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican and other churches

                        celebrate the Presentation Lord in the Temple

            found in Luke

            fulfilment of Mosaic law

                        Purification Mary – given birth – involves a lot of blood – nephesh or life

                        presentation Jesus, first born male – dedicated to God

            leads – Song Simeon – part night prayer

seen with his own eyes salvation of Lord

Candlemas also when new candles blessed

            thought have healing powers

            Ireland – lit stubs given those dying – light way paradise

not hear gospel this week

chose read Mark

            partly because online resources I use RCL rather

            partly reading heard important Mark

                        introduces two themes that hold Marks gospel together

     2.     Mark

passage heard acts kind introduction in Mark

sets out themes which rest gospel explore and open up

themes – authority

-         liberation

authority already introduced and explored – gospel up to this point

here stated – unlike authority of Pharisees and scribes – collision course is set

crowd amazed – quick observation about the two greek words used

            first time – multi layered – include sense outrage

            second time just – wooah!

     3.     Liberation

theme liberation is then introduced through story of the man possessed by unclean spirit being healed

unlike people – not quite sure about Jesus

            some up for it

            others not so much

Unclean Spirits immediately recognise Jesus authority

            not happy

Forced obey and leave man

sets up Jesus as one who has authority to liberate and heal

unlike other healers and exorcists of his time – Jesus doesn’t charge

hard one many of us

not part life experience

often feel need  to make sense of it in terms of 21^st century world view

in doing so miss point Mark making – Jesus has authority to liberate.

            Jesus is presented as one who has authority even to cast out demons

     4.     Our cage

read article last week about addictions – posted Facebook page if interested.

The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It IsNot What You Think by Johann Hari

Hari suggests that we have been misled about causes of addiction and that we need new approach

much understanding about addiction comes experiments with rats

            alone in cage

            2 bottles one with heroin

                        one with water

            drank heroin one almost exclusively

led understanding heroin hooks in them

            changes biochemistry brain

                        – need it or addicted to it

                        – until kills us

a lot of our treatment programmes and a lot drug prevention strategies are based on this premise.

1970’s another researcher Professor Alexander felt role cage left too open

set up alternative

            other rats

            big rat park – lots to do

nearly all rats tried heroin – then stuck water

not need heroin

life good

then did second experiment

rat alone in cage 51 days – addicted

returned to rat park – nearly all stopped heavy use and returned to normal life in park

Professor Alexander argues this discovery is a profound challenge understanding of addiction. Not a disease taking place in a chemically hijacked brain. In fact, he argues, an adaptation.

            ->It's not you. It's your cage.

not about humans – about rats

human experiments

applied that what happened after Vietnam war

extremely high percentage American servicemen used drugs including heroin

            many addicted

            cope stress situation

            appalling cage

fear was when return home America inundated drug addicts

95% addicted soldiers stopped when returned home

few went rehab

most just stopped

changed cage and need disappeared

Professor Peter Cohen argues that human beings have a deep need to bond and form connections.

            It's how we get our satisfaction.

            If we can't connect with each other, we will connect with anything we can find -- the whirr of a roulette wheel or the prick of a syringe.

            addiction isn’t about hooks and brain chemistry, but unfulfilled human longing to bond meaningfully with others

Cohen suggests that should stop talking about 'addiction' altogether, and instead call it 'bonding.'

            A heroin addict has bonded with heroin because she couldn't bond as fully with anything else.

So the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection.

Hari

“It is relevant to all of us, because it forces us to think differently about ourselves. Human beings are bonding animals. We need to connect and love. The wisest sentence of the twentieth century was E.M. Forster's -- "only connect." But we have created an environment and a culture that cut us off from connection, The rise of addiction is a symptom of a deeper sickness in the way we live -- constantly directing our gaze towards the next shiny object we should buy, rather than the human beings all around us.

We need now to talk about social recovery -- how we all recover, together, from the sickness of isolation that is sinking on us like a thick fog.

     5.     Social Isolation and Mark

one online commentaries offered this article way understanding Marks gospel in general and this story in particular

liberation offered is

            liberation from cages that isolate us from each other

Jesus not only offering liberation from

also liberation to new way building community

built on God’s mercy and justice

allowed new connections made

over rest year, invite us keep eye out way Jesus challenge all forces that separated and isolated people

            starting with demonic possession

            economic systems trapped people poverty

                                    extraordinary wealth – no less isolated

            religious systems – divided people into who in and who out

                        worked ensure barriers between people were maintained

            social systems – family honour systems made real connection between and within families hard – sought live way maintain families honour

over next few months invite you listen for each of these

invite you reflect

            How Christ light helps us recognise unhealthy cages we live in

                        and are being liberated from

            return to candle stubs given to dying in Ireland

            Where Christ the light inviting us in to

                        what is our paradise now?

                        what new forms of community that will allow us and others to bond well

            to be communities that give life rather than force isolation

what we being invited to see this year?

Finish with Song Simeon

Authority and Liberation

In the Anglican (and Roman Catholic) calendar today is Candlemas, or the Presentation of the Lord at the Temple. In the northern hemisphere this ancient festival marks the midpoint of winter, halfway between the shortest day and the spring equinox. The Christmas season once lasted for forty days - until the second day of February, and Candlemas marked the end of that season. The name Candlemas comes from the tradition that all the candles that were to be used in the church during the coming year were brought into church and blessed. So it was the Festival Day (or 'mass') of the Candles.

Candles were very important as the main means of providing light. They were also thought to give protection against plague and illness and famine. For Christians, they were (and still are) a reminder that Christ is ‘The light of the World' - and candles are lit during church services to remind us of this.

However we are going to follow the more Protestant RCL lectionary readings for the Gospel. You will need to read Luke for yourself at home. We will continue to listen to the beginning of the Gospel of Mark. Beginnings are important as they set the tone and themes. In today’s passage two of the big themes for Mark are further introduced, the themes of liberation and authority.

Mark’s gospel is all about establishing Jesus’ authority as coming from God, and so being utterly different from the authority of others. And Mark carefully sets out Jesus’ mission to be bringing about God’s liberation for all people. While Mark is clear that this liberation reaches back to and fulfils the ancient hopes of the people of Israel, it also breaks with those hopes and, Mark says, changes everything and affects everyone.

Matt Skinner[1] says, “Mark depicts Jesus as the one uniquely authorized, commissioned, or empowered to declare and institute the reign of God. Through Jesus, then, we glimpse characteristics of this reign. It is intrusive, breaking old boundaries that benefited another kind of rule. It is about liberating people from the powers that afflict them and keep all creation -- including human bodies and human societies -- from flourishing. It is about articulating God’s intentions for the world, defying or reconfiguring some traditions to do so, if need be.” He goes on to ask, “What do these stories mean for those who don’t share the worldviews of the gospels, where it comes to understanding what makes human existence perilous, where illnesses come from, and what it means to acknowledge that some powerful forces -- whether we consider these forces essentially spiritual, sociological, anthropological, habitual, political, biological, climatological, or not even capable of being so neatly divided into such categories -- appear to remain stubbornly beyond our ability to control? At minimum, this passage provokes us to stop assuming that “the way things are” must always equal “the way things have to be.” The reign of God promises more, whether the “more” can be realized now or in a far-off future.

May Christ the Light illuminate our understanding as we continue to explore these two themes as we read the rest of mark over the coming year?

---

[1] <http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2343>

Called

This sermon can be listened to here

Gate Pa – Epiphany 3 2015

Readings:

Psalm                         62:5-12                                                

First Reading:             Jonah 3:1-5, 10 

Second Reading:                    1 Cor 7:29-31  

Gospel:                                    Mark 1:14-20 

What I want to say and what I want to happen:

Use the Jonah and Mark readings to reflect on our calls and to ask what we might be invited to this year

What I want to happen:

People to share stories of call, and to reflect on how they are called now.

The Sermon

      1.     Introduction:

theme readings is call – Jonah and Mark

appropriate as begin new year.

chance us take stock

these stories offer us a chance reflect on our own call – individuals

            and as church

ask how called now, what might be invited to this year.

      2.     We Are All Called

We are all called

long time used say clergy called to “the ministry”

lay people would help them in that ministry

            heard clergy say that when young priest

            call was often seen as clergy thing

gifts charismatic renewal rediscovery that all people

            ministry

            called

rediscovered priesthood of all believers

call first occurs in baptism

we are all called

we all have ministries

I would go so far as to say

            no ministry is more important than others

            (mine is not more important that anyone else’s)

not say all same

wonderful array of ministries

all important

all called by God.

also say not one call

            call is ongoing thing

called into ordained ministry

`           into youth ministry

            out youth ministry

            be Franciscan

            into parish ministry and then to here

could go on

so today as we listen to stories

            offered opportunity to remember our own callings

            as start new year

            reflect on how live those callings out

      3.     Jonah

first reading Jonah

never intended to be history book

no person call Jonah who swallowed by whale

Nineveh was never as big as described

Assyrians never repented

Satirical book that pokes fun at Jewish leadership and others

            narrow thinking around who in and who out

            what their role was as part of in crowd

            and where God fitted in all this.

supposed to be so ridiculous that funny

as people laugh think – “o talking about me”.

God’s truth in story – rather than historical event

so we have this very self righteous and confident man of God

very clear about who deserves offer salvation

Assyrians aren’t on his list

response to his call by God is

“not a chance. God, you got this all wrong”

and he runs in the other direction, removing any possibility of him ever being able to do this wrong thing he is being asked to do

I wonder when we have responded to a call like that

Not me

you got the wrong person

or I don’t even think this should be a thing that happens

reminds me when people first suggested to me think about ordination

not part of my life plan

responded by stopping going to church

that would fix it

like Jonah

didn’t work

here I am today

when have you felt call and turned away

            how has that led to where you are today?

      4.     Story

Then we have the four first disciples.

what is interesting about story is that it comes right at the beginning of the Gospel

One common ways first line Gospel is understood

            The beginning of good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God

refers to whole Gospel

story of Jesus is beginning of good news

importance those first disciples is that they then become part of good news

that good news was continuing on to hearers of Gospel

-         were now part of good news

-         we are part good news as well.

It is not about Jesus alone

but all those he invited and gathered into the story

      5.     Yes

we are told

            without delay –say yes

we could speculate on why said yes

            interesting

            even helpful

not point

point is that they said yes.

seem know deep heart that this was right thing to do

left all that was known to them

and all that was expected of them

followed

when I finally said yes to ordination – it was that kind of moment

training to be teacher

knew that would only be short time

just took long time to get there

as maybe Andrew might taken while get there

at moment said yes

when you said yes – as disciples did

knowing deep heart right thing

      6.     Other times

if I was to tell stories of when called – all be different

some sudden and unexpected

some gradually came over time as I opened myself up to possibility

sometime not get call something thought great at

            end call isn’t about me and what I am good at

            it is – Jonah reminds us – all about God

            what God does through us.

In next few minutes invite you use these stories think about times you felt or heard call

talk neighbours about

maybe talk about how called now  and what that might mean for this new year.