Eyes to see.
The Church and the Kingdom of God: Mark 4: 35 -41/2 Cor. 6: 1 – 13.
Does art or poetry matter in the face of violence or suffering? Can words arranged on a page or painted on a canvas, alter the facts of war or terror or racism or poverty?
WH Auden, once famously, said “Poetry makes nothing happen.”. And yet he wrote those words in a poem, one that honours fellow poet W.B Yeats. He goes on to say of poetry: “ It survives, a way of happening, a mouth.”
Few would say that the value of poetry lies in making something happen in the world. As W.H Auden said elsewhere, “ If the criterion of art were its power to incite action, Goebbels would be one of the greatest artists of all time.”
And yet, poetry makes us see and feel in ways we otherwise wouldn’t; it makes vivid what we would otherwise ignore. Jesus, the poet, Jesus the artist, teaches us to see the world in a new way.
The Church has always struggled to understand how Jesus changed the world when evil still clearly continues its destructive work in the world. This was the experience of the early Christian community in Rome at the time Mark wrote his Gospel. Nero was Emperor and had singled out the Christians for a violent persecution after the Great fire of Rome in Ad 64.
This is thought to be the historical setting of the Gospel of Mark. A Gospel written for the Christian community in Rome to help them understand the situation in which they were living. A community claiming the kingdom of God had arrived and the victory of God established by the triumph of the Cross and Resurrection but still a small and frightened group of poor and marginal people on the edge of society and now in danger of extinction.
The writer to the Hebrews put this contradictory experience in this way:
‘Now in putting everything in subjection to Him, he left nothing outside His control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him, but we see Him… namely Jesus crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death.’ Hebrews 2: 8-9
There are many of us who would identify with the disciples in Mark’s account of the storm on Lake Galilee. We can see the chaos of the world around us, the continuing violence and the suffering that threaten to overwhelm so many, and we ask ‘where is God?’
For some this has undermined their faith in a loving God and led them to believe that we really are alone in this world without a Saviour. The problem of Evil poses a question to all who claim that there is a God who cares for us and has indeed delivered us from evil.
This was the question on the minds of the disciples as they sailed into the storm. Jesus was asleep in the boat, apparently unaware and unconcerned with the disaster that was about to overcome them.
“Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Mark 4:38. The response of Jesus is to ask “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 4:40.
What was Jesus talking about? Not faith in the boat, nor faith in themselves. Clearly both were inadequate in the circumstances. Faith does not look first at the world around us, or even at the resources available to us.
Faith looks first at Jesus and asks, as the disciples did, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him” Mark 4:41.
The Church, it could be said, has not yet come to terms with the presence of Jesus Christ, living in the midst of us. Maybe we might add that the Church often behaves as if Christ is nowhere to be seen. It struggles on with its plans and projects and forgets that the power lies not in the institution, the boat, if you like, but in the master of the boat.
So what difference has Jesus, the Saviour made? Where is he? What is he doing? We echo the disciples, but we also reflect their lack of faith.
Jesus taught us to see the world in a new way.
The Kingdom has arrived! Jesus came amongst us announcing that ‘the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom is at hand.’ (Mark 14) We celebrate the presence of God, revealed to us in all His fullness in this season of Trinity. The Father, Sustainer of the world, Jesus the Saviour of the world, and the Holy Spirit the presence of God living in His Body, the Church, and at work in the world to make His Kingdom known.
The Kingdom will come! However we still pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come’ because we continue to look for the fulfilment of Jesus' promise that there will come a day when evil will be banished, when wars will cease, when death and disease will pass away and the world will live in harmony with its Maker. Until that time we continue to live as Christ’s body on earth, a sign and a sacrament of that future Kingdom. We are not to be dispirited, or driven or despair by the triumph of evil, but are to:
‘Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith’ Heb 12:2.
Between two worlds: The Church is called to live in these two worlds. The world we see around us where it appears nothing has changed, and yet to fix our eyes on Jesus who has overcome death and defeated evil, who has broken down the divisions between men and women, races and religions.
‘But we see Jesus’ Hebrews 2:9. A few days after this incident on the lake, Jesus appeared again on the lake. He called Peter to leave the security of the boat and come to him. All was well until Peter took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the waves around him.
Give us faith, Lord, to keep our eyes fixed on you.
Rev. Simon Brignall.