6-10-07

the Rev. Dr. Paul Tellström Irvine United Congregational Church

“Finding a Hero” June 10, 2007

Mark 4: 35-41

“The Odyssey” 10: 17-69 word count: 2,775

Eudotia Havisham-Twimble was an ardent church woman of the 19th century who felt that her letters were important enough to be bound at her own expense. They turned up at Parnassus Booksellers in Yarmouthport on Cape Cod, and this is from a letter to her aunt, dated October 16, 1897.

“You may recall the day, dear Aunt, it was during the Reverend Ephraim Hallet’s first call, before we formed the council that would eventually cause him to leave us for a brief while to reflect upon his theology and its consequences upon those yearning young minds who found themselves abruptly called upon to view the stature of the Almighty as anything less than a resemblance of the fully patrician and classically masculine figure that He is.

We took a paper ballot after his dismissal and were relieved to find that the majority of us saw the Almighty in more glorious similitude to President Washington rather than the wispy amorphousness that the good Reverend so mendaciously implied in his ill-advised sermons. Well, he was chastened, I don’t mind telling you.”

The church of over a hundred years ago faced some similar problems to today’s church. How we image God in light of what the scriptures tell us in combination with cultural factors and scientific knowledge can create havoc with theology. In the case of the writer of this letter, she was not alone in confusing Christianity with nationalism, and the deification of George Washington is noted in paintings of the 19th century. Perhaps more than any other person in America, and for no more prolonged period of time, George Washington has held the status of an American hero.

I think most people want a hero. We want to look up to some kind of a hero; we want to be like a hero; we want to be on the hero’s journey. Our literature is full of heroes, and our scriptures are all about the theme as well. Because, what is the story of David and Goliath all about, if not embarking of the hero’s journey and trusting that God has chosen to walk with you on that path so that with God’s help you can overcome any obstacle no matter how big that obstacle turns out to be, and you will go on to fulfill your destiny.

David refuses to wear armor. In other words, he will not take on any extra help—strength must come from within him; he believes that a higher power is walking with him. This young boy with no armor and just a little slingshot moves towards his destiny, a story you probably know. To accept the challenge of his journey, “the hero’s journey”, the small one full of resolution becomes finally the mighty king.

Today’s gospel reading is a favorite of mine because of it makes the connection of the hero’s journey to Jesus.

Today, I will highlight some of the similarities between “the Odyssey” and the Gospel of Mark, and I will conclude by asking you about your own hero’s journey—your own recognition that your own quest and journey is something that we are all walking together.

Why does Book 10 of The Odyssey sound so much like this part of the 4th chapter of Mark? What happened here? Clearly, there must be some relation. The Odyssey is a very old story, much older than the story of Jesus as recorded by Mark. What does Mark think he is doing? It isn’t just in this one account of Jesus stilling the sea, but all throughout the gospel—you can hear the voice of Homer in the background telling the hero’s story.

Let me just clarify some of those parallels we just heard:

Odysseus said farewell to Aeolus. Jesus said farewell to the crowds.

Odysseus boarded with his crew and sailed Jesus boarded with his disciples, and

with twelve ships. “and other boats were with him.”

Disaster came at night. “When evening had come…”

Odysseus slept at the stern. Jesus slept at the stern.

The greedy crew opened the sack of winds A storm arose “and there was a great

and created a storm: “all the winds rushed out.” gale of wind.”

The crew wept. The disciples were helpless and afraid.

Odysseus awoke and gave up hope. Jesus awoke and stilled the storm.

(Gods frequently still storms in the epic)

Odysseus complained of his crew’s folly. Jesus rebuked his disciples for lack of

faith.1

Those are just the parallels in these seven short verses from Mark where Jesus calls out “Peace, be still,” and the sea obeys him. The lithograph on the easel is a depiction of that scene and it is by Mormon artist Arnold Friburg. Here is the scene from the 4th chapter of Mark. You see the storm raging around the boat, and the franticness and fear of the crew as they try to battle the storm, and there with the light shining on the stern is Jesus, risen from sleep and calling out, “Peace, be still!” (which is also the title of the painting.)

The Sea of Galilee is not a sea at all. It is a small lake, little more than a pond—some seven miles long and four miles wide at its greatest width. It is improbable that a storm on a lake like this would have this effect on a boat, such as the small fishing boats that were affordable to local fishermen.

Why does Mark tell us about Jesus being in a ship on a journey that is long enough for night to fall, and for him to fall asleep at the stern, on a lake that we could row across?

There is a new audience for Jesus. Mark is writing for a Greek audience who may be hearing about Jesus for the first time, and what Jesus may mean for them.

I am talking about this today, because the idea is just as relevant now as it was then. There is a new audience today to hear about Jesus and what Jesus said and did, and particularly what Jesus means for a new people seeking a reason for faith. What Mark did was to provide the context for people to understand Jesus, who were not of Jesus’ faith or way of life. He brought Jesus into their here and now, and subsequently into ours.

The context in which Mark told this story is almost as radical as the subject of his gospel. It is a complete departure—a Greek story about a hero who so constantly resembles a god that Mark suggests that this is so without actually saying it, as well as the lives of fellow Jews who are transported into a Greek epic. This audience was Greek, and they knew their Homer. The Iliad and The Odyssey were stories that every Greek knew. They were recited often and their audience never tired of hearing them. What better way to bring the story of Jesus of Nazareth to Greece than through the story of the Hero’s Journey?

Dr. Dennis MacDonald is a New Testament scholar, and the author of several books comparing the gospel of Mark to well-known Greek literature of the time. This is what he has to say:

“Mark’s Jesus shares much with Homer’s Hector and especially Odysseus.

Odysseus and Jesus both sail seas with associates far their inferiors, who

weaken when confronted with suffering. Both heroes return home to find

them infested with murderous rivals that devour the houses of widows.

Both oppose supernatural foes, visit the dead, and prophesy their own

returns in private to their closest intimates. A wise woman anoints each

protagonist, and both eat last suppers with their comrades before visiting

Hades, from which both return alive. In both works one finds gods

stilling storms and walking on water, seaside meals for thousands, and

monsters in caves. Like Homer’s Hector, Jesus dies at the end of the

book, his body must be rescued from the executioner, and he is mourned

by three women. But unlike Hector, in a later ending to Mark, Jesus is

raised from the dead.”2

What Mark is doing is telling the story through the Greek medium of the Hero’s Journey. A hero is the son of a god through a mortal woman, and has the ability to become a god. Once the parallels were drawn, it was easy for a new audience to understand Jesus. It was easy for them to understand that he was like Odysseus once the parallel was drawn, but Odysseus needed a god to still the sea, and Jesus could stand up and say, “Peace, be still,” and the waters were made still. “Our hero,” Mark says between the lines, “is the Great Hero. Your heroes cannot do what God has done in Jesus.”

A lot of folks come to us come as a new audience. There are so many people who need to hear the story again “for the first time” with new ears. They want to believe, but have difficulty placing Jesus into a context that rings with authenticity. People who are coming to us today are looking for a voice like Jesus’ when he says, “Peace, be still,” to the storms that gather around their lives.

We are a niche church—our denomination tries to fill a void for this new audience that comes wanting to believe, yet needing a safe harbor in which to nurture and explore their faith. We have one outline through which we can place our story in a way that is meaningful to us through our Eight Points of Progressive Chrstianity.3 Mark gave another one to his Greek audience by allowing them to experience who Jesus was through their own context—the stories of their own culture.

And today, we are seeing a paradigm shift in how we understand our own faith. We hear the word, “spirituality” over and over. I didn’t hear that word growing up. We didn’t refer to the “Holy Spirit” either—we called it the “Holy Ghost” and that concept seemed to be embarrassing to the church, evoking more “Casper” than “Creator”.

Spirituality means that people are coming to churches today to experience God in their lives. Not just to intellectualize it, but to experience that something greater is alive in all of us.

Dogma isn’t going to do it. Laundry lists of clean vs. unclean—that’s not going to do it either. The term “spirituality” seems to be rooted in the earth itself, and that word “faith” starts to shift and to mean something else as well. For some of us, “faith” isn’t something you sit down and achieve by accepting a creed. Faith has become the certainty that there is a mystery out there that is larger than we could ever imagine. And faith is being able to give an affirmation to what Einstein called the greatest and most important question that could be asked, and that is;

“In the end, do you believe this is a friendly universe or nor?”

Jesus’ journey is the ultimate hero’s journey for us else we would not gather in places like this. There is no son-of-god-and-woman hero from any myth, or hero of today that can match this journey, nor the impact it had.

We are not like Jesus, but follow him.

We are more like Odysseus on our own journey—we recognize that we cannot still the seas alone. Mark found a new audience and gave them the gospel in the context they understood. Today’s new audience needs to hear that message in a way that is authentic to you, and your journey is yours.

So what about it? What about the path you are on? What do you bring to this place? What is it you hope to have unfold and understand in your search and quest for what this thing called “faith” means? “How do I relate to God?” “How does God relate to me?” —All the questions you bring here.

What about the word, “spirituality” and the idea that something new is happening in our churches to bring us into a new way of visioning God, not as George Washington, or a man in a cloud with long white robes and a beard, or a man at all, or even something that is recognizable in form?

What is compelling you to be here, because each of you has clearly been compelled to be here today?

And what about this “spirit” that we hear more and more about? Why do we hear about this aspect if not because we have such a need to experience God in our lives. Alive, and working through us all the time.

Catch the spirit that is alive in each and every one of you, because it is with you on your own journey. And, if we had had the Gospel of Thomas all these years, with more authentic sayings of Jesus compacted together than any other gospel, we would see a Jesus guiding us in our own discovery of the realm of God.

Bring that journey with you—that need to be connected. We are all in the process of learning what it means for us.

The supernatural God so far disconnected from the universe no longer rings as authentic, and yet God is God is God…whatever our ideas are. Our theology speaks of more of an all-encompassing spirit, with us, ever present.

And so we look to these scriptures—this lens through which we see the Christian tradition. Its truth is in the wisdom that guides us as we struggle with all the questions that come to us every day. Wisdom, that feminine attribute of truth, has a positive answer for each one of us on our hero’s journey. Here are some examples:

You say: "It's impossible"... God says: All things are possible (Luke 18:27)

You say: "I'm too tired"... God says: I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30)

You say: "Nobody really loves me"... God says: I love you (John 3:16 & 13:34)

You say: "I can't go on"… God says: My grace is sufficient (II Corinthians 12:9

& Psalm 91:15)

You say: "I can't figure things out"... God says: I will direct your steps (Proverbs

3:5-6)

You say: "I can't do it"... God says: You can do all things (Philippians 4:13)

You say: "I'm not able"... God says: I am able (II Corinthians 9:8)

You say: "It's not worth it"... God says: It will be worth it (Romans 8:28)

You say: "I can't forgive myself"... God says: I FORGIVE YOU (I John 1:9 &

Romans 8:1)

You say: "I can't manage"... God says: I will supply all your needs (Phil. 4:19)

You say: "I'm afraid"... God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear (II Tim.1:7)

You say: "I'm always worried and frustrated"...God says: Cast all your cares on

ME (I Pet 5:7)

You say: "I don't have enough faith"...God says: I've given everyone a measure of

faith (Romans 12:3)

You say: "I'm not smart enough"...God says: I give you wisdom (I Cor. 1:30)

You say: "I feel all alone"... God says: I will never leave you or forsake you

(Hebrews 13:5)

Enter into the Hero’s Journey with us. Help us to be people who follow that path in both word and deed. There is a new audience today to hear about Jesus and what he said, did, was, and means for a new people seeking a reason for faith. What Mark did was to provide a context in which people might get to know Jesus who were not of his faith or way of life. There is a context today for us in which we can have a real, working, experiential faith.

Take that journey as one walking on a sacred path and actual journey. This is what I would pack:

Take the recognition that in faith there is the certainty that there is an answer out there in the mystery of the cosmos even if we can’t know it now. Faith is found more in the freedom of knowing that the questions are more freeing by their examination than the belief that all is in black and white right in front of you.

Think of Jesus as the hero, that son of god and woman that guides you along your own sacred path by example and teaching.

And bring a vision of the Holy Spirit as the essence of what you call “spirituality”, that experiential side of God that you feel connected to.

Read the scriptures as an ongoing conversation with the texts of our traditions.

Follow your bliss, as Joseph Campbell says, “Be on your journey”. Amen.

Sermon Resources

1) MacDonald, Dennis R. “Mark’s Odyssey-Iliad: Imitations of Epic in the Earliest Gospel.”

Chapter 6, pg. 7

2) Ibid. Introduction pgs. 3-4

3) Eight Points of Progressive Theology, as found at the Center for Progressive Theology (www.tcpc.org):

1. Proclaim Jesus Christ as our Gate to the realm of God;

2. Recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the gateway to God's

realm;

3. Understand our sharing of bread and wine in Jesus' name to be a representation of God's feast

for all peoples;

4. Invite all sorts and conditions of people to join in our worship and in our

common life as full partners, including (but not limited to):

believers and agnostics,

conventional Christians and questioning skeptics,

gay and straight,

females and males,

the despairing and the hopeful,

those of all races and cultures, and those of all classes and abilities, without imposing on them

the necessity of becoming like us;

5. Think that the way we treat one another and other people is more important than the way we

express our beliefs;

6. Find more grace in the search for meaning than in absolute certainty, in the questions than in

the answers;

7. See ourselves as a spiritual community in which we discover the resources required for our

work in the world: striving for justice and peace among all people, and bringing hope to those

Jesus called the least of his sisters and brothers;

8. Recognize that our faith entails costly discipleship, renunciation of privilege, and

conscientious resistance to evil--as has always been the tradition of the church.