By Dr. Lani Wilson

Good Morning, prayer and fasting warriors! We pray for safety for all those who must travel and work in this rain. Yet, we are grateful for the opening of the heavens. We continue to pray and fast for the movement of the Spirit in our little East Oakland Outpost for The Christ. Surely, God is in the details as S/He is in the details for the soul of this nation.

The word for our consideration is close. Such a strange word to consider in relation to God and Her Beloved, Jesus. Its uses include proximity (being near or far away from something or someone), timeliness (approaching an appointed time), and a physical state (something is available/accessible or not). In English when we use the word in this last case, we use the present tense for open but the past tense for closed. For example we don’t say the store is “opened for business;” we say it is “open for business.” But we say it is “closed for business,” not it is “close for business.” In a sense, “open” is always preferred in the present tense. But when we use the word close (specifically, in relation to its antonym) to describe the physical state of something, it is always in the past tense: “Open and closed,” not “opened and closed.” The grammatical difference is whether we use close an adjective as in the latter case (“the door is closed”) or whether we use it as a noun or adverb: “They are close to the car;” “it is close to departure time;” “it was a close call;” “pay close attention;” “they lived in close quarters.” Another common use is the derivative adverb closely that can refer to physical space, resemblance or attention. The word is used in all of the aforementioned ways in the New Testament. May we consider the use of close as the antonym of “open” in describing the physical state of anything? We thus have to pay attention to why in English it is always in the past tense while its antonym is always used in the present tense in the same phrase.

The disciples asked Jesus about all those stories He told, about why He used parables to teach.

When he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. He said to them, “The secret13 of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those outside, everything is in parables so that although they may look but not see, and although they hear they may hear but not understand, so they may not repent and be forgiven.”
Mark 4:10-12 (NET)

When they were off by themselves, those who were close to him, along with the Twelve, asked about the stories. He told them, "You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom-you know how it works. But to those who can’t see it yet, everything comes in stories, creating readiness, nudging them toward receptive insight. These are people-Whose eyes are open but don’t see a thing, Whose ears are open but don’t understand a word, Who avoid making an about-face and getting forgiven."
Mark 4:10-12 (TMB)

The Hebrew Scripture to which Jesus was referring is Isaiah 6:9-10, Isaiah’s vision of God in the temple and his prophecy to the nation of Israel about the coming doom because they would not listen.

And he said, “Go and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’ Make the mind of the people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.”
NRSV

And to compound things further, NET Note #16 to Mark 4:12 says, “A quotation from Isa 6:9-10 [referred to immediately above]. Thus parables both conceal or reveal depending on whether one is open to hearing what they teach.” If we look at Mark 4:10-12 and Isaiah 6:9-10 we see that Jesus was telling His disciples that it is a matter of readiness to hear God.

In the NET Bible translation of Mark 4:11 there is a Note regarding the word “secret” [sn=”scholars’ note”] that is revealing.

tn Grk “the mystery.” sn The key term secret (μυστήριον, musthrion) can mean either (1) a new revelation or (2) a revealing interpretation of existing revelation as in Dan 2:17-23, 27-30. Jesus seems to be explaining how current events develop old promises, since the NT consistently links the events of Jesus’ ministry and message with old promises (Rom 1:1-4; Heb 1:1-2). The traditional translation of this word, “mystery,” is misleading to the modern English reader because it suggests a secret which people have tried to uncover but which they have failed to understand (L&N 28.77).

As often was the case in the Greek translation from the original Hebrew and then many translations and millennia later to English, there may be differences in meaning. What is the significance of a “mystery” versus a “secret” and what does that have to do with Jesus and close?

There have always been those who believe that the mystery of creation, of God, is only for certain people, chosen people. Humankind often gravitates toward exclusion rather than inclusion. We pretty much want to elevate some and relegate others: Kings and queens; royalty and commoners; famous and unknown; best and worst; more and less; first and last; open and closed. We just can’t seem to accept level ground, equal access, equivalency, and reciprocity. Jesus talked a lot about the parameters of this need.

And the king will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.’
Mathew 25:40 (NET)

"Let me lay it out for you as plainly as I can: No one in history surpasses John the Baptizer, but in the kingdom he prepared you for, the lowliest person is ahead of him.
Luke 7:28 (TMB)

But Jesus, aware of their inner thoughts, took a little child and put it [sic] by his side, and said to them, “Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me; for the least among all of you is the greatest.”
Luke 9:47-48 (NRSV)

This is once again the Great Reversal: Many who are first will end up last, and the last first."
Mark 10:31 (TMB)

We know that in American culture, the most noteworthy and well known are held up as valuable people. It is a great thing to lift up accomplishment but as we are witnessing by the cult of celebrity that exists today, one can be a scoundrel and be lifted up toward the highest office in the land. Certainly, we all like to belong and feel like we are a part of a group; it’s the herd mentality and human beings are social – or herd – animals. It is too easy to say that because Jesus was God and divine that the cult (as the earliest believers were identified) that formed after Jesus’ crucifixion were drawn to Him because He did fantastic things. Supposedly, there were many “magicians” who performed miracles throughout the Roman Empire. His followers witnessed miracles; people were healed; their lives were changed by His teachings. But that doesn’t explain in a rational, modern or post-modern sense why this Jewish cult organized into a religion and more significantly, a transformative power in the world 2000 years later. And so because it can’t be rationally explained, it is chalked up and dismissed as the “opium of the people” and relegated to just another movement that binds people together, for good and for bad.

The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself or has already lost himself again…Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement and its universal basis of consolation and justification. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion. Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
Works of Karl Marx 1843, “A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Introduction” Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, 7 & 10 February 1844, Paris, the source and date of transcription is unknown. It was proofed and corrected by Andy Blunden, February 2005, and corrected by Matthew Carmody in 2009.

But even opiates wear out and another “fix” is needed to keep from experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Sigmund Freud’s estimation of religion was as disdainful as Marx’s rendering.

"Religion is an attempt to get control over the sensory world, in which we are placed, by means of the wish-world, which we have developed inside us as a result of biological and psychological necessities. [...] If one attempts to assign to religion its place in man's evolution, it seems not so much to be a lasting acquisition, as a parallel to the neurosis which the civilized individual must pass through on his way from childhood to maturity."
Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism, 1939

These two observations by two Jewish, secular, Western, male theorists (economics and psychoanalysis) are important for our discussion because they influenced world societies. It can be said that the suffering they experienced and/or observed as Jews informed and structured their positions about religion. Whether one believes their contributions are worthy of consideration is a personal intellectual choice, but we cannot dispute their impact on the world. And yet, in spite of the human failures of organized religion, the transformative and ironic power of the message of The Christ continues and, outside the Western world, is growing.

As noted in the scriptures above, Jesus talked a lot about how God wanted people to live. As much as we Christians believe that we will be with God and The Christ after death of the physical body, Jesus spoke more about living on earth than living with Him later. Near the end of His life, He told His disciples that they would join Him, but they didn’t “get it.”

There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live.
John 14:2-3 (TMB)

Jesus’ travels primarily throughout the Galilean and Judean (including Samaria) Provinces of the Roman Empire were testaments to the openness of His ministry. As we know He was constantly in the wrong place, doing the wrong things, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons, with the wrong people: Adulterers, thieves, corrupt officials, lepers, the dead, the possessed, the poor, the unemployed, the untouchable, the lame, the blind, the deaf, the deformed, all the unclean. Jesus the Nazarene was the antithesis of “closed.” In one sense for Christians it makes sense that when talking about the state or condition of someone or something, the phrase “open” is always used in the present tense and “closed” is always in the past tense. He IS the “Great Reversal” of Mark 10:31. And He is not just philosophically alive: He is current and contemporary and fully aware.

In our rush to find meaning in life, especially in the suffering that is part of being human, we yearn for consistency and proof. It gives us great comfort and is actually extremely healthy to be a part of any predictable cycle: The seasons, sunrise and sunset, day and night, work schedules, worship schedules. Logically, this means that we are not going to welcome any changes in routine because it really “messes” with our need for regularity. And Jesus instinctively knew this.

Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus. Everybody was there, tax men and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner. The Pharisees and their religion scholars came to his disciples greatly offended. "What is he doing eating and drinking with crooks and ’sinners’?" Jesus heard about it and spoke up, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders-an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out."
Luke 5:29-32 (TMB)

Now that we are the church, the Bride of Christ, can we fathom that Jesus died for us to change? We tend to think that we have arrived at that spiritual destination of safety and security when we accept God through The Christ. Even long after, we expect a stability of sorts; that after a hellish week we can at least rely on that “old rugged cross” on Sunday to be the same, in the same place, at the same time, in the same building. There is something to be said for stability and yet, Jesus was not about stability, at least not in this life. Compared to how much has been written about Him, we have relatively little of what He actually said, even if we include all the non-canonical scriptures that is known. But what we have for sure is where He went, what He did, and with and for whom He did it.

Often we act as if change is synonymous with entropy.

The idea of entropy comes from a principle of thermodynamics dealing with energy. It usually refers to the idea that everything in the universe eventually moves from order to disorder, and entropy is the measurement of that change.
www.vocabulary.com

We think that change is disorder, disintegration or dismantling. But that is not the case. Change is “to become different, to make (someone or something) different, to become something else” (www.merriam-webster.com). And it was no secret, no mystery just for special people. When the disciples asked why He taught in parables, He explained that it was to “create readiness, nudging them toward receptive insight” (Mark 4:10-12 TMB). He didn’t qualify whom those people were when they came to Him: He already knew. And He knew what change He offered them.

What Jesus did was physically change the environment (the water into wine miracle at a wedding in Cana-John 2:7-11). Then, He began to change people (raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead-Mark 5:35-43), all the while talking about the invisible changes of hearts and minds (Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin-Luke 23:50). Likewise, He was never closed to anyone, even as they killed Him (Luke 23:34). He didn’t demand anything and He always invited, always in the present tense, never in the past tense, never closed, unless you close the door to Him yourself.

Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom." He said, "Don’t worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise."
Luke 23:42-43 (TMB)

"That’s what I mean when I say, ’Many get invited; only a few
make it.’"
Mathew 22:14 (TMB)

Another day, a man stopped Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" Jesus said, "Why do you question me about what’s good? God is the One who is good. If you want to enter the life of God, just do what he tells you." The man asked, "What in particular?" Jesus said, "Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as you do yourself." The young man said, "I’ve done all that. What’s left?" "If you want to give it all you’ve got," Jesus replied, "go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor. All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me." That was the last thing the young man expected to hear. And so, crestfallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn’t bear to let go. As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God’s kingdom? Let me tell you, it’s easier to gallop a camel through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter God’s kingdom." The disciples were staggered. "Then who has any chance at all?" Jesus looked hard at them and said, "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it."
Mathew 19:16-26 (TMB)

This famous scripture about Jesus and the young man who was unwilling to change, to let go of “material stuff,” can also apply to the non-material “stuff” we are convinced we can’t tolerate: People who smell or are dirty or look different or speak a different language or outnumber us or don’t dress like us or drive cars like us or love differently than us or…just fill in the blank. What are we going to do now that we know that to be a Christian is to invite change? It is to be open in the present and not closed in the past. Instead of clinging to what got us over in the last century, we better be looking to Who’s going to get us over in this new century. What changes are going to be demanded of His Bride, us, by The Nazarene? It isn’t disorder or riotous disintegration: It’s just change, change in The Christ. And like that despondent young man who walked away from Him, will Jesus just watch us go or will He look hard at us and tell us that we have “every chance in the world if you trust God to do it?" It’s our chance, our choice, our change, and our trust. The only question is, “Are we up to it?”

LORD Jesus, help us get ready for the changes that You are sending us. We can feel it. We can see it. We can touch it. Help us, please, choose to grow with it. Those of us who have lived through decades of change already know that it isn’t calamity when you move us forward, even though it can be scary. But being open and not closed is what you are all about. Your life and mission all throughout our homeland of North Africa, Galilee, Judaea, Samaria and maybe even the East prove to us that this is who you want us to be: People flowing and fluid with change. As our Senior Pastor’s 2016 mission statement for the church states, we are commanded to love “beyond borders, barriers, boundaries, and beliefs.” And that means change. In the open present, not the closed past.

I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh, and just like the river I’ve been a-runnin’ ever since.
It’s been a long, a long time comin’,
but I know, oh-oo-oh,
a change gon’ come, oh yes, it will.

It’s been too hard living but I’m afraid to die
‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky
It’s been a long, a long time comin’,
But I know, oh-oo-oh,
A change gonna come, oh yes, it will.

I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keep tellin’ me don’t hang around.
It’s been a long, a long time coming, but I know, oh-oo-oh,
A change gon’ come, oh yes, it will.

Then I go, oh-oo-oh, to my brother and I say, brother, help me please.
But he winds up knocking me back down on my knees, oh.

There’ve been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able to carry on
It’s been a long, a long time comin’,
But I know, oh-oo-oh, a change gonna come, oh yes, it will.
Sam Cook, “A Change Is Gonna Come”
(C) 2016 ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

A change.
A change.
A change.

Open, close, open
for a change.

A change

Amen.