2nd Sunday after Pentecost: Say Yes to Life.
Maylanne Maybee
On the Seventh Day © Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com
The lectionary for Sunday, June 2, takes us back to the rough-edged narrative of Mark’s gospel, following the Johannine readings of Lent and Easter, and the post-Easter triad of Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity. For some, this Sunday (or the Thursday before) is observed as Corpus Christi, a feast dating back to the 13th Century to honour the real presence of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, often an occasion for organizing outdoor processions and performances of mystery and miracle plays.
The gospel reading from Mark echoes this outdoor theme with a description of Jesus’ disciples walking through fields in a kind of early form of “wild church”, before entering the synagogue proper. The disciples’ action outside the synagogue, and Jesus’ action within to heal a man with a withered hand, become teaching moments on the true purpose of Sabbath: to nurture life and restore wholeness.
Sabbath, writes Abraham Heschel, “is a day on which we are called upon… to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.” (The Sabbath, p. 10)
Life and its mystery is what holds together the gospel with the other readings from today, if only by a thread. The verses from Psalm 139 tell of our own creation, how fearfully and wonderfully we are made: “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.” We are learning that it is not only our human frame that is woven in the depths of the earth, but so too is all created Matter— infused with Spirit in the depths of the earth.
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians reminds us that we hold the treasure of the power and mystery of creation in “clay jars”, in bodies that may be afflicted, crushed, or persecuted, but never destroyed; bodies that carry the death of Jesus yet also show forth his life.
The Old Testament reading tells the familiar story of the call of the boy Samuel, who wakes three times from his sleep before he realizes he is hearing the voice of God. Samuel needed Eli’s help to recognize that voice, and courage to deliver to him the message of truth that came to him. Some of us, like Eli, might be further along in years, but we can still discern Who is speaking to us and receive what we hear, however difficult. Deciding to do the work of integrating our shadow side is also a decision to live, even in our final years.
Commentary
-
Prior: Samuel’s story begins in his mother’s womb, conceived in answer to prayer, received with prophetic joy, dedicated to God from the cradle. He was “given” to the temple by his mother, Hannah. Samuel’s call began well before hearing a voice in the night.
Context: “The word of the Lord was rare, visions were not widespread.” V. 1. The tribal-states were each doing what they considered right (Judges 21:25). There was no king in Israel.
Eli the priest has become aged and half blind; he has lost his edge as a judge in Israel, his lantern is growing dim. But he hasn’t lost his ability to discern that it is the Lord who is calling his young apprentice, Samuel.
Three times Samuel is awakened from sleep, as from a dream. He didn’t get it the first few times. (Scott Douglas, a United Church colleague, wrote a drama in which Samuel talks back to the Lord: “Sometimes you mumble! You do!”) We often don’t grasp the first or second nudge or prompt from the Spirit, present in our deepest and most authentic self.
The short form of the lectionary ends at verse 10: “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Verses 11 and following: Samuel’s youth may have impaired his spiritual hearing, but he was clear about his night vision. He knew he had to deliver God’s blistering message to Eli about his weak leadership and his sons’ iniquities: “Their ears will tingle!”
Verse 18. Eli, having advised his protégé to listen to the voice of the Lord, now has to brace himself to receive the message. “It is the Lord: let him do what what seems good to him.”
-
The lectionary specifies verses 1-6 and 13-18, but the preacher would do well to pay attention to the in-between verses as well: 7-12 and 19-23.
The psalm highlights God’s deep relationship with us from the beginning. Its poetic verses describe both the intimacy and complexity of being known intimately.
Elizabeth Johnson points to the practice in Hebrew scripture of preserving God’s transcendence by using figures such as word, wisdom, glory, voice, angel, and especially spirit to evoke nearness while also maintaining a sense of the ineffable. (Ask the Beasts, p. 129).
The spirit hovers over the waters of creation (Genesis 1:2); the spirit is sent forth to renew the face of the earth (Psalm 104:30); the natural world is filled with the spirit of the Lord (Wisdom 1:7).
Psalm 139 gives expression to the “life-giving omnipresence” of God, in our deepest selves and in the heart of all created matter. “… No matter where the the psalmist might roam, God’s living spirit, equated with divine personal presence and supporting hand, will be there. The Spirit is the dynamic vitality that gives existence to every single thing, calling it forth and holding it fast.” (p. 129).
There is a connection to Samuel’s story who is known from his mother’s womb and sought out by God for prophetic service; and with Eli’s self-knowledge as an ineffectual father and judge of Israel. Yet the complexity of being known can be good news: once we face and accept our shadow side, we can begin the journey of integration and maturity, more fully “seen”, both by oneself and by God.
-
Context: Paul is writing to the Christian community in Corinth, seeking a way to become reconciled, trying to differentiate his vulnerability and errors in judgment from the rival missionaries who speak in self-assured, righteous tones with definitive, bold speech.
Here we see Paul adopting the Hebrew practice of preserving the otherness of YHWH by using the word “glory”: the glory we see in Christ, the image of God, the source and creator of all things, a glory that “shines out of darkness”, and that is seen in “the face” – the personal presence – of Jesus Christ.
Is Paul remembering here his experience on the road to Damascus, blinded by light while hearing the voice of Jesus: “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
Paul writes of the “extraordinary power [that] belongs to God and does not come from us”, a treasure we hold in clay jars. Though we may be afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, or struck down, we are not destroyed. We may carry the death of Jesus in our bodies, but “the life of Jesus is also made visible in our bodies while we live.”
This is the paradoxical language of a mystic! We and all creation share in and are transformed by the life and suffering of Jesus, the Christ. Yet God’s glory – God’s eternal presence – shines through and in doing so, gives life to others.
-
Prior: Jesus heals a paralytic man (2:1-12), pronouncing that his sins are forgiven and offending the biblical scholars in the crowd who question his authority to do such a thing. He calls Levi, the tax collector (2:13-17) and draws criticism for “eating with sinners and tax collectors.” The controversy continues: he and his disciples eat bountifully and publicly, unlike the Pharisees and followers of John the Baptizer, and “people” question this practice. (2:18-22). Jesus seems to provoke his onlookers with bold gestures and statements. He forgives sins. He calls himself a physician whose job is to heal sinners. He likens himself to the bridegroom at a wedding banquet, with a mission to bring good news and do new things.
Context: Ched Myers points out the political undercurrent to these words and actions. Jesus challenges the purity system upheld by priests, the debt system controlled by scribes, and takes on the Pharisees for their vested interest in a narrow and legalistic view of the Sabbath. (Say to This Mountain, p. 24).
Indeed, Mark paints a dark picture of the Pharisees, tarring them all with the same brush and casting them early on in his gospel into the role of “enemies of Christ”, determined to trip him up and ultimately engineer his death.
Yet we are well advised to avoid stereotyping Pharisees as self-righteous hypocrites. C. Clifton Black (Working Preacher, Commentary on Mark 2:23-3:10, June 2, 2024) writes that the Pharisees were part of a lay reform movement within first-century Judaism, dedicated to faithful adherence to Torah, and were regarded as upstanding, devout, biblically literate members of the community. We might search for our own “inner Pharisee” and see what we find! Debie Thomas asks, “What have we ossified to our peril? What have we stopped seeing because our eyes have been blinded by our own best intentions?”
Verses 2:23-27. Jesus is walking through grainfields with his disciples, who begin to pluck off the heads of grain. There is no context of explanation for this scene – did the disciples eat the grain? Were they hungry? Were they engaging in civil disobedience?
Regardless, their action becomes the occasion for a debate, the kind that might happen among clergy and biblical scholars today. The question posed by some Pharisees was whether plucking grain constituted the kind of “work” that is not permitted on the Sabbath.
Jesus pointed to the precedent of David commandeering the temple Bread of Presence for his soldiers, even though only the priests were allowed to eat that Bread. He concludes that “Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the sabbath: so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
This raises the question of what Jesus meant by “the Son of Man”. Was it an archetype for all human beings, who have sovereignty over the Sabbath? Or was it something he claimed only for himself as the Christ, the Messiah? Mark leaves it open.
Verses 3:1-6. What happens next in the synagogue brings the sabbath debate to a whole new level. Whereas Jesus’ example of David was about entering the house of God because he and his soldiers were hungry and looking for food, Jesus enters the synagogue because of a hunger for righteousness. He chooses to create a teaching moment in the healing of a man with a withered hand: “Is it lawful to good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” (3:4a)
🡪 Jesus looked around the synagogue with anger and frustration at the pettiness he perceived in the questions and attitudes of his antagonists. Yet he turned the moment into an opportunity for healing. How might we recognize feelings of anger and frustration—our own or others-- as signs of compassion and the doorway to healing?
Teaching and Preaching Ideas
Jesus: Prophet of God’s Sabbath Economy
The commandment relating to the Sabbath, unlike the other nine, requires explanation. “Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God: you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slaves, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.” (Exodus 20:8).
It is a commandment that embraces and applies to family, slaves, animals, strangers and immigrants. Its purpose is to allow for rest and replenishment, for the restoration of life, spirit, and energy for all of God’s creatures. It invites us to imitate God’s own act of creation which is grounded and blessed in deep stillness.
There is an opportunity here to widen our concept of sabbath. Our sense of community has expanded beyond the human family to embrace the community of life itself. The sabbath is not only for the life of humankind, but for the life of creation. The disciples’ relationship with the grainfields and heads of grain was not only about satisfying physical hunger, but about the giving and receiving of the fruits of the earth as part of the web of life. Sabbath healing goes beyond restoring a man’s hand so he can re-enter the economy, to embracing the restoration of the relationship of humankind with the Earth itself.
Jesus was called Messiah, Son of God, Saviour and Lord, but he was also seen as a prophet of Israel who came to proclaim Jubilee, the year of the Lord’s favour. Keeping sabbath means that land can regain its fertility, grain can grow, people can be fed, space can open up, bodies can be healed.
How then can our Christian communities uphold a personal ethic of balance, rest, and compassion and a communal ethic of justice that embraces ourselves, our families, and the non-human world that both feeds us and depends on us?
Creation as Sacrament
Whether as the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, or as Corpus Christi, today is a chance to reflect on the eschatological dimension of the Eucharist. It is a sacrament that orients us not only to the event of Christ’s death and resurrection, but also toward a future where the Earth is restored to its fruitfulness, and all God’s creatures are fed.
We may speak of the bread as “the body of Christ,” but theologian Sallie McFague envisions the Earth itself as “the Body of God”, including its mountains, oceans, forests, insects, birds, and humans, among other things. If Earth, then, is God’s chosen embodiment, then there are ethical implications for how we as humans relate to Earth and how we treat it.
Likewise, Elizabeth Johnson suggests that Earth, in its own way, is a sacrament and a revelation. Just as tangible things like bread and wine, water and oil, the sexual union of marriage, can be bearers of divine grace in the church’s understanding of sacraments, so too can the whole physical world be a signifier of the active presence of the Giver of life. (Ask the Beasts, p. 151)
Sam Torvend recalls that in Jewish households, at the beginning of each sabbath and feast day, a blessing is pronounced over a cup of wine and a loaf of bread: “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, you who created the fruit of the vine…. Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, you who have brought forth bread from the earth.” These or similar words are often used by the presider during the preparation of gifts at the Eucharist, recognizing that the bread and wine are both gifts of the earth and the work of human hands. They are an acknowledgement that Spirit is present in and through Matter, and that our sacramental life interconnects us with all creation and many of its creatures. (Still Hungry at the Feast, p. 52 f.)
Rather than processing a monstrance that holds up an unleavened wafer of bread through the streets of the city, Corpus Christi might be a day to talk about, or better walk through, local grainfields or vineyards, tasting the fruits of the earth and talking to the farmers and growers that bring them to our table.
M. Beauchemin is a Quebec farmer who began stone-milling in 1982 and has supplied bakers and stores with his flour called Milanaise all over Québec for nearly 40 years. He runs a large, commercial business handling all sorts of grains, lentils, pulses, seeds, etc., including Red Fife wheat, a Scottish variety imported into Canada over 170 years ago and believed to be originally from Ukraine.
I often like to quote this beautiful poem from the More-with-Less Cookbook:
Be gentle when you touch bread.
Let it not lie uncared for, unwanted.
So often bread is taken for granted.
There is so much beauty in bread--
Beauty of sun and soil,
Beauty of patient toil.
Winds and rains have caressed it.
Christ often blessed it.
Be gentle when you touch bread.
-- Author Unknown.
Sources and Resources
Texts and Websites
Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York, 1951.
Elizabeth A. Johnson, Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, London, UK, 2014.
Ched Myers, Marie Dennis, Joseph Nangle, OFM, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Stuart Taylor, “Say to this Mountain”: Mark’s Story of Discipleship. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY, 1966.
Debie Thomas, “Lord of the Sabbath”, Published 27 May 2018. https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/1795-lord-of-the-sabbath
Leah D. Schade, “Preaching the Body of God: Exploring the Work of Sallie McFague for a Homiletics of Creation Care.” https://theotherjournal.com/2017/11/preaching-body-god-exploring-work-sallie-mcfague-homiletics-creation-care/
Samuel Torvend, Still Hungry at the Feast: Eucharistic Justice in the Midst of Affliction. Liturgical Press Academic, Collegeville, MN, 2019.
Mishka Lysack and Karri Munn-Venn, eds. Living Ecological Justice: A Biblical Response to the Environmental Crisis, Citizens for Public Justice, 2013.
Girardian Lectionary, Proper 4. https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/proper_4b/
Last revised: June 6, 2018.
David E. Frederickson, Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:5-12, Working Preacher, June 2, 2024.
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-09-2/commentary-on-2-corinthians-45-12-2
C. Clifton Black, Commentary on Mark2:23-3:6, Working Preacher, June 2, 2024.
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-09-2/commentary-on-mark-223-36
Valerie Bridgeman, Commentary on 1 Samuel 3:1-10 [11-20], Working Preacher, June 3, 2018.
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-09-2/commentary-on-1-samuel-31-10-11-20-5
D. Mark Davis, Putting Sabbath in its Place, May 30, 2021. Left Behind and Loving It.
https://leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com/2015/05/putting-sabbath-in-its-place.html#comment-form
Ana Gobledale, Second Sunday after Pentecost – Year B, Sunday 2 June 2024
https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/121246/02-June_Ana-Gobledale_2-after-Pentecost_Final.pdf
Images
Jan Richardson: The Painted Prayerbook. https://paintedprayerbook.com/2012/03/01/day-12-remember-the-sabbath-day/
Julian Armstrong: A Culinary Writer and Explorer of Quebec. https://www.julianarmstrong.com/quebec-products-and-where-to-buy-them/
Maylanne Maybee, deacon, is retired from ministry as a community developer, social justice advocate, and theological educator. For fourteen years she worked as mission and justice coordinator for the Anglican Church of Canada, and for a further ten years served as principal of the Centre for Christian Studies in Winnipeg, and interim principal of the United Theological College in Montreal. Maylanne continues to be active in projects related to the diaconate, liturgy, creation care, and community ministry.