June 3, 2018 - Second Sunday after Pentecost - Written About Gospel Lesson and Shared Particularly with Mary in Mind

Particularly since Easter Creator's worship, the Gospel readings, sermons, the Oblique Strategy cards, and life experiences are unusually intertwined. There have been recurring poetic images and insights that have come quickly and built on one another. This is not altogether surprising since many of these Gospel readings were taken from John.

With the Gospel for this Sunday, Mark 2:23 - 3:6 the lectionary moves to a new journey. To tie it back to the journey of Easter through Ascension and Pentecost the reading could start at Mark 2:18-22:

"Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wine skins.”

Here, the new wine that was sneered about on Pentecost appears. Verse 19 and 20 Jesus foreshadows his crucifixion with the bridegroom being taken. Coming to Mark 2:23, this verse starts first with the word ginomai which translates as 'it came to pass" or "then it happened" which suggests what comes next is part of a progression from what was just declared by Jesus. This second foreshadowing is an inferred prediction of how the disciples will behave when they are filled with the new wine or Holy Spirit after Pentecost.

This sets up how Jesus and the disciples move through the grain field in verse 23. He was passing through the field, the disciples were making their way. The word that is used for the disciple's making their way is hodos which is Greek for road or way.

I don't usually read the Bible as an instruction book, but I, too, may need to make a new way or road forward after these past few weeks. My wife, always my companion in this endeavor, made some comments a few weeks ago that stayed with me. She intuitively connected Flew's invisible gardener which I referenced in the May 6 post with the gardening in the May 13 post and with Mary mistaking Jesus for a gardener on Easter.

Reviewing these posts I discover even more connections. For example, I attempted to imagine the clothes Jesus was wearing when he first appeared to Mary before I read Lauren Winner's book Wearing God. Another connection was Mary's other comment  "God gave his son for the world, but not to the word. So is he invisible?, or not really here? which, in my mind, ties with last week's Trinity reading and Ascension.

Last week Pastor Ray talked about story being a way to move beyond the limitations of language. There are other ways. Artists create works of art that transcend what can be captured in language. These past few weeks a song moved beyond those limitations and, simultaneously, invited new language and new thoughts   

There is a song my family has listened to for years that was recently re-released on a CD of covers. The song is called If You Have Ghosts performed by John Wesley Harding (click the link to hear the song). In the past couple of weeks as I listened I came to realize the lyrics shared many words that were cumulatively affecting my Pentecost and Trinity meditations.

Strong drumming and a rumbling bass from the beginning makes the overall tone of the song powerful and full of import. There is what might be called scary organ licks which are in keeping with the ghost theme yet are played so percussively that the resulting chopped organ licks come out as rather joyful and celebratory.

The Pentecost-related lyrics never struck me until this year.  Now the song adds useful Pentecost associations every time I explore them. The song also adds other dimensions to the questions Mary asked, particularly on the presence.

The first verse is If you have ghosts / Then you have everything /  You can say anything you want / And you can do anything you want /  If you have ghosts / Then you have everything.

What does it mean to have ghosts? It could be said that the Holy Ghost is invisible but present within. The "ghosts" are plural because that is how the body of Christ now exists. We are all part of the communion of saints. The next line You can say anything you want could suggest speaking in tongues.

And you can do anything you want makes me think of how we are connected to God and what we can do through the Holy Spirit Matthew 17:20 "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Next comes one of two what I call twofers between Roky Erickson's original and the John Wesley Harding cover. The original lyric is "One never does that" but in the cover I clearly hear the performer singing "Wine never does that." The wine reference would obviously be a retort to the Pentecost accusation of being drunk.The influence of wine doesn't do what the disciples were doing, speaking in tongues and being understood.

The "One never does that" is a more subtle observation that what the many through the Holy Spirit do is never done as one individual. Last week's Ascension insight may be key here.

You can call it surprise there it is / The moon to the left of me is a part of my thoughts / is a part of me is me declares a confused and merged identity of the Holy Spirit and an individual and then reaffirms the observation One (wine) never does that.

Next comes the last twofer. In the original "In the night I am real." In the cover  Wes sings "In the night I am unreal."  This brings the existence / invisible / presence question to full flower. When, like last week, a distinction is drawn between the earthly and the heavenly, is earth or another existence what is real. Is an individual real in both? Is reality a desired state?  As the singer's declares his reality and identity there is also the associations around the word unreal that the singer could be bragging that he is incredible, amazing and / or more powerful at night.

If you have ghosts then you have everything.is boldly declared. In earthly terms if a person only had ghosts that person would have nothing tangible or that could be seen.

Another change from the original is that the cover adds an important Pentecost image to the song Wherever is the wind is a part of my thoughts is a part of me is me. Now the wind is added to the moon landscape that was sung about in the previous verse.

I don't want my fangs too long obviously follows the horror theme but also says something when considering the Pentecost theme. It can be thought of as not wanting to take too much of the power or lifeblood of others who are around the singer and in community.  To my ears the last intelligible words are "Spirit out.".

The gardener image conjures up the Garden of Eden when reading from scripture. Like Mary I also sense there is more here with all the garden associations that have come up in the past few posts. Last week I wrote that replacing the masculine pronouns in John 3:16 felt like the subtraction of an individual identity allowed me to imagine God's more collective identity through the current body of Christ and to expansively reflect on the immensity of God's love. Today that expansiveness realigned my imagination on why Mary might have originally took Jesus to be a gardener.

There are many post-resurrection appearances of Jesus recorded in scripture. Some appear to conflict with one another. At times Jesus is recognized and sometimes he is not. Sometimes he discourages those he has appeared to from touching him and at times he encourages it. These are important differences that should be treated uniquely and distinctly from one another.

These post-resurrection, pre-ascension experiences happened in a time of transition. They are recorded with different details and the appearances themselves may have been quite different. For example, when Jesus appeared to Mary she did not recognize Jesus, even after he spoke to her. This could be a clue that this is a Jesus appearance more like ones we possibly experience today which are recognitions of the body of Christ at holy moments.

Mary may have seen a particular individual, perhaps a gardener, who - as he recognizes and identifies her - she comes to recognize as Jesus. She sees through new eyes the now new, collective, body of Christ. His admonition "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father." takes on an added importance and relevancy if this is the case. This is a beautiful possibility to contemplate - that from the first appearance the true re-membering of the body of Christ began.

Now there are other appearances, particularly where Jesus encourages those he appears to to touch him, that are just as unique as this appearance. Yet, with the possible exception of Emmaus appearance, there are no other "clues" like this or recorded admonitions so this may not be what happened during his other appearances.


The invisible gardener reference has definitely taken on new importance as a result of recent Trinity insights and experiences. As God the Father and Creator, the invisible gardener describes how God indirectly tends and changes the world in ways we may not always perceive. As God the son, the invisible gardener now portrays how God comes into our earthly world through individuals as the body of Christ. And as God the Holy Spirit the invisible gardener becomes an embodiment of God's promise that, through God's tending of the world and through the body of Christ, God will never abandons us.

Blessed Trinity.