October 22, 2006
(Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 24)

Minority Report

by The Rev. Canon Susan Sommer

Isaiah 53:4-12  •  Psalm 91 or 91:9-16  •  Hebrews 4:12-16  •  Mark 10:35-45
(From The Lectionary Page)

Some years ago, a good friend and avowed skeptic asked me, “What makes you call the Bible the inspired word of God?” I was impressed, first of all, that my friend used inspired and not inerrant. Words DO matter and while I hold firmly to the former, as required by my ordination vows, I do not subscribe to the latter. “I can give you three reasons from the Hebrew Bible alone: the Book of Job, the Book of Ruth, and the Suffering Servant Songs of Isaiah,” I replied. “All of these represent a viewpoint that is so at odds with the prevailing theology of the rest of the Hebrew Bible so as to make their inclusion in Scripture virtually breathtaking. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit is the only thing I can attribute to it.”

For the record, my friend remains a skeptic. And I continue to stand in awe of the passages of Scripture that represent a theological “minority report.” We hear one of them today in our reading from Isaiah, that of the Suffering Servant. Handel’s magnificent Messiah notwithstanding, the prophet Isaiah wasn’t really predicting the crucifixion of Jesus 5 centuries into the future. Prophecy and prediction are, of course, two different things. Rather, Isaiah, was reflecting back on centuries of a theology of suffering. The prevailing viewpoint – the majority report, if you will – was that sin was the root cause of suffering of any sort including, of course, sickness. It was understood to be true for individuals and it was understood to be true for the community as well. Much of the theology of Isaiah’s own timeframe, theology that came out of the fall of Jerusalem and subsequent exile in Babylon, understood the Exile to be God punishing the people for their sins. But long before that theology was fully developed, the Torah had made quite clear what to do with people who suffered from certain diseases. They were to be driven away from the community, set apart, shunned by the faithful. If somehow they were healed, they were to show themselves to the priests who would verify their health and restore them to full life of the community. If healing never happened, well, obviously the sin involved was too great. Isaiah saw images of this ancient banishment of the sick and suffering in his own day, in the Exile in Babylon. As unclean sinners the Judeans had been driven from the camp (Jerusalem) because of their sickness. BUT since they could not cure themselves God sent a deliverer, the Servant, who would suffer with them, who would remove their illnesses to end their exile and thus restore them to their homeland and to their God (the temple). [Bruce Reichenback mentions this interpretation in his article, “By his stripes we are healed,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dec., 1998.]

This is stunning theology. Dis-ease, alienation, suffering of any sort is not what God intends nor what God desires. Healing, restoration, and renewal are what God desires of God’s people, and God is fully prepared to be an active agent of this healing.

That’s what undergirds our gospel passage. The context is the road to Jerusalem. Jesus has just delivered his third prediction of suffering when they reach their destination, and just as in the two previous occasions, the disciples don’t get it. This time, James and John, two of the inner circle of disciples, make an outrageous request of Jesus. So once again, Jesus clarifies what kind of Messiah he is, and what is expected of those who follow him. Greatness is not about political power or military might. It’s about servanthood. It’s about laying aside one’s own agenda in order to embrace the agenda that God has in mind. And the agenda that God has in mind is consonant with that “minority report” of Isaiah. The Messiah Jesus is called to be reflects the image of the Suffering Servant, not the glorious Davidic monarchy of Israel’s glorious past.

It was absolutely crucial that the disciples understood this because they were the ones who were going to be carrying on the ministry of proclaiming the Good News and healing the sick, following Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. That was the tradition with which they were to be entrusted.

Well guess whose footsteps we stand in? We 21st century disciples of Jesus Christ are also called to proclaim by word and action the Good News of God in Christ. Our Baptismal Covenant challenges us to be agents of healing, wholeness, and restoration in a world that is broken by enmity and dis-ease. I’d like to believe that this is self-evident, but unfortunately, it too appears to be a minority report these days, certainly insofar as what is being demonstrated by the so-called Christian Right.

In a few moments, we will observe the Rite of Healing. We will use the ancient symbols of oil and the laying on of hands. In this rite, we present ourselves before God and ask God to touch our lives and lead us to wholeness. Our baptismal vows call us to be agents of peace, reconciliation, wholeness and restoration even as Christ himself calls us to model “power with” rather than “power over” others. In other words, we seek healing in order to more fully heal. We seek restoration in order to more fully restore. We acknowledge our own brokenness in order to more fully build up. In this rite, we present ourselves to God as people who long for the thing that God most wants to give. And in so doing, we claim belief in a God for whom suffering is never about punishment for sin, but rather brokenness to be restored. In this rite, we seek health and wholeness from the Giver of all good things so that God may use us as God sees fit, so that unity may overcome divisiveness and dis-ease restored to oneness. Now, perhaps more than ever in our lives as Christians and as Americans, it is time to engage this minority report.