07/08/2012 ~ Proper 9 ~ Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Sixth Sunday after Pentecost ~ 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10; Psalm 48; Ezekiel 2:1-5; Psalm 123; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-13.

Repentance

“And so, they— the disciples— set off proclaiming repentance as they went.” — Mark 6:12.

    I was going to start my comments with a presumption that most of us know what a flash mob is.  But perhaps not only do some fail to know what a flash mob is, the truth of the matter is you’ve probably never personally experienced one.
    Although, after our Children’s time, you may now be more familiar with flash mobs that was a video of one of them. [1]  I know I’ve seen videos of flash mobs on the internet, but as I said I’ve never personally experienced one, myself.  I’ve never been in a place where a flash mob is happening.
    So, making the presumption that we don’t all know what a flash mod is, let me briefly explain flash mob.  A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a very public place to offer an artistic performance of some kind.
    Most often, the place they gather is not normally one used for performing works of art.  Most of the time it is not a theater or an auditorium but flash mobs gather in a town squares or at stores or at malls.
    As I suggested, these people gather primarily for the purpose of offering an entertainment, an artistic expression of some kind and they usually have some kind of corporate sponsorship.  Please notice: a flash mob, whether it’s sponsored by an entity or it’s just a group of people having fun, is in no way spontaneous.  You need to do a lot of planning to organize a flash mob.
    After the flash mob offers its performance, it is common for the participants, with a suddenness equal to their gathering together, to disperse as if nothing had happened.  And, needless to say, most of the time a video is made of these performances.  The real point of these events is, after all, that they can be seen by many, broadcast on television or shown on the Internet.
    One of our parishioners recently posted a video on a Facebook page of a flash mob that happened just this May.  (It was the one the children watched.)
    That flash mob was organized by a local bank in the Spanish city of Sabadell.  The bank sponsored it to celebrate its 130th anniversary.  In this case a group of performers gathered in a crowded town square, in Sabadell, and preformed an arrangement of The Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. [2]
    At the beginning there was only one instrumentalists, a bass player, standing in the middle of the square playing some notes.  He was then joined by a cellist.  Next, a reed player and some violinists emerged from a building on the square and joined in the harmonies.
    Slowly musicians and singers joined in as people who happened to be in the square, shoppers and those on their way to work, watched.  Once all the performers were assembled and playing their parts, the total of people participating in this version of The Ode to Joy numbered 100.
    And once everyone had arrived, the performance the orchestra and chorus gave was at a very high, professional level.  A performance like this was and needed to be not just well planned but well rehearsed.
    Now, my personal favorite flash mobs— stuff I’ve seen on the Internet— was on our shores.  It was a Macy’s Department store in downtown Philadelphia.  For those of you unfamiliar with that venue, the building, itself, is left over from the days yore of department stores were— more popular?— I don’t know.  And the building, itself, was dedicated in 1911, and when that happened the name of this store was Wanamaker’s, not Macy’s.  And the atrium, which is seven stories in that store— a balcony with seven stories— houses the world’s largest organ.
    In October 2010, the Opera Company of Philadelphia brought together a group of singers to perform the Hallelujah Chorus in that space.  Now, the organ is regularly played during the day, so the fact that music might be playing was not unusual.  The fact that a bunch of trained singers who all looked as if they were only shopping at the store themselves would suddenly join together singing the Hallelujah Chorus was and is unusual. [3]
    Again and needless to say, besides the singers who knew what was going on, the store was packed with shoppers.  The shoppers (and, of course, all us folks who have seen the video) have had the experience: we’ve seen a random act of culture.
    There are, obviously, two parts to these random acts of culture: performance and experience.  But I want to suggest they are or should be more intertwined than we realize.  For instance, the Hallelujah Chorus was so familiar to most people that not only did the assembled singers give voice to this piece.
    Nearly everyone who found themselves standing in that seven story atrium with the world’s largest pipe organ pumping out Handel’s notes joined in.  With so many people singing, it did not matter who was there as a a part of the flash mob and who was there to just shop.  Suddenly, community— real community— was formed.  Everybody sang. [4]  (Slight pause.)
    And these words are from the work known as the Gospel of Mark: “And so, they— the disciples— set off proclaiming repentance as they went.”
    With all that goes on in this reading it is easy to lose track of something very central to the Christian community and the teachings of Jesus: repentance.  But what is repentance?  What does repentance mean.  (Slight pause.)
    You have heard me say this before— (or you’ve probably heard me say this before).  Repentance means turning toward God.  Repentance means turning our lives over to God.  Further, repentance means if you are facing away from God, you need to turn around and move toward God.
    Now, I’d be the first to say for many people imagining that they are not in agreement with God or imagining that God is not in agreement with them is the hard part of that premise.  To imagine that you are not in agreement with God or that God is not in agreement with you certainly take an amount of humility.
    However, put on a more human level, think about your spouse or your closest friend.  Are you always in agreement with them?  Are they always in agreement with you?  If the answer to that question is ‘no’ how likely is it that you are always in agreement with God or that God is always in agreement with you?
    Now, coming back to the thought that the disciples proclaimed repentance, what does it mean not to be repentant but to proclaim repentance?  (Slight pause.)  I want to suggest that proclaiming repentance, for Christians, means practicing what we preach.  When it comes to practicing what we preach, author Diana Butler Bass says there are four key words to consider: prepare, practice, play, participate.
    Prepare: learn the story.  Study Scripture.  Take Scripture seriously.  If you don’t know what’s going on, it’s difficult to be a part of anything.
    Practice: be intentional about understanding issues of justice and freedom.  When Jesus says, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” there is an understanding in those words that the reign of God does not somehow fall from heaven on those who simply wait.
    Play: it is easy to take life too seriously.  When we take life too seriously that often turns into anger.  It seems to me anger is the currency of our age.  Mirth, laughter, satire, celebration, joy are essential to a vibrant, healthy spirituality.  Indeed, laughter, not anger, has the ability to help people move in concert, together, toward difficult ends.
    Participate: too often we divide performers from the audience.  That is a false dichotomy when it come to spiritual life.  And perhaps that is what I like about that Hallelujah Chorus flash mob I described.  It seemed that there was no audience.  Everybody was singing.  (Slight pause.)
    So, what is repentance really about.  It is about us.  It is about who we are as we interact with others.  It’s about understanding that our life with God and our life with those around us needs to be steeped in love, in acceptance, in care... and in community.   Amen.

[1]  At the Children’s Time the pastor had the children watch a Flash mod which is described later in these comments.  The point being made with the children was that people working together to produce something beautiful is like people working together in a church.

[2]  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBaHPND2QJg&feature=share

[3]  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU

[4]  It needs to be noted that at the end of the service the pastor announced that the computer on which the flash mob for the Children’s Time had been played would be, after the postlude, set to play the Hallelujah Chorus flash mob so those who wanted to stay in the Nave to see the video could see it.

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction.  This is an précis of what was said:
“Frederick Buechner, the famous writer and theologian has said this about repentance: ‘Biblically speaking, to repent doesn’t mean to feel sorry about, to regret.  It means to turn, to turn around 180 degrees.  It means to undergo a complete change of mind, heart, direction.  Turn away from madness, cruelty, shallowness, blindness.  Turn toward the tolerance, compassion, sanity, hope, justice that we all have in us at our best.’”

BENEDICTION: Redeeming Sustainer, visit Your people; pour out Your courage upon us, that we may hurry to make welcome all people not only in our concern for others, but by serving them generously and faithfully in Your name.  And may we love God so much, that we love nothing else too much.  May we be so in awe of God, that we are in awe of no one else and nothing else.  Amen.