February 9, 2006

Go!

Epiphany 6A  Mk 1.40-45

“And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And (Jesus) sternly charged him… and said to him, ‘See that you say nothing to any one… ‘” (Mk 1.42-44a).

Mark’s got two more stories like this with Jesus warning folk not to spread it around about his mysterious authority — one, the healing of a child (5.43), the other, Peter’s recognition that he is the Messiah (8.29f). And this is not even to mention how from the get-go, the daemons are always on to him. The scholars call it the “Messianic Secret,” and they’ve got all kinds of reasons why and why not. But start up a sermon with a phrase like that and watch all the congregation’s switches turn off, one by one. 

So, let’s don’t bother about the New Testament scholars’ propensity to talk about Jesus’ Messianic Secret. We have one, too, you know, so let’s talk about our own, instead.  

The early 20th-century evangelist Billy Sunday called the Episcopal Church the “Sleeping Giant of Christianity.” Billy Graham said his model for ministry was the same as that of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Evangelism.  

Just the other day at Coretta Scott King’s funeral, Bush 41 said that he is an Episcopalian and not all that used to talking to 10,000 people gathered in one church. Bill Clinton followed and said, no wonder, Episcopalians aren’t called the “Frozen Chosen” for nothing.

And so, sleeping giants, yawn and stretch and dream. Or else if ever we wake, just stand around and watch Billy Graham make hay with our sunshine.

Actually, however, the Messianic Secret is not all that top-classified anymore. Now that the Council of Nicea has made it more or less accessible, the Athanasian Creed made it more or less obscure, and Johann Gutenberg has spread it all over the newsstands, we haven’t got much of an excuse for heeding Jesus’ stern admonition to the leper. I suspect he wouldn’t mind.

So what is the secret that’s no secret at all?

Well, among other things, it’s to know the difference between being faithful and being orthodox… between doing and willing… between surrendering to Jesus and submitting to the Windsor Report… between General Convention and “815″… between being loyal to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of ECUSA and succumbing to one’s phobias… between the consensus fidelium and biblical inerrancy, and whatever else. Certainly, by now, we get the point. If it’s not perfectly clear, we could nail the Baptismal Covenant up on the narthex door for good measure, then read it and will it coming and going.

If the real Messiah, the one who’s no secret at all, is not doubled up in gales of laughter by now at our impotence and childishness and spiritual illiteracy, he might be compassionate  enough to suggest, “Go! Show it to the priest, and the both of you, go tell it on the mountain!”

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