The Rev. Josh Shipman
The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B/Track2, 2015
Jeremiah 23:1-6/Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
The girl, Jean,
had a strong mind.
In fact, it was so strong
that she felt psychically linked
with other people.
She was a marvel.
She almost died because of it.
When her friend was killed
in a car crash, she too,
was on the brink of death.
Until the professor showed up.
And the boy, Scott…
An orphan with a deadly gaze—
I could swear that those
were laser beams
he could shoot out of his eyes.
He, too, found himself
in a patch of trouble,
Until the professor showed up.
There were many others
like Scott and Jean.
A goddess on a mountain top,
also an orphan
with a stormy disposition,
and a troubled past,
her name was Ororo.
The professor showed up for
her, too.
[pause]
Professor Charles Xavier’s School
for Gifted Youngsters
is a school
unlike any other.
Professor Xavier,
or Professor X as he was known,
sums up the school’s existence best
in his first meeting with Jean:
“I was born of parents
who had worked
on the first A-bomb project!
Like yourselves,
I am a mutant…
Possibly the first
such mutant!
I have the power
to read minds,
and project my own thoughts
into the brains
of others!
But, when I was young,
normal people feared me,
distrusted me!
I realized the human race
is not yet ready to accept
those with extra powers!
So I decided to build a haven
a school for X-men!”[1]
[pause]
Now, just so you don’t think
that I’ve completely lost my mind,
let me take you back to May of 1993.
I was eleven years old
(sorry if that makes you
feel old).
For the first time, ever,
I decided to walk down
the comic book isle
in the Kroger grocery store,
where I found this:
(holds up copy of X-men).
Now, I had never really read
many comic books
aside from the occasional
Peanuts book that had been
handed down from my great uncle.
But, once I read this issue
I’ve brought with me, today,
I was hooked.
And who wouldn’t be?
Such difficult questions as:
Would Scott leave Jean for Betsy?
Would Jean fall for Logan?
And the biggest question of all
Is Betsy really who she says she is?
(pause)
You’ll have to come over
to the Old Rectory
and read it sometime
to find out.
(pause)
I began collecting the comics,
collecting the trader cards,
and watching the cartoon
EVERY Saturday.
The X-men were ALL
I could think about.
My friend Jared and I
would go to comic book stores
and find buried X-men treasures
in flea market booths.
We would act out various
X-men scenarios.
I was always Storm,
and who could blame me?
She had these fabulous
wings on her costume--
(pause)
not entirely unlike
this costume I’m wearing today!
(pause)
These characters were real
to me because they were like me.
Not in the sense that I have
awesome mutant superabilities,
of course!
(pause)
But in that they were different and
despised for their difference.
There was a constant battle
to be fully themselves
in a society that didn’t quite
understand them,
even feared them.
(pause)
I will raise up shepherds over them
who willshepherd them,
and they will not fear any longer,
or be dismayed,
nor shall any be missing…
(pause)
Professor X provided a haven
for those who were different,
he had compassion for them,
because they were like sheep
without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them
many things.
The theme of our readings, today,
in case you missed it,
is compassion:
God, the compassionate shepherd.
As with Amos, last week,
we encounter another one
of those crusty prophet-types:
Jeremiah.
The people of Judah
had been through a series
of irresponsible kings.
One such king, around 600 BCE
decided against sending tribute to Babylon,
and the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem.
A second king around 590 BCE
decided to pursue the same policy
resulting, once again,
in the people being imperiled.
These are the bad shepherds that
Jeremiah speaks out against.
Unlike last week, though, we get to see
the other side of this prophetic message
God says:
I myself will gather the remnant
of my flock out of all the lands…
and I will bring them back to their fold.
He continues that a righteous king
will be raised up, and he shall reign as king
and deal wisely, and shall execute justice
and righteousness in the land.[2]
(pause)
Fast forward about 600
or so years.
The apostles are telling
about all of their deeds:
We cast out this many demons and
we did this, and this, and this.
Jesus’ response is to invite them
on a retreat.
They’ve done a lot of work,
and it’s time to relax.
But ministry isn’t an 8-5 job,
and Jesus sees the people
and has compassion on them,
and begins to teach them.
(pause)
If you look carefully,
you’ll notice that a big chunk
is missing from our Gospel lesson, today.
We skip from verse 34 to 53.
What’s cut out are the stories of
Jesus feeding the multitude
and calming the seas.
Now, these are important stories,
and we’ll get to them again,
but it’s important to have
this Gospel lesson in isolation
so that we don’t miss
that which is often overshadowed
by the more famous stories:
The fact that a righteous Branch
has arisen and deals wisely
and executes justice and righteousness,
and, most important of all,
has compassion.
(pause)
Sure, there were titillating
storylines in the X-men,
romances, deaths,
people coming back to life
with cosmic powers
that ultimately destroy them.
That sort of thing.
But I think, for me,
it was about the
compassionate community.
The X-men stood for the good.
While other mutants used their powers
in an attempt to eradicate non-mutants
the X-men sought peace and co-existence.
Sure, sometimes that took
blasting people with lightning bolts
or your laser eyes, but that’s how it is
in the world of superheroes.
All of that aside,
all of these X-men
were scared children, once.
And scared adults, too.
But someone had compassion for them.
Someone took them from
their broken homes,
out of the sight
of people who hated them,
who saw them as
less than dirt.
And he taught them
many things.
I wonder if the Church
isn’t unlike Professor Xavier’s
School for Gifted Youngsters.
Here we are gathered,
each with his or her
own talent (or talents).
Our mission is to reshape the world
into God’s compassionate, peaceable Kingdom.
(pause)
But how does one go about
doing this work?
(pause)
Perhaps by going up the street
to a bar full of people
who have been told their whole lives
that they are abominations
and telling them that they are loved
beyond their wildest imaginations.
Or by receiving all guests as Christ,
even if they sometimes spin fantastical
tales in order to get a few extra dollars.
Do we dare look them in the eye?
Or simply by smiling and waving
at passers-by, young and old.
This is what our God is teaching us:
it doesn’t take multiplying loaves and fishes
or stilling storms to be a Christian.
Nor does it take moving mountains,
or giant acts of charity.
But having compassion
for all people.
And working for justice.
Will we go out into the world this week,
and adopt an X-man or an X-woman?
Will we show the compassion of God
to the world?
The love of Christ to all creation?
It doesn’t take a superhero, my friends.
Just someone who can
see the God of all creation
disguised as dirt.
1
[1]
[2]Jeremiah 23:1-6 Commentary by David G. Garber Jr. - Working Preacher - Preaching This Week (RCL)