Finding Our Own Pulpits

By now, many of you may have heard of Episcopalian Bishop Mariann Budde (the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, DC) and her direct comments to newly inaugurated President Trump at the National Cathedral Prayer Service the day after the inauguration. In her remarks, Rev. Budde urged the president to “have mercy” for all of the people who are scared or threatened by the president’s policies. She specifically spoke about fears held by LGBTQ children and immigrants and their families. It was a powerful moment of a Christian leader speaking truth to power (versus lining up behind power).

Hours later, via his social media site, the President said that the bishop “brought her church into the world of politics in a very ungracious way,” and that, “she was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart…Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!” 

In our gospel for today from Mark 3, Jesus is facing criticism from the scribes for what he has been saying and doing. In prior passages, he has already had run-ins with religious leaders because he’s not following the rules that are supposed to apply to religious folk. He’s healing people who don’t “deserve” it, teaching things that are unauthorized by the religious authorities and hanging around with (and sticking up for) all the wrong people.

The scribes describe him as being “possessed by Beelzebul,” and suggest that “by the prince of demons he drives out demons.” They try to discredit him.

Back in 1988, the great scripture scholar and theological animator, Ched Myers, wrote a groundbreaking book called Binding the Strongman: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus. His book (citing this passage from Mark 3 in the title) says of today’s passage that, in general, institutions “equate personal sanity and political sanctity with maintenance of the status quo.” Anytime someone goes against that, the institutional machinery or those in power seek to discredit the opposition in one way or another. Myers says that “it is a predictable strategy of threatened political leaders” to engage in name calling and identifying the opposition as out of their minds.

Let’s just take those words in again: Those in power will equate personal sanity and political sanctity with the status quo and will use name calling and identifying the opposition as out of their minds when threatened.

In other words, the holy and sane ones are those who fall in line and do what they’re told to do!

Myers goes on to say that, “who is “sane” in this polarized atmosphere will depend upon whose point of view we adopt.”

As Christians, we’re invited to adopt the same “insanity” and “unsanctity”of Jesus. We’re called to pattern our life on his and to act in ways such that the poor will live to see good news, prisoners will be set free and oppressed people will find liberation in this world – not just in some hereafter. And if we’re going to do that, we will surely find ourselves up against the status quo!

In Mark 3 Jesus tells his hearers that “Satan cannot drive out Satan” and that “no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man.” Only then can a person plunder the house.

It’s no stretch to say that Jesus is suggesting that Satan is ALREADY ruling the world that we are living in. But Jesus intends to bind these forces and plunder that house. Jesus is actually the “stronger one” who has come for the work of liberation.

And he asks us to do the same.

My friend and mentor, Melanie Morrison, posted this last week on Facebook,

What Bishop Mariann Budde did two days ago reminds us that every one of us has critically important justice-serving work to do in the places we inhabit. Hers was a pulpit on Tuesday morning.

In a moment that was given her, in the place that she inhabits, in the work she feels called to do, she chose to speak with unflinching clarity and gentle strength the truth that grounds her daily life.

Did her words change or even touch the heart of the person she addressed? I think we have sufficient evidence that they did not. But by speaking clearly and directly to him in that moment, in that place, her words have touched, moved, and strengthened thousands.

Reminding us that we, too, have our own “pulpits,” our own spheres of influence, our own moments and places where we can use our voices, our agency, our creativity, and our ingenuity to speak truth to unjust power and continue the work that grounds our daily lives

We all can speak and work for liberation in our own “pulpits,” and what we do or say does not have to represent a major initiative or high profile confrontation (but it might!). We can do small acts of kindness and generosity. Or maybe we break a silence and speak up about something. The options are so many.

One of my favorite writers – especially about hope – is Rebecca Solnit. Last fall she posted, “They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them…The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving.”

For today, let us remember that we serve the “stronger one” – the one able to bind the forces of harm that seem to be everywhere these days. And let us remember that we, too, have pulpits from which we can speak and act. Saving what we can save. Saying what we can say. Doing what we can do.

Note: For full text of Rebecca Solnit’s inspiring words, click here