Redemption Song

“Redemption Song”

Mark 9:38-50

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost October 1, 2006
Worldwide Communion Sunday

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"Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward."

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Changes.
Radical Changes.

Jesus talks about radical changes as he talks to his disciples in today’s passage.

We heard over the past two weeks how disciples seem to misunderstand the nature of Jesus’ Call – that to be Called by God is to be a “suffering servant” – and to follow Jesus is about becoming a servant for all, and not about being served by others.

In today’s scripture Jesus talks about radical change once again, a radical shift in thinking. “If anything prevents you from entering the reign of God, in bringing in God’s reign in this world, leave it.”

Change seems to be what everyone wants in our world. You do not have to be a teenager to become a slave of fashion. Fashion is based on changes. Fashion dictates and forces us to “judge” what is in and what is out. Fashion is more than changing hair styles or getting a trendy car. It is about how a certain idea is propagated by an organization or a group to influence the masses to think and accept that the idea becomes the norm. Each one of us is being bombarded and impacted by the fashion of today’s global market ideology.

We heard George W. Bush tell the world, “If you are not with us, you are against us” after 9/11. Countries around the world, including our own, were cowered into standing with the current US government’s policy of “Strike first. Ask questions later.” “Might is Right” is one of the prevalent political ideologies that is fashionable. Fear, fear of others, seems to be another fashionable idea espoused by the pundits of the world.

Global dominance based on fear and violence seems to be the most fashionable and preferred way of self determination these days. In such a backdrop, it is strange to hear Jesus saying to his disciples, “Whoever is not against us is for us.” “Fear is not the ground for right relationship,” is what I hear from Jesus. Fear and sheer power are not the grounds for right relationships.

Let’s go back to the idea of change. If change is what we want in our life, how do we discern the right kind of change? As a faith community, how do we define change as community?

Bob Marley, known to some as a prophet and a philosopher, is known to most around the world as a popular reggae singer. He expressed his fervent hope for change in his song, “Redemption Song.”

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;None but ourselves can free our minds.Have no fear for atomic energy,'Cause none of them can stop the time.How long shall they kill our prophets,While we stand aside and look? Ooh!Some say it's just a part of it:We've got to fulfil de book.Won't you help to singDese songs of freedom? -'Cause all I ever have:Redemption songsRedemption songsRedemption songs.

As I was reflecting on today’s passage and listening to Jesus talk about radical change, my heart began to sing the Redemption Song of Bob Marley.

Bob Marley sings of radical change as “emancipating ourselves from ideologies which bring death to people.” Like Jesus, he sings of change as a radical shift in perspective. This is what I hear from his song: “If we shift the way we view the world, we could experience the world differently than the way we have been experiencing it. Once that happens, we can act and live differently. Such is a process of freedom and redemption for humanity.”

How do we emancipate ourselves from mental slavery? How do we begin to experience the world differently? How do we begin to emancipate ourselves from the dominant world view that enslaves our mind, soul, and body so we can begin to experience the world differently?

Followers of Jesus of Nazareth had such an emancipating experience when they looked back on the meal they had with him the night before he was captured by the authorities. Something powerful happened as they remembered the meal. That meal became one of the most sacred rituals in Christian communities around the world. We call it communion.

The most powerful experience of communion for me was on February 17, 2006 at the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Christians from North Korea, South Korea, and various parts of the world gathered together to celebrate communion during the WCC Assembly. Korea is still a divided country. The Korean peninsula was liberated by the Soviet Union and the Allied Forces towards the end the World War II. In 1945, the northern part of Korea was occupied by the Soviet Union and the southern part of Korea was occupied by the US. Since then, the country has been divided in two.

My father’s family fled their home in North Korea to South Korea during the Korean War in 1953. None of the members of my family has been able to contact or visit our North Korean relatives since 1953. The Korean War never officially ended. The two sides, the North and the South, are still at war with each other.

In Porto Alegre, Brazil, Koreans and their friends from various parts of the global village gathered together at a Catholic chapel at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, February 17, 2006.

I remember the tears streaming down on my cheeks as we sang and received the bread and wine from North and South Koreans together. For me and for other Koreans living in various place of the global village, the broken body of Jesus Christ represented the divided Korean peninsula, and the broken bodies and spirits of Korean people due to the division.

My fervent hope was that Korea will become one again someday in the near future. Although the geo-politics of today still divide people of the Korean peninsula, I know deep in my heart that God will liberate and unite the people of Korea someday. The communion we celebrated in Porto Alegre was for me the kind of Redemption Song that Bob Marley sang – that we must emancipate ourselves from thinking that Korea will always be a divided country.

Along with many at the communion service, I sang a song of freedom by committing myself to struggle for peace in Korea and everywhere in our world.

Two thousand years ago, a young rabbi names Jesus had a meal with his close friends on the night before he was captured. He was subsequently tortured and executed by the Roman Imperial Army on the ground of treason.

It had been a simple meal for common folk. But that simple meal became an occasion that symbolised a transformation of human history for the followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

The cheap bread they broke at the table; the stale wine they drank at the table. Those two elements became two of the most powerful symbols of Christian faith. They became symbols of the broken body and the spilled blood of Jesus whom we Christians confess as our Lord and Saviour.

The re-enactment of Jesus’ Last Meal with his disciples is not only a powerful symbol of resistance against the “Might is Right” notion of the world but was in itself an act of resistance.

I do not believe the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is a glorification of human sacrifice or torture. I do believe, however, that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was God’s way of saying to humanity, “never again!” Never again, a human being should die under torture and violence. Never again, should God’s children be cowered into the might of the world to commit violence against other children of God. Never again, should any one of humanity be punished for singing the songs of freedom and redemption.

Today, Christians around the world are celebrating a common meal together as followers of Jesus Christ. In our worship service, children brought us a gift of colours representing our congregation’s conviction that all people, regardless of sexuality, are cherished as God’s beloved. We are about to partake the breads of different kinds to also celebrate our racial ethnic diversity in our life and ministry contexts. But most of all, in and through our re-enactment of the last meal Jesus had with his followers before his death, we are also celebrating this meal together as a renewed commitment for peace for all in our world.

Our common meal together is our commitment to a radical shift in our view that humanity is to live in peace so we could live and act for peace. A radical shift in perspective that will lead us to a radical shift in our life experience. Such an experience will bring radical changes in our behaviour. This is what happened to the followers of Jesus of Nazareth in the early Christian communities as they remembered and re-enacted the Last Supper.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;None but ourselves can free our mind.Wo! Have no fear for atomic energy,'Cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.How long shall they kill our prophets,While we stand aside and look?Yes, some say it's just a part of it:We've got to fulfil de book.Won't you help to singDese songs of freedom? -'Cause all I ever had:Redemption songs -All I ever had:Redemption songsThese songs of freedomSongs of freedom.

May the love of Jesus whom we confess as our Lord and Saviour transform our lives. May we begin a journey of change and transformation for peace with our neighbours in our corner of the global village. May we no longer stand aside and look while violence is being committed to our neighbours around the world. May our life be a song of freedom and redemption for all God’s children.

Amen.