Has anyone ever called you crazy?

Has anyone ever called you crazy?

A prison chaplain's reflection on Mark 3, June 10 2018 

Has anyone ever called you crazy?

Has anyone ever called you a devil, or evil, or hopeless? 

Have your own family members thought you were out of your mind?

Have you ever been cursed and slandered by people who you thought were your friends?

Have you ever tried to help someone, and people accused you of just stirring up trouble?

Have you ever had friends undermine or betray you because they were jealous of your success?

Have you ever had to hide or get away because someone was trying to kill you?

Have you ever walked into a room, and it gets silent because you were the one they were all talking about?

"Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. ² Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. ³ Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” ⁴ Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. ⁵ He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. ⁶ Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

⁷ Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. ⁸ When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. ⁹ Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. ¹⁰ For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. ¹¹ Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” ¹² But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him."

This is the situation we see today in our gospel reading. 

Jesus had become a popular figure, he heals people who are sick and deformed, he casts out demons, and the demons try to expose him. The leaders twist the truth saying “it is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons” in order to destroy his reputation, while they try to think of a way to have him killed. “Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.” (verse 6)

All this because Jesus is confronting and disarming the “demonic” forces of evil, not only by casting out the spirits of disease and sickness, but naming the hidden forces that crush people’s spirit, the deceptions and manipulation used by authorities to keep people in bondage and fear, and the spiritual powers and system of hatred and despair. 

That is the meaning behind Jesus line of inquiry and action earlier in verse 4-5: “Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. 5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored”

As a prophet, Jesus lived in an occupied land, yet he spoke out against the legacies of historical injustice and the systems of violence the Romans and their Jewish collaborators used to oppress, enslave, and terrorize entire peoples, races, and communities. Crucifixions were the direct violence the Romans used to kill anyone they thought might challenge them, but the indirect violence they used was in alliance with the Jewish religious leaders who collaborated with them. That was the why the Pharisees feared Jesus, when they met before his final execution, it was because they were afraid that because of Jesus popular movement of restoration, they would lose their place in power in cahoots with the Roman occupiers.

This was the reality that Jesus was confronting – surrounded by people, yet isolated at so many levels - personal, familial, social and institutional. Thus, “When his family^[b] heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” (verse. 21)

Do we ever feel this way, like we are fighting the world, or fighting ourselves, or our history, and can never win? Or have we just given up and just survive one day to the next? Maybe we just take it out on the people around us, allowing the anger to just bubble over as threats, negativity, insults, violence?

^"And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

So how do we get out of this mess, this house of destruction? Let’s go back to our story, to where Jesus is telling a little story to make a point. And he’s doing it in a way so that people have to think about it to get the point. Why? Because he is a prophet and a teacher, and if you think about your best teachers in life, what did they do that helped you learn?

Did they just stand up front and lecture for hours or give you a list of answers? No, the best learning comes through a story, and this is the story he told to make his point,

“If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house”

So what can we learn from this story? First, we find that Jesus is actually in the house with us already. Jesus is like a rebel or robber who sneaks into the house of the “strong man” and has the power to tie him up so he can take his stuff. 

Has anyone here ever stolen anything? Breaking and entering? Theft? So maybe we can relate to this.

What is this “house” Jesus is talking about? This house of the strongman is the violent, sick and dying reality that is our world. It’s everything that Jesus was working against and confronting on that day when his own family thought he was crazy, and the authorities wanted him dead. It’s all that stuff – that terror, oppression, deception, pain, hurt, anger, fear, loneliness – that Jesus experienced and was fighting against, but in a different way.

Who is the Strongman? Satan is the strongman who has been tied up and made powerless by the truth of the Holy Spirit, that is the word of God, spoken and lived out by Jesus. It is by his words that Jesus, healed the sick, delivered those under demonic possession and raised the dead. So we see in the story that Jesus claimed the truth and exposed the deception of those who tried to destroy him by pointing to the Holy Spirit as the source of truth and the antidote to “blasphemy” of the Pharisees. 

"Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”"

The unforgivable sin he was pointing out was simply that if we try to rely on our own spirit or the spirt of the world rather than the spirit of God, we can’t be saved – we can’t save ourselves. The eternal sin, or blasphemy against the spirit, is the truth of our prideful spirit, of relying on ourselves and the power of the strongman, Satan, to rule our lives. He directed this as a warning to the pharisees, who were attacking him, that they were in great danger to reject his mission and distorting his message by saying "he had an impure spirit". So it is not that we ever need to be afraid that we have committed an unforgivable sin. God's gift is forgiveness for all sins, regardless. But if we, like the Pharisees, reject him, than we are rejecting the one person who can help us out of the mess we're in.

But we are in luck! We don’t have to submit to that reality, to that dead-end lies or fake truth. Jesus is the like a “divine robin hood” or guerilla fighter who sneaks into enemy territory to rescue the people who are suffering under the occupation forces because the bad guys took over and ruined everything and so everyone is just doing what the bad guys’ leader, the strongman, says to do. 

But Jesus, he snuck, and he’s trying to “steal” us – you and me – out from Satan’s house, and he has already tied him up and made him powerless, all we have to do is walk out the door of the house of destruction with Jesus and start the journey of faith back to the homeland of God’s love. But if we refuse that, then we are stuck in the house of death, and that is a sin that God “can’t” forgive, because God won’t force us to accept his freedom – he would be going against his own nature, which is love.

And that’s why he points out, that if the rebel used the same methods as the strongman, then his effort would fail. That’s what he means by saying, “a house or kingdom divided against itself would not stand.” And so it is not just that this power used by God in Christ and through the Holy Spirit to bind up the strongman is greater power than Satan’s power, but it’s a totally different kind of power. 

And what do you think that power is? 

I already mentioned it, its the power of love, because God is love. So through the power of the Holy Spirit of love, Satan’s power of hate has been made powerless. If we try to manipulate or hate our way out of the mess we’re in, without relying on God’s power of love and wisdom, we’re not going to get anywhere. We will only be repeating the same mistakes that caused things to go wrong in the first place. 

That’s why Jesus points out the contradiction of the Pharisees accusation – you can’t defeat hatred with hatred, violence with violence, oppression with oppression, deception with deception, slander with slander, insults with insults, depression with depression. The Romans and the Pharisees stayed in power by killing others to save themselves – that is the logic of violent power. Jesus did the opposite, and sacrificed his own life to save everyone else – that is the logic and power of sacrificial love.

Jesus is offering a totally and radically new way of life. That’s why he says it is like being born again, you’re coming into a new world, and the old rules don’t apply because the guy (Satan) who made those rules has been cuffed and locked up and has no power in this house of love. 

And the next thing he points out, is that leaving the house of the strongman means being part of a new family, so that if your old family thinks you’re crazy to escape with Jesus, it’s because they have not yet realized that they are still living in the house of the strongman.

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.””

So the question is, will you accept that power, that love in your life. If you’ve been living in the house of hatred and destruction, or you’ve wandered back into that house even after you had left already, do you want to be free from that reality sickness, depression and hopelessness?

It’s an utterly lonely place to be, disconnected from God, disconnected from others in ways that are life giving, it is the house of death. Jesus has gone into that house, through his death on the cross, incapacitated the strongman, and wants to take you into the new house of life and love and freedom. 

"The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war"

Jeremy Simons
March 4, 2011

Most people are not aware of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), but the current budget plan heading to the U.S. senate will sacrifice it's entire budget on the altar of short term expediency, and the blood to flow will come from American soldier's veins.

Just ask General David Petreaus, one of the USIP's biggest supporters, who stated, "In Iraq the Institute stepped up to the plate beginning in August 2007 to assist the 10th Mountain Division in a reconciliation effort in Mahmoudiya, a community on the southern edge of Baghdad that was once known as the 'Triangle of Death. Since then, General Odierno and I have often cited Mahmouidya as a striking success story. USIP's continuing reconciliation efforts at the community level…hold great promise for the future.”

The USIP is the only government agency devoted to promoting global peace building and conflict resolution. It's budget is only $42 million and has a staff of about 150. It's existence reflects at least a spark of institutional governmental commitment to the prevention of conflict through non-violent means. Former Secretary of State George Schultz writes, "At a time when our country is grappling with budgetary challenges, the minuscule budget of the Institute—less than one-tenth of one percent of the State Department appropriation—represents a highly effective investment in our foreign policy and national security capabilities."

Meanwhile, the cost of keeping one soldier in combat in Afghanistan for one year runs between $400,000 to $1million. In other words, what America spend to field one platoon of Marines in Afghanistan would fund the entire USIP for a year, which has conflict prevention and peacebuilding activities in 20 of the most conflicted countries in the world. Let's take a stand on this one, as the Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit tagline on the USIP website states, "The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war."

An online petition to save the USIP is being organized by the peace alliance and can be found at www.thepeacealliance.org, while more advocacy information is at the alliance for peacebuilding at http://www.allianceforpeacebuilding.org/?page=advocacyusip.

Only 1.05% of extrajudicial slays in past decade solved—study - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Only 1.05% of extrajudicial slays in past decade solved—study - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

What is a learning feast?

As we spend time traveling and visiting in the U.S., we want to help people 1) learn, 2) understand and 3) connect with some of the realities, both beautiful and challenging, that exist in other parts of the world - and especially our corner in the Philippines.

Learning, Understanding and Connecting - these are the 3 purposes of the Learning Feast.

A Learning Feast happens when a family, group or individual sponsors a get together in their home with friends and ourselves where we share 3 things to facilitate the purposes of the Learning Feast:

1) Food - We will distribute and eat the contents of typical ration distributed by aid agencies to families affected by war and disaster - and hopefully learn that feeding the hungry is a lot more than just handing out food.

2) Information - We will share a short presentation of the reality of the poor in the southern Philippines and some of the ways in which people (all of us included) are making, or can make, a difference.

3) Global fellowship - We will arrange a skype conference call, technology permitting, connecting directly with workers in the field to share mutual encouragement for sustainability over the long haul.

Simons March 2010 brief update

Summer is here! Ouch!
Its summer here in the Philippines, which means less rain and hotter! El Nino is affecting the Philippines this year, causing drought conditions, meaning 2 hour rolling power outages on a daily basis, as our main power source is a hydroelectric plant that doesn’t have enough water to run. If it’s at night, it can be fun eating by candlelight and telling stories, other times just plain hot, when we can’t run our fans in the heat of the day with steamy humidity and temperatures in the mid 90’s.

Crisscrossing Mindanao
We have had a busy month with Amy teaching a women’s health class at the maternity clinic as well as traveling with a team of Canadians that came to visit and assess Peacebuilders’ Community health work. They traveled 10 hours each way, visiting indigenous (tribal) and Muslim communities where Jeremy organized two of their stops. The first was a Peacebuilders sponsored coffee training among the Matigsalug tribe. The training pulled together different groups within the same tribe who have often been in conflict. The result of the training was that they began to develop a coffee council together to sell their coffee at fair trade prices and offer greater support to indigenous farmers.

Blessed are the Peacemakers
The second stop among the Talaandig indigenous people turned out to be a highlight. Jeremy presented to the tribal council the culmination of his work over the past year: a listening project of their traditional conflict resolution practices and indigenous cosmology. After the presentation, it suddenly rained, indicating, the leaders informed us, that the project was not only accepted by the community, but blessed in the spiritual realm as well. This is mutually significant because the Talaandig were appointed by their ancestors to be peacemakers among the more than 40 tribal communities of Mindanao. This has strengthened our relationship as fellow peace workers and provides a respected foundation for further engagement with them and surrounding communities.

Simons 2010 U.S. schedule and speaking topics

June 5: Depart for the US, arrive in Denver, CO
June 7-11: Debriefing at IDEAS in Colorado Springs
June 14: Travel to PA and stay with Amy’s parents
Mid to late July: Travel back to Denver, settle into temporary housing and get kids ready to start school (Linea in 3rd grade, Madeline in kindergarten)

Possible speaking topics:

Spirituality and theology of peace building
Where's God in the middle of all this?
Indigenous spirituality and peace building
Restorative justice - learnings so far
A Philippine journey of healing and peace
Current peacebuilding efforts in the 40 year-old civil wars of the Philippines
Human rights and peacebuilding in the Philippines

U.S. congress condemns Philippine massacre

Agreed to December 18, 2009

One Hundred Eleventh Congress of the United States of America

AT THE FIRST SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday, the sixth day of January, two thousand and nine

Concurrent Resolution

Whereas, on November 23, 2009, 57 unarmed civilians were slain in Maguindanao in the worst politically motivated violence in recent Philippine history;

Whereas those killed were on their way to file nomination papers on behalf of Ismael Mangudadatu, vice mayor of Buluan, who intended to run against Andal Ampatuan, Jr. who is currently mayor of Datay Unsu, in next year's gubernatorial elections to succeed Andal Ampatuan, Sr., the father of Andal Ampatuan, Jr.;

Whereas many of those killed were women and children, including the wife of Vice Mayor Ismael Mangudadatu and his two sisters;

Whereas most of the women were reportedly raped and their bodies were mutilated after being shot;

Whereas as of December 2, 2009, initial charges have been filed in connection with the massacre , according to press reports;

Whereas the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists reports that at least 30 journalists and media workers were killed in the Maguindanao massacre ;

Whereas, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that prior to the Maguindanao massacre , 30 journalists had been killed in the Philippines since 2000, and suspects were prosecuted in no more than 4 cases, putting into question the safety of journalists and the integrity of independent journalism in the Philippines;

Whereas government prosecutors and judges with jurisdiction over the massacre have allegedly received threats and have been told to `go slow' on the investigation;

Whereas President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao the day after the massacre , vowing that `no effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims';

Whereas extrajudicial killings and election-related violence are common in the Philippines, though never on this scale and rarely with this level of brutality; and

Whereas the United States and the Philippines share a strong friendship based on shared history and the commitment to democracy and freedom: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress--

(1) regrets the senseless killing of unarmed civilians and expresses its deepest condolences to the families of the 57 victims;

(2) condemns the culture of impunity that continues to exist among clans, politicians, armed elements, and other persons of influence in the Philippines;

(3) calls for a thorough, transparent, and independent investigation and prosecution of those who are responsible for the massacre , including those who committed the killings and anyone who may have ordered them, and that the proceedings be conducted with the highest possible level of professionalism, impartiality, and regard for witness protection to assure the Filipino people that all the responsible persons are brought to justice;

(4) calls for an end to extrajudicial killings and election-related violence;

(5) calls for freedom of press and the safety of the reporters investigating the massacre;

(6) urges the Departments of State and Justice and other United States Government agencies to review their assistance programs to the Government of the Philippines, and to offer any technical assistance, such as forensics support, that Philippine authorities may request; and

(7) reaffirms the United States commitment to working alongside Philippine authorities to combat corruption, terrorism, and security threats.

Attest:
Clerk of the House of Representatives.
Attest:
Secretary of the Senate.