Lenten Devotion by Rev. Greg Klimovitz

When I was ordained, the moderator of my home presbytery included questions familiar to all who have been baptized, have had their kids baptized, or have been confirmed within or become a member of a Presbyterian church. One of those questions:

Do you renounce evil and its power in the world?

The question’s answer is obvious; the link to an ordination service- maybe not so clear.  So when I was asked the very question in front of a generous collection of family, friends, and fellow believers, I took the charge for granted. I certainly took my response for granted.

“Yes,” I said wanting to get to the real questions that marked the day’s occasion and sentiment.

It was not until a few days later that I reconsidered the significance of what I was asked. I wondered, is this question not the very question that framed so much of Jesus’ mission and ministry as he traveled from place to place? Should not this question frame the witness and work of both the newly ordained and all who are called to follow Christ?

3RDSunday_Lent2015Sunday’s gospel story, Mark 5:1-20, responds to such questions with a resounding, “yes!” In the opening chapters of Mark’s gospel, Jesus and the disciples are seaside. The imagery of the sea bears in mind primordial chaos and ongoing dreams of exodus from the many manifestations of evil whose powers dilute God’s created world. Up to this point, Jesus merely “passed along the sea” (Mk. 1:16) and went out to teach “beside the sea” (Mk. 2:13; 4:1). However, Mark 5 illustrates Jesus’ intentions to “go across to the other side” of the sea. Jesus and his band of disciples venture to the region of the Gerasenes, home of Gentiles frequently dismissed by their religious communities and traditions. Just as Jesus crosses over the sea, the Messiah immediately encounters a demon-possessed man running towards him.

In other words, Jesus and the Twelve have an abrupt encounter with one victimized and held captive by evil.

And the Messiah, despite certain pleas by his traveling companions, refuses to turn away the other and instead renounces the power of this evil upon a marginalized and isolated individual. The One who would cross over from death to newness of life offers this man the same transformation. In imagery of the ancient exodus, Jesus casts the oppressive legion of demons into the very sea that once kept him and the disciples a safe distance away from the likes of the possessed Gerasene.

The disciples are perplexed. The swineherds, possibly frustrated by their lost capital, are afraid.

We may be the same.

Theologian and social advocate, Ched Myers, writes this about the narrative, “Mark’s portrait of Jesus as a boundary crosser ought to disturb us, given our world of explicit and implicit apartheid, vast economic disparity, and institutionalized enmity. The imperatives to cross the stormy seas of racism, to give priority to those who are poor, and to rediscover human solidarity are urgent today” (“Say to This Mountain”, p. 89).

So what does any of this have to do with Lent? Our 40-day pilgrimage is not a mere nudge to walk alongside, nearby, or around the waters of despair in our churches and communities. Instead, Lent is an intentional and prayerful bid to enter into and cross over these troubled waters as we extend the mercy and compassion of Christ to those often relegated to the fray and shackled by systems of injustice.  Lent is a dwelling in disturbance, when we consider the implicit and explicit manifestations of evil and its power in the world. Lent is a holy invitation not to be overcome by such disturbance, rather to embody our faithful declarations that in Jesus Christ evil has once and for all been renounced.

I have only been serving alongside the faithful of the Presbytery of Philadelphia for five weeks.  I am the newbie who has so much to learn from the faithful scattered within and around the Greater Philadelphia region. I am blessed and grateful you have invited me to be apart of your journey.

I am also thankful this Presbytery has already established at the core of its missional identity a commitment to crossover the seas of suffering as we follow Christ in the work of renouncing manifestations of evil and injustice in our communities and the world. I have been encouraged by countless emails, phone calls, and personal interactions with disciples interested in alleviating the angst and anguish of those within their communities and beyond.  Teaching and Ruling Elders alike have shared their prophetic voices in response to Jesus’ call to embody solidarity and dwell among the tombs with those who have lived in isolation and fear for far too long.

Your consciences have been disturbed by the heart-wrenching realities around you. Leadership within congregations and commissions have been moved to give priority to our most vulnerable neighbors as we resurrect hospitality and hope in the midst of broken education systems, pervasive –isms, imbalances of resource distribution, and the effects of polarizing religious and political ideologies.

Presbytery of Philadelphia, do you renounce evil and its power in the world?

Your work and witness have been a response to the affirmative.  You have put on display a resounding, “yes!” But we are not done.  We have much work left to do. May this Lent provoke our collective imagination as we partner together as human agents of our shared declaration.
Grace and Peace in your Lenten crossovers of mercy and love.

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