MENTAL HEADLINES
6 27 10
MARK 6:30-34
ANTHONY E.ACHESON, M.DIV.
Criticizing contemporary culture and modern life is a favorite preoccupation of many preachers, sometimes including the one you are listening to right now. Even though I can be a frequent critic of contemporary culture, there are certainly times when I am drawn into its fascinations. Like millions of other Americans, I do my share of celebrity watching, buy my share of copies of People magazine; or sneak a furtive glance at the Globe when I’m in line at the Grand Union. (And, no, I’m not referring to the Boston Globe).
We all get fascinated sometimes by the buzz that comes up in contemporary culture. The buzz of what is new and fashionable in the world of highly visible and glamorous people. We may stay up late and watch award shows and then turn around and be the first to criticize the stars the next day. We may wonder aloud - I wonder why such and so has had so bad of a drug problem, and why so and such has filed for bankruptcy, and the star of this or that show once tried to commit suicide, and she over there was convicted of drunken driving last summer but had an expensive lawyer and didn’t serve any time for it.
In their efforts to create a large market for films, books, and recorded music, publicists routinely spend thousands - even millions of dollars - to acquire what we, today, refer to as having this kind of buzz around them. As long as people are talking about the celebrities of today, and participating in this phenomenon of creating ‘buzz,’ they remain prominent in the headlines, in order that they may have a place in our consciousness, in our minds and awareness in the arena of what might be called our own inner mental headlines.
When I refer to our own inner mental headlines, I’m referring to the way we give prominent attention to things within our own minds, to whatever it may be that we consider to be immediately important, which often is a way of being drawn in or sucked in to what our culture considers to be immediately important. At movie theaters, or for Broadway shows, they frequently have a big marquis to headline what movie is playing or what show is being performed. Our own inner mental headlines are whatever it is that we lift up in our own psychological marquis, whenever we give prominent attention to what we hold to be important to us, which often is based on what we have heard or envisioned or experienced, as I mentioned a moment ago, in the culture around us. This is the psychological phenomenon that is being manipulated by those who are trying to create buzz around themselves or around their clients. This is the ultimate source of such buzz: whatever it is that we allow to occupy our own minds; whatever it is that we allow to become our own preoccupations.
One of the most important issues that all of us face is what do we allow to be influences as to what we really think about? What do we allow to be influences as to what we allow to be primary, or what we allow to be predominant in our consciousness. In the story we heard a couple minutes ago from Mark 6, Jesus and his disciples in that story -and clearly throughout Jesus’ public life - they clearly were the focus of the equivalent of lots of intense public speculation. You might say it was a form of ‘buzz’ going on in their day, in their culture. It sure sounds like they had made their way into many people’s inner mental headlines when we read in Mark 6:33 “Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.” It could be similar to what a lot of paparazzi and culture followers do in our time.
The events described in Mark 6 are all happening at a time when Jesus and his disciples are looking for a lonely place separate from the demands of the crowds; a place where they can rest; where they can come back to center, and deal with the fatigue of the recent trip the disciples had taken two by two.
Jesus had only recently sent them out on this initial voyage. We are told in Verse 13 they had been successful in their healings, which must have meant that they themselves had begun to attain a certain kind of celebrity, even distinct from Jesus.’ I can’t help but wonder about the inner mental headlines displayed in their own heads. How did they feel about their accomplishments; what was their view of Jesus and His great power now that they had entered into a phase of their careers, where they were exercising that kind of power themselves? When they came back from their road trip, they were exhausted, which is why they were going away - to get some rest - and of course the people came and followed them, as we saw a moment ago, with great enthusiasm.
Now if this talk were to end here, we would only have taken note of the parallels between modern and ancient forms of celebrity. What is far more intriguing, though, is the revelation of Jesus’ wise perspective as he responds to all that frenetic attention that was going on around him. Verse 34 it tells us with powerful simplicity: ‘He saw the great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.’
Jesus did not allow himself to be drawn in to the superficial ego inflation - as we might say in today’s language - of celebrity. Many of the celebrities in our time would see a crowd when they were on vacation and react either with hostility, or with avoidance. At the other end of the spectrum, perhaps some might have acted with self-promotion. But Jesus reacted not with irritation, or avoidance, or self-promotion, but with compassion. Not with closing himself down, but by keeping his heart in the open position when people in need were in his presence, even though on the level of personal preference he would just as likely liked to have pulled back into the solitude and the quiet. And indeed, that one fact, that Jesus did keep himself in the open position - that Jesus did keep his compassionate heart in the open position - that very fact clearly was one of the main reasons people in the story were so interested. They weren’t interested in someone who was merely good looking. We have no idea whatsoever what Jesus looked like, but even if he was an impressive physical man, that’s not what they were interested in. They weren’t interested in someone who could merely act the role well - as we might be impressed by in the presence of a famous actor. They certainly weren’t interested in one who has succeeded in becoming materially wealthy.
The good news in this story is that these people were interested in something deeper, something more significant than mere appearance. They were looking for something less superficial than the mere ability to manipulate appearance (which is what acting is). They were interested in something that could not just fascinate - or titillate - them, but rather in something that could move them; something that could really feed and nourish them; something that could really change them. They were interested in an energy source that could really heal them. When I think of all the libraries of books written about Jesus, I am aware of the vast array of ways of thinking about him and evaluating him. But beneath all the theories, what he was,. was a powerfully energetic human being . He was a human being who not only manifested and radiated powerful energy, he was a man who was deeply and uninterruptedly connected with the very foundational energy in the universe itself. Jesus was deeply and uninterruptedly connected to the power of life, the power of creation. The choice of words we choose to describe this reality is ultimately irrelevant. What is important is the fact is that this ultimate, divine power is there. It is here. It exists. And we have the possibility of being connected with that energy source, of being connected in an uninterrupted way with that fundamental, foundational life force; with the energy force, which is the Divine creational force behind the universe.
The reason we are still talking about Jesus 2,000 years after his physical life, is precisely because he was so uninterruptedly connected to that foundational energy source, that foundational life power, that foundational creative power. This is the same force that has created us, and indeed has created all things. So those people who were fascinated by him, they weren’t just taken in by good looks; they weren’t just fascinated by someone who could play a role well; they weren’t just fascinated by a man who happens to have been able to gather in a large material store. What they were interested in was the appearance of somebody who was profoundly alive; and they were also interested in somebody whose profound aliveness manifested in the form of authentic caring, authentic compassion, authentic concern, someone who could really make a difference in their lives, not because of his status, but because he had the power to demonstrate to them true life, and true compassion, and he had the power to free them from the mental patterns that were keeping them disconnected from that true power of life.
Jesus clearly had no interest in celebrity or in the attention others gave him. He wasn’t seeking to have his likeness painted; he didn’t appear to have any interest in being interviewed; he wasn’t reading polls, talking in sound bites, pitching any products; he wasn’t seeking to outdo any competitors. He was there to do what he believed that his inner voice called him to do. That meant consistently to keep loving people, consistently to keep his heart open, consistently to keep himself listening for that inner guidance. To live life in this way, is not just something to be praised, it is also something to be emulated. That to me is a profoundly important concept. It’s a concept we’ll be talking about in our study in July. Christianity has put a lot of its energy into adulation of this man who lived 2,000 years ago. I would suggest to you what is really important about Jesus is not that we give him our adulation, but that we give him our emulation. To hold Jesus in high regard is understandable, and can be beautiful. But what’s really important is to follow the example we see in him. We see him as a template for modeling our life and our own approach to life.
So may our personal walk with the ultimate, with our higher power - the divine - with God - be increasingly based on more and more openness to the aliveness, the power, the creative power of the Divine, including the important ways we see it in the luminous, radiant power of Jesus, we call Christ. We ask and offer all these things today trusting in his power and truth and goodness, and trusting in the eternal availability of God’s presence and spirit. In his name we pray it. Amen.
