saner-than-thou

The Word for today:
Mark 3.20-35

Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." (Mark 3:20-21)

I went to a standard church-on-the-corner for about ten years.

What I remember of the place is that the people were so sane and reasonable there that it almost drove me crazy. I mean, it’s not normal for that many people to be so normal.

I mean it. I distinctly remember thinking that the people there were saner than Jesus, and I longed for someone crazy that I could relate to.

But that person never showed up, so I had to look for friends in the Bible, where the crazies are wall to wall:

Noah—the ultimate eccentric
Abraham—faith that real will get you arrested
Jacob—crazy in general, and even crazier about Rachel
Samson—never admitted to polite society
Elijah—bouts of clinical depression
Solomon—where to begin? Let me count the ways…
And finally (dare I say it?) Jesus—

Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." (Mark 3:20-21)

So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me." (John 2:15-17)

At these words the Jews were again divided. Many of them said, "He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?" (John 10:19-20)

To be sure, there are more sane people in scripture than there are otherwise. And to be fair, the people on the list above are not so much crazy as they are hyper-sane or just misunderstood.

But I do see in the church a higher percentage of saner-than-thous than I can find in the Bible. And I don’t see why, with all these biblical examples to the contrary, we effect the masks of normalcy and consistency and surface sanity to the extent that we do.

So if you’re a little off center, please, please drop the mask. I was looking for you back there on the corner. I looked for a long, long time, until I just had to give up.

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