Healing Faith

Mark 5:21-43

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“The elderly woman thought she had a severe cold and was shocked to learn that what she really had was a significant case of congestive heart failure.  Her physician, Dr. Dale Matthews, an associate professor of medicine at the Georgetown University, was concerned about her progress and yet a week later, was “pleased and astounded” to see her greatly improved having lost twenty-five pounds of fluid around her heart.

            He said, “There was more to her recovery than a superb response to the medicine, there was also prayer.”  From the time she came to him with her illness, Dr. Matthews prayed with her and for her, as did her family and her church.  Prayer is part of his standard medical practice, having been influenced by his physician father and a grandfather who served as a medical missionary.  With each patient he asks if they are comfortable with prayer.  If they are not, he lets it be, but if they are he asks them if he would like him to pray at the end of the visit.  Sometimes, he says, “They weep.”[1]

            This professor of medicine recognized what we all know by experience – body and soul are one.  A body is broken or bent by disease impacts our spirits and can lead to depression, and when spiritual resources are depleted, health can suffer as well. 

            This morning’s message is about healing in the name of Christ, all kinds of healing in the name of Christ.  You can hardly read four consecutive pages in the New Testament without bumping into a story about someone needing Christ to touch them, because both Jesus and those who follow him recognized that connection between body and soul.  Before we turn to the next page, let us pray:

            Lord, you have been called the “Great Physician” able to heal body and soul, so we come to you now seeking wholeness and health.  Speak to us through your word so that we might learn to pray as we ought, and grant us patience and the willingness to receive your healing touch.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth we pray.  Amen.

What would you do, how far would you be willing to go to help your child if he or she were sick or in distress of any kind.  Is there any price that would be too high, any effort that would seem too much?  Chances are you would be willing to do anything to help.

That’s the way a man named Jarius looked at it. He was one of the leaders of the synagogue and so by nature suspicious of Jesus’ and his new-fangled ideas about God.  But, when it came to the health and welfare of his little girl he was a father first.  So, when he heard that Jesus had healed people before he asked him, “can you heal my little girl”?  In fact, the Bible says he begged Jesus and begged him repeatedly because that’s what you do for you do for your daughter.

So, Jesus went with him to see the little girl.  On the way people, in fact a lot of people, gathered around Jesus because they had heard the same stories Jarius had.  In the anonymity of the crowd, a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve year snuck in close.  She had to sneak in because her condition rendered her unclean under Jewish Law.  This had nothing to do with dirty laundry and sanitation. It had nothing to do with fear of catching a communicable disease. It had everything to do with ritual and symbol.

Symbols matter. We’ve seen that these past days surrounding the debate over the Confederate Flag flying over the South Carolina capitol building.  The heinous and sinful shooting that took the lives of the pastor and eight members of the Emmanuel AME church in Charleston has focused attention on a flag which is a symbol for many of the oppression of African-Americans and the institution of slavery.

Now the flag was not responsible for the deaths of those 9 brothers and sisters in Christ.  The ignorance and racism and the forty-five caliber handgun of twenty-one year old Dylan Roof was.  He was the one who pulled the trigger after being graciously welcomed for over an hour in a Bible study by the good people of this congregation. He is the one who is responsible and he will be the one held accountable by the judicial system of South Carolina and more importantly by the judgement of a holy and righteous God.

 But, the picture he posted of himself holding the gun he used to kill and the confederate flag which was for him an important symbol of his anger prompts many to conclude it is time to pull that flag down and off of public institutions and into museums designed to help us remember our history.  And I agree.

The Bible puts it this way.  “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.  Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other.[2]

That’s the way Jesus looks at things.  When he through the crowd this woman who was symbolically unclean wanted only to quietly touch his robe in hopes that she might be healed.  She wanted to do this quietly.  She didn’t want anyone to know she was there.  She didn’t even want Jesus to know she was there.

One of the reasons people tend to see faith as a religion about God instead of a relationship with God is the sense that they are not worthy of the attention of an Almighty God. "My problems are too small for God to care about." or "With all the pain and suffering in this world, why would God care about me?" are a couple of ways people give expression to this sense of insignificance. Their question is, "How can one so great care for one so small."

Have you ever felt that sense of insignificance? There have been times when I've gazed into the incredible expanse of a starlit sky and felt ever so small and insignificant. Even our planet is hardly a speck of dust in the vast cosmos.

A mother overheard her little girl’s prayer, “Our Father, who art in heaven, how did you know my name?” We ask the same question.

And yet, the heart of the lesson for today says that God is attentive to the heartache and suffering of all persons, no matter how insignificant they may seem to the world around them.

The woman in the story almost counts on the fact that she is insignificant in the eyes of her townsfolk. "I'll simply steal my way through the crowd and reach out and touch his clothes -- no one will ever know and perhaps I will be healed."

We can only imagine what it must have been like for the poor woman to have the whole attention of God and the town turn directly to her with, "Who touched my clothes?"

The encounter turned out to be more than she could ever have dreamed of. She was not only healed, she was able to with God's peace and a relationship with the God who cared for her when the world had turned its back.

There is no such thing as an insignificant person with God! ² What a wonderful thought that one so great should care for one so small.

            Meanwhile Jarius the ruler of the synagogue was tapping his toe and taking deep sighs and looking at his watch while waiting for Jesus.  Remember they were supposed to be going to his house to heal his daughter.  This interruption proved to be fatal because no sooner had Jesus healed this woman and called her to the attention of the crowd so that they would know she was now O.K., than a servant came and said the little girl had died.

            Although the Bible doesn’t say, you can imagine what the father was feeling.  “Jesus, if you had not stopped to help this woman you may have arrived in time to help my daughter. But, now it’s too late.”  

            That’s the way many of us look at the world.  There is only so much time and so many resources.  It is a zero-sum game in which we are all in competition with each other to get ours even if it means someone else doesn’t get theirs.  That’s how we see things.  It is not how a great and eternal and almighty God looks at the world.

            So, Jesus assures Jarius, “Do not fear, only believe.”[3]

            Now, why is belief so important?  Well, without it we never begin.  If you don’t believe you can do something you will never try.

            Let me give you an example.  Last week Charlotte and I went up to Vermont to a place called the New Life Hiking Spa.  Each day began with a hike and you could choose the beginner which they kindly called the nature hike, or the intermediate or the advanced.

            On the first day I was confident that I could do better than the beginner so I joined the intermediate hike that went up a hill somewhat higher than Rocky Ridge overlooking a quaint village called Woodstock.  I did great; never even broke a sweat. So, the next day I joined the advanced hike which followed the Appalachian Trail to the top of a mountain called White Rocks.  This was harder, but I was still doing O.K.  I reached the top right behind the guide.

            On the last day we tackled Mount Killington which is the second highest mountain in Vermont.  There I met my match.  Before we were a third of the way up I was huffing and puffing and thinking it would be a lot easier to go down than up, to give up instead of going on.  But, my guide was with me every step of the way and kept encouraging, “You can do it.  You just have to believe you can do it.”  He also told me a lot of lies like, “we’re almost there” and “it’s not far now.”

            Still, I believed I could do it because he believed I could do it and I made it the top and almost saw Jesus.

            This is why faith matters. We need to focus not on Christ and not the crisis.  And we need the help and encouragement of others. That’s why Peter and James and John were there.  While Jesus attended to the little girl the apostles comforted the father.

            That is the other great truth we’ve drawn from the Emmanuel congregation.  Within hours of this great tragedy, the people drew together in a tight circle. Within days the people of South Carolina and the nation drew together and often comfort in whatever manner they could find.

Felicia Sanders, whose 26-year-old son, Tywanza Sanders, was the youngest person to die in Wednesday's rampage said to Dylan Roof, “We welcomed you Wednesday night in our Bible study with welcome arms”, but "You have killed some of the most beautiful people that I know. Every fiber in my body hurts." “Tywanza Sanders was my son. But Tywanza Sanders was my hero.” Still she prayed and said directly to this assassin, "May God have mercy on your soul."

This heinous crime was committed against people of faith in a house of God and perhaps that explains why their response is so different from what we saw in Ferguson Missouri or in Baltimore. Their response demonstrates the importance of faith.  They have focused on the crisis, but on Christ because:

 Jesus, their Lord and Savior said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”, and so they are merciful.[4] 

 Jesus, their Lord and Savior said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God”, and so they are the children of God.[5] 

Jesus, their Lord and Savior said, “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted”, and so they are comforted by God and by a nation.[6] 

Jesus, their Lord and Savior said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” and so it is.”[7]

Jesus, their Lord and Savior said, “You are the light of the world…Let your light shine”, and so they do.[8]

The shooter said he did this to start a race war, but in fact the opposite is happening.  We’ve seen people of every race and color come together to offer comfort and support.  The city in which the civil war began with the shots fired on Fort Sumter is now becoming a beacon of hope for racial healing and reconciliation and it is being led by a Christian church and by people of faith.

To Dylan Roof, I would quote this passage for Genesis chapter 50 verse 20.  “You meant this for evil, but God is using it for something good.”

That is the nature of the God we worship and follow.  Pray that we become part of God’s way of transforming what others intend for evil into something good.

Let us pray:

Loving God, in your majesty you number the stars in the heavens; and in your mercy, you heal the broken hearts of earth. In Jesus you entered our human estate as a helpless infant. You have borne our mortal flesh and are acquainted with our grief. You are ever present with us to comfort and uphold. Sensitize us to the hurt of individuals all around us. Use us as instruments of your mercy in a world full of loneliness and misery. Help us to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill your long love through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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[1] Mathias, Barbra:  The Power of Prayer – And the Part It Plays in People’s Health.  Washington Post.

[2] 1 Corinthians 10:23

[3] Mark 5:36

[4] Matthew 5:7

[5] Matthew 5:9

[6] Matthew 5:4

[7] Matthew 5:10

[8] Matthew 5:14,16

Storm Warning

Mark 4:35-41

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            My college roommate’s name was Andy. I may have mentioned him before. He majored in accounting, but he didn’t want to be an accountant.  He wanted to be a pilot, but his father who was paying for his education said accounting was safer. So Andy went to accounting class.  But, after class, he went flying.  He needed to accumulate airtime for his various certifications so he would just pick out an airport on the map and fly to it and then come back.

            That’s where I came in.  Andy wanted company on these trips so he would invite me to fly along.  Sometimes, when I wasn’t doing anything in particular, I would go.  Since we were young and immortal somewhere along this carefully planned route Andy would get bored with flying level at 5,000 feet.  To break up the monotony, he would put the plane on a roller coaster ride that would rival anything you’ll find at King’s Dominion.

            Andy had fancy aeronautical terms for these aerobatics.  He called them “Shondells,” and “Hammerhead Stalls,” and such.  I had a different name for these maneuvers.  I called them “panic attacks.”  But, I was 19 and not about to admit that I was afraid of anything.  So, I would hold on tight, close my eyes, and weigh my fear against my faith in Andy’s ability. 

            Most of the time my faith in Andy held, but every once in a while when the engine was screaming and the earth was filling our windshield, fear would prevail, and I would yell out with every fiber in my being, “Andy, pull up!”  I always felt bad when I did that, when fear triumphed.  I don’t know why, maybe it was hearing Andy’s sly snicker, but somehow it felt like failure.

            Chuck Swindoll described a similar experience while flying and landing in a blanket of fog:

Fear—the phantom giant.  Drifting in through cracks in the floor boards or filtering down like a chilling mist, the fog called “Fear” whispers omens of the unknown and the unseen.  Surrounding individuals with its blinding, billowy robe, the creature hisses, “What if...what if...”  One blast of its awful breath transforms saints into atheists, reversing a person’s entire mind-set.  Its bite releases a paralyzing venom in its victim, and it isn’t long before doubts begin to dull the vision.[1]

            Our story from the Gospel of Mark is about the polarity between faith and fear.  It is about people like you and me who find themselves tossed about by forces beyond their control.  It seeks an answer to the question, “How deep is my faith?”  Before we set course on these troubled waters, let us pray:

            Lord, you have said, “perfect loves casts out all fear”.[2] So, we yearn for that love, because we struggle with the fears that come from living in an uncertain world.  There are so many unknowns and too many questions.  We yearn for the peace that comes when you still the storm.

            Still the storms within our souls, we pray, that we may leave the troubled waters behind.  This we ask in the name of the One who has that power, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

            The Sea of Galilee is only eight miles wide and 13 miles long, but it sits in a basin between high hills.  Sometimes the warm, moist air of the Mediterranean clashes with cooler air that funnels down from Lebanon.   Violent storms erupt and turn the lake into a washing machine.

            The day described in the fourth chapter of Mark was evidently one of those days.  “On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side...’ And a great storm of wind arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.  But, Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion”.[3]

            For a time Jesus remained asleep because Peter and Andrew and a few of the others were fisherman were well acquainted with the lake.  It was where they made their living.  They had weathered rough water before so they didn’t think they needed any help.  The strength of their arms, the wisdom of their own experience had brought them through white-capped waves before.  So, they let Jesus sleep while they relied upon themselves.

            That set a pattern that has been followed over the years by many a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Upon peaceful waters we do tend to rely upon ourselves and let God remain asleep.  God is not sleeping, of course. We just treat him that way.  Days and days can go by and we give God no more thought than we would a sparrow fluttering in a tree.  We may have some awareness through some inner sense within us that God is here, but in all honesty we really pay no attention.

            It is like the story told by an adventurer Harry Pidgeon.  He had circled the globe in a small sailboat.  Once, during an interview, he asked the interviewer, “Do you know the most dangerous thing a man sailing alone has to face?”  The interviewer responded, “I suppose storms and rocks.”

            “You’re wrong” Pigeon said. “It wasn’t storms I was afraid of, but the clear, calm weather when a good breeze was blowing.  In a gale when a man goes on deck, he holds fast to something, for he knows he might fall overboard; but in fair weather he’s apt to walk around the deck without thinking.  Then, a little roll of the boat can throw him overboard; and he is lost.”[4]

            For many of us that is the story of our lives.  We’re just wandering around the deck of the boat admiring the blues skies and the white billowy clouds when suddenly the wind shifts and we find ourselves in a situation that is over our heads.  The roll of the boat can come upon us through a doctor’s diagnosis, or a pink slip in an envelope, or by the bitter words, “I don’t love you anymore.”  From whatever direction the storm blows, when the waves begin to fill our boat, we all look upward and cry out “God, wake up!  I need you now!”   So, God becomes for us a life preserver that we frantically search for when the waves crash over the bow.

           

            One preacher put it this way, “Fear leads to despair that God does not care!”[5] In the midst of the storm, when things aren’t working out many of us come to that same conclusion: God doesn’t seem to care.

            A while back two prominent movie stars died in separate alcohol related accidents.  William Holden died in a drunken fall, hitting his head on a table.  Natalie Wood drowned when, after drinking, she fell off of her yacht and into the ocean.  A friend who was close to both of them, actress Stephanie Powers, was quoted in the newspapers as saying, “Two of my best friends are gone; how can a God who is supposed to be kind and loving allow this to happen?” [6]

            In grief and perhaps in fear, this actress came to the same conclusion that even Jesus’ disciples had come to.  God doesn’t care.  If God did care, the seas would always be calm, and God would protect us even when we are drunk or act foolishly.  But, there are no storm-less seas, and good sailors know they must expect them.  As Jesus said, “It rains on the just and the unjust”.[7]  It flat out rains on everyone.

            An old Quaker once stood up in a Friends meeting and told the congregation about a young man he knew.  “This young man”, he said, “lived a very undisciplined life and did not believe in the truths of the faith.  One day he asked a pious Quaker friend to go sailing.  A sudden storm came up and the undisciplined and unbelieving youth was drowned.”

           

            Having said this, the old Quaker sat down.  He had obviously made his point about where undisciplined and irreligious living will lead.  But after few minutes, he stood up again and said to the meeting: “Friends, for the honor of the truth, I think I ought to add that the Quaker was also drowned.”[8]   

            The reality of life is that Jesus doesn’t always stand up in the boat and calm the storm.  But, in this case he did, and we can learn something from that.

            Jesus responds to the disciple’s pleas in two ways.  First, he stills the storm.  Jesus calls out, “Peace!  Be still!” and the “wind ceased and there was a great calm”.  Second, Jesus turns to the disciples who are still gaping at the audacity Jesus showed at giving a command to the weather and at Jesus’ ability to change what everyone else can only complain about.  Then Jesus asks, “Why are you afraid?  Have you no faith?”

            From that brief encounter we learn two things.  First, Christ is sovereign and in control.  Second, there is a polarity between fear and faith that each of us must wrestle with.

            Jesus is Lord.  Mark had already told us that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and has the authority even over the Law of God.[9]  Mark had shown us that Jesus has power even over the devil.[10]  Now Mark reveals that Jesus is Lord even of creation itself.  The calming of the storm has to do with Jesus’ announcement that “our God reigns.”  Jesus was so confident of that truth that he could fall asleep in the middle of the storm.

            Faith begins and ends with this understanding.   God is sovereign—God is in control.  We may not know what the future holds, but we believe that God holds the future in the palm of His hand.  We believe God’s love is perfect and the Bible says, “Perfect love casts out all fear”.[11]

            That’s why Jesus was troubled by the disciple’s seemingly quite natural fear.  For when the waves were once again gently lapping at the boat, Jesus turned to his friends and asked, “Why are you afraid, have you no faith?”

            This is a tough question, because fear is an instinctive response and can be a good thing.  It keeps us alive sometimes.

            I remember years ago, walking along the Appalachian Trail on a beautiful summer’s day.  Lost in thought, I was listening to the birds sing and watching puffy clouds laze against an azure sky, when suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw that I was about to step on the biggest blackest snake I’d ever seen.  Fear instantly kicked in and pumped enough adrenalin into my blood to enable me to jump at least twenty-five feet straight up in the air.  There are dangerous things we are supposed to be afraid of.

A great storm would seem to fit into that category, so maybe it was not fear of the wind that Jesus referred to.  Maybe it was something else.  Maybe it was a fear that God wasn’t there or doesn’t care and that’s why Jesus just kept sleeping while the waves washed over the bow?  Maybe they were afraid that Jesus was not who they thought he was.

            If that’s the case Jesus question, “Why are you afraid, have you no faith”, makes perfect sense. Each one of must weigh our faith against our fear.  Each one of us must struggle against the fear that leads to despair that God isn’t there or doesn’t care.

            Mark Twain put it this way.  “The difference between what you believe and what you almost believe is the difference between the lightning and the lightning bug.”

            This story of troubled waters follows a parable that Jesus told of different kinds of faith.  You may know the story.  A sower went out to sow.  Seed landed on different kinds of soil: hard, rocky, weed-infested, and good.   The seed that fell on the hard ground never takes root.  The seed that falls on the rocky soil takes root, but the soil is shallow.  The seed that falls on the weed-infested soil takes roots but is choked out by worldly concerns.

            Finally, seed lands on the good soil, takes root, grows, and bears fruit.  Now, I am sure that when Jesus’ disciples heard this story, they were thinking, “Thank God, I’m the good soil.”

            They had followed Jesus, listened to Jesus, and seen him perform miracles.  They had to be thinking that they were the good guys in this parable.

            Then they get in a boat, and the wind kicks up, and water starts to fill the boat.  Now, they’re not so sure.  Maybe their faith isn’t so deep after all.  Remember what Chuck Swindoll said, “Fear transforms saints into atheists”  and I think sometimes atheists to saints.

            The mystery of faith, though, is that we will be tested.  The Apostle Paul endured literal storms at sea that resulted in at least four shipwrecks.[12]  Yet he wrote:

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be shown in us.” [13]

            William Barclay in his book entitled, A Spiritual Autobiography, describes his view of this story.  He writes, “The storms Jesus stills are in the hearts of men, so that, no matter what tempest of trouble or pain or sorrow may blow upon life, with him there is calm.”  For Barclay, these words—this faith—was tested the day his twenty-one year old daughter and her fiancée were both drowned in a yachting accident.   Of that day, Barclay said, “God did not stop that accident at sea, but he did still the storm in my own heart, so that somehow my wife and I came through that terrible time still standing on our own two feet”.[14]

            God stills storms even today.  If your soul is in troubled waters, God will stand by you and still those waters and bring you to safe harbor.  The vessel that will carry you is faith.  And that vessel, leaky at times, rudderless on occasion, will hold you as you hold onto it.  For God has promised to stand by you.

Let us pray:

            Lord, long ago you said, “Let not your hearts be troubled and neither let them be afraid.”[15]  But, we live in a scary world with dangers lurking around every corner and blazoned on every headline, and there are people here today who feel tossed about as in a great storm.  Still those winds we pray and calm those seas and give us the strength to hang on until they do.  Amen.

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[1] Swindoll, Chuck, Killing Giants, Pulling Thorns. Multnomah Press. Pg 15.

[2] 1 John 4:18

[3] Mark 4:35-38

[4] Our Daily Bread, August 12, 1983.

[5] Garland, David: Mark, pg 199. 

[6] Stobe, Donald, Preaching, November 1987, pg 12.

[7] Matthew 5:45

[8] Rauch, William. Clergy journal, April 1982, pg 20.

[9] Mark 2:27

[10] Mark 3:22

[11] 1 John 4:18

[12] Corinthians.11:25, Acts 27:39.

[13] II Corinthians 4:7-10

[14] pg 45.

[15] John 14:1

Family of God

Joshua 24:14-15

Mark 3: 20-35

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            Families come in different shapes and sizes.  Some of them are large and loud and need to rent a whole park pavilion to have a reunion.  Others are small and quiet, maybe just a mother a child.  Some families count as members those who have no blood relationship at all.  You are family through adoption. You are family because of an especially close friendship. It may extend beyond race and religion, beyond national boundaries or ethnic background.

            However small or large your family may be, Jesus is here to tell you it can be larger than you think.  Before we consider his words let us pray:

            New every morning is your love, great God of light, and all day long you are working for the good in the world.  Stir up in us the desire to serve you, to live peacefully with our neighbors and to devote each day to you Son, Our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.  Amen.

            A couple of months ago correspondent, Laura Moser was invited to bring her family and share a Passover dinner at the White House with the President, his wife and other honored guests. She dressed up her two little girls in their finest and introduced them to the President in the Oval office.  Her three year old Claudia was not impressed.  She was tired and cranky so she did what toddlers sometimes do when required to act grown-up in adult situations.  She flew into a full-blown tantrum crying and kicking and falling down at the President’s feet.  This, of course, was photographed and posted on the internet by of all people her own mother, there to live forever.  Mom was clearly embarrassed and I think Claudia will be embarrassed five years from now when her friends tell her they saw her picture on the web.

            So, that prompts the question, Have you ever been embarrassed by someone in your family?  Do you have a crazy uncle or a goofy cousin?  Do you have a picture of your Dad wearing a yellow plaid shirt and purple stripped pants to your sixteenth birthday party?  Maybe your family has a story or two about you.

            For example, Randy told me about the time when he was 10 years old and played his first concert on the piano.  Afterwards there was a receiving line, and one of the people in the audience shook his hand and said to Randy, “You did a great job!” To which Randy proudly replied, “I know!”  At which point his mother yanked him out of the line in order to explain to him the concept of gracious humility. (I’m not sure that lesson ever really took.)

            If you’ve ever been embarrassed by a family member or were and embarrassment to them you’re going to understand why Jesus’ mother and brothers and sisters showed up one day to take him home.  Their embarrassment started the day he put down his hammer and saw and measuring tape and walked out of his carpenter shop.  He went out into the countryside talking to people about the kingdom of God as if he knew the mind of God himself.   People were so impressed some were already beginning to throw around the “M” word, wondering if he was the long awaited Messiah.

            Now to those who grew up with Jesus, who remembered him when he was young - this was crazy talk.  That’s just the way the Bible puts it.  They said “he has gone out of his mind.”[1]  You’d probably react the same way and maybe you have when one of your children decided they were going to go off and do something you thought to be dangerous or foolish or reckless. You may have even said, “I don’t know what’s gotten into that kid.” You just want to get them back home and into a safe and comfortable routine.  You have an idea of what they should be doing and when they don’t you that you try anything and everything to set them right. That’s what Mary and Jesus’ brothers wanted to do.

            This plan return Jesus to the woodshop became all the more urgent when people in positions of power began to hear of Jesus countryside ministry and what people were beginning to say about him.  They didn’t think Jesus was crazy they thought he was Satanic and that everything he was saying and doing was of the devil.

            Now all that Jesus had been doing up until then was healing people who were sick, giving hope to those who had no hope, and light to those who were walking in darkness.  But that’s not what the scribes saw.  That’s not what they heard.  They saw someone who challenged their authority and so they believed the authority of God. For them it was either/or. If Jesus was not of God he must be of the Devil.

            C.S. Lewis said the only three answers that make in sense to the question “Who is Jesus?” is that he was a liar, lunatic or Lord.  If he claimed to be the son of God but knew he wasn’t he was not telling the truth.  If he claimed to be the Son of God and really believed it but was not, then he was mentally unbalanced – he had a messianic complex.  But, if he claimed to be the Son of God and is, then our response can only be to acknowledge him as Lord.

            Jesus points out the flaw in their argument, the fly in their ointment.  To their Satanic charge Jesus asked, “Why would Satan heal, or give hope to the hopeless or light to those who walk in darkness?”   That runs counter to everything the Devil stands for.  Evil loves the darkness does not want to heal of or do good. So he said, “A house divided cannot stand.” 

            Have you heard that expression before?  Does it sound familiar?  Those are the words Abraham Lincoln quoted on June 16, 1858 to the Illinois Republican convention when he was running for the United States Senate.   The context was slavery.  He did not believe our country could long stand divided, slavery in the south and abolition in the north. He believe slavery stood against the freedom that America stood for. 

            Strength is found in unity – not division.   That is true for the soul of a nation or the soul of an individual.

            That’s where Jesus was going when he said, “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven of their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven.”[2]

            Now, this particular verse has been one of the most fearful in all of scripture.  Throughout my ministry I have had more than one person tell me they thought they were beyond the reach of God grace because they believed they had committed this particular sin, because they had said something bad about God – usually on the golf course.  For that reason they felt they were beyond hope and redemption.

            Each time my response has been the same.  If you are worried you have committed this sin – your concern tells me you haven’t.  This is not about saying something bad about God or feeling angry at God or disappointed in God. God’s feelings are not hurt if you’ve said or done any of these things.  How do I know?

            Just browse through scripture and the Psalms in particular and you will find faithful men and women of God say something bad to God because they are feeling angry or disappointed in something they think the Lord has done and hasn’t done.  Even Jesus from the cross lamented, “My God my God why hast thou forsaken me?”

            It’s not the complaints that are unforgivable – it is apathy.  If you don’t care about God or what the Lord thinks or the sins you have committed against God or other people then by definition you will not repent or ask for forgiveness; and if you do not do that how can you be forgiven?

            It is not that God refuses to forgive.  It is that we refuse to acknowledge those time we have sinned against God and others and so remain in our sin separate from God and each other.   In other words, God cannot give you something you don’t want.  God will not force you to accept something you’ve already rejected.  The hardness is not in God’s heart – it is in everyone who through their lives, their words, their attitudes and actions demonstrate they have not place for God in this life and beyond.  That is unforgivable because forgiveness is rejected.

            Meanwhile, back in Capernaum, the family waits outside ready to take Jesus back home and back to his woodshop and so give up his ministry of grace and mercy.  When Jesus hears they are outside he asks, “Who is my mother, who are my brothers?”[3]

            Then he answers his own question, “Whoever does the will of God is my mother and brothers and sisters.”[4] 

Jesus knows what it means to be family. He is not disrespecting his family of birth here; it is from them, after all, that he first learned to treasure the bonds of kinship, bonds that he now draws upon as an image and model for the relationship he seeks to have with us. Jesus simply has a notion of kinship that goes deeper and broader than ours often does. Jesus traces his circle wide, calling us all to be kinfolk to him by doing what God desires us to do. And if kinfolk to him, then kinfolk to one another, with all the delights and aches that come in learning to be a family.

In the sixth century there lived a monk called Dorotheos of Gaza. In one of his sermons, Dorotheos invited his hearers to imagine a circle, with God as the center point.

He then drew lines from the circumference to the center and these lines represented lives of human beings.  Dorotheos said. “…To move toward God, then, human beings move from the circumference along the various radii of the circle to the center. The closer they move to God, the closer they become to one another; and the closer they are to one another, the closer they become to God.”

With such persistence, Jesus works throughout his ministry to draw his hearers deeper into this circle. He defines the circle not as a place for folks who have a shared affinity, or who think the same way, or who hold all the same beliefs in common. The circle goes deeper than friendship and even deeper than our own family.  It creates a new kind of family – a family of God.

In these days there is much that works to divide us and tear us apart and turn us away from one another.  This happens between nations on the world stage.  It happens in the politics of our own nation.  It can even happen in our own family.  It can even happen in our own souls.

Jesus came to draw us closer to God and so closer to each other and he tells us it works the other way as well – as we draw closer to each other we come closer to God. And so may we draw closer to each other as we stretch toward the God who lives at the center of the circle, and who somehow encompasses it—and us—all around.

Lord Jesus, by your grace bring us into your big family. Help us to feel part of the family. Help us to see all people as brothers and sisters in your family. In the name of one who was crucified for hanging out with people like us, we pray. Amen.

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[1] Mark 3:21

[2] Mark 3:28

[3] Mark 3:33

[4] Mark 3:35

Graduation Day

Matthew 29:16-20

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            This is the time of the year when Colleges and High Schools and even preschools have graduation ceremonies.  People where black robes and funny hats and walk in two by two.  Mom and Dad and everyone else who could get a ticket stand up with their cell phones and take pictures and videos to remember the day that could stop paying tuition.

            But, before they get their diplomas someone noteworthy or someone you’ve never heard of at all will stand behind a podium and give a commencement speech.  These words of wisdom are intended to send the graduates out into the world with energy, excitement and enthusiasm.  They are usually filled with bromide like “This is the first day of the rest of your life” or “Your future is filled with opportunity – carpe diem, seize the day” or “make a difference” or “a stitch in time saves nine” or “it’s always darkest before the dawn.”

            But, no one remembers what was said at their graduation.  Do you?

            The gospel of Matthew ends with Jesus’ graduation speech, and that I do remember because it is short and simple and to the point.  That’s where we’re going today.

  Let us pray:

Prepare our hearts, O God, to accept your Word.  Silence in us any voice but your own, that, hearing, we may also obey your will through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

            This command to “Go and make disciples of all nations” has come into a lot of criticism lately because of its refusal to be bound by the walls of a church or the boundaries of a nation or the rules of other religions.  Many believe Christians should just stay in their churches and leave everyone else alone.  There a many reasons for that; some historical and some philosophical.

            Indeed, Christian mission in past has at times been arrogant and patriarchal.  Sometimes it was even violent. 

This temptation to power has been as seductive for the Christian Church as it as been for everyone else and it is a sin we ought to confess. There is no excuse for such behavior.  For some even that apology would not help.  They say, “It’s too late. Christians ought to just stay where they are and let everyone else be.”

            Others sing out “Amen” to that not because of history but because of philosophy. They believe truth is what you make of it.  It is in the eye of the beholder. It is what works for you and nothing more, so there are many truths and they are all relative to the time and culture and individual. So, these truths can be easily changed through popular mandate or by individual conscience. The only absolute truth they affirm is that there is no absolute truth, no reality that transcends perception.

             So, if people have a religion or belief system or worldview or a way of living that makes them happy or gives them peace, Christians ought not intervene and disrupt that status quo with the gospel.  Whatever people are is what they should be - forever.  No one should ever change or be given the option or choice to make up their own minds.

Simply quoting Jesus’ words, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” is an affront to those who hold this post-modernist view and so seen as arrogant.[1]  Anyone who says I know the truth or at least know someone who has the truth or is the truth is foolish and a fanatic and therefore dangerous.

To be sure, people of faith, do sometimes come across as “superior”.  You know, and I know, people who seem a little too eager to challenge and tear down what you believe so that they can replace it with what they believe.  If you’re like me you try to avoid such folks because you know that they will never stop until you surrender.

Hardball evangelism is not something we see from Jesus.  What does the Bible say?  “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.  Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus who did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.”[2]

When Jesus said, “Go into all the world and make disciples”, he did not mean conquer through the power of a clever argument and especially not at the end of a gun.  How do I know that?  He said this is what we should be doing, “Baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and teach them all that I commanded you.”[3]

How did Jesus teach?  What was his method? Look in the twelfth chapter of Mark and you will see five encounters between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day. The Priests and Sadducees, the Pharisees and the Herodians and the scribes who were the intellectual elites of their day all lined up for a crack at Jesus.  Each time they try to set him up and lure him into a useless theological tennis match where the point is only to smash your serve so hard the other side has no chance to respond.  These kinds of arguments always generate more heat than light and no one ever changes their mind because they are so busy thinking about what they are going to say next they never take time to consider what the other is saying.

  Jesus’ words, though, ignite more light than heat.  Nowhere in the gospels do you ever see Jesus browbeat or put someone down to bring them into the kingdom of God. At no time did he ever pick up a sword and command someone to believe. He didn’t even hand out a course curriculum and tell them to study for tomorrow’s test.  How did he do it?

Stanley Hauerwas, a professor of theology and ethics at Duke University said the best way to understand what Jesus does is to watch the way someone learns a craft, for example, to lay brick. 

He said, “to learn to lay brick, it is not enough for you to be told how to do it; you must learn to mix the mortar, build scaffold, joint, and so on.  Moreover, it is not enough to be told how to hold a trowel, how to spread mortar, or how to frog the mortar.  In order to lay brick you must hour after hour, day after day, lay brick.

Of course, learning to lay brick involves learning not only a myriad of skills, but also a language that forms, and is formed by those skills.  For example, you have to become familiar with what a trowel is and how it is be used, as well as mortar, which bricklayers usually call “mud”.  So, “frogging mud” means creating a trench in the mortar so that when the brick is placed in the mortar, a vacuum is created that almost make the brick lay itself. Such language is not just incidental to become a bricklayer but is intrinsic to the practice.  You cannot learn to lay brick without learning to talk “right”.

 

The language embodies the history of the craft of bricklaying.  So when you learn to be a bricklayer you are not learning a new craft, but rather you are being initiated into a history.  You learn from someone more experienced who already knows how to lay brick, whose been there and done that.  In other words, you learn from a master craftsman.”[4]

The relationship between the apprentice and the master craftsman is not democratic. They are not on equal footing.   The apprentice cannot say to the master craftsman, my truth is as good as yours, my way of laying bricks though not the same is just as good, but that’s alright because we are all different and free to celebrate our diversity.  The apprentice who tries that will soon find himself looking for other work, or if the craftsman tells him to try it his own way will find that his wall will not be as straight or strong and it will probably lean and totter and soon fall down.

The relationship between the apprentice and the master is based on the assumption that the master craftsman knows what he is doing and the apprentice should just try to learn as much as he can so that one day he or she may become the master craftsman.  That’s the way it works for bricklayers and surgeons and preachers almost every other profession.  We learn how from those who know.

Those who follow Jesus Christ believe he does know better than the others how we should then live.  He does know this because he knows the mind of God. He is so close to the Father in heaven and the Spirit who moves over the face of the earth, the relationship can only be described as three-in-one – “God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

If becoming a disciple is the same as learning a craft, that means we must learn the language and we must learn by doing. We must read the textbook and it would probably be a good idea to sign up for an Adult Ed. Class to help us with the parts we don’t understand.  Reading textbooks is not enough though.  At some point you have to pick up a brick, to do what Jesus calls us to do – and that, remember, is to make disciples of all nations.

 That command does not mean you have to pick up and go to some far off land, learn a new language, and preach to a people who have never before heard the name of Christ. Sometimes the opportunity to share Christ just falls in your lap.

Most of you saw on TV an example of that only a couple of months ago.  Early on Saturday March 12, a single mother, Ashley Smith, returned to her suburban Atlanta apartment and was ambushed by Brian Nichols.  He had been the focus of the biggest manhunt in Georgia history, wanted for the murders of four individuals in a killing spree that began the day before.

In the hours that followed Ashley engaged the fugitive in conversation.  She told him her husband had died four years earlier and that if anything happened to her, her five-year old daughter wouldn’t have a daddy or a mommy.   Nichols untied her.

Then she pulled out a Bible and a copy of a book called The Purpose Driven Life.   She read from both and told Nichols we all have a purpose, God gives us the talents and abilities and resources to fulfill that purpose.  How did she know this?  She learned it from the Word of God and from the people of God.

His response to her was, “I’m already dead.”  She said, “You’re not dead yet.  It’s still your choice.  You are here for a reason. You’re in my apartment for some reason.”  Then incredibly courageously she told him, “You need to be caught for this.  You need to go to prison, and you need to share God’s word with the prisoners there.” 

Nichols then allowed here to leave and call 911.

 Ashley was only able to respond with such courage in that terrible circumstance because she had been walking with the Lord, deepening her life in prayer, learning God’s Word, and doing whatever she could wherever she was to share that good news.  She had been able to lead another because she had been led herself.

Now, it is my fervent prayer and yours that you will never be placed in such a situation, but there will be times when you will be in the presence of others who more than anything need the love of God in their lives. You won’t need to go to China or Ghana or Pakistan to find them.  They may work in the next cubicle or live down the street or even in the bedroom of your own house.  The choice between silence and service is yours.

The prospect may seem to scary and the responsibility too large, so you need to remember as one preacher put it, “Only Christ can do the big things like convert, win, bring repentance, or move a person to decision – all authority in heaven and earth is his alone.  But, disciples can, must and will do the little thing of  ‘discipling’ others.  That is, they will spend good time with people in the confidence that sooner or later Christ will create in these people the decision for baptism.”[5]

In other words our job is to just show up.

Charles Colson in his book, Kingdoms in Conflict, told of visiting a prison at Jessup, Maryland.  Governor Hughes was there to greet them.  Gospel singer Wintley Phipps was there to sing, and Herman Heade, a former inmate who had been converted to Christ while in solitary confinement, gave a powerful testimony.  But, when asked what had meant the most, one of the prisoners said with a crackling voice:

“I really appreciated Chuck Colson’s message.  Wintley Phipp’s singing stirred me beyond words, and Herman’s testimony reached me right where I was at.  But, frankly, those things didn’t impress me as much as what happened later.  When the TV cameras left, the ladies among the volunteers went into the dining hall, with all the noise and confusion, and sat at the table to have a meal with us.  That’s what really got to me.”

You don’t have to sing like an angel, or preach like Peter and Paul.  You don’t have to have a title or credential.  You can care and show it in a thousand little ways. 

The last thing Jesus said was a reminder, “I am with you always until the end of the age.”[6]

This promise follows this Great Commission.  So, you will find in those times when you do care and share in a thousand different ways the good news of the Gospel – Jesus will be more fully present in your life and heart.  Those of you who have done that even once know this is true.  So, “go and make disciples and teach them the love of God through Jesus Christ” through your attitudes and actions.  Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”[7]

We are in awe of your assurance, Lord that you will be with us always to the end of the age.  We cling to that when we feel weak and heavy laden, but often forget it when we feel strong and in control.  Remind us that we will see you best in the faces of others who are empty and alone and in need of some good news.  So, send us forth with this great commission and grant by your Spirit the power to fulfill it.  Amen.

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[1] John 14:6

[2] Philippians 2:43-4

[3] Matthew 19-20

[4] Hauerwas, Stanley: Discipleship as a Craft, Church as a Disciplined Community. Christian Century, October 1, 1991 pp881-884

[5] Bruner, Frederick Dale

[6] Matthew 28:20

[7] Colossians 3:17