“Keep on trusting!”

This is the manuscript from the sermon preached on 7/8 July.  The accompanying scripture is Mark 6:1-12.

           

“Jesus was amazed at their unbelief.”  That’s how Jesus reacts to the home town crowd.  He is amazed at their unbelief.  Jesus, the mover and the shaker, the calmer of storms and bringer of new life, the one who comes with healing in his hands, can get no more than a tepid applause from those in his home town.  Yes, he lays his hands on a few people and he is able to cure them, but beyond those isolated incidents, the people just look at him in disbelief.  His own people, his family, his distant kinfolk, cannot believe what they are seeing or what they are hearing.  So Jesus just shakes his head and walks away. 

This is an important moment for the movement of Mark’s Gospel.  We should not tread lightly here, even though it seems convenient to glaze over this issue of the home crowd’s unbelief and pass it off as them being too familiar with Jesus, with the boyhood Jesus or whatever other image they had of Jesus.  Something much larger is at stake. 

So far in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has only been rejected by the demonic forces he encounters, the religious leaders who are plotting to kill him, and folks from a gentile town who watched in horror as Jesus ran their herd of pigs into the sea.  This moment occurs in Jewish country, the home town folk, and begs us to look deeper.  This moment was not expected, but in the long arc of Mark’s Gospel, it foreshadows the ultimate rejection of Jesus, the Messiah, by the very people he was sent to serve.  This is a moment that foreshadows the cross. 

The word at the center of this moment is unbelief, ἀπιστίαν, but I think that it is better translated as “lack of faith.”  The root of this word is πίστις, the word we translate as faith.  It is the lack of faith by the home town crowd that hinders Jesus from his ministry of teaching and healing.  It is a lack of faith the keeps Jesus from the deeds of power that he has performed up to this point in the story.  It is a lack of faith that stops the kingdom of God in its tracks in the home town of Jesus and causes him to walk away.  The home town folk do not seem to have faith that Jesus can help them and so he is left powerless in their midst.  And it is heart breaking.   

            And what is so heart breaking about this lack of belief, this lack of faith, is the lack of response by the people.  Jesus comes to town offering a relationship and is met with silence.  In every healing story so far in Mark’s Gospel, at the heart of what takes place, is someone reaching out to Jesus and Jesus responding with grace and healing.  The kingdom of God breaks into the world through Jesus taking interest in people and their well-being.  The kingdom of God is about giving people new life through love and service.  And that’s exactly what Jesus offers.  He loves people.  He reaches out to meet their needs.  Jesus is all about forming relationships.  But in his home town he is met with no response.  The sick are left at home.  The troubles are left on the shelf.  No one comes forward for help of any kind, as if there is nothing wrong in the world which is laughably untrue.  And Jesus is amazed at their lack of faith.            

Because faith has everything to do with action.  Faith is not static or stationary, faith is on the move.   As Frederick Buechner writes, “Faith is better understood as a verb than as a noun, as a process than as a possession.  It is on-again-off-again rather than once-and-for-all.  Faith is not being sure of where you’re going, but going anyway. ” Faith is not something we have, it is something that we live out with our lives.  Faith is about relationships.  Faith is about trusting God and others.  Faith and trust lie at the heart of our relationship with God and one another.   

Last week we heard the story of Jarius the Synagogue leader and his dying daughter.  I am sure Jarius believed in Jesus, but it was faith and trust that led Jarius to seek out Jesus and fall at his feet.  And when the bad news came from the house, I am sure Jarius’ faith slipped away, but Jesus was right beside him.  “Do not fear.  Keep on believing.”  Or to get at the heart of what Jesus is saying; “Do not fear!  Keep on trusting!”  Keep on trusting Jarius.  Because if Jesus can raise the bleeding woman to new life, then surely he can raise your daughter.  There is enough power to go around.  Keep on trusting.  That is faith.    

Faith and trust give us the courage to take the first steps of the journey of following Jesus.  Yes we may believe in Jesus and believe in what he has to say, but he is asking us to follow.  Jesus is asking us to trust him as we walk along the way of discipleship.  Jesus is asking us to trust him as we participate in the kingdom of God by loving and serving our neighbors.  And friends, we are empowered for the journey.  Just as he sent the disciples out with his authority, he sends us out empowered and set free to follow and serve.    

A little over a year ago I was invited to preach at my home church.  I went to preach to the home town crowd.  At the time my home church was engaged in a heated debate that was dividing the faith community.  I was scared out of my mind.  Clearly it was a moment that I knew I would be accepted or rejected for, but it was a moment where the rubber met the road of taking the steps of faith and trusting that Jesus was already part of the journey.  Trusting that God’s kingdom is already at work in our world.  To this day there are people who will not speak to me or acknowledge my presence, but the good news was shared and the kingdom was proclaimed.  Jesus calls us not to dwell in the moments of rejection.  He empowers us to move on and keep spreading the Gospel.  Not to worry over being rejected, but to rejoice in the kingdom.  To rejoice in God’s love for all.  To let go and trust in God. 

Is it risky to live out our faith by following Jesus?  Yes.  Will we be met with opposition as we spread the good news about God?  Yes.  Might we be rejected when we try to love and serve others in the name of Jesus?  Clearly!  If today’s story from Mark is any indication, the way of following Jesus will be filled with both acceptance and rejection.  If we follow Jesus, there will be times when we will be both loved and potentially hated for loving and serving God.  But Jesus is right there beside us, “Do not fear!  Keep on trusting!”     Jesus has empowered us, just as he empowered the disciples, to spread the good news of God’s kingdom with all whom we met.  Jesus calls us to respond to what we believe by taking the steps of faith and trust!

            Dear friends, we have been entrusted with the good news of God’s kingdom and have been called to share that good news with the world. Through our baptism into Jesus Christ, we have been empowered to take the steps of faith and to follow Jesus along the way of discipleship.  We can trust that Jesus will be with us as we love and serve our neighbors.  Do not fear people of God, keep on trusting.  Keep on following Jesus.  May God stir up your faith, this day and always, as you share the good news of God’s love with the world.    

“New hope. New being. New life.”

This is the manuscript from the sermon preached on the weekend of July 1.  The supporting scripture reading is Mark 5:21-43.

You could have cut the tension in the house with a knife.  Everyone was looking at Jesus.  He had just run the mourners turned comedy troupe out of the house for laughing at his suggestion that the little girl was only sleeping.  It seems that the weeping and mourning over the injustice of a little girl’s death was no match for the ridiculous notion that she could still be alive.  “Why do you make a commotion and weep?” Jesus said, “The child is not dead but sleeping?”  But how can that be?  

These people knew death all too well.  The grief of the mother and the father was real.  The pain at losing their child was real.  A future where she would no longer darken the door of that house had seemed so certain.  But this reality was deemed poppycock by Jesus and he is met with laughter.  He throws the would-be mourners out of the house and then reaches for the mother’s hand as he walks to the backroom. 

            The air is still and the house is on pins and needles.  The girl lies quite and tranquil as if she is only sleeping, but there is no hope in Jarius as Jesus reaches out for her hand.  Yes, there had been hope at the dock, when Jesus got off the boat.  There had been hope as the crowd pressed in and around them as Jarius fell at Jesus’ feet pleading, “My little girl is at the point of death.  Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live.”  There had been hope when Jesus agreed to come along and the long procession to the house started.  But that hope was killed hours ago by bad news in the market, “your daughter is dead.  Why trouble the teacher any further.”  

            But Jesus was not troubled by those words, “Do not fear, keep on believing,” he said to Jarius.  Jesus had not lost hope.  And so here he is in the backroom of the house of Jarius, Jesus has his hand outstretched and taking the hand of the little girl’s in his he says, “Talitha cum.”  Like a mother calling to her child in the sweetness of the early morning, “Talitha cum.”  Mark translates it for those of us who don’t speak Aramaic, “Little girl, I say to you, rise!” 

 And immediately she rises.  Just like Simon’s mother-in-law, who was dead back in chapter 1, she rises.  Just like Jesus, who was dead as a door nail in the tomb for three days until that first Easter morning, she rises.  Mark uses the same word to describe each one of these events, the Greek word ἐγείρω (hegero) which means to rise.  This is a word of resurrection that Marks uses in each instance.  Mark wants us to make this connection because this is a story of resurrection.  This is the power that resides in Jesus.  This is the power that took away the sting of death.  This is the power of the kingdom of God.  Jesus raises this girl to new life.         

And all in the room are amazed at what has just happened.  Just as the women are amazed at the empty tomb and the words of the young man, “He has been raised, he is not here.”  In the midst of all the commotion, Jesus, keeping his head about him calls for something to eat.  Surely the girl must be hungry. 

            I wonder if Jarius, even in his joy, had a moment of déjà vu.  After all, he had already seen this moment play out before him that very afternoon.  He was part of the crowd when the woman had reached out for Jesus.  He had been a witness to the whole scene.  He was not the only one who had been waiting for Jesus at that dock.      

            In the crowd there had been another who has been waiting, a woman who thought that it was finally her chance.  Mark gives her no name, only a sad story of twelve years of pain.  For twelve years she has been bleeding.  For twelve years she has been throwing money at doctors who always tell her they just don’t know what is wrong.  She has spent all that she has and she is no better, only worst.  For twelve long years she had been as good as dead to the community.  An outsider.  Unclean.  Unwelcomed.  As good as dead because no one seemed to care if she was alive and no one lifted a finger to help.  Perhaps she had been stealing away to the dock, hoping against hope that Jesus would come and now she seizes her moment.  “If I but touch his cloths I will be made well.”  

Out of the crowd she moves quickly and in a moment her waiting is over.  As she touches the cloak of Jesus she feels it in her body, she is finally healed, and from her escapes a sign of relief that has been waiting twelve long years.  But this moment is not hers alone, Jesus too senses that something had transpired.  He feels that power has left him, so in the middle of the crowd he stops.  “Who touched me?” 

Jarius looks murderous at the sudden halt.  The disciples scoff at Jesus’ thought that he could tell that someone touched him when so many were pressing upon him.  The woman’s sign of joy is immediately stifled by fear.  As Jesus is looking around, she could have made a break for it, but in fear and trembling she falls at his feet, telling him the whole truth. 

It’s a moment of true grace.  Jesus speaks words of healing to this woman.  “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”  It is another moment of resurrection.  “Daughter, your faith has made you whole.”  No longer is she unwelcomed or unclean.  No longer is she as good as dead, Jesus has raised her to new life.  She is a daughter.  Part of the family.  She has a place in God’s kingdom.  That’s the power of the one who was sent into the world, not to condemn, but to save.  Jesus brings new life.  Jesus chooses not to leave people to struggle under the conditions that steal their lives away.  He chooses to reach out and change them.  That’s the power of Jesus.  That’s the power of the kingdom of God.  That is the outcome of being resurrected.  New hope.  New being.  New life. 

Resurrection is still going on today dear friends, and it’s happening right before our eyes.  This week I had the chance to visit Learn to Fish Recovery program.  This is the program that we were introduced to a few weeks ago, a program for which we are collecting money and raising awareness.  You may have seen the bulletin board out in the narthex.  This program is all about resurrection.  It’s about giving people new life.  The goal of Learn to Fish is to protect the family unit and break the cycle of abuse and dysfunction that tears families apart.  Abuse steals life away.  Abuse renders people all but dead, only partially alive.  Through Learn to Fish, women are given a chance to live in a safe, structured environment where they are given the opportunity to heal.  A network of support is provided, skills sets are allowed to develop and grow, and transformation begins to take shape.  Resurrection happens as women are brought to new life.  “Do not fear, keep on believing,” as Jesus says.

Our lives too are filled with these moments of resurrection.  Over and over again during the course of our lives we find ourselves in need of being resurrected.  We may be broken physically, emotionally, spiritually, only partially alive, not able to celebrate the fullness of the life that we have been given.  But Jesus comes to us and says to us, “Rise!”  The power that is in Jesus Christ gives new life not only to those who have died but also to us who only partially live.  Through family and friends, Jesus says to us, “Rise.”  Through faith communities like this, Jesus says to us, “Rise.”  So “rise” dear people of God.  Hear those words as you come away from the table, “Rise my daughters, fed and forgiven!”  “Rise my sons, blessed and set free.”  Jesus empowers us to share in the fullness of his new life, in his resurrection, in his life changing love.  “Do not fear, keep on believing,” Jesus says to us all.