Fifth Sunday after Pentecost / Lectionary 13B

Mark 5:21-43

Telling these two stories Mark makes a sandwich where he begins one story and then tells another and then wraps back around to finish the first story. The gospel writer does this more than a half-dozen times in his gospel – intentionally using two stories to illuminate each other and something about the character of Jesus or the kingdom of God. So as we hear today’s gospel reading we are being asked to listen for what is being revealed to us.

Another reading of the gospel might notice that Mark begins and ends with the sympathetic story of a father and his little daughter, and that the story of the woman’s troubles with her ‘female problems’ is almost hidden within the first story.

I listened to a biblical storyteller telling this story and he dropped the volume of his voice as he told the woman’s story. He said later he wanted to mimic that Mark is narrating the woman’s inner thoughts as she approaches Jesus. But perhaps the softer and quieter voice also reflects how we tend to whisper when we speak of crises, diagnoses and trauma, as if speaking them aloud makes the suffering more real or, more to the point, not speaking them aloud lets us pretend the pain isn’t there.

Of course, the only ones we are fooling are ourselves. The pain and suffering is all too real for the parent whose child has died or the person whose illness has changed the course of their life or activities. It may help us deceive ourselves that tragedy can’t happen to us, but our reticence or silence only widens the distance between us and leaves the other person more alone.

In the story we see this distancing from tragedy happen again after the woman is healed. People come to Jairus to tell him that his daughter has died and say, “Why trouble the teacher any further?”

Even if we didn’t know what happened next, maybe the reason to trouble the teacher is that we need to share our hearts – our joy and our pain – and know that people see us when we are hurting. We need to know we are not alone.

Jesus does not leave us alone.

Jairus the synagogue leader, a Pharisee, is associated with the very same people who, in Mark’s gospel, have already begun conspiring with the Herodians to destroy Jesus. (Mark 3:6) And yet, when his daughter is near death, Jairus comes to Jesus and falls down before him, saying, “I need help.”

And the woman whose hemorrhaging made her ritually unclean hides in plain sight in the crowd and draws near to Jesus, risking everything to touch his clothes, believing that touching him would heal her. (Mark 5:28) And when he notices her touch, different from the jumbling and jostling of the regular crowd, she falls down before him and tells him her whole story, saying, “I need help.”

Why are those three words so difficult to say? “I need help.”

Some of it may be ego. We don’t want to rely on anyone else.

Some it may be denial. If I don’t name whatever it is I am facing, maybe it will just go away.

Some of it may be shame. If I had done x, y or z differently, this wouldn’t be happening.

Jesus hears your objections and your reluctance, and he sees how you are hurting, calls you beloved child, and tells you to believe he is in the messiness of life with you.

Jairus said, “My child is hurting and I cannot fix it and I need help.” The woman said, “My body is sick and I need help.”

What would you say to Jesus?

I don’t know how I will pay my rent next week, and I need help.

I don’t have a safe place to sleep or shower, and I need help.

I am afraid I am going to use or drink, and I need help.

When I am depressed or anxious, my brain lies to me, and I need help.

I am alone, and I need help.

Jesus doesn’t interrogate Jairus about why his daughter is so sick. He doesn’t make the woman justify why she spent all her money on doctors who couldn’t help. What he does is listen to them and accompany them, so they are not alone.

Jesus isn’t even the one who fixes their problems; he credits their healing to their faith and belief.

For any of us who has prayed for someone with a disease that isn’t cured or suffered the death of a beloved, when we hear these stories, even if we never say it out loud, we may think, “If only we had had more faith, my wife/my husband/ my son/my daughter would have been made well.”

That isn’t what is being said here. Many faithful people believe and pray and their loved ones continue to suffer or die. And I cannot make sense of that or explain it, but I can name it.

What I do know is that here, in these two instances, faith healed their physical conditions, but Jesus isn’t there as the faith healer; Jesus is there to bind up the broken-hearted. Jesus is there to say to Jairus that he does not need to be afraid of what is happening to his daughter. Jesus is there to say to the woman that she is not defined by her sickness and she is loved no matter what. The power of God is active in Jesus in restoring dignity and life to these hurting people and in bringing them back into relationship with others.

So, I’ll ask again, “What would you say to Jesus?”

What is going on in your life that you need to come to Jesus and ask for help? Jesus is waiting, ready to call you beloved and listen.

Amen.

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost/Lectionary 12B

Mark 4:35-41

If you like sea stories, there’s some wonderful literature, folklore and myth. There is Samuel Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Homer introduced us to Scylla and Charybdis and the sirens that plagued Odysseus and in the Old Testament we meet Leviathan.

A popular tale is that medieval mapmakers would print “Here be dragons” to signify unknown regions on a map. While that is more fantasy than fact, mapmakers did include illustrations of monsters and fearsome creatures in the unexplored places.[i] For them, the oceans and seas were places of adventure and mystery.

In the biblical narrative, the sea symbolizes chaos and disorder.

In today’s gospel, Jesus finishes preaching to the crowds from the boat on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and tells his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” 

It wasn’t a small ask. Some of the disciples were experienced fishermen and would have been familiar with the frequent storms that developed on the sea; others may have been more like fish out of water, being asked to set sail when they hadn’t spent much time on the water. Whether they had their sea legs or not, Jesus was asking the disciples to go to the territory of the Gentiles, people who were unknown and strange to them.

And as they crossed to the other side, sure enough, a storm rose up. The word here is the same as ‘the whirlwind’ in the reading from Job. There was power and strength in these winds; Mark says the waves beat into the boat. (v. 37)

It would have been simple enough to turn and go back to shore, to seek shelter and refuge, to retreat to calm and quiet safety. But the disciples don’t do that.

Mark says, instead, they wake Jesus who’s asleep in the stern or the back of the boat.

Do you think Jesus was being irresponsible or callous by taking a nap while the storm tossed them about?

We hear the disciples cry out, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (v. 38) But remember, at least some of the disciples were fishermen. Jesus knew this was their boat and he trusted their gifts, as the crew, for navigating the sea.

When they do come to him, he responds immediately, rebuking the wind and telling the sea to be still. And Mark says, then, there was a dead calm.

In that moment, the people on the boat with Jesus and in the boats around him witness the power and strength not of nature, but of Jesus, as Lord of all.

Jesus accompanies us in our own lives and never promises that he won’t ask us to go into unfamiliar situations. Following Jesus isn’t about going to places we already know or being with people who make us comfortable.

And Jesus never says we won’t experience storms or get beaten by circumstances and even be afraid. There is evil in the world. And even when we are safe from explicit evil or overt violence, we still live in a world filled with people and every one of us is saint and sinner, and, apart from Christ, we cannot be redeemed. Christ alone delivers us from sin and saves us.

In the text the disciples encountered a weather event - a physical storm of wind and waves - but often we find ourselves in the midst of storms emotionally and spiritually - steered in one direction or another by forces outside our control, slammed this way and that by emotions and fearful of what is ahead.

And when we are overwhelmed, the temptation is to think God has forgotten us or abandoned us and isn’t paying attention and doesn’t love us.

Mark reminds us that Jesus not only accompanies us in the chaos and disorder; Jesus also equips us, nurturing our gifts for specific vocations or callings. We are created for community and relationship and Jesus places us in people’s lives so that they can see God’s love and power through us.

And when we do get overwhelmed or fear paralyzes us, Jesus responds to our cries and invites us into his peace.

Unlike the desert fathers and mothers in the early church, or even monastic orders today, most of us find ourselves every day in the midst of the chaos and turmoil of the world and that is where Jesus anchors us in his peace, despite the storms of life, and invites our trust.

Hearing Mark’s gospel, I think God has equipped us, as the Church, for all that is ahead and expects us to use our gifts and talents for ministry in our community and world. We do not need to be afraid and we must trust that Jesus is with us as we share the Good News of God’s love for the world.

Let us pray…

Good and Gracious God,

We give you thanks for your deliverance from sin and evil, and for your Son Jesus.

Thank you for your steadfast love and presence with us even in the tumult and turmoil of the wildest storms life brings.

Anchor us in your peace that we would be your witnesses in the world.

We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

[i] https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/here-be-dragons/, accessed 6/11/2021.

Second Sunday after Pentecost / Lectionary 10B

Mark 3:20-35

Throughout Eastertide, our gospel readings were in John’s gospel as we witnessed the resurrection appearances and the ascension, and then we celebrated Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.

But today we find ourselves back in Mark’s gospel, and many of our gospel texts from now through the Reign of Christ on the last Sunday before Advent will come from this gospel.

Remember, each gospel writer placed a different emphasis on the character of Jesus : Matthew emphasizes how Jesus is the Messiah and the fulfillment of the prophecies in Judaism; Luke draws our attention to the boundary-breaking nature of Jesus’ acts of healing to say that the gospel is for the whole world; and John defines faith as a relationship of trust in God and Jesus.[i]

Mark, who wrote the first and oldest gospel account, wants us to know that Jesus is the Son of God and he came to bring Good News to the world. He begins his gospel with the baptism of Jesus, his temptation and then launches his ministry in Galilee.

Immediately before the passage we just heard, Jesus appointed the twelve apostles, including Judas Iscariot, and then Mark says Jesus went home. I think we often think of Jesus as an itinerant preacher traveling from one town to the next, but here we’re invited, with the crowds, to his house.

So there we are with Jesus, the apostles, and the crowd filling his house, shoulder to shoulder, leaning against walls and sitting on the ground. A crowd of followers so dense that Mark says they could not even eat. Imagine the rising temperature inside, the buzz of conversation growing louder and the restless energy of the assembled crowd.

And there are still more people outside the house. In particular, there are these other two groups.

One group is his mother, brothers and sisters. People who had known Jesus since childhood and watched him. People who should have known that he was the Son of God. But instead of believing his testimony and his proclamation, they accuse him of being ‘out of his mind’ or ‘beside himself.’ Mark says they are there to restrain Jesus or seize him and prevent him from continuing his ministry.

The second group is the scribes. These would have been the Temple heavyweights, the religious and theological experts who held authority over people. One might expect they would recognize the Divine in their midst. But instead of affirming Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, the scribes accuse him of being possessed by Beelzebul and under the power of demons. They want to discredit him and prevent him from continuing his ministry.

But Jesus doesn’t indicate that he feels any obligation, responsibility or duty toward his relatives or the scribes. His identity and his obedience, his authority and his power come from God alone.[ii]

Instead of recognizing the gospel work Jesus has been doing, healing people from diseases and fevers and setting others free from demons or unclean spirits, these two groups rejected his ministry and condemned him because they did not, or could not, recognize God at work.

Maybe their hearts had been hardened, or maybe they felt threatened – were his relatives afraid of what people might say about them? Perhaps they had already heard rumors and unkind words. Did the Temple authorities feel exposed by Jesus’ teachings that opened wide the possibility of God’s restoration for all people and disrupted their power to control or coerce?

Whatever their motives, Jesus calls out their sin. They have failed to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit taking place right in front of them. And they have blasphemed – reviled or insulted – the Holy Spirit with their denial.

That is the meaning of verse 29 – the unforgiveable sin is not to curse or take God’s name in vain when you hit your thumb with a hammer or get cut off in highway traffic. The unforgiveable sin to attribute the work of Jesus to Satan. It is to do evil in the name of God.

Like the people in Galilee, today we are easily divided and separated.

If we follow Jesus’ mother, sisters and brothers, we put a greater value on what others are saying about us than whether we are doing God’s work and witnessing God change people’s lives.

If we follow the scribes, we value own power and systems over the transforming healing and restoration that God makes possible for every one of God’s children.

Instead, Jesus invites us into his house and calls us to follow him and do the will of God. It is in the gospel work of loving God and loving each other that we find unity. It is in Jesus that we find our identity and in God that we find our authority.

We mustn’t doubt that the Holy Spirit is at work among us inside this congregation and in our community and world; instead, we are called to open our eyes and hearts to see how God is working.

I am always excited to come back and preach after synod assembly because that time together is always a vibrant display of the Holy Spirit at work in our ELCA congregations and with our partners. Even though we met on Zoom, this weekend’s assembly testified anew to the Spirit’s work across our synod. The Reverend Doctor Tim Smith was elected to a second six-year term as bishop of the North Carolina Synod, and we adopted a budget and ministry plan that prioritizes our mission start congregations including collaborations with the Episcopal and Moravian Churches, and establishes a new giving opportunity in the All Races, One Church, or AROC Fund, to encourage creative and sustainable ministry in our seven NC congregations that are primarily black, indigenous or people of color.

We celebrated anniversaries of congregations and ministers, including the Rev. Glenn Riechly [reekly] who has been ordained in gospel ministry for 71 years and 14 congregations where faithful people of God have gathered together for more than 225 years each!

And we met seminary students who are our synod’s candidates for rostered ministry –young adults who are called to lead the Church in new ways. We learned how our college campus ministries sustained their mission during the pandemic and how our camp ministries at Agape/Kure Beach, Lutherrock and Lutherridge are preparing to welcome campers this summer after being closed last season.

We have talked before how challenging this last fifteen months have been, but as we witnessed and I heard again at assembly, God was still with us working to bring about good and working to bring transformation to God’s people.

Thanks be to God.

[i] Enter the Bible, https://www.enterthebible.org/newtestament.aspx?rid=5

[ii] Breen, Mike. Covenant and Kingdom: The DNA of the Bible. 3DM. Kindle Edition.