Let’s Go! … Healed and in Peace - Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Let’s Go! … Healed and in Peace 

Pentecost 5B

June 27, 2021

Grace, Waseca, MN

Mark 5.21-43

As the father of two girls, I have a sense of Jairus’ desperation in the Gospel reading for today as he seeks to get healing for his daughter. Very early in our oldest daughter’s life, Angela developed almost unending bouts of bronchitis. There were times I slept by her crib fearful she’d stop breathing. Finally, I begged our doctor, whom we very much liked and respected, that we needed to do something. He agreed and referred us to a specialist who diagnosed her with moderate to severe asthma with allergies while not so subtly chiding us for not doing something sooner. Then, when our youngest was about 5 or 6, she woke with severe hip pain that paralyzed her. We were in Pennsylvania where I was attending seminary and we didn’t have a pediatrician yet, so I picked Amy up, bundled her into the car, and took her to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with a staph infection.

Fortunately, neither one of them has “endured much under many physicians” like the unnamed woman with the hemorrhage, though Angela will live with her asthma and allergies forever. Also, luckily, neither of these are shameful diseases, though I think Angela feels like an outcast at times because she has to be very careful what she eats and the things she can do. Furthermore, I didn’t need to risk my self-respect to get our girls help, but I sure would have done so if it was necessary. Now, even though there is a great deal of emphasis on the faith of the woman and Jairus, which is not to be ignored, I’d like to focus on the One who makes that faith possible and its implications for us today.

Aside from the incredible that healing Jesus brings, not to be dismissed lightly, are the boundaries Jesus crosses to do so and what it means to them and to us that he has crossed those boundaries. First, it’s important to know that the woman with hemorrhage was considered unclean in Jewish society. As if 12 years of suffering weren’t enough, she would not have been able to worship in the temple or synagogue or even be around people for that entire time. Just coming into contact with Jesus would have made him ritually unclean, disastrous for a Jew. And then Jesus compounds his uncleanness by touching the dead body of the girl. Now he’s doubly unclean.

Yet, even more remarkably, Jesus stops on his way to heal the girl, which may have cost her life, to fully touch the woman. Even after she was cured of the disease, he curiously pronounces that she is now healed. But to get the full impact of what Jesus is saying we need to know that the word for healed is really translated as “saved.” Jesus says, “Your faith has saved you.” In other words, she has nothing to be ashamed of anymore and she is now fully restored to life, God’s shalom. As I think about this woman, I wonder how many of us are walking around hemorrhaging with shame, feeling like outcasts, enduring much under those who may be judging us, perhaps the harshest from ourselves.

A number of years ago, “Carol” stopped by my office and asked to see me. Of course I agreed; I respected Carol and made time for her. My curiosity turned to shame as she began to tell me that a joke I told at a recent public event was inappropriate. As I listened to her, I realized with horror that she was right and a deep shame came over me. But Carol was Jesus to me that day, pronouncing forgiveness and reminding me that although it was appropriate that I express guilt for what I had done, that I was also loved and not to be shamed. In doing so, Carol restored me to the fullness of life in community and as her pastor. Since then, the work of sociologist Brené Brown regarding shame and vulnerability has been instrumental in my personal life and my ministry. Dr. Brown has many worthwhile books, but I highly recommend The Gifts of Imperfection.

Two weeks ago, we started exploring two of Jesus’ parables that described the Kingdom of God. We recognized that Jesus was trying to convey with images something that can’t be readily defined. Jesus was saying that the kingdom of God wasn’t as much a future promise as it is a present reality, that the kingdom life could be lived here and now in some way. I think that these healing stories give us another glimpse of what Jesus means by the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is life as God intends, flourishing and abundant, where we can experience God’s shalom and healing.

There are two things I want to leave you with today. First, that if you are hemorrhaging from shame or anything that is keeping you back, if there are dead parts of you, know that Jesus comes and restores you to healing and inclusion. You are a beloved child of God. Second, I want you to look for opportunities to be Jesus to others like Carol was to me, to remind others that they, too, are beloved of God and fully included in God’s merciful, loving embrace. Maybe you see someone struggling and all you need to say is, “You’ve got this” or “It’ll be okay.” You can figure it out. Then come back and tell us how it went. So, let’s go from here to be the healing presence of shalom that our world so desperately needs. Amen.

For the entire worship service and video version, click here.

Let’s Go! … Patiently? - Sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost (Lect. 11B)

Let’s Go! … Patiently?

Pentecost 3B (Lectionary 11)

June 13, 2021

Grace, Waseca, MN

Mark 4.26-34

In the churchy world we churchy people toss around churchy words like free candy from floats at parade, mostly unwrapped and scooped up with abandon. We use words like koinonia (or fellowship, take your pick), faith formation, spiritual growth, and exegesis. Okay, maybe you don’t toss around words like that, but I think you get the point. We aren’t always clear about what we mean. And Jesus isn’t much better. He tosses around parables just as freely as the actors in most of these parables toss around seeds. Those two things come together because most of the time Jesus is tossing around the phrase “kingdom of God” like Tootsie Rolls.

Jesus spends a lot of parabolic time talking about the kingdom of God so we know it must be important. In fact, his first words in Mark are, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near.” Now, unlike us, the folk Jesus addressed would have a good idea what the kingdom of God was. For them, it would be a glorious time when God will rule over all things after defeating God’s enemies, those things that stand in the way of God’s original intent for creation, especially humanity.

So, if those first hearers were familiar with the kingdom of God, why is Jesus using parables so much? First, remember that parables are not riddles to be solved; rather, they are mysteries to be entered. Or, to switch the analogy, they are like Trojan horses, seemingly tame and entering our consciousness until they explode and disrupt our thinking. Jesus used parables about the kingdom because the crowds and religious leaders couldn’t see how his presence was bringing it near. Furthermore, he wanted to stretch their thinking (and ours, too) about what God’s reign is really like. The kingdom, Jesus will show, comes in humility with power made perfect in weakness and love.

At the risk of appearing to have solved both parables, let me offer some thoughts about each that might stretch your thinking. In the first parable about the seed that grows “he knows not how,” Jesus invites us to imagine that the kingdom of God is coming even though we may not see much evidence of it. The parable also challenges our notion that it’s up to us to make God’s reign come in. We are to ask ourselves what role we have in kingdom work, knowing that it is God who ultimately gives the growth.

The parable of the mustard seed is dangerous because it is so familiar and we risk thinking we already understand it. Yet, explanations about the parable of the mustard seed are as prodigious as the plant is itself. One offshoot is that, like the mustard bush, Jesus and the kingdom are more than they seem. The mustard bush was and is an invasive, noxious species that takes over wherever planted, kind of like a latter day buckthorn. The comparison of the kingdom of God to a mustard bush would have stretched peoples’ minds and caused them to stop and think. Furthermore, with the addition of the birds finding a place to roost, he hints there are more inhabitants included in God’s kingdom than we might have thought. There is room and a place for everyone.

In Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great, he details attributes of companies that are as the title suggests: great. He evaluated companies that sustained greatness over time and compared them to similar companies who were merely good. He wanted to know what separated the great companies from the good ones. In one chapter, he describes one attribute, the Flywheel Effect. A flywheel is a large metal disc that rotates on an axis. He notes that, like a flywheel, great companies made small pushes over time that accumulated and eventually resulted in a momentum that releases energy and sustains itself. They took off, much like that merry go round you pushed and rode as a child. In contrast, those companies that were merely good looked for the one big breakthrough that would make them great, but it never works that way. Becoming great takes time and small consistent pushes that gather steam and momentum.

So, what might these two parables and the Flywheel Effect mean for Grace, Waseca? The summer worship theme for Grace is “Let’s Go!” and perhaps the parables caution us to go patiently, trusting God for the growth and doing so in ways we may not expect. There’s a tendency among churches to look for the one big thing that’s going to “save” the congregation and make it great, whether that be a person (like a pastor or youth director) or a program. Big splashy events are fun and even necessary, but it’s going to be the small pushes, sticking to Grace’s vision and mission, solidifying your identity as a Christ-centered, welcoming place in service to your communities, gaining momentum that will make a difference. You won’t bring in the kingdom, but you’ll catch glimpses of God’s work in, with and through you as you join God in it. Amen.

For the video version of the sermon click here.