God's Presence in the Midst of Grief; a sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 5:21-43

²¹ Jesus crossed the lake again, and on the other side a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. ²² Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders, came forward. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet ²³ and pleaded with him, “ My daughter is about to die. Please, come and place your hands on her so that she can be healed and live. ” ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.

A swarm of people were following Jesus, crowding in on him. ²⁵ A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a lot under the care of many doctors, and had spent everything she had without getting any better. In fact, she had gotten worse. ²⁷ Because she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. ²⁸ She was thinking, If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be healed. ²⁹ Her bleeding stopped immediately, and she sensed in her body that her illness had been healed.

³⁰ At that very moment, Jesus recognized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “ Who touched my clothes? ”

³¹ His disciples said to him, “ Don’t you see the crowd pressing against you? Yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” ³² But Jesus looked around carefully to see who had done it.

³³ The woman, full of fear and trembling, came forward. Knowing what had happened to her, she fell down in front of Jesus and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He responded, “ Daughter, your faith has healed you; go in peace, healed from your disease. ”

³⁵ While Jesus was still speaking with her, messengers came from the synagogue leader’s house, saying to Jairus, “ Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher any longer? ”

³⁶ But Jesus overheard their report and said to the synagogue leader, “ Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting. ” ³⁷ He didn’t allow anyone to follow him except Peter, James, and John, James’ brother. ³⁸ They came to the synagogue leader’s house, and he saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. ³⁹ He went in and said to them, “ What’s all this commotion and crying about? The child isn’t dead. She’s only sleeping. ” ⁴⁰ They laughed at him, but he threw them all out. Then, taking the child’s parents and his disciples with him, he went to the room where the child was. ⁴¹ Taking her hand, he said to her, “ Talitha koum , ” which means, “ Young woman, get up. ” ⁴² Suddenly the young woman got up and began to walk around. She was twelve years old. They were shocked! ⁴³ He gave them strict orders that no one should know what had happened. Then he told them to give her something to eat.

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditations of my heart

be pleasing to you,

LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Today’s texts capture some hard moments for David and for Jairus.

David could be celebrating. Saul has been defeated; David is usurping the throne. But he isn’t celebrating. He has been serving in Saul’s court for some time. I suspect he had developed some love for the old king. And he had undoubtedly developed a deep relationship with his son Jonathan. And now both are gone.

Jairus is overwhelmed by fear that he is about to lose his daughter. And on the way home the news confirms his fear.

Happy readings, right?

It’s essentially at this time that I celebrate one year with you. One busy, wonderful, heart-wrenching and heart-breaking year.

I need to recognize the fact that we have had a hard year. And in the midst of the profound loss that we’ve been suffering, I want to thank you for trusting me to be your pastor. I want to thank you for welcoming me into your lives when grief and the heart-wrenching busy-ness of saying goodbye to brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and husbands and wives.

I want to thank you for trusting me, because I haven’t had time to earn your trust. But I want to earn your trust. I want to be here for you.

I also want to say all the right words; to be there for you every moment you need me; to be available at a moment’s notice.

And in the midst of my own flawed humanity, I covenant to do my best to be the face of Christ for you.

And, as is usually the case, from this pulpit I want to share Christ with you through our readings for this week.

Jairus and David have two different experiences - very different experiences - with God’s presence and action in the midst of profound grief.

Jesus wakes Jairus’ daughter. No one wakes Saul or Jonathan.

One period of grief turns to celebration. The other doesn’t turn at all.

Honestly, I struggle to have much to say about Jairus’ story. What am I supposed to do? Tell you that if you believe strongly enough, God will bring people back to life? That, therefore, if you had prayed harder, you wouldn’t be grieving?

No. Way.

I’m not going to lie to you.

Sometimes really terrible stuff happens.

And the best we can do is be faithful enough to respond by crying out to God.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
²   Lord, hear my voice!

And let me let you in on a little secret. I pray that a good bit. And when I ask God to hear my voice, I find I don’t necessarily have anything to say.

I just need to know that God’s listening.

And when I discover I don’t have anything to say, do you know what I do?

“Hay God, nice chat. I’m gonna go now!”

No.

I listen.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
   and in his word I hope;
⁶ my soul waits for the Lord
   more than those who watch for the morning,
   more than those who watch for the morning. 

David knew God was present. David knew that God was the only One in whom he could trust.

Jairus knew that, too. That’s why he came and found Jesus. This leader of the synagogue found himself in a hopeless situation, so he found the highest spiritual authority he could.

Because sometimes our spiritual leaders are weak, too.

We need times to be able to reach out, to recharge, to find strength in Christ.

And that comes in all different shapes and sizes.

But nowhere have I ever found God’s presence more consistent or more potent than at the Table where we gather to share a meal.

So this morning, as we commemorate one year together - one hard, wonderful, gut-wrenching, spirit-filled year - let’s do it with a meal. Let’s celebrate God’s presence with us, even in the most difficult of times, in the bread and cup where Jesus still promises to meet us today.

Chill, y'all. I got this. (a sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost)

Mark 4:35-41

³⁵ Later that day, when evening came, Jesus said to them, “ Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake. ” ³⁶ They left the crowd and took him in the boat just as he was. Other boats followed along.

³⁷ Gale-force winds arose, and waves crashed against the boat so that the boat was swamped. ³⁸ But Jesus was in the rear of the boat, sleeping on a pillow. They woke him up and said, “ Teacher, don’t you care that we’re drowning? ”

³⁹ He got up and gave orders to the wind, and he said to the lake, “ Silence! Be still! ” The wind settled down and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ Jesus asked them, “ Why are you frightened? Don’t you have faith yet? ”

⁴¹ Overcome with awe, they said to each other, “ Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him! ”

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditations of my heart

be pleasing to you,

LORD , my rock and my redeemer.

This is a stewardship sermon. Get out your wallets and checkbooks.

I kid. I mean, if you want to dig those out and give again this morning, that’s okay. I’m not going to stop you. But this is a sermon on stewardship writ large.

Essentially, it’s a sermon on trust.

Because the people of Israel had a problem. His name was Goliath, and he was a big problem.

And do you remember a couple Sundays ago when the people of Israel decided that they couldn’t trust God to lead them; that they just had to have a king? Well, this is an early outcome of that decision.

Because before, the people Israel hadn’t really been a concern to neighboring nations. After the throne is established, those problems increase. Considerably. Having a king, some centralized power, affords an easy target, whether that’s Saul, David, George Bush, or Barack Obama. They’re really easy targets.

So Israel is at war against the Philistines, because some things never change, and Saul is discovering that his troops are in trouble. And this Goliath rabble rouser is, well, rousing the rabble.

Everybody’s stressed out and worried, and nobody wants to take on this nine-foot-tall behemoth with his sword the size of, I don’t know, a pig trough. And along comes David, fresh from the sheepfold and a brand new addition to Saul’s court, and he says:

Chill, y’all. I got this.

It’s a sermon on trust.

Because the disciples are freaking out when the storm comes up and starts flooding the boat, and Jesus, like Jonah, is fast asleep.

Rabbi! We’re dying here!

<YAWN!> SRSLY? You woke me up for this?

Chill, y’all. I got this.

It’s a sermon on trust.

Because we can’t recognize God’s ability to provide for us. We don’t witness to that in our tithe and in our gifts in a Church whose average giving is around 2.5%.

We bring out checkbooks and our wallets on Sunday morning, and we take them out for the offering, and we worry!

But God says,

Chill, yo. I got this.

It’s a sermon on trust.

Because our churches dream little. And we have plenty of excuses for doing so:

Giving is down.

Attendance is down.

We’ve never done that before.

No other church is doing that around here.

We’ve always done it this way.

It won’t bring people in.

It’ll bring the wrong people in.

It’ll damage our building.

Blah, blah, blah.

Our churches dream little because we’re afraid. We’re trying to turn our churches into businesses. And I know there is some precedent for that, and that feels like what our Methodist structures suggest.

But the simple fact is this: the structures exist to make ministry more efficient. And if they’re really getting in the way, the structures can be adjusted.

Uh, huh. I just said that.

We dream little because we’re afraid of God’s Great Big Dream for us.

Because we don’t hear God saying:

Chill, y’all. I got this.

This is a sermon about trust.

Because it’s something that you and I both need to work on. Trust of each other; trust of our families; trust of ourselves; but most of all, trust of God, who is always saying to us:

Chill, y’all. I got this.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

What Kind of Gifts Does God Give? a sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 3:20-35

²⁰and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. ²¹When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ ²²And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ ²³And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. ²⁷But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

28 ‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; ²⁹but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’— ³⁰for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’

31 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. ³²A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ ³³And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ ³⁴And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’ 

Let the words of my mouth

and the meditations of my heart

be pleasing to you,

LORD , my rock and my redeemer.

Let’s list things we’ve heard about how God gives gifts:

All good gifts come from God.

God will never give you more than you can handle.

God helps those who help themselves.

What I like about this week’s texts is that we have several rather different witnesses to the way that God gives us gifts.

Let’s start with Samuel.

And, by the way, I love the way the people confront Samuel as this passage opens.

“You are old…”

That’s not something we generally will go up to someone and say, no matter how true it is. Well, maybe Noah or Sarah would, but most of us learn a little bit of empathy by the time we leave elementary school.

I suppose it makes a difference who says it. If I, at 35, say that to someone who is, say, 65, how well will that go over?

But the people saying this to Samuel are all the elders of Israel.

Look, you’re old, and your kids are completely disinterested in your line of work. We want you to appoint us a king so we can be like everybody else around us.

Is Samuel interested in appointing a king for the people? No. Is God interested in appointing a king for the people? No.

But they do. Because the people ask.

Because sometimes God gives us what we ask for.

And before you jump to some conclusion about God teaching the children of Israel a great big lesson about who should be in charge, or about setting up the lineage of Christ through the Throne of Israel, think really hard about how many lives were destroyed through the greed and power hunger of the kings of Israel and Judah. Do you really feel comfortable saying that God would do that?

Let’s just observe what Samuel does: Sometimes God gives us what we ask for.

And sometimes that ain’t a great thing.

But a couple generations later, the Psalmist records a different testimony:

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
   you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies;
you stretch out your hand,
   and your right hand delivers me.
⁸ The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me;
   your steadfast love, O Lord, endures for ever.
   Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Because sometimes God gives us protection.

⁶ For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly;
   but the haughty he perceives from far away. 

Sometimes we need protection.

I suppose it’s important to note that this is a psalm attributed to David, who knew great comfort and power for most of his life, so to speak of David as lowly is mostly a comparison to God, not to other people.

But the psalmist also draws a comparison between the lowly and the haughty.

The CEB puts it this way:

Even though the LORD is high,

he can still see the lowly,

but God keeps his distance from the arrogant.

If there is a comparison being made, it’s that God is near to the humble, to the lowly, but allows the arrogant and haughty the chance to fall from their height.

But when God is near, God offers us protection from the arrogant, from the greedy.

When we’re humble, God offers us protection.

Maybe the most familiar conception of the way God gifts us, though, is what we have in 2 Corinthians:

¹⁷For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure

Now, we do have to work through a bit of a translation problem to get the comparison Paul is making. Honestly, the KJV handles the comparison better, but the rest of the language is muddled.

The sense is this:

The affliction that we are faced with now is lightweight, relatively inconsequential in mass, compared from excess to excess [that is, comparing the small to the infinite; remember Paul’s “from glory unto glory”?] to the weight, the incomparable hugeness of glory that this affliction is preparing us for.

(Sometimes you can pack too much into a phrase. Paul’s good for that.)

God gives us a little bit of hard stuff so we can be ready for a whole lot of good stuff.

No, let’s be real about this. That’s not actually what Paul’s saying. Paul isn’t saying that the affliction comes from God. And for the record, Paul also isn’t saying that God’s not going to give us more than we can handle. Some of you are well aware that, yes, sometimes God does give us more than we can handle. And really, sometimes God isn’t giving it to us. Neither is the Devil. Sometimes really awful stuff just happens, like death and unfaithfulness and accidents and disasters.

That’s not the stuff that comes from God.

What God gives us is that “eternal weight of glory beyond all measure” [NRSV], “an eternal stockpile of glory for us that is beyond all comparison” [CEB].

What God gives us is grace:

As grace increases to benefit more and more people, it will cause gratitude to increase, which results in God’s glory.

And grace is what makes God’s work, God’s praise, God’s witness possible through us.

All the time, God gives us grace.

And the best news is what Mark shares with us: that all are welcome to be sisters and brothers of Christ; that all are welcome in the Family of God.

‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ ³⁴And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’ 

Not only has God gifted us with grace that leads us into truth, that leads us into the will of God; but God has gifted us with the Family of God. We are joint heirs with Christ of eternity!

Amen!

With good news like that, who needs all the stupid clichés about what God gives us? What kind of person tells a grieving mother, “God never gives us more than we can handle”? Say something real! Say something true!

In Christ, I am here with you. I am your sister here and now. I am your brother because I love you. Because Jesus loves you.

I am the love of Christ for you because God’s love can’t quit.

Sure, sometimes God gives us what we ask for, even when we don’t know better. And when we are weak and humble, in need of a Protector, God gives us protection. Always God gives us grace to call us to holiness. And always God gives us the gift of family in Christ, so we can always be brothers and sisters to each other, looking forward to that day when

⁴ All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord,
   for they have heard the words of your mouth.
⁵ They shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
   for great is the glory of the Lord.
⁶ For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly;
   but the haughty he perceives from far away. 

God’s love is enough. God’s gifts are enough. Let’s not make this harder than it needs to be.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.