Pastor Rick Engen
(On this page you will find a selection of Pastor Engen's sermons from throughout the year.)
4th Sunday after Pentecost
Matt. 9:9-13, 18-26
Teacher – healer – promise of the life to come!
I think the Gospel lesson for today is one of those many stories that give us such a full picture of what Jesus did and who Jesus is for us. And I want to reflect on this story by lifting up the three pieces of the story: Jesus as teacher – healer – and the promise of the life to come.
The story begins as Jesus calls Matthew, a tax collector, to follow him. And Matthew does. The tax collectors were not popular. They were Jews who collected what most all Jews considered hard and unfair – tax payments which went to the Roman Empire which occupied and dominated Palestine. Many thought of them as traitors and suspected them of collaborating with the enemy against their own people.
The story continues with Jesus having dinner and is surrounded by those who are simply called “tax collectors and sinners”. Jesus welcomed them as dinner companions, which was the deepest expression of acceptance of other people, and they sat and heard him teach with glad hearts. “Sinners” would mean those who lived on the edges of society and lived under judgment because of something they had done that was wrong and had perhaps paid a penalty, or simply those who were very poor and could not afford to pay the price to contribute sacrifices in the temple. Remember that Jesus once quoted the prophet Hosea to his opponents, “Go and learn what this means; I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
The Pharisees and other privileged leaders of that time constantly condemned Jesus for this intimate association with “bad” people. Jesus taught many things, but this was at the heart of his teaching. He said to the Pharisees, “People who are well don’t need a doctor. I have come for people who are sick.” That is sarcasm. When he says, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners”, he meant “I have not come for those who think they are righteous and judge others, but those who know they are not righteous and need God’s help and love.”
Let me share a poem that Carol Murphy sent me:
“I was shocked, confused and bewildered as I entered Heaven’s door, not by the beauty of it all, nor the lights or its décor.
But it was the folks in Heaven who made me sputter and gasp—the thieves, the liars, the sinners, the alcoholics, the trash.
There stood the kid from the 7th grade who swiped my lunch money twice. Next to him was my old neighbor who never said anything nice.
Herb! Who I always though was rotting away in hell was sitting pretty on cloud nine and looking pretty well.
I asked Jesus, “What’s the deal? I would love to hear your take. How did all these sinners get up here? God must have made a mistake.”
“Why is everyone so quiet, so somber, give me a clue.’ ‘Hush child’, said he, ‘they’re all in shock. No one thought they would be seeing you.”
Jesus the teacher, and the heart of his teaching is rooted in the words of the prophet Hosea: “Go and learn what this means – I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
And Jesus is the healer. He was called by a leader of the synagogue whose daughter had just died. On his way through the crowds a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years worked her way through the people and managed to touch the fringe of his robe. And she was healed; her bleeding stopped.
The fringe of his robe! Jesus knew what had happened, looked at the woman and said, “Take heart my daughter; your faith has made you well.”
The fringe of his robe and faith! Jesus is the healer at the deepest level of the healing that we need. When our faith meets Jesus, even just the fringe of his robe, there is healing.
Jesus the teacher – Jesus the healer –and Jesus the foretaste and the promise of the life to come.
When Jesus arrived at the home where the young girl had died the music and the wailing had already begun. Jesus tells the crowd to go away because the young girl was not dead but sleeping. They laughed at him.
But they got rid of the crowd. I’m guessing the disciples of Jesus helped with things like that, most of them strong and hard-working peasants. I would guess if the fishermen Peter, James and John told you to leave the house, you wouldn’t put up much of an argument.
And then Jesus went to the girl, took her hand, and she got up out of her deathbed, holding his hand, holding his precious hand.
Jesus is our teacher. Jesus is our healer. And at that last day, when we reach the end of this life, Jesus takes our hand, and we get up to start a new day, a new morning, a new life, holding his precious hand.
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Galatians 5:1,13-25
Jesus has set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem! It seems like a rather drastic response from the disciples, doesn’t it? The people in Samaria do not give a welcome to Jesus, so the disciples of Jesus suggest raining down fire from heaven on them!
The story reminds us of the story in the Old Testament of the prophet Elijah who was threatened by the king’s soldiers and called down fire on them. The disciples no doubt knew that story and thought of Jesus as a kind of new Elijah.
But Jesus rebuked his disciples and said “no”, you do not understand who I am. He was not, as some said, John the Baptist returned back to life, Elijah or one of the other prophets. The disciples of Jesus still did not understand what Peter had said – “You are the Christ, the Messiah of God”. Not even Peter understood what he had said.
The gospel lesson tells us that Jesus turned his face like a flint toward Jerusalem. That is a strong expression of determination. He was going to Jerusalem. He was going to his death. He was going willingly, not only to save Jerusalem, but also Samaria, and you and me and all nations to the ends of the earth. I have always liked that translation: Jesus turned his face like a flint toward Jerusalem. It is a strong statement of faith, conviction, courage, determination, and purpose. It is a picture of someone who enjoys all the blessings of life, but also knows there is something that belongs to the heart and center of life that is more important than anything else, the kingdom of God, the rule of God, and he turns his face like a flint, like a very hard rock, to that purpose.
I’ve gotten this piece from a number of people:
“I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phones. What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets? What if we went back home to get it if we forgot it? What if we flipped through it several times a day? What if we used it to receive messages from the text? What if we treated it as if we couldn’t live without it? What if we gave it to our kids as gifts? What if we used it as we traveled? What if we used it in case of an emergency? Maybe this is something that might make you think, I got my cell phone; where is my Bible? What if we had to make a law- you can’t drive your car while you are reading your Bible? I would agree with that law. It is good to read your Bible regularly, but not while you are driving your car; it’s the same as using your cell phone while you are driving your car.
And one more thing. Unlike our cell phone, we don’t ever have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.
Jesus set his face like a flint and no one could keep him from going to Jerusalem! To bring in the first fruits of the kingdom of God, he would have to die. For the sake of Jerusalem and Samaria and you and me and all the nations of the world. And no one was going to stop him. He didn’t know what a cell phone was in those days. But today he would be very clear on that point – the difference between the importance of a cell phone and the Word of God.
And we should be clear on that point today.
Jesus, by his life, ministry and death, opened up to us a new way of living. Paul describes that new way of living in our lesson for Galatians. He describes the difference between living out of our own sin and selfishness, and living by the Spirit of God. Jesus helps to see and to live in a new way. That is why he set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem.
There are two ways to live, and I suppose we have to say that we never completely choose one or the other in this life.
We can live by the “flesh”. That was the word that Paul used for “sin” for selfishness, self centeredness. This way of living seeks self-righteousness and tries to bend the world around us as if you and or I were the center of the universe. This way of living leads to envy, jealousy, impurity, idolatry, anger, quarrels. We might use the Greek idea of “hedonism” – when the seeking of my personal pleasure and self elevation becomes the central focus of my life. That’s “flesh”.
But Jesus Christ went to Jerusalem to die for our sins, to put that way of living to death, so that the Spirit of God might come and help us to see, in Christ, a new way of living. The way he lived.
In this new way of living these words become the central words of our vocabulary and what we think about. We set out minds like a flint to this vision of living – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
There is a commercial on TV running now that I like. I don’t know what product is being promoted. (Good commercials are kind of lost on me because I enjoy and remember the commercial story line, but I never remember what the commercial is for.)
Anyway, this commercial has a chain reaction of people doing good, kind and helpful things to other people, to strangers. I see someone do something good or generous to someone, and that makes me think to do something helpful to someone else. And then someone sees me do that and they go and do something good for another person, and on and on like that. It’s a chain reaction.
I like it. Obviously other people do too. I was in a grocery store last week and had one item to buy. I went to the line for 20 items or less, and three shoppers were in front of me with baskets of 20 to 30 items. Each one saw me with my one item and waved me on in front of them. After I paid the cashier, I turned back to my fellow shoppers and said “Thank you”. And one of them smiled and said, “Now you can go out and do something nice for someone else.”
We’re all watching the same commercials.
And that’s a good one. But, of course, it doesn’t go far enough. Jesus went to Jerusalem to die for us so that we might find a new way to live – love, joy, peace, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness..
Those cut very deep and open up a new way of life. Jesus also said, “Love your enemies; do good to those who hurt you; forgive those who sin against you.”
I haven’t seen that in a TV commercial yet, and I don’t expect to. But we should see it in the church of Jesus Christ. Not just random acts of kindness, but a passion for a life of doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God.
2nd Sunday after Epiphany
John 2:1-11
The was the first “sign”, the first “epiphany” of Jesus in the Gospel of John, the beautiful and very familiar story of Jesus as a wedding guest. In those days wedding celebrations were the biggest moments in the lives of most people, and the celebration went on for days. I love that idea, a kind of fantasy – I come into the office on Monday morning and say to Sue, “I have a wedding today, so I’ll be back on Thursday, maybe Friday.
So that is a part of this story – the joy of the celebration of marriage, and Jesus is there for the party. I often say at wedding ceremonies, “You two are getting married today, and that is the best reason in the world to have a party. We’re here for the party.”
Jesus was there for the party. He was there to be a part of a very ordinary, very common but very, very special joy – two lives become like one.
That joy is the important background of the story. The “epiphany” of Jesus happens because of a disaster. The party is still in full swing and they have run out of wine. At the appeal of his mother Jesus gives his first “sign”, and this sign is full of symbolism. He asked for 6 jars of water held in Jewish purification vessels, each holding 20 to 30 gallons of water. Jesus turns the water into wine. Not just any wine, like the stuff we use here for Communion because we like the price, but very, very good wine, about 150 gallons of very good wine, and the steward is amazed that this superior wine was to be served after the wine of lesser quality.
This was the first sign that Jesus gave in John’s Gospel. I like to think of it as a sign, an epiphany (revelation) that sums up the whole ministry of Christ. Wine was a symbol of joy and gladness, and so it was an essential part of the greatest and most joyful moments of life. And this was not ordinary wine; it was excellent wine! It was wine that only a master wine-maker could produce.
And it also represented taking something old and traditional, something that carried the promise, and giving it new content, giving it fulfillment, making it new. The water in the jars was for the rite of Jewish purification. Jesus came from the promise given to the people of Israel. He took the water of that promise and turned it into new wine, excellent wine, a wine that brought unexpected joy to a celebration of love. This new wine that comes to us in Christ gives us new life, new joy, new promise. In his ministry, life, death and resurrection Jesus embodied the promise of the Holy One who says, “Behold, I make all things new.”
It is a wonderful story that fills us with images of the God whose grace makes everyday a new beginning for us. God’s grace means the sins of our past are gone and our future is open. The mercies of God are new for us everyday. A good cup of coffee isn’t the only reason to get out of bed in the morning. It is, by God’s grace, a new day, a new beginning, a new and open future. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are one the road.
Depending on who we are, what our life is like, we need to hear that grace in different ways. Getting out of bed in the morning is really hard for some people, because of the empty feeling that every day is just another opportunity for failure. We need to drink the new wine of Christ. “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Or, This is the day the Lord has made; let us get out of bed and live by faith, live the promise of our Baptism, claim the dignity that God gives us as his children and walk through the day with confidence and hope. The new wine can do that for us.
For some of us getting out of bed in the morning is the start of another day of racing at breakneck speed to achieve more, accomplish more, and we’re frantic because we are measuring our self-worth by what we are accomplishing. I have recently read two really good words that express a kind of grace of new wine for those of us who live like that:\
If people really concentrated on the important things in life, there would be a shortage of fishing poles. (I know that only appeals to some of us.)
How nice it is to do nothing and then to have a good rest afterwards. (That’s my idea of a day off.)
I think that is also the new wine of Christ, the joy and new life that God gives us in Jesus Christ, by grace through faith.
This is a good word to start out the new year. We should start out every new year with the resolution that we will live by this grace, we will drink this new wine of Christ, we will learn to live this new life.
Karen Pohl sent me some words that I think are a wonderful way to think of this new wine and what it means to claim it and live it:
It’s called “New Year’s Wishes”. “May you get a clean bill of health from your doctor, your dentist, your podiatrist, your psychiatrist, your plumber and the IRS.
May your hair, your teeth, your face-lift, your abs and your stocks not fall. And may your blood pressure, your triglycerides, your cholesterol and your mortgage interest not rise.
May what you see in the mirror delight you, and what others see in you delight them. May someone love you enough to forgive your faults, be blind to your blemishes, and tell the world about your virtues.
May the telemarketers always call after dinner, may the commercials on TV never be louder than the program you are watching, and may your checkbook and your budget balance – and include generous amounts for charity.
May you remember to say, “I love you” at least once a day to your spouse, your child, your parent, your siblings; but not to your secretary, your nurse, your masseuse, your hairdresser or your tennis instructor.
And may we live in a world at peace and with the awareness of God’s love in every sunset, every flower’s unfolding petals, every baby’s smile, every lover’s kiss, and every wonderful, astonishing, miraculous beat of our hearts.”
May you all be filled with the joy of the new wine of Christ; and may you all let that light shine in you.
Pent 19
Mark 10:17-31
This is one of those days when we read the gospel lesson and remind ourselves that we live by grace. God’s grace, God’s love, God’s forgiveness is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the central word of the teaching and mission of Jesus – the love and mercy of God that seeks out the one lost sheep; the father who welcomes his prodigal son, his careless, wasteful, rebellious son who had disgraced his father and gleefully squandered his inheritance in a short time living a stupid life of debauchery.
(Oops. I’m sorry. A few weeks ago I learned that I shouldn’t use the word “stupid”. I used the word “stupid” in a sermon, and young Emily McGuire was here with her parents sitting in the back row. Jim and Betsy have taught Emily not to use the word “stupid”. When Emily heard me say that word from the pulpit, she was understandably confused and upset. She had some paper and made a sigh with her crayon and held it up for me to see – STOP – DON’T SAY STUPID.” I am glad to say I didn’t see the sign. With my eyesight I probably would have just seen, STOP STUPID!” I am fairly self-secure. But If I thought that Emily was saying, STOP, STUPID, I probably would have stopped, said Amen, and announced the next hymn. And Emily is right. I’ll stop using that word.)
Anyway, the father welcomes his son home with tears and love, gives him the ring of his inheritance and has a great party for him.
Above all Jesus told stories like this, stories of God’s suprising and unconditional love and forgiveness. That is the great umbrella of the message and mission of Jesus, the message that brought him to the cross, the word we celebrate every time we gather.
And under that great word Jesus said many other words that are inseparable from that word of grace. One is the disturbing story in the Gospel lesson today. The rich man loved Jesus and his message and wanted to follow him. Jesus said you lack one thing; sell all you have and give it to the poor. Then you can follow me. The rich man went away in great sorrow, for he loved his possessions and wealth. The disciples, who were not rich at all, yet were so shocked they said, “Who can be saved?” Jesus said, “It is impossible for us, but not for God. For God all things are possible.”
This is still shocking for us. Jesus came to give good news to the poor. Jesus walked with the poor. Jesus invites his followers to walk with the poor. Jesus asks us to examine our wealth and possessions and ask ourselves – who is the owner? Who is the steward? What are you doing with what God have given you? Our stewardship theme for this year is “Walk with Jesus”. I think that is a wonderful and provocative question. During the weeks ahead I would like to ask the question in a number of different ways. Are you walking with Jesus? Today the question is, “Are you walking with the poor?”
Here are a few things that came across my desk, newspaper or computer last week that might stimulate our thinking on this question. “Are you walking with Jesus? Are you walking with the poor?”
- A quote – “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
- A quote from Pastor James Forbes, Riverside Church in New York: “Nobody gets into heaven without a letter of reference from the poor.”
- And something I saw on t.v. A Christian evangelist was being interviewed, and he offered a criticism of Bon (Rock band U2). Bono is known to be a Christian, but this evangelist said he wished that Bono would talk about Jesus instead of all the work he was doing with the poor, the hungry, the starving, the victims of AIDS. He said that’s good, but I wish instead he would talk about Jesus….And I think Jesus gives the answer – He is talking about me. Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me
As Christians we understand that we are not owners, we are stewards. Our stewardship emphasis this year will invite us to walk with Jesus. Today the gospel lesson tells us that means we walk with the poor.
And here is a story that turns all of this upside down for we who live in this very affluent society. This happened a few years ago. St. John’s Lutheran Church in Brookfield has a partnership with a Lutheran church in El Salvador, a church in a community of abject poverty. They don’t even have plumbing or electricity or much that we just take for granted. A few years ago the pastor of the church came to visit. He preached and spent time at St. John’s in Brookfield. He also spend time with St. John’s partner church in the Milwaukee inner-city, All People’s Lutheran Church. When he left he said, “I was prepared to see the wealth and affluence in Brookfield and Waukesha. I was not prepared to see the poverty in Milwaukee at All Peoples Lutheran Church. He went back to his impoverished church in El Salvador and told the story. They voted to send the next three months offering – the whole offering – to All Peoples Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. That is walking with Jesus.
11th Sunday after Pentecost
Proverbs 9:1-6
For the third week in a row the gospel lesson is from John and continues to use different versions of the same saying of Jesus: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
“I am the bread of life”. The first week I used those words to talk about Holy Communion and how central it is in our life together. Last week I emphasized the words, “whoever eats this bread will live forever”, and I talked about the Easter victory and how our life in Christ “gives us a foretaste of the feast to come”.
Again today those words are before us. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” So let’s talk about Jesus as our bread for life in a different way, “bread” for this life, “bread for our journey”.
I think that fits well with our first lesson from the Proverbs of the Old Testament. “Wisdom has built her house…Wisdom has sent out her servant-girls, she calls from the highest places in the town, ‘You that are simple, turn in here!’ To those without sense she says, ‘Come and eat of the bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
Jesus is the bread of life; Jesus is bread for our journey through life. And the bread of Jesus calls us to live lives of Wisdom, in Greek “Sophia”, a feminine name as representing the presence of God. Wisdom-Sophia – Jesus as the bread of life.
We start with what the Bible means by this word wisdom which gives us bread for living. It’s not the opposite of “ignorant”. “Ignorant” means we lack education, we don’t have the information we need to understand things.
And it is not the opposite of stupid. “Stupid” is not the same thing as “ignorant” or “uneducated”. Very smart people can be stupid. Stupid is when we commit ourselves to a very narrow truth or opinion, draw a box around it, and close our eyes and ears so that nothing can reach into our minds to see something different. That’s stupid!
Years ago I enjoyed the television shows of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, a very wise man of the faith. There is a story that he gave a lecture on the origin of the universe. After the talk, a woman came up to him and said “I enjoyed your talk, but you are wrong. The earth isn’t an orb that circles the sun in an infinite universe. The earth is a crust that sits on the back of a huge turtle.”
Bishop Sheen was polite and said, “Well, if that’s so, what does the turtle sit on?” The woman said, “Another turtle.” Bishop Sheen said, “O.k., but what does that second turtle sit on?” The woman said, “Good try, Bishop, I can see where you’re going, but its turtles all the way down.”
That’s stupid. That’s harmless stupid. But there is very harmful stupid, like hating people because their skin is a different color, or hating people because they have a different religion. Or stupid like showing up at a funeral service for a person who has been brutally murdered because they had a homosexual orientation and taunting and teasing and making fun of the family and friends who loved that person. That’s stupid. And to do that in the name of God is not only stupid, it is blasphemy.
Jesus calls us to wisdom. He is the bread of life, bread for our journey, and he calls us to live by his wisdom. The opposite of “wisdom” isn’t “ignorance”. You need education for that. It isn’t “stupid”; you need repentance and transformation of life for that. The opposite of this Biblical wisdom is “foolishness”.
The wisdom of God calls us – you that are simple, come in; you who live without sense, come in, eat of my bread and drink of my wine and walk in the way of wisdom.
This wisdom of Jesus is a way of living. So we look at the foolishness of some of the ways we live.
Comedian George Carlin, known for his rather vulgar humor, wrote words of wisdom after his wife died: It’s a long piece. I’ll just pick out a few: …The paradox of our times is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints…We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less…We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time…We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values…We talk too much, love to seldom, and hate too often…We’ve learned how to make a living but not a life…We’ve added years to life not life to years…We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudices…We plan more but accomplish less…We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait…Remember to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart, and it doesn’t cost a cent…Remember to say ‘I love you’ to your partner and loved ones, and mean it…Look for cheerful friends, the grouches pull you down…Keep learning, never let your brain grow idle…Enjoy the simple things and laugh often, long and loud…Let the tears happen when they need to come…Don’t take guilt trips; go anywhere, but not where guilt is…and tell the people that you love that you love them, at every opportunity…and always remember, Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away…And then in a refreshing switch on typical e-mail tactics – If you don’t send this to at least 8 people –Who Cares?
There are Biblical scholars who study the story of Jesus and say that he was, among many other things, a sage, a teacher of wisdom. Often the crowds after they heard him speak would say, “How does he know such things?”, and they were astounded by his wisdom.
There is no doubt Jesus was a teacher of God’s wisdom for our life, and we need to understand the bread that he offers us as wisdom to live – to live lives of justice, mercy and to be humble before God.
Jesus is the bread life, bread for our journey and by his grace to help us to live by his bread.
Among other things and titles that apply to Jesus, Savior, Son of God, Lord, he was also a Teacher, a Rabbi without formal education, a Sage, a Teacher who offered the bread of wisdom to help us make the best of this journey we call “this life”, because “this life is good, it can be good, it should be good, very good.
Here is a Jewish story that comes from that wisdom tradition. A rabbi asked his students how they could tell when the night had ended and day had begun. “Could it be when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it is a sheep or a dog?” The Rabbi said “no”. Another student asked, “Is it when you can see a tree a tree in the distance and tell whether it is a fig tree or a peach tree?” The rabbi said “no”. The students said, “Please tell us, how can you tell when night ends and day begins?”
The rabbi said “It is when you can look into the face of any woman or any man and see the face of your sister or brother. Because if you can’t see this, it is still night.”
That was at the heart of the wisdom that Jesus taught. If you can’t see this, you still live in the darkness, without wisdom. Or as Jesus said it, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. This is the whole meaning of the law and the prophets, of justice and mercy. This is wisdom; this is bread for our journey.
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Mark 5:21-43
The gospel lesson from Mark combines a healing story and a story of the resuscitation of a young girl from death.
Once again, Jesus has crossed the Sea of Galilee in a boat no doubt owned by one of his fishermen disciples.
As usual there was a crowd waiting for him when he got out of the boat. And Jairus, a leader of the synagogue in Capernaum or a town nearby, broke through the crowd and made a dramatic appeal to him – his 12 year old daughter was dying. He pleaded with Jesus to come with him.
Jesus did and began to move through the crowd of people that were pressing against, probably asking for all kinds of things. Then there is this curious healing story involving a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. She got close to Jesus and thought if she could just touch his robe she would be healed. She did, and she was healed. She knew it in an instant.
What follows is a kind of funny story. Jesus asks his disciples, “Who touched me?” They can’t believe that he asked that question. Who touched him? Everyone was touching him or trying to touch him. But of course he meant the woman who was healed, and she came to him and told him what had happened. He said – Go in peace – be healed of your disease. Your faith has made well.
Then people from the house of Jairus came and told him that his daughter was dead. They said to Jesus, it’s too late; we don’t need you anymore.
Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; have faith.” (We’ll come back to that later. That was our message last week. Here it is again. The opposite of faith is not unbelief; it is fear.)
So Jesus continued to the home of Jairus. There were people there; they were there to help the family and to mourn with them. But when Jesus said a ridiculous thing, they laughed at him. He said, “She is not dead, but sleeping.” They laughed at him. She was dead. The story tells us the Jesus put them out of the house. I have always found that a curious line. How did he do that? How did he put them out of the house? Most likely he just said, “Get out of the house”. He spoke with an authority that amazed people. So if Jesus said to me, “Get out of here”, I would indeed get out of here.
Jesus took the parents of the child and a few of his disciples into the room where the child had died. The 12 year old girl was dead. (Remember, the woman with the hemorrhages had been bleeding for 12 years?) The 12 year old girl was dead. Jesus knew that. He said “she is sleeping” to anticipate the power of God over death which would be clear in his death and resurrection.
The 12 year old girl was dead. Numbers are important in the Bible. There were 12 tribes of Israel. There were 12 disciples of Jesus and later 12 apostles after the ascension of Jesus.
The 12 year old girl was dead. But Jesus said, she is just sleeping, and then he took her hand and said in his language of Aramaic, “Talitha cumi”, which means, “Little girl, get up”, get up little girl.
The importance of those words is that they were the words that parents used to wake their children up in the morning from their time of sleep. Jesus didn’t shout out in a loud voice, “By the power of God invested in me, I order you to come back to life.”.Not at all. In fact he would not even acknowledge the power of death.
No, he just said the words that dads and moms said when they woke their children up in the morning – Talitha cumi – get up little girl.
My parents were not so gentle with me. When I was 12 years old, and before and after I was 12, I always wanted to sleep until the last moment. So my parents didn’t say “Talitha cumi”, they said “TALITHA CUMI, RIGHT NOW! AND I MEAN IT.” My Dad had a special trick. If it was 5 minutes after 7:00 he would come into my room and say, “It’s going on 8:00 – time to get up.” I always knew he was trying to trick me, but it always worked.
The 12 year old girl was dead, and Jesus took her hand, with only the parents and a few disciples there, and said like a parent would, “Time to wake up little girl – talitha cumi.” And the girl got up and started to walk around. Jesus said, “Don’t tell anyone about this. And then he said a word that we overlook and never expect. He looked at Jairus and his wife and said, “Give her something to eat.” That’s how this gospel story ends. Get up little girl; it’s time to get up. Now let’s have breakfast. Let’s have something to eat.
Well, there are three very good things to think about from the gospel lesson for today. It is really loaded.
Let’s think about the woman who was bleeding for 12 years. It wasn’t superstition that led her to find Jesus and crawl her way through the crowd into a position to where she could just touch his robe. She didn’t even want to talk to him – just touch his robe. It was faith. She was a woman of the faith of Israel, and she believed that Jesus was bringing to power of God in a new way. Jesus didn’t take credit for her healing. He said your faith has made you well. Go in peace.
When Jairus heard the news that his daughter was dead and there was no use in trying to do anything more with this healer, Jesus, Jesus said, ‘Don’t be afraid. Have faith.” The opposite of faith is fear, not unbelief, not atheism, not agnosticism, not doubt. It is fear! So Jesus tells Jairus not to be afraid, and he walks with him to face the worst death anyone can imagine, his 12 year old daughter. None of us can face that without the worst kind of fear, the worst kind of grief, the worse kind of hopelessness. I know I would walk with Jesus with all of those feelings and even worse feelings, like anger and bitterness.
Faith is the opposite of fear. To live and grow in faith is to drive fear out of our lives.
And the last part of the story is wonderful. People laughed when he said, “The little girl is sleeping.” I would like to know how he “put” them out of the house. He probably ordered them out, but something in me likes to think that he got right in their faces and scared the hell out of them.
And the end is so clear. The power of God over death comes to us in Christ. And so Jesus tells the girl to get up, and she does and walks around. We should put ourselves in that young girl’s place. In our final moment, when we draw our last breath, Jesus is right there and says, “Talitha cumi, it’s time to get up, wake up as a new creation in the kingdom of God.”
The last part is so wonderful. Jesus says, give her some food. It’s time for breakfast.
I think when Jesus wakes us up in the kingdom of God, the first thing will be a banquet. He’ll say – Welcome, it’s time for food. Let’s eat. The kingdom of God is a banquet. And as we anticipate that kingdom of love and peace, we have our meal every Sunday, as a foretaste of the feast to come!
5th Sunday of Easter - Mother's Day
He is Risen……And because of Easter we do not live in fear.
That word is so basic to our faith. Laurie read somewhere last summer that the words, “Do not be afraid”, or the equivalent of those words occur 366 times in the Bible - one for every day of the year – with one extra for good measure.
Because of Easter, because of God’s victory in Christ, because Christ is with us and behind and before and below us and above us and within us, we do not live in hear. That word of the Bible is so fundamental to our faith that I have become convinced that the opposite of faith is not doubt; the opposite of faith is fear.
I do not mean that if we have faith we will never be afraid. On the contrary, fear is always trying to push its’ way into our lives, into the very center of our lives. That is why our faith in Christ is so important. Our lessons today talk about this in different ways. 1st John says it very directly, “There is no fear in love; perfect love casts out fear.” Our faith is rooted in God’s love, and God’s love pushes fear out of our lives.
In the Gospel lesson Jesus describes our relationship to him. He is the vine and we are the branches. This is the basis of our confidence. Our life comes from Christ by faith, and it is a very intimate relationship, like the branch that draws its’ life from the vine. That means he is very close to us. And as we share in his life our lives become very fruitful, very rich and full. And we grow in this faith that drives fear to the very edge and even out of our lives. It is fear that kills the spirit. It is fear that robs us of full and fruitful lives. Faith is the courage to live, and we learn this courage by faith in Christ just as the branch draws life from the vine.
On Mother’s Day we honor our mothers, and I can’t resist the obvious illustration.
After church one day, a mother asked her young daughter what the Sunday School lesson was about. The little girl said, “Don’t be scared; you’ll get your quilt.” The mother was so puzzled by that answer that at her first opportunity she asked the teacher what the Bible lesson was that Sunday. The teacher said, “Be not afraid, your comforter is coming.”
Mother’s have many, many roles, of course, and there is no one right way to be a mother. Every mother has to figure it out as best they can.
Faith Harrington sent me answers from some 2nd grade students when asked about their mothers:
Why did God make mothers? She’s the one who knows where the scotch tape is…, and to help us out when we get born.
How did God make mothers? God made mom just like me, only with bigger parts…God made mom out of everything nice in the world and just a little bit of meanness.
Why did your mom marry your dad? She got too old to do anything else with him….my grandma says mom didn’t have her thinking cap on.
If you could change one thing about your mother, what would it be? I’d get rid of this thing about keeping my room clean….I would make her smarter so she would know it was my sister who did it, not me.
What’s the difference between moms and dads? Dads are taller and stronger, but you gotta ask mom if want to sleep over at your friends house……and mom has magic. She makes you feel better without medicine.
And that is precisely the point that I am looking for today. That is the illustration. Moms and Dads play different roles in the lives of their children. Many of us who are Dads understand. Our children, when they are young and when they are older, will come to us for some things. They will come to us for certain kinds of advice, they may even tell us some things that they don’t want to tell mom. They will come to us to discuss some very important things that are happening in their lives. They come to us when they need money. And we always feel good, even honored by their confidence in us when they come to us. (Well, maybe not always about the money.)
But they go to Mom for other reasons, other kinds of advice, other kinds of wisdom. Like the young child said, they go to Mom when they want to sleep over at a friend’s house. And they go to Mom because she has the magic; she can make them feel better even without medicine. They go to Mom when they need to be comforted. They go to Mom when they are afraid.
How do I know this? Not because I am a Dad, but because I was a child, because I had a mother, and she could comfort me and help me when I was afraid like no one else in the world.
And it didn’t end with childhood. Even after I left home, and even long after I left home and moved into the mature years of adulthood, when I lived far away from my parents, from time to time I would pick up the phone not because they needed to hear from me, which they did, but I also needed to hear from them. And if I was wrestling with the demons of my fears, the sound of Mom’s voice alone would begin to tame that beast. I am sure many of you know what I mean – she had the magic.
“Don’t be scared. You’ll get your quilt”. “Don’t be afraid, the comforter is coming”.
He is Risen…….Our faith is the Easter faith, and because of Easter, we do not need to live in fear. God’s love in Christ drives fear out of our lives, not once and for all, but again and again. Fear kills the mind and the spirit. Fear robs us of life and joy. Fear is the “little death” that makes us retreat from moral challenges and give in to the bullies of the world.
And the opposite of fear is faith. Faith is the courage to be. Our life in Christ is like a branch that draws life from the vine and bears fruit from that life. And that fruit is a life of courage, tolerance, joy, love, commitment to peace and justice, a peace that is not just the absence of violence but the peace that the Bible calls shalom, a peace that requires a justice that protects the dignity and respects all people. In recent years, we have become a nation living in fear, especially the fear of violence in our own country. We need to remember the words of Pope Paul VI:” If you want peace, work for justice.” War is not the path to peace. Justice is the path to peace. Helping those who live in the agony of poverty and hunger is the path to peace. Working for understanding among races, cultures and religions is the path to peace. Fear leads us to vengeance, retaliation and hatred. And God’s perfect love in Christ drives fear out of our lives.
The promise of Jesus is that if we live in him, like the branch in the vine, we will bear this kind of fruit in our lives. And 1st John says, if we say we love God and hate our brother or sister, we are liars. Hatred comes from fear. God’s love drives that fear out. Like the magic of Mom, faith drives out fear. May God give us all that faith through Christ that drives fear out of our lives and gives us lives that are fruitful, full of joy and passion and impatience for peace and justice, like the magic of Mom.
First Sunday in Lent
Mark 1:9-15
The season of Lent begins this year with Mark’s simple story of the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. Mark doesn’t tell us anything about Jesus before this story.
He just says, Jesus showed up at the River Jordan where John the Baptist was raising holy hell about what was going among the people of Israel – the people of God! They were not living like the people of God. Their hearts were full of darkness and disobedience. The people did not know the heartbeat of God. And John the Baptizer invited the whole nation to come down to the Jordan River for a baptism of repentance, to confess their sins, and to start a new life, with a new obedience and a new heart, living in the power of the kingdom of God.
Many of the powerful people who ran the business of the country saw John as a troublemaker; many people heard in John’s call to repentance a new word of hope for a new life, and they all came down to the river and John baptized them.
One of them was an unknown carpenter from Nazareth in Galilee. He apparently made a very long trip to hear John talk. He walked into the waters and submitted himself to John’s baptism of repentance and a new heart to begin to see and live in the Kingdom of God. And as he came up out of the water, the Spirit of God came into Jesus and he heard a voice: “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”
As we go through Lent this year many of us are watching Nicky Gumble’s video presentation on Philippians, A LIFE WORTH LIVING. And the theme for this first week is “A New Heart”.
Sometimes these themes will fit well with the lessons for the day, and sometimes they won’t. This one does! Jesus came up out of the water of his baptism with a new heart. The Spirit of God came into his heart, and notice the wording – this is a private word to Jesus in Mark’s story – YOU are my son – not THIS is my son – but YOU are my son, my beloved.
Then Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days of temptation, recalling the 40 years of the people of Israel wandering and tempted in the wilderness; but they failed their temptations, again and again. Jesus had a new heart – a Spirit driven heart, a heart that was born as he came up out of the waters of his baptism, a heart that led God to call him no less than his son, his beloved son. He heard the heartbeat of God.
And then Mark simply says, “John was arrested, and then Jesus begin his ministry, he began to travel around Galilee, preaching the good news of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news, believe in the gospel.”
Jesus is the Son of God because he had a new heart, an unbroken relationship with God. He had a heart of obedience and love for God and love for God’s whole creation. His message was to call people to live in the power of the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God means that God heals our hearts, brings our hearts back to him, and makes us whole again.
Of course, we are not talking about the heart as a vital organ in our bodies, pumping and receiving the life-giving blood that flows through our bodies. But in the ancient world that vital organ was recognized as so important that it was thought of as the source for love, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, healing. The Kingdom of God gives us a new heart, a heart that is healing and will become whole again. Our heart – that is who we are! And our hearts are broken and need healing.
Here’s a story we might use to think about our theme for today. I got this story from Gemini*****. Oh, I’m sorry, she sends me so much material I call her by her e-mail address. I shouldn’t expect you to know that that’s Kim Dutelle.
Father Murphy walked into a pub in Donegal with a particular zeal to save his people. The first man he saw he said, “Do you want to go to the Kingdom of Heaven?” The man said, “I do, Father.” Father Murphy then said, “Then stand over there against that wall.” He went to a second man and asked the same question: “Do you want to go to heaven?” The man said, “Certainly, Father”. “Then stand over there against that wall” said Father Murphy, now growing in some confidence.
Then Father Murphy walked over to a man named O Toole, and said, “And do you want to go to the Kingdom of Heaven?” And O’Toole said, “No I don’t, Father.”
Father Murphy said, “I don’t believe this! You mean to tell me that when you die you don’t want to go to heaven”?
O’Toole said, “Oh, when I die, yes. I thought you were getting a group together to go right now.”
That is a great word for what we are talking about today as we begin Lent, and really all through Lent. We’re not talking about getting a group together to go today to the Kingdom of Heaven. We are talking about the message of Jesus – The Kingdom of God has come near to you, very, very close to you. In Christ, God has come so close to us that we can begin to get a glimpse of what it means to have a NEW HEART. That is the meaning and the message of the mission of Jesus. As Christ comes into our lives we begin to see and feel what it would mean to be healed, to have a heart of compassion and understanding, a heart that is more and more capable of obedience to God, the one who gives us life and knows what God intended for our life.
So when O’Toole says, “Sure, when I die I want to go to heaven. I thought you were getting a group to go right now.”
That is the word that we need. We are trying to get a group to go right now. Not to die. We pray for long and meaningful lives for each other. But the call of Jesus in our gospel lesson, as he begins his ministry and we hear the summary of his message, is that God has come near to us, close to us, very, very close to us, so that we might hear the good news of our forgiveness, once and for all, and that in Jesus we will see who God is, what God wants from us, and finally what will God do for us, even going as far as allowing his beloved son to die for us on a cross.
We are trying to get a group to go right now. We are trying to get a group to really live this gospel of love, to seek a new obedience to what God wants us to do and how God wants us to live. We are trying to get a group right now who will let their hearts open up to a new kind of presence of God.
In Ireland we learned to use the phrase, “Listen to the heartbeat of God.” That is a new idea for me. In the famous painting by Leonardo Da Vince of the Last Supper, one of the disciples is leaning close to the chest of Jesus. He is usually thought of as the “beloved disciple” in the Gospel of John. Often this summer we heard the phrase, “the one who listens to the heartbeat of God.”
And that gave me a new way of thinking about Jesus and his intimacy with God. Jesus lets us listen to the heartbeat of God. Jesus shows us God’s heart. And in Christ, who knows the heartbeat of God, our hearts may begin to heal.