Fifth Sunday after Trinity Mark 5:21-end Lamentations 3-22-33‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is his faithfulness.’ This statement in Lamentations 3: how is it helpful to you?Anybody who has ever suffered loss of any kind – and that is certainly everybody at some time – be it health, wealth or loved ones, will know something of what it means to be desperate. I’m sure we all try not to take the good things in life for granted, but we are never more reminded of them then when they are taken away. Where do you go when things are looking bad for you or a loved one? When we are confronted with illness, we turn to the medical profession, with hope if not always full confidence. And the outcome is not always the one we hope for.In Jesus’ day, the medical profession was quite different from the one we have today; obviously, they lacked knowledge and certain skills and instruments. So when Jesus came and performed healing miracles – including raising people from the dead – people were amazed but also beginning to put their hope in him as a healer of illnesses that were not curable. Sometimes, they would flock to Jesus in their droves, to see what he could do. In today’s passage from Mark’s Gospel, we meet two people who came to Jesus as their last resort. One is a woman who has been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse, it says. She had heard about Jesus and thought, if only I can touch his clothes, I will be made well. And it happens just as she has hoped. Although she has tried to do this unobserved, in the crowd that is pressing in on Jesus, he does notice power going out from him, and he asks for her to come forward. The disciples think it’s hilarious: how can he feel her touch among many in this crowd? But Jesus knows. The woman comes forward trembling and tells him the truth, and Jesus sends her on her way, commending her for her faith.This happens while Jesus is on his way to the home of Jairus, a synagogue leader, whose daughter is at the point of death, and who has begged Jesus, ‘Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ The incident of the woman touching Jesus’ clothes on the way means a delay, and Jairus is met by some people from his house, to tell him that it is too late: his daughter has died. This does not deter Jesus, however, who says to Jairus, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ And so it happens: Jesus goes to Jairus’ house and raises his daughter, who, as it says, is twelve years old. Now Jairus was a leader of the local synagogue, and as such might not always have been happy with Jesus’ ministry, as it was so new, so different and so strange. Religious leaders were still debating where it came from. But desperate times need desperate measures, and he throws caution to the wind and runs to Jesus for help. If anybody can, it is Jesus. These stories can be seen as symbolic of the renewal of Israel that Jesus is proclaiming through his ministry, and through Israel of the whole world. The two women are images of a restored reproduction; the twelve year old girl approaching marriage, and the woman’s suffering making her unclean. They, with all in their respective households, may well have been able to repeat those words from Lamentations, ‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’ May we all be able to say them, fearful, yet believing and putting our trust in God; ‘casting all our anxiety on him, because he cares for us’ (1 Peter 5:7). Amen.
Fourth Sunday after Trinity Mark 4:35-end Job 38:1-11‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’ If you’ve ever been in open country side or at sea during a thunderstorm, you will know how frightening it can be. Also, there is usually nothing you can do about it, once it starts; it has to run its course. Of course, we all now know that there are weather patterns and some of these can be predicted. But then, my own grandfather – a farmer – simply looked at the sky and then told my grandmother to take in the washing if rain was threatening. His observation from experience even told him how many minutes she would have to do it; he was that accurate! Here, though, in Mark’s Gospel account of Jesus calming the storm on the lake, we have something more impressive: Jesus showing his authority even over the forces of nature. If the storm frightened the disciples in the boat – and there were well-weathered fishermen among them! – Jesus’ intervention made them even more afraid: who then is this? It is a known-fact that the Sea of Galilee can be very unpredictable; storms can rise up out of the blue. But the weather can also change in other places. The story of Jonah and the accounts in the Acts of the Apostles (Paul on his way to Rome) are telling a similar thing. However, in the other cases, the storm did not just die down very quickly and at command. This is a different story altogether. So, what is it about? One thing that may strike us is the fact that Jesus doesn’t seem to be bothered about the storm at all; he is even asleep and has to be woken up by the frightened disciples, who are saying that they are perishing. And I’m sure we can all identify with them. The sea is dangerous; sailing comes with a real risk. In the Psalms and in Genesis, the sea is also the picture of darkness and evil, overcome only by God’s sovereign power. So when Jesus rebukes the wind and the sea and saves the disciples from perishing, we are seeing something of God’s authority over evil. It is like the parables and the signs that Jesus performs during his ministry which are all pointing to the new kingdom, the Kingdom of God, which is at hand. While the forces of evil are roused, and making their anger felt in such a way that the disciples are fearing for their lives, Jesus is sleeping, confident in God’s presence. No wonder that the disciples are upset, thinking that he doesn’t care. But there is something that they have missed: who Jesus is. No wonder then, also, that Jesus says to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’In the passage for today from the book of Job, God responds to Job ‘from the whirlwind’, storms being typically accompanied by a manifestation of God. In a string of rhetorical questions, God reveals his authority, including how limits were set for the primeval waters of chaos. Jesus, by rebuking the wind and the sea, is showing the same authority, as a characteristic of the divine. So that the disciples, filled with great awe, said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’ Wind and storms; they are a part of life. We all go through bad times, even as believers. But God cares, and knowing Jesus makes a difference. Jesus went through the biggest storm of all: dying on a cross for the sins of the world. For a moment, it seemed as if evil had won, but in the end Jesus won the final victory over sin and death when he rose again from the dead. We can be part of his victory through faith, and hear his words amidst the storms of life, saying, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Who is this? This is God’s Son; and this is how we know him. Amen.
Third Sunday after Trinity Mark 4:26-34 Ezekiel 17:22-endThe laws of nature are saying it quite clearly: when you sow seeds, they will sprout and grow and in their coming up they reveal their kind. Jesus, in Mark chapter 4, is teaching that something new is now coming up: the Kingdom of God. He uses parables to explain the truth of the ‘resurrection’ of the true Israel, of the restoration of the people to God, through his ministry and work of salvation. Of course, parables are not always understood straight away; they need explanation, which is what Jesus gives the disciples in private. But in public, he teaches through these stories with a hidden meaning, as his Good News is so explosive in many ways, that it would be too risky to say certain things out loud. It is not, though, as if it is impossible to understand a parable. You may have to think in order to work out the message, but the image uses items and pictures of everyday life, and sometimes reflect something from the earlier Scriptures and prophecies. Today, we find words that God gave to Ezekiel and that record a messianic allegory, describing the Messiah as a twig or branch, that he will plant on Mount Zion, and that it will bear fruit and become a noble cedar. And ‘under it every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind.’ So, what is Jesus saying, then, when he likens the Kingdom of God to someone who ‘would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.’ Could it be that the Kingdom of God is first hidden but it sprouts and grows until it is ripe for a ‘harvest’, as Jesus calls it? There is something else that this picture is also telling and we find it in the sequence of the growing seed, where Jesus says, ‘The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’ It has an echo of the prophet Joel, chapter 3, verse 13, which is an image of Judgement Day. Likening this to a time of harvest, Jesus is not saying that it may come, but that it surely will come, just as harvest follows the ripening of the crop. So what can we take away from these images that the parables are teaching? Firstly, we can learn that the Kingdom of God is coming at the right time and in accordance with God’s design: sowing and growing and harvesting are like the cycle of day and night. It is consequential and has an outcome, like the proverb: ‘you reap what you sow’. Secondly, even though something begins small, it is not to be looked down on. You may not see the seed when it is in the ground and sprouting at first, but once it comes up and grows, it cannot be ignored. Small beginnings may grow into large opportunities – like a few people praying and after some time watching the start of something new. Thirdly, there is hope. In the image of the mustard seed, the Kingdom of God is growing tall and big and wide enough to give shelter to the birds, who ‘can make nests in its shade’. The Kingdom of God is good news! It is the freedom that forgiveness gives us through faith, so that we can live our lives ‘to the full’, as Jesus says, bearing good fruit in peace and in joy. May our lives, then, produce a good crop of righteousness through the grace of God. Amen.
Second Sunday after Trinity Mark 3:20-end Genesis 3:8-15Who’s Who 2024 is the 176th edition of one of the world’s longest established reference books, brought up to date for this year with just under 500 new names. The latest annual update includes names from science, technology and medicine, as well as business and leisure, literature, art and music, and more. With almost 500 new names, it is probably an interesting read. But what makes a ‘who’? I suppose that, when it comes to an entry in the reference book, it is all about context and achievement. And we may be able to see why it might be helpful to have these entries, indeed for reference. But we all know that there are many other names that don’t make it into the Who’s Who, but who are, in their own right, still ‘who’s’…In the account of Genesis chapter 3, we find Adam and Eve, here called ‘the man and the woman’ after they have eaten from the forbidden fruit tree. Once their eyes were opened to what they had done and they realised that they were naked, they made coverings for themselves and went into hiding. But the Lord God looks for them – ‘where are you?’ he asks, and finds them and the whole miserable story of their disobedience comes out. It is interesting that the realisation of their nakedness is in the context of their downfall. Before, they had nothing to hide and they feel safe; now they do, and it makes them see themselves for the first time as they really are: fallible, weak, vulnerable, unworthy; especially in the company of an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, holy God. It has an effect on who they think and feel they are.Identity is important. From the moment we are born, our notion of who we are is being formed in context: our parents and other family first deciding where we belong and affirming who we are. This is in the negative as well as the positive sense. Not every child, sadly, grows up in a loving and safe environment. Jesus grew up in a family who valued him. But in Mark 3, something else is going on. When his family heard what was going on with him in his role of teacher and prophet, they wanted to restrain him; to them, having known him in the past, he is out of his mind. They might have been afraid of what the crowds – and the religious authorities – might do to him. The scribes had been demonizing him, even though he cast out demons and challenged his critics, saying, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come.’ It’s what often happens: when people don’t fit into a certain group’s category, they get labelled in such a way that they can be abused and others won’t take them seriously. The scribes tried to do that with Jesus, so they can safely side-line him. But the label is wrong. Jesus is the stronger one, who has overcome temptation and is bringing in the Kingdom of God. His reproof of being labelled is the most severe in the Bible: ‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus says, ‘people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.’ – for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’ From the moment Jesus began his ministry – his baptism and temptation in the desert affirming his identity as God’s Son – his work has revealed him as the person he is: the Messiah, now reclaiming for God what had been lost. In other words, the real Strong One has arrived and finds his house being burgled, so he is taking action. God’s Kingdom, in which people will find freedom and a new identity, is being proclaimed and inaugurated. A believer will find his or her true identity through faith in Jesus. The scribes are wrong: there is no-one saner than Jesus, who will prove his power and his identity even more in what is to follow. He knows who he really is. And we also can know who we are, by hearing God’s word. How do we know who we are? By knowing whose we are. Amen.
