What is Sin? Why Even Worry About it? (Mark 9:38-50)

Mark 9:38-50
Some years ago I encountered a series called “How Lutherans Interpret the Bible” by Dr Mark Allan Powell. As a matter of fact it was long enough ago that I originally watched it on VHS. If you don’t know what that is I suggest you google it. 

It was good to hear that we don’t interpret all of the Bible literally. I grew up hearing the text as God’s infallible word, to be understood literally. (When it suited us.)  I have changed much of my stance since then. And I believe today’s gospel reading is an excellent example of why literal reading of the Biblical text can be down right dangerous.

If we took this passage literally we would all go through life maimed and blind. Jesus tells us in the sermon on the mount “whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” And of course this refers to women lusting after men as well. Let’s take this a step further. How many times have I looked at something someone else has and coveted it? I would be blind for sure.

And have my feet not taken me places I should not have gone? Or my hands done things they should not have done?

So yes I am glad we do not take the Biblical text literally. But what exactly is Jesus telling us? That sin is bad? Well, yes. But what is sin? And why such extreme warnings?

What is sin? Well the word sin comes from the Greek and Hebrew words for missing the mark. It was actually an archery term. One can hit the target and miss the bullseye, thus miss the mark. And as we all know, we all miss the bullseye at some point in life. Paul defines sin in Romans 14 as whatever is not of faith is sin. (So far I’m in real trouble.)

Luther refers to sin as turning in on oneself. This definition speaks to me. Yes we have the ten commandments as guides to living but Jesus summarizes those ten into two. We read in Matthew 22:
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”  

Let’s hang the two commandments on the wall instead of the ten. 

Both of these commandments require us to turn outward, not inward. Although there is also a bit of a paradox here. For how else do we find God but to turn in and find God within?

Perhaps the answer is simply another question. What are we seeking when we turn within? It is always a surprise to me that when I turn to my inner being, my soul or spirit, I find the image of God. I find love. I find light. Here, in the place of my heart. 

But if I turn inward in self pity, fear, or self adulation, well I find darkness. I find anger and greed. And it is there I find the sin that hurts my neighbor and myself.

And it is there that we can find the answer to my second question. Why such extreme warnings against sin?

First it hurts me. I become enamored with myself, my failures, my inadequacies which lead me to hide behind  pride and anger and lust for power or pleasure. And these things hurt others. My anger and pride hurt the ones I love. My lust hurts all  of creation. Climate change is an obvious example. It hurts those who must work for unsustainable wages because I want more stuff for less. 

My sin and 6 degrees of separation or quantum physics’ theory of entanglement could destroy the world. 
And this is why Jesus cries out for us to pay attention to our sin. To our turning inward on ourselves and not turning outward to love our neighbor and creation.

Or to love our God. And again, I return to the paradox. To find God one must take time to look within. Until we find the God of Love, the one in whose image we are made, we cannot turn outward with that love. And love is what God has created us to be. Love for ourselves. (Ironic?) Love for our neighbor. Love for creation. Love for God. And without love, we destroy.

In fact, we can do the right things, we can hit the target and never hit the bullseye! Perhaps this sounds familiar:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

We do so much out of pride and self promotion. When those things get in the way, we become blind to the harm we do. 

We mustn’t take Jesus’ sayings of maiming ourselves literally, But we MUST take the seriousness of his warnings to heart. God made us co-creators. If we do not create love we will create hate. Actually someone said the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. And we will destroy, or should I say continue to destroy our world and each other.

(Parting words to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Freeport, Il.)
I want to thank you for all that you do in the name of love. You have shown love to your pastor by allowing her this time of sabbatical. You have shown love to me by your welcome and your forgiveness of my foibles and your words of encouragement. You show love to one another in your fellowship. And you show love to your community in working for its benefit. 

I encourage you to not allow these things to simply be things you do because you should. Instead look within and find God, and then look without and shine that love on the world. In all that you do.

Finally, Throughout my time with you I have often spoken of looking inside ourselves. I learned how this changes us and potentially the world in my three year course for spiritual direction. I wish to end with this. I am a Spiritual Director, or what I prefer to call a Soul Listener. If this is something you might find of interest I would love to talk with you. It is a worthwhile course or simply a worthwhile discipline.

Even though I have had to get up much too early on Sunday Mornings, I have absolutely loved our time together. Embrace Pastor Shelly as she returns with the same love and forbearance with which you have embraced me.
amen

I Want to Be the Child. Mark 9: 30-37

It has been a couple of years since I have had to work on sermons on a weekly basis. This last week brought with it some challenges so while I attempted to create a meaningful sermon I kept deleting them and trying again. I think this one was my third or fourth attempt.  

Even when I was doing this full time this was not a totally unusual event. Sometimes I would like to say something new and inspiring. I know, wouldn’t we all. And so the Holy Spirit patiently lets me type all of these things in my head until finally I listen. I am so thankful for word processing programs! And a patient Holy Spirit.

Anyway, while something new and inspiring seems like a good idea, sometimes the old tried and true is better.

Today’s reading, for any of us who have been around the church for a while, is not new. Jesus is walking and talking with disciples. He is pouring his heart out to them. Maybe to give himself some relief and find some support from his closest friends or maybe to just pre warn them.

What the Messiah is, is not what they thought it would be. It is going to be very different. And Jesus hopes that in the warning of what is about to occur they will not lose faith when it does. It will be hard for all of them, Jesus and the disciples. 

And of course, as we know, Jesus overhears their argument. They, instead of hearing what Jesus is saying, are arguing who is going to be the greatest. Because of their own upbringing, they just can’t see or understand that Jesus has come to turn everything upside down. The Messiah was not going to take over the Roman seat and rule. He was going to be crucified and take up a seat in the greatest kingdom of all. God’s kingdom, the universe, all of creation. 

Now, I confess, I find in myself the self satisfaction that I know this and the disciples didn’t. It is easy to be smug on this side of the story.

And then I wonder how Jesus would see my life. My comfort. My desire to come up with new and better ideas to preach. My desire to be considered profound. Not that I shouldn’t strive to do my best, but for whose glory?

And I wonder what Jesus would say about the church. Our comfort. Our desire to become the best and newest thing in Christendom. And for whose glory?

I guess it’s no wonder I didn’t want to write this sermon. Ah well, here it is.

St Francis of Assisi had a different point of view. He didn’t look to belong or to build some great monastery. His followers were called to be poor. To rely on the generosity of others. They were called to live in poverty with the poor, not live in comfort and feel holy for walking down the hill occasionally to care for the poor. 

I will not tell you that I have been called to such a life. At least not for today. But I think it is important for us to stop and realize what Jesus has called us to be. Pomp and circumstance are not it. Being the greatest and best is not it. 

We are to be like children. There was a young man, maybe 3 or 4, at the church in the Sabula I loved to play with. He loved hiding under the pews. So one day, his mother was there preparing something for Sunday School that week, I followed him under the pews. We had such fun! We were both laughing and screaming. His mother told him he shouldn’t be screaming in church. Well that sure dampened that afternoon’s delight.

I wonder what that child was doing just before Jesus picked him or her up. I love that Mark doesn’t specify.  Was the child sitting listening to Jesus? (Probably not.) Was the child playing with toys? Was the child hiding under the table? Whatever it was, the child was near Jesus and Jesus was pleased.

I want to be that child. I want to be the one Jesus picks up and holds on his lap. Maybe it is more about living life, enjoying the moment, and accepting things as they come. What else can a child do?

Is it possible that we are worried about the wrong things? Is it possible we take things too seriously? They say Francis died young because of his rigorous spiritual practices.  Luther was a generous man, too generous sometimes, but he also knew how to laugh and enjoy his children. And Katy made a good beer. It was when Luther began taking things too seriously, perhaps himself too seriously, that he wrote some terrible words against our Jewish brothers and sisters. 

Jesus knew that things were going to get tough. But he also knew that unless the disciples took love more seriously than themselves they would never make it. When I made my first visit to family in what was once East Germany, they told me how the churches of different denominations worked together to help one another rebuild their buildings. We could learn a lot.

Permit me to end with a lengthy poem from Ann Weems.

I took to church one morning a happy four-year-old boy
Holding a bright blue string to which was attached
his much loved orange balloon with pink stripes...
Certainly a thing of beauty
And if not forever, at least a joy for a very important now.
When later he met me at the door
Clutching blue string, orange and pink bobbing behind him,
He didn't have to tell me something had gone wrong.
"What's the matter?"
He wouldn't tell me.
"I bet they loved your balloon..."

Out it came, then -- mocking the teacher's voice, "We don't bring balloons to church."
Then that little four-year old, his lip a little trembly, asked:
"Why aren't balloons allowed in church? I thought God would like balloons."
I celebrate balloons, parades and chocolate chip cookies.
I celebrate seashells and elephants and lions that roar.
I celebrate roasted marshmallows and chocolate cake and fresh fish.
I celebrate aromas: bread baking, mincemeat, lemons...
I celebrate seeing: bright colors, wheat in a field, tiny wild flowers...
I celebrate hearing: waves pounding, the rain's rhythm, soft voices...
I celebrate touching: toes in the sand, a kitten's soft fur, another person...
I celebrate the sun that shines slab dab in our faces...
I celebrate the crashing thunder and the brazen lightning...
And I celebrate the green of the world...the life-giving green...the hope-giving green...
I celebrate birth: the wonder...the miracle...of that tiny life already asserting its selfhood.
I celebrate children
who laugh out loud
who walk in the mud and dawdle in the puddles
who put chocolate fingers anywhere

who like to be tickled
who scribble in church
who whisper in loud voices
who sing in louder voices
who run...and laugh when they fall
who cry at the top of their lungs
who cover themselves with bandaids
who squeeze the toothpaste all over the bathroom
who slurp their soup
who chew coughdrops
who ask questions
who give us sticky, paste-covered creations
who want their picture taken
who won't use their napkins
who bury goldfish, sleep with the dog, scream at their best friend

who hug us in a hurry and rush outside without their hats.
I celebrate children
who are so busy living they don't have time for our hang-ups.
And I celebrate adults who are as little children.
I celebrate the man who breaks up the meaningless routines of his life.
The man who stops to reflect, to question, to doubt.
-- The man who isn't afraid to feel....
The man who refuses to play the game.
I celebrate anger at injustice
I celebrate tears for the mistreated, the hurt, the lonely...
I celebrate the community that cares... the church...
I celebrate the church.
I celebrate the times when we in the church made it...
When we answered a cry
When we held to our warm and well-fed bodies a lonely world.
I celebrate the times when we let God get through to our hiding places

Through our maze of meetings
Our pleasant facade...deep down to our selfhood
Deep down to where we really are.
Call it heart, soul, naked self
It's where we hide
Deep down away from God
And away from each other.

I celebrate the times when the church is the Church
When we are Christians
When we are living, loving, contributing God's children...
I celebrate that He calls us His children even when we are in hiding.
I celebrate love...the moments when the You is more important than the I
I celebrate the perfect love...the cross...the Christ
loving in spite of...
giving without reward

I celebrate the music within a man that must be heard
I celebrate life...that we may live more abundantly...
Where did we get the idea that balloons don't belong in the church?
Where did we get the idea that God loves gray and Sh-h-h-h-h
And drab and anything will do?
I think it's blasphemy not to appreciate the joy in God's world.
I think it's blasphemy not to bring our joy into His church.
For God so loved the world
That He hung there

Loving the unlovable
What beautiful gift cannot be offered unto the Lord?
Whether it's a balloon or a song or some joy that sits within you waiting to
have the lid taken off.
The Scriptures say there's a time to laugh and a time to weep.
It's not hard to see the reasons for crying in a world where man's hatred for
man is so manifest.
So celebrate!

Bring your balloons and your butterflies, your bouquets of flowers...
Bring the torches and hold them high!
Dance your dances, paint your feelings, sing your songs, whistle, laugh.
Life is a celebration, an affirmation of God's love.
Life is distributing more balloons.
For God so loved the world...
Surely that's a cause for Joy.
Surely we should celebrate!

Good News! That He should love us that much.
Where did we ever get the idea that balloons don't belong in the church?

I so want to be the child Jesus picks up and holds.

Let’s take a moment of silence to sense the Spirit around us, within us, amongst us.

Psalm 116 “A man can’t be always defending the truth; there must be a time to feed on it.”

Psalm 116

It seems like a good day to hear the psalm and take it into our hearts. C.S. Lewis, in his Reflections on the Psalms writes: “The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance.”

It seemed like a  good time to breathe in the joy of worshiping God and dancing like David. So much goes on in our lives that feels tiresome. Let’s take time to be like David and worship anyway!

Of course, anyone who has read more than one of the Psalms knows that not all of them sound like dancing. Some of them are down right harsh. David, and the other psalmists, did not seem to have any problem telling God exactly how life felt to them. They were pretty blunt.  But in the honor of joy and praise, I will skip quoting any of their complaints.

Still, I also believe that when one can be so open and honest with one's complaints without fear, that too is worship. To know God’s grace so well and to be so certain in it, is to worship.

And today's Psalm touches my heart. 

Who has not felt the pain of life to the point that one wished for death? Or perhaps did in fact come near to death? Even in the moments when it is not physical death, most of us have known the emotional pains that feel as if ones heart is being torn apart.

I too have called out to God for help. Have you? And sometimes with a whisper, a gentle breeze, sometimes with a quick rescue, I have felt the hand of God Save. 

God listens. God listens deeply. God listens with compassion. And because God lived the human experience through Jesus, God’s empathy is complete. For God too has had to take up a cross.

God is indeed gracious and merciful. And the psalmist also calls God righteous. That is a great word. Often the word righteous has connotations of living according to the law, not sinning. But it is really so much more than that. Righteousness is right relationship with one another. God’s actions toward us are about a relationship built on love. Mercy is to love deeply. 

When I was brought low he saved me. Those moments of humiliation, God is there. Those moments of utter weakness and despair, God is there. Those moments when we think nothing can ever save us, perhaps our sin is too great, God is there.

Return o my soul to your rest. Like a child in the arms of its mother, our souls find rest in the presence of God.

In my silent prayer, centering prayer, I find God, here in my chest. I feel the warmth of utter love, acceptance and peace. I find salvation. Did you know that the word we translate as to be saved means to be made whole? I find, in the silence of God, wholeness.  Trappist Monk Thomas Keating writes that “silence is God’s first language.” The quote is also attributed to St John of the Cross.

Return o my soul to your rest in the place of God’s presence (silence)!

And each day I walk with God , here on this earth. It is such a joy, such an honor to know that we don’t need to wait until we go to some far away place at some far away time. But rather today we walk with God, here on planet earth.

It is election time. If you are on Facebook or any social media, if you are around others with different political views than you, if you watch the news or read the paper, you may need to remember that the peace, the wholeness, the deep love of God is with you. 

The beautiful thing about letting your soul rest in God during these times is his love shines through you. You will bring peace to the moment in which you are living. We need this. Not just for our souls but also for the souls of the world who share this moment with us.

If the concept of 6 degrees of separation is true, and I believe with technology it is even less, then touching the soul next to you can indeed be the pebble tossed in the water. Waves of hope and peace going ever outward.

Is quiet time with God a waste of time? Never! I am convinced it is the only hope our world has.  Again C.S Lewis in Reflections of the Psalms writes: “A man can’t be always defending the truth; there must be a time to feed on it.”―

So I would like to leave you with an alternative reading of today’s psalm.  There is a lovely book called “Psalms for Praying; an Invitation to Wholeness.”  Nan Merrill has rewritten the psalms into prayers of love. Here is Psalm 116:

(Perhaps close your eyes or simply quiet your mind as I read it.)

Receive my love, O Beloved, You who

hear my voice and my supplication.

You incline your ear to me, and

I call upon You with trust both day and night.

When the snares of fear encompass me,

when the pangs of loneliness envelop me,

I suffer distress and anguish.

Then I call upon You, my Rock:

You come to my aid,

Your strength upholds me.

Gracious are You, just and true;

Heart of all hearts, You are merciful and forgiving.

You preserve the simple; when

I am humbled, You lift me up.

Return, O my soul, to your rest;

For You, O Loving Friend,

bestow grace upon grace, a balm for my soul.

You raise me up to new life;

You dry my tears, and guide my feet on straight paths.

Now, I walk hand in hand with Love

in the land of the Awakened ones.

I keep my faith, even in times of great turmoil;

I invite others to Awaken to the joy of your Presence.

Ephphatha! Mark 7:24-37

I swear, the more I learn the less I know. Especially when it comes to the Bible.  Anybody else notice that?

Seriously, Whenever I sit down to write a sermon I pull up a chair next to my good friend Google, and we begin to search out commentaries and historic facts that might shed some light on the gospel reading of the day.

I learn a lot in that process. Although in all honesty I forget a lot too.

But it’s crazy. The more I learn about stuff the less sure I am about what Jesus intended for us to see.  I mean I try to step back and get some sense of what Mark wants us to understand based on the details that he gives or the things he doesn’t tell us. 

For instance, why does Jesus sigh, or in other translations groan, when he heals the deaf man and why did Mark find that important enough to record?  I don’t know.

Why did Jesus put his fingers in the man’s ears? I don’t know. Or the big question, why did Jesus spit and touch the man’s tongue? I don’t know! It doesn’t really say that he put his spit on the man’s tongue but neither does it say he didn’t . I don’t know!  (By the way, I learned a lot of interesting things about the spirituality of spit with Google’s guidance.)

Or how about the woman, why was Jesus so gruff with her? I don’t know! And what exactly was it in what she said that changed Jesus’ mind? Yup…you got it! I don’t know!

So instead of a sermon based on any certainty of what Mark wanted us to get from this, all I can do is tell you where my heart and mind ended up. Are you okay with that? 

Mark tells us that Jesus has gone into Gentile territory and found a house where he hoped he could hide away for a while. (I wonder who’s house. I don’t  know!) Maybe he hoped that the people he had fed and the Pharisees who were questioning him wouldn’t follow him there and he might get some rest.

Let’s look back in chapter 6 to get a feel for what Jesus has faced. Jesus’ home town tries to throw him off a cliff. Then Jesus sends out the disciples to minister to others and preach the gospel.I wonder if that was as emotional as sending your kids to their first day of school? And then He receives news that John the Baptist has been beheaded. 

So when the disciples return, he just wants some down time with his friends. Mark writes: “So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.” 

But the crowds follow and find them. Mark writes: “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.” And of course this is where he feeds the 5 thousand. 
And then in chapter 7, his disciples are trying to eat and the Pharisees give him a hard time for not washing their hands.

Phew, no wonder he slipped away to Gentile territory. His countrymen will not follow him there. No self respecting Jew would cross that border. He needs a break!

Before we go on and I get myself in trouble, let’s remember that Jesus is human. His body is just like ours. My guess is, he is whooped. So when this woman, this gentile woman finds him, who blames him if he gets a wee bit snarky? Many find this suggestion offensive. But remembering his humanness, at least for me, makes his words from the cross even more holy, sacred, and incredible! 

God, in Jesus, is living the human experience. All of it!

Okay maybe he wasn’t snarky as much as he was simply speaking from the teachings of his faith…Judaism…in which he had been raised. His comment to her about being one of the dogs was exactly the way of his culture. In his weariness maybe it was simply a knee jerk reaction. 

As I said, I don’t know why Jesus said this. But here is what I heard Mark telling me.
It is easy to make assumptions about people based on our cultural upbringing, our religious teaching, media propaganda, or our friends’ comments and jokes. But maybe, just maybe there is more to the person.

Jesus listens to the woman’s response. He doesn’t just walk away. He doesn’t tell her to be quiet and go away. He listens. And when he listens, there is a healing. When he listens her daughter is healed, and maybe even something in the mother is touched. He listens. And it changes his mind.

Our church in Binghamton NY was in crime central. We had so many felons in the area that we started an evening service for adults only. 

Guess what I discovered about these individuals. They were human beings with a story. They had names, families, traumas. That didn’t make their crimes suddenly ok. But it made them human beings God loved as much as he loved me. I changed my mind about them.

When we stop and listen, healing happens. To the one we listen to and maybe to the one who listens.  And it's a healing that continues through families and generations. This is what I heard Mark (and hopefully the Holy Spirit) telling me in this story.

And maybe, just maybe, we can then see that we cannot speak love, speak words that are not defiled, until our ears are opened and we can listen. And thus, the truth, the teaching in this second healing.

One of the things Google helped me find is that the word “Ephphatha!” in Aramaic not only means be opened but also could mean be connected. In Aramaic words are often understood by their pronunciation and context. Not unlike our own language. 

So, perhaps, when we listen, when we connect to the other, the words we speak will no longer be distorted or defiled by prejudice, but clear and loving and truthful and healing. The man’s ears were opened and perhaps his heart was connected to the God of love so that he could speak well.

Okay, so I don’t know if this is what Jesus and or Mark had in mind. But I believe what I have spoken is true. And I also wonder, if Jesus groaned because he felt the pain of the disconnect that we experience when we refuse or cannot be connected. I don’t know!

May our ears and hearts be opened and connected to the other, even the one we despise, so that our words might bring healing.

Join me in a moment of silence to hear the whisper of the Spirit.
Ephphatha!

Today is 988 day. 988 is the number a person can call if they are struggling with their own demons (so to speak). It is the mental health life line.

If you are struggling, if you know someone who is, please remember this number. It doesn’t have to be suicidal thoughts. Whatever mental health issue, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, there is someone on the other end of that line that will listen.
And perhaps that will bring healing.