In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
At the end of a busy day, after we have had tea, and Mikki has gone to bed, I will often crash on the sofa and watch a film, but more often than not it has to be a film that grabs me straight away otherwise I can get bored if it takes too long for the film to warm up.
As we have now entered into the longest season of the church year, where we use our green vestments and hangings for much of the time up to the end of October, we often call this ordinary time, which could be considered quite bland, but in reality, the green reminds us that this is a time of extended growth and development in the journey of our faith.
We are also in Year B, which means that much of this time will be centred around Marks Gospel, which is often considered the earliest gospel to be written, and the one which both Matthew and Luke’s draw references from. But it is also the shortest gospel, however its length shouldn’t distract us from its significance, because its packed with what we would call, action from the very beginning.
Here a mere three chapters into this 16-chapter gospel, he has dealt with Jesus Birth, Baptism, Temptation, call of Simon and Andrew, numerous healings, his first preaching tour, the call of Matthew, understanding the reason for fasting, the sabbath, more healing, the calling of the remaining twelve, a mere 93 verses of scripture, which brings us to todays Gospel, he’s come home for the first time.
Now you could be forgiven for thinking that as he arrived back in Nazareth that he would be greeted as a hero, but that wasn’t the case. Yes, the people had gathered around him, no doubt because news of what he had been doing had reached them, but instead of being there to welcome home the son of Joseph and Mary with warm and welcoming arms, there was something else on their minds.
He’s gone out of his mind, and to make matters worse, he had come to the attention of the scribes who had made the journey from Jerusalem, and their indictment was even worse. He has Beelzebul, and this is how he is doing all these things. Essentially, they branded Jesus as Evil, Satan himself.
Clearly, they were all rattled, the chaos of the situation had brought them to a state of disunity. Where Jesus had already began to bring unity in other places, here in Nazareth, confusion was right there in their midst. Each had their own opinion of what was going on and this was adding fuel to the fire.
Its at this point Jesus stepped in, ‘‘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.’
The confusion and chaos of this scene was demonstrating how disparate the house of Israel was at this time. This simple carpenters Son, had manged to upset the status quo, and because of it the people were in a state of unrest. I doubt that their thoughts were focussed upon God, they wanted things to go back to how they were, and the way to accomplish this was to defame and deride Jesus, because what he was doing upset the balance.
Jesus then goes on to say ‘And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.’
Here He is alluding to future events, that while Satan may be in the world right now, he and his dominion will in time fall, and this is juxtaposed against the image of a strong man, the one who can stand against the enemy, and will prevent Satan accomplishing everything that he is trying to achieve, and we have already had a glimpse of this through the healings that Jesus has performed.
But then we get to a difficult part of this Gospel ‘‘Truly I tell you, 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.’’
This is often read as profaning the name of the Holy Spirit, but in reality, the meaning of this is much deeper, and theologians speak of this meaning a deliberate refusal to acknowledge the activities of God’s Spirit in Jesus’ ministry, essentially meaning that instead of recognising God at work, it is instead recognised as being from Satan, confusing the good and evil, truth and falsehood.
Finally, that, which appears to be a damning statement by Jesus, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ we each have two families, the family of the church, and our earthly family. Jesus here is reminding us that the two at times can be very different, perhaps you have a family who you enjoy spending time with, and there is a mutual love or perhaps your earthly family doesn’t have faith and you find it difficult to be around them, possibly because they don’t understand you, or the choices you have made in your life, and these have caused strains on your relationships.
Then there is your Christian family, the ones who you share in the household of faith with. The ones who are there to support each other when others aren’t able to give that support, those who pay for you, as you pray for them, the ones with whom we all share the grace and love of our heavenly father. That isn’t to say that we don’t at times disagree, but hopefully it means that resolution to issues can be found in a more amicable and godly way, and a place where gossip and malice should have no right to exist.
But what does all of this mean to us, right here, right now?
Mark wrote his gospel in a way which causes us to look deep, to be challenged, and I hope that as we continue to walk through this season he will continue to throw challenges at us.
Since last March we have been presented with one challenge after another, we have been forced to change, to look at everything that we do, to find new ways of living, and worshipping.
I continue to pray that things will ease in the next few months, and when we are at the point where social distancing is removed, then we can begin to look to restoring worship at Saints Barnabas and James. We will consider what this will look like in the future, and whilst we are all looking forward to returning to the three church buildings, we cannot, nor should we ignore or put aside all that has been learnt in this time where the three parishes have worked so deeply as one benefice and the strong bonds that have been created as we have come together for worship, and continued through these long months in welcoming people back as they have felt ready to enter church again.
Through this time of pandemic, and over the period to come until the restrictions are removed, we have and will continue to worship as one family in the Benefice, sharing our prayers, our praise and our hopes for the future, because just as Christ reminds us today ‘if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.’
Through these days, we have not been divided, we, in many ways have become more united than we have ever been before, through the necessity of safety and practicalities, Holy Trinity has served as our house of prayer, where the church of God, the people have gathered week in week out.
We have prayed for countless people, we have remembered the sacrifice of all key workers, and given thanks for their work. We have mourned our losses, and given thanks for answered prayers, and all of this together within the unity of our faith as brothers and sisters, as family.
We may not know what the future will hold for us here in Littleborough, but if we approach it with the same energy and enthusiasm that we have maintained through these difficult days, then I for one am sure that we will be blessed as we journey forward and continue to seek God’s will for us.
Amen.
