20th Sunday after Pentecost (Pr. 24) October 22,
2006 “Series B”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for the gift of your Son, who came among us to reveal your Word for our lives, and to redeem us from sin and death. Although he was your Son, he humbled himself in obedience and service to fulfill your will, that we might know your redeeming grace. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, cleanse our hearts and minds of selfish pride and foolish ambitions, that we might serve our crucified and risen Lord, in true discipleship. This we ask, in his holy name. Amen.
Last Sunday, as I was greeting our members following worship, I noticed Pastor Blair was allowing everyone to proceed ahead of him, which told me that he had some comments to make to me, and he didn’t want to hold up the line. As I’ve mentioned before, I have come to appreciate his thoughts and comments. In fact, I would encourage every one of you to share with me how this time of worship has impacted your thoughts. It is a way to help me grow as your pastor.
And sure enough, as I greeted the last person before Ralph, I saw him take out his bulletin, on which were written several notes. It was a good conversation, in which onr of his comments really struck a cord with me.
It was one that I could not get out of my mind all week. It was in regard to the story that I shared with you about the pastor who visited the Amish community right after those young girls were killed, and in particular, how that pastor was moved, as was I, by his experience.
As you may recall, this pastor reported about the tenderness of one of the dead girl’s mother preparing her daughter for burial, while her grandfather explained to the dead girl’s siblings the importance to forgive the person who took their sister from them. Now I don’t want to dwell on this subject, but clearly, that Amish community witnessed to the world about what it means to live our lives as disciples of Christ.
However, the comment that Pastor Blair made to me last Sunday, in regard to that story, brings today’s Gospel lesson into focus. Ralph said, “Ron, isn’t it amazing, that when people actually practice forgiveness, we are so moved by their actions. Is that not one of the tenets of our own faith? Why are we so amazed?
This can be a hard lesson for all of us, who have been baptized and united to our Lord’s death and resurrection as his disciples, to actually take to heart. Why does the actions of the Amish community in response to the shooting of their young children surprise us? Could it be that we sit here in this nave every Sunday morning, and worship our Lord for the hope of new life in God’s kingdom, which we receive through our baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection, and fail to truly understand what it means to live as one of his disciples?
Perhaps we are a lot like our Lord’s first disciples. Throughout Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ own, handpicked disciples never seem to get the point of what he tries to convey to them. They are always on some other plane of thought, misinterpreting his teachings about what it means to live in humility, as a servant of God. All the way until the end of Mark’s Gospel, these chosen first disciples seem oblivious to our Lord’s teachings and ministry of reconciliation.
Now, in order to fully understand our lesson for this morning, I think we need to include the two verses that immediately precede our text. Here, Jesus, for the third time, takes his disciples apart from the crowds, and says to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”
And how do the disciples react to what Jesus has just said to them? Right after hearing these words of Jesus, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And what do they ask Jesus? Only that they be granted positions of power and prestige – to be seated at the right and
left of Jesus when he comes into his glory.
Of course, when the other disciples got wind of the political power play that these two disciples attempted, they became angry with James and John. And who could blame them. They had been blindsided by these two, who somehow believed that they were more deserving and better qualified for these top positions of leadership in Christ’s kingdom, than the rest.
But the truth is, they all missed the point of what Jesus has just said to them! Just think of the crassness of the situation. Jesus has, for the third time, told the disciples that he was soon to be tortured and put to death – to give his life to atone for their sins, and then rise from the grave, having conquered death – and the disciples respond to our Lord’s pronouncement by jockeying for power and becoming angry. It seems to me that Mark, in this sequence of events, begs us to examine our own lives of faith, in light of what our Lord has done for us.
George M. Bass, in his commentary on our text entitled Lectionary Preaching Workbook, [C.S.S. Publishing, 1990] put it this way. “Spiritual pride, what the writer of Proverbs called ‘haughty eyes,’ is a common enemy of those who have been actively engaged in the worship and work of the church. It may be the worst temptation of faithful people. It takes two forms. One expression of it comes from looking at other people and their life in the church and coming to the conclusion that ‘I am a better Christian than most of the people in this congregation.’ Such people usually think that they deserve special consideration from God.
A second from of this pride questions God in times of trouble and suffering, and says to God, ‘I don’t deserve this. Look at the people down the street; they never go to church, give nothing to its work – don’t even belong – but they have just about everything that one could desire.’
So often, people forget what it means to be baptized into the death of Jesus Christ. Faithful Christians receive no guaranteed worldly pleasures and prosperity from Christ, no exemption from pain and suffering. Their lot is to serve – take up their cross – in the name of Jesus the Christ."
Dr. Bass then concluded, "Eternal life is reward enough for those who have been baptized in his name. They realize that their sins have been forgiven, and have been able to live in hope no mater what comes into their lives. And they know that God gives that life as a gift of his love and grace in Jesus, whose baptism in blood completed that which was begun at the Jordan. Knowledge and understanding of the cost of salvation to Jesus the Christ, should be enough to keep us humble all of our days here on earth.” End quote.
So, why is it that we are so amazed that the Amish community responded to the shooting of their young girls in the way that they did? Why is it that we should be surprised at their extension of forgiveness to the family of the man responsible for their loss? And should it startle us to hear that as the families made preparations to bury their dead, that they were teaching and helping their children to deal with their grief by knowing the power of forgiveness?
Perhaps what amazes and surprises us is the fact that this community of faith, in the midst of their adversity and persecution, did not abandon their faith, but through the power of God’s Spirit, was led to use their faith to deal with their loss. And in so doing, even though I truly doubt that this was their primary purpose, they witnessed to the world the power of God’s redeeming and forgiving grace in Jesus the Christ.
The same is also true of James and John, and the rest of our Lord’s first disciples, with the exception of Judas, when they came to experience the power of God’s redeeming grace, through Christ’s death and resurrection. They, too, through the power of God’s Spirit, finally came to understand the meaning of discipleship, and in the face of death and persecution, were moved by God’s Spirit to live their lives in witness to their faith.
Of course, we here at St. John’s have not had our faith tested in this way. But it is my belief, that if such a tragedy befall us, God’s Spirit can give us the strength and courage to find our faith to be a source of healing, and enable us to continue to witness through our lives, that we know the forgiving grace of God.
What is it that we find so amazing about the Amish’s ability to forgive? It is the witness to the fact that, left to our own human resources, forgiveness might just be impossible. But through the power of God’s Spirit, active in the faithful lives of our Lord’s disciples - those who have come to know and trust in Christ’s death and resurrection - our anger can be overcome, and forgiveness become a reality.
Amen.
