June 23, 2024 Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

5th Sunday after Pentecost 2024

Text: Mark 4:35-41

Did you ever have the experience as a young child of being so sleepy, so tired that you were falling asleep before you could get to bed? I vaguely remember when I was probably about 5 or 6 I was so tired to go up to bed on my own. I remember my dad picking me up and putting me over his shoulder. He carefully took me upstairs to my bedroom and gently rolled me off his shoulder onto my bed, and he tucked me in. That feeling of being carried by someone who loves you has never left me. I felt so safe in my dad’s arms.

We took a Holy Hike yesterday, and one of the children needed to be carried by her dad. I walked behind them and watched as she fell asleep over his shoulder as we walked along. It reminded me of that feeling of safety I had felt.

Perhaps Jesus felt the same way in the boat. He was in the stern asleep on a cushion while a storm tossed the boat. His Father was watching over him. Jesus knew he was safe in God’s hands.

The disciples were afraid so they woke him up, and he stilled the sea. “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

People who have done tremendously brave things—like rescuing injured soldiers in the midst of a battle, or swimming into rough water to rescue someone who is drowning, or running into a burning house, are not people who lack fear. They have courage. Their courage overcomes their fear. Their concern, their love for another person drives them to do what others consider heroic.

In Jesus’ prayer to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before his crucifixion, we could see he had real fear about what was to happen to him. “My Father if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Yet not my will but yours.” He was so afraid he was sweating blood. Jesus’ love for the disciples and all human beings whose souls would be lost without his sacrifice overcame his fear. He entrusted his life into the hands of his Father. He would pass through his crucifixion to the place of eternal safety.

So, what does Jesus mean when he seems to be saying ‘faith’ replaces ‘fear’? Fear is a powerful human emotion. We have a strong desire to be in a place of safety. It’s natural, we want to live, we afraid to suffer. It’s primal. So how can faith in God overcome such a strong instinct to survive within us, that was put into us by God in the first place?

When we come to know and trust God as our eternal Father, when we are grateful for everything he has given us—life, family, everything we need to live—we develop a sense of how much he loves us. We can actually begin to feel that he is protecting and carrying us. Just as it seems natural for us to love our own Fathers it becomes natural for us to love God the Father. He is the ideal of all fathers. In loving God, we want to please him, to seek his will for us, to be faithful.

That’s what I thought I was doing when I found myself all alone on an airstrip in the Arctic winter. My friends and family probably thought I had lost my mind. After the pilot of the plane helped me unload all my stuff, we both looked over to the village, which was about a mile away. He said, “I don’t think anyone’s coming to get you.” Communication in the Arctic back then was often unreliable. Maybe they really didn’t know I was coming that day. I remember thinking, “I know God wants be to be here, maybe it’s to get to this point to freeze.” Then the pilot said, “Do you want to put your stuff back in the plane?” I said no. So the pilot took off and circled around the village a couple of times to get someone’s attention. Harriet Tukrook, who was driving the truck for the polar bear watch, saw me with all my stuff at the airstrip, and she came out. I may have lost my mind, but I thought I was being faithful to God. He protected me in my foolishness.

As we walk this life trusting in God there will be times when it is scary to do the right thing, the good thing, to speak the truth in love, to value the life of a stranger so much that we are surprised to find within us the courage to save them, or to travel to a dangerous place to tell others about the love of God. We are all bundles of mixed motives, and discerning the will of God for us is sometimes difficult. That’s what Jesus was expressing in his prayer in Gethsemane. Mere human beings often get it wrong, and we revert to the survival instinct, to be selfish sometimes. It is trust in God, faith, that helps us break out of the place of fear to do the thing God needs us to do in the moment.

Trusting God the Father can be like having your own father carrying you on his shoulder to a place of safety. This is how I believe ‘faith’ can overcome ‘fear.’ This deep sense of being in the hands of God gives us courage to seek his will, to love him in return for all the many, many blessings we have enjoyed. In this broken world, we are all God’s children, and like a natural father, he has hopes and dreams for us. So, let us together seek his will for us, individually and as a parish. Amen.

June 16, 2024 Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

The 4th Sunday after Pentecost 2024

Texts: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13; 2 Corinthians 5:6-17; Mark 4:26-34

The lessons today show us that sometimes the mysterious power of God is at work in the smallest of things, so we should never dismiss the smallest, the ordinary, or the unexceptional.

On the other end of the spectrum, on Friday millions from all around the world, the former British Empire, turned their attention to the ‘trooping of the colors’, the celebration of the birthday of the English monarch, King Charles III.

In the lesson from the Old Testament last week the people of Israel were begging the prophet Samuel to give them a king. There was a man who was tall, handsome, and noble—like George Washington. People would certainly follow him. But Samuel was reluctant to anoint any person to be the king of Israel because he knew Israel was called to follow God, not a king.

Yet, the people were insistent, so with the Lord’s direction, Samuel anointed Saul to be the first king of Israel. However, Saul was immediately disobedient to God, so he lost God’s favor. Saul went crazy with power and he did not trust God. Saul was in a battle in which he would lose three of his sons, and in despair he fell on his sword, he committed suicide during the battle.

The Lord then led Samuel to the family of Jesse to find Israel’s next king.

Like many in his time, Samuel would have assumed the Lord would choose the older, the more experienced, the wiser of Jesse’s sons. But Samuel, listened to the voice of the Lord, he was patient, he kept at his task, asking God to confirm the one. After Jesse had presented all of his sons, Samuel insisted, “Are all of your sons here?” “There remains the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” Perhaps Jesse too assumed the youngest would be least likely to be chosen by God.

David was the last son of Jesse—the youngest, after Eliab, Abinadab, Shammah, and all of David’s other sons. He was the last one Jesse would have thought to be a king. David was the one doing the most menial thing, tending the sheep, keeping them together while they grazed.

Well, the Lord chose the least likely son of Jesse to be anointed king. In monarchies it is usually the oldest who is supposed to be the next queen or king. However the boy who kept the sheep, David, the one who was not even considered by Jesse to present to Samuel, would go on to become the greatest king of Israel. And years later, Jesus, the Son of God, would come into the world as a descendent of David, through Mary’s marriage to Joseph, and possibly through Mary’s own lineage too.

There is a connection between the lessons from First Samuel and Mark’s Gospel—God chose the least through whom to accomplish the greatest feats—the greatest King of Israel, and through David the Messiah who is bringing the Kingdom of God. From the least likely in the world God is bringing the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is mentioned 55 times in the New Testament. It is the topic about which Jesus taught most often. He primarily used parables like the two in the lesson this morning to describe it.

In the first parable Jesus describes the kingdom as seed growing secretly, quietly, without expectation. It is scattered on the ground, it sprouts overnight, and eventually produces grain, something useful.

The seed is the Gospel, the essence of the Word of God. It is read and taught to us from a very early age, we take it in, but it does not immediately, dramatically change us. The sprouting overnight is sometimes over the course of a lifetime. It is gradually taking root in us as we live and grow, and experience life—but only if it is nurtured in the company of fellow believers who study, and pray, and worship, and mentor one another. We do not just hear the Gospel once and understand it, just as Jesus did not just tell one parable to describe the Kingdom of God. Often that seed is planted deep within us and, if it is given the nutrients it needs, if it is steadily nurtured, it is growing silently, impacting us in subtle ways, forming us to see the world as Jesus does.

The second parable has to do with the smallest of seeds, the mustard seed. How can something so small become such a useful thing?

A former parishioner of mine was attending a family birthday party with his wife. His children and their spouses, grandchildren and their spouses, and a great grandchild were all there. It suddenly occurred to him that all of the lives and the life he was enjoying came from just one small seed of life. Through the life of even just one person, so much life had come into the world. There is great potential in the smallest of things, but it is God who brings it to be, who protects it and sustains it, quietly growing while we are busy attending to the details of daily life.

The mysterious power of God is growing the Kingdom, the time and place where the love of God will rule all hearts. Jesus does not give a complete, detailed description of what will be. He gives us glimpse of it, as we are able to understand it, using common images that are familiar to us—like seeds, and yeast, and fishing nets.

In Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians he wrote, “we walk by faith, not by sight”, meaning that we can have confidence that God is working in the world even when we cannot see it. Perhaps it is because so often we overlook the smaller things, like giving some change to a panhandler on the 30th time we see them standing at the stoplight, or one child forgiving another for taking a toy by deciding to share it with them, or feeling the nudge to pray for a friend without request. The goodness of God is at work in the world in quiet ways for those who have eyes to see.

So, even while the world around us seems to be chaotic, we can trust God, that good things will continue to come from him—peace, and joy, and true communion among people, life-giving and self-less love that is endless. God is still at work in his creation, bringing good through small things, the ordinary, the unexceptional. May the Holy Spirit give us the eyes to see the potential for goodness in the small thing, and the patience to wait. Amen.

June 9, 2024 Third Sunday after Pentecost 2024

3rd Sunday after Pentecost 2024

 Text: Mark 3:20-35

A few weeks ago we celebrated the Day of Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit came down into the disciples who were gathered praying, and made that gathering the Church.  The Holy Spirit is the life, the heartbeat of the Church.  Without the Holy Spirit the Body of Christ would not have life.  Without the Holy Spirit the Church would just be another gathering of people, like the rotary or a neighborhood association.  So, we must not neglect to pray to receive the Holy Spirit regularly, for it to refresh us, to help us see the world with the eyes of Christ.  If we pray for it, if we have felt its presence in us and among us, we will be able to distinguish it from other spirits.

Prior to our lesson for today, Jesus and the disciples had been traveling through Galilee.  He had been debating the Pharisees in the synagogues and he had been healing people on the Sabbath.  So many people were following him that the crowds were pressing in on him, and there came a time when he and a few disciples had to get away high up a mountain.  There Jesus appointed the disciples to be apostles and from there he would send them out to proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God, and to cast out demons.

Now we come to our lesson for this morning.  It is one of the most unusual stories of Jesus’ life. 

Jesus went home again, and the crowds were continuing to grow.  There were naysayers and people who wondered what kind of power he was using to cast out demons.  A few people went to his family to report that the crowd was beginning to say that Jesus had lost his mind and that he was possessed by a demon, Beelzebub.  His family being worried wanted to bring him home to protect him from the crowds. 

But Jesus was met by the scribes, and he knew their objections.  He asked, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.  And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come.”  Jesus does not say straightforwardly, “I do these things by the power of the Holy Spirit, which comes from God.”  His adversaries would not have believed him anyway.

Then comes the most puzzling statement from Jesus.  “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.”  We might wonder “Who is the strong man?”  “Why would his house need to be plundered?”  “Who is the plunderer?”

It would be easy to miss that this is a statement about exorcism, the casting out of demons. The strong man is Satan and apparently, he had hold of many of the souls of the people throughout this region in Galilee.  Jesus has come to bind Satan, and not just for the moment, but eventually forever.  The plundering of Satan’s house is bringing out from his dominion all the people that Satan controls.  If people are not guided by the Holy Spirit, they will be guided, beguiled by Satan.

The primary weapon Satan uses is deception.  His lies bring all the evil into the world.  We see and experience these lies as pride, arrogance, lust, selfishness, envy, anger, and resentment.

Jesus has come to bind Satan, to save the souls of those who do not know they are perishing.  And this makes Jesus look so strange to those who are possessed by Satan’s power.  It is more comfortable for them to cling to what is familiar, even if what is familiar is a lie.

This past week we recognized the 80th anniversary of D-Day.  The German soldiers who died that day had believed in Hitler’s lies that they were superior to other nations and people.  After the embarrassment of losing World War I and the resentment of being forced into a box by the Treaty of Versailles many Germans found it more comfortable to believe in the Big Lie than to admit their leaders had been wrong to start World War I.  This was the work of Satan.

Jesus knows that people have been confused by Satan.  He also knows the Holy Spirit is coming to them, that they will have a way to recognize what is good and true.  They will have a choice to believe in the lies of Satan or to be guided by the Holy Spirit, and he clearly lays the choice before them, “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty.” 

There is a sin that is unforgivable.  How can this be? 

It is the Holy Spirit that makes forgiveness possible.  It is the Holy Spirit that helps people to see their own sin.  Jesus, the Son of God, is standing before them, healing people and casting out demons, and the officials and many of the people still cannot see that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is cleaning the strong man’s house to make it his father’s home. Yet they still cling to the power of Satan and remain cynical about Jesus.

Jesus must be frustrated with them.  This is what the statement about blaspheming against the Holy Spirit means.  “All sins can be forgiven, unless you cut yourself off from the source of forgiveness, which is the Holy Spirit.”  It is by the acceptance of the Holy Spirit working in our souls that we receive God’s forgiveness.

We are members of Jesus’ family. On the Day of Pentecost the family of Jesus received the Holy Spirit, and it lives in us today.  As in Jesus’ time many people in the world today believe in Satan’s lies, that might makes right, that a man can be a woman, that doing what feels good to you is the way to ultimate happiness, that revenge can be satisfying.  We have accepted the Holy Spirit and by its guidance we see these things are not true or good for people.  The way of life with Jesus and the Holy Spirit is often at odds with the culture around us.

So, let us not forget to pray regularly—not just on Pentecost, for the Holy Spirit to renew us, to shape us to be more Christ-like, and to bring us that peace that passes all understanding.  Amen.

June 2, 2024 Second Sunday after Pentecost

Bishop Solak visited St. Michael’s today. There is no printed version of her sermon.

The Gospel : Mark 2:23-3:6

The message she shared was, “Compassion is the Governing principle of the heart of God.”

One of God’s gifts to us is the gift of the Sabbath. It allows us to experience rest, renewal and healing.

God rested on the 7th day and made it one of the Ten Commandments.

The Right Reverend Ketlen Solak at St. Michael’s