Homily for Sunday 30 March 2014: The Power of God and the Importance of Faith

Homily for 30 March 2014:  4^th Sunday of Great Lent

(Hebrews 6:13-20)

(Mark 9:17-31)

 

Today’s Gospel story of the man whose son was possessed by an unclean spirit teaches us about the power of God and the importance of faith.

The boy whose father brings him to Jesus is possessed by a demon or spirit that tries to destroy him.  It makes him unable to speak; it takes control of his body and throws him around, even into the fire and into water.  In fact, it sounds a lot like what we would call epilepsy.  We now understand that epilepsy and other diseases are not caused by demons, but they still cause pain and destruction and they still need healing.

In fact, we can look at this Gospel story as a metaphor or image for any kind of affliction over which we have no control and which works to destroy us and to affect those around us.  This could be illness of the body, such as cancer or heart disease or AIDS.  It could be illness of the mind, such as severe depression or schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.  It could be an addiction, such as to drugs or alcohol or gambling.

Every human being has some sort of affliction or addiction, and every human being also knows and loves someone else who also has some sort of affliction or addiction.  We all know how destructive these afflictions are; truly they do seem to come from unclean spirits, or demons.  In the Gospel story, the spirit attacks the boy, which also hurts the father.  It is as though the Devil was trying to destroy the father’s faith in God by attacking his son.

When the demon sees Jesus, it immediately attacks the boy:  it knows that Jesus has power over it, so it tries to scare the father away from asking Jesus to heal his son.  But the father is desperate and determined.  He says to Jesus, “If you are able, have pity and help us.”

At this point, he is not fully aware of Jesus’ power as the Son of God, so he says, “if you are able.”  Jesus notices the father’s anxiety and uncertainty, and tells him, “All things can be done for those who believe.”  This leaves no doubt about God’s power—“all things can be done.”  But at the same time it emphasizes the need for our faith—“for those who believe.”  So the father cries out, “I do believe, but help my unbelief!”

Belief, or faith in God, is our decision to accept God’s power and authority and control of our lives.  Illness and pain and suffering can be used by the Devil to try to weaken or destroy our faith, so we also need to ask God to “help our unbelief,” as well as to have pity and heal us and those we love.  The more we turn to God for help, the more God can help us, for “all things can be done for those who believe.”

Believing, and then holding on to our belief, takes work.  As Jesus told the Disciples, some spirits can be driven out only by prayer and fasting.  Keeping our faith requires discipline and determination.  And we have to keep on even when what we hope and pray for doesn’t happen, or when we can’t understand what does happen.

When we have faith, all things can be done for us.  There is no guarantee that they will be done, or that what we want will be done.  We can’t dictate to God; we can only pray, “Have pity on us and help us, and help our unbelief.”

And we can and must always give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and ever and unto ages of ages.  Amen.

Homily for 23 March 2014: The Holy Cross is a Gift, not a Burden

Homily for 23 March 2014:  3^rd Sunday of Great Lent

(Hebrews 4:14-5:6)

(Mark 8:34-9:1)

 

When we have finished the 40 days of Great Lent, at the end of Great and Holy Week, we look upon the Cross as the terrible instrument of the Lord’s suffering and death.  We see Him nailed and set up on the Cross like a common thief.  We take down His precious and wounded Body and lay Him with tears and flowers in the tomb, and we erect the empty Cross as a sign of our grief, but also as a sign that the tomb will soon be empty, Christ will be risen from the dead, our grief will turn to joy, and defeat will turn into victory.

Today we are half-way through the 40 days; half-way to the tragedy of the Crucifixion; half-way to the triumph of the Resurrection.  And today also we focus on the Cross.  It stands in the middle of Great Lent like a shady tree in the middle of the desert; like the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden of Paradise.

In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus tells us that if we want to be His followers, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.  This reminds us that we have choices on life’s journey, but only one choice will lead us after our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ through death to everlasting life.

We can choose not to take up our cross and follow Jesus.  We can choose not to deny ourselves—in other words, we can choose to live for pleasure, or money, or power, or food, or drugs, or work, or whatever we want.  But that choice will not make us followers of Christ.

We can become followers of Christ only if we choose, as Christ chose, to take up our cross.  For us, the Holy Cross is like a staff or walking stick that we use to support ourselves on our journey through life.  It is strong enough for us because it has already carried Jesus our Savior.  It will not fail to bring us back to Paradise.

At first, today’s reading from St Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews might not seem to be about the Holy Cross, but when we read it carefully and understand how St Paul talks of Jesus’ sacrifice as High Priest, we realize that Jesus’ sacrifice for the sins of the people was His death on the Holy Cross.

St Paul shows us that every high priest chosen from among the people made sacrifices for the people and for himself—but Jesus, since He was God as well as Man, made a sacrifice of Himself, not of a lamb or other animal.  He was the perfect sacrifice, so no more blood sacrifices have to be made.

But because Jesus is human as well as divine, He understands how we feel.  He knows our self-doubt and our self-contempt because we sin.  He knows we need a way to sacrifice something for our sins so that we can come closer to Him.  So He gives us His Cross to carry, so that we can share His sacrifice and follow Him to death and resurrection.

For us, then, the Holy Cross is a gift, not a burden.  It is a help, not an obstacle.  It is the way, not the destination.  It is not the end—it is the beginning of eternal life with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and ever and unto ages of ages.  Amen.

Homily for 16 March 2014: Working Together We Come Closer to God

Homily for 16 March 2014:  2^nd Sunday of Great Lent

(Hebrews 1:10-2:3)

(Mark 2:1-12)

 

Today’s Gospel story of the paralyzed man gives us an opportunity to reflect on how we need to work together as people of faith to come close to God.

Obviously the paralyzed man couldn’t go by himself to the house where Jesus was staying and teaching the crowds of people—he was paralyzed.  And even if he had got some friends to take him there, he could not have seen Jesus—after all, he was lying on a stretcher.  And even when he did get some friends to bring him to the house, they couldn’t get through the crowd.

He had a need; he had the will to get close Jesus; he even had he means to get there; but he couldn’t quite accomplish his goal, even with his friends’ help.

At that point, they must have gotten serious about getting their paralyzed friend close the Lord.  There was a whole group of them with him—four carrying his stretcher and others with them.  They had to work together to come up with a plan and carry it out.  They had to decide on one common goal, and they had to agree on the one best way to accomplish it.

They probably had a little discussion—and since they were Middle Easterners, the discussion was probably pretty lively, with lots of loud opinions and waving hands.  In the discussion, it became obvious that they all had different talents.

Some were good at coming up with ideas, others were good at making the ideas into plans.  Some were sort of small and athletic, so they climbed on the roof and opened it up.  Others were strong and tall, so they lifted their paralyzed friend up and then lowered him down through the hole in the roof.  One or two were good talkers, so they approached Jesus and the owner of the house to explain why they were climbing on the roof and opening a big hole in it.  Others calmed the excited crowd and kept things peaceful.

What they all had in common was faith that Jesus could help their friend, whom they loved and cared about.  Maybe it wasn’t easy for them to work together—everybody would have had his own idea of the best way to do this, and someone was probably pointing out that they had never done it that way before.  But this was an important opportunity to help their friend, and they couldn’t let their egos get in the way of their common goal.  There was no place for arguing over whose plan was better and who was going to have the special honor of some particular part of the job.

And what happened?  Their friend encountered the Lord.  His sins were forgiven.  And his paralysis was cured.  He received healing of soul and body, and everybody’s faith was made stronger, and they all went away praising God and saying that they had never seen anything like this before.

The lesson for us as a congregation is obvious.  We have a common goal of coming closer to the Lord and being healed in our souls and bodies.  We have all kinds of talents that we can put to use to accomplish our common goal.  So we have to overcome our differences and work together, like the friends of the paralyzed man.

Then everybody’s faith will be strengthened and we can all give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and ever and unto ages of ages.  Amen.

Homily for 2 March 2014: Cheesefare Sunday

Homily for 2 March 2014:  Cheesefare Sunday

(Romans 13:11-14:4)

(Matthew 6:14-21)

 

We start the season of Great Lent with a great reminder from St Paul in today’s Epistle reading:  “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers.”  This is what Great Lent is all about—making us aware of salvation and helping us get ready.

Great Lent is not all about the rules of fasting, the extra prayers and church services, the giving money for the poor and other works of charity.  These are just the exercises the Church gives us for becoming more aware of God’s gift of salvation and for living in a way that shows we believe in that salvation.

Great Lent is the time for us to wake up from the sleep of everyday life and start truly living the Christian life.  Just as we wake up each morning and greet the light of a new day, we need to wake up at the beginning of Great Lent and rejoice in the light that Christ brings into our lives.  Every morning, we get out of bed and put on our clothes for that day.  We also put on our attitude for the day.  As we begin Great Lent, St Paul tells us to “put on the armor of light,” which is Jesus Christ Himself.  When we put on Christ, we can face anyone and anything with hope and joy and love and faith.

But St Paul warns us against being proud and judgemental.  We have to remember that even when we put on Jesus Christ, we ourselves are not God and we do not completely understand how God works.  We must welcome other people and not worry about what they are doing—or not doing—for Lent.  We must welcome them, because God has welcomed them just as God has welcomed us.  We have to pray and fast and do works of charity to build up our relationship with God, according to our ability.  That’s more than enough for each one of us to deal with.  We have no time—and no business—quarrelling with or judging anyone else.

This is why we begin Great Lent by asking for forgiveness and forgiving one another.  We wipe away all of our quarrels and offenses and judgements and start with a clean surface.  In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells us, “if you forgive other people their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive other people, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Jesus also reminds us that Lent is not a time of suffering and gloominess.  He says, “When you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show other people that they are fasting.”  Anyone who makes a big show out of Lenten fasting—or praying, or giving charity—actually sins in two ways:  by taking pride in doing things that God expects all of us to do, and by losing sight of why we do them, which is the eternal salvation our loving God has promised to those who believe in Him.

Jesus says, and St Paul agrees, that our extra efforts in Lent are a private matter between us and God.  We don’t brag about what we do, and we don’t worry about what other people do.  What matters is that we do the best we can to live in a way that is pleasing to God and brings us closer to the Lord—and that we do it with joy, knowing that our salvation is close at hand, and that we always give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and ever and unto ages of ages.  Amen.

Homily for 9 March 2014: 1st Sunday of Great Lent

Homily for 9 March 2014:  1^st Sunday of Great Lent

(Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-40)

(John 1:43-51)

 

On the first Sunday in Great Lent we always read the story of Jesus’ recruiting Philip as a disciple and Philip’s recruiting Nathaniel.  Both Philip and Nathaniel profess their belief that Jesus is the Messiah promised by the prophets.  And Jesus promises that they will see much greater things because they believe in Him.

If we think that Great Lent is all about following the rules of fasting, or for “giving up” something, we might think that this Gospel story doesn’t fit our idea of Great Lent very well.

But in fact it reminds us that the fasting and sacrificing aren’t the real point of Great Lent.  They are just disciplines to help us reach the real goal of Great Lent—answering a call to belief that leads to discipleship.

We see this in Philip.  On the day after Jesus calls His first disciples, Andrew and Peter, James and John, Jesus finds Philip and says to him, “Follow Me.”  Philip believes in Jesus and follows Him.  Then he tells his friend Nathaniel, “We have found the One—the Savior—that Moses and the prophets wrote about.  He’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, from Nazareth.”  We see that Philip answers the call, believes, and becomes a disciple, sharing his faith and calling other to believe and follow.

Nathaniel doesn’t believe right away.  When he hears that Jesus comes from Nazareth, he gets suspicious.  “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” he asks.  Apparently Nazareth had a reputation as a difficult town even 2000 years ago.

But Philip doesn’t get sidetracked by this question.  He doesn’t want to talk about Nazareth or its reputation or its people or its problems.  He wants his friend to get to know the Messiah.  So he just says, “Come and see.”

“Come and see” just might be the most important thing any of us can say to anybody about Jesus.

“Come and see” are the words of true disciples of Christ.

People who need to get to know Jesus don’t need theological lectures or Bible quizzes or arguments about liturgy in Latin or Greek, Arabic or English.  They don’t need to know what town we’re from.

They do need to encounter Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the King of Israel, the Savior of the world.  They need to meet the One that Moses and the prophets wrote about, the One who can take away their sins and give them eternal life.

And they can encounter Him, they can get to know Him, right here in our church, if we will just focus on what’s really important and say to them, “Come and see.”

Then we have an additional responsibility as disciples of Jesus.  We have to make sure that when people “come and see” they will find Jesus in the people here—people of faith who welcome new-comers, people of faith who live the Christian teachings of love and mercy and justice, people of faith who see the image of God in every human face.

If we say “Come and see” and make sure that what people come and see is a real Christian community, Jesus will do the rest.  He will recognize them as He recognized Nathaniel.  He will say, “I know you.  Let me tell you about God’s great plans and promises.”

If we have strong faith, and follow Jesus in faith, and invite people to “come and see,” our Lent will be meaningful and successful.  We will be prepared to see the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man, the ladder between earth and heaven.  And we can truly give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and ever and unto ages of ages.  Amen.