“You Shall Be My Witnesses” Acts 1:1-11

Sometime the Sunday after Easter can feel like a letdown. The sanctuary may not have the same feel as last week. Perhaps we were able to gather with loved ones who have since went home. We aren’t sure what to do with this Sunday after such a big celebration. 

In the Christian calendar, while Easter is the day when we celebrate that Christ rose from the grave, we also celebrate the season of Eastertide from Easter Sunday until Ascension Sunday. Now, I’m going to possibly confuse us - this text that we are hearing today - it’s one that is usually read at the end of the Easter season - on Ascension Sunday. But as we have said several times, all Scripture can be read and proclaimed any time - so today we enter into the book of Acts. 

Last week, we gathered together and proclaimed the heart of our faith - Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected, but Luke tells us in the book of Acts that there is even more to the story. After Jesus was resurrected, he walked with his disciples, continuing to teach them. But he could not stay on this earth with them forever. He needed to ascend into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father and assume the Lordship we know he has over heaven and earth. So we do not just claim Jesus crucified and resurrected, we also proclaim that Jesus is Lord. 

And if we are honest, there are times that we aren’t quite sure what to do with that statement. 

For the first disciples, Jesus gave them very clear instructions - stay in Jerusalem and wait for the gift that has been promised to you - the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 

They are asked to do an incredibly difficult thing - to stay in the place where Jesus had been put to death not to long ago. The place where they hid for their lives after his crucifixion. And now Jesus is telling them to stay for an indeterminate amount of time without him. They must have felt like they had just gotten Jesus back with them and now he is talking about leaving again. Not just talking, but literally leaving before their very eyes!

The disciples don’t seem to yet understand Jesus as Lord because instead of following his instructions they are caught with their eyes gazing up to heaven instead of going out to do as they told them. Until two angels show up and ask what they are doing.

Sometimes I am blessed to work with pastors who desire to be ordained. There are lots of different components to that work and twice you need to write thesis papers about what you believe about things we say as a Church that are central to who we are. One of those questions is about Jesus as Lord. 

And folks get stuck. 

Not because they don’t have the words - they have lots of words to describe Jesus’s Lordship, but because they haven’t yet distilled those words from head to heart. And I don’t blame folks at all when they struggle with that, because it is so true of many of us here and now today, just as it was with those early disciples. It is easy to say that Jesus is Lord, it is harder to follow him, especially when he asks us to do hard things or doesn’t give us all the details that we desire. 

The disciples were living in this between time. Between the resurrection and what was to come next. Between what they now know - Jesus is standing with then and has been walking with them for the last several weeks - and the unknown of Jesus saying that he is leaving again. How do you think the disciples received this news? I would guess that they were disappointed and that this holy space of the between time felt all-to-short. 

The reality is that the disciples were still shortsighted when it came to Jesus’s Lordship. They ask this question - “are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” In other words, are you going to be the leader that we expect? Are you going to do what we want you to do? 

And Jesus tells them that isn’t for them to know. 

Their vision is too small. They still think Lordship is about the here-and-now, overthrowing the Roman government, when Jesus is trying to show them what his Lordship is about. That he is in the business of transforming the world and that they are invited to be part of that work. 

And yet, they can’t even follow the first instruction. 

Because Lordship asks them to surrender their ideas and inklings and actually follow Jesus. 

Last week we read together the first eight verses of Mark 16, which is some ways felt like a very unsatisfying resurrection proclamation. The women were afraid. They didn’t go and tell. But the later writings of Mark added a more robust explanation, where Jesus appeared to the disciples again and again and told them to go and preach the Gospel. And then what comes next sounds similar to Acts 1 -  “After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God” But they also did the work in Mark’s text. They went and proclaimed, preaching everywhere and performing signs that accompanied the words. They did the work of witnessing and glorying Christ. 

The work that we are still called to today. 

In some ways it feels like we are living in our own between time. Between looking up with the disciples and not really following Jesus’s directions as our Lord and Savior in Acts 1 and witnessing to Christ as our Lord in Mark 16. Between hoping that we misheard Jesus when he asks us to do hard things and actually following him to the very ends of the earth. Between hoping that someone else will do the Kingdom work for us and trusting Christ to lead us into the work that we are called to do. 

But in order to move out of that between season we need to examine what it means to say that Jesus is Lord. To proclaim that Jesus as Lord lives on in the church through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Which means we need to do that work of moving from our head to our heart. I once had a congregation member named Mr. Jack, who was so, so wise. Two things that he has said, amongst many, that have stuck with me are ‘you can’t be so heavenly minded that you aren’t any earthly good.’ And ‘the most dangerous place to be is the eight or so inches between your head and your heart.’ We can’t be caught with the disciples just looking up at the clouds instead of following Jesus as Lord. And we can’t be so caught up in our heads that we never actually proclaim Jesus is Lord with our hearts. When we get caught in those in-between places, well, it makes it hard to do what we are asked - to go and be Jesus’s witnesses to the fact that he is the resurrected Lord! Amen. 

“Resurrection” Mark 16: 1-8

 If I asked you to tell me the highlight of the Easter story as you recall it, what are some of the big things that immediately come to mind? Women going to the tomb. The stone is rolled away. Jesus is not there - he is risen from the dead! And…

The women went to go and proclaim the good news that defines us even here and now today as Christians - that Jesus is resurrected! Amen. 

Only each of the Gospels tells the account of Jesus’s resurrection in different ways and we have a tendency to smush them altogether. It’s completely understandable. It’s what we do with stories in our everyday lives - as we work to make meaning, we combine details or change timelines. 

Why do I say all of this? Because the resurrection story as told by Mark is completely different from what we would find in Luke and Matthew. So let’s untangle some of our mixing of the different Gospel accounts this day in order to hear the Good News in perhaps a different way. 

The Sabbath is over. Not only the Sabbath, but the Passover, which turned from a time of celebration to a time of deep sorrow as the women watched their Lord hang on the cross amongst the jeers of the crowds. When his body breathed it’s last his body was taken down, but not tended to because of the rules around the Sabbath. But now, after the Sabbath, after the Passover and all the preparations that proceeded it, and life is going back to the routine of the everyday. 

Only today is not the everyday. It’s not the routine or the normal. For the women are walking silently in the early morning towards the tomb of Jesus. The grief in their hearts is echoing through their heavy steps. The only words that are recorded amongst this painful journey to go and anoint the dead body of Jesus was a question about the stone - the stone put over the entrance of the tomb to “protect” Jesus’s body from being stolen by the Romans. Who would roll that stone away from the entrance so that they could do the hard but necessary task of love that they are compelled to do. 

Only when they arrive they find that the stone is already rolled away. Jesus is not in the tomb! And there’s an angel present telling them not just that Jesus has been resurrected, but that they are to go to tell the disciples this good news. 

And….

Then the women are to shocked to say anything. 

Is that how you remember the ending of this Gospel text? Probably not. It was so disconcerting that Matthew and Luke intentionally made the ending more complete. And a piece was added to Mark later to try to add clarification. 

The truth is that we want a different ending to this text in Mark. We don’t just want the women to flee from the tomb. We want action. Triumph. The joy of this day as we know it today. But we are told that the women had alarm, terror, amazement, and fear. We want the word to go forth on that day down to us here and now today. Yet, that isn’t what we find. 

Mark doesn’t try to over-explain what the women were going through. He doesn’t try to cover up the discomfort. He doesn’t take the challenge of verse eight and sweep it under the rug. Why?

Because I think Mark understood that in particular seasons of our lives we may find ourselves right there with the women. We may not do what we were told to do because we are so confused or fearful or don’t understand. But that doesn’t mean that God is done. Nor does it mean that God doesn’t give us second chances - just see the next part of the Gospel of Mark for that truth. 

In our discomfort that this is not what we expect to happen, we come face to face with elections of our own actions or inactions but it also bring us face to face with God’s grace. God’s truth that keeps working on us even if we don’t fully understand the details or the vastness or importance of what we are celebrating today - that Christ is risen!

But the Good News is not just that God continues to work on our hearts and redeem us even when we fail to follow through in the moment. There is also these words of the angel that the women are to go and tell the disciple and Peter that Jesus is risen. Peter is deliberately included. Peter who turned away from Christ out of his own fear, alarm, and terror. Peter who God is redeeming in even this invitation and moment. The promise that Jesus will meet them again, including and especially Peter. Christ is doing transformative work in him. 

And that my friends is good news, not just for Peter, but for the women. For us. That our sins, faults, and failures will not have the final word in the light of the cross and the empty tomb. If only we will go where Christ has gone. Even if we don’t understand. Why? Because God isn’t done yet with Peter either. 

Just as we can understand Peter turning away from his promise to Jesus on the night of Passover when Jesus was arrested and tried, we can also understand the women. We try to put ourselves in this morning’s text and think of course we would go and tell everyone and anyone what just happened, but what is it that the women fear? They have just watched Jesus be killed. In the flesh. And now they are seeing something unlike anything they have experienced before. Even if they were present when Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, they saw his body come out in linens and all. This is new. This is terrifying. And the threat of the Roman Empire is still hanging over them. 

But God is not done, even because of those real fears. 

God was still moving and speaking. Because in the long term, the women did tell. The Good News did go forth. Peter did find healing and became the rock upon which the church of Jesus Christ was built. 

The question, then, is how are we living into the Gospel? How are we being part of what has yet to be written? 

Maybe for some of us, the idea of being part of carrying forth the Good News terrifies us like did the women so long ago. What did the women have to fear? Everything. Absolutely everything. They had watched Jesus died. They had returned to care for him and were met by an angel/ stranger who told them that Jesus was risen and told them to go back and tell the disciples to go to a place and a people they may not understand what has happened. 

If they were honest, they didn’t understand what was happening either. It was simply too much to process.

Sometimes, we too have fears. Fears that people won’t understand. Fears of rejection. Fears that people are going to ask us questions that we don’t have answers for. So we flee the sight of the empty tomb. 

But for others of us, maybe the idea that we are invited to be part carrying for the Good News amazes us. Maybe we are asking, “Are you sure you want to use me Lord? Do you know who I am? Do you know what I’ve done?” To which Jesus replies, yes. Now go. We may not fully understand all the ins and outs of proclaiming “Christ is Risen indeed but we are humbled that Jesus is inviting us to be part of this Kingdom work before us. 

And maybe for others what we feel is joy. Joy to go forth. Joy to keep going forth no matter what. Joy because the resurrection has changed us and now we can be part of sharing that with the world! When we proclaim that “Christ is Risen!” We are also saying that Christ saved me. Christ took what my life once was and raised it from the ashes and made it into something new. And you so desperately want that for other people.

No matter what we may be feeling, we are part of the story, Church. God is not done yet. The Gospel keeps going on. So, I ask you again, how are we being part of what has yet to be written? Because God is still at work, in and through us, in this world today. Amen. 

“End of the Age” Mark 13: 1-8, 24-37

 Since the point when Jesus ascended into Heaven his disciples have been looking for his return. Immiatley. And in every age since there have been people who have tried to guess when Jesus is going to come back, using everything from fancy counting methods to just straight up guessing again and again and again. If I’m honest, these attempts to nail down the date when Jesus will return frustrate me, because Jesus says in this passage that even the angels, even he, the son of God, do not know that date. It’s for God to know alone. And yet, we keep trying to guess, as if we know better than Jesus. 

The question is why? Why are we so fascinated with texts like this that talk about the end of the age. The Gospel of Mark is thought to be written shortly after the temple is destroyed. Christians are living in persecution. Things look really bleak. So they start to look for the signs of the times that point to Jesus coming back and setting them free from all of the pain and suffering that they are currently experiencing. 

I think we can understand that as well. We, too, live in a time where things seem bleak - even if it looks completely different then the believers who lived during the time when the Gospel of Mark was written. So we, too, look for that day and time when Jesus will return. It’s one of the reasons I think the Left Behind series were so immensely popular. People are yearning for Jesus to come back. 

When Jesus was teaching his disciples, they were marveling over the temple before them. This magnificant building that stood the test of time, and was believed to be the home of God. Under that wisdom it could never falter. But Jesus, in this time of private teaching with his disciples, points out to them that things are not always as they seem. The stability of a building, even the very house of God, does not last forever. Something new is coming. 

The disciples had to be shocked. Wouldn’t we be shocked if we heard that the very things we trusted most in our lives were going to come tumbling down? Yet, Jesus is reminding his disciples, and reminding us, that a time of change is coming. 

Peter, James, John and Andrew then had an even more private conversation with Jesus and asked the most rational of questions - when? When is this going to happen Jesus? And what’s going to tell us that it’s going to happen soon. 

And Jesus had a beautiful answer. Watch out that no one deceives you! Friends, we can get so distracted by the when that we totally miss the why. This teaching that Jesus is passing on is the bridge between all that the disciples have experienced with Jesus so far - the teaching, the miracles, the healings - and his Passion that is come. This time when Jesus would give his very life in order to change the world. 

For some that would seem like the end of the story, but it goes on. The Son of Man will return in final victory. Jesus will return in all of his power and glory. 

Church, that is surely exciting. But when we get so caught up in what is to come, we miss out on the present mission that Jesus has given us here and now. 

Normally, I am a pretty fast walker. I attribute it to having short legs that need to move faster in order to keep up with other people. Unless I am at camp. Whenever I am serving as a camp counselor, I know my place. I am at the back of the group of students with the folks who are the stragglers. Some would find this to be a frustrating place, but I find it fascinating. Because I notice more. When I slow down with these campers I notice new things, even if I have been in the same place so many times before. When we go too fast, we miss seeing what is right before our very eyes. 

When we are distracted, looking for signs of what is to come, we can miss the mission of the present. We can miss what God is trying to point out to us here and now. We can overlook the call to pay attention. 

There is, however, a flip side to being in the present as well. The things that Jesus says we will experience are frightening. Wars. Rumors of more wars. Earthquakes. Famines. It is sometimes hard to find hope in the midst of so much pain. But Jesus points out that pain is not to be seen in a fatalistic manner - instead it is like a birth pain. The pain that comes before something new emerges. 

Jesus goes on to tell them a story about keeping watch. That they (and we) are keep alert like we are waiting for the owner of the home to return. We don’t know when. So we stay alert. We are watchful.

For some of the earliest disciples, they were so convinced that Jesus was coming tomorrow, that they forgot the mission. They quit their jobs. Sold their homes. And just waited. And waited. And waited.

Friends, as we are watchful, it is not an excuse to give up what God has appointed us to do. We are certainly waiting for the owner of the house to return, but until then we are stewards of that which is entrusted to us. And that’s a pretty weighty thing that we are in the care of - Christ’s work in the world. 

When we give up on the mission, we are giving up on souls. It is like we are saying that people don’t matter and we are more interested in Jesus’s return than people coming to know him. I have told people many times, that it is our job to keep sharing the Gospel until Jesus returns, because I don’t know about you, but for me, there are people I know who if Jesus came right here and now today, don’t know him. And that breaks my heart. And I hope it breaks all of our hearts as the Church of Jesus Christ and gives us fuel for the mission before us. 

We are not passively waiting for Jesus to return, friends. We are actively waiting. We are to stay focused on the mission at hand and the truth that is before us. 

At the end of the day, the disciples didn’t get the answer they were hoping for. In fact, Jesus tells them that even he does not know the day and time. But he calls them to something greater with his answer. He calls them to faith and vigilance, even in a present and a future that will have suffering. He is telling them of the hope of the Kingdom of God, even if they do not fully understand or recognize it. He tells them of a freedom from that which binds their hearts and lives that will be broken at the end of the age. 

These were meant to be words of encouragement, but also challenge. Words that propelled them, even in the absence of Jesus, to be the people of God. 

I think there is always a fascination with knowing what will happen tomorrow. But the truth is, none of us know what tomorrow holds. Recently someone in this parish told me “things can change so quickly.” And that is true for any of us. The question is what are we going to do with the gift of today? Let us not be so caught up in what is to come that we forsake the mission and call in the present. Let us be emboldened to share the mission of God, here and now. Amen. 

“Jesus and the Gerasene Demoniac” Mark 5: 1-20

  Imagine that you are meeting someone new for the first time. What are the normal pleasantries that accompany an introduction. Maybe what your name is or where you live. What you do as a vocation or enjoy doing as a hobby. I’m going to guess that you have not met many people for the first time where you were immediately asked what is binding you or what your deepest struggle in life is. 

The story of the Gerasene Demoniac tends to go one of a few ways when it is preached upon. Some preachers focus on the Demoniac in such a way that it comes across as a litany of thanks - thank goodness we are not like this poor man. Others try to wash away his struggles, saying that he wasn’t really possessed, but something else was going on in his life. Both approaches end up doing essentially the same thing - creating space between us hearing the story and the man from Scripture long ago. In fact, we want to keep lots of space between us and this extremely uncomfortable Scripture. 

Yet, we find it in the Gospel for a particular reason. So let us recount the story. There was a man who was considered unclean because he had an unclear spirit within him. Saying he was unclean is hard for us to imagine on this side of history, but it had nothing to do with physical cleanliness - it meant he was cut off from community. That he was not able to worship God with other people. That there was an imposed sense of isolation. 

Not only was he considered unclean by his community but he was living in an unclean place. When Jesus and the disciples docked their boat they did so taking port in a graveyard. Touching dead bodies was considered unclean so a place full of dead bodies was certainly unclean. People did not go there. 

This man is so stricken that he can’t give voice to his own thoughts. All he can do is howl. When words do come out of his mouth they aren’t his own, but the demon inside of him speaking to Jesus. His own voice was gone.

And Jesus is willing to go to an unclean place to this unclean man cut off from contact with other people and who had no voice for his own thought and experience. This was a radial thing! Jesus was willing to go to the places of isolation and desolation in order to reach out to people. And in doing so broke all of the social norms at the time. 

When people were unclean they were cut off from other people in order to prevent the spread of disease, as they understood it at the time. But when they were cut off from worship and going to the temple, even when others weren’t present, it was as if people were afraid that you could hurt God. To which Jesus, the very son of God, proclaims that we cannot harm God - even in our most vulnerable and even in our most broken of places. 

Jesus came off the boat in this very particular place, where no one else is docking for a very particular reason. He is searching this man out. And he comes face to face with him and through compassion, strength, and grace, sets him free. 

This man who could not even be held by chains was enslaved by the demon that was inside of him. Coupled with that, he was locked into his own isolation and shame. And even, and most especially him - he was sought out by our Lord and Savior. 

I wonder if instead of thinking about all of the ways that you aren’t like this man, if the invitation today is to think about the ways that you are. What is binding your heart and life? What are the secret places, that you have tried so hard to hide from others, but Jesus sees and knows and wants you to hand over to him? What makes you be locked away in isolation and shame and how is Jesus inviting you to respond?

The truth is that we all have things we have given power over our lives. Things that maybe haven’t stolen our voice, but have certainly taken over our heart piece by piece by piece. We have ways that we have acted in a self-destructive manner, even if we think that no one else sees or knows or will get hurt by it. In other words, we all have things that chain us. Things that need set free from. What is binding you? Where does Christ want to offer you freedom?

All of a sudden, the scripture test becomes much more personal. 

And then there is a turn. After the man is healed and restored to community - well the community reacts. And they aren’t necessarily joyous. This one who was once known by his past and his chains is now healed and they are fearful. So fearful that they ask Jesus to leave town. 

Which leads us to ask, what exactly are they afraid of? It seems the they are afraid of Jesus’s power and the complete and total transformation that has happened in this person’s life. 

So maybe, if we can’t think of what is binding our heart and life - alienating us from God and name it, well, maybe, we can talk about where transformation - even in the lives of others - scares us. Where does the power of Jesus to change hearts and lives not bring us to our knees in prayer and awe, but in fear? Fear that actually sends Jesus away. 

Sometimes, as the people of God, we try to make Christ and his power small and manageable and when we see just what he can do, we react out of fear instead of faithfulness. 

Because here’s the thing - Jesus didn’t just change peoples lives back in scripture. He’s still doing that today. Jesus is in the people changing business for the sake of the Kingdom. And if we are going to follow him we better be giving testimony to that, but also be willing to go to those Jesus reached out to in compassion to be bearers of the Good News. 

All too often as the church, we have lived out of a place of fear. Fear of others. Fear of change. Fear of what God may be doing, instead of one of awe. Instead of one of anticipation. Instead of one of proclamation. 

It’s time to be unleashed from fear. Set free from that which holds us back from proclaiming the Good News - that Jesus searched for us, found us, and changed us. Because he loves us and because he knows us. In the words from Jesus, “The leaper, the blindman, the deaf and the lame, the sick and the broken. He know their name”. Amen. 

“Parables in Mark” Mark 4: 1-34

I have spent enough time trying to get crowds attentions, that I have picked up some tips and tricks along the way. When we are at camp and we need everyone to focus their attention on one person, especially if it is in a crowded setting like the dining hall, we raise our hand. As campers and staff see the raised hand, they raise they hand too and stop their conversations, until everyone is silent, with their hand in the air. 

With smaller children, as well as with crowds in larger settings, like outdoors, I have said if you can hear me clap your hands once…. If you can heard me clap your hands twice… if you can hear me claps your hands three times, all in hopes that by the third time, everyone is quiet. 

And of course many of you have heard me down in the fellowship hall, preparing to pray over a meal saying, “the Lord be with you” and hoping that you reply “and also with you.”

Jesus found himself trying to teach a large crowd by the sea. He wouldn’t have just been hearing their chattering, but also the sounds of the sea behind him. Then he got into a boat, pushed off from the shoreline, and his voice carried over the waters and into the people’s ears. But he starts with this little word that we often overlook, “Listen!”

I know just enough about grammar to be dangerous, but not enough to always be accurate. But I do know this - when Jesus was saying listen it would be the equivalent of “you all listen” or collaquely, “listen up everyone”. He wants to make sure that people zero I on what he is saying. He is trying to get their attention. 

Then Jesus enters into the parable that he has to tell. A parable about a sower (think farmer) who went out into the field to sow (seeds for crops). As he was throwing the seed, it landed in all sorts of different places. Some landed right on the dirt path and the birds gobbled it right up. Others fell on rocky, hard ground, where it sprang up quickly since there wasn’t much depth to the roots, but the sun’s heat quickly scorched it. Still other seeds fell in thorns that choked the life out of the grain. And some fell on the good soil and brought forth not just grain, but an abundance of grain. 

And then Jesus ends like he began - if you have ears, listen. 

The problem wasn’t that people weren’t listening though. It was that they didn’t understand. In fact, Jesus’s own disciples were listening attentively to his words, but when they got a moment where they were with Jesus on their own, they asked Jesus to explain the parable and what it meant - confessing that they didn’t understand. 

In Mark 4, we find this Gospel’s first expanded explanation of the Kingdom of God. Up to this point, things have been moving so quickly, that the disciples have probably just been caught up in all of it - without a moment to slow down and ask Jesus about what he means when he teachers about the Kingdom of God. 

In Sunday school recently, someone was sharing about how we can have a bad habit in the church of assuming that everyone understands what we are teaching and the language we use, but the truth is it can be confusing. So, we like the disciples, need a moment to slow down and not just unpack what we believe, but also the implications of those beliefs. 

Jesus is telling a parable, a story with a deeper meaning, that starts with a context that most people would understand. A sower who sows. Remember that these are folks who worked the land and fished so they could eat. They knew what it was like to have some grain seeds that never matured. 

But Jesus was trying to connect that context, something they knew, with a deeper spiritual truth - and that they weren’t getting. Or at least, we can confidently say that the disciples didn’t get, because they need a moment alone to ask Jesus about it. 

The problem, church, is that sometimes we become so familiar with these texts that we do one of two things. First, we don’t listen. In our day and age when we emphasize speaking and talking more than listening, and we are poorer for it. 

Perhaps, ever as adults, we need to remember that old adage that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. But we often get caught up in the trap of thinking that we need to appear a certain way and as a result, we can nod our heads like we understand what Jesus is saying, but never really dig into the meaning, here and now today, for our lives. 

The second problem is that we assume we know the meaning. We are so confident in our particular understanding that we think we are the one who knows it all. We think we know what Jesus is saying, which leads us to assume that we know what Jesus is going to say. Putting ourselves and our understanding at the center of our faith and not Jesus. 

The disciples come looking for clarification in one of the most beautiful displays of faithful discipleship - continuing to seek, ask, and listen. We know that there will be moments when the disciples look and listen, but don’t see and hear, but in this moment, they are modeling for us what it looks like to draw close to Jesus. 

And all of the sudden, Jesus breaks the whole parable open for them - its not about actual soil, but instead is about the human heart. 

Which leads us to ask different questions with a renewed sense of urgency. 

So let’s step into the parable from a different way, a corporate way, and see what may be new for us today. 

Jesus said, “And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the age and the lure of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing.”

Even with Jesus laying out the meaning for the disciples, which has been passed down to us, we are meant to ask, what chokes out the Word in our lives? Or where do we feel choked and what is leading to that?

And, that, friends, isn’t just a question for individuals, but for us as a church as well. Where do we let discouragement based on our own expectations choke the life out of us? Where are the places where we fail to spread the Word, inviting others to come and hear, because we can’t catch our breath because of the pace of the world? 

All of a sudden, a new meaning can break open in our hearts, when we sit with the text and ask not just what is it saying to us, but what is it asking of us?

Engaging scripture is not a one time thing, church. We return to it again and again, because we are always growing closer to Jesus and in doing so, new pieces of truth are being revealed to us. 

But we have to listen. And listen without saying “I already know what this means, I’ve heard it before.” 

So may we be people who engage this text like the first disciples, asking Jesus to reveal his truth to us in new and profound ways. Amen. 

“Jesus Heals and Teaches” Mark 2: 1-22

 When I was in elementary school, my parents had a decision to make - are we going to move or build an addition onto our family home. I remember, despite being young, going to visit several different houses - including one where you could pass food through a hole in the wall - which I thought was so neat at the time. 

My parents ultimately decided to build an addition onto our home - which meant that for a period of time we moved several rooms worth of stuff into our living room. My mom is not one  for messes, so as the project took longer and longer past the given deadline, and the mess grew larger and larger, her patience started to fray.

In the end - it was all worth it, but there was a lot of frustration in the process.

Jesus is now in Capernaum and is teaching in a home. His fame around teaching and healing is already beginning to spread, and the crowd is so large that it has filled out house and is pushing out of the door. Can you see it? The crowd pulsing with energy, pushing in, just hoping to be able to catch a glimpse of Jesus and hear what he is saying. 

The crowd was so large, that no one else would be able to get through. And there was someone who really wanted, no needed, to get through. There was a man who was paralyzed, unable to walk on his own, who was being carried by four people. But they couldn’t get in. All the well meaning folks wanting to hear and see Jesus were in their way. 

So when they could not get the man to Jesus the traditional way, through the front door, they got creative and cut a hole in the roof in order to lower the man to Jesus. 

Church, I don’t care what your roof is made of - you are going to notice when someone starts digging a hole in it. I wonder what the crowd started to do, as bits of the roof fell upon them. Did they start looking up - wondering what was happening? Did Jesus keep on teaching, or did he stop with his eyes gazing up as well?

These four men were so desperate to get their friend to Jesus, they were willing to do anything, anything, just so he could be in Jesus’s presence and have a chance of being healed. 

It may not have been practical, but it was effective, because when they had a big enough hole, they lowered that man right through it to Jesus. 

Only, when the man was safely on the ground, the first thing he was offered by Jesus was not healing but forgiveness. Ouch. What was the man in need of forgiveness for? A lot of preachers through the years have inaccurately connected the man’s illness, his paralysis, with his sin, but Jesus never says that. But he does say that this man is forgiven. 

Which made the religious leaders really upset. They claimed that Jesus had neither the authority nor the right to declare that sins are forgiven, but at least had the common sense to keep their mouths shut. Only Jesus saw right on into their hearts - so to make his point even clearer - about where his power and authority came from - he then told the man to be healed. To get up and walk. Which he did - rolling up his mat and heading out the front door that wouldn’t allow him in. 

A lot of times, I will hear folks say that they are willing to do anything to get those they know and love to Jesus. They desperately want people to come to know him as Lord and Savior, only there are some cavauts, unspoken as they may be, around the concept of “anything.” Anything, as long as its convient. Anything, as long as its practical. Anything, as long as it doesn’t require too much from them. 

To which these four men show up and speak truth into the “anything.” Anything really means anything for them. They were bold and imaginative, driven by their desire to get their friend to Jesus - trusting that he would take care of the rest. 

But the problem, church, is not just our limits on the word “anything.” It often can be that we are the people blocking others from coming to Jesus - crowding in around the door to the point where others cannot find a way in. 

One of the churches I served was located on historic route 6. It was not uncommon to have travelers stop in from time and time along their journey from one coast to another. One Sunday, a man showed up in biking shorts and a helmet, explaining that he was traveling across the United States and had run out of food and resources. Could we help?

Now, in some congregations, he may have been turned away because of how he looked - blocking the door to Jesus. Or there may have been questions about whether he was trying to rip them off - blocking the door to Jesus. And still others may have agreed to help, but would ask him to wait until it was a convient time for them - blocking the door to Jesus. But not this church. They raided their own cupboards, finding anything they could for him and blessing him on his journey. 

The folks blocking the door that day had really good intentions. They may not have even realized that someone was trying to get past them because they needed to see Jesus too. But not knowing that you are blocking the door doesn’t make it any less of a hinderance. 

The other questions this text asks us, is not just around the concept of “anything” or blocking doors, but also how would we feel if someone cut a hole in our roof? Maybe its not going to be a literal hole, but how would we react church, if someone was so desperate for Jesus, that they disturbed our orderly worship?

I think if we were honest, a lot of us would say that we have no desire to be interrupted in that dramatic of a fashion. We like things just the way they are, thank you. But when someone wants to see Jesus, friends, and we won’t get out of the way, then we need to be interrupted. 

One of the churches I served got a bit uneasy when I said I was going to make a sign asking people to come and have me pray with them at a local pub. They were afraid of how it would look - a pastor sitting at the bar, even sipping water. They thought that hour a week could be better spent ministering to them - they were the ones supporting the ministry, weren’t they. And I went anyway. 

They were right, not a single person I ever prayed with, ever made it to their church. But time and again people would say to me that they felt like Jesus was doing something in their hearts as they told me story after story of what alientated them from the church and how they felt like this was a way for them to find healing and return. 

Church, the bold, creativity of the friends that day created a mess. But it was all worth it in the end, even with all of the frustration in the process. Their friend was healed that day, but the crowds, even they were blessed to catch a glimpse of who Jesus is.

We may get frustrated, people of God. We may not realize that we are in the way. We may not want holes cut in our roofs and we may say “anything” when we really mean some pretty hefty conditions. But hear this - anytime someone comes to Jesus, it is worth it in the end.