Second Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 3:8-15
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Mark 3:20-35
For whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, and mother.
It doesn’t seem so these days, but there was a time when I was extremely active in so many things. I took on multiple responsibilities at church, I was constantly available to help at my kids’ schools, and I was active with military related organizations. When I was cleaning my files and purging old paperwork, I discovered two years worth of calendars and I was amazed at my incredibly busy schedule. I remembered that it all became overwhelming at one point. I was committed to too many projects, which led to a bit of a breakdown. Everything fit into my schedule, but I was constantly busy with responsibilities.
One day I could not take it anymore and I just started crying. It was at that point I realized I could not do it all. I learned that sometimes we have to say “No” because God does not send us so much work that we can’t give it our best. See, that was my problem. I thought every time someone acknowledged a gift in my life that I needed to say yes to every request. I was selfish and self-centered enough to think that I was the only one who could do those jobs. I considered every request for help as a calling from God. I have since learned to pray and ask for His help as I discern His will in my life.
Have you ever known anyone who is so busy with responsibilities that they do not even have time to eat a meal or smell the roses? Do you ever want to just kidnap them for an hour or two, take them for a quiet lunch or a walk in the park? I wish someone had done that for me when I was over doing things. It might have helped me to slow down and realize I was doing too much. Fortunately I did not get sick and I learned to seek God’s will over every opportunity to serve. However, I think we all recognize these symptoms in someone we know and love.
It was getting that way for Jesus. Once the stories of miracles began to spread, the people sought Him out, desiring a touch of His hand and a word of hope. They crowded around Jesus and the disciples, followed Him on His travels. They never let Him alone.
Mark tells us, “The multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. When his friends heard it, they went out to seize him; for they said, ‘He is insane.’” The word translated “friends” in this passage is a Greek word meaning “people” and can be translated “family.” I often read those words and thought that Jesus’ family was like the scribes, looking at Him and His work with disdain.
But if we look at it from the point of view of loving family, we can see that they were looking at Him as one that was too consumed with work and overwhelmed by responsibilities. They weren’t rejecting Jesus as the scribes, but were worried about Him because He was not even taking the time to rest or find nourishment. And He was dragging the disciples with Him. They were concerned and wanted only to take Him away for an hour so that He could find renewal and refreshment. Jesus was not stressed or overwhelmed by the crowds and the work He had to do because He knew God’s Will.
This Sunday we enter into the longest season of the Church year. The paraments will be green for the next few months as we consider the life God has called us to live in this world. The first half of the church year focuses on the story of God. We hear what God has done for us. We hear about Jesus, His birth, ministry, death and resurrection. We hear about the history of His relationship with His people. We hear about why we need Jesus. Beginning with this Sunday, the focus turns to us. Now that we know what God has done, we consider what we will do in response. Pentecost is about growing in our faith and action. It is about listening to God’s call and going forth in faith. It is good and right to study the story of God, but it is meaningless if we aren’t changed. It is worthless if we do not respond to God's grace. Part of learning how to be a disciples is learning to listen to God’s will rather than the requests of the world and our own selfish, self-centered perspective.
We will be reminded throughout Pentecost that though we are saved by God’s grace, we are still sinners in need of our Savior. Many of the stories throughout the Pentecost season focus on the great work we can and will do for God. We will be reminded that we have been called to a holy priesthood, as witnesses to His grace. We can, and do, fall prey to the possibility that we are something special, that only our gifts and abilities will accomplish the world. We must always remember that there is a part of us, still, that is the same as those who have not yet devoted themselves to true discipleship in Christ, both inside and outside the Church.
Pentecost is a time when we learn to live in this world and as God’s church surrounded by both the faithful and the unfaithful. We learn how to be witnesses. We learn how to be servants. We learn how to follow as Christ’s disciples in a world where Satan still roams.
Jesus’ family may have been concerned about His well-being, but the scribes saw a whole different problem. They thought Jesus was possessed by the devil. Jesus asked the teachers whether a kingdom divided against itself can stand. “Why would Satan cast out his own demons?” Their accusation did not make sense, but don’t we often jump to the same judgment against those who disagree with us about the issues of the day? Don’t we assume that our opponents are from the devil even when they are accomplishing work that honors God just because they see the world through a different point of view?
There is a photo (or more than one) that shows politicians from decades ago working together even though they came from different sides of the aisle. The photos often come with a caption that says, “They argued in chambers but always came out as friends. They could socialize even though they fought against one another for their issues. And in the end, even when they won or lost, they still cared for their “enemies” and worked together on the next issue.
Now we see hatred and there is no way that they can work together on any issue. Sometimes it seems like they even take the opposite side not because it is the right point of view but because they cannot accept their opponent’s point of view. There is no way to accomplish anything if we aren’t even willing to listen to one another. We can all see the impact this has had on our nation. As Jesus said, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.”
He then said, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” He brought this closer to home, addressing the idea of division in a more personal manner. I have always struggled with this part of the story because we don’t understand why Mary would be so against Jesus’ ministry. After all, she knew from the beginning that He was born for a purpose. She pondered it all in her heart and she encouraged His ministry on other occasions. She was a mother and we all know how mothers can be. Paul reminds us “For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.”
Jesus’ family and the scribes, though for very different reasons, wanted Jesus to stop doing what He was called to do. Jesus answered the accusations of the scribes by telling them not to give credit to Satan for the work that He is doing by the power of the Holy Spirit. And though His answer to His mother and brothers might seem harsh, we are reminded that Jesus wants us to trust in Him. He knows what He is doing, just as God knew in the beginning what Adam and Eve needed. Jesus knew that for the Church to remain strong, it could not be divided. He did not reject His mother and brothers because we know the whole story of His relationship with them. He loved His mother to the very end, and His brothers went on to help establish the Church after Jesus ascended into heaven.
A house divided will fall, but Jesus reminds us throughout the scriptures that He is the foundation. He is the cornerstone. He is what holds us all together. When we trust in Him, even when we do not agree with one another, we will stand firm. Unfortunately, the Church these days is as divided as politics. We are, like our neighbors, sinners in need of a Savior. There are sins that need to be brought to light, for the sake of the sinner as well as for those who are harmed by the consequences of those sins. There is a right and wrong. There are truth and lies. These are things that matter. Words might sound good, but if they are twisted, then they will lead us away from trusting God. Unfortunately, we do not always agree what is right and what is wrong, what is truth and what are the lies.
Look at the headlines and you’ll see that we are suffering from so much brokenness in the world and everyone is trying to point the fingers at everyone else. The reality is that we are all sinners and we are all at fault in some way, but we want to lay the blame on others. This is why we need to learn how to work together again, to listen to one another, to find ways to accomplish the things that will make our nation and our families right again.
Even worse, we all sometimes lose sight of God. The world offers so many options that look good to us; they even look right. They divert our attention and lead us down the wrong path. That’s why it is important that we keep ourselves in God’s Word, stay in fellowship with His people and continue to be fed with His sacraments. These disciplines will help us to keep on the right track, to keep our eyes on God and if we are diverted will draw us back to Him.
The house of Christ will never fall, even though it is made up of people like us who do not as God has created and redeemed us to live. We are all sinners in need of a Savior, and it is that Savior who makes all good things happen. We inherited a nature that goes way back to the beginning, to the first people to reject God’s will. Adam and Eve rejected God in the garden. They believed the word of the serpent above that of their Father, and it ended with them being afraid of Him.
We struggle in a broken world and often find ourselves failing to live up to the expectations of our God. We do not always treat people with love or respect. We get angry with our children and our spouses, gossip about others, take things that are not ours. We fall to the temptations this world has to offer. We sin against God and our neighbor in our thoughts, words and deeds by what we do and what we fail to do. Despite our failure, God still wants a relationship with us. Like the psalmist, we can cry out to Him and He will hear us. He doesn’t keep a record of our sin, but forgives and forgets. “If you, Yah, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?” We can’t stand, but we can have peace.
We don’t have to walk in darkness because we have the light of our Lord Jesus Christ and His forgiveness. We know by faith that even when we fail, we can turn to Him for forgiveness and help through our troubled times. When we fail and turn to God for forgiveness, He not only grants that forgiveness for the sake of our Lord Jesus, but He also forgets our sin. We don’t have a record or else we would become buried in the prison of our sinful nature. As we live in this hope, we find ourselves walking in the light of Christ, covered by the unfailing love of God and reconciled to Him by His own blood. When we wait for the Lord and watch for Him, we are less likely to fall into the temptations of this world. We will still sin, but we can trust in the Lord and rest in His forgiveness because He never fails.
He never fails because He is faithful and knows what needs to be done. Even in the beginning, He already prepared to send a Redeemer to make things right, even knowing we would never be able to hold up our end of the bargain.
I once knew a woman who wanted to be a Christian. She believed in Jesus, had even been involved in church at different times in her life. She wasn't attending anywhere when we were neighbors, and I invited her several times to come with me. She always refused. Though curious about our church and glad to be in a relationship with someone who knew the Lord, she was not ready to make a commitment. She had many excuses. One reason why she wouldn't visit my church was because she didn't think she could afford to tithe, but when I told her that our church had no such requirements, she told me that she couldn't attend a church that did not expect a tithe. The real problem was not how much money she had but that she did not think she was good enough to be in the presence of God and all those Christians. She wanted to get right with God first, then she might go to church.
We had several conversations over the course of our relationship, but no matter how many times I explained to her that we can't get right with God without being in His presence and in the company of other Christians, she was never ready. She never understood that Christianity is not a group of holy people, but a pack of forgiven sinners who gather to hear the Word preached and the Sacraments given so that we will know the love, mercy and grace of God through Jesus Christ His Son. She did not want to step into the presence of God until she found a way to hide her imperfections.
God knows. He sees into the very depths of our beings; we can't hide anything from Him. He sees beyond our masks; He has known us since before we were born. God knows, and He loves us anyway. The only difference between those who are inside the church and those outside are the ones inside know that they are there by God’s grace. Those outside are like Adam and Eve, trying to hide from the very God who would be their salvation.
God loved Adam and Eve. He walked with them and He talked with them. As the song says, He told them that they were His own. One day, however, a fallen angel in the form of a serpent caused Eve and Adam to doubt the Word of God. “Did God really say...?” the serpent asked. Eve thought about it, and the words of the serpent sounded good. She didn’t hear the twist in the message. God hadn’t really said what the serpent repeated, but his words sounded better than the twisted truth. God did not keep the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from Adam and Eve because He wanted to keep anything from them. He forbade it because He knew it would cause them to think that they were not worthy to be in the presence of their Father. That’s exactly what happened; when they ate the fruit, they became afraid of God.
The serpent said, “You can be like God.” There are two lies in this statement. The first lie is, of course, that we can be like God. We aren’t omnipotent, omnipresent, or divine. We aren’t eternal, the beginning and the end, all powerful. We aren’t God. But, the second lie makes us think there is something to attain. We don’t have to attain to be like God because we were created in His image. In trying to attain god-like status, we turn our focus on ourselves instead of keeping our eyes on the One from whom all good things come. This is why we often get so caught up in work we think glorifies God when it is really our own selfish and self-centered perspective.
Adam and Eve tried to attain something that they already had, but they still wanted more. Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? But that’s what temptation is all about. The devil twists our circumstances, and the words, to make it seem like there is something good beyond what is already good. In the Garden, the serpent made Eve feel deprived of something, even though it was something she did not need. She reasoned that the fruit on the tree looked good and therefore must be good, so why should God keep it away? They had plenty of fruit to eat, and I’m sure the fruit on all the other trees must have been good, too. But temptation, the serpent, made her want the one thing she couldn’t have, and since she had the will and ability to do so, she picked the fruit.
Adam and Eve ate the fruit and they died. Their bodies didn’t die immediately but they were separated from their life with God. They were sent outside the Garden, into the dangerous world where they would no longer live under the protection of God or in His fellowship. This may have seemed cruel; how could a loving God do such a thing to those He created? The reason is that the knowledge of good and evil made them afraid. They feared God, experienced shame and hid from Him. They could not live forever in fear of their Father and Creator, so they were sent into the world of death.
We join Adam in the reality of our failure. We continue to be tempted by the same things that have plagued human life since the beginning. It is hard to be human. Unfortunately, sometimes Satan still twists God’s word enough to make us think that we are choosing good over evil. He can even use people to question the work of God.
We want what we want, even if what we want is not what is best for us. We can refuse the help of God. We can go our own way, make our own choices. Unfortunately, our way is rarely the best way, and we have to suffer the consequences of our choices. However, the humble God that allowed us to go our own way is nearby and ready to help us through those difficulties.
While we will look at the call to action in the world, it is helpful to begin this season with the most important response we can give: thanksgiving. St. Paul writes, “For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.” This is our first purpose. This is our first response.
As we study the lectionary texts of Pentecost, we will look at our own lives of faith. We will think about what God is calling us to do. We will think about our gifts and the opportunities that God is providing for us to share His kingdom with others. It won’t be easy. We may be tempted to take on too much work, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought. We will have to face those who will reject us and those who will try to confuse us. We will face those who have missed the truth of the Gospel or who will find any excuse to reject God. We will face true enemies who are doing the work of the devil. We will just have to walk in faith and trust that God will accomplish whatever He has ordained for our lives, remembering always that those who do the will of God are our brothers and sisters, heirs together in the promise given by our Father through Jesus Christ our Lord.
When God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden to live away from the Tree that would provide them with everlasting life, He told them that the ground would be cursed and that it would yield thorns and thistles. In the end, when Jesus was crucified, thorns were used to adorn His head as a crown. Even as we live in this decaying world with so much division caused by the curse of Adam and Eve, we also live in the promise of the Gospel. God’s story leads us to knowledge of His promise through Jesus Christ our Lord. His life, death and resurrection won for us forgiveness of sin, the restoration of our relationship with God and eternal life in His Kingdom. We become His brothers and sisters, following Him in obedience to the Word of God, glorifying Him in thankfulness for His love and grace.
A WORD FOR TODAY
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