God's Will For Healing January 29, 2006 Epiphany 4

First: read the passage. Mark 1:21-28

We’re reading from the gospel of Mark this year. Everything happens quickly in Mark! Think of the story so far. There’s no birth story in Mark. Jesus bursts onto the scene as an adult. Jesus is baptized only nine verses into the first chapter. By the 14th verse, the temptation by Satan is over. In the next verse, Jesus summarizes the entire gospel: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." Only five verses later, Jesus has called four disciples. And we’re only 20 verses into the very first chapter!

To match this incredibly fast pace of events, the gospel writer uses urgent words, often. For instance, in the story so far: the Spirit immediately drove [Jesus] out into the wilderness. (verse 12) “The time is fulfilled…” (verse 15) And immediately [the two men] left their nets and followed [Jesus]. (verse 18) Immediately he called [two others] … (verse 20)

Now we come to this morning’s story – still only 21 verses into the first chapter of Mark! Notice the continuing urgency. They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God."

Do you remember how the story goes from there? It’s a violent encounter! The Greek word is translated, “rebuked.” It’s a word conveying the strongest confrontation and opposition. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. Jesus says to the forces of evil, “‘Shut up!’ You have no right to speak in God’s creation! I am the Word of God!”

According to the story, God’s will is for healing. Indeed, here’s what happens, not only in this story, but in all the healing stories in Mark: Because of Jesus’ authority, people act immediately! The sick are healed. Those separated from God are brought back into fellowship. Grace is given. Heaven breaks in and destroys evil.

Now, let me ask you about your experience. Is it all that straightforward? Does healing come immediately, as it’s portrayed in this story?

Think of when you or a loved one are desperately in need of healing. Isn’t it excruciatingly difficult to wait for healing? (A profound spiritual blessing is to be given patience in suffering.) You and I pray for healing, wondering when healing will come, and what that healing will be.

It’s not just physical healing. I encountered someone recently who went through an emotional trauma two years ago, and she is as bad now as she was then. Indeed, I would guess that she’s even worse – because now she’s stuck, calcified in her anguish.

It’s not just physical and emotional healing. There are countless people who have been wounded by the images of God that they were taught as children, who are in need of spiritual healing, so that they can be released to be open to the God who only wants to love us, and to hold us in arms of love and forgiveness and grace. God’s will is for healing.

Is healing a straight-line progression? Of course not! You know the experience of being sky-high on days when there’s been significant progress, and then down in the dumps on days when there have been set-backs. Healing often seems to come haltingly, as we pray for patience in suffering.

And how does healing come? Can you and I be open to healing that does not include a physical cure?

Openness is crucial. It is an openness to what God is doing. We see that, in a startling way, in the story. Notice: who recognizes who Jesus is, and what God is doing through Jesus? It is the unclean spirit who has possessed the man! The unclean spirit speaks for all forces of evil when he says, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God."

Contrast that clarity with the bewilderment and perplexity of those who were in the synagogue. Here’s what we read: that they are astounded at Jesus’ teaching. That they are amazed at Jesus’ actions. We read, They [keep] on asking one another, “What is this?” They have no idea!

What about you and me? (That’s the question that’s raised, by every story we read in any of the gospels!) In this case, this morning, the story asks: Do you and I have any idea what God is doing, while we are waiting and praying and hoping for healing? Are we open to what God is doing?

If not, that’s ok. God knows that there is much that is beyond us. We receive the grace to wait, in openness to what God is doing.

God’s will is for healing. But it’s not according to our schedule, or even according to our definition of what healing is. That’s what is so hard.

Let’s practice a prayer of openness. This is a prayer that assumes God’s prayer: that God is praying for all who are in need, and so, our openness is to God’s will.

This will last for four or five minutes, so put any books or purses off to the side, off your lap.

Sit up straight, but in a relaxed way, so you won’t have to adjust your posture after a couple of minutes.

Hold you hands in a posture of openness to God. Turn them palm upwards, in your lap; or cradle one hand in the other, palms up.

Take a full breath. Inhale, hold it for a beat or two, and then exhale at half the speed of your inhale. Do that again… Do that a third time … Now, breathe fully and evenly …

This will be a prayer of openness, of listening.

Now: think of a person who is in need of healing. (Perhaps the person is yourself!) …

In your prayer to our God, ask:

“What is your prayer for __________?”

“What would you have me do?”

“What must I let go, to be part of your prayer?”

Listen …

…

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia

"God Is God. We Are Servants of God." January 22, 2006 Epiphany 3

“God Is God. We Are Servants of God.”
Jonah Epiphany 3 January 22, 2006


The entire book of Jonah is only four chapters long. It tells a story about God and about human foibles. It’s a story with surprising twists. (In other words, it’s a story that’s true to life!) The point of the story is how God works with us, and here’s how. God is God. God calls us. You and I are servants of God.

I am quite sure that you know what it’s like to resist a call! Maybe you didn’t conceive of it as a call from God, because that sounds too high-falutin’. But think of a time when you were asked to do something, something important, and you tried as hard as you could not to say “yes!” It could be that you resisted the call for a period of weeks or even months or years. It could be that you ended up saying no, and stuck to it. But if it is God who is calling you to do something, resistance is futile. God is going to get you.

Fortunately (unless you have dramatic stories to tell that I haven’t heard), God hasn’t asked any of us to do anything as soul-shaking as Jonah! Jonah is a Biblical hero who doesn’t act with much heroism. (He establishes a standard of heroism that any of us can achieve!)
Jonah’s squeamishness, actually is quite understandable, considering what God calls Jonah to do. God tells Jonah to warn the people in a large city named Nineveh that, because they’ve been so evil, God is going to destroy them all!

That would not be a pleasant task for Jonah, would it? In fact, Jonah may have considered folks’ predilection to blame the messenger who brings bad news.

But God is God, right? And so, Jonah responds – by running away! We read that Jonah went down to Joppa (which is where the port is), found a ship going to Tarshish (which is a long ways away), and sailed, to flee from the presence of the Lord.

Poor Jonah. God is God! Can you run away from God? No, you can’t. And, so, here’s what happens next in the story: But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried to his god…

“Each one cried to his god.” You’ve seen the same thing, haven’t you?

For instance, what do some people do when they’re depressed? They go out and buy something! (In their depression, they are crying to the god of consumerism. From its pulpit, in the mall, the god of consumerism proclaims the message that you really can buy happiness.)
What do some people do, when they’re anxious? They eat, or drink, or abuse medication! (They’re crying to the god of physical gratification. This god has several pulpits throughout the house – the refrigerator, the liquor cabinet, the medicine cabinet – but it proclaims the same message at each location: “Don’t worry! Make yourself feel good, and your troubles will go away!”)

What do other people do, when they’re anxious? They work harder! They go in early and stay late. (In other words, they’re crying to the god of accomplishment, whose sacred message is: “Yes, you can earn salvation and security and happiness. What? You don’t feel that yet? That’s because it comes with the next promotion, the next glowing performance review.”)

When you and I remember the First Commandment, we remember this truth: there are many competing gods, but only God is God. Indeed, in the story, the pagan ship’s captain witnesses to that. The ocean is roaring and foaming, and the mariners are crying to their gods, and the captain says to Jonah: "Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish."

In fact, it is not long before the sailors suspect that Jonah himself may be the cause of all this danger. Then they said to him, "Tell us why this calamity has come upon us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?" "I am a Hebrew," he replied. "I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." (Jonah says the right words, at least. He is confessing that God is God.)

Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, "What is this that you have done!" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them so.

Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?" For the sea was growing more and more tempestuous. He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great storm has come upon you."

So the sailors throw Jonah over the side, into the angry ocean – and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the Lord even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Now. Think of when you’ve been in great distress – because you have not acted, but you know that you need to. Do you know the special suffering you feel at those times?

I am convinced that such periods of turmoil come from God, because God has decided that we’re not using our talents to their fullest, and that there is a situation or need that we must do something about.

Here’s the thing. You only discover what such a time of turbulence means when, instead of running away, you enter into the turmoil. (In the story, what does Jonah enter into? Of course! The belly of the giant fish!) In all of this turmoil, what’s going on? You receive the answer, in God’s time, when you turn back to God, in prayer, open to discernment, smack dab in the midst of the deepest darkness.

In the story, having entered into his greatest distress -- symbolically, in the belly of a fish! -- Jonah acts out that repentance. He speaks a prayer that could easily be included in the book of Psalms. The prayer takes up almost all of chapter two, which ends with these words: Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.

That may be all you know about the story of Jonah. It’s certainly the most famous part. But chapters three and four are just as funny as the first two describing the way we human beings and God act together – and I think the last two chapters contain what’s most interesting in the story.

The fish burps Jonah onto the beach. And lying on the sand, Jonah decides that, the next time God asks him to do something, he’s going to say “yes!” (God is God, right? The realization is finally dawning in Jonah’s brain that he is a servant of God.)

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." … Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across. Jonah began to go into the city,… Buckle your seat belts. Get ready for twists and surprises!

Jonah begins to go into the city, and he’s only gone a third of the way across, [crying] out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" And here’s what happens. [T]he people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth (which is the clothes the ancients wore, when they were in deep mourning or repentance).

So, here’s the first twist: that the people actually listen to God’s warning, and they change their ways! (How often does that happen?) In fact, the king of Nineveh even orders that every animal shall wear sackcloth, and that every human being shall plead with God for forgiveness. “Who knows?” the king says. “God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish."

Which leads to the next surprise: When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

But now listen to what happens. Jonah becomes furious! He forgets (again) that God is God, and that God can do whatever God wants to do. And Jonah forgets (again) that he is God’s servant. And so, in hot, self-centered anger he asks God, “Why did you put me through all of this, if you were just going to change your mind?”

This story is such a hoot! You see, God has forgiven Jonah. God has been willing to take Jonah back. But now, when God treats the citizens of Nineveh in the same way, Jonah is furious! And so he goes off, by himself, to nurse his self-centered anger. (I’m sure no one here would do such a thing!)

Do you know how much grace God has? God still does not give up on Jonah! But the story ends in a very strange way, with God trying, once again, to remind Jonah who is God.
You see, it’s hot out there, where Jonah is nursing his anger. So, The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush.

But God is going to use this plant to make the point – again: that God is God. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die." Then the Lord said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"

The end! Really! That’s how the story ends: with that question from God; that abruptly.

Here’s what I think the author of the book of Jonah tries to do: to persuade us to see through God’s eyes. God acts in ever-renewed mercy and forgiveness! And so, as we read, the story, we come to think: “How trivial, how minuscule are your concerns, Jonah! What tunnel vision you have, when you’re wrapped up in yourself! How petty is your anger and your grudges. God is God! You are a servant of God. So – simply do the work that God gives you to do!”

It’s a great story, isn’t it – all you Jonahs out there? (Of course, there’s a Jonah up here in the pulpit, too!)

Thanks be to God, then, for God’s never-ending grace and mercy and forgiveness, as God continually calls us to our work.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia

"Jesus: God Saves!" The Name of Jesus January 1, 2005

“Jesus: God Saves!” Luke 2:15-21
The Name of Jesus January 1, 2006


I wonder if this new year will end up with a name? For example, many journalists called 1964, “The Year of the Beatles.” Many historians declare 1968 to be “The Worst Year in American History.” Sometimes, entire decades acquire a name. The 1920s are called, “The Roaring 20s.” The 1980s are called, “The Me Decade.”

Sometimes, a name expresses a hope, given in advance. At the turn of the 20th century, many American protestants envisioned it as “the Christian Century.” (Perhaps you’ve heard of the magazine that still bears that name.) “The Christian Century” was to be a decade of great advancement in mission around the world. The hope was that this would be the century when all the world would become Christian!

Naming is important, to express our hopes. Have you ever named a house? There’s a house I’ve bicycled past many times, in James City County, that’s called, “Shady Rest.” That sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? I wonder if its owners have found that to be true?!

How about the naming of children? One of my all-time favorite stories is told by a man I know named George Ruth. When we lived in Wilmington, Delaware, George lived around the corner. George always wore a New York Yankees baseball cap. One day I said, “You must really like the Yankees.” He said, “No, I’m not really a fan of baseball”; and then he told me this story. George was born to Polish parents, in what was then the Polish neighborhood of Wilmington, surrounding St. Hedwig Church. The Polish Catholic custom was for the father of a baby to take the newborn to the priest at the church, to be baptized. The mother was not involved in this. Beforehand, George’s father and mother had a discussion about what this baby should be named, and they decided on a name – which was not George. The father set off with his bundle of joy. He stopped by to see if his brother wanted to go with him to the priest for the baptism. And on the way, the baby’s father and uncle began talking baseball and, with the last name of “Ruth,” …

To make a long story short, when the priest asked, “By what name is this baby to be called?” the father told the priest (have you guessed it?), “George Herman.” That is the name the priest used, in the baptism. (Remember when people used to call a person’s first name his “Christian name?” That dates back to the time when the name was officially bestowed, by the priest, during the baptism.) Anyway, you can envision the scene, can’t you, that occurred when the father took the baby back to his wife and told her that their bundle of joy was now named “George Herman Ruth”; that he had been named after Babe Ruth! But, according to the intense piety of that Polish Catholic mother, if the priest had baptized little George with that name, then that had to be his name.

Most times, parents give more care than that to the naming of their children! Often they use family names. For example, Pattyand I named our daughter “Emily Jean.” Both of her grandmothers are named “Jean.” Our son is named “Nathan Andrew,” after you-know-who. I am named after my father. I’m a “junior.” My brother, John, is named after our father’s father.

Many of you have observed that same ritual of continuing family names through the generations. It carries an importance! A family name gives a baby a wider identity. It provides a context for who this new person is. If the name chosen belongs to a family member who is admired, then the hope is that this new human being will grow up to be like the person she’s named for. By its association with a particular person, with particular admirable qualities, the name means something!

In the liturgical calendar, January 1 is celebrated as The Name of Jesus. We read from the gospel of Luke, "After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb." What context is given to this name, by the gospel writer reminding us of the angel Gabriel’s visit with Mary, to tell her that she will bear this child! A name given by an angel! That’s a name that identifies this baby as important to the grand scheme of God’s salvation for the entire world!

This is also attested, of course, in surrounding Scripture. We read this morning that, according to St. Paul, Jesus was born "when the fullness of time had come."[1] Last Sunday, in the gospel of John, we read this about Jesus, the Word become flesh: "From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace."[2]

"After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb." Jesus. It’s a name that comes from the Greek form of the late-Hebrew name of “Joshua.” So, the name of Jesus means, “Yahweh, help!”; or, “God saves.”

And so, the Scripture read at the two Sunday services since Christmas Eve is giving us more layers to what child this is. When the fullness of time had come, Jesus was born, to embody and to enact God’s salvation in our human flesh. Through Jesus, God brings this salvation to us. In Jesus, God saves us from our sins!

Jesus: “God saves.”

Here is a sentence that we will pray during the Eucharistic Prayer, in a few minutes:

“We give you thanks for your Son,
at the heart of human life,
near to those who suffer,
beside the sinner,
among the poor,
with us now.”[3]

In the Holy Communion meal, salvation comes to us, through the physical presence of the risen Jesus. In the bread and the wine, we receive God’s future, of the kingdom of salvation fulfilled! As we leave the Holy Communion meal and scatter back out into the world as the risen body of Christ, through our actions of ministry we enact God’s future, when kingdom will be fully realized.

“We give you thanks for your Son,
at the heart of human life,
near to those who suffer,
beside the sinner,
among the poor,
with us now.”

The reign of God will be characterized by authentic, gentle, relational wholeness. Jesus embodied that salvation by serving the poor, those on the margins, those in need. We enact that salvation, ourselves, when we do the same. Jesus: “God saves.”

In Jesus, God is with us now, saving you and me from our sin and from our brokenness. That is what sin is: brokenness. And we suffer from that brokenness, that sinfulness, all the time!

Our love affair with God breaks down, many times each day, and our need is to return to the baptismal font each time we worship, to ask for forgiveness, for restored salvation. Jesus: “God saves.”

Our relationships with each other, with those we love, are broken by anger, and by self-centeredness and forgetfulness of the other. That happens all the time! But because of God’s grace upon grace in and through Jesus, we are enabled to return to each other and also to receive each other, in restored love. Salvation includes healing us where we are broken. It is God who restores. It is God who repairs. Jesus: “God saves.” God brings us into the kingdom.

What great hope there is, in the name of Jesus! We see the presence of that kingdom that Jesus embodies, whenever there is authentic, gentle, relational wholeness. And we bring that kingdom right now, to others, as we act as Jesus did: with mercy and forgiveness, out of grace and salvation, and our hope for wholeness.

In the name of Jesus, giver of all grace.[4]

Amen.

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia
[1] Galatians 4:4
[2] John 1:16
[3] A text from “Renewing Worship” materials, to be included in the forthcoming Evangelical Lutheran Worship.
[4] John Milton (1608-1674)