A Subtle Moment Jesus Won't Let You Miss

Pastor McCarty's Sunday Sermon

Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton, VA

June 28, 2015  A Day of Remembrance and Mourning in the ELCA

Scripture: Mark 5: 21-43

Tags:  Mark 5; Day of Repentance

(This sermon was preached with descriptive sentence fragments and at least one really long run-on sentence that I rushed through in speaking. My English major friends will cringe at these grammatical choices. My friends in rhetoric and theater will recognize the practice of rhetorical tropes and figures in public speaking.  I tried to clean some of it up for posting, but it became less the message that I proclaimed on Sunday.  Consequently, I left much of it intact even though it looks awkward in written language.)

Chapter 4 of Mark begins with Jesus teaching beside the sea. He teaches in parables to a crowd so large that he needs to stand in a boat and lecture while the very large crowd listens on the shore.

Chapter 4:35, the reading for last week, begins with Jesus telling his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” Jesus and his disciples in boats on the sea at night are almost swept away by the wind and the rain. Jesus sleeps in the stern of the boat and the disciples, frightened awake him, and he asks them have you no faith.

They finally arrive on the other side of the sea at the beginning of Chapter 5, but that only lasts until today's reading when Jesus crossed again in the boat to the other side.

And in Chapter 6 after today's lesson Jesus will leave this place and go to his hometown.

[The scripture is full of] Movement, coming and going and back and forth and crossing over and crossing back and going home.

Even in our lesson this morning, not only is Jesus moving, people are moving around him. Jairus comes, and Jesus goes, and the crowd follows and presses in.

Even in our life of faith, the life of Christ the congregation, we have people being sent out this week and new members joining. And [we have] people who weren't here last week coming back, and people who were here last week, not here, and my nephew visiting from Dubai sitting with his cousins, but only for a little bit because after lunch we are taking him to Pennsylvania. And for all these lives, coming and going and traveling, we surround them and support them with prayer.

So much movement, Jesus crossing over and back, and over again; the people coming to him; and he goes to people; and the crowd swarms and presses in. And our movement happens on top of that.

You almost might miss it. And really does it matter if you miss it. It would be quite natural for you to overlook, or not stop, just keep on moving. So much power. Jesus has so much power, what does it matter if a little bit of that power goes out from him in a touch amongst the pressing of the crowd and the movement of the people and the urgency of Jairus whose daughter is dying.

[The woman offers] A bold touch, a bold and yet discreet touch with all of Jesus coming and going and the frantic crowds surrounding him. This woman in need. This faithful woman. One might come close to missing this faithful woman in need. A faithful woman, who for a really long time, twelve years has been considered unclean, like a leper, dirty. Imagine being told, you cannot come to church and you need to stay away from those people who do go to church. For twelve years, you have no church and no Christian people in your life. Sin will do that to you, make you feel unworthy. [Keep you,] keep people away from this place because they feel unworthy, even if it is exactly the place [you] they need to be. She, the unnamed woman in our Gospel, lived like that, or at least with those instructions, to keep your distance. She boldly and yet discreetly reached out to Jesus from the camouflage of the crowd and touched Jesus. Perhaps her touch is like our prayers. Boldly and yet discreetly, we pray for ourselves and what ails us, and we reach out to God, with everything going on in the world and here in the church. Praying like this woman and how she reaches out to touch Jesus.

You almost might miss it. With the comings and the goings, the back and forth and Jairus daughters and funerals in Charleston and attacks in Tunisia and France, and the Women's World Cup. And really does it matter if you miss it. [Of course it matters.] It would be quite natural for you to overlook one woman, or not stop, just keep on moving. So much power. Jesus has so much power, what does it matter if a little bit of that power goes out from him. A touch amongst the pressing of the crowd and the movement of the people and the urgency of Jairus whose daughter is dying.

Jesus stops. Actually he doesn't stop, he turns about. “Who touched my clothes?” His cloak. If the governor was in Staunton, would you put your arm around him to have your picture taken with him. Probably not the best example, some of you wouldn't think anything about it. If the president was in town, or the former president, how close do you think you could get. Pope Francis, can you picture the masses lining up wherever is caravan might be driving just to catch a glimpse. When he was cardinal in Argentina, he would ride the bus. Not anymore. What was it like when the Statler Brothers brought Johnny Cash or Reba McEntire to Staunton for the 4^th of July and people crowded the city for a free concert and celebration. They estimated 92,000 for Reba, which is almost 4 times the normal population of the city all crowded in around Gypsy Hill Park.

Jesus turns about and searches out for one person in need, for one lost sheep among a thousand. And with everyone looking around, this woman takes another bold and yet humble action. She comes forward and confesses what she has done. The Lutheran Church does not boldly practice confession, putting people on the spot, like this woman has been singled out. We trust in the act of confessing at the beginning of worship that people will be repentant. We trust that they will recognize their sin and perhaps give reflection regarding what sin in their own lives they need to change.

This woman boldly comes forward to acknowledge that she who is unclean, whom scripture and society would have forbade contact with a priest or Levi or a man, has touched Jesus. She was like the wounded man on the side of the road in the parable of the good Samaritan. The Levi and the priest passed on the other side fearing contact with the man who was as good as dead to them. She has touched Jesus en-route to a potential miracle and taken some of his power from him.

She comes forward boldly and humbly when it would have been easier to stay back. And Jesus pronounces her well. Just like he pronounces you well when you sincerely confess your sins. And this woman needs to be pronounced well. This faithful woman who for 12 years has faced this disease needs the assurance that she has been healed and that she can continue to reach out to other faithful people and be in fellowship with them.

You almost might miss it in the goings and the comings, the crowds and the pressing, and Jairus' daughter dying.

You almost might miss it with the comings and the goings, the crossing over and back again, and Jairus' daughter and funerals in Charleston and debate over an old symbol that Southern states dusted off to protest the Supreme Courts ruling in Brown verses the Board of Education, and the Supreme Court this week making marriage of same gender couples the law of the land and attacks in Tunisia and France and Kuwait, and the Women's World Cup, and prisoners escaped in New York, and shark attacks in North Carolina.

It would be easy to miss, the discreet practice of boldness lost in the crowd. [It would be easy] to just move on. A faithful person confessing and being pronounced well. Except it is not just one woman. This is about more than one woman. Here today in this worship someone, or someones, or all of you, have confessed and reached out to Jesus. You have boldly yet discreetly confessed. And by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, I pronounce the entire forgiveness of all your sin.

God almighty has made you well.

Amen

Living in Eager Anticipation

Pastor McCarty's Sunday Sermon

Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton, VA

March 1, 2015

Tags:  Mark 8; Eager Anticipation

Living in Eager Anticipation

Jesus instructs his followers this morning to “Take up their cross and follow me.” That statement stands as a statement of deep faith. Perhaps deeper than many Christians find themselves ready to engage in. To tone the statement down a bit, consider this catchphrase, “drop everything and go.” Both statements suggest that what you are currently doing might not be as important as what you could be doing. Actually, you may have heard “drop anything and go” in advertising and marketing. “Drop everything and go to Crazy Harry's discount emporium,” which of course is not what we are talking about. So to our statement of faith, “drop everything and go” we will add another statement of faith:

“Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.”

Those who were here for Ash Wednesday worship will remember as we gathered around the communion rail to celebrate the Lord's Supper, we proclaimed the mystery of faith. “Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.”

The Christian Church has taught belief around this proclamation. You believe Christ died. You believe Christ rose. And I hope you believe that Christ will come again.

Again the Christian Church has anchored our proclamation on this truth. This confession within the confession. Where, perhaps, the church has missed the boat is the extent of our hope. You believe these words, but do you eagerly anticipate this. Eagerly anticipate it to the point of “drop everything and go.” One might think that eager anticipation might guide our expectation of Christ's return, but probably not.

How might these words sound different if you surround them with eager anticipation:

Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.

Are you looking for Christ now? What does it mean to pick up your cross and follow Christ now. I will answer that question for you. It means Christ is here, now.

Sometimes the news provides lousy examples. You may have seen two this week about what has gotten people ready to “drop everything and go.” This week in the news you may have heard about or read about teenagers from Canada and three teenage girls from the United Kingdom flying to Syria by way of Turkey. The fear is that they are going to become a part of ISIS.  Some people will drop everything and go.  Though it might frighten us as to where they are going.  Pray for these girls, also a couple of boys from Canada, pray for them and their families.

Here is a less troubling example: a pool of a hundred people have been gathered from thousands of applications for a one way trip to settle Mars. A one way ticket, where the first settlers of Mars will likely have a life expectancy of about a hundred days. And the hundred in the pool eagerly anticipate the chance to be pioneers, to be remember as the first to settle Mars. Eager anticipation such that you leave everything and go.

But take these examples and wonder about this, what would make you in your teenage years, young adult years, what could the church have done to get you excited, and if not run away, move away in eager anticipation that Christ is here now or that Christ is coming soon. Actually it happens in the Lutheran Church, the ELCA has a program called Young Adults in Global Mission, where a young adult, aged 19 through 29, applies to live internationally for a year and do ministry in God's name.

YAGM Luke Hanson lives and works in rural eastern Rwanda, he teaches children at an elementary school organized by the Lutheran Church. He recently wrote: "One of the important themes that has colored my life in the last few months is that of “waiting well.” ....I’m learning from Rwanda that waiting well is about trusting— about
relinquishing the fear of uncertainty and pain and 
brokenness that breeds urgency and impatience—
waiting poorly. As it happens, my Rwandan village 
neighbors have been excellent teachers.... Things which initially caused me such great impatience and frustration are no longer such a huge deal ..."

(from www.ELCA.org)

I like the paradox of not being urgent or anxious from Luke's blog cast against our eager anticipation of God's return. We wait patiently for Christ to return and yet we eagerly anticipate his return as well. We eagerly anticipate Christ's return so much that we look for it here on earth.

Perhaps this just might be the conundrum of the church. The church lifts up the resurrection as eager anticipation because of death. The closer one gets to death, the more one latches on to the hope of the resurrection. But for youth who have little reason to think about death, and middle aged adults as well frankly who do not want to think about their own mortality, the church needs another message.

To help them, young and old alike, we all can open our eyes and hearts to eager anticipation of Christ's return, not because death is a painful reality, not because you think the world is so messed up. Open your eyes and heart to the coming of Christ with eager anticipation because heaven is such glorious place, a wonderful place. And that heaven is so good and wonderful and glorious that it is overflowing onto earth now. Christ is here now.  The goodness and the glory of heaven overflow to you today, to us today and to the world today. And Christ tells you where to look to find him and the goodness of heaven, “pick up your cross and follow me.”

Amen

Healing, Hope, and Proclamation in Christ

Pastor McCarty's Sunday Sermon
Christ Lutheran Church, Staunton, VA
February 8, 2015
Tags:  Isaiah 40, Mark 1, Healing, Hope, Proclamation, Community

We move back upstairs for worship this morning, but we bring with us that sense of community formed by our worship downstairs.  To that community, our scripture for this morning adds Hope, Proclamation, and Healing.  That is what these lessons are about.  Hope comes from the Isaiah passage...

  It is he who sits above the circle of earth,

    and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;

    who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

    and spreads them like a tent to live in. (Isaiah 40:22)

And even more hope later...

  He gives power to the faint,

    and strengthens the powerless.

  Even youths will faint and be weary,

    and the young will fall exhausted;

  but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength,

    they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

    they shall run and not be weary,

    they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:29-31)

Proclamation you hear in the first sentence of Paul's passage. (I won't read that verse again.) To be clear, the proclamation he is talking about is the good news that you have in the cross of Jesus Christ. Good news that not only the Corinthians had, but good news that you have as well. Healing, of course, comes to you in the Gospel lesson. Though to be frank, the Gospel lesson has healing, and hope, and proclamation. All three are wrapped up in this one lesson.

Obviously, Jesus heals the sick. Perhaps that just might be your favorite image of Jesus. Jesus is the one who heals the sick. You and I believe that, and at times desperately hang on to the image of Jesus healing in stories like our gospel lesson. Jesus heals. Jesus cleanses the lepers. Jesus heals the man with the withered hand or the woman who could not stand up straight. Good stories that go back to our childhood lessons about Jesus. And yet, sometimes you lose the good news of the cross of Christ, if all you know is Jesus the healer. The gospel risks getting lost because healing itself is not the end result. Healing leads to hope. The gospel about Jesus is a little bit about healing. The gospel is a whole lot about hope. Amen.

To get you thinking about hope, I invite you to consider the possibility of healing. Just remember how miserable you felt when struck down by a common cold or a stomach virus. Paul's mother in-law had a fever; she laid in bed with a fever. Most of us have been there, done that, don't want to do it again. Now consider the possibility of healing. Even the possibility of healing leads to hope. Hope inspires in you ideas for what you can do when you finally feel better. And hope fulfilled when you do feel better leads to activity, and energy and thankfulness and joy. Praise God.

One of Jesus healing miracles was a man with a withered hand. I had a teacher whose right arm and hand had atrophied.  She would always keep her arm close to her side. Gary Burghoff, the actor who played Radar O'Reilly on MASH actually had an undersized left hand. Though he could still do quite a few things with his left hand, including holding a football or coffee cup, or clipboard. But for the man with a withered hand, or my teacher, imagine living and adjusting to life with essentially just one hand, and then having the hope of healing. What might you do first chance you got with your healed hand? Those who have ever had a broken arm or broken leg might remember that image of hope connected with the day the cast comes off. Jesus brings hope, and that hope changes you for the better. Amen. Sometimes that hope comes from healing. Sometimes that hope of Jesus making us better comes from the promise of forgiveness. Sometimes that hope, that being better in Christ comes from being nurtured by this holy word, strengthened by this Holy Supper, and blessed in the remembrance of your baptism.

Here is a point for you beyond proclamation, and healing and hope. Jesus brings hope, and that hope changes us for the better. And that hope changes us for the benefit of the community. Jesus heals Simon's mother in-law, and she responds in an appropriate way, through service. Later that evening you hear, it is not just her, the whole city gathered around Jesus. The whole greater community came to where Jesus was. He stood in the doorway and the whole city gathered. “The whole city gathered,” those words exactly, and “they brought all who were sick or possessed with demons.” “They brought all,” those words exactly. Why did they bring all? They brought all, because they had hope. And hope is powerful. The word choice is interesting, what comes next. They brought all, Jesus healed many, not all, just many. Jesus healed many with various diseases. He cast out many demons. Now, you cannot be sure why Jesus did not heal all. You can trust that the community is stronger because of those who he does heal.

While lifting up healing, the gospel does not let you make healing the end all and be all of the message. As Jesus will remind those closest to him and you as well, healing is not his primary purpose. At the end of the Gospel lesson Jesus is off praying, because that is what Jesus does, he goes off to solitary places and prays. When Simon and his companions finds him, Jesus instructs them, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.”

Proclamation: Jesus proclaims “God with you” to these neighboring towns. Soon, though not yet, the proclamation will shift to “The Son of Man will be lifted up...” and also, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son....” And the proclamation of the Good News will be accompanied by signs. Healing is one of these signs. Forgiveness is another sign of the proclamation. Miraculous feedings is another sign of the blessing of Jesus message. This worship is a sign of the proclamation and a beacon of hope. For the sake of this community, you are made better and stronger by this proclamation. You are fed and nurtured by the holy meal. You live in your baptism. Jesus changes you for the better. Praise God. You and I live in this hope, we are recipients of healing and we share in the proclamation of Christ our savior. Amen.

Noah: The Movie

Noah: The Movie

Tags: Bible, Genesis, Noah, Movie

***Spoilers Below***

Many of you who read this will see the movie Noah. I saw it Monday (3/31) with a group from Christ Lutheran. My guess is that more of you will not like the movie than will like the movie. And you will scratch your head at some of the decisions that director/writer/producer Darren Aronofsky made in bringing the biblical tale to the big screen. I have broken down some of these decisions below into three sections: Details They Got Right, Interpretations that Need Explanation, and Details They Got Wrong.

If you plan on seeing the movie, you may want to watch it first and judge for yourself before reading the rest of this. You will need to accept the “Watchers” with a generous amount of biblical-movie-telling-creative-license/suspension of disbelief. After you see the movie many of these other explanations will make sense to you.

Also, it will be helpful to read not just the flood account in Genesis, but the first 10 chapters of the book.

Bottom Line: If you were planning on going to see the movie, then go and see it. If you were planning on skipping Noah, then it is probably best to go with your original intention.

Details They Got Right

The Wickedness: One of the things that many people will dislike about the movie is the violence. I am not sure how the movie garnered a PG-13 rating (but I have thought that for many other movies as well). The Genesis account is adamant about the wickedness of the world. The movie depicts a violent, male-dominated, immoral world. Children are told to hide whenever strangers appear. The willingness to kill defines manhood.   Even Noah struggles with the awareness of his own sins and those of his family.  Certainly if God grieved for his creation with deep regret, then the audience needs to be uncomfortable with the wickedness of people.

The Ark: Many of us grew up with depictions of the ark as a boat with a curved hull. Actually, however the scriptures give squared off dimensions for the ark in the shape of a huge rectangular box. The New Living Translation gives description an approximation in feet although the original language was for cubits.

^6.14Make a boat from resinous wood and seal it with tar, inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. ¹⁵Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. ¹⁶Construct an opening all the way around the boat, 18 inches below the roof. Then put three decks inside the boat—bottom, middle and upper—and put a door in the side.

Genesis 6: 14-16

The Tension around Subdue/Dominion: On the Ark in the midst of the flood, Noah tells his family the story of creation. Included in the story is the blessing of God from Genesis 1:28

God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.'

Throughout the movie, Noah's understanding of this verse is contrasted with Tubal-cain, the film's antagonist. Noah's family seems to be portrayed as vegetarians who live out a role of caretakers of creation. We see Tubal-cain and his followers seek to dominate creation including other people. Tubal-cain as a stowaway on the ark eats from the animals to rebuild his strength and instructs Ham that to rule over creation is to use it for your own ends (paraphrase). The tension of subdue/dominion is very much still an issue in the world today.

Interpretations That Need Explanation

The Watchers: It is best to get this out of the way. The stone, lava and light giants known in the movie as Watchers might be an attempt to depict the “sons of God” of Genesis 6.

^6.1When the human population began to grow rapidly on the earth, ²the sons of God saw beautiful women of the human race and took any they wants as their wives....⁴In those days, and even afterward, giants lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with human women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes mentioned in legends of old.

The most likely explanation is that Aronofsky took great creative liberty with these verses to introduce the characters of the watchers. The watchers serve two purposes in the movie's interpretation. They protect the righteous and they help to build the ark quickly. I will give a pass on the Watchers, as an ill conceived attempt on Genesis 6.

Noah: Noah in the movie is portrayed as a deeply flawed prophet. We see him battle and kill to protect his family and the ark. We see him struggle with the likelihood of humanity's extinction. He does not intercede for humanity as Abraham did for Sodom and Gomorrah or Moses did for the Israelites. On the ark there is deep estrangement from him and the rest of his family that continues after the ark reaches dry ground. He gets drunk at the end of the movie, which is recorded in scripture. The Jewish teaching tradition regarding Noah is a lot more complex than the Christian tradition. Noah's status as a prophet is not held in as high esteem as some other prophets because he does fail to intercede before the flood comes. This Noah best fits into the biblical description of the Judges, most of whom were deeply flawed. Such a characterization makes for a more interesting movie, but Aronofsky's Noah goes too far to the point of madness.

Methuselah: Biblical scripture tells us little about Methuselah other than his age, his place in the descendents of Adam, and that his death occurred around the time of the flood. I like how the movie portrays him, especially his blessing of Ila. We know from Isaac as well as Israel's blessings at their deaths, that these blessings had power. Also notable, we see Methuselah's acceptance of God's will at the arrival of the flood.

The Tension Between Ham and Noah: This is both right, and wrong as well as needing interpretation In scripture, Ham is the youngest son of Noah. Obviously, in the movie he is the middle son.*  The bible highlights estrangement between the two at the end of the Noah story, without ever being clear as to what Ham did.  In the Bible but not the movie, Noah curses the descendents of Canaan, one of Ham's sons. The movie intersperses the tension from the building of the ark through the end of the story.

Details They Got Wrong

The Number of People on the Ark: Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. Scripture tells us that all three of Noah's sons had wives. Also there is no mention in scripture of a stowaway. Jewish tradition has the story of Og lashing himself to the outside of the ark, and Noah feeding him through an opening. But that story is very different from what is portrayed by Tubal-cain's extended presence aboard the ark.

Here is the creative purpose with Tubal-cain's presence. One of the traditional questions around the flood story is the survival of sin. For example, in the cycle plays of medieval England sin survives in the character of Noah's wife, who is boisterous, surly, rough and resists entering the ark. (In Christian tradition before the cycle plays, Noah's wife is meek and submissive, a pre-cursor to Mary¹.) While the movie acknowledges the sinfulness in all of humanity, including Noah, Tubal-cain is the embodiment of sin and wickedness. Just as in how Methuselah's final blessing brings life to Ila, Tubal-cain's dying words to Ham that “to kill is to become a man” (paraphrased) sets in motion the reality of sin even after the flood.

The Madness of Noah Against His First Grandchildren: The last 20 minutes is the major flaw of the movie when Noah madly plots the deaths of his first grandchildren. This is not just unnecessary, it is problematic. In all of scripture, when a barren woman conceives a child it is seen clearly as a gift of God and a miracle worthy of praise. That Noah fails to recognize this as a sign to “be fruitful and multiply” works against the scriptures. Also, that Noah thinks this command to kill the grandchildren comes from God creates doubt about the mercy and grace of the Creator. God is relatively silent throughout all the movie, working through Noah's dreams and visions, Methuselah's wisdom, and the Watchers' presence. This leaves the viewer, especially one with limited scriptural background, uncertain whether or not God is at work here.

I know this is on the long side. I hope it helps those of you who go to see the movie. I have some other thoughts that I will save for the next posting.

Welcome Spring.

Rob McCarty

Christ Lutheran, Staunton, VA

January 27, 2014

1Cawley, A.C. “Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays.” 1993. p 33.

* Correction:  Genesis 9:24 suggests that Ham is Noah's youngest son.  However, whenever the three sons are listed together, Ham is always mentioned in the middle.  Scholarly consensus seems to be that Ham is the middle child.  I am still searching for an explanation of why 9:24 translates youngest.