This sermon was preached for Sunday, June 30, 2024 at St. Mark's, East Longmeadow. The texts for this sermon were: Psalm 130, 2 Corinthians 8:7-15, and Mark 5:21-43. It also references the previous Sunday's Gospel, Mark 4:35-41, well as the children's message book for this morning, The Three Questions written and illustrated by Jon J Muth, that is based on the Leo Tolstoy short story, The Three Questions.
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| Nikolai and Leo the Old Turtle from the children's book, The Three Questions written and illustrated by Jon J Muth, based on the Leo Tolstoy short story, The Three Questions. |
As many of you are aware, I was recently in the throes of an intense life decision. I reached out to one of my wisest priest friends from seminary, Father Phil Hooper, about what to do. In the middle of tying myself up in knots about all sorts of considerations and details, bombarding him with questions about this and that, he paused and texted back: “Can I give you my honest answer?”
Oh boy, you know it’s really coming to you when a friend texts you that. I had to wait again, watching those three little typing dots, knowing a giant block of text, giant block of truth was coming my way.
Here’s what he said: God doesn’t care.
Now, he didn’t mean God doesn’t care about me or my well-being. What he meant was that God doesn’t care about 90% of the stuff I was stressing about. And the thing was I knew immediately he was right - and that that’s good news. Really good news. That’s good news because it freed me to think about the 10% that really matters - to focus on what God cares about most and to let go of the rest. When it comes to similar discernments and agonizing decisions in his own life, Father Phil had this to say, “I’m trying to accept that God, in the best way possible, doesn’t give a you know what, as long as what I’m doing is contributing the love and care of whomever I’m entrusted with.” He reminded me that Jesus is continually inviting us into “a life that always chooses love for whatever, whoever comes into our path.”
Father Phil’s response reminded me of a classic Leo Tolstoy short story, The Three Questions. It begins with a king who realized that if he just knew three things: the right time to begin anything, the right people to listen to or discount, and the most important thing to do, then he would never fail at anything. So in the manner of great parables, the king advertised to his whole kingdom that he was looking for someone who could give him the right answers to the three questions.
Wisemen, scientists, advisors, generals, priests and scholars all came to the king with their answers. Their advice was smart and reasonable but it also conflicted and no answer applied in every case. Dissatisfied by their answers, the king seeks out a wise hermit. It is through generous and humble actions in service of the hermit and an enemy, that the king finally gets his answer: the most important time is now, the most important person is the one you are with, and the most important thing to do is to help the one in need.
When we turn to God for answers and advice, that’s the wisdom we will receive, again and again. It’s not a blueprint, not a strategic vision, or even a plan. It’s just the greatest commandment, said in many ways over and over. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love the one you are with, serve Christ in all persons, be the Good News the world so desperately needs. That’s what God cares most about.
Last week, the disciples woke Jesus up with the question, “Teacher, do you not care?” You may remember that the disciples had found themselves on a ship in the middle of a storm. Convinced the storm was about to sink them, they shook a napping Jesus awake. Their full question was: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
It’s important to note the disciples didn't wake Jesus up because they thought he could save them. We can tell by how completely astonished they were when he commanded the wind and waves . No, the disciples woke Jesus up because they wanted him, needed him, to join them in their panic and fear. Their urgency. Then they would know he cared.
But Jesus was not afraid. He even rebuked them for their fear. He did not share their sense of urgency. But he calmed the storm all the same.
In today's Gospel, Jesus is once again surrounded by people who are very frustrated that he doesn’t share their sense of urgency. A powerful leader in the community, Jairus, comes to Jesus because his daughter is on the very brink of death. But as he makes his way to the girl, Jesus allows himself to be interrupted. He halts in his tracks. He has noticed that someone has touched him and been healed.
Jesus takes the time to identify this woman, listen to her story, and lift her up as an example of faith to others. She is not the daughter of a powerful man - she is a desperate woman, impoverished by a chronic and shameful medical condition that has had her suffering, and outside the compassion and help of her community for twelve long years.
What's fascinating about the story is that the way it's told we are led to believe that this is a situation of either-or: either Jesus saves the suffering woman or the dying girl. The text even says that Jesus’ power went out of him when the woman touched Jesus. We wonder - maybe there isn't any healing power left for the daughter. Certainly the crowd believes that Jesus had arrived too late to save Jairus’s daughter. We could also be excused for asking ourselves, the woman waited twelve years, couldn’t she have waited just a little bit longer until Jesus arrives in time to save the young girl on the brink of death?
Jesus, of course, doesn’t have to choose - and he knows it. He can and does heal both of them. It’s just not on the timeline any of us would have, not the strategy that makes the most sense.
Jesus’ actions throughout the entirety of the Gospels make much more sense when you consider that Jesus is not afraid of death. What Jesus is moved by most is human suffering. What angers Jesus is injustice, hypocrisy, and broken relationships. What angers Jesus is neglect, apathy, and greed. In other words, sin. In response to brokenness, Jesus loves the one he is with, he heals the person right in front of him.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus delays and Lazarus dies. He is moved by the weeping of Lazarus's sisters to raise him again, as he knows Lazarus would be one day anyhow. In this Gospel, again in a situation of life or death against the clock, Jesus halts and ends the unjust suffering of a woman who has been in pain and shame far too long.
There are some people who will tell you that the Bible contains every answer you need. That scripture has clear rules and guidance for any life decision you make. But in my experience, the wisdom I receive from God’s holy word is much more likely to be a reminder of what’s actually most important, a re-grounding in the values that undergird my life: loving, healing, and serving the person who is right in front of me. I hope that when you come to church, you receive that grounding, too. That you hear this in all we say and do here: you are loved and God is with you in whatever decisions or choices you make.
Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Could it be good news that the answer is no? If you think about it from God’s view, we are all dying and we will all be raised. Death is not the end, not even the breaking of relationship. God cares that we are suffering, God cares when we are alone, hurt, afraid.
God’s urgency is not our urgency. And boy, is can be frustrating sometimes. God is not caught up in plans and anxiety and 90% of the things that stress us out. But that doesn't mean God doesn't care. God cares about the most important time, the most important person, and the most important thing to do.
And that is this, in the words of the children’s version of Tolstoy’s story:
“There is only one important time and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you were with and the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. For these, my dear child, are the answers to what is most important in this world. This is why we are here.”
Amen.
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