A Holy Place, A Holy People, A Holy God

July 22, 2012 Eighth Sunday after Pentecost 2 Samuel 7:1-14 Mark 6:30-34; 53-56 A Holy Place, a Holy People, a Holy God Year B There is something going on in the world I know that I have said this before, but with the events within the last days, I feel that I need to say it again. There is something going on in the world today. There is a very strange spirit at work in the world. It just seems that people are anxious and doing some strange things out of desperation. I have just never seen so many people doing so many things that don’t make no sense. Thing that seem to have no regard for a sense of humanity in others. It seems that they are in pain, so they just don’t care what they do to others, or how others are affected by their actions. We are definitely a world at war on a lot of different fronts. People only care about what they care about. And as long as they win, they don’t care who has to lose, or what they have to lose, even if it is their own life. You know there was a time a few years ago, when I would have thought that we were living in peace times, where everything was going fairly well, people were fairly happy, situations were fairly manageable, but that was a long time ago. And this is just not peace time. King David at rest This is nothing like King David must have been experiencing in the Hebrew bible lesson for today. Scripture says that this was a time of rest and stability for David. He was settled in his house, he was not being attacked by his enemies, and it seemed that this kingdom was well taken care of. Now David had been a warrior most of his adult life. He spent most of his life at war. As a matter of fact, back on those days, people worshipped God because they believed that God was what made them conquer all of their enemies. Yahweh was believed to be the God of victory in war. The Israelites believed that if we united together under one God, then no one could defeat us. David was a war hero, he knew battle very well. As a matter of fact, the word rest means someone who is able to take a break from all of their hard work. David was someone who had been at war, and now he was finally able in his life to take a break. You can only rest from hard work. Someone who takes a rest from rest is just plain lazy. David was settled down in his life, so he sent a message to God that it was time for God to do the same. To take a rest from the war. Scripture says that David told his plans to the prophet Nathan, who told talked with God. God has to remind David, that he was not the God of rest, but the God of work. He had always been on the move with his people, and that if his people were on the battlefield of life, then God needed to be present among them. Rest for God was not in a place. Isaiah 66:1 says – heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where then is a house that you can build for me, where is a place that I can rest. God is always working As long as there are people in need, God’s work is never done. There is no rest of God. And yet we live in a notion that the church is the place that we come to meet God, and that we should be able to come here and find rest. God is not a God of rest. And there is no rest in the church. There is always work to be done. Mother goes to jail to rest There was a family, two parents and five children. The husband did not work, and the mother had to do everything to support her young family. The husband did not work, but he still drove the car. He managed to accumulate over $5000 in parking tickets. He didn’t car, the car was not in his name, but his wife’s. So the city came after her for the money to pay the tickets. She told them she did not create the tickets, and that she just didn’t have the money to pay. The city told her that they would have to put her in jail for three months to settle her debt. The city thought that would make her pay, but the wife was happy. She said that as long as she had a bed, three meals a day and she did not have to deal with her family, jail would be a nice vacation. A time for her to get some rest. My point is, jail might be a place of rest, the church, not so much. The world is not at peace, and the church cannot afford to be at peace either. When we get settled, and restful, then we die. And we are not living the presence of God, who is always moving and working. We don’t get to rest in church, we rest in Jesus The good news of a God of no rest, is that we worship a God who always keeps his promises. When David wanted to build a house for the Lord, he told David that it was the other way around. He would build a house for him. He promised that there would always be a son of David on the throne. God fulfilled his promise by keeping a son of David on the throne for 400 years. He surpassed his promise when he bought Jesus Christ into the world. Jesus is known as the son of David. And he reigns on the throne forever. The disciples and Jesus look for rest Interestingly enough, the gospel lesson is also about rest. It seems that once people realized that Jesus was the messiah, they flocked to him constantly. Need never stopped. Not only did the need wear out Jesus, but it wore out the disciples. Jesus realized that he needed to take them all to what scripture calls a deserted place, a lonely place, a place to rest and get away from the crowds. And yet the crowd still followed him. It didn’t take Jesus long to realize that rest is not a place on earth as long as there are people in need. Jesus had compassion on them, as sheep without a shepherd. Feeding of 5000 We don’t hear the story of the feeding of the 5000 in Mark, but we will hear it next week in John. That was the most important story of Christ mission in the bible. But I want to point out that in the Mark version of the story, Jesus tells the disciples to give what they have to feed the people. And the disciples respond that they don’t have enough to help others. Jesus tells them to use that they have and the Holy Spirit will do the rest. This is the one time in the gospel where the 12 followers are called apostles and not disciples. They went from following the son of David, to doing his will. They were being Christ for the world. Christ calls the church to do the same. We have a chance to be called apostles, those who witness to the true good news of Jesus Christ. We have to realize that rest is in Jesus Christ, not in a seat in the world. Jesus has compassion on the people, and we have to do the same. We are called to show compassion to those in need That is what the world so lacks today – is the ability to have compassion on others. To genuinely care how others are being affected by our actions. And for us to realize, that just because the world is cruel, if we love Jesus, we don’t have to be cruel with the world. Zachary restored Wednesday, at the food pantry, I met a veteran named Zachary. As we talked, he said that it was not really food that he needed, but that he was in emotional pain because of a lot of things. He had just moved to Englewood. I invited him to church and he said, he did not know. He found that people were really cruel and heartless in this neighborhood. They seemed to like to beat up older men. He didn’t like to come out. We talked and we prayed. And as he left, he held the door open for a group of women. If I had not shown kindness to him, he would not have shown kindness to them. At that moment, whether Zachary comes to church or not, I felt that he was on the road the healing, wholeness and salvation. That was all Jesus was trying to do – not so much to give us rest, but to give us restoration. Salvation, and wholeness. He wanted to most give the ability to be human, in a very inhumane world. We are the ones to show compassion, when no one else is willing to. If we are to be more than disciples, but apostles, we have to realize that there is not rest here in the walls of this church. Our rest is in Christ Jesus. This is not the box that contains the fullness of God. And no matter how hard you try- you cannot keep God contained. God is always bigger than anything that w can imagine. Lady with dream of becoming a missionary There was a lady who had a dream of one day becoming a missionary and moving far away from home. Just as she was ready to graduate from college and step out on her own, her sister and brother in law were involved in an accident. The left 4 small children, with no one to take care of them. She had compassion on the children and raised them. By the time the children were grown and out of the house, she was too told to be a missionary. It seemed that she never got to fulfill her dream. God must have denied her dream. It turned out that all 4 of her nieces and nephews became missionaries themselves. They had been raised in a Christian household, where they clearly understood what it meant to serve God. It turns out that the woman had been a missionary after all. So there were 5 missionaries produced in that household. You might have plans of what you want to do for God, but God has bigger plans of what he wants to do for you and your household. What healing, wholeness and salvation looks like in your life is up to God, not you. Find your rest, not in the anything in the world – but in the eternal son of David – Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

Jesus Cures it All

Year B 2 Samuel 1:1,17-27 Mark 5:21-43 “Jesus Cures it All” Fifth Sunday after Pentecost Our clothes are important Every morning all humans do the same thing. We get up, take a shower, brush our teeth, and then decide what we are going to wear. Generally in western culture it remains true that “Clothes make the man,” or in the name of a popular website, “Clothes make the girl.” Got a teenager? Then you know what I’m talking about. Then you know oh-so-purse-painfully how important it is to have the “right look.” To wear the “right duds” so you can be the “right dudes.” Even if you are not a “fashionista,” it is almost impossible not to be influenced by what the current culture says is “cool” (or “hot”). Who doesn’t want to “look good” and so “feel good” about themselves? Every week the tabloids are filled with planted or paparazzi celebrity photos — either looking their best or revealing their worst. But whatever shape they are in, what those celebrities are sporting influences the fashion choices of thousands. Designers count on it. In fact they literally “bank” on it. If someone fabulous and famous wears something, it will sell. The “knock ‘em dead” designs on red carpet runways are immediately copied into much cheaper “knock-offs” so that those with a bit of disposable income can outfit themselves like royalty. Even countries without “royal families” have their “royalty.” But while all of us — whether teenager or ladder climbing corporate bureaucrat — think that our clothes lend use power and prestige. People believed that clothes were an extension of who you are It was the same in Jesus day. It was believed that your clothes were an extension of who you were. It was believed that your clothes contained the essence of who you were. If you were a holy man or woman, then your clothes were holy also. If I can just touch the hem of his garment Perhaps that is why the woman felt that if I can just touch the hem of his garment, then everything will be okay for me. The holiness that he has inside will rub off on me. Jewish mean wore tassels of faith Not just Jesus, but all jewish men were expected to wear a tassel on each corner of their outer garment. That represented their faith in God. I had a woman make a robe for me, I cant wear the robe anymore, but she explained that the tassel represented spiritual power, and that the spirit had told her that I needed a tassel on my robe. The woman felt that if she could just touch the tassel, then everything would be okay. This woman had been suffering for a long time That woman is like a lot of us- she went through 12 year of suffering in silence. 12 years of dealing with life, even though no one really knew what was going on inside of her. Whenever she heard of a cure – she didn’t discuss it with others, but she tried it. The literature of the day gives 10 different cures for her problem, such as carrying the ashes of an ostrich egg in a rag. Nothing seemed to work. Scripture says that even back then, she went to the doctor, doctor after doctor. They took her money, but could do nothing to help her. I heard someone say the other day that God is the only doctor that will not send you a bill. She had heard that maybe this man Jesus could help her with her problem. She has tried everything else, she might as well try him. The messiah can take care of our deep need The lesson that Mark is teaching us in these miracle stories, is that Jesus is not ordinary man of faith. He has power that the others don’t have. He has access to God, he is the messiah. Last week as Jesus calmed the storm, the question was who is this that the wind and the waves obey. Today the question is who is this that can take care of my deepest need, my most taxing problem? This woman’s problem was so deep, that she couldn’t even talk about it in public. Yet Jesus was able to take care of it. Because Jesus has the power to reach to heaven and bring that peace to earth. The power of faith to overcome a 3% chance There was a man who woke up in the hospital after a horrible accident. The doctor told him that he had a 3% chance of ever walking again. I will take it said the man, God has worked against greater odds. He asked if he would be able to play the violin. The doctor told him the if he would walk out of the hospital, then he could play the violin. The man said he never played the violin, but if God could make him walk, then we would play. That man is walking well, and living happily ever after. All because he believed in the power of God. Jesus has the power to make the power of God real in our lives. Some say that you have to see it to believe it. When you have faith in God you have to believe it in order to see it. Our power comes from something bigger than anything in this world. Jesus gives her more than she expects This woman went through 12 years of pain, 12 years of being locked in a personal prison. Because of her problem, she was not allowed to be around people, she was to live in isolation. She was smiling on the outside, but on the inside she was suffering. She just wanted to get better. She didn’t want anything else from Jesus, she didn’t expect anything else. As a matter of fact, she was planning on walking away as soon as she touched him. She got what she wanted, now she needed to go on with her life. We are all just the same. We hang around Jesus, we pray, we have faith, we are waiting for a change. But if that change were to come tomorrow, would we still be faithful? 12 years this woman was waiting for a cure, If everything in life was given to us as we wanted it, would we even bother to pray? Jesus taught the woman that touching is a 2way street. We can touch, but we also have to be prepared to be touched. We can be transformed, but we are transformed in order to transform. Compassion is Jesus showed her compassion. Compassion literally means coming with passion. Compassion means to suffer along side of someone. When you show pity- you can remain at a distance. When you show sympathy it means that you are somehow better than the person. Charity is what the rich do for the poor. Compassion means to genuinely care for someone. Jesus genuinely cared for this woman. She got more than she bargained for – she was expecting to get her healing and to just walk away. If Jesus was an ordinary faithful man – he could have just observed what she was doing and let her walk away. But Jesus wants her to know who healed her, and how deep her healing really was. He wanted her to know that God had truly healed her. He stopped, looked her in the eye, introduced himself, and told her that she does not get to just walk away and go on with her life. She had been touched by the soul of God. Have you had the deep personal moment when God has touched your soul and said it is not okay to just walk away. I feel your pain, I have made you whole, walk with me. 12 connection to Jairus’ daughter 12 years this woman has been suffering. 12 years a little girl had been growing and living, and now she lay close to death. This is a story within a story. Because as Jesus is healing this woman, he has been asked to come and heal this little girl. 12 years old and near death. Once the woman is healed, they tell him that it is too late. She is dead. We give up so easily, when God never does. In order to be resurrected, we have to experience death. I am not hugging you to death, hugging youto life A business executive became depressed. Things were not going well at work, and he was bringing his problems home with him every night. Every evening he would eat his dinner in silence, shutting out his wife and five-year-old daughter. Then he would go into the den and read the paper using the newspaper to wall his family out of his life. After several nights of this, one evening his daughter took her little hand and pushed the newspaper down. She then jumped into her father’s lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him strongly. The father said abruptly, “Honey, you are hugging me to death!” “No, Daddy,” the little girl said, “I’m hugging you to life!” about human nature that makes us put off the most important things until a crisis Then, one day it is too late, we have waited too long. We are like the Rabbi who did not run to Jesus until his daughter was “at the point of death .” Take a moment to examine your life today. What is at the “eschatos” — the point of death — in your life right now? What part of your spiritual or relational life is barely breathing? Find ways to make those areas (family, friendships and faith) a higher priority than career and income. Do something different this week. Before scheduling anything else, book time with God, schedule an appointment with those in your own family. Then, after prioritizing God and your family, then set up the rest of the week. Where are the dead spots in our life? The good news is that it is in those dead spots that God will show up. There are some things in our life that are dead for a reason, and some that are dead for a season. Some of those places are where God will show up in touch us in an unexpected way. Jesus was not ordinary man of faith, God’s love for us is no ordinary love. When you are touched by God, you can walk again. Compassion brings new life. Talitha cumi – it is time for us to arise When Jesus bought Jairus’ daughter back to life he said – Talitha Cumi – little lambkin, get up and arise. What is Jesus calling you out of , and telling you it is time to come to live and move one. The last words that Jesus said to the woman with a deep personal problem – go in peace and take good care of yourself, your faith has made you whole. Jesus is calling… do you believe in his words? Let us pray….