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Sermons at Saint Mary's

The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
July 5, 2009
Mark 6:1-13
The Rev. Dr. Kris Lewis

Almighty God, the breeze of your love and grace is ever blowing; may we set our sails to capture that breeze, and may it inspire these words and those who hear them. Amen

One of the great stories of my childhood is the story of Peter Pan, the boy who would never grow up, and the cast of characters who inhabited his world: the Lost Boys, Wendy Darling who came to Neverland to be a mother of sorts for Peter, the nefarious Captain Hook and his pirates, and of course, Tinkerbell, the fairy.

In the Disneyfication of our culture Tinkerbell has taken on a life of her own, but I still remember the original Tink, the mischievous fairy who cavorted with Peter in Neverland, sometimes playing pranks, sometimes jealous of Wendy, but more often showing concern for Peter and his friends, and trying to be helpful.

Tinkerbell, like all fairies is a magical creature, but she is not indestructible, and in one pivotal scene, the light that indicates her presence is about to go out because no one believes she’s real. It is only when the children clap their hands to show that they believe in Tink that she is restored, her light shining brightly once more.

This scene from Peter Pan came to mind as I read this week’s gospel in which Jesus seems to find himself in a similar situation. Our story picks up when Jesus returns home after spending some time traveling through the countryside, casting out demons, healing the sick, calming the stormy sea and even bringing Jairus’ daughter back from death’s door. While he is there Jesus goes into the synagogue, and as he had done throughout his travels, begins to teach. But instead of being lauded as the local boy who’s made good, he’s met instead with a certain amount of skepticism, and even derision, and the crowd seems to ask, “Just who does he think he is?” Jesus is stunned by their disbelief, by their lack of faith, and we’re told that he could do no deed of power there.

He could do no deed of power there. We tend to gloss over that line in the gospel—we don’t like to think of Jesus’ power being limited—but in fact, very much like Tinkerbell in the story of Peter Pan, when Jesus finds himself surrounded by unbelief, by a lack of faith, he also finds his power limited.
Faith is a key element, perhaps the key element in Mark’s gospel. From the earliest days of his ministry, there is an interplay, a back and forth between Jesus’ acts of power—his exorcism of demons and his healings—and the faith of the crowds who flock around him. We heard this in last week’s gospel when the hemorrhaging woman came in faith to Jesus just to touch his garment and was healed, when Jairus’ daughter was returned to life after Jairus came in faith, seeking help, and we hear it in other stories sprinkled through Mark’s gospel. But now, when Jesus is surrounded by those who lack faith, who are full of unbelief, he finds his powers diminished, and this happens again as he approaches Jerusalem and comes under increasing skepticism and attack from the authorities.

How can we understand this relationship between faith and power? Most of us have heard God described as omnipotent—all-powerful—that’s why this passage in today’s gospel can seem so troubling—but what we don’t often consider is how that power is enacted in the world and in our lives. We can easily slip into conceiving of God as the master puppeteer, pulling all our strings, coercing us to make things turn out a certain way, and punishing us when we fail to respond properly to a tug on our strings.

But there is another way to think of God’s power—as persuasive rather than coercive. If God’s power is persuasive, it means that humanity plays a role in the outcome. God provides for humanity infinite possibilities and God beckons and lures us with God’s love and mercy and compassion towards those choices that would bring us closer to God, and that would enact God’s kingdom in the world—but ultimately the choices are ours to make. Imperfect as we are, we sometimes choose poorly but no situation is unredeemable because God continues to present us with more possibilities, and to beckon us to take the path that will return us to God.

Not only does God provide us with possibilities, but God also provides us with tools we need to take advantage of those possibilities. God equips us for ministry, to do the work God calls us to do on our life’s journey. But just as we sometimes make poor choices, we also sometimes overlook the tools God provides for us.

There’s an old story told about a man who was stranded on the roof of his house after a flood. The man prayed fervently for God to deliver him. After he’d been there a little while someone came swimming by, holding onto a log and offered to take the man with him, but he refused, knowing that God would not leave him stranded. Soon another person came by in a rowboat and offered to take him along, but the man again declined, preferring to wait for God to rescue him. A little while later a helicopter came by and hovering over him sent down a ladder to rescue him, but the man demurred, still waiting for God to save him. Finally the floodwaters overtook him, and he drowned. As he met St. Peter at the gates to heaven he was distraught. “I prayed and prayed for God to save me,” he cried, “but nothing happened.” St. Peter looked at him and just shook his head. “God sent the swimmer on the log, and you said no. And then he sent the rowboat, and you said no again. And then he sent the helicopter and you still refused. So this was all that was left.”

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If our God is a God who is persuasive, who offers us infinite possibilities, a God who provides us with all that we need and who lures us and beckons us ever closer without being coercive, then ultimately God’s power is relational. When we enter into relationship with God, when we have faith in God’s goodness and power then God’s power is more fully enacted in our lives. And when God’s power seems absent from our lives, from the world, perhaps it is because we, lacking in faith, fail to see it, fail to recognize the possibilities, fail to live into what is offered.

Maintaining that kind of constant faith might feel like a daunting task, but God gives us one more tool to help us out: life in community. We come together as a community of faith in relation with God, and as a community we hold each other up as individuals. When my faith falters, as it will inevitably, I can count on the faith of my community to hold me still in relation to God, to help me not cut myself off from all that God offers, and when your faith falters, each of you can do the same.

When Tinkerbell’s light wavered and threatened to go out, the children gathered and clapped their hands to show they believed, and she was restored. So it is with our faith and God’s power. As long as there is someone there to say, “I believe, I have faith,” God’s power will have a conduit into the world, and into our lives, and we will never be alone.

In God all things are possible. Together in faith we can live into those possibilities.

Amen

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