Sermon by Reverend Dr. John W. Mann | July 14, 2024

Mark 6:14-29

The reading from Mark’s portrait of Jesus is one that many preachers will avoid. There are more pleasant topics than someone getting their head chopped off – one of God’s prophets, no less. It’s difficult to come up with a spin on this story other than perhaps to say, “That wasn’t a very nice thing to do.”

The daily news of our day is filled with stories about which the same can be said 

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That was unjust; that was unfair; that was cruel; that was an abuse of power; that wasn’t a very nice thing to do. We wonder why? Why do the innocent suffer? Why do some people seem to have more than their fair share of suffering? Why doesn’t God do something about it? What does it mean to believe in a God who intervenes in human affairs? Does God even care?

One writer of Scripture said on the subject, “I saw that under the sun the race is not the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all. For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. Like fish taken in a cruel net, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them.”

Is time and chance our only hope?

What about the idea of a loving Heavenly Father who wants the best for his children?

What about the loving Shepherd who gathers the lambs into the fold?

There never has been a time in history when people haven’t been at each other’s throats, fighting wars, wielding power and trying to destroy one another. During this activity God is often invoked to justify the violence. As if to say if God is on my side, I can do what I want.

Some people say that when bad things happen then there must be a reason; that it must be God’s will; that God has a plan for your suffering. If someone tries to tell you that your troubles are a message from God, you are likely to find that’s not very helpful. Who wants to believe in a God who makes life painful in order to teach us a lesson?

Years ago I visited an elderly couple who were members of St. James’. Their names were Donald and Nettie. They were well into their 80’s when their daughter Margaret was murdered. It was a heart-breaking situation.

At first it seemed as if she had simply gone missing. But like pieces of the puzzle falling into place, a picture began to emerge. Margaret’s husband was arrested for her murder and put on trial. Her body was never found, and her husband was convicted of her murder and sentenced to twelve years. He was released after six years and has since remarried and relocated to England.

Nettie was broken by her daughter’s murder. Time after time she would cry in anguish and ask, “Why did this have to happen? What did I ever do to deserve this?!” Donald was also deeply hurt by the whole situation. He had been through some tough times before in his lifetime. In 1957 he had been working in the Govan shipyards as a welder when the Royal Navy Cruiser HMS Blake exploded. He suffered massive burns and spent weeks in the hospital.

It was reported that when a relative came to see him in the hospital he said, “How do you like my new haircut? It’s called the ‘Pineapple’ because it keeps coming out in chunks.”

That was him – It wasn’t that he laughed things off or tried to make a joke inappropriately; rather he had that winsomeness of character that allowed him to view life from a position of strength. His sense of wit was a gift; a gift that opened a window on a different way of seeing life.

Mel Brooks said that “humor is the best defense against the universe.” Sometimes it is the people who’ve looked into the abyss who teach us about life’s true direction; not despair, but hope. And because of hope, the ability to stand up to adversity. 

So one day I was sitting with Donald and Nettie and she was asking, “What did I ever do to deserve this?” when Donald said, “I don’t know dear – it must have been something – maybe if you think hard enough it will come to you.”

He wasn’t trying to be funny, but that stopped her. No one deserves this. No one did anything to make it happen. There’s no cosmic score card being kept so that life always turns out fair. Some people get their fair share of good or ill. Some people get more and some people get less.

We want there to be a reason, but there is no reason.  One of the basic lessons of life that we learn along the journey is that Life Is Not Fair. The problem we have with this lesson is that we think life should be fair. Not only is life not always fair it is often unjust. We could spend all day on illustrations of injustice, but that’s not why we are here.

The ancient Greeks figured this out a long time ago and they explained it as the gods playing games with mortals. Life can seem like a game sometimes because with one unlucky roll of the cosmic dice you lose. You play by the rules but still you lose. And you see people who lie, cheat and steal and they win. It’s not fair.

An age-old question is: What are you going to do? Then again what can you do? Are there any actions you can take that will make life as fair as you think it should be? We try in various ways with various degrees of success.

Perhaps another way to address the problem is to ask different questions: In light of this, who will you be? What are the values that help to create your identity? What are the core values that guide your actions?

When we look at Scripture we see that it is mostly about forming an identity. There are underlying questions upon which the stories and teachings of the bible are based – what kind of person will you be? What kind of society will you be? What kind of nation will you be?

In his book A Soul Under Siege Welton Gaddy shares his experience with a devastating depression.

“Only in hurting do many of us, if not all of us, find out what life is really like. To be oblivious to the essential nature and meaning of life is tragic; to be unfamiliar with the disappointed hopes and unrealized dreams, insensitive to physical aches and pains, without appreciation for the powerful truths that can emerge from dark nights of the soul.

Only in hurting do some of us discover that we are finite creatures, not competitors with our infinite Creator; responsible persons capable of failure, not mechanical robots programmed only for success; sinners with the capacity for evil, not perfectionists with possibilities only for good; confessors constantly in need of forgiveness, not judges impatient with guilt; seekers looking for redemption, not self—appointed messiahs working out our own salvation.”

Years ago I came across a benediction that has become my “raison d’être.” That’s a French term that means, “Reason for being.” 

“And no go forth to live your hopes and not your fears, knowing you are held in holy hands by a love that will never let you go. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

The idea behind that benediction comes from the book of Romans. Paul defines the struggle. The struggle between doubt and faith, fear and hope. He asks, “What then shall we say to these things?” How do we respond to the bumps in the road of life, or even when the road gets washed away?

The critical question raised is can anything separate us from the love of God?

Part of what my work entails is being with people in their tough times, crisis times, times when they are so weighed down that they can’t move – in crisis. The most common event that provokes this feeling of crisis is death. The death of someone you love or facing up to the prospect of your own death.

There is nothing to be done about it – meaning, once death happens there is no going back. In those times we are naturally faced with questions about the meaning of life.

Sometimes when faced with the cruelty of death and the arbitrary nature of it, people will say, “I don’t believe in God.”

The best that I can answer is, “I hear you and I understand.”

I believe God is love. If you love, then that’s a step in the right direction. If somebody loves you, then that’s another step in the right direction. And when we start to think about all the ways that we give and receive love in our lives, then we can find empowerment in times of pain. 

I would never try to convince someone to believe a certain way. I would simply share something. To share the love of God. To share the message that Jesus shared, “You are God’s children. God loves you. God is pleased with you.” Not the blame and shame and unlimited ticket to guilt that so much of Christianity has been twisted into. Simply to share the love of God.

I can’t say why – I can only say if we carry the burden of our pain and fear, that when we give and receive love, we can find the strength to carry hope; hope that will lighten the load. And as we embrace hope we discover that not only do we carry it, but we are carried by it, through the loving hands of God who will never let us go. Amen.