A Sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. Patricia Gillespie
Job 38:1-11,16-18
Psalm 107:1-32
2 Corinthians 5:14-21
Mark 4:35--5:20
Change is very scary.
Alicia was frightened. She'd lived all her life in the big old house by the ocean, the one her grandfather built... And then the storm came. The hurricane and the waves washed away the foundation, and the house that four generations had called home was destroyed. What next? Restore? Rebuild? Move?
Alicia was frightened, but at the same time she experienced a sense of freedom. No longer would the demands of the old house devastate the family budget. Some of the painful memories of her grandfather's rigid control of the family and of Alicia's own life began to fade. Suddenly a whole new life seemed possible.
But even the good changes are very scary It makes one wonder if the words in today's second reading are really "good news"
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God .
Consider this "everything old has passed away and everything has become new" in a more familiar context: This church. Many of us remember the intensity of the mix of emotions that come with change. We had a "new" prayer book. We moved the altar. And now this total ministry stuff, where a bunch of regular Christians think they can be our priest.
The ship of the church seems to have more than it's share of storms. And once again, like in today's gospel, Jesus's followers wonder if God is sleeping through all our struggles.
It's scary to feel we're facing the storm alone. We come to church to be comforted, and instead, if we listen carefully, we hear these scary bible stories about change. It's not only that second reading today that talks about change.
Job's life changes completely. Job loses almost everything when God and Satan make a bet to test Job's faith. And God's response to Job's complaint is an overwhelming review of God's awesome power in the creation of the world. That's rather scary too.
Then there's the storm in the gospel reading. Like Alicia, I grew up on the ocean. So like the fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, I know the terror of a sudden storm. It can be a life or death thing, even on a rather small lake in Galilee. Yet the story doesn't say the disciples were frightened of the storm. It is AFTER Jesus calms the storm that the fear is mentioned, when Jesus asks, not "Why were you afraid? " but "Why ARE you afraid?" If a friend of yours suddenly stopped the wind and the sea with a word, would you not be astonished and even afraid of that awesome power?
And the change doesn't stop there. That crazy brawny guy in the graveyard is suddenly calm and reasonable. That change is almost scarier than the demons were. It's so scary that the people want Jesus to leave.
These stories about change are also about a kind of possession. It's not just demons that possess people's lives. Alicia's powerful and gifted grandfather possessed and controlled the lives of his family. The Apostle Paul's life had been possessed by the Law until Jesus freed him with a new understanding of God. And the past itself can possess us as powerfully as a demon.
Maybe you haven't experienced being possessed by a legion of demons. But most of us have experienced "possession" by some outside power or other. A controlling family member, like Alicia's grandfather. An addiction to alcohol or some other substance that controls our life. An obsession with work or with an idea or with money or success. Something outside of us somehow gains control over our lives.
The characteristic of this kind of "possession" is control from one side and fear from the other -- specifically fear of change. Even if we don't like the controlling setup, we often hold on to it because the familiar feels secure and change is scary.
Today's bible readings are stories about risk and change. They are stories that confront the fear and control that is characteristic of possession.
Oddly enough, often it is in the middle of fear and possession that we most easily recognize God:
Jesus' friends, in their fear the storm and their fear and awe at Jesus' command of the wind and sea, are beginning to suspect the frightening truth: Their friend Jesus is something more than a teacher and healer. They ask that frightening question: "Who IS this -- That even the wind and the sea obey him?" But it is the man possessed by unclean spirits who is able to answer their question: Immediately he addresses Jesus as "Son of the Most High God."
It is a scary moment -- to recognize God's presence in our lives, even when we find God in the middle of the storms of our lives. We want to avoid it, because it nearly always means that things --probably everything--
will change. But just as Jesus asked his disciples then, Jesus asks us today to go to the ‘other side' -- to go somewhere new and foreign and scary, to risk change in our own lives, to be a new creation in Christ.
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God . . .
This kind of change is the gift of Life. Think about it. How do we recognize that something has life? Growth and change. Something that never changes is dead.
One sign that Jesus is alive -- a sign of the reality of the Resurrection -- is the continuing growth and change of his body, meaning the Body of Christ, that is the church. When we, the Church, stop changing and growing, we deny the Resurrection.
We are still called to follow Jesus; and, we know that "To follow Jesus you have to keep moving."
But when something possesses us it halts the life and growth that God desires for us.
Take a moment to consider: What possesses us as community? As a church? What holds us back from life, keeps us from changing and growing?
And what possesses you as in individual? What has such a firm hold on your life that it keeps you from growing and changing? Those things may feel comfortable and secure, like Alicia's old house, or Job's old life, or the fishermen's limited picture of their friend Jesus. But when they keep us from growing and living, it's time to beware of the storm of change that may be coming to free us for new life.
Perhaps it is time that we, like the man possessed by a legion of demons, name the spirits that hold us back from life. Perhaps it is time that we allow Jesus to cast them out.
Yes, Change is very scary.
But the Apostle Paul reminds us "the love of Christ urges us on." And we are not asked "to keep moving" and to face our fear alone.
In the midst of the storms of our lives and in the miraculous calm, in all the frightening changes and risks that are necessary to have LIFE, we have been given the answer to our fear:
Who IS this? Jesus, the Son of the Most High God.