Sermon for June 28th, 2015

 The reading

Mark 5:21-43

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, "My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live." So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well." Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, 'Who touched me?'" He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.  He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader's house to say, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?" But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe."  He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.  When he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!" And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

The message

The Bible has 4 Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  These are the inspired narratives that tell the story of Jesus birth, life, work, death and resurrection. They were written based on experiences, eyewitness reports, written sources and oral traditions.  Each of the four were written a few years apart and for a different audience. Although, almost 2000 years later, there are still a lot of disagreements and debates over the time and authorship of these books,  it is clear that Mark was the first one written and the shortest.  The authors of Matthew and Luke had knowledge of and access to Mark’s Gospel when they wrote and collected their works.

Mark’s Gospel is not only short, it is also very quick.  In Greek, the words “Kia Euthos” meaning “and immediately” appear every few verses.  Mark was originally meant to be read in front of an audience in one sitting.  The Gospel’s propose was to convince the hearers that Jesus Christ was the messiah, sent to save us from sin and bring us to eternal life.  Throughout the book Jesus work is fast and often frantic; he is constantly racing from place to place, teaching, healing, correcting, praying and performing signs of power. ‘

This morning’s Gospel reading is a good example of this pace and urgency in Mark.  Jesus arrives in a new place, where he is greeted by a large crowd (even in a 1^st century world without computers or phones, news of Jesus power and wisdom spread quickly).  Jaruis somehow makes his way through the crowd, approaches Jesus and calls out “my daughter is sick, help”.  Jesus, seeing his distress and need, gos with him. They slowly walk through this loud crowd, where everyone is pushing, shoving and trying to get close to Jesus. Everyone is hopeful and desperate.  Hopeful for verification that this Jesus is from God and that he is the long expected Messiah who would bring change. Desperate for healing, relief and blessing.  In this chaos, one woman of great faith, sneaks up, touches Jesus and is healed. Jesus knows exactly what happened and stops to find out who touched him.  This was a teaching moment about the power of faith and no matter how busy, Jesus would not miss an opportunity to share the news of faith’s power to heal and change things.  (I’m sure Jarius and his party were annoyed at this, after all, his daughter was dying and now Jesus is stopping an already slow trip to talk to some poor sick woman).  During this conversation, a group from Jarius’ house comes to let him know the feared and tragic news, his daughter is dead, don’t bother Jesus to come (assuming there was nothing he could have done at that time, healing the sick was one thing but raising the dead was another).  Jesus dismisses the crowd (Im sure this was not an easy or fast task) and brings a few disciples to see Jarius’ daughter.  Jarius’ house is another scene of chaos.  He was a religious leader and helped many in the community, It was a time of great support, mourning and disappointment that Jesus could not get there sooner.  Once at the house, Jesus takes Jarius’ daughter by the hand and says “little girl, get up”.  Immediately, death leaves and the little girl is alive. 

All of this seems to occur over the course of a few minutes.  People are left overjoyed, curious, disappointed, shocked and unsure of what just happened.  When we face a text and reading like this, it is often difficult to pick out a part to talk about, there is just so much going on and so many directions you can go in. At its heart, it is a story that shows God’s power to interfere with the world and God’s commitment to those we often ignore or step over.  I am going to focus on an often overlooked part of the story. At the very end, Jesus tells the people in the house to give the little girl “something to eat”.  This is something that happens a few times in Jesus post Easter, post-resurrection experiences as well. This was not said and done because people who come back from the dead just happen to be really hungry. This is done to prove that the dead really are alive, to show the person is not a ghost, an illusion or a spirit.

   

I think something else is going on here as well. It is about our care for each other.  Give her something to eat is not just a one time thing, it is instructions to provide for this little girl long term, to help sustain her in this new life. In my experiences, there are many people in need or struggling that I just want to say “Hey, just get up”, “stop doing drugs”, “do your homework”. “get over it” or  “get a job” and then have everything be okay for them.  Of course things do not work that way, walking with people through struggles is often a time of taking steps backward and forward.  It is a relationship of forgiveness, encouragement and celebration.   Getting away from addiction, rebuilding life after tragedy, or overcoming the challenges of poverty are not solved with one time solutions.  We do not eat one time and then we are fed for life, Even after a trip to the all you can eat buffet, you will be hungry again in a few hours. With these words, give her something to eat, Jesus is inviting them to take over the care and support of this girl, to nurture her in her physical and spiritual needs.            

Jesus does not just offer the little girl and her family a miracle repair to death and then walk on to the next person in need.  Jesus knows that a good and faithful life involves more than one time fixes.  Jesus reminds them that they are in a relationship of love and care with God and with each other.  God does not just pop up when things are bad to get people through a crisis, God is with us all the time, mourning at times of loss, celebrating at times of joy, rejoicing with success, forgiving wrongs and calling us to do the same for each other.  

Sermon for June 21, 2015

Sermon for June 21, 2015

The Reading

Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side."  And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.  But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"  And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

The Message

Last Saturday, there was a fundraiser for the upcoming trip to the national youth gathering at Grace Lutheran Church in Forest Hills.  During the event, I had a chance to take a tour of the church and different spaces.  (I had been there many times but I never knew there was a second floor, with some meeting rooms and a space for Sunday school).  The Sunday School and youth area had a wooden model boat for the children to sit and play in. It was built and given to the church in loving memory of a young girl in the congregation who died from cancer a few years before.  I was talking to bob, who gave me the tour, and I mentioned how good I thought it was to have that boat in a room meant for teaching children about the bible.  Many of us do not have too much experience with life on the water and so many of Jesus stories involve fishing and the sea. It was great to have that boat for children to sit in and help them better visualize and understand the things that Jesus was talking about.  I could imagine all the different ways this boat could be used to talk about Jesus walking on water, fishing for people,  traveling around to tell everyone the good news of God’s love, or even today’s story on calming the storm.  

This morning, our Gospel reading is one of those many stories in Jesus ministry that involved the sea. In this case it was a storm that suddenly arose and frightened Jesus disciples.  I have not spent a lot of time on boats and never really experienced a storm at sea. Friends and relatives who have tell me it can be incredibly scary, confusing and disorienting.  Perhaps the worst part is that after a certain point there is not much you can do except ride it out and hope the boat holds up.  Even with all of today’s technology, GPS, communication systems and weather updates, there is often little you can do.     

Like the boat in the classroom can help children understand the events and stories of Jesus, we can look at the storms of life to help us understand how very important Jesus word’s “peace, be still” are for us.  The first time I heard someone talk about the storms of life was at the funeral service for Norman, a friend and mentor who first welcomed me to the Lutheran Church. Norman loved the water and spent most of life serving in the Navy, working on boats and fishing.  During the memorial service, the pastor read today’s gospel about Jesus calming the storm. After the reading, he talked about Norman’s friends and family being in the sadness and  storm of mourning but that Jesus was with us, offering comfort with the words, peace, be still.  Since then, this is a message that I have shared at several funeral services, especially at times of deep mourning and tragic events.     

For me, when I think of the storms of life, I often think of my father.  He passed away about 20 years ago when my brother and I were 15. Since then, Father’s Day has always been a little sad and awkward. I am never really quite sure what to do with the day and whatever I end up doing, always seems wrong. My dad’s life was a storm.  He had a very rough and abusive childhood (the details of which no one ever really talked to my brother and I about).   He also had a virtually life long struggle with Alcoholism, which is what lead to his sickness and early death. Even with us, he never really figured out where he belonged, how he fit in, who actually cared about him or who he could trust.  Between his experiences and addiction, life always seemed like a storm.  At the same time, my Dad did find some moments of peace and stillness.  In his case, it was keeping to the principle that he would not treat his children the way he was treated, that he would support his family, keep us safe and make sure we were raised better than he was.  This is a promise and commitment that he kept throughout all the storms of his life. Now, 20 years after his death, it’s the thing that we remember, honor and celebrate about him.

I dare say, everyone here has their own storm stories, probably not on the sea in the wind and rain but times when you faced things you could not handle, times when you were unprepared for a rush of events that you could not control, times when things seemed completely hopeless, times when stuff just did not make sense and times when all you could do is wonder “why me” or “why now”.  None of us always do the right thing, make the right decisions, get what we deserve or see things happen exactly the way we want them to.  The world offers us lots of ways to deal with these things, to avoid the realities that we cannot control everything and that bad things happen. The world offers us unhealthy things like drugs, alcohol, power, wealth, status, gambling, hatred of others, violence and abuse (since I am a pastor at church, I am not going to mention which ones I fall to sometimes).  There are also some good ones like community, nature, and caring relationships.   

This morning, our Gospel reading shows us God’s way for us to deal with the storms. Jesus reminds us that God is present with us. That is God’s promise in the midst of life’s storms.  God does not offer us coupons to get out of suffering free, tickets we can use to get second chances and undo mistakes or some magic power to escape the storms of life undamaged.  Instead, God promises to be with in the storms, to remind us that we are not really in danger, to say peace, be still.     

(Here I talked about the church shooting at Emmanuel AME in South Carolina, I tried to type up what I said) A few days ago, we saw a profound example of a community that knows God is with them in the storms of life.  I believe all of you have heard about the shooting at a church prayer service and bible study where 9 people were killed at Emmanuel AME.  This morning that community and churches all around the country are gathered in prayer for those who have died, those who mourn, those working for change and those who feel a little less safe at church this Sunday than they did last Sunday.   News headlines are already filled with words of forgiveness for the murderer and hope for a better world. In this storm of really unimaginable violence here in the United States, Jesus words “Peace, be still” are being declared.

Sermon for June 14, 2015

The readings

 

Ezekiel 17:22-24

Thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar; I will set it out. I will break off a tender one from the topmost of its young twigs; I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar. Under it every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind. All the trees of the field shall know that I am the LORD. I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the LORD have spoken; I will accomplish it.

2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17

So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord --for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.  And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

Mark 4:26-34

 He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come." He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

The message

This morning I am going to continue the Confirmation theme of talking about the scripture readings through the lens of who our God is and the importance of publically affirming or telling people about God. Our readings today show that our God is one who encourages growth, who sustains us, who can do the impossible, and walks with us through all things.  This message starts with the passage from the book of the prophet Ezekiel.  Now, the prophet Ezekiel is known for some of the strangest visions and images in the entire bible (were talking the sort of stuff people have looked at and said “it describes alien spaceships or visitors from other planets”).  This morning we have a surprisingly normal vision from Ezekiel drawn from a familiar experience in the natural world. We hear of a vision and promise that God will break off a tiny young twig from the top of a great cedar, replant it on a great mountain and watch / nurture it as it grows into a great tree.  

This is something my grandmother would do every year.  She would break off stems of her plants along with a little root and spread them out in the garden. Over the next few months, each stem would grow into a full, new plant.  I still remember walking in a cemetery with my grandmother years ago. We were there to leave flowers at a relative’s grave. As we left, she saw a plant growing and pulled out a few little pieces.  She told me that this small handful of plant, dirt and root would cover the whole side of her house in a few years.  Sure enough, she was right. Those few stems kept growing and multiplying. A few years later, the entire 40 or 50 foot stretch of garden on the side of her house were covered with this plant. Neighbors would often come by and do the same thing my grandmother did in the cemetery a few years before, pull up a few pieces to plant in their own gardens. After my Grandmother died, my family and I were sure to take pieces of that plant and replant them. They continue to grow today.  This is how God works in the world. God’s love has an incredible power to change things, to grow, to spread out and reach all places, to start in us as a small and curious thing, only to grow and take over our lives and the lives of those around us. It is a love that takes over all the space occupied by fear, worry, anger or hatred.  

A few hundred years after the prophet Ezekiel reported this vision of great new life coming from a seemingly insignificant stem, Jesus says the same exact thing to the world. With Jesus, it is not a cedar twig, it is the Mustard seed. This seed is tiny and you would not think it was capable of doing anything.  It was the smallest seed known to Jesus’ world at the time.  This seed surprises everyone by growing into a large shrub from 5 to 15 feet high. It was not the largest tree (Palm trees in the area would tower over the mustard tree) but it was enough to provide shelter and nesting areas for birds. This tree is actually not the source of the condiment mustard that we put on hot dogs and stuff but it does have edible leaves. Today we might talk about microchips in the same way, extremely tiny pieces of metal and almost undetectable electrical pulses that are capable of storing more information than entire libraries and able to do incredibly complicated and amazing things through controlling all different kinds of machines. Again, we see the power of God’s love to surprise and impact the world.  

Ezekiel’s great cedar and Jesus’ mustard seed are not just fun, neat or surprising things we observe in the world.  Ezekiel’s cedar reminds us that God is all powerful, that God can interfere with the world, to bring life where there is death and help where there is no hope. To use Paul’s language, God can make all things new.  Jesus Mustard seed is a story of growth, of keeping faithful, of trusting God’s promises, of not feeling like we are powerless against change and not thinking we are alone in doing God’s work.     

A few years ago, someone shared a joke with me, that was more revealing of how we often think than it was funny.  There was a farmer who bought a piece of terrible land.  The property was covered in awful soil, rocks, and all kinds of garbage.  The farmer worked many long hours, day after day, clearing the space, caring for the soil, and removing the rocks. Soon, things began to grow there and after a while, all of the work paid off, good yielding crops were ready to harvest.  While he was harvesting the field, the local priest happens to walk by and sees the way that this field have been transformed, going from a good for nothing dump to a thriving farm.  The priest notes “what an amazing thing you and the Lord have done here”, to which the farmer replies, well it wasn’t much when it was just the Lord working here by himself”.

At the heart of this joke is a celebration of what we are capable of and that basic human need for recognition. Many of us were raised on the principles that hard work pays off and that doing the right thing will be rewarded.  We have something to prove.  The point of Jesus story of the mustard seed is a reminder that we cannot do everything alone.  Most importantly, we cannot save ourselves, we cannot earn the comfort that God gives us. When it comes to matters of salvation, the forgiveness of sins and obedience to God’s law, we were not much when it was just us working on it by ourselves.  

These stories of life, of replanting and growing remind us that a little faith can go a long way.  There is so much power and life in our faith, so much potential to make things better, to set our hearts and minds at ease, to go, speak and do knowing we are loved by God.   

Sermon for June 7, 2015

The readings

Genesis 3:8-15

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"  He said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"  The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate." The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1

But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture--"I believed, and so I spoke" --we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.  So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure,  because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Mark 3:20-35

the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind."  And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons."  And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan?  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come.  But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered. "Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"--for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit." Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you."  And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

 The message

Last week, as we celebrated Confirmation with Sebastian, Samantha, Michael and Danielle, I talked about Public Affirmation of faith, about the need for us to talk about what we believe and to show the world who our God is.  We live in a time and place where people of faith have very different ideas about who God is, how we should live, who is welcome in God’s kingdom and what being faithful to the scriptures and traditions of Christianity should look like.  There is a growing group of people who do not believe in God at all, dismissing our faith as naïve comfort stories from a less knowledgeable time, a system abused by the rich and powerful to keep the weak and poor down, or attempts to explain mysteries now fully understood through science and experiment.  There is a much larger and faster growing group of people who maintain a belief in God but reject church and the institutions of organized religion. This morning, our readings reveal beautiful, comforting, mysterious and joyful details about who our God is.  Publically affirming these amazing things in word and deed is how we correct those misunderstandings and confront those doubts with faith and love

Our readings this morning start with Genesis chapter 3, verses 8-15.  This section of scripture is the end of the second creation story. It describes God’s response to Adam and Eve’s disobedience. Before getting to what this passage tells us about God, I want to talk a little about what is going on here, the events of this passage are central to our faith and tradition, so I do not want to skip over it.  Once created, one of the only rules Adam and Eve, the first people, receive from God is that they are to never eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That is exactly what they do.  Many people of faith over the centuries have looked to this first act of disobedience to explain how sin and death entered the world.  This is the time when people and God were no longer in perfect harmony, this is the separation between us and God that is healed through Jesus life, death and resurrection.  The last verse of our reading “he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” is seen as a prophesy, through Jesus suffering and death, the devil strikes God with an almost meaningless hit on the heel while through Jesus resurrection, the power of evil, sin and death are struck a death blow to the head and destroyed.  Here, we see our God will never leave us alone to face sin and death by ourselves.

Before the tangent about the first disobedience, I said something that might have sounded strange to you, our reading is the end of the second creation story in the bible.  There are two stories of creation. Each one has a different timeline for the sun, moon, skies and seas, and a different description of the origins of people (in the first story, man and woman were created together, in the second, woman is created later from man’s rib).  Since each story offers different details, these stories were clearly not meant to be scientific reports about how God made us. (This view was first expressed by St Augustine about 1600 years ago)   Instead, the creation stories reveal something about who our God is. In Genesis 1:1-2:4 God creates the world over the course of time, at the end of each day observes it from heaven, from a distance and notes “it is good”.  That is the distant God, well distant is not the right world, this is the God who we cannot see or encounter, who is totally beyond our senses and experiences.  Our God’s actions cannot be fully understood. There is trust and mystery in our faith.

Starting in Genesis 2:4 we are introduced to the God who is revealed. In this second story, God is present in the world, strolling in the garden, communicating, seeing creation, hearing the animals, smelling the flowers, and touching the earth.  

We understand and explain our experiences of the God we cannot see and the God who is revealed to us as the Trinity.  Over the past few years, I have gone to Dorothy Sayers metaphor about the Trinity since I am yet to find a better one. Sayers describes our experience of God as three in one like a book.   God the father is the idea for a book, it exists, complete in the author’s mind but it cannot be read, understood or touched.  This God that cannot really be known or understood.  God the son, Jesus, is the written book, tangible, readable and accessible, God’s presence, love and care is made known to us through Jesus.  God the Holy Spirit is the affects of the book, the way it impacts and changes us, the experiences and understanding it creates.  Our God is revealed to us, Our God goes through great lengths to make sure we can experience God’s comfort, care and compassion.  Our God wants us to know God is in the world and we are loved.        

Now I want to briefly talk about our last 2 readings:  In this section of his second letter to Christians in Corinth, Paul reminds them of the difference between the temporary and the eternal.  God gives us glimpses of what is to come, promises about things we cannot possibly  see and hope for things we can barely imagine.  Our God is the one who freely gives profound mysteries away to all people and walks with us to make sure we understand them.  Paul also  boldly reminds the church of their Easter responsibility to go and tell the others that Christ is Risen from the dead.  His dangerous, complicated and frightening missionary work is summed up simply as “I believed and so I spoke”.   Our God gives real grace, the kind that chases out fear and sin, that calls for justice, comforts the anxious and strives to make things better, God wants that grace to reach more and more people.  That happens when we can say “I believed so I spoke”

Finally, as we look at the Gospel reading, we are shown the most amazing part of who our God is.  Right at the end, when Jesus was told his mother, brothers and sisters were outside, waiting for him, Jesus responds : whoever does the will of God is my mother, brothers and sisters. Here, people can get lost in this debate about the Virgin Mary and “how could Jesus have brothers and sisters”. We must be careful to not overlook the fact that our relationship with God, the all powerful, mysterious, revealed and unknowable, can be described with such loving words.   How remarkable that Jesus should call whoever does the will of God his mother, brother and sister,   That is our God.