Miracles in Mark, 5 St Mary’s, Sunday 19th July 2009

May I speak in the name of God…

So we come today to the fifth and final sermon of this series on Miracles in Mark. When I was training for ordained ministry, I did one placement with a vicar who said that his preference was for the one-point sermon – but I have to say that this was not evident by the way he preached!

So what is the one point that I’d like you to take away from this series on Miracles in Mark? We started with The Divine Miracle of the growing parables of the growing seed, and the mustard seed – ‘don’t just do something, stand there’; notice things, and depend on the wonderful God who created them and grows them.

The second sermon heard the disciples cry to Jesus: ‘Do you not care that we are perishing?’ as their boat started to sink and Jesus slept. Their crying out to Jesus in weakness helped them in some stumbling expression of faith to defeat their fear, and Christ came to conquer the chaos represented by the stormy sea – as he can still do for us, even in the midst of situations that aren’t immediately made better.

Then in the third week we heard of Jesus breaking the boundaries of what was religiously and socially acceptable. In his healing of the woman with the haemorrhage, and in his raising of Jairus’s daughter, it is that relationship of trust and personal commitment, more than merely belief, which brings the miracles – even, as Jairus shows, for someone else. Again it is faith in God, and in the Christ who is clearly identified with God, that is crucial, however hesitant and fearful that faith is.

Last week, in the fourth sermon, we were in the mess of John the Baptist’s beheading, and the cross, and our own lives – how God makes us holy in the midst of the messes we get into, and how we need Christ to continue this transformation into being, not a goody two-shoes, but more fully ourselves, as God made us to be.

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Sermon for St. Mary’s,

Trinity 5, Year B, 12th July 2009

Messy, and holy, and more ourselves

Readings: Ephesians 1.3-14 Mark 6.14-29

May I speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

If you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, wrote Rudyard Kipling, then, you’ll be a man my son. Well, John the Baptist didn’t manage it.

Seriously – he didn’t manage it, because of an awful, human mess. And which of us has not, at some time, found ourselves in this kind of awful, human mess.  The story has got sex, jealousy, betrayal, the desire to please, keeping up appearances in front of the neighbours, weak will, fear – the lot, really.  You might think Mark had been consulting the script writers of East Enders:  it’s the stuff of soap operas.  But also, usually in a less extreme and exciting form, it’s the stuff of our everyday lives.  Have you ever tripped up trying to be someone you’re not?  Or made a promise, only to regret it later?  Or tried to please someone you want to impress, by doing something that was actually wrong? Or been haunted by your own conscience? Mark’s story and John’s death, in all its horror and violence, prefigures the death of Christ. (more…)

Sermon for St Mary’s: Breaking the Boundaries

St Mary’s Sung Eucharist,

21st June 2009

Miracles in Mark, 3: Mark 5:21-end

‘Daughter, your faith has made you well’

May I speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I’m not sure if you should know this, but my daughter has received a proposal of marriage. On a recent trip to Cuddesdon, Theo popped the question to Eliza. This he apparently often does to fellow 5 year old-girls. Anyhow, Eliza was having none of it, expressing her firm intention not to marry anyone, not least because of slobber kisses. We shall see. I have both her uncles to call on if this changes too radically, to enforce some boundaries.

Of course, some boundaries are best respected and not broken. Children are usually better off inside the school playground than outside it. A husband and wife who value their commitment to marriage are usually better off not playing around outside it.

But some boundaries that grow and harden are not of God, but of man – or of our own making. In today’s gospel, the raising of Jairus’s daughter and the healing of the woman with a haemorrhage are beautiful, powerful miracle stories that point to God in Jesus breaking the boundaries.

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Sermon for St Mary’s: Christ and chaos – who will win?

St Mary’s Sung Eucharist with Baptism,

21st June 2009

Mark 4:35-end

‘Do you not care that we are perishing?’

May I speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I was round at Jim and Dawn’s to get ready for Daniel’s baptism on Thursday evening. Daniel was not keen on going to sleep. Jim, his dad, was doing his best but I could see it was a struggle.

It reminded me of a similar moment when my son Dominic was a few weeks old. Kathryn and I were so desperate to get him to sleep that we got hold of a tape of womb noises. This alleged that it would help by making the baby feel at home. Picture the scene – the middle of the night, strange underwater gurgling noises blaring, rhythmic red lights on the old portable stereo flashing. Poor baby.

This completely did not work. Dominic cried on. And I resisted the frightening urge to bash him over the head, showing some of that paternal love, self-sacrifice and restraint which we especially give thanks for in our dads today.

I suppose that we all feel that we are sinking sometimes.

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