Miracles in Mark 5 - May I speak in the name of God…

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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‘If God knows already, why bother praying?’

The other day I received an email from a friend and I thought it would be useful to share it.

Dear Andrew

I hope you are now settled in to your new church and enjoying life.  We must meet for coffee and catch up.  Everything is going well for me, except my prayer life.  As you know, I became a Christian twelve months ago through attending the Alpha Course you led.  On the course, I remember we did a session called ‘Why and how do we pray?’  This taught me a great deal, yet now, I’m getting into difficulties.  If you asked me whether prayer is important, then of course I would say yes.  If you asked me if I prayed as much as I know I should, my answer would be no.  It’s interesting that all the Christians I have talked to say the same thing, they all know they should pray, but they all admit they don’t pray enough.  Questions around prayer have started to concern me, and the more I have thought about it the more I have realised that my problem is, ‘If God knows already, why bother praying?’  I’d very much appreciate it if you could help me with this, because as you might imagine I am in danger of stopping praying altogether and I’m sure you wouldn’t want that! 

Kind regards

Dominic

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Miracles in Mark 4 - Messy and Holy and more ourselves

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. Read more

Favourite Psalms: Psalm 23

It’s not surprising that Psalm 23 features on a list of people’s favourite Psalms. It features at both weddings and funerals, providing a sense of encouragement and comfort; it’s a psalm that gives the individual experiencing anxiety or hardship great consolation; and, not insignificantly I think, it’s also short enough to be learned off by heart.

But for all this psalm’s familiarity, like so much of scripture there are aspects of it that are easily missed and which, if we took them to heart, would give us even greater comfort and insight. Read more