Series: “Jesus’ Message: You Are a Participant in the Dream”
“The Journey of One Race and One Blood Isn’t Easy”
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Mark 5:21-43
Next week we celebrate our 248th anniversary of independence as a country. 1776 was an important year. And then eleven years later, in 1787, our government’s system of democracy was established. As a country, we value the idealism of the Declaration of Independence and the pragmatism of the Constitution.
Democracy is a modern idea that is transformative. A democratic form of government is freeing and challenging…distributive and collective. Louis Menand writes, “It is a remarkable fact about the United States that it fought a civil war without undergoing a change in its form of government. The Constitution was not abandoned during the American Civil War; elections were not suspended; there was no coup d’état. The war was fought to preserve the system of government that had been established at the nation’s founding-to prove, in fact, that the system was worth preserving, that the idea of democracy had not failed.”[1] And now, our country is once again caught in a struggle of what democracy is and is not.
Christians have a parallel journey to that of our country’s journey on what democracy is and isn’t. We are on an ongoing conversion from a life which was lost without Jesus to one which is more and more informed by the way Jesus’ words and deeds which encourages our words and deeds to be more like his. In all aspects of life we must take measured steps of making the necessary changes in character and attitude to be fully functioning human beings. Yes, this journey requires each one of us to examine our Christian beliefs. It also requires us to examine our convictions on race, privilege, gender identity, LGBTQ+ rights, human equality, sexual orientation, and gender equity.
Jesus had returned to his home town. He taught in the synagogues and the people were shocked. Notice the words of Mark 5:25, “Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and 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 clothes, for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’” Jesus and his initial band of followers were committed to inclusion of all. In this case, this woman was not recognized as human, much like the lepers and blind.
In Mark 5:21-43 along with Jesus, we acknowledge that being at odds with others on non-essentials is normal. However, a most significant part of the journey is to rally around our unity on the essentials. The authority of Jesus was challenged because it expressed itself in powerlessness, dependency, and relationships. Jesus did not place limitations on those who could accomplish God’s purposes. The marginalized and disenfranchised embraced Jesus, but those who held power and position rejected him. Mark 5:35 reads, “While he [Jesus] 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.’” Jesus’ way of speaking and doing his ministry was difficult to embrace because it did not align with conventional expectations or values.[2]
Friends there is one race with one blood. There are women and men. There are those with different gender identities, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. Followers of Jesus understand that we are committed to a journey of building life for all people, as intended by God. We are committed to a journey that all humans are created in the image of God and deserve the same rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as the Constitution asserts. Crawford W. Loritts Jr. writes, “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the handful of words and actions of the bad people but the appalling silence of the good people.”[3] In the citation just read, it is clear that the cry for holy impatience at the beginning of our country has been the same cry throughout the centuries. And it is the same is true today. Equality is still lacking. Jesus was not silent. Like Jesus, Christians are to speak up for justice and kindness.
Patience is a virtue, and it is important in our journey of conversion. But and this is a vulnerable, yet authentic but, silence is a form of unholy patience, and when Christians are silent, the journey of Christian discipleship presses pause. The statement by Jesus that he is the way, the truth and the life is paused in the silence. And so it is for the teachings of the Greatest Commandment, the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 25. Yet the journey is not to be pressed on pause. We are called to press play. 2 Samuel 1:25 and 27 read “How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle…How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle.” Saul, Jonathan, and David spoke up and led the Israelites into battle with the more powerful and mighty Philistines.
The freedoms we have in our country should bring us together to accomplish a common vision that is inclusive, not exclusive. Crawford W. Loritts Jr., the father of Bryan Loritts, writes, “Until we come to the place where we see ethnic diversity as more than a strategy, emphasis, or an occasional feature in our e-magazines, we will always be playing catch-up.”[4] The integrity of the gospel demands that the visible transformation Christ provides be demonstrated and modeled by the unity of the one Body of Christ.[5] The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are loud voices and rightly so!
Exercise holy impatience in the journey of being one race and one blood. Claim the integrity of the gospel in your life. Demonstrate and model the unity of the Body of Christ in your words and actions. There is one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all. Do not remain silent. Amen.
This sermon was preached the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost on Sunday, 30 June 2024
by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary
at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas
Copyright 2024
Steven M. Marsh
All rights reserved.
[1]Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club New York, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001), ix.
[2]In the two paragraphs of textual analysis above, I have benefited from the thinking of Mark McEntire, Wyndy Corbin Reuschling, Anna George Traynham, Zaida Maldonado Perez, William Yoo, Matthew L. Skinner and Richard W. Voelz in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020), 108-111, 111-112, 113-116, 117-119, 119-121, 122-124 and 124-126.
[3]Bryan Loritts, ed., Letters To A Birmingham Jail: A Response To The Words And Dreams Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2014), 76.
[4]Bryan Loritts, ed., Letters To A Birmingham Jail: A Response To The Words And Dreams Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 85.
[5]Some ideas in this paragraph adapted from Bryan Loritts, ed., Letters To A Birmingham Jail: A Response To The Words And Dreams Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 74-92.
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