You are forever in God’s heart, no matter what. Trust that and live.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 27 B
Text: Mark 10:2-16

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Don’t fall into the trap Jesus’ opponents set.

They’re not interested in Jesus’ true heart on this question, so they don’t receive it.

Because there are three things you can absolutely trust about Jesus, the Son of God, from this Gospel reading and also from the heartbeat of Jesus’ teaching and ministry throughout the Gospels.

First, Jesus cares deeply, irrevocably, for vulnerable people.

Second, Jesus cares deeply, irrevocably, about loving relationships.

And third, Jesus never tramples on God’s children with rules, even with God’s law. Hear that clearly. Jesus, one with the Father and the Spirit in the Holy Trinity, demonstrates that even the Triune God will break their own divine law if it injures someone. Remember, this is a huge part of what got Jesus killed. It’s why they try to test him today. He’s developed a reputation for being inclined to set aside even the ten great commandments for the sake of healing and love.

Before digging into this, there’s a huge elephant we need to ask to leave the room.

This Gospel text is problematic for reading in public worship. Not because it addresses sin. Lots of Scripture does. But on the surface it seems to name a sin that only affects some people. A fundamental rule of preaching is that you don’t proclaim God’s call to new life or God’s naming of a sin for just some of the people in the room. If what I hear God saying in Scripture doesn’t apply to everyone, including me, it’s not fair preaching. You never want some to sit back as if this one’s for other folks.

So, let’s level the playing field. The hardest part of Jesus’ teaching today is the private conversation with the disciples afterward, where he ties divorce and remarriage to adultery, one of the Ten Commandments. Most faithful Christians I know who have divorced and remarried have struggled with this.

But remember what else Jesus said? In Matthew 5, Jesus affirmed the commandment against adultery and said if you’ve even thought about being unfaithful with someone, you’ve committed adultery.

There. Now we’re all in the same boat. Maybe one or two of you can’t remember ever entertaining the idea, but we’re likely all guilty of adultery according to Jesus.

So there’s only one thing to do: ask God’s forgiveness and trust in God’s grace. Like we always do. And hear me now: you are loved and forgiven, even of this sin.

So what’s Jesus really saying about divorce here?

He’s right, his opponents already know God’s law. They just want to trap Jesus. And he angrily turns on them, saying divorce is permitted is because people are hardhearted. They don’t honor God’s creating of marriage. But there’s also deep injustice here. Men could get a certificate of divorce and kick their wives out of the house. Wives had no such power.

Now remember our third truth, Jesus’ reputation for not letting even God’s law trample on people. And also our first truth: Jesus cares deeply about vulnerable people. Divorce is one of the most vulnerable situations anyone can get involved in. But in those times, women would be destitute in such a situation, having no way to enter the economy and provide for themselves.

The opponents want Jesus to issue a once-and-for-all ruling, but Jesus refuses to reduce real human lives to one-size-fits-all answers that hurt people. Jesus, God-with-us, offered forgiveness and welcome to a woman caught in adultery, turning his judgment and critique on those men who sought to execute her. Every time Jesus is tested this way he gives an answer that can’t be pinned down as a forever command. Even if the Church too often tries to.

So if you really care about what Jesus thinks, here’s what’s true, based on everything Jesus taught and lived.

If you’re divorced, you are forever in God’s heart. It doesn’t matter to Jesus what the circumstances were. But still: If your marriage fell apart for complicated or simple reasons, you are forever in God’s heart. If you were abandoned in a marriage, you are forever in God’s heart. If you did the abandoning, you are forever in God’s heart. If you were so badly harmed in a marriage you had to leave, you are forever in God’s heart. If you were the abuser, you are forever in God’s heart. If you ended your marriage because of a truth about your identity that you had not known or had pushed down, you are forever in God’s heart. And if your spouse came out and that ended your marriage, you are forever in God’s heart. And if you’re in a marriage that is life-giving, or if you’re in a marriage that’s painful and you don’t know what to do, you are forever in God’s heart. And if you know the pain of loneliness, whether it’s because your beloved spouse died or you do not have a spouse, you are forever in God’s heart.

Do you see? Nothing can stop God’s love for you in Christ. And if you wonder about the sin, Jesus’ answer to you is what he says to the woman: You are forgiven, go and sin no more. Because in all things, you are forever in God’s heart.

This is all about Jesus’ deep love and care for vulnerable people.

That’s why he keeps breaking another of the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath commandment, for the sake of healing, or grace, or hunger. And that’s why, for the third week in a row, Jesus lifts up children. These children were so precious and beloved to their parents, as all children should be, that they want Jesus to touch and bless them. And the disciples tell them to go away.

Jesus is indignant. He’s already told them to welcome children as Christ, he’s warned them not to cause little ones who trust in him to sin. They still don’t get it.

But today it’s the very nature of children he wants them to grasp. Children are dependent. Children are vulnerable. Children lack agency, the ability to shape their world in a way that helps them. Children don’t have control of their lives. Children can only trust that someone will care for them.

That’s what it’s like to live in God’s reign, Jesus says. You put all your dependence on God, you risk yourself in vulnerable love all the time, you give up a sense that you can control or shape your world to your benefit. And you trust.

And that’s where this Gospel reading ends for you.

With an invitation to you to let Jesus, God-with-us, pick you up in his arms, embrace you in love, and bless you. Not because you’re perfect and never have sinned. Not because you’ve made yourself into something God might consider worthy. Not because you control God’s love for you.

But simply because the Triune God loves you fully and wholly as you are. Forgives you all your failings because you are beloved. Gives the law not to crush you but to guide you to a way of life that’s fulfilling and life-giving.

God knows how vulnerable you are in this frightening world, and God will always be looking out for you. Breaking rules if necessary. Hoping that you have loving relationships in your life that can sustain and bless you. Because, dear one, you are forever in God’s heart, and nothing can change that.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

You, and everyone, are not alone in your faith journey or service to the world as Christ: you have a share of the Spirit to encourage, empower, and help you.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 26 B
Texts: Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29; Mark 9:38-50

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Moses finally cracked under the pressure.

Leading thousands of people through a wilderness, being the focus of all their complaints and expectations, doing a job he didn’t want but God called him to do, all came to a head in today’s reading. The latest complaint is they want meat along with the manna, and Egypt sounds pretty good to them.

And Moses loses it. He accuses God of treating him badly, abandoning him to the burden of these people that Moses didn’t give birth to or decide to drag through a wilderness. Moses says that if God loves him at all, God should just kill him.

And immediately God tells Moses to gather up 70 trusted elders of the people so God can take some of the Spirit on Moses and give a share of God’s Spirit to each one. It’s such an immediate, easy answer, it feels as if God is asking Moses, “who told you that you had to do this all alone?” After all, when Moses protested he was a horrible speaker, God told him to bring Aaron. Here, the second Moses asks for help, God offers it.

“Who told you that you had to do this all alone?” That’s a good question for you and me to ponder.

Like Moses, these days sometimes push us to the brink.

As the election nears, as hateful rhetoric increases, as panicked poll-watching raises anxiety, we can despair. “What on earth can I do?” On top of the election, all the other problems are still there: oppression, racism, sexism, hunger, war, violence and systemic pressure against the weak and vulnerable.

I sometimes think like Moses – these are your children, God! What am I supposed to do about this?

But today God asks, “Who told you that you had to do this all alone?” And look, today Jesus promises that what the 70 got, you and I also get: a share of the Spirit. Jesus promises the women and men following him that they – actually that everyone – will be salted with fire. It’s a mixed metaphor, but he’s referring to Pentecost. The Spirit of God will pour into people and make them salt, seasoning. You get a share of the Spirit, and so do all, so that you, and I, and all, can be salt for the world, bringing the flavor and joy of God’s healing and hope to all. And no one said you had to do this all alone. We’re all helping in this together, all with a share of the Spirit, with millions around the world.

But there is another layer to this gift. To see it, we first have to deal with Jesus’ odd metaphors.

The other layer is your faith life, how you walk Christ’s cross-shaped path.

But Jesus uses challenging metaphors to describe it.

First, he talks about removing things from your life that cause you to sin, to abandon your path of Christ. But he uses a particularly gruesome image, the removal of body parts that get you into trouble. And he does it three times, deepening our discomfort.

Second, he says the path of Christ leads to life, and sin that takes you off that path leads to the valley of Gehenna. This is a ravine outside Jerusalem that was basically the stinking garbage dump of the city. Fires were constantly burning in it. So following Jesus leads to real life, while sinning, breaking away from Jesus, is throwing your life away into a garbage dump that’s always burning. Again, a particularly ugly metaphor.

But remember the end of this teaching: “everyone will be salted by fire.” Now fire isn’t punishment but purification. So the fire of Pentecost is good news: the share of the Spirit you receive will burn away those parts of you that lead you to sin – maybe a more helpful metaphor than dismemberment. And now, hear God’s question again.

This time it’s: “who told you that you had to do your discipleship all alone?”

Sometimes even more strongly than thinking about our life in the world we think our faith journey is all on us. Our failings, our lack of vision, the challenges we deal with, our falling back when we thought we were moving forward, all is our problem to solve.

But who told you that you had to be a disciple all on your own? Jesus asks. I give you a share of my Spirit so that you are never alone. God’s Spirit not only burns away the parts that lead you astray, God’s Spirit empowers you, encourages you, fills you with hope. You are transformed into Christ, and you have God’s Spirit to pray to for help, to lean on for strength. You’re not expected to be faithful all by yourself. You have God’s Spirit.

But there is a warning in both these stories today that we need to hear.

Joshua is enraged at Eldad and Medad and wants Moses to shut them down. They were among the 70 on the authorized list of elders, but they didn’t gather at the tent of meeting. And the Spirit filled them, anyway. This can’t be tolerated, Joshua says. But Moses is so thrilled to have other Spirit-filled people to help, he tells Joshua he wishes that everyone would be so filled. Everyone.

And then this strange person somehow is casting out demons in Jesus’ name. John wants this shut down, since he’s not one of them. But Jesus says that anyone who does good in his name is on their side, even if he’s not part of the group. The only way the demons would be cast out is if the Spirit is with this stranger, so Jesus is fine with it, like Moses.

So here’s today’s warning: having a share of God’s Spirit doesn’t give you the authority to try and control who else gets that Spirit or to shut people out. Remember, our last view of Jesus in last week’s Gospel was with a child in his lap, urging that she be welcomed as Christ. No time elapses between these verses, so Jesus still has little Esther in his lap as he warns against shutting people out or causing little ones who trust in him to sin. That’s what’s at stake for Jesus: every child of God. It’s what’s at stake for you and me, too.

No one says you have to do your faith life on your own. No one says you have to heal the world on your own.

That’s your good news. And mine. So you can embrace the hope of Moses and the confidence of Jesus, that the Spirit getting out to everyone is always going to be a gift and blessing, and rejoice.

Because if Moses’ dream becomes reality, that everyone receives this share of the Spirit, can you imagine what this world would become? If Jesus’ promise that all will be salted with the Spirit’s fire becomes reality, can you imagine the spicy joy of the whole creation? All that God dreams for God’s children and the whole creation could come about through you, and me, and, well, Moses hopes, through everyone.

And wouldn’t that be a wonder to see?

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

We are all called to the path of Christ together, sustained and transformed by the love of Christ who leads and is beside us on the path.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 24 B
Texts: Mark 8:27-38; Isaiah 50:4-9a

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

“God has trained my tongue so I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.”

That’s what Isaiah claims, and what a gift that would be for any of us dealing with each other in this world. Because we are often weary.

We’re weary that there is so much polarization and so much anger and so much entrenched opinion in the world, while our neighbors here and around the world are still suffering. We don’t know what to do. It’s wearying to wake up every day and face that helplessness.

And we’re weary that as much as we know the call to love our neighbor, even to pray for our enemies, as much as we hope to bear God’s love in the world, we struggle doing it. It’s wearying to wake up every day and face disappointment over how we live.

So if there is a sustaining word in our Scripture today, it would be worth knowing.

Instead, we hear Peter rebuked by God’s Son, called Satan, told he’s in the way. It’s not a terribly sustaining Gospel reading. Especially when it ends with God-with-us talking about being ashamed of us.

But there’s a lot more to this story than rebuke and shame.

To begin with, Peter isn’t rebuked for failing as a follower but for blocking Jesus.

Peter’s just proclaimed Jesus as God’s Anointed, God’s Messiah. Jesus sternly orders him and the others to keep quiet about that. And proceeds to say his path is leading toward Jerusalem, toward rejection and death. And yes, toward resurrection, but Jesus kind of buries that lede.

So Peter takes Jesus aside and says, “that’s not the way a Messiah should go.” Whatever Peter understood when he called Jesus the Anointed, he was pretty sure it didn’t involve humiliating death.

And that’s when Jesus rebukes Peter. Because Jesus is going to go on this path, whether anyone likes it or not. Jesus, God-with-us, is going to bear the love of God for the world, reject violence and power, and keep bearing that love even if he is killed by those that love threatens.

And nothing can get in his way. In Matthew’s account, Jesus adds that Peter is a stumbling block. That’s what “Satan” means in Hebrew: someone who opposes and obstructs. And Jesus can’t have anyone stop him from this path of self-giving, vulnerable love. Not even one of his trusted leaders.

Of course, if Jesus is going on this path, he’s going to invite folks to follow.

Peter might’ve only reacted to how Jesus understands he will be Messiah, but very quickly Jesus says, “where I go, you go. That is, if you’re going to follow me.”

Now, we don’t know what drew Peter to follow Jesus in the first place. We don’t know why Peter and Andrew dropped their nets, or why the sons of Zebedee did. We don’t know what motivated Susanna or Joanna to follow Jesus, or Thomas or Philip. We intuit Mary Magdalene’s reason – Jesus healed her of demonic possession. And maybe Matthew followed because he was treated with respect and kindness by a Jewish rabbi, something he as a tax collector wasn’t used to.

But here Jesus says to the women and men who are his disciples, whatever reasons you had for following, for being here, now we need to get on the same page. There might be 40 or 50 or more following Jesus at this point, with 40 or 50 or more reasons. Now there is only one: to take up the cross of suffering love, of sacrificial love, that God-with-us is taking, and follow.

No matter if they came for the meals or the miracles, or if they really loved listening to Jesus talk. If they’re going to keep following, this is now their shared path.

But that’s also our first sustaining word.

Because it is first Jesus’ path. This love that heals the world, a love of forgiveness, grace, and welcome, a love that crosses boundaries and sees all as God’s children, that sacrifices comfort and safety to embrace a neighbor in need, this cross-shaped path of being Christ is the path Jesus first walked and wouldn’t be stopped from. So Jesus – now risen from the dead – can walk with you and me and give us strength and courage for our journey.

Morning by morning, Isaiah declares today, God wakes me up and teaches me, opens my ears to listen, shows me the way. And the way Isaiah describes is very much Jesus’ cross-shaped path: not fighting those who strike you, not hiding from those who despise you and spit at you. But Isaiah says the God who teaches you, morning by morning, day by day, will make sure you’re not disgraced, will vindicate and strengthen you so no one can stop the love of God you bear.

Yes, if you follow Christ on this path it’ll be hard. You’ll struggle and fail at times. But you have God’s guidance and strength and grace with you. Christ transforms you with the Spirit’s courage and always walks at your side. And through your love on this path, and mine, the suffering that makes us and the world so weary will be changed and healing will come.

Now, go back to Peter and you’ll find even more sustaining hope.

If I’d been a disciple and was called Satan, an obstruction to God’s way, by Christ himself, I’d have been devastated. I imagine Peter keeping to the fringes of the crowd surrounding Jesus, keeping his head down. Apart from the humiliation, believing you’ve failed and been publicly called out had to be brutal.

But only six days later, as Jesus prepares to go up a mountain in prayer, where he will be transfigured, as early that morning he walks among all these women and men who love and follow him, he taps James and John and Peter and says, “Come along with me. I need you.” Can you imagine Peter’s relief? He was still important to Jesus, an amazing grace and welcome.

See, no matter how often you stumble, no matter how frustrated you are at your discipleship, or dismayed on the days you seem to take two steps back, Jesus still needs you. Loves you. Wants you by his side on the path. Christ may challenge you at times, but always in love. And will always invite you to follow once again, transforming you in the Spirit as you go.

Morning by morning God wakens you, to open you up to listen and follow.

So today you’ve woken, you’re listening for God. What do you hear? How is God calling you to this path of Christ just for today? However it goes, you’re embraced in God’s love and given what you need to do that. And tomorrow God will waken you again.

But this is Jesus’ urgency today, that we all come together on the same page as Christ’s people on Christ’s path, no matter how we started. But that means we’re all in this together, transformed together. And nothing can stop the love of God in Christ from healing this world. Even when you and I carry it.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen