2012 Sermons

February 12, 2012

2 Kings 5:1-14          1 Corinthians 9:24-27         Mark 1:40-45             Psalm 30

Naaman made the trip to Samaria expecting the Great Prophet Elisha to: " . . . come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and . . . wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!"  Naaman came "with his horses and chariots" and great riches to bestow upon the King of Israel and his prophet.  He came as a man with great power and wealth - yet Elisha did not even come out to greet him.  Instead Elisha sends out  a messenger with instructions for Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan River. 

Of course this angered Naaman.  Not only did the prophet not approach him in manner befitting a man of his stature, Elisha told him to go wash himself in the river.  He could have done that at home - and probably had!   Naaman was accustomed to being treated with respect.      

Perhaps if the prophet had given him some great feat to accomplish he would have felt better.  He could have left Elisha's home knowing he had to earn God's grace.  He was accustomed to being challenged.  His own servants knew this about him.  But neither of these things happened that day.  Elisha did not come out to address him, nor did he provide him with a challenging task to complete in order to earn his good health. 

Naaman was so angered by this, he almost missed his opportunity to be cured.  Yet, just as he made the trip because he listened to a slave, he did what Elisha had instructed because he took the advice of his servants. 

Notice that his healing required him to listen to people in lesser positions than himself.  Notice, too, that he was forced him to humble himself and follow the instructions he received from a messenger.  He was used to sending out orders to his army through messengers, but I doubt he was accustomed to receiving them except maybe from his king.  And notice his healing required him to bathe seven times, so it was not an instant cure. 

We might all long for immediate healing, but it is rarely happens that way.  Healing takes time.  When one of us is troubled, there is an immediate need for support and comfort and most of us respond very well to others in the midst of a crisis.  That's true of us as individuals and as a church.  I read one commentator say about his church, "We do emergencies well."

He went on to comment that ministers in small to medium-sized churches are particularly vulnerable to being pulled from one emergency to another and are often unable to provide the long term care and support that people need.  I could relate.  As a church, St. Andrew's, has demonstrated over and over again that we know how to come together and provide a meal or a reception after a funeral in such a way that our families and visitors feel comforted and supported. 

Then what?  As difficult as it is to be with a family immediately after a loved one dies, being with them as they adjust to life without their loved one is even more difficult.  We have 125 active members of this congregation, and about another dozen who are not members but are involved in one way or another. It is difficult to provide the long-term care and support that people need.  Yet, the author of the commentary I was reading suggested that a church thrives when it does provide this for its members who have been traumatized by life.  

Churches this size and churches where it is possible for members to not know each other, can only achieve this level of support when laity take an active role in providing it.  I've heard wonderful stories of you taking care of each other - both immediately after a loss and in the long-term.  However, the challenge is to provide that same level of support to people who are outside our circle of friends within this congregation.  How can we support the person who we only see on Sunday, or who we might not even know because he or she attends the "other" service?

Larger churches than this often address this problem by hiring more priests, but that is not an option for us - nor is that the kind of support most of us need.  Priests are not the church - you are.  My role here is to be a part of your ministry and mission to reach out to others in need - both members of our congregation and people in the community. 

People are drawn to church for many reasons.  They stay and get involved when they not only hear and celebrate the Good News of the Gospel, but they also see it in action.  Last year we worked to turn our focus outward - toward mission.  We did and this is a much healthier church.  Attendance and giving is up.  People in the community see and hear about what we are doing.  We are witnessing to this community through our actions. 

We need to continue what we are doing, yet at the same time we need to remember what we hear the flight attendants say every time we fly - take care of ourselves before attempting to care for the person next to you.  We cannot forget the importance of taking care of our members. 

So now that I've presented our challenge, what do we need to do?  I don't have a plan to lay out before you today, but I do know I need your help.  So today, I want to ask everyone here to prayerful consider how you might be called to serve this church and each other.  I know that we need people willing to step forward and serve in leadership positions.  We need to work together to ensure that we know when people are in need and we must share the responsibility of calling and checking on each other. 

I can't tell you how many Sundays it takes before I notice that someone hasn't been attending church.  On any given Sunday, 25 to 30 of our active members are not in attendance.  I can't keep up with all of you.  Yet most of you sit in the same pew each Sunday and shake the same hands of those around you when we pass the peace.  Whose hand is missing today?  Do you know why?  If you don't would you be willing to call and check on him or her? 

Taking care of one another is one of the most important tasks we are given as members of a church.  In Paul's lesson for today, he reminds us that being a Christian requires self-discipline.  But before I say any more about what Paul teaches us in today scripture, I just want to point this is early evidence that men have been using sports as a metaphor for life for centuries.

Paul compares Christian life to that of an athlete noting that a runner must exercise self-discipline.  Why?  Certainly not because we earn God's grace.  Naaman certainly did not.  Paul does seem to be saying that we must work and exercise self discipline so that we might obtain the prize of external life.  Paul was, however, writing to a people whose greatest challenge might have been to stay together.  He was suggesting that the prize was not eternal life as we might read this lesson today - he was suggesting that the prize is living in community.  It is the same challenge we face - the challenge of doing what is needed to care and support each other so that we are truly a Christian community.  Paul is impressing upon us that this will involve work; it will call for self-sacrifice; and it will require us to focus on caring for each other.

Let us pray.

Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with your continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

January 29, 2012

Deuteronomy 18:15-20       Psalm 111                 1 Corinthians 8:1-13           Mark 1:21-28

In our Old Testament Reading, we heard Moses tell the people:  "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. This is what you requested of the LORD your God at Horeb. . ."  Reading this passage as Christians we might think that Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophesy . . . and more, for Jesus was more than prophet.    But before we follow this line of thinking too far, let's look more closely at what Moses was saying - "This is what you requested of the LORD your God." 

How many times have we prayed and wanted God to speak to us as he did to Moses or even as we read in Genesis where the LORD walked and talked with Adam in the Garden of Eden?  We may long for that type of conversation, but then when it comes down to it, we probably feel the way the people of the tribe of Israel felt.  We know what we have done and what we have not done - or at least we know what we can remember and for many of us that is just the tip of the iceberg of our sins.  The very thought of standing face to face with God can be very frightening.  So, we, too, are afraid to see and hear from God directly. 

Moses reminds the people that on that day at Horeb, "on the day of the assembly . . . you said: "'If I hear the voice of the LORD my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.'"  We may speak of the day we will meet our maker, but it goes without saying that we mean on the day we die. 

This passage comes from the farewell address Moses gives before he is taken up to heaven.  He was about to leave his people and he was telling them not to worry that God was with them and that God would provide for them another leader.  AND, the next leader would come from among those gathered.  God had already provided! 

The people of the tribe of Israel had been wandering in the wilderness for forty years and they were about to cross the Jordan River and enter into the Promised Land - but Moses would not be going with them.  Instead, God would call a new prophet to lead them.   

Today is one of those days for us.  With our vestry elections today and the appointment of a new Senior Warden, new leadership is emerging here at St. Andrew's.  We are entering into a new year with the promise of good things in our future. 

Serving on the vestry is just one example of answering God's call to serve this church.  For a church to be healthy, Leadership must be shared.  A church cannot be a church unless people are to take responsibility for a variety of the tasks and duties necessary for worship, fellowship, mission, and spiritual development.  Just read our annual report  and remember all that was done this past year, and think about what St. Andrew's needs to do in 2012 to be alive and healthy.

Moses says:  "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet . . . from among your own people." For some of us, this isn't good news.  It means that nagging sense of responsibility is probably God nudging us to do more.  We might prefer to wait for someone to move here, join our congregation and take responsibility for what needs to be done - and to provide the leadership necessary to accomplish it.  Yet, to do so would mean that we want someone else to determine the future of St. Andrew's. 

Embedded within what Moses is telling us is that we are to take responsibility for ourselves, for this community, and for this church.  So listen - how is God calling you to serve?  How is God calling upon you to share in the leadership of St. Andrew's?

The burden of leadership is not overwhelming when it is shared.  Working together St. Andrew's can accomplish more than any of us can imagine. 

Let us pray.

Almighty and ever loving God, we call upon you this day to inspire our hearts to listen for how we might best serve you in this church.  Raise up for us new and renewed leadership and energy that we might continue the good and holy work already begun here while expanding our ministries and working to bring about your Kingdom here on Earth.  We pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

January 22, 2012

Mark 1:14-20

A few days ago I saw a poster that read; “Every Sunday Christians leave their well appointed homes, get into their expensive SUV’s and drive past food banks, prisons, homeless shelters, and nursing homes, on their way to large expensive churches where someone tells them how to be more like Jesus.” Let the Church say, “Ouch.”

Like the poster says, it seems that somehow we can get so wrapped up in where we are going we can drive 50 miles per hour right past Jesus. Unwilling to let go of what we think is important we miss the presence of the Lord. The disciples let go of everything they held dear.  Can we? Maybe that’s why the season of Epiphany lasts all the way until Ash Wednesday; we need all the time we can get to see presence of love that calls us to follow.

“Follow me and I will make you fishers of all.” Ten little words – one short sentence – that forever changed the disciples lives. Our society, that values getting information as fast as possible, you’d think would absolutely love Mark’s story of the calling of the disciples. It’s like Jesus tweets and the disciples follow Him. It’s an amazing verse in the Bible that forever changes not only the lives of the disciples but, over two thousand years later, our lives as well. People pay consultants millions and million of dollars to come up with the perfect one liner that will grab everyone’s attention. After all, we live in a world where success is not only measured by how well one makes a product or gets the job done, but by how fast they communicate their message. In today’s world where the tweet reigns supreme Mark’s one liner out does them all. For in his one line – ten little words - the whole world is turned upside down.

We don't know much, if anything, about what might have made the disciple’s follow Jesus. We don't know, for instance, if they didn't really like fishing and were eager for a chance to do something different. Nor do we know whether Simon and Andrew, James and John already knew each other. That might make it easier to imagine that once one of them decided to follow Jesus the others soon followed. Or maybe one or more of them already knew Jesus -- maybe they'd heard him preach and teach, even talked with him before and were already considering joining him. That would make the immediacy of their response more understandable to us. But, again, we don't really know any of this.

Those little words “Come follow me,” carry a very heavy price. In that moment when the disciples drop their nets they are also letting go, once and for all, of their source of income, the homeland, friends, family, and their very lives to follow Jesus. One verse and the disciple’s lives turn around forever. Is Jesus really demanding that we, like the disciples, drop everything that is important to us? Everything we’ve worked our whole lives to build, every relationship to follow him? Is Jesus expecting you and I to drop everything we hold dear before we take one step on the road of discipleship?

Well, hang on to your pew because it gets worse. The Gospel also says, “And immediately they followed him.” So not only do the disciples let go of everything that is important they don’t even have time to think it over. Are we expected not to pack our bags, forget to grab our phone chargers, and never say goodbye? To drop everything that is important to us without even giving it a second thought? All of a sudden the weight of discipleship hits us square between the eyes and we find ourselves saying, “Wait a minute Jesus; you want me to close out my bank account, quit my job, and walk away from home and family?” There has to be another way.

If truth be told we have found another way. We’ve built mega churches with mega salaries for its ministers while people go hungry. We’ve come up with law after law explaining why we throw addicts and mental patients in jail rather than give them the help they really need. We’ve built vast corporate machines filled with red tape and hoops to jump through just to get a simple meal to feed your family. We hoard the riches of the earth, given freely by God, behind walls of brick and thick steel. We justify walking past people sleeping on the streets by telling ourselves they're dangerous. We built our own road of discipleship. One that is smoother and easier to walk because we decide where we go.

No wonder church attendance is falling in the U.S. and around the world. No wonder people feel like the Gospel has nothing to say to them. We’ve allowed the message and life of Jesus to become wrapped up in what we think is important. We have convinced ourselves that we are following Christ when we are really driving right past Him.

All this may sound harsh and judgmental. A little too much fire and brimstone for the Episcopal Church. Yet, I will be the first to stand up for the church and the vast contribution it has made. After all, in this very church many of you volunteer for food banks, shelters, agencies that help others, community organizations, and places of hope and healing. I’m proud that St. Andrew’s is dedicated to reaching beyond our four walls. None of us would consider ourselves a mega church and goodness knows our ministers don’t earn millions of dollars.

The thing about this passage that makes it hard to preach is that while most of us may admire what the disciples do, few of us would consider following their example. Has there been anything in our life that has drawn us so deeply that we drop everything? I’m sure there are people in this church who have made a big change, moved in a new direction. Maybe it's not quite the same as what the disciples did, but still there were forces that made us undertake a significant change in direction.

There was something compelling about Jesus and his message that prompted the disciples -- and later many others -- to follow him. A week ago, very quietly, our church celebrated the feast of Aelred. Let’s face it Aelred isn’t very well known. I asked a few people if they knew him and one person said, “Aelred isn’t that Batman’s butler?” As cool as it would be to celebrate the feast of Alfred - Aelred was born in the fourth century and was described as handsome, extremely smart, and coming from a very well respected family. He was sent from his home in Durham to Scotland to study under the King were he quickly rose through the ranks. Today, we’d describe Aelred as the CEO of a Fortune five hundred company and he’d be on the covers of Esquire and GQ. We’d say he had it made, he had the power and confidence, was making a 6-figure salary, and was extremely popular.

Then at the top of his game he tossed it all aside to become a monk in a struggling, small, rural monastery and lived out his life there in seclusion. Over the years people started to visit Aelred. Not because they were drawn there by his former fame but because they knew him to be a follower of Jesus. In him they saw a man who heard a call, fell in love, and followed the Lord. Aelred even wrote a popular book still in print to this day about the Christian life. He wrote that the best disciple is not the one who always does the right thing but who is willing to fall in love.

Mark’s story of the calling of the disciples, after all, is a love story. A story of passion, desires, and need that drove the disciples to follow Jesus. Aelred heard that same call. You and I have heard the call. The call we follow isn’t a rule, or to always do the right thing, or even proclaim Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior. No. We are called to love. To let go of rationality, all the rules, to stop thinking church is only sitting comfortably in our pews on Sunday and follow our heart. Follow our Lord. Follow the love of our lives.  

January 15, 2012

1 Samuel 3:1-10(11-20)          Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17       1 Corinthians 6:12-20          John 1:43-51

Our lectionary is a funny thing.  Sometimes all three readings and the Psalm fit together nicely.  There is a clear thread that connects the scripture choices – but not today, or at least, not one that I see.  We have the passage from Samuel of his call to priesthood; we have the apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth that our human bodies are intended for Christ – not fornication; and we have John’s Gospel telling of Jesus calling his first disciples.  

Both the Old Testament reading and the Gospel are about being called by God, but what does that have to do with Paul’s letter about our bodies being meant for God?  This is one of those Sundays, when most preachers pick one and run with it.  But I found myself this week wanting to talk about being called by God and needing to grapple with Paul’s letter.  So here we go... 

When Samuel is called by God, he is a young man assisting a blind priest named Eli.  At first, Samuel believes the call to be coming from Eli, but after the third time that Samuel came to see what Eli wanted, Eli realized that it was the Lord calling Samuel and told him to answer, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”  This is a rich and powerful story. 

Samuel’s first response to being called is to say, “Here I am" to Eli.  Yet, he misunderstood who was calling him until Eli – the priest who was blind to his own negligence and the sins of his sons, was able to see – to understand – that it was God calling the young man.  Then, we read that “the Lord came and stood there, calling as before.”  The Lord came and stood there – beside Samuel’s bed, and called him again. 

Won’t that be wonderful, to have the Lord come and stand beside our beds and speak to us?  I think it is safe to assume that the Lord stood beside Samuel each time he called, but Samuel could not see him until Eli provided him with some much need spiritual direction.

The story tells us that Samuel “did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.”  But once Samuel asked God what God wanted, he knew the Lord and we learn that:

As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.  And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.

I would suggest that the Lord was with Samuel from the beginning and that it was not until Samuel opened his mind up to the possibility that it was God calling him that he was able to see God and know God. 

I would also suggest that God is with each of us and does stand beside our beds and speak to us.  God calls each of us by name, but we, too, are often asleep and do not even hear God’s call.

In this story I particularly like the fact that Samuel is obedient to Eli as evident when he says, “Here I am, for you called.”  Never mind that it is God speaking to him, he believes it to be Eli calling his name.  And I like it that Samuel follows Eli’s advice and responds to God with, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”  These two qualities are essential for us to know and see God – Samuel’s obedience, even to the point of telling Eli what Eli will not want to hear that the Lord has said, and Samuel’s willingness to listen.

Nathanael’s first response to hearing that Philip has found the messiah is, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  It takes meeting Christ to believe what Philip is telling him.  The exchange between Jesus and Nathanael reveals that Christ knows Nathanael – but we have to read between the lines to understand that much of what transpires between the two is non-verbal.  What is said in this passage seems almost superficial – but clearly Nathanael experiences Christ’s presence and knows it the messiah who stands before him.

In both these stories people come to know God through others.  I suspect that this is true for most of us as well.  God can be standing beside us and we don’t even know it.  We hear God’s call and think it is someone else.  Perhaps we have never considered ourselves important enough for God to know our name, but God does know our names – each and every one of them.  And God does stand beside us while we sleep and while we talk – the challenge to be attentive and to listen.  Only then can we see and know God is with us.

Okay.  I’ve put this off long enough – what about Paul and what he has to say?  First off, we need to understand that Paul is writing to the people in Corinth.   Corinth was much like New York City.  It was a center of commerce and filled with opportunity.  There were parts of life in Corinth that were wonderful – but then there were the parts of Corinth that you didn’t want to be at night unless you simply wanted to satisfy your basic instincts. 

There were people there who believed that we are spiritual and we are physical, but that the two are not connected.  The physical was not considered important, so they believed it was okay to do whatever felt good.  Paul writes that “The body is meant . . . for the Lord.”  All that God created, the mind, body, and spirit are good and should be used to accomplish God’s purpose.  What Paul writes in this section of his letter and what immediately follows has to do with his attempt to teach the people in Corinth that everything does matter.  Our spirit and our bodies are connected and we need to focus on uniting ourselves with God. 

While I agree with Paul, I don’t understand why those who established our lectionary linked this passage with our Old Testament and Gospel readings.   But I can say that as we understand our bodies to be holy, we understand that all relationships are important.  And, when we understand that others can introduce us to the divine, we understand the importance of listening to each other.  God entered into the world in the flesh of Jesus, and Christ calls each of us to do his will.  So if we listen, truly listen to others, we might just hear the Word of God spoken directly to us and see that Christ is standing beside us, watching over us. 

Let us pray.

Lord, make us instruments of your love.  Open our ears that we might hear you; open our eyes that we might see you and know that you are always with us.  Direct our lives that we might introduce others to the love you offer so freely.  We pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

January 8, 2012

Genesis 1:1-5                     Psalm 29                          Acts 19:1-7                          Mark 1:4-11

While on vacation, I was blessed to be able to help my father transition from a rehabilitation facility back to home.  What was to be surgery followed by five days in the hospital before returning home, turned into a two month absence from home filled with repeated hospitalizations and readmissions to rehab. 

He was motivated to do his therapy and he wanted nothing more than to return to home, but infections and other complications kept him from what he wanted.  Still, the day evidentially came and he is now home where he continues his therapy and he continues to improve despite the occasional setbacks.  Life is not easy, and living, truly living, is more challenging that we ever envisioned.  Today’s scriptures remind us of this fact.

We are now in Year B of our lectionary, and Mark is our principle Gospel for our Sunday readings.  Mark, might be considered the Readers Digest version of the Gospels, for it is the shortest of the four and he doesn’t waste a great deal of time providing us detail – but what he says in a few words can mean a great deal.  Mark doesn’t include a birth narrative – there are no shepherds, there are no wise men.  Rather, he begins by saying it is “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” and by using this quote from Isaiah:

Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

Then, with today’s scripture, Mark moves directly into Jesus preparing for his ministry.   

Now as I said, Mark gets right to the point.  Mark makes it clear from the very beginning his gospel is about Jesus – the Son of God, the Messiah, the one whose coming was foretold by the great prophet Isaiah.  Then he introduces us to John the Baptizer who is “clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and [who] ate locusts and wild honey.”  That was not the dress or the diet of the day, but one who was knowledgeable of the scriptures, a faithful Jew, would know that John the Baptizer was dressed like the great prophet Elijah. 

John was baptizing those who repented of their sins in preparation for the coming of the Messiah.  Baptism for the repentance of sins was a time honored practice among some sects of the Jewish faith – and it was used to symbolize turning one’s life away from sin and toward God.

John was baptizing in the River Jordan which the people of Israel crossed as they left behind their forty years in the wilderness and marched into the Promised Land – a land filled with milk and honey.  In a few short verses, Mark tells us that Jesus is the Messiah – the one Isaiah told us would come, and Mark makes the connection between the old and new.  Today we could say the Old and New Testaments, but when Mark wrote the gospel the connection was between the scriptures and the promise they offered – the coming of the messiah who would lead the people out of the wilderness of oppression and into the Promised Land once again.

Mark is the only Gospel where it actually says that John baptized Jesus.  The other gospels either talk around it or hint at it – but Mark says, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.”  We turn to the scriptures for answers, yet the baptism of Christ only raises questions.  Questions such as: “If Jesus never sinned, then why was he baptized which is the ritual act for repentance?” and “Did Jesus sin before his baptism?” The list of questions goes on and on – and theologians have written extensively on the subject. 

I’m glad I happen to be an Episcopalian and don’t have to have all the answers.  This past week when talking with a young couple I said I did not go to seminary seeking answers, but rather to better understand the questions.  I, of course, invited them to join us on our journey of faith as we celebrate the mystery of faith and seek to live in relationship with Christ and each other.  We do not have to – nor can we – have all the answers in order to appreciate what the scriptures have to offer us.

What happens next in today’s gospel is that after Jesus is baptized, the meaning of Christ’s presence is revealed.  Listen:

And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

I want you to notice that Mark says, “he [Jesus] saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending . . . on him.”  Mark says nothing about others there seeing or hearing what transpired when Jesus came out of the water.  What happens in baptism is very personal – and more. 

In Acts we find that Apollos is performing John’s baptism, which Paul notes is the baptism of repentance – but with the baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus, the people receive the Holy Spirit. 

In our church we say that the sacrament of baptism is an “outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.”  Jesus was there preparing to begin his ministry and he needed the inward and spiritual grace of the Holy Spirit to be upon him to resist temptation and to focus his attention on doing God’s will.  The Holy Spirit is transforming and life sustaining.

Christ is true life, but by his example we know that truly living is not easy.  We all experience setbacks, pain, and suffering in this life.  Christ certainly did – even to the point of death upon the cross.

Notice, too, that Mark says “the heavens were torn apart.”  This image will be used two other times in the Gospel of Mark.  The heavens open at the transfiguration and again at Christ’s death on the cross.  So Mark uses the imagery of the heavens opening at the beginning of his gospel, at the turning point in Christ’s ministry – the transfiguration, and at the crucifixion.  

This image of the heavens opening up reminds us that God is not content to live apart from humanity, but that God will do whatever it takes to enter into our lives bringing us the hope of life – even in the worst of times.  I have been with people who wonder why God has allowed them, or a loved one, to suffer, but I was inspired by my father who continued to give thanks throughout his ordeal. He gave thanks to God for all of his blessings. 

We are transformed by Christ and the Holy Spirit and that transformation allows us to see beyond ourselves and our individual pain and suffering.  It allows us to live in the face of death and not to lose hope, for our hope comes not from the physical but from the grace of God which is always with us to comfort us. 

At the final time Mark mentions that the heavens were torn open; it is the Roman guard who sees and understands that Jesus is the Son of God.  Mark makes it clear that Christ’s love and salvation is for all of humanity. 

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, so fill us with your Holy Spirit that we might live our lives in service to you and each other.   Amen.