Loading...Sermon – June 28, 2015
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
The child is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. Mark 5:39-40
Please be seated.
I laugh a lot. Often, I laugh when others don’t. I know my laughing can be annoying, because at times it seems out of place. I laugh because life is absurd. I laugh because life is amusing. And I laugh because life is funny.
I relate to the people in our Gospel today. Jesus has been summoned to Jairus’ home. Jairus’, a leader in the Synagogue, has a daughter who is dying and Jairus believes Jesus can save his daughter.
Jesus gets interrupted along the way; however, and word comes to Jesus that Jairus’ daughter has died. Now, Jesus was rather busy, I think, don’t you? So it would have been easy for Jesus to just turn around and not go to the home. Instead, Jesus continues to the house, explaining that the girl is only sleeping. And everyone laughs. They don’t think Jesus is being a comedian. Rather they laugh because they think he is absurd...that he is not in touch with reality.
Mind you, they’d been witnessing the healings he was doing, but they still laughed. They still didn’t believe.
I don’t know about you, but this past week, I’ve been glued to the TV news. First it was the massacre at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston. What can you say about that? Couldn’t you picture this – being in a church meeting or class and welcoming a newcomer. And then to have such hatred and violence erupt.
As the days went by, we learned more and more about the amazing lives of those who were murdered. Next came the families who, even while deeply mourning the loss of their loved ones, refused to live in hatred and fear. "We forgive," they said. A campaign called, “Hate Won’t Win” was started by some family members.
Then something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime happened: Politicians all over South Carolina and throughout other states called for removing the Confederate flag from government buildings and then major retailers said they’d stop selling items with the flag on them! The son of former Senator Strom Thurmond, State Senator Paul Thurmond, gave an amazing speech on the floor of the South Carolina Senate. He called for the flag to come down, saying:
“It is time to acknowledge our past, atone for our sins, and work for a better future. That future cannot be built on symbols of war, hate, and divisiveness.”
Then, he acknowledged what I’ve heard few people who are White acknowledge…. The Charleston City Paper reported it this way:
“I am aware of my heritage,” Thurmond said of his family’s place in S.C. history, and specifically the Civil War. Referring to slavery and the War’s role in preserving it, Thurmond said, “I am not proud of this heritage. These practices were inhumane and wrong, wrong, wrong.” (//www.charlestoncitypaper.com/TheBattery/archives/2015/06/23/charleston-state-sen-paul-thurmond-whose-father-ran-for-president-as-a-dixiecrat-will-vote-to-remove-the-confederate-flag)
He wasn’t afraid to acknowledge his past…to speak the truth about his ancestors AND to say that the decisions his ancestors made were wrong.
But then, he went even further:
“I am proud to take a stand and no longer be silent. We must take down the Confederate flag and we must take it down now. But if we stop there, we have cheated ourselves out of an opportunity to start a different conversation about healing in our state. I am ready."
He said we must do more than take the flag down! We must do more and we can no longer be silent. I had to watch the funeral for The Rev. Pinckney, because I knew his pastoring…his Christian love and caring was so strong that it made truly amazing things happen, like forgiveness and like the changed heart of Senator Paul Thurmond.
Now if someone would have told me two weeks ago that Senator Strom Thurmond’s son would make such a strong statement and that the Confederate Flag would finally be seen as a symbol of hatred and oppression, I would have laughed and laughed. I would have hoped it’d be true, but I would have laughed just like those people who laughed at Jesus.
Then, as I was watching Senator Pinckney's funeral, the news came that the Supreme Court ruled that marriage is available to people in same-gender relationships! All day my Facebook feed was filled with photos of so many of my friends in same sex relationships who had gotten married in a state where it was legal, but were now able to be recognized in every state! What joy! What joy! And it was particularly poignant, because a number of Supreme Court decisions regarding same gender marriage were decided on this same date AND it’s Pride month AND the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, considered a pivotal point in LGBT history is today!
While you could kind of see this coming, it still wasn’t certain. And the road has been long and there is still so much contention and what I’d call hatred, even with this court decision. So, I’m afraid I would have laughed if you’d have told me that in my lifetime same gender marriage would be the law of the land.
So you see, I identify with the people who laughed at Jesus. The proof of the power of Jesus was right in front of them. They’d seen it demonstrated over and over again. That’s why they came out to see and hear Jesus. Yet, they still doubted. They were still caught in their little box of what life should look like. Their faith was bound by the limits they set. Their response to Jesus was to laugh at him in scorn.
And I laugh at Jesus too. I don’t always believe in Jesus’ power. There is a point at which my faith stops, because my mind cannot even fathom and can barely imagine changes like those that occurred this past week. Even, though I've been working to support those changes for year, I still couldn't believe in the power of Jesus to make the changes happen. I still have a hard time believing what Jesus can ultimately do.
Where are the places that you laugh at Jesus and think change or a miracle is impossible? Maybe this week we can stop our disbelieving laughter. Maybe instead of laughing, we can know deeply that righteous change can happen in this world.
Amen
