We need to have faith in God to deal with the practicalities of showing God’s love.
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Sermon in a sentence:
Sermon in a sentence:
Take my lips, Lord, and speak through them;
Take my lips, Lord, and speak through them;
Take our minds, Lord, and think through them;
Take our minds, Lord, and think through them;
Take our hearts, Lord, and set them on fire with love for You.
Take our hearts, Lord, and set them on fire with love for You.
In Jesus name. Amen.
In Jesus name. Amen.
When I was a boy there were some teachers who I liked more than others. One of the teachers I really liked at secondary school was Mr Niven. He taught English I think, He didn’t teach me a lot, which is probably why I’m unsure what his subject was, but he was one of those softly spoken teachers who as a pupil you instinctively know is good and kind, someone you can go to with a problem. One particular day I was in detention, I can’t remember specifically what for; I wasn’t a particularly disobedient or naughty child, so it was probably because I’d failed a test or got poor marks in something.
Mr Niven was taking detention, and I took the opportunity to complain that I shouldn’t be there, that I shouldn’t be at detention. And this softly spoken man, who didn’t raise his voice, and didn’t raise his voice now, told me off very firmly for taking that attitude, and for doing whatever it was that I’d done that had got me into detention in the first place. It was a telling off all the more powerful because he didn’t raise his voice and because of his moral authority. He was genuinely disappointed in me, and I still remember it forty years later.
Our gospel story today is a story in two parts, and one of them involves Jesus telling people off.
The first part of our gospel story tells of the transfiguration. Jesus goes up a mountain to pray with three of his disciples; Peter, James and John. While Jesus is praying his face changes and his clothes become dazzling white. The disciples see two men, Moses and Elijah, who appear and talk to Jesus. Slightly bedazzled by events, and not really knowing what he’s saying, Peter offers to put up tents for the three holy men. The mountainside is now covered in cloud and a voice comes from the cloud; ““This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” Then Jesus and the disciples are alone again on the mountainside.
The second part of the account happens the following day. Jesus and the disciples meet a crowd. A man from the crowd calls out to Jesus. He has a son, his only son, who is possessed and slowly being destroyed by what is happening to him. The man has asked Jesus’ disciples to drive the demon out, but they have been unable to. And at this point Jesus appears to get angry; “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus states, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? The boy convulses, and Jesus rebukes the impure spirit, heals the boy and hands him back to his father. And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.[1]
Now normally we look at these stories separately. Either looking at the transfiguration or the healing, but they go together. This story is in Matthew and Mark’s gospels as well as in Luke. There are differences between the accounts, but the broad story arc is exactly the same. In each of the gospel accounts Jesus predicts his own death and resurrection, although the disciples don’t really understand this, then about a week later Jesus experiences the transfiguration, which is witnessed by Peter, James and John, then the day after this Jesus heals the boy after the disciples have been unable to. Jesus then rebukes this unbelieving and perverse generation. And then Jesus again predicts his own death. This pattern, this story arc is exactly the same in all the gospels. The healing of the boy is integral to the transfiguration.
So before we look at the healing, we need to have a little look at the Transfiguration
and what that’s all about. The transfiguration is about God making clear who Jesus is, and that all that he is doing comes with God’s blessing. There are lots of signs of this in the story. Jesus face glows white. We heard in our Old Testament reading that that’s what happened to Moses when Moses met with God on Mount Sinai. Moses face shone because he had been talking to God.
And Moses met with God in a cloud. God spoke from a cloud, and this is what happens during the transfiguration. God speaks from the cloud, and Peter, James and John all hear the voice of God. These are devout men, who know their scriptures. They know they are in the presence of God, they should know too that Jesus is greater even than Moses and Elijah, “This is my son” Says God “listen to him”.
And the story of the transfiguration is the context of all that happens the next day, when the disciples failed to heal the boy.
I think it’s worth noticing that Jesus first recorded activity after the mountaintop experience is a healing.
The overall passage is about who Jesus is and what he is going to do on the cross. But it’s easy to interpret the passage as only being about that if we ignore the healing. I love the fact that in the middle of this story, which is about big and mysterious stuff involving the cross, and resurrection and God speaking from clouds, Jesus is still rooted in practicalities. Here is a suffering father and a suffering son who needs healing. Jesus is not begrudging with his love and his mercy. There is no question that Jesus isn’t going to heal the boy.
There is never a moment in the bible when Jesus turns the needy away. Scriptures are full of Jesus seeing those that need help, and then him giving that help. Sometimes it is a miraculous healing and we marvel at God’s power, but sometimes it’s just a kind word, said just at the right moment. Sometimes it’s just something that gives value back to people who society sees as valueless, the poor, the marginalized the grieving, or those that grow cocoa for pennies while corporations make millions.
There is a real balance to be got here, which sometimes we lose. Sometimes we focus on the big stuff, what happened on the cross and what that means; at the expense of loving our neighbour. Othertimes we make too much of the practicalities of loving people, as if it’s all there is. It’s worth remembering both great commandments;
The first commandment is this; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And the second is that you shall love your neighbour as yourself. In this story we see Jesus doing both, and we’re called to be like him.
The second point is that Jesus sometimes gets angry, and we need to look at why that is. Most importantly its important to work out whether what Jesus is getting angry about in the bible is something we are doing here and now. In this passage Jesus says “You unbelieving and perverse generation, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you?
Who is Jesus talking to? Well in one sense he’s talking to everybody around him, but I don’t think he’s talking to everyone equally. I don’t think he’s talking particularly to the father and his boy who have come to him in need. I do think he’s talking particularly to the disciples. They’ve seen water turned into wine. They’ve seen blind, crippled, and sick people healed. They’ve seen Jesus walk on the water. They’ve seen 5000 people fed with five loaves and two fish.
The day before three of the disciples witnessed God talk to Jesus from a cloud. Even if they hadn’t spoken to anybody else about what they had seen, even the other disciples, they should have been glowing full of awe at God’s power. Why hadn’t they had the faith to heal the boy as Jesus did. Jesus seems to think they should have had the faith to do it. Jesus isn’t saying; “never mind” maybe you’ll get it right next time.” “Never mind, at least you tried, that’s the important thing.” Jesus seems to be really and genuinely angry, much like Mr. Niven was with me forty years ago. Those are cutting words he uses, words which they clearly remember years later.
Today we’re remembering faith trade, and I probably haven’t talked about that enough. For two weeks each year, thousands of individuals, companies and groups across the UK come together to celebrate the people who grow our food, people who live in some of the poorest countries in the world and who are often exploited and badly paid. This year we are focusing on the people – in particular the women – who grow the cocoa in the chocolate we love so much. I would encourage you to support it, and talk to Andy for more details.
It’s a good thing to support. Overcoming injustice and taking responsibility for our neighbours is at the heart of both the Fair Trade movement and the gospel. God cares about justice, God wants us to love our neighbour. That’s good need to encourage it, but sometimes there is an element of futility about what we do; we do it because its right, not because we expect anything to fundamentally change, and may be that’s how the disciples felt when they tried to heal the boy.
I want to close by encouraging you to have faith that what we do when we fight injustice in God’s name can make a difference. Let’s not be a faithless and perverse generation. Like the disciples we need to remember that God is a God of power who does remarkable things. We need to remember that through his power and his love change does happen. Jesus called the generation that witnessed his life on earth a ‘faithless and perverse generation, yet those people, Peter, James and John went on to do wonderful things through the power of the Holy Spirit after the resurrection. Let’s lift our eyes to heaven, step out in faith and trust God.
[1] The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.