Today's Verse: Mark 4:19 (NIV)
the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
In this verse, Jesus explains the parable of the sower and other parables that he taught. These are the people who hear the word but allow worldly things to choke it, like the grain is choked when it is planted among thorns.
Today's Comments:
The sermon that I will be preaching this Sunday takes up a similar thought. So, I will post today what I have written thus far and will complete the post when I have finished writing what I plan to say.
First, here are Sunday's lessons and readings:
Wisdom 1:16-2:1 (6-11) 12-22 (NRV)
The ungodly by their words and deeds summoned death;
considering him a friend, they pined away
and made a covenant with him,
because they are fit to belong to his company.
For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,
"Short and sorrowful is our life,
and there is no remedy when a life comes to its end,
and no one has been known to return from Hades.
["Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist,
and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.
Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes,
and let no flower of spring pass us by.
Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.
Let none of us fail to share in our revelry;
everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment,
because this is our portion, and this our lot.
Let us oppress the righteous poor man;
let us not spare the widow
or regard the gray hairs of the aged.
But let our might be our law of right,
for what is weak proves itself to be useless.]
"Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law,
and accuses us of sins against our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a child of the Lord.
He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
the very sight of him is a burden to us,
because his manner of life is unlike that of others,
and his ways are strange.
We are considered by him as something base,
and he avoids our ways as unclean;
he calls the last end of the righteous happy,
and boasts that God is his father.
Let us see if his words are true,
and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;
for if the righteous man is God's child, he will help him,
and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.
Let us test him with insult and torture,
so that we may find out how gentle he is,
and make trial of his forbearance.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected."
Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray,
for their wickedness blinded them,
and they did not know the secret purposes of God,
nor hoped for the wages of holiness,
nor discerned the prize for blameless souls.
Psalm 54 Page 659, BCP
Deus, in nomine
1
Save me, O God, by your Name; *
in your might, defend my cause.
2
Hear my prayer, O God; *
give ear to the words of my mouth.
3
For the arrogant have risen up against me,
and the ruthless have sought my life, *
those who have no regard for God.
4
Behold, God is my helper; *
it is the Lord who sustains my life.
5
Render evil to those who spy on me; *
in your faithfulness, destroy them.
6
I will offer you a freewill sacrifice *
and praise your Name, O LORD, for it is good.
7
For you have rescued me from every trouble, *
and my eye has seen the ruin of my foes.
James 3:16-4:6 (NIV)
16For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.
James 4
Submit Yourselves to God
1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?[a] 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."[b]
Footnotes:
a. James 4:5 Or that God jealously longs for the spirit that he made to live in us; or that the Spirit he caused to live in us longs jealously
b. James 4:6 Prov. 3:34
Mark 9:30-37 (NIV)
30They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." 32But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
Who is Greatest?
33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
36He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."
Here is my sermon:
As we listen to the Gospel for this week, we begin to get a picture of the disciples that certainly is not one that we would expect. These men had been following Jesus for a while. Peter had acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah, the son of God. And yet, they still quarreled among themselves over worldly things. They had yet to learn that there were two commandments which their master and teacher would have them follow: to love the Lord and to love their neighbor. And both commandments required that they submit themselves in humility and become servants of each other and those to whom they ministered. There was no greatest among them.
Both the Epistle and the Old Testament lesson focus on man’s corruption in the world. Often, we live for the moment, coveting things that we really don’t need. Our greed becomes more important than God. We ask God for things that bring us worldly pleasure instead of things that bring us closer to Him. We focus on survival at the expense of the others, instead of working together to build community that will please God. We allow ourselves to be blinded by wickedness instead of trying to understand God’s plan for us. Like the disciples, we end up quarreling over who is the most important, the richest, the most powerful, or the most influential.
The psalm offers us a solution: submission to God; it is when we offer prayer, praise, and thanks from our hearts that we are at our best. It is when we offer ourselves to others, as servants that the light of God shines in us and that light shines in the world.
One of my favorite sayings is that which was attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. He allegedly said, “Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words. There was a time in my life that many of you from this church did just that.
My wife Norma was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1979, and the disease steadily progressed until, in 1983 she could no longer walk and went into a wheelchair. In the 1990s, it was virtually impossible at times to get her to church. Yet, church would not be taken from us. As she grew weaker, Marge Avery and many of the women of this church faithfully visited Norma, sometimes three and four days a week. Lay Eucharistic Ministers, like Doug Lee, brought Communion to our house so that Norma would not have to go through the pain of being put in the car to make the trip to Placentia. Before Norma passed away in February of 2002, church was regularly held at the Sterry household in Whittier, and those who brought the sacrament were truly ministers to my family.
These acts of love by more than a few people at Blessed Sacrament illustrate, in my opinion, is what Jesus was trying to teach the twelve. These people preached the Gospel and did so with their acts of kindness. I never will forget what you did. And, I will never forget Marge’s reply to Norma when Norma asked why people from church needed to visit and minister to her instead of taking care of the things that they needed to do at home. Marge’s reply was that Norma was needed to teach them how minister.
