\u201cLet us go across to the other side,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why? What\u2019s over there, on that dark shore, with those menacing black clouds? Why do we have to go to the other side when there\u2019s a storm brewing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re a Harry Potter fan, you will remember boggarts. A boggart is a shape-shifting creature that takes on the form of your worst fear. Ron\u2019s worst fear was giant spiders. Hermione\u2019s was having a professor tell her she failed. Harry\u2019s boggart was a dementor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s what\u2019s over there \u2013 on the other side \u2013 boggarts! Things that take the shape of your worst fears. The people you don\u2019t like. The conversations you\u2019d rather avoid. The places you really don\u2019t want to go. They\u2019re all over there, on the other side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark starts this Gospel with, \u201cWhen evening had come.\u201d \u2013 you see, there\u2019s always a growing darkness in these kinds of stories \u2013 \u201cWhen evening had come,\u201d he said to them, \u201clet\u2019s go across to the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If this were a screenplay instead of scripture, he might have said, \u201cLet\u2019s go into the cellar of this old house,\u201d \u201cLet\u2019s check out this abandoned hospital,\u201d \u201cLet\u2019s head toward that cabin in the woods.\u201d And one of the disciples would turn to the camera and say, \u201cI\u2019ve got a bad feeling about this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe one of them did, just before they stepped onto the boat, because they knew what was on the other side \u2013 or they thought they did. Gigantic Philistines are over there. Mad kings. Gentiles. People possessed with legions of demons. Anyone and everyone who doesn\u2019t like them and everyone they don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Others\u201d are over there, on the other side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark is writing for a community grappling with how to include those who are different, those who have historically been enemies, those looked upon as sinners, as outsiders\u2026as dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark\u2019s community is wrestling with questions like:
\nIf Gentiles come into this mostly Jewish community, do they have to be circumcised? Do we all have to follow the same dietary laws? How do we accept someone into this community if they don\u2019t read scripture the same way we do? How do we accept someone who looks different? Someone who speaks another language? Who doesn\u2019t fit our boxes of gender, race, or class? How do we live with these others in our midst? Especially if they have a different understanding of how we do things? What if they are fearful, and violent, and want to do us harm?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark\u2019s community is in the midst of a voyage into this dark, fearful, and uncharted territory. Sound familiar? It\u2019s a journey that is always chaotic. How do we live alongside the Others in our community? Do we change them, or do they change us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a crossing that is never easy, but we make it many, many times in our life. Every crossing feels like sailing in the dark. With all the changes around us, we are sailing in the midst of a storm. How do we cope when the structures and institutions we\u2019ve always relied on to support us can no longer be counted on? When so many of them are visibly shaking under the strain of so much change?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What do we do when our life situation changes, when the wind shifts, and the seas rage, and the resources \u2013 the money, the people, the time \u2013 that we\u2019ve come to rely on are no longer there? What do we do then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What do we do when the weapons of terror and hate are raised against our brothers and sisters? \u201cTeacher, don\u2019t you care that we are perishing!?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus makes this sea crossing to \u201cthe other side\u201d with the disciples twice in Mark. Both times are at night; both times there is a storm. This time, Jesus goes with them and sleeps in the stern. The next time, he will make them get in the boats by themselves and go on without him. When they get in trouble, he will walk to them in the midst of the storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each time, he gets a little more impatient with them for simply expecting that he will perform a divine act and relieve them of their fear. Mark seems to be telling us that we have to do some work. That we are to learn how to respond faithfully in these situations, rather than simply reacting out of fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are to find the strength and some kind of inner calm that will allow us to endure, and even grow, through these storms. Through faith. Through the faith, the trust, that Christ is here with us in the boat. Christ is with all who suffer. Christ is the peace, and the strength, and the calm that we draw on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need to continually seek that inner calm\u2014that courage\u2014because Jesus will keep calling us to go to that other shore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What or who is on the other side for you? What are your boggarts? We all have them; there are all kinds of \u201cother sides\u201d. For the young, growing up and becoming an adult is an other side. For those who are older, retirement is an other side. What will I do, who will I be, if I\u2019m not working? The other side might be getting married, or getting divorced, facing an operation, or saying goodbye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the many who are well-off, poverty can be the other side. The lived experience of people of color is the other side for many Americans. The lived experience of so many on the margins is the other side for many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For all of us, the other side is ultimately death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We all have other sides, places that we don\u2019t want to go. But that\u2019s where Jesus invites us to go. That\u2019s where Jesus wants us to go. That\u2019s where Jesus is taking us: to the other side, into that foreign territory, to that place we\u2019d rather not go, wherever those \u201cothers\u201d are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus wants us to go there, not because it\u2019s our job to change them. Jesus doesn\u2019t insist on a night voyage on a stormy sea to make an impact on the ones who live across the sea. He does it to change the ones making the voyage. He does it to change the disciples, to change us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He does it so that we will experience a change in ourselves, so that we will discover that reservoir of hope, that endless supply of peace and courage, that grace that enables us to keep making these voyages. That enables us to open wide our hearts to any and all who seek Christ, to all who are marginalized, to all whose stories we need to hear in order for us to recognize\u2014and more fully participate in\u2014 the spread of God\u2019s reign of justice and peace, so that we might one day live together with all our sisters and brothers, in unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLet us go across to the other side,\u201d he says. Why? What\u2019s over there, on that dark shore, with those menacing black clouds? Why do we have to go to the other side when there\u2019s a storm brewing? If you\u2019re a Harry Potter fan, you will remember boggarts. A boggart is a shape-shifting creature that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,52,33,1953],"tags":[371],"class_list":["post-512351","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-7b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":1953,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":371,"label":"Proper 7B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951014,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512351\/revisions\/951014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}