{"id":657587,"date":"2024-05-14T13:58:26","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T17:58:26","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-08-10T12:38:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T16:38:43","slug":"life-giving-force-pentecost-6-b-june-30-2024","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/life-giving-force-pentecost-6-b-june-30-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Life-Giving Force, Proper 8 (B) \u2013 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-green-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-green-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?e=DFMS2202617258&#038;light=true\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-green-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-green-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Pr8-2024-Cover-FB-1024x536.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-307600\" style=\"width:512px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>[RCL] Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23-24; Lamentations 3:21-33 or Psalm 30; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Note: During the 2024 Season after Pentecost, Sermons That Work will use Track 2 readings for sermons and Bible studies. Please consult our archives for many additional Track 1 resources from prior years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Think for a moment of someone in your family, your church, or your community who has died from an overdose. Recently, a 27-year-old who had been clean for five years and was poised to graduate from college in December used heroin one last time, which cost him his life. His death sparked outrage in the Native American community where he lived. Drug dealers know when checks are distributed by the tribal authorities and show up to distribute their poison accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In light of that tragic death, which is representative of many others, we hear this declaration from the Old Testament lesson from the Book of Wisdom:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>God didn\u2019t make death.<\/em><br><em>God takes no delight in the ruin of anything that lives.&nbsp;<\/em><br><em>God created everything so that it might exist.<\/em><br><em>The creative forces at work in the cosmos are life-giving. (Common English Bible)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">God didn\u2019t make death\u2026 okay\u2026 but we sure do experience it, don\u2019t we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our sacred narrative doesn\u2019t provide a clear origin story to explain death. The Wisdom writer suggests the devil got envious of God. Other strands in our tradition interpret Adam and Eve\u2019s disobedience in the Garden of Eden as the reason death got into what would have been paradise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It can be helpful to differentiate between two kinds of death: There is biological death, something most of us fear, and all of us will experience as the final part of our earthly life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then there is death in the spiritual realm, death as a symbol of evil, a force that opposes goodness, abundant life, and wholeness. In our baptismal covenant, we acknowledge this death-dealing force by asking our baptismal candidates to renounce \u201cthe spiritual forces of wickedness,\u201d the \u201cevil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God,\u201d and the \u201csinful desires that draw [a person] away from the love of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This young man\u2019s death is particularly sad because it was the \u201cspiritual forces of wickedness,\u201d those \u201cevil powers&#8230; which corrupt and destroy,\u201d that led to what would be his biological death. Death upon death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, if God didn\u2019t make death, as the author of Wisdom claims, then why does God allow it? This, my friends, is a great mystery that humans cannot answer, not fully, not satisfactorily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, our faith is clear about God\u2019s <em>response<\/em> to death. God\u2019s response to the death force is a person: Jesus, <em>God with Us<\/em>. God\u2019s response is to enter into our world, where there is destructive poison \u2013 whether the literal poison of opioids or the metaphorical poisons that incapacitate our native goodness, that interrupt our intentions to love God, our neighbors, and ourselves. Through Jesus\u2019 humanity, God <em>enters<\/em> into the world with us, <em>accompanies<\/em> us through it, and, at the end, <em>carries<\/em> us across Jordan into the Promised Land, into the real-er reality of eternal life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jesus is the embodiment of the creative, life-giving force. In fact, Jesus is the creative force; he is the Word through whom all things came to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But in case that seems abstract, we get very concrete examples of what happens when that creative, life-giving force is loosed on the world in the Gospel of Mark. Last week, Jesus tamed the forces of nature at the end of chapter 4. Then, in chapter 5, in the verses we skip, Mark tells us about a man so fearsome, so threatening, so possessed by demons, that his community chained him to tombstones to try to contain him. Talk about the death force in action! Jesus saw him from a distance and commanded the death force to leave him. That force entered pigs \u2013 you remember this story? And the townsfolk were so freaked out by the creative, life-giving force in their midst, that they asked Jesus to leave \u2013 ASAP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that brings us to today\u2019s story. Jesus heads back across the lake and the crowd is waiting at the shore. The crowd wants what each of us wants most deeply: Grace. Grace: Unmerited goodness or favor. Grace: Love in action. Grace: There is always more of it; it abounds, it&#8217;s amazing, it never ceases. And it just pours out of Jesus, an unlimited supply. In Jesus, God chose to surround himself with our sicknesses, our problems, our pettiness, our fear and just kept on pouring out grace upon grace. And when it seemed like the death force was just about to stop him, Jesus poured even more grace out through his blood on the cross, blood that is shared with us when we take Holy Communion, so that some of that creative life-giving force of the cosmos enters into each one of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This life-giving force is available for us if we are well-heeled and respected in the community, like the synagogue leader, Jairus. This life-giving force is available for us if we are so unimportant in the world\u2019s eyes that the scribes don\u2019t bother recording our name, like the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. (But you know, it doesn\u2019t matter \u2013 Jesus took time to hear the whole truth, and he knew her name!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This life-giving force seems to be especially available to us when we are at the point of ultimate desperation, our wits\u2019 end, and our pretenses and protective mechanisms and ego shields come down. When we are so ashamed, all we can do is reach out to Jesus and hope not to be noticed. Or when we fling ourselves at his feet, making a scene in front of the whole town, begging like Jairus. The life-giving, creative force at work in the cosmos is available to us, finds us in our shame, and listens to our whole truth. That woman mentioned earlier wasn\u2019t only cured of her physical ailment; she was healed from her shame and reminded of her dignity, that she \u2013 just as much as Jairus and his 12-year-old daughter, and just as much as the Gerasene Demoniac, and just as much as each person who has died too soon from an overdose\u2013 was, as the Common English Bible says it, the \u201cperfect representation of God\u2019s unique identity,\u201d made to \u201clive forever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You see, in Christ, there is no death. Jesus gives us perfect healing, wholeness, and the gift of eternal life \u2013 but often, we have to wait for it (it was 12 years for the bleeding woman whose name only Jesus knows), and surely the time it took for her to tell the \u201cwhole truth\u201d to Jesus probably felt like 12 years for the desperate father, Jairus. But friends, as we wait, maybe we can hear that Jesus\u2019 words to Jairus are actually for us: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, just keep on trusting.\u201d Or, when we can\u2019t hear those words, someone else in the church, someone who is holding us up in prayer can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But here is even more good news, friends. We \u2013 and <em>you<\/em> in particular \u2013 are part of this creative, life-giving force of the cosmos because we are Christ\u2019s Body on earth. We steward a portion of Christ\u2019s immeasurable grace. We receive grace, and then God entrusts us with influencing where some of that grace goes! Now, God knows, everyone needs it \u2013 from the privileged synagogue leader Jairus to the woman whose name only Jesus knows, but let\u2019s face it: the world is stingy toward the poor. We spread God\u2019s grace where it can affect salvation, healing, and wholeness, especially in places most people don\u2019t want to go, where the death force is strong, like the tombs where the Gerasene Demoniac was chained up, or among those caught in intergenerational poverty, or among those who are addicted to poison first offered as candy. It is to those places, where we steward and let loose a portion of the creative, life-giving force within each of us. Thus, we participate in, perpetuate, and promulgate that live-saving grace that flows from, in, and through Jesus \u2013 grace that never runs out, not even in the face of death. Thanks be to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This sermon was written by <strong>the Rev. Joslyn Ogden Schaefer<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-a2fbe6f4-6d75-43db-b906-e42569bac160\" href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Sermon-Proper-8-B-English.docx\">Word \u2013 Pentecost 6 (B) Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Sermon-Proper-8-B-English.docx\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-a2fbe6f4-6d75-43db-b906-e42569bac160\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-53b593c5-c179-460c-9baa-b46a9a17494f\" href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Sermon-Proper-8-B-English.pdf\">PDF \u2013 Pentecost 6 (B) Sermon<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.episcopalchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Sermon-Proper-8-B-English.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-53b593c5-c179-460c-9baa-b46a9a17494f\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[RCL] Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23-24; Lamentations 3:21-33 or Psalm 30; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43 Note: During the 2024 Season after Pentecost, Sermons That Work will use Track 2 readings for sermons and Bible studies. Please consult our archives for many additional Track 1 resources from prior years. Think for a moment of someone&#8230;<\/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":[373],"class_list":["post-657587","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-8b"],"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":373,"label":"Proper 8B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/657587","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/657587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3477517,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/657587\/revisions\/3477517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}