The 18th Sunday After Pentecost | September 22, AD 2024 | Mark 9:30-37 | Andrew F. Weisner |

Jeremiah 11:18-20

¹⁸It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew; then you showed me their evil deeds. ¹⁹But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. And I did not know it was against me that they devised schemes, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will no longer be remembered!” ²⁰But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously, who try the heart and the mind, let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.

James 3:13-4:10
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. 15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. 1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Mark 9:30-37
³⁰They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; ³¹for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” ³²But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.³³Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” ³⁴But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. ³⁵He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

Homily

“UP” and down… UP… and down… then UP again!… and down again… There is a certain pattern to life. UP and down… health… sickness, and then again, health… Mountain-top… down in the valley, and then climbing back up to the sun-light, and then to ascend to greater heights!… Triumph!… defeat… then climbing our way back up from defeat, yet to win again.

Even our young children, on some level, begin to understand this, especially if they are involved in sports: you win some, you lose some; you have a winning season, and then next year, maybe its “in the trenches;” but then the following year maybe its half-and-half; and so it goes until there’s an overwhelming winning season again, and then the fall from such grace, and then the whole cycle continues over again.

And then, sometimes, what appears – for the moment – to be “bad,” is not, over the course of time (beyond that momentary time-frame) so “bad” at all. One of my nieces was a volleyball player. I remember an occasion attending one of her games, watching a heated match with a worthy opponent, and there was a controversial call by a referee – not in favor of our team. Another volleyball-Dad (more experienced than I by watching years of volleyball) was sitting beside me and said, “That was not a bad call at all: Just watch.” Within the next two plays, a bit amazingly, immediately, our team rallied together with what appeared to be a renewed strength and commitment to win that was not there just moments before; to which the dad turned to me and said, “See there!” Sometimes, what appears to be really bad at a given moment – maybe even life-threatening – viewed in hindsight, and in the greater scheme of things, is not quite so bad after all.

Sometimes this is reported by one or more members of a family after the death of a family member. That person’s death, a sad occasion, brought the family together in ways that had never happened before and, for that family, was the start of something new. In a similar way, sometimes the diagnosis of a terrible, maybe even life-threatening illness, leads to new perspective, new learning, new information, that would not – could not – have happened before. A few years ago I knew a nursing major in college who was absolutely outstanding as a nursing student – graduated with honors, sought out and did great internships, and was exemplary in every way. And why was she such a highly motivated nursing major? Because of the admiration she had for her nurses when, as a child, she suffered for a long period and nearly died from cancer.

Even a bad experience can become a good experience. Loss can lead to gain. Tragedy can emerge into triumph. Up – and down – and then UP again.

There is a reason that this is the course, the pattern, of our lives – and, in fact, everyone’s life, and every family’s life. It is because this pattern is in the very fabric of creation, the very DNA of history.

This is a pattern often seen in the gospels: a high-point, and then a saying, or an event, related to suffering.

Today’s gospel reading is from Mark chapter 9, beginning with verse 30. What has happened before verse 30 is Jesus and three of his disciples (Peter, James, and John) up on a mountain and the event we usually call the Transfiguration, when Jesus appears to these three (during the night) in beautiful, glorious, dazzling clothes, flanked by two of the greatest heroes of the OT, Moses and Elijah; and a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved; Listen to him.” Certainly, this was a glorious, „mountain-top“ experience. And very soon after that, we have today’s reading: “he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.’³²But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.”

The ultimate example of this pattern (of „Up and Down“) is what we encounter – what we know – from the end of the 4 gospel’s stories: the betrayal of Jesus, the arrest of Jesus, the suffering of Jesus, and the death of Jesus; and then – because no single moment should be viewed by itself – three days later, is the resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus – St. Paul and St. John inform us – is the image of the invisible God; in him dwelled (and dwells) the fullness of God; in him, through him, all things were created, and in him all things continue to have their being. Jesus is the alpha and omega – the beginning and end – of all creation; he was with God the Father in the beginning, is now, and shall be at the end of history and creation as we know it, and ever shall be. Jesus’ life is a life for others; and then suffering, death, and resurrection. And because he is the One through whom all things were made, then the pattern of his life is THE pattern of history, THE pattern of creation: birth, life, death, and resurrection. Such is the pattern of his life, and such is the pattern of our lives.

Jesus, who is God, Incarnate (fully God and fully human), united himself with us in our common humanity. He became flesh and blood, thoughts and feelings, just as we are. We are further united with him in baptism: we are baptized into his life, his suffering, his resurrection. He is with us, and we are united to him, throughout all the Ups and Downs, all the tragedies and triumphs, of our lives. If we have been united with him in a suffering and death like his, we shall surely be united with him in a resurrection – and a glory – like his: the fulfillment of his promise to us that all things will work out, for us, for good. Come, Lord Jesus.

Pastor Andrew F. Weisner, Ph.D.
pastorweisner@gmail.com
Pastor, New Covenant Lutheran Church
Morganton, North Carolina, USA
Faculty, North American Lutheran Seminary, Ambridge, PA, USA