Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
‹Robert Herrick›
Atlantis: the domain of the Stingray
29Jul
2012
Sun
14:59
author: Stingray
category: Sermons
comments: 0
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Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 6:45-56

Pentecost 9B 2012 Wordle
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear saints assembled in the nave of Christ Our Savior, the Ark which is the Church of God in Elizabeth, there is much fear and and lack of understanding in today’s Gospel. It’s a picture we are given of the Church, with her hardness of heart, and Her Bridegroom who is always faithful to her, to bring her comfort and calm her fears.

Jesus sent out his disciples on a sort of internship. Had that been the LCMS back then, He would have sent out 12 vicars, two-by-two, as He had given them the message that people should repent. Herod caught word of it, and thought that John the Baptizer was back from the dead. The disciples returned and shared all good things with their teacher, “both what they had done and what they had taught.” (Mark 6:30) They retired to a deserted place, but a multitude followed them; as it was getting late, Jesus had compassion on them and fed them, the men numbering 5000, with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Then, Jesus sent His little church ahead of them in a boat across the sea.

This wouldn’t be the first time that the Church of God would find itself, few in number, in a boat, alone on what feels like a vast sea. A couple millennia before, a small group of people, a church of 8 people, were on the Ark that Noah built, according to I AM’s instructions, carrying in it all kinds of animal life and the only remaining vestiges of human civilization. After almost 14 months aboard the Ark, YHWH spoke to Noah,

Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. (Genesis 8:16-17)

The flood waters receded, and the Church of God disembarked, and God gave to Noah and his family the blessing spoken to Adam and Eve in Paradise. By water was the world, with all of its evil, drowned, and in the Ark a few, “that is, eight souls, were saved through water.” (1 Peter 3:20)

Those of you who know me well enough, know that I like to quote the next verse, in part, “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism..., through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.” (1 Peter 3:21-22) The basic subject-verb-predicate structure of verse 21 is this: “Baptism saves us.” This is not the removal of filth from the body, not a mere washing, but the answer or covenant of a good conscience toward God. As Luther wrote,

You are not kept and saved by washing away filth of the flesh, so that the body may be clean, as was the practice of the Jews; such purification has no further value. But you are kept by “the covenant of a good conscience toward God.” That is, that you feel your conscience to be rightfully at peace within you, because it stands in covenant with God and can say: He has promised to me that which he will fulfill, for he cannot lie. If you shall rely upon and cleave to his Word, then shall you be preserved. Faith alone is “the covenant” by which we shall be kept; no outward work which you can do will suffice.

This faith, the covenant, rests solely upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who died that we may live. For, this faith would be empty, useless, in vain, had Jesus the Christ not arisen. (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:14)

So Jesus sent His little church ahead of Him across the lake to the land of Gennesaret, where he once cast out the Legion of demons from the possessed man.1 (cf. Mark 5:1-13) He had work there to do yet, before dying for the sins of the world, and rising again to bring life and immortality to light. One almost wonders if perhaps Jesus was planning to walk to Gennesaret across the lake. He certainly had no need for a boat, being the Son of God, though He certainly knew He would be walking on the water on that day.

Jesus had retreated to a mountain to pray. Of in the distance, He saw His little church struggling against the wind and waves, the boat they were in being tossed to and fro by the elements of the world it was in, and He walked out to it. This is He who was in the beginning, whose Spirit hovered over the deep (cf. Genesis 1:2), through whom all things were created, now walking as master over the deep places of the Sea of Galilee.

Seeing Him, the disciples didn’t know what was going on, and they were afraid. They supposed Jesus a ghost. Then, Jesus spoke, “Be of good cheer! [I AM]; do not be afraid.” “Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled. For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.” Once the disciples asked, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (Mark 4:41) One might wonder if they thought this again. The Word of God goes for a stroll on the water and saves His little Church.

As I said, what we are given in today’s Gospel is a picture of the Church, with her hardness of heart, and Her Bridegroom who is always faithful to her, to bring her comfort and calm her fears. I AM comes to His Church and saves all therein by water and the Word and forgives them of all their sins. This He did as He made His way to Gennesaret, and from there toward Jerusalem, where the lambs were slaughtered as the bloody sacrifice for atonement. Jesus goes as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. (cf. John 1:29); He goes as the once-for-all bloody sacrifice for the atonement of the world—for the eight souls on Noah’s Ark, the twelves souls in the little boat, the souls in this boat which is the Ark of God in Elizabeth, indeed for all!

Yet, those in His Church always struggle with hardness of heart. Much as the disciples did not understand the loaves, today the members of the Church of God never fully comprehend the Word of God, what He has said, what He has taught, and what He has done. Oh, from time to time, something will click, but with hearts hardened by sin, comprehension is hard to come by, if you don’t mind the pun. You still struggle with sin, you commit sins, your hearts are hardened against the Word of God. Though declared a friend of God, redeemed of God, you still act as His enemy in need of His forgiveness.

Of particular note is when the Church acts like the disciples in today’s Gospel. If you look around, you’ll not see Jesus. He doesn’t come walking through these doors for all to see and greet. It can appear and feel at times as if Jesus is distant or not even among us, even though He is present. So, the gathering will attempt all sorts of maneuvers to get moving, but she’ll get nowhere, just like the little boat in today’s lesson, the disciples struggling against the wind and the waves. Winds and waves batter the Church of God, and when the little congregation in one place or another tries to “go it alone,” when it tries to make headway without Jesus, it gets nowhere, and the winds and waves continue to batter Her.

If it continues in this way, it will quickly become deceived into thinking it can make it on its own. Little headway may be made and hailed as great strides. Pews will be filled thanks to Christ-less programs and unbloody references to a Jesus who is a great example and teacher, though not Savior in the way for which He came. However, the winds and waves will continue to batter that little place as the devil continues to convince it and the members there that it is staying afloat, even succeeding, though it is slowly sinking. Ultimately, this will destroy it, as it does not know the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Places like these are known among us. We may know of a place here in Elizabeth or in Castle Rock or Parker. Certainly there are many in Denver or the Springs. But we may be quick to deny that such an account can include us. How often we, who confess faith in Jesus the Christ, fully relying on His bloody sacrifice for the remission of our sins, trusting that He has done all the work for our salvation, quickly and easily succumb to one erring doctrine or another which seeks to prove that we can work out our salvation or somehow contribute to it, that when trials and hardships come it is up to us to work or persevere through them in order to reach God. What hardness of heart afflicts His Church’s members. An age-old Christian adage bears repeating: “Works availeth a man nothing.”

The truth of the matter is that Jesus does not leave His Church in distress. He is always with Her, sees her in all of her weaknesses, in all of her travails and hardships, and He is present for Her rescue. He comes to Her has master over all of the deep, fearful places, even as He has is master over life and death by way of His own death and resurrection. “Fear not; I AM,” He says, and the winds and the waves cease.

But before I hastily move along, it serves us well to recognize that in that little boat to which Jesus walked sat a group of men who were sent out, first as vicars, to put it crudely, and after Pentecost, as ordained apostles, men through which Jesus would be given to countless numbers of people in many different places. These same men who did not understand the loaves because their hearts were hardened were sent to proclaim Jesus and Him crucified for the forgiveness of sins—the message of repentance—to give to Christ’s people the very Bread of Life! Did they still struggle with hardness of heart? You better believe they did! Being an apostle does not make one more perfect than being just another member of the Bride of Christ. They still sinned, long after Jesus rose and ascended into heaven; they still needed to hear the message of repentance and the sweet Gospel of the forgiveness of their sins by the blood of the Lamb.

And the same goes today. I suppose we can count it as a minor miracle that the Church is served by the Holy Office, that ordinary, sinful men are called and ordained into this office to continue the ministry of those apostles—proclaiming the forgiveness of sins through Christ crucified, to give to His people the very Bread of Life. These men, like their apostolic predecessors, have hard hearts, too; they, too, sin and need to hear the message of repentance and the sweet Gospel of the forgiveness of their sins, even as it comes from their own lips. Speaking merely as the man standing in the pulpit, I am humbled everytime I point to the image in the mirror and say, “He chose you,” and I marvel at it all, that you and I are both served by Christ through me, that in those times when we try to go it alone, we confess that for the sin that it is, then hear the words of Christ from the mouth of His called shepherd, “Fear not, I AM.” In those words, as much as it did in today’s Gospel, even today, the winds and the waves cease (if only for a moment), and we have God-given peace.

It is a peace which we have by way of being Baptized, a peace we are directed to every time the words of Holy Absolution are spoken. “Baptism saves us,” St. Peter wrote. By water and the Word Christ came to you and said, “I AM; you are mine, and you are forgiven.” These are words which are repeated in your hearing every time Christ’s mouthpiece speaks in your hearing the forgiveness of your sins. And make no mistake, no matter how hard his heart is, no matter how great or trivial we think his sin is, these words he speaks are those of Christ; he speaks them into your ears, and they do to you and give to you what they say.

Jesus Christ is here. He is come and says, “Fear not; I AM.” He comes in Word and Sacrament and stills the wind and the waves and He strengthens your faith. Yes, He comes even to this nave, to the Church of God in Elizabeth, this holy Ark of Christendom in this place to give and strengthen your faith with these words: You are forgiven for all of your sins.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

1 Whoops...Gennesaret and Gadara are two different places. My confusion... Fortunately, it makes no bearing on the doctrine in the sermon; it was simply an error of basic data.
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