2nd Sunday After Pentecost, June 7, 2015

Collect for the Day

O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Lesson: Genesis 3:8-15

The man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" He said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate." The LORD God said to the serpent,

Because you have done this,

     cursed are you among all animals

     and among all wild creatures;

     upon your belly you shall go,

     and dust you shall eat

     all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

     and between your offspring and hers;

     he will strike your head,

     and you will strike his heel.

Reflections: History has insisted on giving Eve a bad rap, but most of us know that is a misinterpretation and a distortion. This story is about big questions, like the human relationship with one another and with God, and our place in the universe. One of the themes is blame; one thing that rings true is how quickly we cast blame when we have betrayed ourselves in some way.

Another theme here is that we are not isolated. What we do—and who we become—has implications not only for ourselves or the people we know, but for the whole creation. We make choices and act based on what we think will be good for us, but those actions have implications far beyond what we imagine. But the human/non-human duality is artificial.

Fortunately, while we are largely oblivious to, or uninterested in, the whole picture, God is not. This Genesis account, along with passages elsewhere in the Bible, such as Ephesians and Romans (such as chapter 8), demonstrates that. 

Psalm 138 Confitebor tibi

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart* before the gods I will sing your praise.
I will bow down toward your hold temple and praise your Name, * because of your love and faithfulness;
For you have glorified your Name* and your word above all things.
When I called, you answered me* you increased my strength within me.
All the kings of the earth will praise you, O Lord,* when they have heard the words of your mouth.
They will sing of the ways of the Lord,* that great is the glory of the Lord.
Though the Lord be high, he cares for the lowly;* he perceives the haughty from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you keep me safe;*

          you stretch forth your hand against the fury of my enemies; your right hand shall save me.

The Lord will make good his purpose for me;*

          O Lord, your love endures for ever; do not abandon the works of your hands.

Reflections: The psalmist proclaims in faith, “O Lord, your love endures for ever.” Then, ironically, prays, “do not abandon the works of your hands.” Don’t we sometimes feel confidence in God’s love, and yet at other times feel as though we were completely alone?

          But God is faithful and never abandons us. What is it that Paul says in Romans 8: 38-9? “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, no things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 4:14-5:1

Just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—"I believed, and so I spoke" -- we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

          So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  

Reflections: We live in a halfway house. In a sense, we are “halfway” people, with our “outer nature” wasting away, and our “inner nature” being continually renewed. It is not easy to negotiate a path between the all-too-seen and the as-yet-hoped-for-but-still-unseen, yet that is the privilege into which we have been invited.

The fact is, when things are going well, few us are closer to God than when things are going badly. Most of the time we are preoccupied and God is just another person competing for our attention. And perhaps not always the most interesting one.

          And then when bad things happen (especially when there’s nobody and nothing to blame), when I’m overwhelmed, when my heart is broken, all I see is brutality and soullessness.

At those times, I find no visible trace of Paul’s hope for renewal or redemption. My heart cries out in desperation. I need meaning and hope like I need air to breathe. It is precisely then, I suspect, that the Spirit prays with our spirit with “sighs too deep for words.” Holy is not synonymous with comfortable. 

Gospel: Mark 3:20-35

The crowd came together again, so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons." And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

"Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" -- for they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." 

Reflections: The scribes resort to name calling; they blame Jesus’ teaching on a demon. When we start calling someone names, it’s a sure sign that we’re losing the argument. It’s a sort of desperate lashing out when we’ve run out of ammunition. We dig in and refuse to accept that we may have be wrong.

That seems to be what Jesus is talking about when he indicates that the scribes are committing the “unforgiveable sin.” While two millennia of Christians have worried about what this sin us, as Father Tony said in his homily—if you’re worried about it, you haven’t done it. From the context of this gospel passage, it looks to me that the unforgivable sin has to do with refusing to be open inside.

What is this talk about “unforgiveable”? I suspect it’s unforgiveable because we turn away from the forgiveness eternally extends towards us. Ultimately it is not God who withholds.