Another Desperate Story

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost                                              
September 12, A+D 2021
Our Redeemer and 
Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD

    Another desperate story.  Today from Mark chapter 9 we hear of a desperate and so also determined father, seeking deliverance for his son, who is tormented by a demon. 

    Is it too much?  Too many Sundays in a row with intense themes, life and death, anguish and fear?  To be honest, today’s preacher wouldn’t mind some lighter fare, a less intense subject.  How about you, the hearers? 

    Most of us certainly prefer our days to be less stressful, less full of drama. Many of you have told me that you stayed here, have returned here, or have just moved here, to find some peace and quiet.  To escape the craziness that seems to be taking over the rest of our country.  Shelee and I are also glad to be living in rural western America, once again.  But we all know that stress and trouble will find us. 

    The committee of theologians who put together our lectionary, our system of assigned Sunday readings, was a group of frail human beings, just like us.  I imagine they too sometimes felt overwhelmed by the intensity of the Biblical narratives.  But thanks be to God, they were guided by a faithfulness to Scripture, by a commitment to reflect as well as possible the overall thrust of the Biblical story.  We could cherry pick some gentler, happier Bible passages, and only use those for our Sunday texts.  But that wouldn’t be faithful. 

    Read through the whole Bible and you will find that the intensity which sometimes makes us uncomfortable is consistent throughout, from Genesis 3 to Revelation.  In fact, there are plenty of stories we rarely talk about, and never use in Sunday School, because they are simply too much.  The Bible is a story of life and death, of danger and rescue, of human sin and folly, and God’s response.  I think our lectionary faithfully presents the whole counsel of God to us; that is to say it faithfully reflects what the Holy Spirit caused to be written down.  And while the Holy Spirit knows what we prefer to hear, His Bible is full of what He knows we need to hear. 

    And it’s not just the Sunday Bible readings that can seem too stressful.  Too often, the events of our Monday through Saturday pile on, and so we are triggered by the readings we hear in Church, because they cut too close to what we struggled with last week.  We really do prefer peaceful, happy days.  But we also know that even the best of moments can turn difficult in the blink of an eye. 

    I’m reminded of a young father I knew, who was enjoying a morning out with his two children.  The parking lot of a church was kitty corner to the edge of their back yard, and so on a crisp fall afternoon the young dad, carrying his year-old daughter, helped his four-year-old son drag his training wheel bike out to the lot, to practice riding a bit.  It could have been a Norman Rockwell painting, a lovely outing, right up to the point that a pebble turned the front wheel of the bike, and the novice four-year-old rider overcorrected, and ended up flying over the handlebars, breaking his fall with his face. 

   From idyllic to panic in an instant.  Blood flowed frightfully, like it does from the face and mouth of a little child.  Little sister started wailing at the sight and sound of her beloved brother, bleeding and crying.  And poor dad.  He was a stout fellow in most situations, except when it came to seeing his kids get hurt.  Choking back panic, (how bad is it for a four-year-old to lose his front baby teeth?), trying his best to calm his daughter and his son, he couldn’t even think clearly enough to just leave the bike.  No, he shuffled along, trying to juggle two kids and a bike as he hurried back toward the house, desperate to find his wife, and share the crisis.       

   That young dad’s biking incident doesn’t begin to compare to the distress of the father and son in our Gospel reading today.  But it flows from the same place.  I encourage every married couple who are able to have kids.  Children are very near to the top of the list of gifts from God.  Parenting is among the first and highest of earthly callings.  To have children is to cooperate with the Lord in the creation of new people.  It is filled with wonder and love.  Nothing beats parenthood. 

   But, being a parent isn’t all rainbows and sunshine.  The profound love that mothers and fathers naturally feel for the children God gives them also sets up those same parents for great pain.  It is worth it.  But it isn’t easy. 

    And to differing degrees of intensity, this is true for every good human relationship.  To be a member of a family, to be a friend, to join a team and give your all to a cause, to fall in love, even to simply seek to be a good citizen and neighbor, or a faithful member of a Christian congregation, all of these noble and worthwhile vocations are good gifts from God, and well worth the effort they require. 

   But these good gifts, these callings from God, also set you up for pain and loss.  Because as much as we would like life to be peaceful and easy, it isn’t. Because we sinners are involved, and the broken world in which we live is the context in which we must try to love and be loved.  Satan confronts us with the sad reality that we hurt the people we love, and they hurt us.  And that really hurts.  So the evil one tempts us to withdraw, to cut off relationships, to not do the hard work of reconciliation.   

   God knows what we are dealing with.  In His perfect wisdom, our heavenly Father understands the struggle we face.  But God didn’t stop at simply understanding.  Truly, Jesus Christ, God’s Son, knows better than we do how hard it is to be in relationships and care for people in this world, because He came into our world to join us in our struggle.  A four-year-old’s bike crash is not much compared to your son being possessed and tormented by a demon for years.  But demon possession is nothing compared to accepting and suffering under the eternal wrath of God.  Which Jesus did.  For a good reason: to reconcile us to His Father. 

   The young father with the bleeding four-year-old was driven by blood and tears to do what it took to get his kids back to the house, in order to be cared for.  The father of the demon possessed boy was driven to seek help from Jesus.  And God the Father was driven by His love for you to send Jesus to Calvary to face your hell.  Jesus came down from heaven and bore your sins because He loves His Father, and He also loves you.  For the joy set before Him, the joy of having you for His very own, Jesus set His face like flint and walked the loneliest road., all the way to the Cross, despising the shame.  And then, rising from the dead, the eternal victor, Jesus sat down at the right hand of God.  By this he has guaranteed your place in God’s eternal kingdom. 

   Your place in God’s glory, your place in heaven, is sure, in Jesus.  And, despite the world’s constant denial of God’s Word that assaults your ears every day, despite the doubts that still rise in your own heart, you by God’s grace are still joined to Jesus.  Despite your doubts, it appears to me that you still believe, your faith is alive.  Oh yes, I know, your faith often seems feeble.  You doubt so often.  So do I.  We all do. We should not, because God has never lied to us.  But we do doubt.  So we cry out with the father of the demon possessed boy:  Lord I believe!  Help my unbelief.  And He does.  The strength of our faith is not our faith, but rather the strength of our faith is the One in whom we believe, Jesus Christ, God’s Son.  He has faith to do all things, and He does all it takes to save us.    

   Lord I believe!  Help thou my unbelief!  This is the daily reality of Christian living on this side of glory.  We doubt.  Life throws struggles our way.  We doubt some more.  We sin.  Satan tells us God could never love a sinner like you.  Like me.  But, at the same time, by Baptismal faith we are covered in the pure white righteousness of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit, whom Christ gave us through the Water and the Word, keeps our faith alive.  And so the Father sees that we are joined to and covered by Jesus.  So in His eyes we are perfectly holy and righteous, His beloved saints.  You are forgiven, and loved by God, for Jesus’ sake.    

   Like the father of the demon possessed boy, we should pray.  We should cry out to the Father for every need, in the Spirit, through Jesus Christ.  We should cry out and pray in every circumstance, happy or frightful.  And we should pray with confidence.  Because we do not pray alone.  The Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.  Jesus, crucified, resurrected and ascended to glory, constantly intercedes for us before His Father, showing the forgiving scars in His glorified body as proof that we have been declared not guilty, in Christ. 

   Always remember this: when you pray in the face of struggles, Jesus is praying along with you.  And the prayer of a righteous man is powerful to accomplish much.  Even your salvation.  For Jesus is your righteous man, your victorious Savior, your future, and your present joy.  

Rest in Jesus, Amen.