Sermon on Mark 4:35-41

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

“Why are you afraid?”

If professional fishermen are afraid of a storm, that seems like a good reason to panic.

But there Jesus was, napping, duringa storm big enough to swamp their boat and scare the pants off the disciples.

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

The disciples were terrified.

But what happened next terrified them even more.

Jesus commanded the sea to be still.

And it was so.

The verbs he used were the same he had used earlier in the Gospel of Mark in exorcisms. This storm was supernatural, even demonic. And Jesus quieted it in an instant.

You might think the disciples should have been overjoyed. They were presumably at least relieved. But they were also afraid. They had been afraid of the storm, but now they were afraid of Jesus.If Jesus could so easily overpower a supernatural storm, he must not have been an ordinary rabbi.

The bottom line of this story is trust. Did the disciples trust Jesus?

At that point, no.

They trusted Jesus enough to follow his instructions to get into the boat, but the great storm followed by Jesus’ apparent command of nature itself shook them.

Who was this that they had entrusted their lives to?

Our reading from Job gives the answer and was maybe ringing in the disciples’ ears as they continued crossing that smooth, glassy sea:

Job 38:8“Or who shut in the sea with doors
  when it burst out from the womb?—
 9when I made the clouds its garment,
  and thick darkness its swaddling band,
 10and prescribed bounds for it,
  and set bars and doors,
 11and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
  and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?”

Only God, who made the sea, has power to command it.

The disciples had to face the fact that Jesus was not an ordinary, human rabbi. And they were terrified.

But Jesus was patient with them. He didn’t throw them out of the boat or leave them behind once they got to shore or demand instant full allegiance. He continued to slowly reveal himself to them and let their trust grow over time.

Though it scared them in the moment, Jesus did calm the storm. He didn’t let it sink the boat. They all got safely to the other side.

Jesus didn’t just show off his power to command the sea to intimidate people or impress them. He used his power to protect the disciples and save their lives. His power showed his compassionate nature.

And as the disciples spent more time with him, he continued to show them his power and his character by healing the sick, liberating people from demons, feeding people by the thousands, teaching them about the Beloved Community, and ultimately standing up for his message to the point that it got him executed.

And of course, it didn’t end there. After breaking the power of death, he sent his disciples into the world to continue his mission of peace and healing and love.

The disciples who had been filled with fear learned to trust their beloved Jesus and carry on his message.To follow Jesus is to be like him: to use whatever power we have to be compassionate and show God’s love for the world.

Sometimes fear can overwhelm us, though.

There’s a great storm of things to be afraid of in our world today, too.

1.    There are wars and violence around the world,

2.    the cost of living is increasing,

3.    there are natural disasters,

4.    it’s an election year, and whoever wins will have a great impact on the future of our country,

5.    some of us are navigating diagnoses and changes in our health or that of our loved ones,

6.    and this congregation is going through a transition as LSS relocates and we discern how to make up for lost income and steward the resources of our space.

That’s just to name a few local, national, and global storms we are facing.

It’s easy to focus on the storms and forget who’s next to us in the boat.

Jesus showed power and compassion to the disciples, and God will show power and compassion to us, too.

The disciples had glimpsed Jesus’ power already—he had healed people and cast out demons. But faced with the great storm, they forgot the times Jesus had shown power and compassion in the past.

It can be easy for us, too, amid whatever storms we are in right now, to forget the times God has been faithful to us in the past.

Let’s take a moment to think about our life together as a congregation. God has been faithful to this congregation. It was founded more than 80 years ago and is still doing ministry in this place.

Most of you have been a part of this community longer than I have. You have seen the storms this congregation had survived. You have seen the ebbs and flows of life together as a community of faith.

When and how has God shown faithfulness to this congregation?

Fair warning: I’m about to ask for some congregational participation.

Take a moment of silence and think about the times and ways God has shown faithfulness to First Lutheran. What would you share with this group?

When and how has God shown faithfulness to this congregation?

I’ll start us off: this congregation navigated COVID, finding creative ways to worship, and transforming the way we served our neighbors through Caring Hands.

Now it’s your turn: when and how has God shown faithfulness to this congregation over the years?

Thank you.

God is with us in our storms. The Holy Spirit has worked through First Lutheran Church and will again. The Holy Spirit has worked in your life and will again.

I’m pretty good at worrying. In any situation, it wouldn’t take me long to assemble a list of things that could go wrong. This story has been a good reminder for me this year that Jesus doesn’t ask, “What are you afraid of?” but “Why are you afraid?” The disciples were afraid of the storm, but they didn’t need to be because Jesus was with them. Remembering that I am beloved by God helps quiet my perpetual list of worries. The storms are still there, but they become quieter as the voice of God becomes louder.

The storms you are facing might be bigger and scarier than you have ever experienced before, but Jesus is right there in the boat next to you. The one who created the seas will not abandon you—will not abandon us.

God is present in the tools you turn to in your storms: prayer, silence, therapy, friendship, the natural world, and whatever else shows you God’s compassionate nature.

Our compassionate God, who has seen this congregation through many a storm, is worthy of our trust and is present with us no matter what we face.

Because we trust God, we can say to our souls, “Be still.”

May you find peace in whatever you face today, Beloved.

Sermon on Mark 4:26-34

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

As I said at the beginning of the service, today the ELCA commemorates the Emanuel Nine.

After sitting through the entirety of a Bible study on June 17, 2015 at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, a twenty-one-year-old white man shot and killed nine Black people and injured another. He said he hoped to start a “race war.”

We condemn the violence committed by that young white man.

We grieve the nine lives of Black people of faith lost on that day and the many more lives affected by the trauma and loss.

We lament the perpetuation of white supremacy as an ideology and a systemic force in our denomination and our country.

It is daunting to face the vastness of white supremacy.

It’s powerful, it’s old, it’s often the status quo, which is hard to change. Influential people benefit from it. All of us who are white benefit from it to some extent.

It’s way easier to insist that I as an individual am not a racist than to recognize that I as a white person benefit from the effects of white supremacy, whether I want to or not.

That’s why it’s important for us to not only do our best not to do or say racist things but to live our lives in a stance that is anti-racist. It involves going against the grain. It requires active resistance to the status quo.

John Stuart Mill wrote, “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

We could rewrite that as, “White supremacy needs nothing more to continue and flourish than that good, law-abiding people look on and do nothing.”

But as much as Martin Luther is remembered and honored for being a transformer of society, the Lutheran tradition in the US is often set in its ways, finding identity in Midwestern white cultural artifacts like jello molds and being “Minnesota nice,” instead of finding our identity in being justified by grace and freed to live in service to our neighbors.

When acts of racial violence come from our pews, it’s important to reflect on what’s really important to us as Lutherans. What do we hold onto as our identity? Bach and lefsa andpotlucks?Or grace and truth and facing evil forces like white supremacy knowing we are all beloved children of God and nothing can change that?

There are Lutherans all over the world. The Lutheran World Federation represents over 77 million Christians in the Lutheran tradition in 99 countries. So, even though the ELCA is the whitest denomination in the US, Lutheranism is much bigger and more diverse than we sometimes remember.

But when faced with the vastness of white supremacy, it's easy to feel small and decide that as individuals, we can’t make much of a difference.

There’s a theme of insignificance in our Gospel reading today, too.

The person in the first parable seems rather detached: he scatteredseeds without seeming to tend to the ground. He goes to sleep without having done much beyondhaphazardly throwing a handful of seeds.And when the seeds sprout, “he does not know how.” The character in this story is passive and has hardly a role in the farming process.

Then, the next parable doesn’t even have a human in it. The tiniest of seeds is our main character. Who would guess that anything would come of it?

These—the passive farmer and the miniscule seed—are how Jesus decided to describe the Beloved Community.

And, indeed, they’re apt images for a ragtag group offishermen, tax collectors, women(!), and other unsavory folks following a wandering rabbi who challenges the status quo and upsets people in power.

That is not the group I would put my money on to spread around the world and through the centuries.

And yet, here we are.

We Christians often look more similar to the people in power Jesus upset than to his early followers, but his message lives on.

We Christians throughout the centuries have perpetrated violence, oppression, and genocide in God’s name. And we Christians have shown incredible mercy, stood up for justice, and loved one another as God’s hands and feet in the world.

Both/and. We are simultaneously saints and sinners.

And somehow, through the Holy Spirit, the seeds of the Beloved Community grow.

God’s creative power lives in us, God’s creations.

Peace and justice seem like tiny seeds that could never amount to anything against the powers of violence and white supremacy that dominate our world, but God can help tiny seeds grow far beyond our imaginations.

Violence is easy. It doesn’t require much imagination.

Peace is much harder. It needs imagination. And the Holy Spirit inspires it.

For instance, the German town of Wunsiedel had a problem. It had been the burial site of Rudolf Hess, Deputy Fuhrer to Hitler, and because of that, itwas the location of an annual neo-Nazi march.

Now there are some basic steps the town could have taken, like counterprotests or trying to get the marches banned, but ten years ago, they decided on a much more imaginative and effective approach.

They got people and businesses to donate 10 euros for every meter the 200 neo-Nazi marchers walked.[1] The donations went to the organization EXIT Germany, which helps people break from right-wing extremism and start a new life.[2]

So, the townspeople effectively turned the march into a walkathon for an organization against neo-Nazism. The marchers decided to proceed anyway, and so they raised nearly $12,000 against their own cause.

The townspeople used their imaginations to find a peaceful way to disempower the hateful behavior gathering in their town.

With what can we compare the Beloved Community, or what parable will we use for it?The Beloved Community is like the tiniest seed of hope for a better world that is sown in people’s hearts. It seems insignificant, but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes a great imaginative force for peace and safety and well-being for all life.

Imagination requires rest. A creative solution like a walkathon fundraiser to thwart a hateful ideology requires space for the Holy Spirit to work. It’s hard to think inventively when we’re exhausted and bogged down with the everyday hustle.

We need time to walk, shower, nap—those restful activities where inspiration most often strikes. That’s not a coincidence. Imagination needs rest.

Our world needs all of our imaginations. White supremacy and violence will fail if people refuse to look on and do nothing.

Counterintuitively, refusing to do nothing will require rest, especially rest for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color whose labor has gone unpaid and underpaid for generations. When the humanity of all people is honored and people are allowed to rest, creativity and peace will flourish.

The Holy Spirit cultivating Beloved Community in all our hearts will let it spread until it’s big enough to shelter all in its branches.

Rest, dream, and create peace, Beloved.

[1]https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/21/german-town-tricks-neo-nazis-into-fundraising-for-anti-extremist-org.html

[2]https://www.exit-deutschland.de/english/

Blood Is Thicker Than Water?

Pr. Jaz Bowen-Waring

Pentecost 3 June 9, 2024

You have heard it said,“blood is thicker than water.” Or is it? The phrase is believed to be a german proverb originating from Medieval times. Maybe Martin Luther heard it before! It poetically enforces the idea of familial bonds being more important than the bonds we make with other people. This phrase has been used over time to instill loyalty to the family unit, even when it’s causing you great harm to be in contact with them. What if I told you, that the phrase, “Blood is thicker than water” is actually a misquote, and there is more to this saying. The original phrase is, “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the waters of the womb.” The blood, sweat, and tears forged between friends is thicker than the waters of familial obligation. We have come to know this as “chosen family.” Chosen Family has been method of survival for the LGBTQ+ community. From the Harlem Drag balls that started in the 1860s, to the chosen family we see today in beloved communities. Chosen family is necessary for many LGBTQ+ folks because as you already know, queer and trans folks are at greater risk for homelessness due to their families rejecting them. Then there are some of us who have a very loving and accepting family, but we get separated. Geography can separate us, and unfortunately death also separates us from people’s physical presence in our lives. Even though there is no one that can take the place of these beloved people in our hearts, we can still reach outward and include others into our lives, making our lives richer. We enter into our Gospel text today, and we find Jesus in a similar struggle many of us, especially LGBTQ+ folks face. Who is my mother? Who are my siblings? Jesus’ biological family thinks he is “taking his ministry too far…too radical,” and that he is “out of his mind.” His religious community say that he is “possessed by Satan” and calling him evil. Who does Jesus turn to when the two of the most important support systems, his biological family, and his religious community reject him? The blood of the covenant is thicker than the waters of the womb. There is a show on FX that you can find on Netflix called “Pose.” It’s the story of a queer, Black/Latinx chosen family coming together in the late 80’s-90’s in New York City during the AIDS epidemic. The ballroom scene was a real, underground culture where queer and gender nonconforming folks, mostly people of color, can gather to celebrate who they are without judgement. They would compete with each other by performing as privileged people. Strutting down the runway like a high-fashion model. Dress up as Manhattan business executives, or just show off their good looks. It was a moment in time where they can play, and use their holy imagination to live the lives they deserved, but were never offered to them. They created “Houses” where a house mother or father would take in usually unhoused queer teens and young adults as their “children.” They would take care of each other’s needs, while also competing at balls for trophies, cash prizes, and legendary status among their peers. During the AIDS epidemic, these houses and relationships carried the care and grief of folks who were infected and died, when no one else would. Why? Because the blood of the covenant is thicker than the waters of the womb. One of my favorite characters in Pose is Pray Tell, played by Billy Porter. Pray was an emcee of the balls in New York City. He would announce the competition categories and provide witty commentary charismatically and with flamboyant flair. There is a particular episode where he goes back to his home town to try to connect to his mother and inadvertently his faith community. Pray Tell comes back to the familiar whispers behind his back, “He’s gone too far…too radical.” Or “He must be out of his mind.” He visits his church and is met with accusations like, “He must be possessed by an evil spirit.” But that doesn’t break his spirit, because he knew he was a beloved child of God and the blood of the covenant is thicker than the waters of the womb. When Jesus was met with these familiar voices telling him that he is possessed by Beelzebub and is using his evil powers to exorcise demons, he said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Meaning evil does not fight against evil. It’s a bad strategy. Then Jesus talks about an “unforgivable sin," which is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Which is uncomfortable for us to hear. What is unforgivable is calling the Holy Spirit’s work in the world evil. You are calling the work of Christ in the world as the work of Satan. Its unforgivable and has eternal consequences because this belief and its actions separates you from the source of forgiveness, Jesus Christ. A divided house cannot stand. So when you are calling what God is doing in the world, divine love in action, and you call it evil…you are separating yourself from the Body of Christ, or perhaps even separating the body of Christ itself. This separation feels like hell. So when you are seeing God’s beloved queer and trans children living into their Godgiven identity, and you call that evil…you are separating yourself from the Body of Christ. When you say that trans children are possessed by a demon or Satan, you are separating the body of Christ. I don’t know if the author of Mark was exaggerating or being hyperbolic when Jesus said this blasphemy was unforgivable. But what I can pull from this statement that it mattered a lot to Jesus. Be careful of what you call evil and what you call good. Who is my mother? Who are my siblings? It is anyone who does God’s will. This beloved community is a chosen family. You have all gathered over many years to not only worship, but to serve the community and each other. This chosen family has been a support when folks are sick, and in death. You have shared the joys of families growing and most importantly you have extended your welcome and affirmation to the LGBTQ+ community when a majority of Christian churches do not. This is the will of God. It is messy and it is beautiful and it is holy to be in chosen family. Turn to your neighbor and say, “I choose you!” You have heard it said, “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the waters of the womb.” Now may you go forth and forge new covenants of your own with the people you love and mutually support each other. May you open yourselves up to new friendships, accomplices in mischief and justice, and chosen children. And may your lives be richer for it. May you be careful of what you call evil and what your call good. And may grace and peace be with you every step of the way. Amen.