4th Sunday after Pentecost, 6/16/2024

Text: 2 Corinthians 5: 6-17, Mark 4: 26-34
Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
I would like us to ponder the question: what happens to us when we can see things in a new light? When the old things gain a new layer of life to them, or when something completely new and revolutionary springs from the fount of existence, what effects does it have upon us? Would we react skeptically at the newness, a conservative reaction to something we don’t know well where it could lead? Or would we react openly, embracing the new thing, rejoicing in the creation of more life? Wisdom often points to the balance of the middle, for there are new things that are born that require a discerning eye. From a human point of view, our lives, our safety depend on caution. Yet, when it comes to God, sometimes God likes to throw caution to the wind. We might be cautious, and He sometimes understands our cautiousness, yet He asks us to trust Him, to have faith, no matter how reservedly, and to leap into His wavelength and let ourselves be carried by the wild Divine current we are graced to experience. The Scriptures testify to a God of eternal newness, He doesn’t like to be tied down to a set of established definitions, He likes to break free from the proverbial box we like to put God in. As CS Lewis wrote in the Chronicles of Narnia about the Lion Aslan: “’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you… He’s wild…Not a tame lion.” If we trust the Apostle Paul reaction to God’s work in Jesus Christ, God loves to do a new thing, a wild thing even, and He doesn’t stay put where we want Him to. What is the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, but God removing the guard rails of what God can or cannot do?
So again, what happens to us when this wild God takes a hold of us and sheds new light on our lives often staled by sin and death? when this God with whom everything has become new, as Paul exclaims, leads us into this ever-new creation in Christ?

One of my favorite anecdotes that relates to this pondering comes from the life of the Catholic monk Thomas Merton, of whom we prayed his beautiful prayer last Sunday. He wrote in his book Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, his experience of seeing humanity anew at the corner of Fourth and Walnut street in Louisville, Kentucky. I have the pleasure of reading to you his words, as Merton recalls:

“in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. . . .This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. . . . I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . . But this cannot be seen, only believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift.”

The peculiar gift Merton is talking about by which he sees humanity transformed in new light, his new perception is precisely what the Apostle Paul is relating to us in his letter to the Corinthians. Listen to the words of the Apostle: “For the love of Christ urges us on… From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view… So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”. Paul continues to preach to these complicated and divisive Corinthians, Christ’s love compels us, it holds us together in a new reality. We are no longer urged towards old ways of thinking, into old divisions and prejudices, the love of God in Jesus Christ has made us anew. God is creating us in the image of this Jesus who died and rose again, filling us with the atmosphere of the new thing He has begun among us. So in Christ, when we go out into the world, we no longer look at the masses of people with our previous worldly eyes, “the human point of view”. We are led not to look at people according to the structures we have set: if any of these people are of any particular classification, especially the classifications we often despise. We are led to a new vision, to see people shining like the sun, full of the radiance of God’s grace in Christ that alights us all. In Christ, we shed enmity, we shed prejudice and hatred, we shed judgement, because in place of that, looking at people through the eyes of Jesus, you begin to look with love, to look with mercy, to look with non-judgement, to view the world as being held in the embrace of God in Jesus Christ. This Wild God has unleashed a love upon the world that does not conform itself to loving what is comfortable for us before we encountered Christ. Precisely, the new Creation does not leave the poor, downtrodden, despairing, or oppressed peoples aside, it urges a reconciling love between all peoples to exist in such a way that renders glory to God, meaning, we are made to live in such a way that we recognize the love of God among us. So the oppressed

cannot remain oppressed, for the love of Christ urges us on to liberate our siblings from oppression. For the love of Christ urges us on, that we cannot remain unmoved when our siblings are in need. We render glory to God when this new creation in Christ is on the move, proclaiming the kingdom of God in our communities with a love and mercy that compels and brings together. So if you are in doubt as to why you are being convened by the Gospel to be here every Sunday that you can, if you are in doubt of what is your mission in life as a Christian, remain close to the peculiar gift of God’s grace. Feed your life with the love that urges you to live for others, that urges you to reveal to others the love that shines upon them in Christ, to see that the world as it stands does not have the final word, but God has spoken a new word that is life made new, a life seen in new light.

Beloved, be generous in your application of God’s vision for the world. Be free in your scattering of this good Word. As Jesus reminds us in today’s parable: “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.” You do not need to be skilled in evangelizing, you do not need specialized anything. You be you in light of the grace you have received. Proceed in measure with the abundant love gifted to you. Perhaps the small loving word you gave, perhaps the small mercy you did, perhaps the smile you smiled, perhaps the embrace and solace you gave, God will grow into something more. This is our faith at work, that God will work out the new Creation as He wishes, we do not know how it will come about, but just by living faithfully, we scatter the seeds God has provided us and that will render its own fruit in God’s time. You never know how God can take that small offering of love, and create something beautiful out of it. So the church’s community organizing at times is not something we can plan ahead, it’s something that we live by on the way so to speak. As we live day by day in faithful witness to life in Christ, we can expect God to lead His church as He wills to the purposes of His love that urges on. So let us not be overwhelmed, live in the peace of the shades of this tree that God has grown, for He will see to its fruitfulness. Any work we do for the praise of God, let us do generously in the peace that God will accomplish what He has promised. Our vocation is to bravely live in the new light revealed to us, to live with our eye’s set on a God-point of view. Where will this wild and good God take us next? Let us pray:

Lord God, in Christ you have made us anew, we no longer live according to the old patterns of the world, but instead are invited to partake in this new thing you have made for us. Let our lives be signs of this newness, let our lives exude the freshness that is brought about by your grace. Make us generous in love and mercy. May we look at the world through the eyes of Jesus, instead of our own. That we may be part of the growing of your Kingdom as you desire it, O God. We trust You to lead us. In your name we pray. Amen.