Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

September 12-13, 2009

“The One Who is Able

Mark 7:14-29

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our heavenly Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sometime next month, as we approach Halloween, one of the television networks will most likely show the annual “Peanuts” special called, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” For those of you who may not be familiar with it, this particular show focuses on the little boy Linus’ faith in a mythical creature called the Great Pumpkin. See, Linus believes that every year on Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rises out of a pumpkin patch somewhere and brings presents to boys and girls who are sincere. And every year, Linus plants his own pumpkin patch in the hope that the Great Pumpkin will choose his patch out of which to rise. He works hard to make sure that even the pumpkins look sincere. So every October 31, Linus carries on a vigil, so he can witness the Great Pumpkin rising out of his patch. He works hard to become more sincere so that his pumpkin patch will be deemed worthy.

It’s a cute show, and it highlights a common belief in our society; the belief that it really doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere about it. Most people know instinctively that hypocrisy is bad, and therefore, sincerity must be good and right. In this age when all we hear sometimes is the need to follow your heart or to search your feelings to find the truth, this age that says “If it feels right, do it,” we are given the impression that whatever Higher Power exists out there will make the truth feel right to us.

You would think that living in the world that we do would change that thinking, and lead more people to understand that sincerity of belief is not more important than the belief itself. This past Friday was the eighth anniversary of the destruction of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, and one wing of the Pentagon building. The men who committed those atrocities were without a doubt some of the most sincere people on earth. They were absolutely convinced that they were doing God’s will by killing all those people. They were absolutely convinced that they were fighting for a noble cause. They were very sincere, and they were very wrong.

And yet, still, we hear the endless voices of people urging us to trust our inner feelings. We hear the voices urging us to look within ourselves and find our own path. There are even people who teach that Jesus had the power to do so many amazing things because He was truly one with His inner feelings. These people further maintain that anyone can do the amazing things Jesus did if they become one with their inner Christ-consciousness.

In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus says, “All things are possible for one who believes.” If I had a dime for every time that verse has been taken out of context, I could retire today. People have taken this to mean that Jesus was telling us to believe in ourselves, and all our dreams would come true. It’s as if Jesus were the genie in the lamp in the Disney version of “Aladdin.” “See,” they’ll say, “all you need is enough faith in yourself, and you can be healthy, wealthy, successful, and happy.”

But when read in its full context, our Gospel lesson today actually points out the fallacy of such thinking. We find really two different examples of misplaced faith here; the disciples who should have known better, and the father with his demon-possessed son. Jesus had taken Peter, James and John up on the mountain for the Transfiguration. Meanwhile, the other nine disciples were left with no adult supervision, so to speak. And as they were waiting for Jesus and the other three to return, they were approached by the father with the demon-possessed son, who was asking for Jesus. Most likely, the disciples told the man that was expected back later in the day, and that they could take a look at things until then.

And before we judge those disciples too harshly, let’s recall that they had driven out demons in the past. St. Luke records for us the account of Jesus sending the seventy out in pairs to do mission work, and when they returned with great joy, they said, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.” So they had some experience with demons. But this demon wasn’t inclined to leave, and evidently, their efforts to make it leave had attracted a crowd, to include some scribes. And that leads us to the situation at the beginning of our text today, where Jesus returns with Peter, James and John and finds a crowd present, and the disciples arguing with the scribes. After taking a moment to sort out the situation, Jesus starts by chastising the disciples: “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?”

The disciples had fallen into a trap that was as old as the nation of Israel itself. How often do we read in the Old Testament that God would bless the Israelites, only to have the Israelites start to believe that they were responsible for their own success? These nine disciples had a similar problem. The Holy Spirit had worked through them in the past to cast out demons, but they had grown complacent, and began to rely on themselves. They had become careless, allowing the object of their faith to change from God to them. So Jesus calls them a faithless generation; harsh words, but accurate.

The father, on the other hand, shows a different kind of misplaced faith. He had placed his faith in earthly cures for his son, and had been routinely disappointed. So when he asked for help, those past disappointments came through: “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” He had no confidence, and expected to be disappointed again.

These same forms of misplaced faith continue to plague God’s people today. The devil, the world, and our own sinful nature try to convince us that we don’t need to read God’s Word every day. They tell us we don’t need Sunday School or Bible classes once we’re confirmed. Our bodies, worn out from a week of labor, tell us it’s too hard to get to church and be in fellowship with others in the Body of Christ. The forces of evil will do everything possible to separate us from God’s Word, to lead us into becoming complacent and relying on ourselves, to replace our faith in God with a false spirituality.

The cure for that complacency, that false spirituality, lies in Jesus Christ. His sacrifice on the cross takes away our sin and declares us holy in the sight of God. He restores new life to us, and drives sin out of us, just as he restored the demon-possessed son to new life, and drove the evil spirit out of him. The comfort of this Gospel is that in spite of the faithlessness of the disciples, in spite of the lack of confidence from the father saying, “If you can…”, Jesus still cast out the demon. At the sound of God’s Word, the demon had to leave. The power of this healing depended entirely on God, on our Savior Jesus Christ, and not on the faith of those who observed the miracle.

Sincerity of belief means nothing if the belief is wrong. The men who flew the planes into those buildings eight years ago had tremendous faith; they were willing to die for their beliefs. They were sincere; but they were sincerely wrong, and we can only imagine that the eternity they are now in is not anything like what they expected. On the other hand, in the simple act of Baptism, the Holy Spirit will start a faith that leads to eternal life with God. The exorcism in today’s Gospel lesson can remind us of Baptism. When Jesus drove the demon out, the boy was left in such a weakened condition that the crowd thought he was dead. Through Baptism, we too die a death. Our old sinful nature dies, drowned in the waters of Baptism. And then, just as Jesus took the boy by the hand and lifted him up, Baptism also gives us a new, holy nature. God adopts us into His family and we become brothers and sisters of Christ, with His Father as our Father. We live with the sure and certain knowledge that we will one day rise from the grave just as Jesus rose from the dead, and that we will ascend even as He ascended, to live forever with Him in blessedness and righteousness.

The Holy Spirit works to give us a faith that believes in God’s grace, not in our own works. He calls us to believe in the One who is the way, the truth, and the life. He calls us to believe in the One who drives out demons, and gives us true life. He calls us to believe in the One who is able, Jesus Christ. Faith in the world, faith in ourselves; these beliefs will fail, no matter how sincere they may be. Faith in Jesus Christ will last forever. All praise be to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; to Him be the glory, both now and forevermore. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep both your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.