This sermon was preached on June 9 & 10, 2018 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Connellsville, PA, using the texts for the third Sunday after Pentecost, year B.
As a content warning, this sermon discusses suicide and the damaging way the Church has preached and taught about it.
If you need help, please reach out. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, or text "HOME" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741. You are loved. You are valuable. Please stay here.
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There’s a
lot of weird, interesting stuff going on in today’s Gospel passage from Mark.
It’s early on in Jesus’ ministry, and the religious authorities aren’t quite
sure what to do with Jesus and his teaching and healing. He is operating
outside of the accepted, regulated way of doing things, and so to discredit him
and distance themselves, the religious authorities declare that, “He has
Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.”
I can kind
of imagine Jesus shaking his head and rolling his eyes as he points out the
flaws in their logic. “How can Satan cast out Satan? ...if Satan has risen up
against Satan and is divided, Satan cannot stand, but is coming to an end.” In
other words, how can I be on Satan’s team when, by healing and casting out
demons, I am actively working against
Satan? No, this isn’t the work of an evil spirit, but rather the work of the
Holy Spirit!
If you
don’t believe that the Holy Spirit is active, how can you expect to live in the
freedom of forgiveness that is offered through that same Holy Spirit? This is closer to the sense of what Jesus is saying when he tells the religious authorities, "whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit doesn't have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin." While
there’s no limit on God’s forgiveness, to receive it is an act of faith. How
often are we the ones who lock ourselves away from grace by clinging too
tightly to the things God would have us release?
At the
beginning of his ministry and still today, Jesus is all about liberation. Jesus
always, always gives life, freeing us from the death-dealing forces of the
world. We are set free by forgiveness, set free by grace, set free by love to
love one another and be who God created us to be.
But the
death-dealing forces of the world are persistent, and loud. They tell us that
we are not worthy of love, that we are outside of forgiveness, that no one
cares and no one will miss us. In short, they tell lies. Evil, evil lies.
And that’s
why we need to talk about suicide. This past week has been a difficult one for
many with the shocking deaths by suicide of designer Kate Spade and celebrity
chef Anthony Bourdain. But, as the CDC report also released this week pointed
out, Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain are two among the hundreds of thousands of
people in the US who will die by suicide this year.
Since
1999, suicide rates in the US have risen nearly 30%, and suicide ranks among
the top ten causes of death in the United States. This is a problem. Something
is wrong. The church can be part of the solution, but first we have to
recognize and repent from the ways we have been part of the problem.
For many,
many years the Church has done harm in the way we teach and preach about
suicide. How many of us have ever heard that suicide is an unforgivable sin?
Let me set the record straight, in case you aren’t sure. Suicide is not an
unforgivable sin. Suicide is a tragic response to the lies some people’s brains
tell them about their worth and belovedness. Suicide is seen by some who are
suffering as the only way out of an overwhelming situation. Suicide grieves
God, just as the suffering of God’s children always grieves God. No one is ever
outside of God’s forgiveness.
Depression
and addiction and other mental illnesses are not character flaws. They are
brain diseases, just like diabetes and cancer are diseases. They are not concerned with our income level, or ethnicity, or popularity, or relationship status - as if fame or wealth are vaccines to depression and other mental illnesses. Another way the
church has used damaging and false theology is when we have told people that,
clearly, what they need isn’t the care of a therapist, doctor, and medication,
but to pray harder, sin less, and sacrifice more. This too is a lie.
The way
the church has traditionally spoken about suicide only serves to further
stigmatize mental illness and discourages people from thinking of the church as
a place to seek help for the things that are troubling them. Somehow, church
has become a place where we feel like we have to display our most put-together
self. Instead, gathered together by the crucified and risen Christ, this is a space
and a community where we can be open and vulnerable about the struggles and
difficulties that assail us.
As the
body of Christ, we point one another to the unfailing promises of God - you are
loved, you are valuable, your presence is a gift. Nothing can separate you from the love of God - not death, or life, or angels, or rulers, not things present or things to come, not depression or suicide - nothing. As the body of Christ, we pay attention, reach out to one another, care and listen and
encourage. As the body of Christ, we celebrate when people do brave and
difficult things like ask for help and go to therapy and take their medication
and speak honestly. In the body of Christ we live and breathe and share God’s
love, mercy, and grace. This is not a place for judgment or shaming or comparison.
In today’s
Gospel reading, Jesus creates a new kind of family. This family is not about
bloodlines, but rather about openness and welcome and love, particularly for
those who are outcasts. This is the kind of family to which we belong. God is
love, and the will of God is love, and love is what draws us together. As the
family of God, we belong to one another. What happens to other members of the
family matters to us.
Every life
is precious to God, particularly those who are vulnerable, hurting, lost, and
feeling alone. As the body of Christ, we are called to share God’s love and
grace and freedom - you are loved. You are valued. Your presence matters.
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