Division Disarmed - Sermon for the Third Sunday After Pentecost (June 9, 2024)

Scripture Readings: Genesis 3:8–15 | Psalm 130 | 2 Corinthians 4:13–5:1 | Mark 3:20–35

“If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” (Mark 3:24-25).
 
A divided house cannot stand. There’s a lot of wisdom in these words. So many troubles our world is facing today highlight the truth of this saying. Whether we’re talking about politics, or business, or personal relationships… how can we expect to do all that needs to be done if we’re always attacking and opposing each other? Where else would we expect that path to lead then to our own destruction? And yet, we just keep on dividing.  
 
And to make sure we don’t go pointing fingers at everyone else, it’s important to remember that we Christians have a pretty divided history as well. Over and over again, we’ve found ourselves falling into the same old traps as everyone else. What we’re dealing with is truly a universal human problem.

So then, what is the way forward? It’s not to expect the world around us to suddenly start getting along… and it’s not necessarily to just go along with what the world around us expects either.

We Christians, as divided and struggling as we may be at times, have been entrusted with a particular vision of what we all need to come together again in unity… a vision which our Scripture readings today invite us to explore.
 
Like so many other aspects of life, this Christian vision of unity begins back in the book of Genesis, and is connected to the story often referred to as “The Fall”… a powerful exploration of the origins and source of all of the divisions that keep on plaguing humanity… the start of our turning away from the Living God, and from one another… from those we were created to care for and bless… those we are meant to love, and to be loved by in turn.
 
The book of Genesis is intended to set the stage for how the rest of the story of Scripture unfolds. And in our reading today we see the beginning of a broken pattern that plays out, again and again. A problem much bigger then mere human stupidity and sin… as big as those problems may be… a problem involving dark spiritual forces in rebellion that feed and fuel our self-destructive desires.
 
But this story also points us beyond the problem to the hope that we Christians have of how God can set us free from these divisions… how God intends to put His beloved but fractured world back together again.
 
The background of our passage today from Genesis Chapter 3 is that Yahweh, the Living God has created our world, and human beings to serve as His image… His representatives on Earth, reflecting and enacting His good rule over all His good world.
 
But then we humans were tempted to reject this high calling. A crafty, cunning Serpent… a mysterious creature already in rebellion against Yahweh, convinces them to reject God’s instructions and to reach out and seize wisdom for themselves… tragically trying to make themselves like God, but without God.
 
Too late, they realize that this is actually a trap, and that the ‘wisdom’ and ‘freedom’ from God’s ways that they sought really just led them to shame, and fear, and feeling exposed, and cut off from one another.
 
And in that moment, the Living God Yahweh comes to meet with His beloved image-bearers. The gig is up, as they say. But notice how God first responds to the rebellion of the humans who have turned away from Him:
 
The Almighty Creator… the One who understands all mysteries, and fathoms all of the factors that are at work in the universe, doesn’t arrive on the scene with angry accusations… but with questions, not playing dumb, or interrogating… but questions that invite them to turn back to Him and find life. An invitation they do not receive.
 
“Where are you?” God is depicted here as searching for His beloved people… longing to be with the ones He created to share in His divine fellowship and love. He already knows where they are, but invites them to stop hiding and to come to Him.
 
“What have you done?” He already knows what happened, but rather than attack and accuse, God invites them to tell the truth. He’s creating space for them to confess. To clearly acknowledge their sin, their betrayal, and to seek His mercy and forgiveness… because He longs to offer it.

But instead, the humans begin accusing each other, and God… shifting away the blame from their own shoulders… no longer free to love, and to be loved… and free then to fail, and find forgiveness. Now they were both bound to fear, and cut off from one another, and from their Creator.
 
The humans no longer trusted in God’s goodness, His mercy, and His love… and so they could no longer fulfill their calling to reflect God’s character to one another, and to the world.
 
And this story is just as much about us as it is about Adam and Eve. It’s the Bible’s diagnosis of the deadly sickness that’s infected humanity… exposing the source of the misery of sin.
 
But this is not a story without hope. For God traces the human’s rebellion to its deeper source… to the rebel Serpent… a symbol of spiritual forces in creation who have cut themselves off from the ways of the Living God. And over this Serpent, God pronounces his verdict: this agent of evil will one day be undone… and by the work of one of Eve’s own descendants at that.

Though the Serpent sought to cut off humanity from the love of the Living God, Yahweh Himself would ensure that this division would itself be healed… that a human one would somehow overcome the power of evil, and reconcile us to our Creator and to one another.
 
But not without a high cost: even as this descendant of Eve crushes the head of the Serpent, they will themselves be bitten… suffering a deadly strike, all to bring God’s estranged family back together again.
 
The rest of the Bible tells us how this story unfolds, and today, we turn to the Gospel of Mark, and the story of Jesus to see the hope it has to share:
 
So far in Mark, Jesus has been busy performing miracles, healing diseases, drawing eager crowds, offending certain religious people… and driving out demons… directly confronting the dark spiritual forces who had cut themselves off from the ways of the Living God, and who were at work wreaking havoc in peoples lives… doing what they could to deceive, and bring misery to daughters and sons of Eve, and lead them to self-destruction.

St. Mark clearly depicts Jesus, and through His power, Jesus’ disciples, as those who are undoing the work of evil… setting people free from the tyranny of shame, of fear, of estrangement… of sins that cut us off from one another… so they could finally experience the new life of the Living God together.
 
And it seems Jesus was causing quite a stir. So many people wanted to taste this freedom… pressing in to get close to Him… desperate to experience this new life for themselves, and for those they love.
 
And the same is true today! People may not be pressing into our doors… but the very same spiritual hunger… and desperation for freedom from shame, and fear, and isolation… our neighbours and our world are searching everywhere for it… whether they recognize it or not… we’re all trying to connect again with the life we were always meant to share… full fellowship and communion with our Creator, and with one another.
 
And the dark deceptive forces of evil are still at work today too! Leading people to look for life in ways that actually strip away our capacity to love and be loved. Cutting ourselves off from those around us… searching for our own wisdom, and our own so-called freedom to do whatever we want… which just leads us to death.
 
But thankfully, Jesus is still at work in our world today… and He is still drawing people to Himself… inviting all those who are cut off to come out from hiding, and to step into the light… inviting us all to stop making excuses, and to speak the truth… inviting us all to resist the temptation to point our fingers at others, and instead to  place our trust in His power and His desire to set all things right… to set all of us right. Jesus is inviting us all to believe today in God’s reconciling love… which Christ came to complete.
 
At the start of our passage from Mark this morning, we heard how Jesus’ own family… His mother, and siblings were unsure of what to do with Him. He had turned out to be so unlike anything they had imagined… all the strange things He was saying and doing… and they were starting to be concerned that others were thinking that Jesus had lost His mind.

And so rather than recognize the Living God’s life-giving power at work in Him, His own family come to collect Him… to get Him out of the public gaze… before He does something to bring shame on Himself, and on them too.
 
Like Adam and Eve, Jesus’ mother and siblings felt vulnerable, exposed, and afraid. So they want to hide Him away.
 
We’ll come back to this point again, but sandwiched into this story of Jesus and His family, we find Him being challenged by the religious Scribes from Jerusalem… the biblical and spiritual experts of the day, who were actively opposing His ministry, and seeking ways to discredit Jesus… pointing their fingers at Him… blaming Him of trying to lead God’s people astray, and being in league with Beelzebul… a name for the dark spiritual powers rebelling against God that the Serpent in Genesis also represents.
 
Like Adam and Eve, the Scribes eagerly accuse Jesus of being the source of the problem, making the case that “…by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” (Mark 3:22).

Ironically, the Scribes are actually the ones reflecting the ways of the Serpent… and the word that Jesus uses here for the spiritual enemy of God’s people highlights this for us. Mark 3:23, Jesus responds: “How can Satan cast out Satan?”
 
The word Satan is not really a proper name… it’s more like a title, with a clear meaning: Satan means the Adversary… the one who Opposes… or, importantly for us today, Satan means the Accuser.
 
Imagine a sort of spiritual prosecutor… one who is always seeking to find fault and to project blame on others. That is the heart of Satan. And remember how Adam and Eve turned on God and one another after listening to the Serpent… after embracing its lies… they blamed each other, instead of acknowledging their own failures, and their need for mercy, forgiveness, and for new life.
 
In Mark Chapter 3, the Scribes fall into this same pattern, following in the ways of the Serpent… the Satan, the Accuser… but are in fact they are trying to blame and accuse the sinless One who had come to save them.
 
And Jesus responds to their false accusations just like God did in the Garden of Eden… by asking questions that cut through the lies, and invite His listeners, back then and today, to let go of our prejudices and fears, and find in Him God’s gift of New Life… trusting that Jesus is not leading us astray, but is in fact confronting the powers of evil that have deceived us, again and again, and are still trying to lead us to destruction.      
 
Mark 3:24-29, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.”
 
“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.”
 
The reason Jesus has power over the demons is not because He is in league with them, but because He is truly stronger then them… He is the One God had promised to send, the descendant of Eve who would crush the head of the Serpent, and shatter the chains of evil and death.
 
Jesus is inviting the Scribes to take back their hasty accusation… and to trust in Him instead. They could chose to let go of their doubts… and listen to His invitation to turn around… to step into the light, and find the freedom of God’s forgiveness and mercy… or they could keep on acting like the Serpent, and find themselves guilty of accusing God, and cutting themselves off from His New Life.
 
This is what Jesus means in His warning about blaspheming the Holy Spirit: That’s not an accidental misunderstanding, it’s when we clearly see God at work in the world, and harden our hearts to Him… choosing to accuse God Himself of being the source of evil. It’s a heart posture that makes it impossible to approach God and receive forgiveness from His hand. Which is why it is unforgivable. A prescription will do us no good at all if we won’t go to the pharmacist.  

And we know the direction that this story goes: the Scribes choose to conspire with others to kill Jesus… executing an innocent man at the cross to preserve their own sense of power, and status among God’s people.
 
And just like God promised in Genesis, the One sent to crush the Serpent’s head would also suffer a deadly strike… but in dying in the place of sinners, Jesus Christ God’s Son disarmed and defeated the powers of the Accuser, the Satan, and opened up the way for humanity to be set free: to receive true forgiveness for our sins… to let go of our shame, and fear, and need to accuse one another, and cut ourselves off from one another… and instead, to share in God’s grace, and mercy, and compassion, and to share this with those all around us.
 
At the cross, Jesus broke through everything that keeps us apart from God, and from our fellow humans… and in rising from the grave, Jesus began God’s new creation for us all to share in… led now and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit to live God’s way every day.
 
What does this look like? It looks pretty different from how the world around us seems to want to do things… because God’s New Creation doesn’t play by the Serpent’s rules anymore.
 
It may seem strange to our neighbours not to get caught up in accusing others, or when we own up to our failures… and instead of being crushed by guilt, we find the freedom that forgiveness makes possible.  
 
The strangeness of the Christian life is nothing new. From the start, Christians stood out precisely because they lived by a different pattern… they cared for the outcasts and the poor… they refused to take part in common practices that demeaned and exploited others… they actively sought ways to overcome the divisions that kept people apart… be they ethnicity, class, gender, age… seeing all of humanity as invited to share in God’s family, and in Jesus Christ, invited to recover at last what it means to reflect God’s image in the world.
 
Many might be drawn to this strangeness. Many will resisted it. Many will be confused by it. But one thing’s for sure: if our lives simply mirror the world around us, they won’t reflect God’s New Life.
 
Back to the Gospel of Mark, and to Jesus’ own family trying to restrain Him… to keep Him from getting out of control… to keep Him in line, and out of trouble.
 
Mark 3:31-35, Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
 
If the way of the Serpent… the Accuser, is the way of division… cutting us off from God and from one another… then the way to find unity, peace, and true communion comes from following God’s ways today: from placing our trust in Jesus, God’s Son who came to set us free from our sins, and gave His life at the cross to draw us all into God’s great family.
 
Jesus invites us all today to trust in Him… to believe that in Him, the Living God has finally confronted the powers of darkness… disarmed and defeated them, and that He is at work through the Holy Spirit to bring about New Creation in our midst.
 
Jesus invites us to come to Him… so He can save us by His blood. So He can teach us to truly do God good will instead of our own. So He can bind up our wounds, and bring us together into His family, united to our loving Creator and to one another through all that Jesus has done for us all.
 
What is the Church to do in our divided world? We are to do the will of God the Father: to trust in Jesus, and live His way here and now… creating space in our homes and communities for others to hear God’s voice calling to them to receive His forgiveness, new life, and reconciling love… and be set free to share this love with everyone else at last. Amen.