The Enthusiastic Christian
Sermon at St John The Baptist, Felixstowe – First Sunday after Trinity – 2 June 2024
Text: He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark 3v5-6)
God give you peace my sisters and brothers.
Finding the right time to do anything is often as important to as the act of doing.
For example if the Vicar of St John’s were to plan to host a hustings for the forthcoming election all of his work would be pointless if those who want to be our next MP on 4 July arrived here to set out their manifestos on 19 July….!
Fortunately my error has been gently pointed out by the candidates who will indeed be here at 7pm on 19th June not on 19th July!
There is no sense deciding to do something and then not doing it timeously. All it leads to is frustration and disappointment.
Jesus, especially in Mark’s Gospel, doesn’t imitate my poor planning when it comes to getting things done. Mark gives us a picture of Jesus as an Action Hero who, without the need of a cape or Batmobile, goes about doing good in the grand manner. He whizzes around closing down leper colonies, feeding multitudes and putting Undertakers out of business. Almost without taking a breath he sees a need, an ill mother-in-law, a blind beggar, a man with a withered hand and puts things to rights.
As we will listen Sunday by Sunday in the coming weeks we will see Mark use the word immediately (Greek: enthus εὐθύς) again and again – of the 51 times it is used in the New Testament Mark uses it 41 times – to describe how Jesus is the Action Hero of his era.
Like Jesus we are called to do things immediately and with enthusiasm, a word which literally means ‘inspired by God’. We are to be people who do things, as did Jesus, with ‘enthus’. Or to put it simply we are to be Enthusiastic Christians who get on with the business of the Gospel
But we are not called to do everything immediately. The Apostle James reminds us in his epistle;
You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, 20 for human anger does not produce God’s righteousness. (James 1v19-20)
And even in Mark’s gospel the word ‘immediately’ is not always reserved for the healing acts of our Beloved. Today we find the Pharisees, eager to accuse Jesus of being irreligious, ‘went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him’.
It seems that religion, when run by rules and not mediated by love can breed a tendency in adherents to first grumble, second criticize, and then finally condemn. Little wonder that it is Jesus who is, ‘grieved at their hardness of heart’.
Though rules and tradition help us access the wisdom and grace of the past, that does not mean that we are to be in the business of allowing them to hinder us in our answering of the the call to listen, to love, and to heal; and to do this immediately. As our nation goes through several public enquiries about our failure to serve – Infected Blood, the Post Office and Horizon Software, Covid-19, we must learn again and again that ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’. And the same goes for us when we are hesitant in being the hands and feet, voice and ears of our Beloved Redeemer.
Those who follow the way of the gospel, when we choose to play it safe and not act with the immediate enthusiasm the Holy Spirit breathes on us, run the danger of being in a place where the Gospel is not proclaimed and Jesus is betrayed. Surely none of us want to have that to be a description of our life?
But it’s not easy being immediate about things in life is it? How many times in our community and public life do we find the first response to any act of charity or kindness is to pick holes in someone else’s decision to care? Whataboutery reigns supreme and people are frozen into inactivity for fear of condemnation. For proof of this venture into the comments section on pretty much any post about any topic on Social Media!
Sadly when we give in to this spirit of criticism and condemnation we find ourselves frozen in the headlights of other people’s prejudices to the detriment of promoting the care of those for whom Christ died.
This much quoted piece of writing called The Paradoxical Commandments perhaps says it all.
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centred. Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down
by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
People favour underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
© 1968, 2001 Kent M. Keith
Or as my Dad used to say;
If no one is complaining you’re doing your job wrong (Alick Dotchin)
There will be complaints whenever we choose to be Enthusiastic Christians but will we let someone’s grumpiness, or even our own grumpiness, get in the way of the gospel of God’s generous and enthusiastic love?
It’s time to do the work of Christ immediately!
This blog ‘The Enthusiastic Christian’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2024. It may be reproduced free of charge on condition that the source is acknowledged.
One sabbath he was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ 25And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? 26He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ 27Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’
3 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3And he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come forward.’ 4Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. 5He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
(Mark 2.23 – 3.6)
Suffolk Vicar 