First Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Joshua Daniel

Year B Proper 8

Sermon Text: Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23-24, Mark 5:21-43

(Pictured: Catacombs)

 

 

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In God there is no death. The author of the book of Wisdom tells us that “God did not make death…” that in the “generative forces of the world…there is no destructive poison in them.” This is a familiar kind of claim that puzzles many both inside and outside the church. What could it mean that In God there is no death?

Looking for a through-line in today’s readings one might easily conclude that death is actually the theme that connects these lessons. Lamentations speaks of grief and loss; in Corinthians Paul alludes to a theme he more fully develops in Philippians. In 2nd Corinthians Paul says of Christ “that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor.” In Philippians he adds that

…Though [Christ] was in the form

of God,

[He] did not regard equality

with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to the

point of death–

even death on a cross. (Phil 2:5-8)

And in Mark’s Gospel there are two stories intertwined, both deeply concerned with death and disease.

The importance of death can be seen throughout the history of the church. If we were to travel to Europe, we’d see that at the center of many of the oldest cities from the middle ages there are cemeteries. Before they built churches, those Christian communities dug graves. In this they followed the custom of the earliest Christians. In the first 200 years of Christianity, where that faith was not legally permitted, Christians gathered mostly not in churches (neither in large public spaces nor in private homes) but in the catacombs, in the underground places where they had buried their dead.

One of the most genuinely shocking developments in the emergence of the Christian faith–something that marked Christians as, really, repulsively different–is that they did not shun their dead. For Christians the dead were not treated as unclean. This made their faith an anathema to both the “secular” and “religious” culture from which it emerged.

On the surface, of both our Scriptures and history, death seems to be very much part of God. So, then, in what sense can can the author of Wisdom mean that in God there is no death?

Okay, let’s put a pin in that for a moment so that I can say, Good morning! One of the things I love about church is that it’s one of the few public places where both celebration and mourning are both perfectly at home. The Eucharist, which we will share together in a few minutes, most literally means “thanksgiving”. This is a joyful and celebratory place! A place for laughter, high spirits, and warm fellowship. But also it’s a place where sadness is not suppressed. Sadness and lamentation, sometimes, is not a byproduct of church but an essential theme. Not something we shy away from but take in full measure. Some Sundays–even joyful days like today, my first day of worship with you all–are marked by readings focused on death. I mean, what can you do but smile!

This is the power of our scriptures and the power of our tradition. And it is tensions like these that have drawn me to ministry. In God there is no artifice. The Gospels cannot be reduced to simple catchphrases. Jesus pushes his disciples to see past their religious presuppositions and to see the complicated, often paradoxical, nature of their faith. That faith is best understood as something pulled in different directions. Something in tension. A wrestling with God and God’s creation. Something full of joy but also, because it is deeply engaged in the harsh reali...