Mark 9:14-29 (Pentecost 17B)
St. John, Galveston 9/15/24
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today’s message is based on the Gospel reading from Mark 9. A man brought his son to Jesus’ disciples to cure him of his demon possession. The disciples were unable to help the man’s son. The man then turned to Jesus, and said, “if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” To which Jesus said, “All things are possible for one who believes.”  “I believe (the man said), but help thou my unbelief.”

Many of you have seen and loved the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz.” For others, it may still be the cause of nightmares. Love it or hate, the movie does teach us a number of valuable lessons. Dorothy travels along the yellow brick road so that she can finally meet the Great Oz. Oz, of course, is the purveyor of all good things. For Dorothy, getting her dog Toto back from the wicked witch of the West was the good thing she hoped to get from Oz. 
 
Dorothy’s travel companions, the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, are each on their own individual quest for something good.  The Lion believed that the Great Oz would give him courage. The Tin Man believed Oz would give him a heart and the Scarecrow believed he’d give him a brain. For each of the characters, their is a perceived lack of something in their lives, a lack that they believe the Great Oz can fill. Indeed, said the scarecrow, “if I only had a brain.” Of course, in the end of the movie, the Great Oz is proved a fraud and each of the characters learned that they already had the thing they thought they most needed.   
 
“I believe Lord, the man said to Jesus, but help thou my unbelief.” The sentiment expressed by the father in this morning’s Gospel is expressed by Christians on a fairly regular basis. Few of us, I suspect, are ever satisfied with the level, if you will, of our faith. St. Paul had enough faith to endure beatings, and mocking and martyrdom. I wonder, do any of us have the faith to face such things in our own lives? Peter had enough faith to face crucifixion, enough humility to ask that he be crucified upside down that his death might not be in the same manner as that of Jesus. We see Paul and Peter and the other martyrs of the Church, as men and women of great faith. 
 
The early Christians counted suffering for Christ sake, not as a burden or misfortune but as a great honor, a blessing, for in their suffering they could bear witness to their faith. Tacitus, a Roman historian, wrote of the early Christian martyrs:  “Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths.” Covered with skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished or were nailed to crosses or were doomed to the flames and burned to serve as nightly illumination when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle. We are told that the martyrs went rejoicing to their deaths, as if they were going to a marriage feast. They bathed their hands in the blaze kindled for them and shouted with gladness. They marched into the arena as if marching into heaven. When Ignatius, an elderly martyr, was about to die for his faith in A.D. 110, he cried out, “Nearer the sword, then nearer to God.  In company with wild beasts, in company with God.”

We see Paul and Peter and the other martyrs of the Church, as men and women of great faith. At the same time, we bring our petitions to God in prayer and we lament the weakness of our own faith. “I believe Lord, but help thou my unbelief.”  The man in the Gospel reading for today revealed something that is very characteristic of all of us as Christians. On the one hand we believe in Jesus, that is, we believe that He died for us, and that in that death He forgave us all of our sins. We believe that He is with us, as He said, in all the trials and tribulations of life “even to the very end of the age.”  We believe that He has prepared a place for us in heaven and that He will one day come back again to take us to be where He is. We believe, as Paul once said, that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor any other created thing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is Christ Jesus our Lord.”
 
We believe! And yet, when that faith is tested, when the furnace, so to speak, is turned up, that our faith might be purified, made stronger, we sometimes wonder if our faith will overcome our nagging unbelief. We are all, you see, this sort of curious mixture of faith and unbelief. None of us believes perfectly any more than we do anything perfectly this side of heaven. We carry faith, as it were, in these earthen vessels. Believing, we still doubt.  Trusting, we still face fear. Hoping, we still struggle with discouragement, even teetering, at times, on the brink of despair. In the condition in which we so often find ourselves, we cannot but join the man who cried out to Jesus for help…Yes, “I believe Lord, but help thou my unbelief.” 
 
As it was with the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, sometimes we find that we have more of what we need than we first thought. Faith, by it’s very nature is unassuming, it resides in our hearts though it doesn’t often show itself in heroic feats, or in miraculous overtures. Jesus called the man whose son was demon possessed to believe, and the man, though believing, still called out to Jesus in tears. He had faith, even though his faith was troubled with fears and even with doubts.
 
Joe DiMaggio, one-time home run hitter for the New York Yankees, once asked his teammate, Lefty Gomez, what to say when sportswriters asked where his great power as a hitter came from. “Don’t worry about that,” Gomez replied. “It’s when they ask you where your power went that it’s time to worry.” The Christian who struggles with his or her faith is well positioned to grow in that faith. Part of repentance is to acknowledge the truth about your faith. “I believe Lord, but help thou my unbelief.”   
 
God, of course, hears that plea for help, even as He heard the plea of the man in the Gospel reading for today. Your faith in Jesus is strengthened today, as it was then, by the power of God’s Word and by the receiving of His body and blood in the Sacrament. Faith clings to Christ and Christ is revealed, He is given, He is handed to you, if you will, in the word.  “Come to Me, Jesus says, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls.” “I believe, the man said, but help thou my unbelief.” “Faith, Paul says, comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.”       
 
The man in the Gospel reading had what we believed that he lacked, namely faith sufficient to hold onto to Jesus. He believed that Jesus could help his son. He believed that Jesus possessed all power over the forces of darkness and evil. He believed that Jesus was merciful and that cared even about a little boy who behaved like a person gone mad. And yet, he was troubled, because, at least for that moment, life seemed to be getting the best of him. 
A demon, after all, had attacked that which was nearest and dearest to him, his dear son.

But Jesus “rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out.” Sometimes we think we don’t have enough faith to face life’s challenges. And the truth is, we are always wrestling with some degree of doubt. But our faith is not in a mythical wizard. Rather, it is in Christ Jesus, the very Son of the Living God, God Himself Incarnate. He lacks nothing. And He is greater than all things. And so, “nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +