Sermon – 06-09-24 – Proper 5 – Cycle B
Scripture: Genesis 3:8-15; Psalm 130; 2 Corinthians 4;13 – 5:1; Mark 3:20-35
Sermon Title – “My Soul Waits for the Lord”

My soul waits. Does your soul wait? Are you anxiously waiting for an event or for a son or daughter to visit from out of state? Are you waiting for surgery? Are you waiting for the rain to stop so you can work in the yard? Are you waiting to heal? Are you waiting for winter because you do not like the heat?

On and on, day by day, we forget what contentment is. We forget what carefree living is like. We try to handle a problem by ourselves. Very foolish! God is standing by waiting for us to turn to him to solve the problem. Do we not get credit for trying to solve problems by ourselves before we pest God? I think God is the one who gets to wait until we come to our senses and hand the problem to God.

The serpent surely did not wait to tempt Eve in the Garden of Eden. That sneaky animal, which is Satan in disguise, probably only waited long enough for Eve to be hungry or nosy to know what was so special about the fruit of that tree.

Some of us tend to be compulsive. If something creeps into our head, we need to accomplish it immediately. Are you like that, or do you tend to be a procrastinator? Did you catch the words you sang in the first hymn? “All who work and all who wait, . . “ Wait for what? This waiting
is to praise the Lord. All who work and all who wait, sing, “The Lord is good and great!” Do the workers and the wait-ers always feel like praising God?

The worker was digging a ditch and everything was going well; the machinery was in great shape, the ground was not solid rock; the worker had had a good morning, maybe even singing as he worked. All of a sudden a bolt of light happened and the machinery shook and the worker flew off the machine. The worker had hit an underground electric cable. Now the worker waits for help. Amazingly, he is still alive, but he waits. His soul waits for the Lord and his body waits for emergecy medical assistance. Are they separate – the soul and the body?

If you have more of a waiting personality does that work well for you? Do you first think about the situation before you leap into action? Do you wait to see if someone else will take care of the challenging situation? Where does waiting take us? Sometimes good? Sometimes wrong!

Sometimes we have big decisions to make. Do you like doing a small amount of research and say a short prayer to God and then jump into the decision? Or do you wait for God to tell you which path to take?

Sometimes temptation strikes from the left side when we are not on the defensive. Think about Adam. Wife is saying, “Here, taste.” Did Adam wait to think and question the motive here? Did Eve have a motive or was she genuinely wanting to share her delight with her spouse?

You are lying in bed at night and you have pain and cannot sleep. The minutes drag by, when will morning ever come? You actually remember to talk with God, more like pleading to God. You might be saying, “God, I don’t know why I have this pain, please take it from me and please make morning arrive.” Or you may be thinking, “God, I know why I have this pain. I should have known better than to play baseball yesterday. God, please take this pain away.” You may continue with, “ My soul waits for the Lord more than those who keep watch for the morning, more than those who keep watch for the morning.”

Who is keeping watch for the morning? You are probably wanting to say, “Third shift workers.” How about a lighthouse keeper? Or a person waiting through the night for God to claim the life of a family member but God is being very slow about it? “God why are you so slow? I am waiting for my loved one to be free of pain and to be fully alive in heaven.”

Our New Testament Letter, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16, says, “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” Thank you. Geri, for finding the picture on the cover of our bulletin.

This renewal gives us the privilege of happiness and joy. Did you ever notice that when you feel depressed, something comes along that brings you joy and the day seems so much brighter even though it may be raining buckets.

In our gospel lesson, we meet Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her other children. They are coming to support Jesus. Jesus is upset to learn that people are saying that Jesus is possessed by demons and that is why Jesus is capable of casting demons from other people. Jesus passionately moves into a theological tirade saying if that were true, Satan would have a divided kingdom and divided kingdoms fall.

Here is when Mary and the stepbrothers and stepsisters of Jesus appear and people want Jesus to know that his family is present. But, Jesus is so passionately involved in his explanation that he gets snippy with his family. Who are my mother and brothers? Jesus declares, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” This passage does not tell us how Mary reacted to this rebuff. I imagine that Mary has her children and herself wait. They wait until sJesus has said what he must say. Mary knows that Jesus cared very much that people would understand that he is truly the Son of God. Mary has a history of waiting: waiting for Joseph her betrothed, to accept this baby Jesus; waiting for Jesus to be born; waiting to get to Behlehem, the birth place; waiting for three years of Jesus’ ministry to learn about her son and his relationship to the Father; and then, waiting at the foot of the cross. But then comes resurrection morning! Joy comes in the morning!

The waiting leads to a new day! The waiting brings renewal! The waiting brings us to the sharing of ourselves and sharing our joys and, yes, even our sorrows, with each other in the morning! The waiting allows us to be the persons God created us to be. I wait upon the Lord for the re-creation, the blossoming of the earth and the blossoming of each one of us. Amen