Lord if you are able help us?

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Year B 2006

Proverbs 31.10-31

Ps 1

James 3.1-12

Mark 9.14-29

Jesus said to him, “If you are able! All things can be done for the one who believes.” All things can be done for the one who believes. What a difficult thing to be told! In fact I am confronted by it. For what does it mean then when things do not go right for us? What does it mean that we can see in our world war, poverty and disease? Do things go wrong for us because we do not believe? Are there still wars, poverty and diseases in the world because we do not believe?

No, we do believe and yet these things still happen, even though we have prayed to God about them! So what does it mean for us that though we believe, things are not perfect in the world? Does this mean that there is no God? Does this mean we are indeed all mistaken and really should be sleeping in on a Sunday morning? Well I think we should be sleeping in on a Sunday morning I like sleeping in and like having a big night out on a Saturday night but that is another issue! We are not mistaken about why we are here. We have gathered here to worship our God, to celebrate our redemption in Christ and to seek deeper into what our faith means for us.

In part this was exactly what the disciples, the great crowd and the scribes were all doing in our Gospel today. They were arguing with each other as they sought to have a deeper understanding of life and of God. The argument was over the fact that the disciples could not heal this boy who convulsed and foamed at the mouth. And perhaps today as a Church, as a Christian community and as individuals our arguments are over the fact that there is indeed still suffering in the world. We discuss why there is homelessness in our cities, why there is poverty in the world, why there is war and terrorism. For ourselves, we discuss why our own lives have not gone the way that we had planned. And all of these things lead us to see both our own lives but also the world to be in some type of crisis. We can paint a picture of the world that is in so much distress that it is itself convulsing all around us as it suffers. And our own lives sometimes reflect this as well.

Into our discussion, into our lives through the action of each other as Church and through the Eucharist we gather and encounter Christ, like the crowd in our story. The crowd in the story encountered Jesus as he came down from the mountain from his transfiguration. It is from Christ’s glory that he comes to us as we discuss these things, as we see the crisis in our world and at times in our own lives.

I’m not sure if we have the man that speaks to Jesus saying “And I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.” Perhaps we fulfill both the role of the disciples and of that man. As the disciples by failing to cure our world but also as the man by confessing that We as the Church could not cure the world’s problems.

If we continue to push the comparison between ourselves and the disciples in our Gospel we and the rest of humanity are confronted by Jesus’ next words “You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.” Jesus is frustrated by the crowd in our Gospel as they argue about what to do about the boy. He is frustrated by all our plans and arguments about how to bring and cause peace in the World. He is frustrated that nations in our World see the best form of defense in aggression and invasion. He is frustrated at the fact that the crowd does not see who He (Jesus) truly is And In perhaps the same way we can get frustrated with so many people now who no longer see who Jesus is, and no longer join or never have joined us for worship.

And yet Jesus still asks the crowd to bring the boy to him and in the same way Jesus asks us to bring our own lives and our world to him. And just like the boy when we come before Jesus, when we show our world to him, it convulses, it shows up all its flaws and all the damage that is happening in it. And the question of Jesus to the Father could equally be to us, about our world rather than the boy. “How long has this been happening to him?” “How long has your World been like this?” And our response perhaps is similar to the father’s our response is “For as long as we know the world has been like this with war, with poverty and with disease, it is in crisis.” And I think we do continue to say to Jesus as we struggle to understand our world and our own lives “If you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.” And here we come again to this saying of Jesus “If you are able! - All things can be done for the one who believes.”

The question and perhaps the challenge to us is, can we join with the father of the boy in saying “I believe; help my unbelief!” Can we join in with the father of the boy saying we have seen and know how bad our world is, how bad our own lives are, we know what crisis is, we know what suffering is like. And despite all of that, despite seeing that all of this suffering continues in the world can we say “I believe!”? And still pray to Jesus “help my unbelief!” For it is at that point, when we confess that we both believe and yet we still need help with our own unbelief, that Jesus is then able to act. For the boy of the Father, Jesus now goes and heals him. And for us we are able to see that Jesus did indeed come and join us in our suffering, in fact took it all upon himself. Jesus took on all of Humanity by being born of Mary, he lived amongst a community and worked as a carpenter and then on the Cross he bore Sin and Suffering. And we continue to hope for and to see the fulfillment of that Action in the resurrection of a new world where suffering and death have been defeated. We celebrate in the Eucharist that very thing: Christ’s death and resurrection and the defeat of death and suffering. We find ourselves placing our hope in him. Just like the Father of the boy, whom though he had seen the disciples fail to heal his boy, is able to say to Jesus “I believe, help my unbelief!” We Hope and seek that new life.

And we also see more similarities with the boy and our own lives. The boy after the unclean spirit is cast out of him, is left on the ground and the people say “He is dead.” And we ourselves often feel like we are dead or can see our world in that same way its destruction seems to be impossible to halt. That the hope of Christ’s salvation is completely gone. And yet through our Baptism and also in our joining in eating and drinking the Eucharist we are dead! We join into Christ’s death. And so we are like the boy in the appearing at times of being dead, so that, we can participate also in Jesus’ resurrection. It is at that point of seeming dead, that Jesus can take us also by the hand and lift us up so that we are able to stand with him in his glory. It is through the waters of Baptism, it is from eating and drinking the Eucharist that we begin to be drawn into Christ’s glory.

And though our own unbelief and our own struggles often come from the fact that we have not seen our prayers answered and we fail to see any improvement in the situation in the world. Jesus said to the disciples when asked why they could not help the boy, “This kind can come out only through prayer.” Likewise, we in our hope in Christ are left with the simple task of praying and waiting for Christ’s return to bring to completion his work on the Cross and the end to death and suffering in our world.

To those here who are joining with us today for their first communions, but also to each and every member of the congregation, no matter where you life is at the moment, there will be times where life is not easy and it will feel like the whole world has caved in on you. I encourage you to truly then to pray, when it seems that faith has left you. To pray again and again, “I believe! Help my unbelief!”

Amen