[Sermon delivered at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Phoenix, Arizona, the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, July 21, 2024]
✠ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, one in Essence and Undivided. Amen.
What is your perception of the prevalent state of humanity and human interaction today? I would assert that many of you would say that in general humanity is divided against itself, rudderless, prey to abusive and oppressive power brokers, and desperate for anything to bring order to the madness around us. Many not just here but the world over are attracted to those who promise order from chaos specifically tailored to their wants and desires, protection from perceived threats against their way of life and even their safety, or even revenge for past injustices real or imagined. People are, “Like sheep without a shepherd,”[1] “scattered,…driven,…unattended,”[2] and “having no hope.”[3] As such, people become easy targets for those who would play upon these fears and uncertainties, who promise direction, attention, and hope, but in the end whose interest is merely to accrue power and resources for their own elevation at the expense of whom advantage is cynically and insincerely taken.
This is nothing new. It should surprise no one. At its most comfortable, life is challenging. For the most privileged among us health can deteriorate, security can disintegrate, and wealth can evaporate, even overnight. Our best attempts can fall flat; for example, early on Friday a cybersecurity product, CrowdStrike’s Falcon security monitoring software received an update worldwide and proved to be detrimental to the ongoing operations of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which is the base system for many computers worldwide. Even though the fix itself was simple, by the time Friday was less than eight hours past the International Date Line CrowdStrike itself sustained sixteen billion dollars in losses, and the commercial losses and possibly the loss of life due to the failure of critical medical systems was incalculable. Aside from technology mishaps, we have seen tensions between two disagreeing factions spiral out of control overnight, political stability crumble without warning, or a terrorist attack ruin or take lives seemingly at random. Because life is insecure, people will grasp at anything to bring some feeling of stability to their lives, and often that gamble does not pay off and those in whom we place our trust betray that trust.
Thus life has always been, and so it shall remain while Sin and Death reigns.
Now that I have thoroughly depressed you, I ask that you turn your attention again to our readings for today. Our Gospel tells us that upon arrival in a deserted, wilderness location, Our Lord finds that it is not deserted after all, but filled with people who, “were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.”[4] The prophet Jeremiah states that God will raise up for the scattered peoples “…A righteous Branch, and he shall reign and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”[5] St. Paul speaking to the Church in Ephesus, and in turn to us, states that in Christ, “came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.”[6] Even the psalm harmonizes well with the theme today, declaring the Lord being our shepherd, that with Him we fear no evil, and in Whose house we shall live for ever.[7]
Therein lies the crux of the matter. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,”[8] is a summary of our lives in this age. From our birth to our last breath, we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, through uncertainty, risk, privation, danger, and toil. For many of us the fear of Evil is a major driving factor; we desire to shield ourselves from its many forms, often committing acts that ironically lead to Evil. For Evil is a negative, a lack, a vacuum, a void. Evil is the absence of Light, of Life, of Love, of care and fellowship and peace. Evil is a renunciation of God and His Love and a repudiation of His Goodness. Yet into this void steps Our Lord, and where once was nothing is now Him Who has built us a path through the Abyss and back to the Life from which we had strayed.
The psalmist continues, “I shall fear no evil; for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”[9] When Jesus saw the sheep without a shepherd, He made an effort to teach them, to bring them to the right path, and at the appropriate time He walked the valley of the shadow of death to provide us a path through it to reconcile us with God, the source of Life eternal. Our Lord clearly said this Good News was not new at all, He told everyone around Him that what He taught was already in the Law and the Prophets, that it taught that we are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and minds, and souls, and strength, and to love our neighbours as ourselves. Yet St. Paul states that Our Lord abolished the Law.[10] In this he means that Jesus had fulfilled and transformed it, that He had broken down the division that kept us apart from each other and from God, transforming “Thou shalt not” to “Thou shalt.” Instead of focusing on negatives, highlighting the Evils to be avoided, Our Lord teaches us to focus on positives, affirming behaviours. Jesus tells us to love God with everything we have, so there is no room to love anything in place of God, no room to make anything that would detract us from God, no room to take God for granted and blithely talk about Him without meaning any of it, which resulted in having other gods before Him, making nothing to take His place, and not taking His name in an empty and meaningless fashion. If we love God with all our being, then taking and setting time aside just for Him, a Sabbath day, a holy time, is no longer a chore but something eagerly sought out. Jesus tells us to love our neighbours as ourselves, and if we do so we have no room to dishonour them, no room to take their lives, no room to take things from them, no room to lie about them, nor break faith with them, nor obsess over the things in their charge. Jesus teaches us to change our focus from limiting our reliance on evil to filling ourselves with good so that there is no void where evil can manifest.
Finally, when it seemed that chaos, nothingness, evil, DEATH had the last word, Jesus broke its power by taking God into the centre of the Abyss and obliterating its unbeing with the Glory of the Being and Nature of the Eternal One, by showing that no matter where one thinks one can escape God, God is there, and Evil cannot be in His presence.
When Jesus had gone to confront Death at the centre of its power, when all seemed lost to those He left on Earth, when the Light seemed to have gone out for His disciples, a woman stood in a garden by a tomb weeping, her heart broken beyond pain. Though she and others had been told that their Lord, the Teacher on Whom they had set their hopes had beaten Death and had risen from the grave, all she saw was an empty tomb. All she saw was the valley of the shadow of death and that God was not there. He Who had raised Jairus’ daughter, Who had raised the widow’s son at Nain, Who had raised her friends’ Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus, Who had delivered her from the grip of seven demons, was dead and now she did not even know where His body was so she could perform one last honour before her hope died with him. Amidst that despair she then heard one word:
“Mary.”[11]
Mary of Magdala was the first to see that Our Lord had defeated the old Enemy and that its hold was no longer permanent. She was the first to run to the Apostles themselves to proclaim, “The Lord is risen!” and that she had seen Him. Legend tells us that she even testified before Tiberius, but whether that is true or not, the Apostles would not have been the last she had told. She was the first to see that the Way which she had been taught was not in vain, that the valley of the shadow of death had a way out, that hope was not unfounded. She tells us today that, “The Lord is risen,” and that Faith, Hope, and perfect Love have won the day.
In the Darkness around us, in this Abyss which we find ourselves, amidst the uncertainty of the valley of the shadow of Death, we have a Cornerstone on Whom to build our faith, a righteous Branch Who proclaims for us the way of righteousness, and a shepherd Who leads and teaches us. All around us are those who proclaim that their way will deliver us from our woes, but there is instead a more excellent way.[12] It is in this Way where goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever.[13]
✠ Through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, Holy Mary of Magdala the Equal to the Apostles, Holy Dominic, and all the saints, Saviour save us. Amen.
[1] Mk. 6.34
[2] Jer. 23.2
[3] Eph. 2.12
[4] Mk. 6.34
[5] Jer. 23.5
[6] Eph. 2.17-18
[7] Ps. 23 passim
[8] Ps. 23.4
[9] Ibid.
[10] Eph. 2.15
[11] Jn. 20.16
[12] 1 Cor. 13.31
[13] Cf. Ps. 23.6
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