Sunday, June 9, 2024
/Pentecost – Proper 6
Genesis 3: 8-15; Psalm 130, 11-14; 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-35
The Rev. James M.L. Grace
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Today is the ninth of June – a regular day, for most people. But not a regular day for my friend Mark Beebe. Today Mark Beebe will call and leave a voicemail (yes he still does that) not of words, but of song. The song Mark Beebe will sing onto my voicemail today is, fittingly entitled, “9th of June” a song by a Houston heavy metal band from the 1990s called the “Galactic Cowboys.” Singing this song to one another is something Mark and I have done on the 9th of June since the song’s release in 1996. As uncool and nerdy as it was for Mark and I to do this back in the 90s, it is exponentially so in 2024.
“9th of June” is a song about the end of the world – or at least one person’s belief that the world would end on June 9th. The song has a heavy guitar riff, and a chorus with four part harmonies that sounds like something off a Beatles album. It may not be for everyone, but Mark and I loved this band – and still do.
You may be thinking – rightfully so – what any of this has to do with St. Andrew’s. More than you may expect. The lead singer of the Galactic Cowboys, a Houston resident named Ben Huggins, attends Church of the Holy Trinity, a reformed Episcopal Church in Woodland Heights, not far from St. Andrew’s. Before the church Ben Huggins attends was Church of the Holy Trinity Reformed Episcopal Church, it was previously the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, where a few of St. Andrew’s current parishioners once attended. In the 1980s Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd closed and merged with St. Andrew’s while the Rev. John Binford was Rector here. The Christus Rex which hangs above our altar came from Church of the Good Shepherd. The stained glass window of Jesus as the Good Shepherd which is in our chapel of the Good Shepherd came from -anyone want to guess – Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd.
Now you may be thinking – rightfully so - what any of this has to do with our readings from today. More than you may expect. While the song “9th of June” ponders a person’s sensational claim that the world would end on a particular day, I would like to suggest that the world already has ended. Well that sounds an even more ridiculous claim, does it not? To claim that the world has already ended certainly sounds ridiculous, only if we believe the end of something is really the end of something.
When a man and the woman disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, it seemed to be the end. Paradise was closed to them, and they had to move out and find somewhere else to live. Paradise ended for them because they allowed the serpent to confuse them. The serpent told them that they could be like God if they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (which by the way the Bible never says the fruit was an apple, although it has often been depicted that way.) It could have been a strawberry or a kiwi.
What seemed an end to the man and the woman in the garden was part of God’s plan all along. God was not surprised by their disobedience and their rebellion. God did not have to quickly switch to plan “B” once they disobeyed God. I believe God knew they would rebel and make bad decisions. Their end was part of God’s plan all along, so that a better beginning could occur.
Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd closed – it was the end of that parish, or at least it seemed it was, until it became a new church that would draw people like Ben Huggins, and many more.
Even if the world ends (on the 9th of June) or some other day, it will just be the beginning of something else, because God is not a God of endings, but beginnings. God creates. People disobey and misunderstand God. God knows that, and expects that, and loves creation in spite of its rebelliousness.
I will close with one more ending – the ending of this sermon. Aren’t you all happy to hear that! Two thousand years ago when a man died on a cross just outside Jerusalem, many thought it was the end. It was – for a day or so. Until God created, again: light out of darkness, life out of death, hope out of despair. A reminder for all of us that whatever we think is coming to an end for us (our lives, our marriage, our job, our world, our relevancy) – that’s just an illusion. The ending is merely the beginning of something better than any of us could imagine – on the 9th of June, or any other day. AMEN.