He Sighed

The Rev. Robert P. Travis

Pentecost 15^th Sunday Sermon – 8:00am (Rally Day) Church of the Ascension, Knoxville TN

Scripture Text: Proverbs 22:1-2,8-9,22,-23, Psalm 125, James 2:1-10,14-17, Mark 7:24-37

RCL Proper 18 Year B 9/9/2012

Sermon Text:

There are a lot of justice issues in our readings today,

a number of passages that immediately remind me,

of the great political debates

we are hearing in this election year

and especially in the wake of two big conventions.

Even though it's all over our scripture readings,

You will be pleased to know that this sermon

is not going to be a political speech.

No, while I am interested in the various wisdom we

read in Proverbs, and the challenges we get

in the letter of James,

what really caught my attention this week,

is just two words in the gospel.

“He sighed,”

I know you might remember from your youth that the shortest verse in the bible is “Jesus wept.”

Some of you may have learned that when

your Sunday School teachers challenged you to

memorize a verse of the bible.

That “Jesus wept” line, from the tomb of Lazarus,

gets a lot of attention.

“He sighed,” is not a whole verse,

and it doesn't get as much attention,

in fact it would be easy to miss it in the

context of the great acts of healing that Jesus does

in the passage we have from Mark.

But it shows me a similar aspect of our Lord,

an important aspect indeed when we consider God and us.

What I see in Jesus' sigh,

is his true connection with us,

both his humanity and his divinity together.

Some commentators say that he sighs,

because of the sinfulness of the world,

that he sees manifest in the sicknesses he is

constantly confronting.

That would be God sighing,

and maybe that is why.

But there are other things as well.

These two words made me think,

“Why do I sigh?”

With three little kids,

I often find myself sighing when frustrated

with how they hurt themselves,

or each other,

or when they seem to be unable to keep

from fighting with each other

over truly meaningless things.

As a busy priest,

I sigh when I'm struggling to write a sermon,

and get call after call from someone

who can't make their utility bill payment.

I sigh when I'm awakened at 3am to hear

a family member tell me that a parishioner I loved,

has died long before I expected him to.

That's what happened with Hank this week,

a man I know many of you knew and loved.

It made me sigh, and it made me cry,

in spite of the knowledge

I have that his prayers were answered.

I sigh when I get in a fight with someone I love,

and just can't figure out how to make amends.

I sigh when I hear the partisan battles that

our political leaders have, especially in this election year.

I sigh when they seem to think they need to lie,

in order to win our votes.

I sigh when it is obvious that personal interests,

of the few and the powerful,

so often supersede the interests of the people.

Sighs are complicated and very expressive,

even when they express very different things.

Why would Jesus sigh?

Notice that in the beginning of the passage we hear,

that Jesus went away,

to the region of Tyre.

He went to a place away from his people,

to a gentile region.

“He entered a house

and did not want anyone to know he was there.”

Jesus needed a break.

But “he could not escape notice.”

The gentile woman comes to him,

and surprises him, not just with her

knowledge that he was there,

or who he was,

but with her quick wit,

and especially her faith that he could heal her daughter,

even from far away.

Then he leaves there,

and we can feel the sigh building up already.

Having been unable to get away,

and goes to another area,

probably to find somewhere else

to take a much needed break, to renew his spirit.

Again Jesus is confronted by a group of people,

who bring to him a man who needs healing.

He takes the man aside,

and heals him,

But in the midst of the healing he sighs.

Is he sighing because he just can't get a break?

Because he needs rest?

Because the needs of those around him are so great?

Or is it, as the bible commentators suggest,

because of the sinfulness of the world,

and the illnesses we struggle with?

Maybe it's all of that.

Maybe here we see the unity of Jesus as fully human,

and fully divine.

Jesus is just like us, needing rest,

finding the burdens of this life great at times,

sighing at the never ending needs of others around him.

But he is also aware of the bigger picture,

the deeper meaning,

in a way no one before or since has been.

He is fully divine,

sighing at the way we who were made in God's image,

corrupt that image so often,

and tear ourselves and each other apart.

That sigh is ancient, and ongoing,

and expresses God's deep concern for us.

One of my favorite songs

is by an artist named J.J. Heller,

she seems to express our participation

in this divine sigh.

In her song, “Your Hands,” she sings.

When my world is shaking,

heaven stands,

when my heart is breaking,

I never leave your hands.

One day you will set all things right.

I take comfort in that knowledge,

when I find myself sighing,

over the struggles in my life,

sighing over the griefs others experience,

over the pain and brokenness in our world.

I know God in Jesus is sighing right along with us.

He's in the process of working it out,

working with us,

in spite of our weakness and sinfulness,

and until he does set all things right,

he sighs with love for us,

and sadness that we suffer in the meantime.

I trust him because he sighed.

I love him because he loved all those around him,

even when he needed a break.

I hope that this understanding brings you some peace as well,

and that in Jesus' sigh,

you can know that he is with you in all your struggles,

and is working to set things right.

Amen