Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

“Teacher, the dog ate my homework.”

“But, Officer, I was moving with the flow of traffic.”

“What do you mean my checking account is overdrawn? I still have checks left!”

Those are all good examples of excuses. The first two excuses have actually been heard and more than once. The third excuse is, I hope, more of a joke than reality, but each of these three is indeed an example of an excuse.

On this Independence Day Weekend, we know that there were lots of excuses that could have been used to keep this great country from being founded or to keep this country from being organized as the free democratic powerhouse that it is. Fortunately, our founding fathers didn’t make excuses, real or imagined. And because they didn’t, we are blessed to live in the country in which we do.

The same can’t always be said about the people of faith. Sadly, among people of faith, excuses are often made . Our three Scripture readings today each give us a picture of an excuse that could have been made and also a picture of how a man of faith didn’t choose to use that excuse.

In our First Reading today [Ezekiel 2:1-5], the Prophet Ezekiel had the perfect excuse. It was an excuse even admitted by God Himself. The excuse was, “Lord, they’re not going to listen to me. Their parents had no time for You and they’re no better. They’re obstinate. They’re stubborn. You, O Lord, will be wasting Your time and I, guaranteed, will be wasting my breath. If You’re going to send me, at least let’s find a fertile field.” That could have been a great excuse. Ezekiel could have teamed up that excuse with all kinds of tangible examples with which the Lord could not have argued, but Ezekiel chose not to use that excuse.

In our Second Reading today [2 Corinthians 12:1-10], a couple excuses could have been used by St. Paul. The first was the unbelievable improbability of him being caught up into Heaven and then returned to earth. Paul himself wrestled with the “believability” of what happened to him. Talk about the proverbial “fish story.” Knowing that people would probably doubt what happened to him, Paul could have just shut-up and kept it all inside and not said a word, but Paul chose not to use that excuse. The second excuse was Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” He could have used that excuse because he could have been rightfully angry at God for the weakness in his body and for all the accompanying insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties, but Paul chose not to use that excuse.

In our Gospel today [Mark 6:1-13], Jesus and His disciples had perfect excuses which they chose not to use. For Jesus, it was the lack of honor shown Him in His hometown. People knew Jesus as the local boy who grew up with their own kids. They remembered Jesus as the son of the carpenter who used to play those childish pranks. It would have been easy for Jesus to simply bypass His hometown, but Jesus chose not to use that excuse. Instead, Jesus used that as teaching moment for His disciples, telling them that they also would face obstacles and meet resistence in the journey ahead. Jesus told His disciples not to bring anything with them that might hinder them or slow them down. He told them not to worry about housing or clothing, but to trust God to provide. He told them that they would encounter people who would not listen to them but who would instead be intent on harming them. As with Ezekiel and Paul, the disciples could have made a powerful case using those excuses given them by Jesus Himself, but they chose not to use those excuses.
The final two sentences of our Gospel today could be used as a summary for all three of our lessons: “They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” Praise God! Praise God for the difference that has been made in this world because people have not made excuses but rather have been used by God in the times and places where He needed them.

Katherine Hankey is one of those servants of God. As a young woman she encountered a very serious illness and a very lengthy recovery. She could have easily grown bitter against God, but she instead used that period in her life to grow closer to God, to focus her entire thought process on God, to emerge from that process as a woman with a wonderful story to tell, a story about Jesus and His love for her personally and a story about Jesus and His love for all people. She probably would not have had that story and we probably would not have today’s “Great Hymn of the Faith” had it not been for her illness and recovery.

Don’t get me wrong. Katherine Hankey could have made excuses. She even admits that in the hymn itself. She admits that her experience with God was truly other-worldly, a story of unseen things above. She admits that many people would discredit her experience as being even more fanciful than golden dreams. She admits that some would claim that the story about Jesus was trite and overused and still others would claim to already be believers and not need to hear the old, old story again. Despite those possible excuses, the story about Jesus burned within her. It was a story that had to be told. It was a story too wonderful to keep to herself.

Probably through the time of her own illness and recovery, Katherine came to know that if anybody could have used excuses it would have been Jesus Himself. His earthly path was not an easy one. He chose a motley crew to be His followers. He spent His ministry not in cushy royal palaces but on dusty roads. He didn’t deal with the healthy, but with the true outcasts of society – the beggars, the blind and deaf and mute, the contagious leprous, the woman caught in adultery, the woman who had bled for 12 years, the man possessed by evil spirits. Most doctors would at least be somewhat selective as to whom they treat, what they’re willing to expose themselves to. Even Jesus’ death was not one that any sane person would choose for himself or allow himself to experience at least not without a major fight: hanging on a cross, exposed to the entire world, taunted, spit upon, abused. And none of that even includes the simple fact of the excruciating pain of a bloody, raw back constantly rubbing against rough,, unfinished wood and having the entire weight of your body suspended upon three nails that pierced your hands and feet. That’s what Jesus faced out of His great love for you and for me, and He never said a ‘mumbling word.

Love so amazing! Love so divine! It was a story that had to be told them. It is a story that has to be told now for as many people as there are who have heard the story about Jesus and His love, there are more people who have never heard it, or, if they have heard it, have not yet made it their own story. And we’re not talking about people in the center of Africa or China, people in remote villages in Alaska or Russia. We’re talking about people in our own families. We’re talking about people in our own congregation. We’re talking about the people we live next to, the people we see every day at the gym or at the office, the people we play cards with, the people we go to restaurants with, the people who deserve not to hear excuses but who deserve to hear that in this mean world, there is One Who loves them with an everlasting love, One Who died for them, One Who desires not only to walk with them on the journey in this world, but who has prepared for them a perfect place where they can spend eternity [John 14:1-6].

So what’s your excuse? Did the dog eat your homework? Are you simply moving with the flow of traffic?

Listen again to the last two sentences of today’s Gospel: “They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” May the same be said about you and about me.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena