@Copyrighted by Rev. Troy Sybrant Sermon: Charting a Course #3: A Supportive Coach Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Mark 9:14-29 Sunday 2/22/15
Note: There is no video, since the service today was cancelled due to bad weather.
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
1After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ 6And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ 16“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
17The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” 18He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Mark 9:14-29
14When Jesus, Peter, James, and John came to the rest of the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15When the whole crowd saw Jesus, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. 16Jesus asked those disciples, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; 18and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.” 19He answered them, “You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.” 20And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21Jesus asked the father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.” 23Jesus said to him, “If you are able! —All things can be done for the one who believes.” 24Immediately the father of the child cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You spirit that keeps this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!” 26After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand. 28When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29He said to them, “This kind can come out only through prayer.”
Lenten Candle Extinguishing Message:
Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree and were banished from paradise, beginning a long journey through the wilderness of this world.
It was in the wilderness that Moses heard the voice of God calling from a burning bush, continuing a long journey to deliver God’s people from slavery into a land of milk and honey.
Jesus, seeing a world lost in the wilderness of sin, left heaven in order to guide us back to God. In so doing, he takes a step toward another tree, the cross.
Let us pray. Dear Lord, we remember the journeys that have taken us far from your presence. Journeys into brokenness, wanderings into waywardness, sojourns into barren and deserted places.
We give thanks that there is no place we can flee from your presence, that even our darkest places aren’t dark to you.
Although we would extinguish the Light of the World, yet still you come to seek and search out the lost and forsaken, and when we are found you rejoice.
Thank you for loving us so much,
O God. Amen.
I 
