Sunday, March 28, 2021 – Palm Sunday

In the Middle of Our Messes

Read: Mark 1:21-28

Has your room at home ever been messy, and then that you have to clean up that messiness? What kinds of things do you usually have to clean up? Maybe books or toys, stuffed animals, your electronics, your clothes... all sorts of things. I have messes at home too.

Actually when I left Oliver and Stella home with my Mom this morning, they were already up and working very hard on the day's mess. So what do you think of these messes we have at home? Do we ever see those types of messes in the sanctuary? No, not so much. It looks pretty clean, just about all the time, doesn't it? If I were to make a mess in there, it would look especially messy and out of place. And I don't think Josh would probably be very happy with me.

But just as we have messes in our rooms, we can also have messes inside of us. And a lot of times, we think we're supposed to clean up those messes inside of us all on our own. We might even think that we need to clean up our messes before we can come to worship. Or maybe we think we need to hide our messes when we worship because it looks so clean: it would look out of place if we were messy.

But in today's scripture from Mark, we see someone in Jesus's faith community who decides to spill their mess right there in the middle of the worship service. The story calls this mess an unclean spirit. But you'll notice when we read from Mark how Jesus responded to this person's mess. Jesus didn't get mad or upset. Instead, Jesus helped the person clean up his mess right there in the middle of worship.

Although the sanctuary is almost always clean, it doesn't mean we have to have everything cleaned up in our own lives to be there. In fact, our faith community can actually help us. With God's guidance and love, they can help us clean up our messes just like Jesus does in today's scripture story. For example, at home, we may make a mess. But then a sibling or a parent might help us clean it up. And that's how it's supposed to work. Not only don’t we need to be cleaned up to be a part of church, we can invite others in the faith community to know about our messes – to live in our messes. And together, with God's help, we can work together to clean up our messes. Jesus isn't afraid of our messes. We learned that today. Imagine our world if we all acted as Jesus did; if we gave each other the same grace in the middle of our messes.

Prayer: Dear God, thank you for Jesus, for He shows us – in the middle of our messes – your healing love and grace. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Emily Bianchi