The Second Sunday after Trinity
“If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand”
Summary
Our readings start this morning with division and disunity in the garden of Eden, Genesis 3:8-15. Adam and Eve have separated themselves from one another (as Adam blames Eve), from God (as Adam blames God for making Eve) and from creation (as Eve blames the serpent). At the heart of the division in Genesis is a sense of scarcity: Adam and Eve wanted what they didn’t have and now they perceive their nakedness, their lack.
Our lives also seem saturated with a sense of scarcity; we worry whether there is enough: food, housing, welfare support, NHS time, for all who seek it. This fear can create a desire to divide people into those who deserve limited resources and those who should be excluded. This is the mindset that Jesus encounters the gospel, Mark 3:20-35, when the scribes cannot admit that his power comes from God. They wish to be the ones who determines who can receive God’s blessings. But Jesus will not divide people, instead he welcomes all who seek God’s will into his family.
Today we will be inviting you to engage with an eco-church project. Our hope is that we can respond to fears of scarcity by recovering a sense of God’s abundant provision and a commitment to work together to make a difference in our small piece of God’s creation.
FIRST READING
Genesis 3:8-15
The man and the woman heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent tricked me, and I ate.’ The Lord God said to the serpent,
‘Because you have done this,
cursed are you among all animals
and among all wild creatures;
upon your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.’
GOSPEL
Mark 3.20-35
‘The crowd came together again, so that Jesus and his companions could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’— for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’
Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’
