Text: Mark 1:29-39 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
Jesus Heals Many at Simon’s House
29 And immediately he[a] left the synagogue, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever, and immediately they told him of her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her; and she served them.
32 That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together about the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
A Preaching Tour in Galilee
35 And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with him pursued him, 37 and they found him and said to him, “Every one is searching for you.” 38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also; for that is why I came out.” 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.
Today’s passage almost sounds like a news report. It’s very matter-of-fact. There’s no embellishment or interpretation. It just tells us what Jesus did: He left the synagogue, entered the house of Simon and Andrew, and healed Simon’s mother-in-law. And it goes on from there.
And yet, these activities on the part of Jesus represented nothing less than a seismic shift in the world. Last week, Jesus healed the man in the synagogue, and now he’s healed not just Simon’s mother, but “all who were sick or possessed with demons.” This is not the sort of thing that happens every day. People were already stunned by the healing in the synagogue, and now they see that that was just the first of a series of healings.
Last week, we talked about how God stands steadfastly for us against anything and everything that tries to hold us down. The passage from Isaiah shows us just who our God is:
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23 who brings princes to nought,
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing…
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing…
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth…
31 they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.
Whenever I hear or read that last verse, I think of Rev. Alice Snow, who was our minister when I was in Junior High – she quoted that passage every week, I think, and to this day, it has a powerful effect on me. “They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
That same all-powerful God, the God who created all the stars in the sky, who stretched out the heavens like a curtain, that God, in the form of Jesus, comes into the humble home of Simon’s mother-in-law, and raises her up, makes her whole again, restores to her the vitality that her illness had taken from her. The entire collected power of the Universe was focused for a moment solely on her. What a moment that must have been.
The only thing even remotely close to that in my own life happened on the day of Ordination – at one point in the service, everyone who wanted to was invited to come forward and lay their hands on me, and being at the center of all that energy and the focus of all those prayers was overwhelming. I had never experienced anything like that before, and I have never experienced anything like it since, and likely never will. And as great as that was, it was just a tiny, tiny fraction of the energy from Jesus that flowed into that woman.
God, who runs the Universe, knows every one of us, deeply and intimately, better even than we know ourselves. His eye really is on the sparrow, as the old hymn tells us, but even more so, on every single one of us.
Think about that for a minute: God creates stars and galaxies and worlds beyond measure, and all the creatures in them, and at the same time, has His eye on us, too. And what an incredible comfort that is.
That God came to us as Jesus. Jesus spread that love and stood against the “powers and principalities” arrayed against God’s children, and brought life and immortality to light.
No wonder the crowds formed wherever Jesus went. No wonder those twelve men dropped what they were doing on the spot to follow him. No wonder that, two thousand years on, we still speak of him, pray to him, and follow him.
What a gift we have been given. What a Call we have received.
The Apostle Paul tells us about that Call in the passage from I Corinthians – he tells us that, first, being followers of Jesus is a privilege. We have received the greatest gift imaginable, and we have the privilege of sharing it with others. Paul uses the word “preaching,” but it’s also much than that – not just words, not even just actions, but attitudes. Sometimes people do nice things for us because they feel they have to. Other times people do nice things for us because they want to. And we know the difference, because we can feel it.
Paul also tells us that our Call is a duty. William Barclay recounts the story Roman Lull, the great thirteenth-century Spanish saint and mystic, told about how he had become a missionary of Christ: “He had been living a carefree and pleasure-loving life. Then one day, when he was alone, Christ came carrying his cross and saying to him: ‘Carry this for me.’ But he refused. Again, when he was in the silence of a vast cathedral, Christ came and asked him to carry his cross; and again he refused. In a lonely moment, Christ came a third time, and this time, said Roman Lull, ‘He took his cross and with a look he left it lying in my hands. What could I do but take it up and carry it on?’ Paul would have said: ‘What can I do but tell men and women the good news of Christ?’”[1]
Such also is our duty. It’s a duty, but not a chore. It’s not a chore, because – well, think of this for a minute: Remember, Jesus told his disciples, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:12-14).
In other words, we are not only the recipients of the Good News, not only the bearers of the Good News, but as co-creators with God, we help shape the way that Good News is fulfilled in our world.
Imagine that! Think about that for a minute. Doesn’t it make you see yourselves and St. John’s a lot differently? You don’t have to be a 3,000-member megachurch to help bring the Good News to a world that absolutely must hear it! You and I, right here and right now, in our community where we live, have as much to do with spreading the Good News and ushering in the Kingdom of God as anyone else.
More than that, we have all the ability and all the tools we need to do it!
As Mark’s version of the Gospel story progresses, we are struck by a very important fact: Even Jesus can’t keep pace with the overwhelming needs of those who come to him, so he commissions others to help bear the burdens.
And who are these others? Back then, it was the twelve and then all those unnamed other disciples who helped share the workload. Who might they be today? Well, take a moment to look to your left and your right, and you will see them. To paraphrase Pogo, “We have met the co-creators, and they are us!”
In fact, Sisters and Brothers, we do that holt work already in so many ways, large, small, and in-between.
So, let’s recap:
We have received the Good News.
We are the bearers of the Good News.
We shape how the Good News is fulfilled in the world.
Over the course of its long history, St. John’s has done a lot. We continue to do a lot. And we will do even more great things in the future – because we are co-creators with God!
I truly do believe that 2018 is going to be a banner year for St. John’s!
In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity. AMEN.
[1] Barclay, William, The Letters to the Corinthians, The New Daily Study Bible, Louisville, Kentucky, Westminster John Knox Press, 2002, p. 97