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This Week’s Sermon February 5, 2012 Time after Epiphany
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Mark 1:29-39 February 5, 2012
This is a beautiful story. Jesus goes to Peter’s house, and finds that his mother-in-law is sick. Jesus is able, almost effortlessly, to restore her to health. In fact she is restored to such good health that she is able to serve them, presumably at a meal. And later that day, after sunset, for it was the Sabbath, everyone in town turned out to see the healer. They brought their sick friends. They brought their friends who were possessed by demons. And Jesus healed them all. There’s a verse of an old hymn that goes like this, Thy touch has still its ancient power, What a wonderful vision! So finally, after a very long day, Jesus is able to rest. But he arises very early in the morning, and goes away somewhere to pray. And the disciples come after him, saying, “Weve been looking all over for you. There are more people down in the town square that need to be healed. Please come back and take care of them!” And we are surprised that Jesus says no! He says no because his mission is not to heal, as wonderful as that is, but to proclaim the kingdom of God. And that one decision starts him down the road that will lead to the cross. Are you crazy, Jesus? Are a few sermons more valuable than healing all those sick people??? We don’t understand, do we? Jesus must have been tempted to go back to Capernaum the next morning Miracles were happening. People were being cured. The entire city was at the door. There has been no opposition to Jesus and his ministry. Anyone else might have said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” Wouldn’t we like to have everyone fighting to get into our church! Returning to Capernaum seemed very attractive. And, imagine yourself waking up the next morning and hearing about the wonderful healer that was in town, and hurrying out to find him. Then you are told he’s gone away. And you had such high hopes for healing, either for yourself, or for your sick child, husband, or mother. How would you feel? Jesus was one of their own. We’d feel angry and betrayed. So, probably did the people of Capernaum. In those days, in that culture, you weren’t supposed to leave home. Jesus had a certain amount of fame and respect, which he was supposed to share with his kin and his tribe, kind of a reflected glory – but instead he takes off! You can almost hear the townspeople – too good for his little borough – has to go away to the big cities. Too big for his britches if you ask me! So why did Jesus do it? He faced an uncertain future. But Jesus had a mission. Jesus was called not just to heal, but to spread the good news of the Kingdom of God. In contrast to that wonderful past in Capernaum, the future, roaming around Galilee was unclear -- but that is what Jesus has been called to do. He will not walk the safe and seemingly successful way, but follow the way God has set before him. It will not always be what his disciples want. It will not always be with the people want. It will be what God wants. How can we read these stories about Jesus the healer and not feel cheated? I may have told this story before, but a former bishop of the Delaware Maryland synod was seriously ill with cancer and expected to die. He did not, though; he received a clean bill of health for many years, and said he considered it to be a miracle. My immediate gut reaction to his story was to wonder about all the other people in the hospital that morning that weren’t cured? Is a bishop’s life more valuable that that if of a 12 year old girl who died of Leukemia, or a 30 year old who died of lung cancer? We struggle with the fact that with a word or touch, Jesus can heal; yet, as much as we may pray and touch and anoint a loved one, they often do not get well and restored to society. Instead they die. We may cry out, “Jesus, you healed with a touch, why can't you do the same now?” The answer is simple, yet hard for us to understand. Jesus had a mission, and he never deviated from that mission, no matter how he might have been tempted. Jesus’ mission was to proclaim that with his coming, the Kingdom of God was breaking in on earth. The healings, the exorcisms, the nature miracles that Jesus did reveal who he is, and show his divine power, but this inbreaking of the Kingdom is more than that, so much more. That’s why he kept telling people not to say anything about him, and his work. Because only when we know the whole story about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, do we understand what his mission was. It was to save the world, to bring eternal life. It was a mission greater than the needs of any one person, or even a town full of people. There are those pastors who preach the idea that following Jesus will lead to health, wealth, prosperity, in short everything we want in life. But we don’t have to look very far to see that this is simply not true. Christians have problems, just like unbelievers. We get sick and pray for healing, and sometimes it happens, and sometimes, for reasons we do not understand, our wishes are not granted. God does not cause our difficulties, but he does stand with us, and work through our troubles for good. Romans 8:28 says, “In everything God works for good….” It doesn’t mean that everything that happens to us is good. It means that God is there for us, in the darkest of nights, even as he is there in the brightest of mornings. And sometimes good can come out of that which is truly a terrible situation. In his devotional writings, Martin Luther jotted this down during some particularly discouraging days during the Reformation “If God gave up his own son for us all, how could God ever intend to forsake us in less important things?” He then goes on to state one of the great affirmations in all of church history: “If we perish, then Christ the Almighty Ruler of the world himself must suffer with us. Even if this cause were to collapse, I would much rather be Ruined with Christ than rule with Caesar.” Sometimes following Christ means going with him to the cross. Finally, though, there is the Kingdom of God. We live in an infinitely vast, infinitely old, and infinitely complex universe, created by a God whose ways we cannot possibly, with our finite human minds, every begin to understand. Jesus came to earth to show us the beginning of God’s rule, God’s kingdom, in a way we could understand. But there is so much more coming in the fulfillment of God’s kingdom. And Christ died for our sins so that each and every one of us can experience that fulfillment – eternally, with him. 1 Corinthians says, “12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” We may not understand Jesus’ actions when he walked the earth. We don’t understand why God does things the way he does. But this is the promise – we will, my friends, we will! Amen
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