Healed to Serve
Mark 1:29-39
Rev. Dr. Mary Alice Mulligan
The writer of the Gospel of Mark is an amazing artist. He is meticulous about vocabulary choices and narrative construction. And it’s not like he has a computer to search his document to see where he used a particular word before or to allow him to cut and paste a section from one place in the story to another. We are given an amazing document. Mark writes so we identify with the inner circle, the closest disciples. Other characters serve as foils for making a point, but we tend to treat them more like wallpaper. We don’t stop to think about the man with the unclean spirit or the spirit itself, or the woman who is lifted from her sickbed. They just seem to be there to showcase Jesus as we and the disciples watch him. But Mark, a master writer, shows us that the unclean spirits know who Jesus is and today we will see that the woman healed just might know him also, while we stand with the disciples whom one commentator notes, “…won’t understand [the gospel message] until Easter.”[1] The fact that Mark makes us identify with the followers of Jesus who are thick headed and slow allows us to feel okay about our lack of understanding and questions. After all, if St. Peter doesn’t know what the message is yet, we shouldn’t feel bad if we need to keep learning. But it might help if we listen to last week’s unclean spirit who cried out, “Jesus of Nazareth… I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” (1:24) And from the woman healed today. From the 1st chapter of the Gospel of Mark, listen for the word of God.
As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured 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. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
We hear several times that Jesus is sharing his message, but what is the message? Jesus’ message is wholeness. His teaching and healing demonstrate God’s intention for a world where everyone is whole. Jesus is more than a smalltown doctor who waits for sick neighbors to pay him a visit. He teaches and heals in one place then travels to the next, so the message is spread as far as Jesus is able to take it. From place-to-place Jesus shares the vision of people living lives of wholeness, joy, selflessness, and participating in a new way of sharing. To the unclean spirit ruining the life of the man in last week’s scripture, Jesus says, “Be silent!” and “Come out,” because that is what the man needs to move toward wholeness. To people whose lives are crushed by illness, Jesus touches and heals them. To one living in gluttonous luxury, who later asks about finding life with God, Jesus says, “Sell what you have and give to the poor.” In person-specific ways, Jesus shows God’s desire for every person’s wellbeing.
And today, think of Terry who spent every evening at the bar, drinking and enjoying the company of other rounders, until someone invited him to worship. Within a few weeks he realized his nights in the bar merely spent (actually wasted) time. It was purposeless, postponing boredom. Terry eventually found new meaning in Sunday school teaching and serving the community through his new church home.
Or the older man who wandered into his neighborhood church because he felt empty. The light flickering in the Gathering Area irritated him, so he asked one of the leaders if he could fix it, a skill from his former work life. Soon he was not only making little repairs at the church, but he also got the church involved in Habitat for Humanity builds eventually becoming a Habitat Tiger. Jesus’ message is addressed to us individually but also as a faith community. He calls us to manifest healthy relationships within the congregation, to demonstrate to society God’s radical acceptance of every person, and to choose to live out of compassion and generosity so the surrounding community benefits from the church’s presence. Jesus Christ in the first century and today is sharing the message of God’s intention for the wellbeing of all.
So, we thank God. We express our gratitude to God because the healing of Jesus has touched us, too. Even if God hasn’t shown us the exit for some hurtful habit, we have found meaning and purpose through the teaching of Jesus. We are invited to stretch into more loving people and to grow into more compassionate and generous members yearning for God’s beloved community. So of course, we appropriately feel grateful for God’s grace to us, and we offer our thanks. Just as every person loves to hear someone actually say, “Thank you,” so (I imagine) does God love to hear it. Thanking God aloud in our personal prayer time as well as our congregational prayers is important. Offering thanks is a crucial part of our worship of God.
Another way we express our thanks to God is through our weekly offerings in worship. If we acknowledge that God has done something in our lives – whether God has saved us from some self-destructive behavior or excruciating boredom or overindulgent self-centeredness – then putting something in the plate as part of our worship each week makes sense.
And of course, since today is pledge Sunday, we naturally admit our need to think through all we have to be grateful for, how much we love St. Andrew, how much we love Jesus Christ, and how grateful we are that Jesus Christ in some way has touched our lives. So we want to commit to making offerings next year.
Lots of ministers hate talking about money so they find some schmaltzy story to tell – like about some special needs child who doesn’t understand financial pledging when cards are collected, so they stand in the offering plate and explain they are giving themselves for God to use all next year. But we don’t need any schmaltzy story, because each of us has a story. God has saved or healed or touched and forgiven each of us, so we offer our thanks to God in return.
The world is not the way it is supposed to be. We all know this. And most of us claim that the world is supposed to be the way God wants it to be. And that’s how we want the world, too. We don’t want any child dying of hunger or any woman beaten to death by their significant other or … well we know all the awful stuff. And we know God doesn’t want the world to be that way. What the church of Jesus Christ tries to do is listen to how God wants the world and then add our energy into moving things toward that vision. Fortunately, God’s power has already been set loose in Jesus Christ. So we can tap into the power of God at work through Christ whose Spirit lives among us. St. Andrew United Church of Christ is not perfect, but we are trying to follow Jesus and serve. The woman in today’s passage was touched and healed, then she rose to serve. In the first century, “to serve” was already a term used to describe a Christian deacon. Simon’s mother-in-law was therefore a disciple, the first deacon. Those who follow Jesus are those who serve, because Jesus was clear: he came not to be served but to serve. (Matthew 20:28)
As followers of Jesus, we cannot do everything, but we can be St. Andrew Church and do some things. On this pledge Sunday, let us celebrate the gift God has granted us, in helping us find our way here. So of course, we want to continue to support the ministry and service carried out through St. Andrew United Church of Christ.
[1]Ofelia Ortega, “Theological Perspective,” Mark 1:29-39, Feasting on the Word, Year B, vol. 1, 334.