Still, in the first chapter of Mark’s gospel, we see
Jesus expanding not only the locale of his ministry but the kind of ministry
he’s doing. Today, we move from Jesus’ exorcism of a demon-possessed man to a
story of a different kind of healing. Gone is this picture of raw power. The
healer we see today is up-close and personal, confident in the abilities he’s
been given. We love this story because who doesn’t love a good healing story?
People we love need healing. We need healing… we want and need it so badly, sometimes
we can think of nothing else. And when we think “healing,” we think “prayer.”
We’ll get to that in a minute.
But first, let’s look at some of the other things that
we learn as we read this passage… they may seem small or insignificant, but
every little piece of information verifies how Jesus is so very different from
us, and yet exactly like us, too.
So, first thing this - who knew Peter was married? Why
does this matter? I kind of think most folks tend to think of the disciples as,
well, not like the rest of us. Surely there were cut from a different
cloth, led very different lives, were destined to be Jesus’ disciples from the
beginning, and generally were just plain different from plain old ordinary me. We
put them up on pedestals as shining examples of how to follow Jesus. But when
we do that, we forget or give small regard to all the normal things they did… and
all the mistakes they made.
In reality, they fell short. They were not perfect.
The work they did to hold together a small, ragtag group of believers was
pretty remarkable, even miraculous, you might say. But it wasn’t their work
alone. Remember, the Holy Spirit was present, often incognito, bringing people
to Jesus, and then to the disciples, and soon enough, the Church was born. It’s
easy enough to be in awe of them and say, “Wow, they were amazing to have
started all of this,” when we can just as well say, “I can’t believe the Church
was born despite all the mistakes they made along the way.”
The Peter who drops his nets and leaves his father and
boats to follow Jesus – it’s hard to see ourselves in him. But the Peter in
these verses, we can relate to him, because he has a mother-in-law… who is
sick… and he’s worried about her… and so he asks Jesus for help.
He is, in other words, ordinary. Like us. Like us, he
had high expectations of what Jesus might do. Like us, he was probably at the
end of his rope, hoping again hope that Jesus might be able to rescue the
family from a tragic loss. It feels like that’s how we bring people to
Christ for healing… with high expectation and as a last resort, all at the same
time.
Second, within this first chapter of Mark, we see the
microcosm of Jesus’ entire ministry. Think about it – so far, we’ve seen him
proclaim the good news of God’s coming kingdom, resist the forces of evil by
casting out a demon, and heal the sick. We might get wrapped up in all the
variations of these themes, but essentially, it all boils down to these. This rather
focused mission statement – proclaim, heal, resist – should inform our own
understanding of ministry – in our families, in our congregations, and in our
communities.
In our Thursday evening study of the history of the
Christian church, we are only two weeks in and we already see how the Church
has grown and split, asking people to choose camps based on theology and polity.
The Eastern and Western Churches split in 1054, in part, because they couldn’t
come to a compromise on three little words in the Nicene Creed – “and the Son.”
Yes, it was also about power and how the world was dividing itself philosophically
and politically. But the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated the Pope,
and vice versa, over the question of when the Holy Spirit entered the picture…
as if they could even know.
They forgot the instructions that Jesus gave the
disciples at his ascension – “Go into the world, make disciples, and baptize
them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” The Church of the 11th
century was no longer in tune with the essence of Jesus’ ministry – proclaim,
heal, resist… bring mercy, peace, and justice to all of God’s children. And
it’s still a problem today.
Third, Jesus takes time to care for himself. He
actually draws apart from the hustle and bustle of the busy household to pray,
to withdraw, and tend to his own spiritual life – which seems to be surprising
to the disciples, because they have a hard time locating him. I couldn’t help
but notice their disposition – is it panic? – is it annoyance? – is it genuine
curiosity? They say, “Everyone is searching for you…” In today’s lingo the
question would be, “Mom, why are you in the bathroom so long?”
It’s been 11 months since we entered the COVID life…
one day in March 2020, the normal rhythm of life was interrupted and we were
asked to limit our interactions so that we could hopefully keep the virus from
spreading. And how did we cope? I started reading more for fun. We took on
activities that gave us comfort, like nurturing our sourdough starters or
reading more books or starting new hobbies. We went on walks and upgraded to
commercial-free Hulu.
Thinking like a pastor, I see in hindsight this could
have been an opportunity to offer new or intentional prayer practices. But for
many people, that didn’t happen. There are lots of reasons – most of us just
transferred our work and school lives to our living rooms or home offices. As a
church educator, I didn’t understand how long this process would last, and I’m
sad we didn’t work to get more tools into people’s hands to grow in their faith
lives, even while we were unable to worship together.
COVID fatigue has set in, and many of us can’t wait
until we can be on the go again, but I should go back to the way things were
before? Have we learned any lessons which will help us to become more vigilant
in our spiritual discipleship? Many people found that sequestering themselves
from their busy lives makes the process of prayerful conversation with God
easier. But some found a spiritual connection with God in other ways – in nature
and music and other pursuits too numerous to name. I am hopeful that in this
year of 2021, that we will look for more ways to connect deeper with God, not
as an additional thing to add to our “to do” lists, but to be reminded that
communication with God is as important as the things we do to improve our
physical health, our relationships with the people we love and serving God and
our neighbors in the world.
Prayer is kind of a curious thing. It’s easy to think
of prayer as a list of things we want and need – we could call them petitions – “here’s
my issue, God, please fix it.” But prayer is also about thanksgiving. It’s
about being reminded that God is God and I am not. It is about listening, which
may be as easy or hard as resting in God’s presence. When our lives are very
busy, they are also very noisy. Listening prayer quiets our souls, pushes out
the competing voices in our heads, and helps us hear the necessary, and
sometimes difficult, word that God shares with us. And it takes practice – with
room for lots of failure along the way.
Fourth and finally, I find it fascinating that Mark
says that “they brought all who were sick” and that Jesus “cured many who were
sick.” I don’t know if this contrast is intentional, but right away I notice
that Jesus didn’t seem to cure everyone who came to him. I think this is both instructive and very hard to hear. We all want the ones we love to be the ones that God
heals. We want people to get well when they are sick. We want bad people
punished and good people rewarded. We want the runaway disasters in our lives
to be controlled. But that’s not how prayer works today, and I don’t think it
worked that way for Jesus either.
But that doesn’t mean that God isn’t working among us,
despite not answering prayers in the ways we need, expect, or demand. Many
people turn away from God and Jesus because they see unanswered prayer as
abandonment by God. But that is not my experience of unanswered prayer.
In the shadow of the many times I have prayed with
people, I can only think of a handful where there was a memorable outcome –
only one time that someone with terminal cancer received a clean bill of
health, but then only for a little while. In fact, the most memorable answers
to prayer often came in the most unexpected ways. Sometimes it felt like God
said, “No.” Sometimes it was, “Let’s do this a different way.” And often, it took
a long time to see God’s presence in the places we thought God forgot. Whether
God was working undercover, or just in God’s own timing, we may never know how
our prayers are answered, and we are called to trust God enough for that to be
OK.
Here in Mark, it feels like there were probably many
societal lines crossed as Jesus put out his hand and brought Peter’s
mother-in-law to her feet. No word of forgiveness or call for repentance - Jesus
just went to the fevered woman and brought her to her feet. “And [then] she
began to serve them.” Here we can see that the blessing she received spilled
out over the gathered crowd.
On Saturdays, while Shawn is out putzing in the garage
or working in the yard, I usually pull up my Spotify app and stream some music.
This week, I ran across the soundtrack to the Broadway musical Come From Away.
If you don’t know the story, it’s the story about the people of Gander,
Newfoundland in Canada and how they welcome over 7000 visitors on the day of
September 11, 2001. US airspace was closed and planes going to and from the US
had to land as soon as possible. Here, 38 passenger planes landed, at one of
the largest airports in North America, rendered obsolete by the advent of jetliners
that no longer required last-minute fueling to make it across the Atlantic
Ocean.
The day started for them just like it did for us –
perfectly normal. But it didn’t take long for the folks of Gander to realize
that life was about to get very interesting. The first call on the radio – for folks
to help turn every public building into a place for these Plane People to eat
and sleep. For 14 hours, Gander residents kicked into high gear, anxiously
awaiting the first visitors to deplane.
Meanwhile, 7000+ passengers, crew, and pets were held
on board for 14, 18, even 28 hours as security checks were made. People were
afraid. They didn’t know what was happening in the US and didn’t know what
would greet them when they stepped off of the planes. Islanders didn’t really
know what to do, so they relied on their practical natures and donated and volunteered
in ways that would give them a sense of peace and calm… Phones were made
available to call home… prescriptions were filled by the local pharmacy…
diapers and formula and hygiene products found their way to the people who
needed them. And after two days they had to put out a plea over the radio to
stop donating toilet paper because they didn’t have anywhere to store all that
people had dropped off at the Lion’s Club.
The Islanders were an answer to prayer. They not only tried
to fulfill the physical needs of the travelers – air traffic controllers with
nothing else to do just kept making chili – but they also provided friendship,
opening a space for people to pray in whatever tradition they followed. And
they tried to help calm people’s fear.
There is one song that describes a busload of African
travelers who didn’t speak English, terrified as they say uniformed soldiers
all around. In reality, local folks had dusted off their Salvation Army
uniforms to welcome the visitors there. As the travelers refused to get off the
bus, the driver realized that someone was carrying a bible, and while he couldn’t
read the language it was written in, he knew that the books would be in the
same order, so he looked for a passage that would tell them it was OK to get
off the bus. And when he found it – Philippians 4:6 – be anxious for nothing –
the traveler with the bible smiled and lead his friends off the bus. At that
moment, they spoke the same language.
We look at the struggles of the world and wonder when
God is going to intervene. And the answer is often left up to us. We are the
answer to someone’s prayers… when we sign up for a meal train for a sick family,
or provide assistance to someone in need… or listen when others think that
their cries will never be heard.
Prayer is not just saying the words… It’s also about receiving
God’s answer and responding in ways we didn’t even know we could. So let us be
like Peter’s mother-in-law – let us stand up from our healing and begin to
serve. It’s a truly authentic way of giving thanks.
Peace, Deb
(c) Deb Luther Teagan - February 2021
Resources:
David Lose, In the Meantime… “Epiphany 5B: Jesus’
Ministry and Ours”, posted Feb 1, 2021, http://www.davidlose.net/2021/02/epiphany-5-b-jesus-ministry-and-ours/
Derek Weber, UMC Discipleship Ministries, “And She
Began to Serve,” Lectionary preaching notes for Epiphany 5B https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/follow-me/fifth-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-b-lectionary-planning-notes/fifth-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-b-preaching-notes
Come From Away, Broadway musical - 2017 Soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mdoyKYzkoI&feature=youtu.be
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