Sermon for Epiphany 1, Text: Mark 2:1-22
Sometimes
I need a sermon myself. I don’t mean that I need one written for me because I’m
tired or uninspired. I mean that I need to hear one. Usually, I have four or five of you in mind and I hope that
the Spirit speaks to all of you through the written and spoken words on Sunday.
Yet, sometimes I ended up preaching the Word that I needed to hear and I hope
something came to you as well.
Today,
as we look at the stories of people who meet Jesus, I felt like I should be
honest about what I want to hear. Perhaps you have the same plea as you listen
to these stories. We have a story of friends interceding, a paralyzed man walking, doubtful scribes, uncertain disciples, and adoring crowds. These are the people Jesus meets and it's hard to decide which thread to follow. Healing, forgiveness, welcome, celebration, correction,
renewal, restoration, resurrection- any and all of these are messages I want to
receive. How about you?
Pastor,
speak to me of healing. I need to hear that miracles can still happen, that
they do still happen, that they will still happen. I want to hear, again, that
God heals through medicine and through miracles and, sometimes through death, through death. Assure
me, with sincerity, of the double significance of this gospel story. First, Jesus
releases the man from the sins that plague and disturb him- a powerful symbol
of the power and grace of God.
In order to prove that his power was of God,
Jesus then healed his physical ailment, cured whatever bound him to his pallet.
In the face of cancer and all manner of other illnesses, Preacher, tell me with
confidence that the healing power of God in Jesus is not limited to a house in
Capernaum, but that it transcends space and time and the bounds of our
understanding. This is the gospel I need today.
Pastor, speak to me of
Epiphany- of a dawning light and a great understanding. In my daily life, I
hear a lot of people talking and it all begins to sound the same. I remain
hopeful, but cynicism and frustration curls the edges of my hope. I feel kind
of like a Pharisee, because I just want something to make sense and to fulfill my expectations. Structure,
continuity and tradition provide reliability and stability in chaotic times. A
season of new understanding, of A-ha! moments, of bright inspirations is
exactly what I need, but not necessarily what I want.
Preach to me about the
meaning of Emmanuel- God with us. Remind me that there is nowhere I can go that
God has not preceded me, nowhere that Jesus does not accompany me, nowhere that
the Spirit does not receive me. This is the gospel I need today.
Pastor,
speak to me of sin and of release. Speak the hard truth about sin- about its
power to separate us from our neighbors and to make us feel separated from God.
Look me in the eye and tell me that sin is action and intention, both concrete
and nebulous. Use words that are familiar, but help me understand in a new way
that sin is the things I have done and left undone, said and remained quiet
about, things I have given too freely and things I have withheld.
Now preach to
me about release. I don’t want to hear about forgiveness only, about a formula
or words that make things right. I want a powerful, truthful, toe-curling
honesty about release- release from the fear of death, release from the
captivity of sin, release from the mistakes of the past, release into the
freedom of a new future in God. Speak to me of the release that is offered
through Jesus, every day, every minute. Pastor, speak to me of amazing grace
and do not stop. This is the gospel I need today.
Pastor, speak to me of
resurrection. I know that is the wrong season, that we have not yet trudged
through Lent to the gleaming white of Easter morning. Nevertheless, I look at
today’s gospel and its words of feasting and celebration. I read of new
wineskins to receive new wine. This kind of new life makes me think of renewal.
Remind me again that God has promised not to make all new things, but to make
all things new. Could it be, Pastor, that resurrection happens within us before
it happens to us?
Is it possible that God-with-us in the person of Jesus was
bringing new life to Levi, to John’s disciples, to the outcasts, and even to
the Pharisees before the tomb was thrown open? Help me to chew over the idea
that spiritual resurrection comes before the resurrection of the body, but is
just as important. Tell me in no uncertain terms that God was resurrecting
through Jesus Christ long before Easter Sunday. Resurrecting faith,
resurrecting community, resurrecting hope, resurrecting relationship. Tell me
this is not a metaphor. This is the gospel I need today.
Pastor,
I like it when Jesus says, “I have come not to call the righteous, but the
sinners.” I like that a lot, except that I would like to be a little bit
righteous. Isn’t Lutheran theology that we are all righteous and sinners at the
same time? So aren’t I a little bit righteous? Break it to me gently, one more
time, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Ugh. Again.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Okay, I’m ready to hear
that my perceptions of myself (and of others) fill up my wineskin and get in
the way of the fresh wine that Jesus would put in there. Bring it on home, Pastor,
and tie together the truths that I have to release what I think of myself and
others, so that I can be open to the healing, the epiphanies, and the
resurrection that God has in front of me. Not only that God has in front of me, Preacher, but that God is doing in me and around me. Not only in me and around me, but
perhaps, Pastor, with God’s grace and gifts, through me and with me. Today, I am one of the
people whom Jesus meets. This is the gospel I need today.
Amen.
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