5 Epiphany
February 8, 2009
Mark 1:29-39
One of the things I like best about this faith of ours is the way its themes work in and out of our daily lives. Ours is a living tradition in which new discovery of ancient truth is the norm. We live with one part of the story for a while and then it is time to move on. In fact, moving on seems to be one of those reemerging themes this week.
I’ve been hearing the voice of Jesus all week, and it keeps saying, “we can’t stop here. We have other places to visit.”
First there is today’s reading from Mark’s gospel. The disciples come to Jesus and say, “It’s amazing. They love you. The crowds are bigger than ever. You have arrived, you’ve hit the big time.” And Jesus says, “Let’s get out of here.”
This is just one of many stories in which Jesus doesn’t want to be pinned down by--drawn into the conformable life of a popular faith healer. It is just one of many stories in which we get the idea that healing is nice, but that it is only incidental to Jesus’ primary mission, and in fact, today Jesus tells his friends that he must move on and proclaim the message. He tells them that proclaiming the message is what is most important. And what is that message? We heard it back in Mark’s first chapter. It was laid out like the thesis of a dissertation. “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven has come near. Repent.”
It is the message that shapes Jesus life and it is the message that will lead him all the way to the cross. This morning, Jesus tells the disciples it’s time to press on. They like the idea of living in the comfort of the limelight and Jesus says, “nope, let’s keep moving.”
Today we hear that Jesus cured the sick and cast out demons. He made people’s lives easier, he made them more comfortable. We hear also that what he considered even more important than that was calling people to lead new lives--to be new people. It is all too common for Jesus’ followers to focus on that first part--the part about believing and celebrating what God can do in our lives. Sometimes it takes the voice of Jesus calling us on to the next town to remind us that our ministry, like his is mostly about doing.
Listen again to the message Jesus was proclaiming. “Repent, says Jesus, that is, “turn around, change direction, the realm of God has come near to you. With God as your companion you will find courage and strength to help you choose a new path and to walk that path once you have chosen it.” He doesn’t just tell us to leave our comfort zones, he tells us we have resources to help us do it.
This idea of following Jesus out of our comfort zones has been a recurring theme this week.
I led a class these last three Wednesdays on the Episcopal Church. We started in early Christianity and then went to the Reformation. For the last class, I decided to look at the people who have been commemorated in this century and put on the churches calendar of lesser feasts and fasts. I thought those people would give a pretty good view of the Church in our time. It turned out that most of the people listed were people who had lived faithfully through troubled times, or who had worked against the status quo. Civil rights martyrs Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Martin Luther King, Dietrich Bonhoeffer whose faith led him to participate in a plot to kill Hitler, Vita Scudder , known for her social activism in Boston in the early 1900s. She founded the Episcopal Church Socialist League and helped form the Women’s Trade Union League. Florence Li Tim-Oi who was ordained a priest thirty years before it was allowed in any province of the Church. I was surprised as I looked at the list at how many of the people celebrated by our Church and held up to us as examples were people involved in political struggles and in social justice movements. They were everyday people who recognized something of the need of their times and responded....everyday people who heard the call to chart a new path and who, through faith, found the courage and strength to do just that.
Yesterday, your Vestry and clergy spent a day planning for the year ahead at St. Aidan’s. The day began with a time of prayer and discernment around what it is that needs to happen next around here......what we might find in this community....what it might be time for in the life of this parish.
At one point the talk turned to preaching. Someone said we live in troubled times.....what does the Church have to say about what they mean.....aren’t we all going to be called to give up some of our comfort and doesn’t the church have something to say about that? Where is the prophetic voice that will help us respond to the challenges that are coming. Part of what I heard in that gentle and genuine voice was, hey preacher, maybe it’s time to stepped out of your comfort zone a little. For this preacher, that question was itself a part of the prophetic voice.
I preached my first sermon at St. Mark’s in D.C. Before I preached I sat with a group of parishioners and listened while they read the lessons for the coming week and talked about what those words meant to then and to the congregation. I was free of course, after listening to the group to preach whatever I wanted, but I preached with information I wouldn’t have had without hearing what they had to say. Those sessions meant that sometimes I had to wrestle with ideas in the lessons that I would have avoided if left all on my own. Sometimes I would realize that what I had thought was a great idea for a sermon wasn’t what was called for that week. It was just the way things were done there, had been done there for years. Even the bishop of Washington, when she was scheduled to visit St. Mark’s set aside time to meet with the worship planners and hear what the lessons meant to them. I found that intentional connection between preacher and congregation to be at the same time challenging and enriching. My classmates in seminary didn’t understand the process. Those who had heard about it said things like, “Oh you’re at St. Mark’s. Isn’t that the place where they tell you what you have to preach?” They didn’t know what they were missing.
Yesterday when I heard the Vestry asking questions about the road ahead and what input the preacher might have about the meaning of where we are and where we are going, I thought of those days in seminary. And, I thought about what a privilege it is to preach in a place like St. Aidan’s where preaching really is a conversation, one in which we listen together to hear what the Spirit is saying to the people.
Today I hear Jesus saying our mission requires that we keep moving and that we need to be wary of becoming too comfortable in our surroundings, that the prophetic voice is one that says, let’s get back on the road. Let’s talk about what our real mission is.
The vestry was right. We are living in times of great challenge. The gospel does call us to action on the environment, on health care, on helping those who can’t find work, to feeding the hungry and housing the homeless. Our call, like the call to the disciples this morning, is to places we’ve never been before, and that is not always the place we are most eager to go. But we will go there as long we can hear the voice of Jesus saying let’s get moving.
Jesus said it then. Now we have to listen among ourselves if we are to hear that message. Now it is the people who have to speak for Jesus and say let’s not settle in where we are comfortable....let’s keep moving.
When you travel with Jesus you do find blessings....sometimes healing....comfort...deep peace.....AND, once in a while you hear a voice say, “time to move on....we can’t rest here.” That is the voice of Jesus. And in our time, that voice can still be heard coming from people like you and me. Amen
John Baker