February 7, 2021
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
Mark 1:29-39
From the Street Where You Live to the Faraway Towns
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
When I go for a walk along a neighborhood street, I like to look at the houses. What makes this house unique? Did anyone add onto it at some stage? The physical structures of the houses are interesting. However, what fills me with awe is when I start thinking about who dwells in each house.
Every one of them is home to someone or some family. My husband and I live in a certain house, under a particular roof. And we have a story unique to us. The same is true of the people living under each and every roof. Their story, their life drama, is unique unto them. They have joys and sorrows, they face challenges and fears known only by them. Their histories contain triumphs and trials, promise and pain. Which one is facing crisis? Who is looking forward to the promise of tomorrow? Who finds it hard to sleep at night because of worry? Is there strife and conflict dis-easing relationships therein? Each house contains its own mixture of hopes and challenges.
Each dwelling, a different story. One spiritual practice you can do when you go for a walk is to pray your neighborhood. As you pass each house, lift up to God the mystery of the people living there. You don’t know what they’re facing, but God does. God knows their situation intimately.
Something like that happens in our gospel reading for today. You might remember that last week, Jesus attended the Sabbath worship in Capernaum at the village synagogue. Something quite remarkable happened there when Jesus cast out an unclean spirit from a man.
After worship is over, Peter heads to his house along with Jesus and the other disciples. What we don’t know, and what Jesus didn’t know, was the crisis going on under that very roof. But Jesus soon finds out. Peter’s mother-in-law has a fever. And this is no small fever. The word denotes a burning fever. She is critically ill.
They tell Jesus about her just as soon as they enter the house. Jesus moves in immediately. He comes up right next to her and takes her by the hand. He lifts her up. Lifts her up – it’s the same word used to describe Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus touches her with the power of rising up.
Immediately the fever leaves her and her vitality is restored. She begins to serve them. That may resonate against our ears as somehow sexist. “The poor woman. Her clothing is still damp from the fever and now she has to toil away in the kitchen!”
But the Greek word is no ordinary service. It’s related to diaconal service. Jesus has restored her to her personal vocation of service in the world. This is what she lives for. This service is her purpose.
This small but marvelous incident shows us how very focused Jesus becomes when he’s concerned for someone. He responded in the very same manner when he encountered the man in the synagogue with the unclean spirit. He is 100% focused on that person! He’s drawn in with laser focus. He’s all about this suffering person!
To both the man at the synagogue and now Peter’s mother-in-law, Jesus is completely rapt. His attention isn’t divided. He doesn’t hurry through so he can get on to the next thing. His focus is undivided with concern for them.
After the sun goes down, the Sabbath is officially over. People now start lining up in front of Peter’s house! They’ve brought their personal concerns and their loved ones with them. They’ve taken their cares to Jesus. And we can imagine he approaches each one with the same total attention and care as he did to the man in the synagogue and Peter’s mother-in-law.
That night, Jesus steals away to a lonely place to pray. The next morning, the disciples look for him. When they find him, they urge him to return to Capernaum. “Everyone is looking for you!”
But Jesus doesn’t want to return to the streets of Capernaum. There are other communities with streets of their own. There are people in other villages, dwelling under other roofs. He must go to them, too.
We want Jesus to be our homey. We want him to stay close, right on the street where we live. But Jesus’ ministry moves in two directions. It draws close, very close. But it also expands outward, ever outward, like the universe.
We see these two forces at work in Jesus’ ministry. It’s extremely intimate and personal. He’s the good shepherd who calls his sheep by name. He knows the number of hairs on our head.
But his ministry also reaches outward. He said, “I have sheep that don’t belong to this fold. I must bring them also.” He said, “When I am lifted up, I will draw all people unto myself.”
Jesus’ mission is both extremely personal and broad. Jesus is able to draw near personally to you but also do that same thing with all other souls. It’s greater than our minds can comprehend. We are not divine. We aren’t able to focus with such personal intimacy and global breadth.
Jesus’ personal and global mission reached its apogee on the cross. There, on the cross, his love reached out. His reach extended beyond the confines of time and space. It spanned to draw all people to his divine love. But it was not a generic love. No, his love was centered exactly on YOU. His destiny on the cross was fulfilled for YOU personally. That saving grace was extended specifically to YOU. With the same focused specificity he showed to Peter’s mother-in-law, Jesus extended his hand to you. He lifted YOU up.
And like Peter’s healed mother-in-law, you are now renewed for your service!
This is February, Black History Month. There’s a very powerful story in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that reflects this healing for service.
In 1956, MLK was the pastor of Dexter Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He was 27 years old. He and Coretta were new parents. Their first child, Yolanda, was just a few months old.
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on that December day in 1955, it was a defining moment. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began, and young Martin played an instrumental role in its leadership.
Hostilities over the boycott boiled up. Then, deep into the night of January 27, 1956, the phone rang in the Dexter Baptist parsonage. Young Martin answered the phone. The gravelly voice on the other end of the call issued a chilling threat. If he didn’t refrain from speaking, in three days he would be targeted with violence.
The phone call chilled MLK to the bone. Unable to sleep, he went to the kitchen and made himself some coffee. When it was brewed, he sat down at the table and bowed his head in prayer. He prayed, “Lord, I’m trying to take a stand for what I believe is right. But I’m afraid. The people are looking to me for strength and courage. But if they sense that I’m afraid, then they’ll falter, too. Lord, I’m at the end of my powers. I’ve got nothing left.”
In the darkness of the night, no one would have known the drama unfolding under the roof of that parsonage. But the Lord came near to Martin that night. The hand of the Lord drew near and lifted him up. In the quiet of the kitchen, he heard a voice respond to him, “Martin Luther, stand up for truth. Stand up for justice. I will be at your side forever.”
That night, the Lord came near to Martin. He called Martin to arise. And he did. Dr. King continued being the prophetic voice behind the bus boycott.
Three days later, on January 30th, Dr. King was at a boycott meeting. Coretta was home at the parsonage with little Yolanda. She heard footsteps on their front porch. She jumped to her feet and ran to the back bedroom where little Yolanda was sleeping. A burning stick of dynamite left on the front porch exploded, blowing out the windows of the living room.
Dr. King rushed home when he received news of the bombing. An angry crowd of outraged and armed people was beginning to assemble there. King went outside and addressed them. And here’s what he said:
“We believe in law and order. Don’t get your weapons. He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword. Remember that is what God said. We are not advocating violence. We want to love our enemies. … Love them and let them know you love them.
“I want it to be known the length and breadth of this land that if I am stopped, this movement will not stop. If I am stopped, our work will not stop. For what we are doing is right. What we are doing is just. And God is with us.”
The Lord had taken Dr. King by the hand and lifted him up in the hour of his fever. And he got up and served in the diaconal role that defined the purpose of his life. The Lord never left his side. And the Lord never leaves our side, either.
In our shared mission as a community of faith, the two directions of Jesus’ ministry inform us in our own ministries. The Lord comes near. It’s very personal to each of us. And in that intimate touch, we are lifted up, you and I. We are strengthened and restored so that we can return to our destined service. That ministry starts on the street where we live. And it calls us outward into the world, onto the streets in other villages and cities. It calls us to join the Lord in this ministry of the divine kingdom. May that kingdom come to us, as it is in heaven.
