Saved to get up and serve others! I don’t know how you feel
about that, but I think if I were sick, I’d rather stay in bed than be healed
just to get up and get to serving.
Today’s
Gospel is an intimate little scene in the life of Jesus. He’s going to visit
his friends Simon and Andrew in their home. He’s only taking along a couple of
good friends. We don’t know if he’s met Simon’s mother-in-law before. Jesus was
invited to Simon’s home, and because of the Mediterranean culture of which
Jesus was a part, the invitation would involve refreshments: food and drink.
Jesus arrives at
Simon’s, and all is in confusion. Has this ever happened to you? You’ve
received a dinner invitation for six o’clock. You arrive fashionably late at 6:10,
only to find your hostess still holding a screaming baby and the house in
disarray because the baby sitter hasn’t arrived yet. The smells wafting out of
the kitchen are slightly burnt. The white lace tablecloth put on for your
arrival is slightly grubby. The candles are still unlit.
Jesus very likely walked
into the biblical equivalent of that scene. The senior member of the household,
the hostess, the woman in charge, was ill. Now doubt there were other members
of the household who were perfectly capable of taking hold, but the heart of
the household was ill. She whose role it was to provide hospitality was not
capable of fulfilling the duty to which she was called. Simon’s mother-in-law
was called to her role of hospitality because she was born into a Jewish
household and married into one. She had children, or at least a child, Simon’s
wife. She was called to her role of hospitality because she was a woman. And in
addition, she was the senior woman in the household, the mother-in-law. This
meant the other women – and even the men – in the household deferred to her in
matters of entertainment and hospitality. It sounds like a role of being in the
background. It was likely a role that included daily trips to the market place
and the well or at least supervising the other women of the household in their
roles as part of a well-run household. It was a role of seeing that there was
always enough food on the table, even when unexpected guests arrived, a role of
service. To us, it may sound like an insignificant role.
Yet can you
picture poor Simon explaining to Jesus about his mother-in-law? He’s arrived
home expecting his friend, the honored guest, to be greeted by the ritual of
water for washing. He expected food and drink to be forthcoming. Instead, Simon
was quite likely confronted by people tending the ailing hostess. They were running
about with cool compresses and herbal drinks for her since a fever could be the
beginning of a dangerous illness.
We aren’t told in
the Gospel that Simon asked to have his mother-in-law healed. We aren’t told
that she asked for healing either. Maybe
she was enjoying a little enforced rest. Maybe she was thinking, “Let them
cope. I finally have a day off.” All we are told is, “they told him (Jesus)
about her at once.” Jesus may have simply been told why this senior member of
the household was not serving him. Or he may have been appealed to because she
was sick. We don’t know. What we do know is that Jesus “lifted her up. Then the
fever left her, and she began to serve them.”
Lifting. Healing.
Serving. In those acts, the social and religious conventions of the day were
cast aside. This simple story of lifting and healing and serving is radical
news. Good news. News of a new thing!
We don't know
Simon’s mother-in-law's name. She is introduced to us through the role of her
male kinsman. This was an appropriate social convention of the time. A woman’s
role and place were home and family, and this is how Simon’s mother-in-law was
defined. In fact, the social conventions were probably followed in telling
Jesus about her illness. Male relatives no doubt told Jesus what was wrong.
Essentially, they spoke on behalf of the woman. Again, that was observing a
proper social convention.
But now convention
is thrown down. Jesus is about to do a new thing. Jesus, a stranger, not even a
relative, goes to the sick woman and touches her! Do you understand how radical
this would be? Do you know how shameful it would be, at that time, and in that
culture, for a strange man to be found near the bed of a woman to whom he was
not related? And not only does Jesus approach the bed, he touches her! He lifts
her up.
And the fever
leaves her. And she gets up from her bed and resumes her role. Her role is one
of service. She is “saved to serve.”[1]
Simon’s mother-in-law ministered to Jesus. She was healed. She served. She was
made well; she waited on Him. She was also reintegrated into her role in her
household community. She was “saved to serve.”
This Gospel today
makes me wonder and then stand in awe of people and congregations who continue
to serve regardless of mental and physical issues that try to separate them
from their community of faith. It makes me wonder how we as a faith community
can find more people who are hungry to serve and help them figure out ways to
do so. How can we lift people up, help them to heal by becoming fully part of a
loving community, and find ways for them to serve with joy? How can we save to
serve?
In one community
of faith there is a highly efficient older woman who worked for years as an
executive assistant to an oil company president. She is frail now and uses a
motorized wheel chair. She can still write beautifully after years of ghost
writing authoritative letters for the executive. Now, she is the birthday and
anniversary card writer in a parish. Even to people she has never met, her hand
written notes are personal and caring. And. She’ll be teaching her successor, a
much younger person how to write well. She is saving her to serve.
There is a parish
with several children who are learning challenged. The children delight in
standing with a parent and handing out worship bulletins and greeting people
with a huge welcoming smile. The children never fail to add there will be
goodies at coffee hour and please come and talk to them there. As soon as
church begins, the run to their Sunday school room, filled with the importance
of their welcoming role. The children’s welcoming and joyful smile has brought
new members because new people see children really are welcome and are saved to
serve.
There’s a young
man in one church who delights in serving at the altar. He is so proud to
serve. Yes, sometimes he forgets things, but then, so does everyone and a little
gentle coaching works just fine to save him to serve!
There is a very
elderly couple that can’t attend church any more. Yet they pray together daily for
the sick, the troubled, and the thankful in their parish. The parish calls them
their “prayer warriors” and they are the first people to call when someone wants
prayer. By their joyous service of intercession and thanksgiving they are surely
lifted up by their calls from those in need of prayer, healed by being needed,
and saved to serve.
There’s a parish
with an “odd couple.” They only came to church. Shortly after they began
attending, the person in charge of the homeless meals resigned after many
years. This couple came to the priest and said they would be honored to take
charge. The parish was shocked. Especially since on the rare occasions they did
help out, they didn’t seem very organized. They certainly didn’t do things the
way they’d always been done there. But, it turned out they had both worked in
food services for years. Despite a lot of what Moses might have called
“murmuring” in the congregation, the outreach team accepted their offer. Soon
the ministry expanded to include other churches. The children began serving the
desserts. The teens filled water glasses and rolled napkins and flatware
together, giggling and getting to know one another. More people were fed, and
more people from church were saved to serve. I always find it comforting to
remember Jesus loves the odd ones too. Many were lifted up, relationships were
healed, and people were saved to serve.
Saved to serve. And
being served by the hands and hearts and minds of those we tend to dismiss as
less able: The mentally challenged, the physically challenged, the ill, the
elderly, the teenagers, the very young, and the odd. If these are saved to
serve, we too are saved to serve. AMEN.
The Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2018
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