24 March 2018

Sermon Epiphany V Mark 1:29-38 4 February 2018 Year B


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


[1] Barclay. (Page 38) “A great Scottish family has the motto “Saved to Serve.”

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