God is Counting on Us
Epiphany 5 Sermon
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[00:00:00] And I pray that God's word is spoken and that God's word is heard. Amen. Please be seated.
We have a rich banquet this morning of readings in our electionary as we continue our journey in the season after the epiphany and, and have these sort of divine aha moments, these divine moments of clarity of the implications of the incarnation of Jesus. And the great aha moment today is really coming to us from Isaiah.
Isaiah 40, which we usually associate with Advent, right? Comfort, comfort, oh my people, says the Lord, right? I mean, Handel couldn't help himself but to, to set a good part of Isaiah 40 to music in the Messiah. Bono, [00:01:00] a. k. a. Paul Hewson. The same with the song Drowning Man. These words are so powerful, and one of the reasons they are powerful is their message.
This is our God. This is what God has always done. This is who God is. This is why. This is why we can believe God's words of comfort. God delivers us from the most horrific of circumstances. And that's what God is about to do again. Isaiah's disciple is saying to those in exile in Babylon in this passage from Isaiah 40.
God is about to do it again, just like God did in the Exodus. That's the part that we enjoy in Advent. God is about to do the same out of our exile. God is about to bring us home, right? Every valley will be uplifted, every mountain and [00:02:00] hill be made low, and the rough places plain, and all that goodness, and we can trust this promise because of what we hear this morning.
And, and you almost can hear the prophet a little bit exasperated. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth. Oh, grasshopper, did you catch that? This is who God is. God who numbers and names the stars. This is our God who delivers us. And this is our God who delivers us in the incarnation, my friends. Happy Epiphany 5. Who liberates us and heals us and equips us to do God's work as partners with God in the world.
Have you not seen? [00:03:00] Have you not heard? The same God who counts the stars is counting on us, each and every one of us, to be God's people, to be God's diakonos, to be God's people who serve in the world and who serve the reign of God for the healing and redemption of this world and that's what we hear in this great gospel story.
Now I know we're trying to be really attentive to the impacts of things like the Patriarchy and all of that and I know some of you in this crowd might have heard that story of the healing of Simon's mother in law, and the part where they said, and then she got up and served them and went, yeah, of course she did.
You know, you're just on your deathbed, but make me a sandwich.But, I, so I want to name it. I want to name it, [00:04:00] call it out, and then let's set it aside. There are reasons why we have that response. Okay, we in the 21st century might have, some of us in the room, maybe not all of us, some of us in the room have that response. Okay, it's real. Okay, I'm acknowledging your feelings. Your feelings are real. Now let's set that aside and hear it as it would have been heard by its first audience.
We are still in the first chapter of Mark's Gospel. Now Mark packs a lot in a little space. That's kind of one of Mark's things. The audience, the first century audience listening to this story in its oral tradition, particularly, would have just heard that when Jesus was in the wilderness, those 40 days, the angels served him. Same verb.
Simon's mother in law [00:05:00] is living into that same role as the angels. And although Stephen gets the credit, if we look at the biblical tradition, Simon's mother in law is the first deacon. She is the first person named in this way. Her actions, her ministry, named in this way. And that's important. I wish she had a name.
Also, can we just say Simon's wife? Because this is her mom. This is Simon's wife's mother who was lying on her deathbed, who has been resurrected, brothers and sisters. He, he raised her up. That same word will be used to describe what happens to Jesus.
This is a powerful story in response to this healing. In response to the gospel lived out in her life. The transformation offered to her. She responds as the angels do. [00:06:00] And she serves. And later in this gospel, that original audience, who would have been able to hear this in one sitting. It's possible, friends, you might sit down and try reading it out loud to each other, you can do it.
It's actually doable to hear this whole gospel out loud in one event, which is what they would have done originally. They will hear Jesus say about himself, "I did not come to be served. but to serve." He will identify his own ministry in this way. So out of the healing she has received, she responds by being part of this work.
God calls us to do as partners with God, bringing healing and liberation and redemption as part of the reign of God.
And then we hear Paul, [00:07:00] who just can't help himself. That's what he says, I, I, I can't help it. The transformation in Paul's life is so incredible. He cannot help but share the good news, whatever it takes. He will become like the Jews to be able to share the good news with the Jews. He will become like those who are not Jewish, not under the law, to be able to share that with them.
It starts to sound a little inauthentic, the 21st century ears. Like, dude, who are you really? But who he is as a person who can't help but share what God has done in his life through Jesus. That is who Paul is. The one who, you know, uh, did not stay in Capernaum. That's the other fun part of the gospel.
We'll get there. He didn't sort of stay where it was comfortable. Once he received this transformation in his life, he didn't try to sort of convert, um, his local space. Having had this incredible experience, he went out in the world and shared the good news in [00:08:00] places that had never heard it before. He, his, his dying wish was to be able to get to Gaul.
He never did. He died before that could happen. He wanted to take the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth. That is the authentic Paul. To take the gospel and meet people where they are. Bring the good news of Jesus to them. And that's actually the fun part of where this gospel wraps up. You know, uh, you will see this pattern again and again in Mark's gospel.
There's, there's sort of a a very, uh, close and intimate healing. And then there's kind of community healing. We heard that too. So first Simon Peter's mother in law. And, you know, folks are from the whole town are just surrounding the door, which is kind of hard to imagine because those streets were really, really narrow.
But, you know, play along. Um, and the whole town's there. And then he starts healing all sorts of people in a very open way, a community kind of healing. [00:09:00] And then he's got to go pray. He goes off by himself. To have a moment and to take some time and to make sure he is nourished. And when he's ready to come back, Simon and the others are hunting for him.
Did you notice that verb? They're not looking for him, they are hunting for him. And they say, everyone's looking for you and he says, let's get out of here. Let's keep going. Jesus does not decide he's going to set up his own synagogue in Capernaum because he had such a great success. Healing Simon's mother in law and all those folk.
He doesn't stay where it's comfortable. He doesn't stay where people are already all agog over what he's done. Could have been really easy to do. They're looking for you, Jesus. He says, "Nope. Let's go." Let's go to the neighboring villages. Let's go to the neighboring towns. This is what I am come to do. To share the good news where it is not [00:10:00] yet been received. He leaves Capernaum and he takes the good news out into the world.
So I wonder what that looks like for us. This is kind of like Capernaum. It's important for us to be fed and nourished here, but we are not fed and nourished here. We are not fed at this altar or by this music, or by this liturgy, or even by one another, simply to get our gas tanks filled, and then leave.
We are nourished and fed so our lives are transformed and we take that transformation out into the world.
We take the story of what it means to us to love Jesus out into our neighboring villages and towns, whatever [00:11:00] that may be. When was the last time? When was the last time you told someone what it means to you to love Jesus?
When was the last time you told the story of what God has done in your life?
It can be a little daunting for reserved Episcopalians to imagine sharing in that way. So I want to encourage you, find someone in this community. A church friend, or someone else who, outside this community, but that you know is a Christian. Um, and practice. Just say, "My rector, Mother Paige said I had to do a thing."
Or, say to one another, "you know that thing Paige told us we had to do this week? Let's just, [00:12:00] can we? Let's get it over with."
In a safe space, let's practice sharing the good news of what God has done in our lives. Or even those times of desolation where we've had a hunger, a spiritual hunger. And let's share those stories with one another, and what brings us back here to this altar week after week to be fed.
And then next week, or the week after, let me know how that goes. I look forward to hearing what it's like to share that story. Because if we can bring the story of our own healing, the grace we have received, out into the world, to the people in our lives, the corner of the universe God has entrusted to us, [00:13:00] imagine.
Not going to ask you to try to go to Gaul, but maybe let's leave Capernaum. Because that's what Jesus did. He took the good news of God's liberating, life giving love into the world and fed a hungry world with that good news. Indeed, God who knows the name and can count every star is counting on us.
