Mark 1:29-39 • February 8, 2015

Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

There are two themes that I believe are closely related in our reading from Saint Mark today – healing and prayer. I’m going to guess that you can make several connections between these two themes – between healing and prayer. Think about healing and prayer for a few seconds, especially in light of today’s gospel reading.

Now, I invite you to turn to someone near you and share with them the connection you are making right now as you think about this.

It was just a few days after Christmas in 1972 on a flight from New York to Miami – filled with holiday travelers. As Eastern Airlines flight 401 was beginning its final approach into the Miami International Airport for landing, the pilot and crew noticed the cockpit light that indicates the landing gear has deployed correctly failed to come on. The crew of the plane wasn’t sure if the light bulb was just malfunctioning or if the plane’s landing gear had indeed not come down. They began circling over the everglade swamps to give them a little time to investigate.

To begin with, the flight engineer fiddled with the bulb. He tried to remove it, but it wouldn’t budge. Another member of the crew tried to help out…and then another. The entire crew was fixated by this little light bulb. Eventually, the plane just dropped out of the sky.

None of the crew bothered to notice that the place was losing altitude. There were 101 fatalities out of the 175 passengers and crew on-board that plane. A seasoned and experienced flight crew had become so preoccupied with a 75 cent light bulb that they forgot their role on this flight from New York to Miami – to fly the plane.

Before Simon, Andrew, James, John, and Jesus get to Simon’s mother-in-law’s house, they have already had a busy day. Preaching, teaching, casting out demons in the synagogue, etc. etc. I think that they were hoping to get a little rest. Which is why they chose Simon’s mother-in-law’s house as their hideout. Nobody will find them there. It’ll give them a chance to get something to eat and get away from the crowds for a little while.

But in staying true to Mark’s style of writing this gospel, there is no time for that. In Mark’s gospel the plot moves along quickly. As Jesus proclaims just a few verses before today’s reading – “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.” (vs. 15) Mark’s gospel is very passionate about getting to the point of what Jesus means when he says “the kingdom of God has come near.”

Jesus seems to barely make it through the front door of Simon’s mother-in-law’s house when he is called back into action – there is a fever. A fever that needs Jesus’ healing touch. And throughout the rest of the day, countless more are healed as the “whole city is gathered at the door” (vs. 33) of the house.

It’s fascinating to me that Jesus’ healings in Mark’s gospel don’t speak of a person’s great faith or even belief in Jesus. In today’s reading, it’s quite possible that Simon’s mother-in-law has never heard anything about Jesus. I mean, Jesus just called Simon to be a disciple a few verses earlier.

As one commentary lifted up this week, “it’s easy to think that all we have to do is pray and Jesus will heal us of everything that ails us. The reality is that we live in a world where bodies still get sick and die…that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t hear our prayers and isn’t with us!” (www.faithformationjourneys.org)

Jesus is with Simon’s mother-in-law without her even asking for Jesus to be with her or knowing who this guy named Jesus is.

So brothers and sisters in Christ, here’s the connection I hope we make today between these overarching themes of healing and prayer. What’s the result of these things? I believe today’s gospel reading lifts up this central message not only for today’s story, but the truth about all of the gospel accounts of Jesus and really the entirety of all scripture and our life together in Christ.

And Professor David Lose said it much better than I can, so I will use the words he wrote this week, “God wants to set free all of us so that we might live into our God-given identity and potential, claiming our calling as children of God, and join God in the mission to love and bless the world.” (www.davidlose.net/2015/02/epiphany-5-b-freedom-for/)

Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law. And in this healing he restores her to the purpose that God had called her to live out in the world. To serve in her household. And as anyone who has ever been graced with the hospitality of a great host or hostess knows, the result of this woman’s service is a great blessing to anyone who enters her house.

Jesus has had an incredibly busy few days of preaching and healing. Early in the morning he sneaks away to be alone for a little while and pray. Even Jesus, the savior of the world, needs a little time to reconnect with the source of his power.

Simon’s mother-in-law is healed in order for her to continue to serve others who visit her home.

Jesus’ goes to a deserted place to pray in order that he may continue to serve by proclaiming the message of God’s kingdom come near.

So…here’s the connection between healing and prayer in today’s text that I hope we receive. The result of healing for Simon’s mother-in-law and for Jesus after his time in prayer joins them both to God, in God’s mission to love and bless the world.

The great Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

Each day, you and I are in need of healing. For Jesus to take us by the hand and lift us up.
Each day, you and I need time away for prayer with the only one who can fully restore us.
And, believe it or not, each day you are gifted by God in amazing ways…to serve.

How do you and I respond to the unending presence of God in our lives?

How do you and I experience Jesus’ taking us by the hand and lifting us up each day, offering healing in order for us to be restored to serve where God is calling us to serve on that day?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, how is God calling you to serve this week? Don’t forget to fly the plane.

I invite you to turn to someone right now and share with them how you feel God is calling you to serve this week. Feel free to get up and move around if you want…

Matthew 25:14-30 • November 16, 2014

Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

Last week we heard the parable of the bridesmaids – some who were wise and some foolish. The foolish ones are locked out of the wedding banquet. Today, we hear about a wealthy man, three of his slaves, and talents. In the end, one slave is thrown into the outer darkness.

After we have heard these gospel readings I proclaim – The gospel of the Lord, which literally means that the words we have just heard are good news from our Lord. To which I have received a less than enthusiastic thanks be to God. I don’t blame you. This is good news? This is the gospel of our Lord. Really?

So, let’s do a little review from last week. This text comes in a section of Matthew’s gospel with four parables from Jesus about the final judgment and some sort of separating between who is in and who is out of the kingdom. The first one is about wise and foolish slaves, the second is about wise and foolish bridesmaids, today’s is about the use and misuse of talents by a rich guy’s slaves, and the final one uses goats and sheep to illustrate the judgment of the nations. Needless to say, this is a challenging set of parables from our savior in this section of the good news of our Lord.

Today’s parable uses the word talent a lot. What many of us think about when we hear the word talent in today’s world is a person’s ability to do something and to do it well. Popular shows like American Idol, The Voice, and America’s Got Talent have increased this understanding of the word. BUT – that is not what talent in today’s gospel reading is referring to. A talent, as it is referred to in our gospel reading, is money. A sum of money that is equivalent to around 6,000 denarii. One denarii was about one day’s wages. Needless to say, one talent is A LOT of money. And five talents is an INCREDIBLE amount of money. An amount of money that would far exceed the earning ability of an entire lifetime for nearly every human being in Jesus’ day – especially a slave.

Here’s what this might look like today. The current median annual household income in Burleigh County is around $59,000 – a daily wage of approximately $226. By my rough guesstimate, that is around $1.35 million per talent. In today’s money, the first slave was given around $6.75 million, the second around $2.7 million, and the third around $1.35 million. Obviously, Matthew wants us to understand that the amount of money being entrusted to these three slaves is not insignificant.

So, yes, I am one of your pastors, and, yes, I am once again talking about money. Because one of the things I want us to hear today is that I believe Matthew wants us to understand just how important money and our use of money was to Jesus and to our life as people who claim to follow this Jesus. But, money is not all I hear in this parable.

Theologian Thomas Long offered a bold statement about this parable that is just as chilling and direct as the final verse of the text. A verse that sends the third slave into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I think Long’s reflection give us perspective on this parable in a way that you and I as followers of Jesus, beloved children of God, living out our faith in North Dakota in 2014 might be able to hear better. Long states that, “to be a child of the generous, gracious, and life-giving God and, nonetheless, to insist upon viewing God as oppressive, cruel, and fear provoking is to live a life that is tragically impoverished. While those who trust in God’s generosity find more and more of that generosity; but for those who run and hide under the bed from the bad, mean, and scolding, God, they condemn themselves to a life spent under the bed alone, quivering in endless fear.”

How is God flowing through you today? Is God’s presence in your life causing the abundant and unconditional love and generosity of God to multiply through you in unexpected, amazing, and unending ways, OR, is God’s presence in your life causing fear and trembling that makes you bury all the ways that God blesses you in the ground or hide it under your mattress?

Mark Twain once said that, “Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.” There’s an old story of a pastor who, to show his reliance on God, entered the pulpit to preach his sermon after very little time spent in preparation – trusting that God would tell him what to say. After a silent prayer for guidance, he waited for God to speak to him so he could begin. God spoke to him alright. And the divine word that God said to him was, “You are lazy.”

How much of the problem with the church today and the Christian movement in the world is due to “lazy” pastors? Or “lazy” congregation members? Or a complete lack of ambition among any number of other children of God. Can a pious-sounding “I’m waiting on the Lord.” be a sign of laziness? Of burying the talents we are given – whether talents are gifts that we have been given to share with others or money that we’ve been entrusted to use wisely to bless and serve others?

Martin Luther often told people to “Sin boldly!” Maybe that could be paraphrased for you and I today, and used in light of the parable that’s before us as “get off your butt and do something”

The tragedy in all of this is that you and I are often filled so full of fear over doing something wrong, that we fail to do anything at all. So, here’s the challenge I’d like to present to each and every one of us who have made the effort to worship God on this incredibly cold November day, children of God who claim to be followers of the risen savior Jesus the Christ even when you aren’t sitting in a church.

This week, when you see a brother or sister in Christ trying to bury God’s love for all of God’s children in the dirt or hide the abundance of God’s grace and mercy for them under a mattress, don’t throw them into the outer darkness – there is already way too much weeping and gnashing of teeth taking place in the world today. Instead, as the apostle Paul so often said, encourage one another and build each other up.

Encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ to stop living their life of faith in fear of a brutal, mean, punishing God. What comes from God is good. And the goodness that we receive from God is far more abundant than you or I will ever need. God’s goodness, given for our use. Use with our time. Use with our gifts. Use with our money. Brothers and sisters in Christ, use it wisely. Amen.