Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Greg Schaefer—February 5, 2006

Readings:

Isaiah 40:21-31

Psalm 147:1-11, 20c

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Mark 1:29-39

Coretta Scott King is lying in state this morning in the Alabama Capitol building. She died a few days after MLK Day was celebrated around the world. The Kings, though free, were so moved by the possibility of freedom for all that they dedicated their lives to unselfish service for those around them.

I thought of that when I read this line from Paul’s lesson (1 Cor 9:16-23) that we just heard this morning: “Though I am free from all, I made myself slave to all.” Or, as Luther would say, “The Christian is the lord of all and servant to none, and lord of none, servant to all.” The Kings were servants to none yet servants to all.

It led me to consider these questions: What is it to be Free? What are we free from? What are we free for?

Mark is often called the Gospel in hurry. So far we’ve had John the Baptist, Jesus’ baptism, his temptation, his initial preaching, calling the first 4 disciples, casting out demons, now Simon’s mother-in-law being healed, the crowds at the door, Jesus time away to rest, and the announcement of more preaching And we’re still just in the first chapter!

Jesus does a lot of doing, and not much talking. He’s not real chatty in Mark. In fact, there are 17 miracles and only 4 parables. So, we get the impression that, in Mark, Jesuss actions are the message. So, the question is: What do the actions tell us?

Throughout Mark, serving is key. The angels serve Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus served Simon’s mother-in-law, she gets up and serves them, etc. Some say it is a theme of Mark’s gospel. Others say it’s THE theme. We soon learn that service is the work of angels and of Disciples.

Back to 1 Cor: Paul, using his own work as an example, says that we’re free for each other, to serve each other. He says that, for sake of gospel, he made himself slave to all. It was his response. He was so moved by his experience of Jesus on the road to Damascus, that he devoted life to service.

In the mountain areas of California, there are lots of bears. I’ve become kind of a fan. There is a movie called Grizzly Man. In it, a man is so transformed by his own freedom from drugs and alcohol addiction that he devotes life to dwelling with and protecting these bears. (By the end, he is eaten. It’s a movie worth seeing. Note there is some violence and swearing… you might swear, too, if a bear was eating you.)

Simon’s mother-in-law’s interesting and immediate response to the freedom that comes from healing is the action of service. Rhetorically, Jesus’s actions of healing/freeing people are in hopes they would be transformed and follow the Jesus-way. Can you imagine a world like that? Where people felt free to serve as a response to their blessing, healing, and freedom? In Mark, it’s called the Kingdom of God. It’s born when we realize our freedom in Christ and reach out in love and compassion.

As you know, I work at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, and bring greetings… The seminaries are full people who have heard Jesus’s voice of liberation, are moved by it, transformed by it, and commit their lives to bringing about the Kingdom of God. Some of them serve congregations & Campus Ministries. Others teach, counsel, etc. All of them are committed to sharing the good news of freedom in Christ.

When I said the seminaries are “full of people…,” I didn’t mean there was not room for you! But, it turns out you don’t have to go seminary to follow the Jesus way! Priesthood of all Believers reminds us that we are all called … Called to be Christians. In Mark we are constantly invited to choose the Jesus way, following his example of loving, unselfish service. Like Simon’s m-i-l, we rise to serve, bringing about the Kingdom of God in our daily lives.

How? Note that Simon brought Jesus to home. This is the first miracle of Jesus that was not done in public. It seems to me this is no coincidence but is a good reminder of God’s healing for us. Also, agencies like the ELCA Advocacy network give us ways to serve in the community. Start small: sometimes a kind word to someone is enough to bring healing to a life. In the Mark passage, we hear “Everyone is looking for you…” In some way, I think we still are.

It’s not easy. In fact, it’s hard. It’s easier for people like me. At least love, forgiveness, etc are expected in church! It’s harder to bring about the Kingdom at school or in the workplace. It goes against the culture. St. Justin writes of his conversion to Christianity that he felt alienated, uprooted from his own culture. Being counter-cultural brings Xy back to its roots. The message of the world is fear, greed, and power. The message of the gospel is peace, justice, and agency. Which message do we want to take where?

What are we free from? We’ve been talking and the servant response of Simon’s m-i-l being healed from her fever, probably caused by malaria. The life of service comes from some experience; a response like the Grizzly Man and Paul had!

My wife works in a congregation of older people where these healing stories are hard to hear. It’s a good reminder that they teach a lesson but also reveal a truth.

There are lots of stories of healing in Bible: Illness, blindness, demons. Our modern minds tend to check out: kind of a Post-Enlightenment problem. But Mark’s world (and Jesus’s) understood a real distinction between good and evil: the things of God and the things of the world.

We should try to stick with the image because it is important to understanding the healing stories in Mark. Salvation in Mark is freedom from the “forces of Evil.” We might say, “Liberate from what holds us bound: fear, greed, control…” The Good News for us today is that when Jesus comes into this story, he brings liberation. We can see it in the image: he lifts her up, out of bed, by the hand as if to say, “Lazarus come out,” or “Woman why are you weeping?” As if to rise from dead.

Jesus frees us from the bondage of self-centeredness and enables us to love God & neighbor. In Mark, the Kingdom of God begins to take shape when we’re freed from what binds us, and we respond.

Jesus healed to heal, but that’s not the primary value of these healing miracles. The healing miracles are glimpses of the future, glimpsed in the OT lesson. Jesus’s ministry reveals the truth of God’s compassionate heart where the lowly are lifted up and the broken-hearted are healed. Freedom.

In 1597, 26 Japanese missionaries were killed. 250 years later, Christians returned to Japan to find that the community had survived all that time underground. Today we remember those martyrs and remember that the church survives in persecution, in the resignation of your much-loved bishop, in anything. God’s healing freedom is for us all: sustains us all.

As we gather around Christ, present in Word and Sacrament, freed from bondage from which we cannot free ourselves, we are given strength to live and serve as the body of X, who himself took form slave. And our lives become signs of God’s gracious intent for the world.

If today we would be the means by which God answers prayer, may we have the courage and strength to respond from our own freedom and confidence in God’s promise to lift us up by the hand.

Amen!