Church of the Ascension

Discipleship: Free to Proclaim the Gospel

Download the sermon (.doc)

Isaiah 40:21-31

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Mark 1:29-39

Psalm 147:1-12,21c

Introduction

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

(Is 40:28)

Story

This Sunday, We continue to travel with the disciples of Jesus as they struggle to understand who this Teachers really is and, therefore, what their roles as disciples really IS. This season of the weeks after the Feast of the Epiphany is a season of light and recognition. It is a season of encounters.

We have seen Herod encounter his own failure and rage. We have seen John the Baptist encounter his life's purpose in the Living Christ. We have seen the disciples encounter their call in the Person of Jesus. We have seen Jesus encounter members of the synagogue in Capernaum and, even, the demons and unclean spirits who, themselves, encounter the Christ. All of those public encounters identify for us the public ministry of Jesus. This Sunday there is a new encounter of healing – something that now goes beyond public recognition and the gathering of the elect.

This week the powerful ministry of healing is a very local and a very particular ministry of restoration that, in the colloquial saying, "gets personal".

We move, this week, from public "amazement" to intimate recognition. This week it gets to be – really (and perhaps, uncomfortably) - all about us; all about "me"!

In the midst of a busy and dynamic ministry, Jesus stops and comes close to the intimate household of one of His disciples:

Jesus left the synagogue at Capernaum, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever,

and they told him about her at once.

He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. (Mk 1:29-31)

What is striking about these simple Markan lessons and, indeed, what is suggested by the Old Testament reading from Isaiah for today is the very local and particular way that Jesus' healing ministry works and the very local effect of restoration that the healing accomplishes. Equally, the personal way that Jesus speaks of His ministry is striking. He is here to proclaim the gospel:

... for that is what I came out to do. (Mk 1:29-38)

Jesus' healing is personal and local.

Application

You know the saying, "All politics is local"? Well, an equally apt saying would be that "all of the Kingdom of God is local;" for it is within a very local space that we practice our faith. It is here in our own little lives that we show the love that we know is the essence of that faith and that St. Paul teaches is the essence of our freedom-in-Christ.

And yet, we're so careful in the way we recognize and accept this health and this freedom. We don't want to get "over-extended", after all; and, anyway, we're hardly itinerant preachers. How are we supposed to "proclaim the gospel"? What is that, again, that we're proclaiming?

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. (Is 40:28)

THIS is what we are called to "proclaim"! This is what we know!! Both our faith and our freedom, as Christians, are very close; they exist right where we live, and they both entail a choice to act on what we know. Like Simon's mother-in-law, when the fever of sin leaves us we can get up and choose to "begin to serve". We can exercise our freedom, genuinely and authentically, to be who we are called to be in our own skin; in our own time and space. And it feels so good – just like restoration and health!

[Think of your own recoveries of health. I remember my own recovery from a serious childhood illness that keep me confined to bed for many months and required many doctor's visits and getting poked with long, blunt needles. When I finally was pronounced well, I had a feeling of great freedom. My parents acknowledged my recovery with the gift of a shiny new racing bike. I was mobile! I could zoom through the countryside and go off on my own! I could seek adventure!]

You know this feeling of restoration. Even in our adult lives when we, perhaps under protest and probably uncharacteristically, take a day or even a week out to recover from an illness, we anticipate returning to the occupation of our lives and leaving the place of our confinement. Illness is confinement and immobility. Illness is un-freedom.

What Jesus heals is the un-freedom of confinement and illness. He heals the "sin-sick" soul! He frees us and gives us a choice to participate in the Kingdom of God

For some at the time of Jesus' ministry, the particularity – that is, the ordinariness of the healings of Jesus – were not and would never be enough. Have you heard this: if God really cares, why is there war? If God is mighty, why do people suffer? [Or my favorite, if God is Just, why doesn't God punish the evil doers and reward the Good, (meaning, most often ... "ME")]. But for those who see and understand, it is in the small and particular ways that we know our God abides with us and that despite the troubles of the world and our own lives, we are free – and that freedom is our restoration, our health: our faith.

Conclusion

My brothers and sisters, I bring you back to today's lessons. Let us be of glad heart in the littleness of our lives for in their unique particularity lies great beauty that is truly a glory to God. Let us be glad and praise God in the words of the collect, for "the liberty of that abundant life" restored to us forever by the light of Christ.

Amen

Today's Lections

Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Isaiah 40:21-31

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in;

who brings princes to naught,and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,when he blows upon them, and they wither,and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high and see:

Who created these?

He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel,

"My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"?

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.

Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

 

Psalm 147:1-12, 21c Page 804, BCP

Laudate Dominum

1 Hallelujah!

How good it is to sing praises to our God! *

how pleasant it is to honor him with praise!

2The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem; * he gathers the exiles Israel.

3 He heals the brokenhearted *and binds up their wounds.

4He counts the number of the stars *

and calls them all by their names.

5 Great is our LORD and mighty in power; *

there is no limit to his wisdom

6 The LORD lifts up the lowly, *

but casts the wicked to the ground.

7 Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; *

make music to our God upon the harp.

8 He covers the heavens with clouds *

and prepares rain for the earth;

9 He makes grass to grow upon the mountains *

and green plants to serve mankind

10 He provides food for flocks and herds *

and for the young ravens when they cry.

11 He is not impressed by the might of a horse; *

he has no pleasure in the strength of a man;

12 But the LORD has pleasure in those who fear him, *

in those who await his gracious favor.

21c Hallelujah!

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

Mark 1:29-39

Jesus left the synagogue at Capernaum, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.