This was a strange week for me, as I missed several days with a fever, and I wasn’t able to lead the Saturday service. Nevertheless, here’s my sermon for February 4, 2018, the 5th Sunday after Epiphany. The texts for the sermon are Mark 1:29-39 and Isaiah 40:21-31. I found this 2012 commentary on Working Preacher from Sarah Henrich helpful in my abbreviated preparation for this week.
I feel a connection this week with Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. I missed a couple days of work with a fever, and in fact Pastor Kyle from St. James in Allison led service here last night so I could be sure I wasn’t contagious any more. So, if some of this doesn’t make sense, I’m blaming it on being feverish while writing it! Anyway, I have some idea of what this woman with a fever was going through.
However, a sickness in that time was a much bigger deal than today. Being sick meant you’re isolated from your role in the world. It means you’re cut off from your neighbors, from your community, from fulfilling your duties.
When I wasn’t feeling well, I could just post on Facebook and pretty much immediately I got sympathetic comments and messages from people. She doesn’t have that luxury. Over and over when we see Jesus healing someone in the Gospels, we see him not only physically removing an illness or exorcising a demon, but also restoring people to their community.
The verb Mark uses for Jesus raising her up is the same word he uses to describe what happens to Jesus at Easter when he’s raised up from the dead. She’s given new life. She’s restored from the brink of death, brought back from being exiled from her family and community, set free to live the life God calls her to live, set free to follow her calling.
And when she’s healed, what’s the first thing she does? She begins to serve them, which is fascinating. “Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.”
There’s a lot to unpack in that sentence. First, the woman has been in bed with a fever. Wouldn’t you think they’d let her rest for at least a few minutes?
Second, this verse has been twisted by some to say that she is supposed to be model for all women and because she served, women belong in the kitchen. If that’s what you get out of reading this story, then I’m sorry, but you’ve missed the point.
This is not just “serving” tea – it’s the same word Jesus uses to describe his ministry later, when he says, “The Son of man came not to be served but to serve.” In Greek, the word is diakoneo, which we translate into English as deacon. A deacon is a person who serves God.
As a side note, did you know our church has deacons? You might be familiar with Catholic deacons, but did you know Lutherans have them too? The ELCA has two categories of religious professionals called to public ministry: pastors and deacons. Pastors like me are called to “The ministry of Word and Sacrament,” to leading worshipping communities like this.
Deacons are called to “The ministry of Word and Service.” Like pastors, they’re called through a congregation, but usually to more particular forms of ministry, like working with the homeless, or teaching school, or campus ministry, or some other form of service. They’re intended to be a bridge between the church gathered for worship inside our walls, and the church called to serve out in the world.
This story of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law is more than just a healing story; it’s a call story. He’s giving her what she needs to fulfill her mission.
A few weeks ago, we talked about the calling of the disciples, when Jesus saw them fishing and invited them to “come and see” and they dropped their nets to follow him. I asked everyone who was here to write down what is holding you back from following.
People wrote down all kinds of things, all kinds of reasons to keep holding our nets and not follow. Some of them were things I’m confident Jesus wishes would stop coming between him and us, things like too much time on Facebook or Snapchat, or being too busy with sports, or too focused on temporary, earthly goals.
Other things people wrote down were unavoidable, like health, or thinking you’re too young-which is a whole other sermon, because you’re never too young for God!
For Peter’s mother-in-law, it was something physical. Her illness was keeping her from fulfilling the purpose God called her to. But then, and this is the important part, Jesus lifted her up. Jesus gave her the health she needed to do what she needed to do.
God might call us to do things that are impossible for us, but through the Holy Spirit, God always makes a way.
It might surprise you, but I didn’t make a spreadsheet of what people wrote down on those sheets, but I did glance through some of them, and I think the most common obstacle people wrote down was family.
Family is a fascinating thing to put as an obstacle to following God, and I’m glad we get this story today, because I don’t believe God is calling you to abandon your family. Simon Peter is one of those disciples who dropped his nets to follow Jesus, and yet, here he is concerned about his mother-in-law. God created families. God works through families.
Of course it would be hardest to leave behind the people closest to us, because they’re the exact people God calls us to minister to! Now, sometimes you might wish God was calling you somewhere else, but that’s between you and God.
The best ways we serve God are not usually the dramatic, public things like being a missionary or suddenly auctioning off everything we have to give to the poor, but by serving in our daily lives, in our families, serving our friends and our neighbors. Being deacons to each other, making whatever difference God enables us to make in Jesus’ name.
Those little things can seem, well, little, but take a look at the first reading we had today from Isaiah. There’s a wonderful contrast between this Gospel story of Jesus healing and that first reading. In Isaiah, the prophet speaks of this immeasurably great God, this all-powerful deity who brings princes and rulers to naught, who no one compare to. The everlasting God, creator of the ends of the earth.
There’s a Sunday School song I learned that goes like this:
My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.
My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.
The mountains are his, the rivers are his, the stars are His handiwork, too.
My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.
Basically, you can sum up this song and the reading from Isaiah with this: God is big. Really, really big. And then in the Gospel reading, the camera zooms in.
Look at the contrast between this huge, awesome God who created everything and Jesus, God in the flesh, God who enters into his disciple’s house and heals this one person.
And then he keeps going, curing many who were sick with various diseases and casting out many demons. This great, mighty God can use whatever little things we do.
The way I learned that song, there’s two more words at the end of it. The last line goes, “My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do, for you!”
The kind of calling and healing that Jesus does is personal. It’s not just for Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, it’s for you. The God who is big enough to care for the whole world, who created everything and who’s got the whole world in his hands, this same God cares about you.
The same Lord who numbers the stars, who counts all the people ever created, knows each one of them, each one of us by name, and it is this God who calls you to serve and to follow.
Amen