A sermon
preached by the Reverend Scott D. Nowack
on February 5, 2006
at
Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, PA.
Waking the Dead
Isaiah
40:28-31
Mark
1:29-39
As believers in Christ Jesus, we are given the mission to make disciples of all nations, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What does that look like? Is it merely the responsibility of the pastor to proclaim the Gospel through a sermon on Sunday mornings? Or is it more than that? Is it simply words spoken? Are words enough? What is Mark trying to tell us about what proclaiming the Gospel involves?
In our reading from the gospel of Mark this morning, we are offered three very short stories. I love the gospel of Mark because it is fast-moving, straight-up and to the point. I compare it to day time soap operas that cut from one scene to the next rather quickly and timely leaving the reader wondering what’s coming next. These three short stories describe for us what it means to proclaim the Gospel through words and actions.
First of all, we are saved to serve. We are saved to serve. On the Sabbath day, Jesus is in the city of Capernaum in Galilee. Jesus along with several disciples go immediately to the house of disciples Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law is at the house and she is not doing well. She is ill with a fever. Jesus learns about her condition, goes to her immediately, takes her by the hand and lifts her up. Through this action, the woman is made well. And then listen to what she does next. She doesn’t run off to tell the media about what has happened. She doesn’t call her best friend Gilda or her own daughter, Simon’s wife, to tell them either. The Bible says she began to serve them. She began to serve Jesus and the disciples who came to her house. She was saved to serve. Jesus helps us and saves us from slavery to sin so we can help and serve others.
Recently the senior high youth fellowship went on a weekend retreat to inner-city Philadelphia. I know I was nervous about what we would experience and see while we were there. Housed in an old brick corner building in the Mantua neighborhood of West Philadelphia, youth and adults alike shared the love of God, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to those in need throughout the city. We toured the city one night stopping at various locations to learn more about life in the city for its poorest and most downtrodden residents. One stop was under an old train trestle where we sat on the extremely cold concrete sidewalk and learned about the plight of the homeless, including that the average age of homeless men, women and children in Philadelphia is 9 years old. Sitting on the concrete sidewalk, we prayed for our city and the many who find themselves without a place to live. The following night we took bag lunches we had made, blankets, toiletry kits, hats and gloves to the homeless living under Love Park in the subway. We didn’t just bring them these things and left. We asked them their name and struck up conversations with some of them. We were there for quite awhile sharing and laughing together realizing under the old clothes and saddened faces that we are all the same. We are all created in the image of God and God’s love for us is the same love he has for our homeless friends in Center City. Our young people stepped out of their comfort zone and shared the love of God and the grace of Jesus Christ with a group of people who don’t often get it. We are saved to serve. We are saved from slavery to sin and set free by the grace of God to live a life of grace proclaiming the good news we have experienced with other. We are saved to serve.
The second healing story teaches us that proclaiming the Good News is a 24 hour, 7 days a week occupation. The word got out that Jesus could heal and cast out demons. So at sundown of the same day he healed Simon’s mother-in-law, the people of Capernaum gather at Simon’s house bringing those who are sick and possessed with demons. In fact, the whole city had gathered there to see Jesus. With everybody present, he heals many of their various diseases and casts out demons from others. Jesus proclaims the Good News freely and without discrimination. Jesus recognized the universal claim of human need and with the authority given to him from God he meets them at their point of need. The people come to Jesus not to love him or to get to know him, but rather to get something from him. In essence, they are using him to get what they need. It has been said that for one prayer that goes up to God in days of prosperity and good fortune, ten thousand go up in times of adversity. Proclaiming the Good News requires that we love and worship God in all days and times, not just in times of crisis or when we’re in dire straits or when it is convenient for us.
All of us remember the tragic, life-changing events of September 11th. Our nation was in mourning in the days, weeks and months immediately following that horrific day. The first Sunday following 9/11 my church was packed and filled with many unfamiliar faces seeking peace and solace, but as the weeks and months went by, our worship attendance returned to our pre-9/11 numbers. Why? Why do we seek God when the cold winds begin to blow, but ignore God when the warm sun of good fortune shines upon us?
Our priorities reflect what is important in our lives. We proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ by where and how we spend our money, time and other resources. As members of the body of Christ at Abington Presbyterian Church, we are taught to pledge and commit our finances and time to God and the church as a response of gratitude and thankfulness for all God gives us. It’s not easy to make a commitment these days. We live in uncertain times, but we also live in an age of history where convenience and the attitude of “me first” are deeply ingrained in our psyche and society at large. Drive thru windows, instant access to volumes of information over the internet, super-mega stores that carry everything from A-Z, wireless communication, and “the one hour church” are just a few examples of our attitude of convenience. The Christian faith is not convenient. A commitment to God in Christ Jesus isn’t something you can pull out of the closet every so often when it’s convenient for you. Living the Christian faith, proclaiming the good news of the saving love of Christ is anything but convenient. It’s messy, it’s unorganized, it’s inconvenient. Jesus set forth for us what it means to be a committed follower and disciple. God in Christ doesn’t just want a part of you, God wants all of you. God doesn’t want what you can spare once you’ve paid your bills; God wants the first fruits of your time and labor. We give everything to God because everything we have and know and more is from God alone. This is how we proclaim the good news to the world. God is our number one priority, the center of our whole being.
The third and final story on how to proclaim the good news from this scripture reading demonstrates for us that a relationship with God in Christ Jesus is fostered through prayer, reflection and worship. Verse 35 of the Mark text tells us that the first thing Jesus did the next morning was “while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place and there he prayed”. I just returned yesterday from a weekend retreat with some of our 7th and 8th grade students and our seminarian Laura Baarda from a special event at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. The event is called “Nightwatch”. Students from the local region spend one night together in the cathedral. We played games, sang songs, ate food, and met some new people. It wasn’t just fun and games though. We learned to pray with not just words and thoughts, but with physical movement. We learned how to walk a labyrinth as a form of prayer and reflection. As you walk the path and its many curves, you focus your mind on God and what you are doing in the moment. It’s an exercise to help us to calm our spirit, clear our minds, and focus on what’s really important in our lives, our relationship with God. A truly powerful experience! We also worshipped in the cathedral with candles, scripture readings, prayers and communion. Simply the height and breath of the worship space enveloped your mind, body and spirit providing an intimate experience with the Living God.
The purpose of the retreat was to experience a new way of seeing and knowing God by taking a time out from the frantic lives we live and the crazy schedules we keep to simply come before God in prayer. Jesus sets before us the example of taking time each day to be alone with God knowing full well that he couldn’t be and do what he could without the power of God in his life. Think about it, if Jesus the Christ knew how he couldn’t live without the power and strength of God, how can we? Don’t you and I need the power, love, grace and mercy of Christ in our lives? Or can we do all that we can do without God? Jesus knows that all that he was, is and is to come is from God. All that we were, are and will be comes from God, too. How can you and I proclaim the good news to others and the world if we don’t experience the amazing power and strength of God in our lives.
I know we all live hectic lives. I know each of us keeps a calendar of appointments and obligations that fill every waking moment of our day. It seems that everything moves so much faster these days than they did 50 years ago, even 20 years ago. We’re working harder and longer for less and less. Much like many of us, our children and youth are over-programmed, over-extended, over-burdened. Can someone tell me when did soccer become the biggest thing since sliced bread? And playing on Sundays, let alone Sunday mornings? Please, don’t make me choose between soccer for my kid and the God of the universe. What’s our priority here?
God wants to be in a close, intimate relationship with us. He loves us so much. After all, we are the work of God’s creative hands. But how can we have an intimate relationship with someone, let alone God, if we only speak to or think about that person once a week? How can you have a strong relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend, a friend, or even your own child if you only spent one hour a week with him or her? Is one hour enough for any type of relationship or career or educational pursuits?
The example that Jesus sets before us in Mark is we are to proclaim the good news of the saving power of God to the whole world through our thoughts, words and actions. We are saved to serve one another. Everything we say, think and do as Christians is to be to the glory of God; to demonstrate to the world that true strength and power comes not from us, but from God; through our weakness, we are made strong by the strength of God when we allow him into our lives. We need to foster an intimate relationship with God in Christ Jesus so that we no longer live for ourselves but for Christ; waking the dead in our own lives and the lives of one another. What could that look like for you and me?
The love of God found in Christ Jesus is so strong and so awesome and so perfect that it’s hard to accept it as true. Jesus’ love for each of us is so great that it’s everything he’s about. It is his whole life, his whole being, his whole purpose. And what did he do with it? He gave it away. Jesus gave it away to Simon’s mother-in-law. He gave it away to the diseased and possessed persons in the streets of Capernaum. Jesus gave it away as he preached and proclaimed the good news all through Galilee. And he gave his life away waking the dead from the decay of sin and death, so all humanity would bask in the freedom found in the grace, love and mercy of God.
Proclaiming the Good News through words and actions requires our everything. It can’t happen in one hour on Sunday morning. It’s a life-long journey and struggle that requires the commitment of our time and labor to the glory of God. Through serving one another, putting God first in our lives and building an intimate relationship with God through prayer and reflection, we proclaim the good news to a skeptical world that has been dead and decaying for a long, long time.
Fellow believers, go and preach the good news, waking the dead through serving one another and seeking a deep, intimate relationship with Christ through prayer and reflection. Amen.
Abington
Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania, www.apcusa.org