Reno UMC Sermon: 02-21-2010

February 21, 2010
Rev. Judith Bither

Mark 1 & 2

This Lent our congregation will read through the Gospel According to Mark. Reading only two chapters a week we’ll read through the whole gospel in seven weeks. One of the reasons Mark is such a great study for Lent it that the book itself is structured around the journeys of Jesus. Mark is the gospel where journey is a key; perhaps we can see parallels with our own Lenten journeys.

Mark was the first of the four gospels to be put in writing. Like all the gospels it was passed around orally for many years before someone finally recorded it. Mark is the action gospel where the word immediately is used again and again, 59 times in all. Mark wants his reader to see that the Word of God as dynamic and alive. Mark invites the reader to use our whole selves—minds, emotions and bodies —to enter the story of Jesus. In the very first chapters Mark portrays Jesus challenging the religious rules concerning the Sabbath and fasting. Religious rules are made to support humanity, not to oppress us. The Word of God, as experienced in Jesus, is like a piece of un-shrunk cloth and new wine. Neither of these two objects is static; neither one is going to remain the same. This is God’s word for Mark. It’s dynamic, alive, vital.

And the Word is not totally contained in or defined by written words. The author is a great storyteller and tells the story so we can relate it to our own lives. He wrote the story like a Greek drama; he wanted the reader to know that the God who acted in Jesus is still acting in our world. Written during the early persecution of Christians, Mark wants the reader to find God beyond the written page.

So don’t expect to find the Word of God all spelled out for you in Mark’s gospel. And don’t expect to find a biography of Jesus:

The gospel skips the birth of Jesus completely.
The name of his father is never mentioned and his mother, Mary is mentioned only once.
And don’t read Mark expecting a history lesson:
Not one date is mentioned.
Mark is not recording a biography but a collection of faith statements about Jesus.
The stories are not recorded in chronological order, but in a way that builds the story.

Open your Bible to the first chapter of Mark… first note that the book begins with the same word that begins the Torah: beginning. Mark calls it a gospel. That’s why we call Matthew, Mark, Luke and John gospels. Gospel means good news. Right at the beginning of this drama Mark wants us to know that Jesus is the Son of God.

The author not only sees the Word of God alive in the present life of Jesus, but rooted in the past, so he quotes the prophets Isaiah and Malachi, letting us know that someone comes before the Messiah to prepare the way.

In Judaism God is revealed through events more than in abstract thoughts known to the Greeks. To the Jews God is revealed in one event more than any other in history: The Exodus. When the people came out of slavery in Egypt they fled through the Red Sea; then into the wilderness where they were fed manna from heaven. God delivered them into the Promised Land. And God will come again to deliver the people.

So the Jews were waiting for the Messiah who would save them. Mark quotes the prophets telling that someone will prepare the way; in verse 4 he wrote, “So John came.” John is the one preparing the way and he tells the reader how John is dressed: in camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist. Mark never mentions how anybody else is dressed, so this must be important. If we remember our scriptures we are reminded of a character who dressed the same way—Elijah--he would return to prepare the way for the Messiah. Mark tells us that scripture is being fulfilled as John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus.

But this is not the Messiah expected by the people. In the 9^th verse we read: “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee”. There’s a saying that we read in John’s gospel that applies here: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Mark moves right away to the story of Jesus’ baptism. We read that as Jesus rises up out of the water he hears, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am pleased”. Mark brings out parallels with the Exodus images that would be known to the people:

Jesus goes into the Jordan River (the Red Sea)

Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days (40 years for Moses and the people).

Jesus is attended by angels (manna from heaven in Exodus). Mark is stressing that this is the new Israel, God’s revelation to us.

The ministry of Jesus begins as he gathers a few fishermen and then with a series of healings. Remember, these are not in chronological order, and Mark is anxious to get to the point. He has an intentional order for how he places the miracles: The first healing takes place in the synagogue. When Mark is writing the story 35 years after Jesus’ death, there is direct conflict between Christianity and Judaism. So Mark casts doubt on the religious authorities right away. In verse 22 we read that Jesus taught as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

So the setting of the first healing is intentionally in the synagogue. The evil spirit was dwelling in a man there. Evil spirits are not the common way we refer to illness today, but it was the way all kinds of illnesses were described in that time. We still hear such phrases today: she was beside herself with grief or whatever possessed him to do that? When we do not act as our true selves it is as if we are possessed by something. Mark is convinced that there is a power of evil in this world that he describes as Satan. God is also in this world—therefore there is a battle between good and evil. Each one of us must choose which side we are on.

In the first healing Jesus comes in direct confrontation with evil. According to Mark evil immediately recognizes who Jesus really is. The power of evil in this man says, “What do you want to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” So: the disciples don’t know who he is, his parents don’t know, the priests don’t know, but evil does. Evil always recognizes anything that threatens its domain, but when evil challenges Jesus, it will lose.

The second healing takes place immediately as Jesus and his first disciples leave the synagogue. Again notice the word immediately—there is urgency in the message. So where will Jesus go now? They probably were hungry so they went to the house of Simon and Andrew. When they arrived Simon’s mother-in-law was sick with a fever. Jesus took her by the hand; she was healed and rose up to serve them. The word used here is the same Greek word that was used with the angels ministering to Jesus in the wilderness. As we ponder this passage someone suggested that the mother-in-law is exhausted by what she had to do everyday, perhaps not feeling appreciated. Jesus understood her feelings. This is a healing quite unlike the first one. The most current edition of The New Interpreter’s Study Bible has this special note: One must beware of any tendency to reduce the importance of the mother-in-law’s action because she is a woman; she acts toward Jesus and others as the angels earlier in the wilderness.

That note reminds us to be careful when reading the scriptures with our 21^st century mindset. And yet as we attempt to put ourselves into the stories, we will want to relate to the people and situations as much as possible. There will be a constant tension for us, so let us continue.

The next healing will be different again where Jesus heals a leper. Leprosy could have been any kind of skin disease. Even mildew on the wall was called leprosy. People would be cast out of the community to live alone because they were considered contagious. When Jesus healed the leper he restored him to the community. If you have ever felt left out of a group, isolated or lonely, you will certainly understand the power of this healing.

Every word in Mark has a purpose. We notice that Jesus tells the cleansed leper to go to the synagogue and show the priests that he has been healed. Again we sense the tension with the synagogue.

All that was packed into the first chapter! In the second chapter Jesus continues with his healing ministry as we heard in the lesson read this morning. Unlike the first healing, this man was not full of evil; he was not a victim of exhaustion nor isolated from his community because a group of friends brought him to Jesus. He is paralyzed. Is it fear that has him paralyzed? Is he afraid to try something new, to make a fool of himself, or perhaps to risk love? Is he afraid of dying… or afraid of living?

There are many things of which we are afraid that can paralyze us. We don’t know his story only that he can’t move. A crowd has gathered to hear Jesus; it’s so crammed full that people fill the house and flow out into the yard. Into the scene enter four people carrying a man who is paralyzed, but they can’t even get close to Jesus. These are creative friends —their take their friend on his mat up on the roof, dig a hole in the roof and lower him into the middle of the house. When Jesus looks upon the scene (note that he was impressed with the faith of the paralyzed man’s friends!) but he says to the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Again Mark alerts us to the controversy that is brewing with the religious leaders. Some of them are in the crowd and although they don’t say a word (“questioning in their hearts” is what Mark wrote) Jesus knows what they are thinking. He asks a question, “Which is easier to say to the paralytic, ‘your sins are forgiven’, or "get up and walk?” Once again Jesus is letting them know he has authority so he says to the paralyzed man, “Stand up, take your mat and go home.”

I imagine that most of us want to hear the first message from Jesus: your sins are forgiven. It’s a message we need to hear. But we are probably not as eager to hear the second part: Get up and get going! Move! (“But I don’t want to move or change. I’m comfortable just where I am thank you very much.”) Jesus continues to tell us: move!

Move your hands—you can feed the hungry.
You can clothe the naked and tend the sick.
There is work to be done.
Move your mind—you don’t have to stay in that same position you’ve been standing by all these years!
Your faith doesn’t have to stay where it was in the 4^th grade: Move!
Risk having a new thought!
Move your feet—don’t stay is that relationship if it’s destructive.
Move: hands, feet, minds, hearts—and if you’re a couch potato there’s another part that needs to move!

That’s what Jesus said to the man who wouldn’t move—pick up your bed and go. If you stay stuck you are dead. The word Jesus used here is “get up” or “rise” in Greek. It’s the same word that was used when Jesus came up out of the water at his baptism and it will be used again at his resurrection.

Jesus is giving a word of resurrection here at the beginning of his ministry: rise—be resurrected—live! We will discover that word in most of the healing stories in Mark’s gospel, and if the word is not there the idea usually is:
Mark told us that Peter’s mother-in-law rose.
The leper who knelt down before Jesus had to rise up.
And Jesus most directly told the paralytic to rise.

Following the story of the paralytic Jesus called Levi, the tax collector. And Levi got up and followed him. Levi had sold his soul to the State, but he left that behind when he rose up to follow Jesus.

The author of Mark pulls together all these varieties of lives and shows us changes that happened when they encountered the living Word of God. That which was dead is alive again. Much of this is written as metaphor but certainly the changes are as powerful as if they were literal.

The Word of God is not dead. Mark wants his reader—whoever and wherever we are now to know—that the Word of God is the source of our lives. Perhaps you feel possessed by some evil or addiction. Maybe you’ve lost your motivation and feel tired of trying. Perhaps you are lonely. Maybe something has you paralyzed. The message is the same: Rise! Live the life that is before you. It’s time to move on with our hearts, minds, feet and hands to do God’s work in the world.

In the name and for the sake of Jesus, who walks with us on our Lenten journey. Amen

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