Where do you turn for help? Do you rely on yourself for everything that happens in your life?
Are you what is called a self-made man? Ok some of you reading might be women, so are you a self-made woman?
I have to say I do not believe in a self-made person. There are too many outside influences on each and every aspect of our lives that it is impossible if not just downright arrogant to say that you have done everything in your life for yourself and no one else has any input on where you are at right now. There were people involved in your upbringing and teachers who have taught you along the way. Even if you are the CEO of the company, there are still people who work for you and do things that cause things to happen in your life. None of us can ever make it on our own. We need others to help us. As the Beetles said, “I get by with a little help from my friends…”
But ultimately where does your help come from? I rely on my wife, and my children. Now my children rely on me, but they also support me and give me the strength and endurance to see things through. I rely on family and friends, but ultimately, there is one source of help that I cling to. There is one source that charges me and keeps me moving forward. It is a source I try to show in everything I do and say, even though I fall short.
The psalmist speaks of this source in Psalm 121 – Where does my help come – it comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.
I turn my eyes up to the hills – Even when I am in the valley surrounded by hills that seem to unmatchable, I look up at them, but I do not get dismayed, because my help comes from the creator of everything! Even when I look at my life and darkness is closing in on me and it seems that everything is falling apart, I look up and I see my creator, my lord and I know that I am going to be ok, because he is my keeper, and shade so I won’t get burned. He will protect me so that my foot will not dash a stone, he will guard me from all evil and watch over me everywhere I go.
Do you have a source of power like that? A source that will guard you and keep you, protect you and watch over you every moment of your life? If you don’t, mine is waiting for you, and loving you. Look up to the hills and see where your help comes from, and cling to your creator the source of never ending power!
5:2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 5:3 In these lay many invalids–blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5:5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 5:7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” 5:8 Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” 5:9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath.
But before we go on… watch this video of the song Rise by Peder Eide…
There are so many healing stories in the New Testament, and there are 2 healings in John on the Sabbath. It seems these healings happen on the Sabbath… O’Day in John (The Interpreter’s Bible) says, “First-century Judaism defined community identity around three practices: circumcision, food laws, and sabbath observance. In Jesus’ time, a challenge to the sabbath meant a challenge to the definition of covenant membership” [p. 579] So by doing these healings on the Sabbath Jesus was questioning the communities understanding of covenant. He was questioning how one was included in community.
I mean really after all, the reading says that the man had been afflicted for 38 years, what is a few more hours going to matter, why couldn’t Jesus wait? 38 years. How many of us can actually understand what that means. I have only been alive for 39 years. I can not fathom what it would mean to be afflicted with something for almost my entire life. But really what would a few more hours matter?
But you see the issue is our understanding of what it means to be ill. In our society, in the western world, we view disease as a malfunction of the system that can be fixed by the proper medication and allow the diseased person to function again. In the non western world, disease is more seen as a separation from community and not being who you were created to be. Illness is a separation from community, and a devalued state of being. Jesus was focusing on making people be seen for the value they inherently have, by restoring them to community. That is why a few hours mattered. Jesus knew this man had been devalued and removed from community for too long, 38 years to be precise. That is why in the following passage in John, the Jews take to have Jesus arrested. Because the Jews see Jesus act of healing on the Sabbath as something that removes this man from community, because Sabbath needs to be honored and he did not honor it. But Jesus’ restoration to community is misunderstood by the community…
How many times do we as a community, through our structures and rules, keep people in their illness, rather than offering them the new life that Jesus has for them? You can’t participate until… You won’t be a full member until… You can’t participate in communion until you have reached a proper understanding… How do the rules and structure of our community aid in keeping people from restoration to community and isn’t that really what healing means?
And to the interesting question Jesus asks…
“Do you want to be made well?” Jesus asked a man who has been afflicted for 38 years. And what does he say? John 5:7 says The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” What would you say, if Jesus asked you do you want to be made well, after you have afflicted for 38 years? Wouldn’t the appropriate response be, YES!!!! Please help me become a part of the community again? But the man says all of the things that have kept him from being made well. Jesus offered to heal him, but he gives excuses about why he hasn’t been healed yet.
But that brings the other question of how many times we keep ourselves from the healing Jesus has for each and everyone of us. Peder Eide said it beautifully in the song Rise – “Broken, all of us are broken, from the day the curse was spoken.” We are all broken, we are all fallen, we are all afflicted, since the day the curse was spoken in Genesis 3… Long before we were born, so I’ve been afflicted for 39 years. Because you see the healing that Jesus has for us is not physical. It is a restoration to community, to being a part of the body, to being a part of Jesus. We are hung up on healing being a physical thing, the body will be perfect, and that is not it. Healing is being whole and who were created to be in the body, in the world.
Jesus asks us if we want to be made well, and we do not want that, because we are worried we will not know how to act or be in a healed situation. It cuts to the core of our being because it puts into question our place in being right about our understanding of what Jesus came to do. It puts to question our understanding of what is the right understanding about Jesus teachings. O’Day says it this way:
“This a delicate interpretive situation, because to engage in a battle of conflicting orthodoxies by pitting one “right” understanding of the good news against another is in reality a rejection of Jesus. Much damage and hurt have been done in the church by laity and clergy alike in the defense of the “right” position. Jesus’ challenge, which the Jewish authorities rightly sensed and reacted against swiftly and intensely (5:18), is to the hegemony of any one group or position. Jesus brings God into human experience in ways that transcend and transform human definitions and categories.” [p. 581]
Basically O’Day says that Jesus is saying that anytime we battle whether it is against the law to heal on the Sabbath we are not understanding who God is and what God came to do. We are not allowing God to be God, and are claiming to know what is right. By doing this we are not allowing God’s healing to come to us, or others.
But Jesus is standing before you still, even in your brokenness saying “Rise, take your mat and walk. Your sins are forgiven.” Because you see, forgiveness of sin restores you to the proper relationship with God, and that will put you in a right place with community. You are loved by God, listen to him take the forgiveness and healing He gives you and Rise.
To save or to kill? Which if these is lawful on the Sabbath?
You see the religious leaders were watching Jesus on the Sabbath in the temple to see if he would heal, which is working on the Sabbath. So seeing the darkness in their hearts he asks, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” Should we do harm or should we heal?
But really come on Jesus, this man’s hand has been withered for a long time, what is one more day going to hurt? Can’t you wait until the day after the Sabbath and heal him? But isn’t that really the point of His question?
Should we do good or do harm? You see not healing this man on the Sabbath would actually harm him. Remember that it is not just about physical healing. In Jesus day healing meant restoration to community so not allowing this man to be who and what is is suppose to be in community not only harms this man, but it also harms the community. So by not healing him in a sense you are killing him because he is not able to be a part of community.
So then everytime we do not allow someone to be a member of the community, we are choosing death over life. Everytime we do not allow good to happen, we are allowing harm to happen.
So which is lawful any and every day of the week, to save or to kill? Life is what Jesus came to give us, and abundantly, so I think the answer is to save. So go and save the world, by loving it like Jesus.
Interesting question, and if you are like most you might be very defensive right now.
No I’m not broken, I am perfectly fine. I know I have problems, but I’m not worse off than most and I know I’ve got things together a lot better than most people do.
Were you thinking any of the above? It is ok to admit it, no one else is around. Oh except God… But he already knows if you are lying or not.
In todays reading from Mark (2:13-22) – Jesus tells us he came not for the healthy, but the sick. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” He came not for the righteous, for those who have it all together. Jesus came to heal the broken, he came to heal the sinners.
So if you are not broken, then what you are saying is you don’t need Jesus. You are beyond the help of Jesus.
But there again you see, Jesus knows you are lying. Because we are all broken and in need of Jesus, so allow him to heal you and admit that you are broken and need him…
Do you think about tasks in a way that will make them easier? When you have a task to do, do you look at multiple possibilities and chose the easiest of the possibilities? Are you always looking for the easy way out?
Into days reading from Mark 2:1-12 we see Jesus asking the question, which is easier? Is it easier to say to a man your sins are forgiven, or to get up and walk…
I thought about this for a while and it isn’t as easy a question as you first think. We could say that both of these statements are easy for us to make, because it really does not mean anything when we say them. But that is not true. Jesus gave the power to forgive and to retain sins to everyone of the disciples, and that power has been passed down to us. And actually Jesus said that if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed you will say to the mountain get up and throw yourself into the sea and it will be done, so if we can move a mountain with our words, then I have to believe that if we tell a crippled man to get up and take his mat and walk, that it would happen. So enough faith and the power of the keys, make both of these statements possible for us, let alone the Son of God…
So Jesus forgives the man’s sins because of the man’s friends. The man is silent in all of this, we do not even know if he asked to be taken to Jesus… but Jesus heals him, by forgiving his sin, and then when confronted tells him to take his mat and walk. He restores this man to community because of the community that brings him to Jesus. Community makes everything possible.
So which is easier? Everything is possible through Jesus who gives us all strength.
What are relationships for? Do you use them for your own gain? Do you give as much as you take?
Mark 1:29-45 tells of the store of relationships, relationships between Jesus and the disciples, and all of them and Peter’s mother-in-law, and the leper that is outside of community…
This text or set of texts comes on the heals of Jesus healing the man held by a demon… another relationship.
You see Jesus came here to be in relationship with all of us. He goes into the temple and heals a man on the Sabbath. It is not about the healing, it is a restoration to community. Just like in the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law is more than just curing a fever. Jesus allows this woman to return to her right place in community. Being a gracious hostess to her guests. (Please hear me, I am not saying a woman’s place is in the kitchen serving, I am saying she was restored by Jesus to her place in community.) Her disease had kept her from being who she was, and took her out of her place in community, Jesus by healing her restored her to her rightful place in community. Just as the leper is an outcast, not allowed to be a part of community, and Jesus reaches out and touches him. He could have spoken him clean, but he touches him, to show him that he is a person, and someone who can be and is loved! We are called by God to live in and to restore people to community.
Follow the model of Jesus who willingly went and restored people to community, not separating them because of who they are or what they have done, but restoring them to their proper place in the relationships of communal life.
For more on the story of the Leper, see the sermon I preached on this text from February 12, 2012 here.
Jesus here after being tempted by Satan begins his public ministry and calls Simon and Andrew and later James and John with the words “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”
What does it mean to follow Jesus? Is it follow like a guide on path or in a museum? Or is it a walk along side and be pals on the journey. One of my favorite blessings is “As you go forth from this place remember that Jesus goes before you to lead the way, Over you to shelter you, behind you to protect you, and beside you to guide you on your journey.” Is this how we think about our walk with Jesus, as two pals going out for a stroll?
Is that what is means to follow Jesus? I always am interested by this passage, because the words used here by Jesus in the original Greek language are use a little later in the Gospel of Mark, in chapter 8…
Mark 8:33 says “But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peterand said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”” The words Jesus uses for Follow me, are the same words he says to Peter, Get Behind Me…
Jesus tells the disciples to get behind him, just as he tells us to get behind him. There is a proper place for us and it is not along side of Jesus, but behind him!
So as we walk these days of Lent and draw closer to God, remember that Jesus wants followers, not advisers. So give up your life to Jesus and do not tell him what you want, but cheerfully take what it is he wants to give you.
Or what does it mean to be beloved by anyone? Do you go around telling people they are your beloved? Well I had to look it up, www.m-w.com says beloved means : dearly loved : dear to the heart… So I would say there are people that are beloved to me. However I’m not sure if we understand what it means to be beloved by God, and if we do, if it is something we would want.
In the Gospel of Mark Jesus is called beloved 2 by God once here and once on the mountain top at the transfiguration. At the transfiguration Jesus goes down the mountain headed towards Jerusalem and his death, and here at the baptism, he is immediately driven to the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days by Satan.
And right now you are saying we know this, but my question is, who drives Jesus to the wilderness? (short break – I heard a joke in the sermon yesterday, When Jesus was driven to the wilderness we know it was a Honda he was driven in, because the Bible tells us that the disciples were all of one Accord!…)
Ok who drove Jesus to the wilderness? The reading from Mark says the Spirit drove him to the wilderness. The Holy Spirit, once Jesus is named and claimed by God as beloved, drives him to the wilderness to be tested. The Holy Spirit, or God took Jesus to the wilderness. Maybe this is why we say “and lead us not into temptation…” in the Lord’s prayer. God sends Jesus out to be tested. Is this what it means to be beloved by God, to be driven to the wilderness to be tested, tempted, and see who it is you rely on?
Is this what we want when we are beloved by God? Or do we want Burger King, do we want to have it our way? God has us close to his heart and calls each of us dear, loved, child. And just like Jesus we can know that even if God leads us into temptation that he will always be there to deliver us from evil.
Psalm 150 is a favorite of mine out of the Psalms. It is a favorite, because it is a wonderful praise song!
I remember singing it on internship…
Praise the Lord with Trumpet Sounds, Trumpet Sounds….
Praise the Lord with a Big bass Drum! Big Bass Drum….
Praise the Lord with Rocking guitar!
You could add instruments and ideas for ever, and each time you would run through the whole list each time, and do interesting motions along with each idea/instrument.
And this is what we also have to remember this season of Lent. While we are suppose to be examining ourselves, and our lives, and drawing closer to God, we are also suppose to have fun and praise God! God wants us to praise him, with trumpets and harps and lyres, and guitars, and organs, and pianos, and our voices. God said make a joyful noise! Not a pretty on or beautiful or intune, on key harmonious sound…. He said make a joyful noise. Reminds me of something my pastor use to say, “If you sing well sing loud, because God loves to hear you sing, if you don’t sing well, then sing really loud to annoy the person standing next to you, but either way make a joyful noise.”
This is one of my favorite verses, I can do all things through Him who gives me strength. Jesus gives us the strength to do all things that He leads us to, calls us to. He also gives us the strength to endure the places we get our selves into.
But it is not just the strength… Paul tells us more, a contentment. “for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.” How many of us can do this? How many of us are content with what we have? We struggle for more. We worry about tomorrow. We want what everyone else has, we have to keep up with the Jones…. Even if we are under fed. Even if we don’t have everything we think we want, we still have reason to rejoice and to lean on the strength of Jesus. And that is the easy side to see in Paul’s writing, when we are down and out we can and should lean on Jesus. But Paul said that he has learned how to be content in all that he has, in little and in plenty! Are we content and leaning on the strength of Jesus when everything is going good? Do we look for the strength of Jesus to see us through the good times? Through when we think we don’t need him, because it is exactly when we thing we don’t need him, that we need him the most.
And that leads us to another favorite verse of mine, Jeremiah 29:11 – For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. We have a hope in God through the strength of Jesus and that is a hope and a strength we need every day, good or bad!
Daddy God, help us to lean on you and live in the hope and strength you give us, guiding us in the life you have for us…
aSacredRebel 