Mark 1:29-39
Epiphany 5- Year B
I have mentioned before a line from the hymn Wounded World that Cries for Healing - "tax and tithe are for a purpose." Likewise, healing is for a purpose.
We receive the gift of healing not just to feel better but to be revived and resurrected in meaning. When this larger component is missing and we feel better, we better speak about curing.
As people who have been healed of the limitations of literalism (we begin there but are not constrained to end there) we need to find our purpose for this healing. So how will you let your healing be shown this week?
No, this does not mean going out to find someone to convict of literalism, but to simply feed those whose presence we are in a better balanced meal of meaning - or a wider palate with which to paint the face of G*D - or your favorite metaphor of life.
Yes, it does mean doing that which is at hand. Take advantage of the opportunities you have to expand the conversation of life. The mother-in-law never was named and you may never get a name for what you do, but she did respond by doing what she could to add to the joy of life. May we do the same.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/february2003.html
So why was Jesus preaching in the holy places and casting out demons? Because what was being preached was not setting people free.
This source of the binding of humankind into the bondage of what used to be holy rather than what is now needed for holiness and preparing for what will be needed for holiness is the source of all the various bondages from military and economic occupation to the way we treat one another in our families.
A most radical transformation takes place when outmoded holiness is confronted. It sets free an opportunity for heaven to come on earth, again. And again.
For this Jesus came. For this you and I come. For this it is intended that we all come. Be bound by the holiness of this day, not yesterday, and so be unbound.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/february2003.html
If you had to narrow the teachings of scripture and tradition down to one and apply it as a salve to the woes of the world, what would it be?
I still hear many bemoaning the lack of blue laws, keeping Sunday clear of clutter and commerce. A variation on this is the way in which the school system has not kept up with keeping Wednesday nights free from activities and homework so there is one less excuse for youth to not participate in some form of Christian education.
Holy time is sensed as having expired.
To return to the days when the schools and businesses took care of the church would also return us to literalisms regarding slavery, women, race, and sexuality. This is not a good compromise if Christ's compassion is going to be operating in our life.
We don't get time handed to us on a plate. We do get to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves at both opportune and inopportune times. We do get to carve out renewal in dark and deserted times.
To rely on some other system to care for us, to ease our control of worship and spiritual growth opportunities, is not healthy. It makes us fat and lazy and expectant of being served, rather than serving. May we follow Jesus and Peter's unnamed mother-in-law in "Diakoneo" without separating its use so when used of women it is translated "serve" and when used of men is translated "deacon". Heal and teach and be renewed wherever you are and whenever you are.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/february2006.html
Though there is a tendency to attribute power to that which is greater, longer, wider, deeper, power that is implacable and must be bowed down to, it is important to see an on-going vitality of steadfast eternity. Time, Creation, G*D are powerful in relationship to grasshoppers, slaves, or frail (various images of humans). But to stop with that distinction is to dismiss everything in favor of some one thing.
In these passages a key dynamic is not the distance between the great and the small, but the willingness of the powerful to energize the less powerful. This might be called silly as it adds to entropy (at least in a closed system) but it might also be envisioned as the only perpetual energy mechanism there is, one that passes on energy in an open environment.
Our tendency is to look at a given cycle of rising and falling, rather than an on-going stream of life. When looking cyclically we get into law issues such as this interesting one: "(though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law)". When looking on-goingly we can see patterns of connection between our predecessors and our descendants, our selves and others, one religious, economic, or political system and another.
Here we proclaim a connection of intentional interaction between every disparate moment and rejoice in time's flow that supports us and encourages us and engages us to join the flow. Rejoice in every evidence of power coming to the faint, being received, and passed on.
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haven't you heard
has your heart not known
it is not what gets stored up that counts
but what passes through
hearts get attacked
with storage blockages
they faint and fail
in need of new flow
as we pass through
we store of loose
set your heart on this choice
that others might also hear
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
In Jesus' setting and Mark's emphasis upon cleanliness, touching a woman, even for healing, leads to uncleanliness. Imagine the residue of uncleanliness that has accumulated through the night with wave upon wave of sick people come to Jesus. Is it any wonder that Jesus was up very early in the morning and away to pray?
In this darkness may be found an extension of Mark's shorthand version of Jesus' post-baptismal temptation. Here the temptation is to locate, to heal and heal again. Here, Simon, as later, personifies a tempter that would have us settle for a little good that matches his expectation rather than a larger good we have been called to.
How do you measure the calling of others to you and a calling or vocation from what you understand to be G*D? Are they close the to the same (G*D and Neighbor) or are they ranked in some fashion?
Where and when is your time to prayerfully sort out your next step? Here the word is that I will be retiring from full-time pastoral ministry in an institutional church setting this coming July 1. I expect I will be working on this pericope in a variety of ways over these next months and will appreciate any wisdom/prayers you might have regarding opportunities, tasks, and temptations I'll be facing.
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Anonymous (Reader) said...
Did you hear the great gasp from me at this news shared in your last paragraph today Wes? Selfishly, I went to my own need to continue to "sit at your feet" first rather than any word I could offer you.
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Lynn (Reader) said...
It makes me ponder. . . what is the connection (or the dis-connection) between retirement and vocation?
Also, is retirement connected to "job," "career," "making a financial living," and vocation connected to "essence?"
Sent to Wes with the blessings of wonderment, awe, and courage ("of the heart") for these months ahead ~
Lynn
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Wesley (Author) said...
Thank you, Anon. and Lynn -
Relearning or reappropriating a call, a vocation, seems always to be in order. In this we deepen and/or widen our relationship with ourself and others. Peter's reception of a call last week and re-calibration of that call this week, seems like a natural progression if we are dealing with a living system or a living G*D.
Aren't we always living between gasping and blessing! In such time and space we live and move and have our being.
Wesley
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
In a synagogue and in a home, healing takes place. Any distinction between sacred and secular is false. Everything Is Holy Now
We are just coming off a synagogue story where the result of a healing was amazement. This home story has the result of bringing all who were sick to Jesus - it doesn't matter if they were in synagogue/church earlier or not. A home setting has more flexibility and authority than any institution that carries restrictive rules in its DNA - rules that limit the freedom of G*D to call and gift and heal anyone, period.
After the openness expressed in a home setting, word comes that even more people are seeking all that such freedom has to offer - “Everyone is searching for you.” When was the last time you heard that about a church?
Interestingly, Jesus takes this information and further expands it - from synagogue to a home in a community to more towns. Eventually we understand the expansion goes to the ends of Galilee and then the earth.
Remember here that there is both a message and a healing. They go hand in hand.
Hear again the message: Belovedness and happiness is real and energizing. This is G*D’s presence and is growing. Respond by not being stuck - change your hearts and lives and trust an abundance in you and in all.
Hear again the healing: All who were sick were brought and healed. All.