“On Doing
What He Was Called to Do”
by Bruce J. Johnson
Scripture: Mark
I must say
this morning, that as I read the first part of today’s lesson, I really
connected with it. As many of you may know, Lois had ‘rotator cup’ surgery on
the 26th of January. For sure, pain medication is a wonderful thing,
but what has made it particularly easy, especially for me, is that my
mother-in-law has been with us for this entire time--- picking up the
newspapers, cooking and cleaning, even cleaning out the refrigerator and
driving Lois to her physical therapy appointments. Had she come down with a
fever, I certainly would have prayed for a healing so that there would be no
interruption in her service time! So, it doesn’t surprise me that as soon Jesus
and his four new disciples, two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew, James and
John, left the synagogue after Jesus healed the man with the unclean spirit,
our lesson from last week, they escort Him right over to their house to take
care of another essential matter--- healing Peter’s mother-in-law who had a
fever. We are then told, upon being healed, she got right back up and back to
work! Mothers-in-law are wonderful people. Unfortunately, I had to take mine
back to
Our
scripture this morning tells us that they spent the whole day around the house,
a lawful requirement of the Sabbath but when evening came, it got really busy.
We are told that the whole city crowded around the door as the city’s sick and
possessed were brought to Jesus. It all started at sundown and we’re not told
how long it went into the night but we are told that when morning came Jesus
needed to get away for some down time and some recharging of the spiritual
batteries. Of course, that may have well been cut short by Simon and his
friends because we are also told that they ‘hunted’ for him and when they found
him, they told Jesus that everyone else was looking for him too. --- More names
for the prayer list, more people with illnesses for which was no cure, more
despair which knew no hope, more guilt that had known no forgiveness ---- and
grief that needed some good news. I would imagine--- the full gamut.
Oh, there
might well have been plenty of work right there in
“Let
us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there
also; for that is what I came out to do.”
(Mark
I mentioned in the opening
of last week’s sermon that the story of the exorcism of the man with the
unclean spirit was not only a ‘coming out’ for all that imprisons or diminishes
a person but also it was also a ‘coming out’ for Jesus--- a commencement of the
work that he came to do. And yet, we learn more about His calling and purpose
this morning as he leaves behind those who were searching for him and gets on
with the primary reason for his coming out-- to bring his message to as many as
he could as fast as was possible.
“Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may
proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” (Mark
And what was that
message?
During our main service
this morning, Father Victor Chaker will be delivering the homily in observance
of our Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. I’m sure that he would be pleased to
learn that I cited in this service the first encyclical for Pope Benedict XVI,
71 pages long. The encyclical, titled “God Is Love” makes it very clear he
believes that the message Jesus was sent to tell and make manifest in all that
he did was really quite simple:
“In
a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a
duty to hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant,” he
wrote. “For this reason, I wish my first encyclical to speak of the love which
God lavishes on us and which we in turn must share with others.”
(nytimes.com
That was and remains
the message for which he came out! --- God’s love lavishly poured on us but
with a hitch—that we are meant to share it with others.
Ann Marie Campbell, a
member of our Thursday morning Bible Study, brings me stuff from St Thomas
Aquinas. This past week she brought be a brochure from The Connecticut Catholic
Advocacy Network. I really liked its catchy title:
“SIGN
UP, SIGN ON and be a SIGN that the Gospel is Alive.”
And surely, this
message is both timely and significant. There is too much hatred and violence
in our world--- a world that seems to be getting smaller and smaller. Just
think about how 21 political cartoons that came out of
The furor is over two
things--- First, the visible depiction of Muhammad, something that is forbidden
and second, the misrepresentation of the Koran. One great quote was:
“Freedom of expression cannot be the
freedom to lie… The prophet did not found a terrorist religion, but on the
contrary, a religion of peace.”
(HC
At the same time, of
course, there are others who read the Koran and live the faith differently,
calling for bloodshed and retaliation.
What a time for
Christian, Jew and Muslim to join together and speak of the God they share as a
God of love, who requires that the faithful and follower love also.
What a time for you and
me to reflect on what it means to be Christian in such difficult times!
I mentioned in my
February Church Call that yesterday, February 4th, was the 100th
birthday of the Lutheran theologian and Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His defiant
opposition to Hitler got him hanged by the Gestapo at Flossenburg prison on
His story is an
extraordinary one, not without its complexity or controversy but always
inspirational.
Born in 1906, Bonhoeffer studied to
become a pastor in a post WWI church in crisis.
He returned to Germany in 1931 and
witnessed the rise of Hitler and his message to pastors was that the gospels
commanded them to stand with Jews and suggested that aiding victims of the
state would not be enough; Christian’s, he said, must be prepared to ‘jam a
spoke in the wheel’ of oppression itself. The question of how to do this is at
the center of the documentary but living the Christian faith in the real world,
he maintained, was all about the decisions, sometimes, very difficult decisions
we must make.[1]
Two very important points stand out:
First, as was written in the February Call,
Bonhoeffer concluded:
“The church is only the church when
it exists for others.” And for him that meant all those who
were victims of the Nazis—Jew, gypsy and homosexual.
Second, arrested by the Gestapo in 1943,
Bonhoeffer was imprisoned until 1945 when, during Hitler’s own last days, those
jailed for plotting against him were ordered executed. The documentary notes
that while in prison, the pastor described feelings of loneliness, doubt and
anxiety. Yet, his final message, to a bishop and friend in
“This is the
end,” he wrote,”for me, the beginning of life.”
Christ did go and
proclaim the message, that for which he came out… and it was a message about
the lavish love of God--- a love that we know—gives ‘the beginning of life,’ to
borrow Bonhoeffer’s phrase, in its triumph over death.
It was also a message
about what to do with that love-a love that we know is meant to be shared with
others--- for a Christian is only a Christian when he/she signs up and sign on
to be a sign that we exist for one another—a sign that the Gospel is Alive.
Amen
[1] I am indebted to a Wall Street Journal “TV Review” by Nancy deWolf Smith for some of this information. (February 3, 2006).