Sermon for January 10

The reading 

Mark 2:1-22

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ‘Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the paralytic— ‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’ And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’

Jesus went out again beside the lake; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.

And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax-collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘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.’

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, ‘Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.

The message

Last week, we started a journey through Mark’s Gospel that will take us from now until Easter, when we celebrate the great, central moment of our faith, that Christ is Risen from the dead.  In Mark one miracle, lesson, healing or exorcism happens right after another, Jesus and his disciples finish one thing and immediately move on to the next.  The religious, social and political world is being taken over by this unstoppable, unrelenting, aggressive movement of faith, power, and love.  

In the second chapter of Mark,  after just a few days of teaching and healing, Jesus is already calling deeply committed followers who will fail, misunderstand and fold under pressure but will be forgiven, encouraged and walk with him until the end of the their lives.  Jesus is already causing news, fueling rumors that he is the Messiah and gathering great, curious and excited crowds.  Jesus is already confronting the religious authorities, getting to the heart of what faith lived out looks like. Jesus is already receiving a lot of negative attention from a group of scared leaders trying all sorts of different traps and tricks to expose Jesus as a fraud and keep things the way they are.

As we travel through Mark together, there are very few things that Jesus keeps the way they are. Virtually every aspect of faith, tradition or social life is criticized for not being part of God’s vision for the world.  Systemic inequalities like exclusion, poverty, racism, violence and abuse   are all condemned.  Today, we experience a group of 5 desperate people trying to get in touch with Jesus.  They are people of deep faith and they trust that getting to Jesus will heal the paralyzed man.  Due to the huge crowds, they cannot even get close enough to call out “Jesus help us” or get noticed. Just waiting around outside until the crowds move and space opens up or pleading with each person around them to make way would not work, so they climb up to the roof of the house, carry the paralyzed man up dig a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was staying and lower the man in.  This act of faith along with the loud, noisy mess obviously got Jesus attention. 

It should also get our attention, we have to think about what was so special there that such a great crowd showed up and so powerful that a group of otherwise good people destroy part of someone’s home to get close enough to it.  Jesus was offering new life. To be paralyzed at the time meant to be outside, excluded and dependent on begging and other people to survive.  It’s not just in the healing of illness and restoration of mobility that Jesus brings new life.  Jesus brings new life, brings people into the right relationship with God, brings a great comfort and peace to anxious hearts by announcing the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus does not stop there, after all, this is Mark’s Gospel. Jesus immediately moves on to a new way of showing people the sort of new, unburdened life God offers, or better yet forces on us.   Jesus goes out and in front of this huge crowd, invites Levi the tax collector to follow him. Keep in mind, tax collectors weren’t exactly the most popular people or the most ethical. They earned their living collecting oppressive taxes on behalf of the Roman empire and taking a share for their work.  That whole crowd probably wanted Jesus to treat Levi and his booth like the roof, ripping them apart.  Instead, Jesus invites him to follow.  Jesus does not avoid the many tax-collectors and sinners, he eats a very public, open dinner with them, showing them new life, life no longer burdened by exclusion and sin.  Jesus is criticized for this meal by the religious authorities and gives them a simple answer with consequences that tear through traditional beliefs about who God cares for: 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.’ Here is new life, no longer burdened by that nasty, nagging sense of us not being good enough for God to care for, or that God is punishing us for us sins.

Immediately after this encounter, Jesus and his followers are criticized for not fasting. Again Jesus simple response tears through traditional beliefs, questioning the purpose of fasting and revealing what God is doing in the world. The wedding-guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.  New lives, no longer burdened by fasting for no particular purpose or burdened by religious ritual that do not point to any clear hope or joy. 

Just like the friends of the paralyzed man dig through the mud and wood of the roof so the sunlight and God’s healing power can shine in, Jesus digs through all the garbage we surround social life and faith with so that God’s love, light  and new life can shine through.  Annie Dillard, an author and writer about faith, summarizes the danger, power and transformative nature of Jesus with a reflection on what happens at church. 

“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return”

This morning, Jesus presides over a time of healing and teaching where people need those crash helmets, life preservers, seat belts and signal flares.  Jesus announces the forgiveness of sins and heals a paralyzed man, in both cases, showing us God’s compassion, understanding, patience and power to give new life, life no longer burdened by anything.

This morning, our reading invites us to be aware of the new life God gives to us, to think seriously about the things we experience here and to act seriously with our new life.