The Rev. Robert Lundquist V after Epiphany B 2/5/06 St Paul’s, Ft Collins

Have you ever watched the TV series “24?” Each season consists of 24 episodes that portray exactly one hour in one day of the life of a government agent. The viewer is taken minute by minute through a very intense day. It strikes me that today’s Gospel lesson in the first chapter of Mark has a similar feel, in that we get a rather detailed account of a day in the life of Jesus. Remember how, in last week’s reading, Jesus and his 4 followers entered the synagogue, where Jesus cast unclean spirits out of a man. Today, we pick up the story – “As they left the synagogue…” The 5 go to the home of Simon (later renamed Peter) and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was fevered, and Jesus healed her with a touch. As soon as sundown arrived, seemingly the entire population of Capernaum turned out for Jesus to heal and exorcise them. Before dawn, he goes off to a deserted place, where Simon finds him. I imagine it is well past morning’s first light, and nearly 24 hours have passed when Jesus says, “Let’s go somewhere else.”

There are many threads here – we see Jesus’ healing ministry quickly move from the private (in Simon’s home) to the public. It opens up, it expands, it explodes outward. And we see the result of his healing touch. As we learn that Simon’s mother-in-law began to serve the men as soon as she was made well, some joke that Jesus healed her in order to get a cup of tea. But the word rendered as “served” here is the same word used to tell how the angels “ministered” to Jesus after his 40 days in the wilderness. And later in Mark it is the word Jesus used to describe himself and his ministry of Servanthood. Simon’s mother-in-law is the pioneer in responding to Jesus’ healing touch by turning to a ministry of service. Jesus’ healing continues to have the same effect.

Halford Luccock, a homilist of the early 20^th century, notes that Jesus evades two deadly dangers in today’s Gospel. He refuses to be localized, and he refuses to be institutionalized. Some would say that the Church that bears his name has largely lost those sensibilities.

Let’s look at these temptations. The pull to localism, to staying put, is certainly present. The people of Capernaum accept and welcome Jesus’ ministry. Imagine for a moment that Jesus says, “This is a pretty nice spot. I think I’ll open a healing practice, settle down, maybe get married and build a home.” Instead, he says to Simon and the others that morning, “No, let’s go somewhere else.”

There must have been some attraction to institutionalizing the ministry as well. Jesus might have set up a clinic, trained others to assist him in the work of healing and exorcising. Folks would have come for miles to visit the famous physician Jesus. But we know that that path misses the fullness of what Jesus was sent to do. He said to his followers, “No, let’s get going.”

And thank God that they did! We would have a very thin gospel if that was how it played out. The Church has struggled over and over with these very issues. Whenever we churchfolk think we’ve got it “perfect,” we want to cast it in bronze. “Let’s keep it this way forever!” we say. I can’t help but think of the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus (which we’ll hear in just 3 weeks). Jesus goes up the mountain with Peter, James and John, and he is transfigured, his face and clothing turning as bright as the sun. And the figures of Moses and Elijah , representing the Law and the Prophets, appear beside him in the aura. And Peter blurts out, “Let’s build three cabins, one for each of you, so things will be like this forever!” Let’s make it a Kodak moment.

There’s a story, a parable really, about a spring in a desert. 2 travelers found it not too far from the main path, and were astounded at the cool, life-giving freshness of the waters. They marked it, so it could be seen from the road. In time others built around it – shelter for other travelers, a wall to protect the spring… And a town grew up around it, and folks built a shrine, then a church, then an enormous and beautiful cathedral over the spring. And in the process the spring was covered up, eventually becoming forgotten. While people appreciated the beauty of the edifice, the sense of a life-giving spirit was lost. Something wasn’t right, but no one could put their finger on what, exactly, it was. One night a couple of iconoclasts broke into the cathedral with pickaxes and shovels. They dug up the marble floor until they found the spring. They uncovered it, and it bubbled up once again with a cool, life-giving freshness.

Luccock wrote, “The Christian gospel is yeast, not concrete!” The gospel is meant to grow, to ferment, and to heave, and not to solidify. A congregation of God’s people must be a hotbed of such growth, an oven that activates that gospel yeast. A community must be a seedbed, a seminary, a base from which to operate, not a fort to protect! “Let us go to the neighboring towns,” said Jesus.

As Jesus “takes the show on the road,” another question arises. With all the stories of healing in both testaments (especially the poignant account of the Shunammite woman in our first reading), we ask “why?” Why are some healed and not others? It’s a very troubling question. And Jesus isn’t big on “why” – he’s all about showing “how.” How to heal, how to bless, how to confront demons (and some would say that the familiar seven – pride, anger, gluttony, envy, sloth, lust and avarice – might be good list of them), how to pray, how to lead…

by touch

Touch is key to healing. We continue to offer the laying on of hands, touching and praying for God’s healing breath. It’s the same with blessing – Jesus nearly always touches. He teaches us by example too – withdrawing to a deserted place to pray, to be with God. And be leading… elsewhere. It’s as if he’s saying, “I’ve got a story of our loving God to tell! So let’s go – it’s what I cam to do.

”Let’s go.” Do you feel the breathless urgency with which Mark tells the tale? We’ve not even finished the first chapter, yet Jesus is restless. A wise teach was once asked by a student how to seek God. “Seek God like a man with hair afire seeks water.” Seek God with the urgency of Jesus – it’s the only way to keep up with him.

The point, sisters and brothers, is to be yeast, not concrete. Time is short, says Mark the Evangelist. As we prayed in today’s collect: Set us free from our bonds, O God. Make us yeast.

Amen.

A Parish For All People!