What is the Point?

This sermon can be listened to here

Gate Pa – Year B  6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2024

Readings:

Psalm-                         Psalm 30  
First Reading-              2 Kings 5:1-14            
Second Reading-        1 Cor 9:24-27                         
Gospel-                       Mark 1:40-45                         

What I want to say:

I want to use Mark 1:40-45 to explore some ideas around the point of the healing stories in Mark, using David Loses’ “4 words about Jesus”.
What do these teach me/us about God and the divine presence?
What might they say about the Kingdom of God?
How might I live this?

What I want to happen:

How does all this help us be open to invitation in Lent to

The Sermon

      1.    Introduction:

If you were asked to describe Jesus using 4 words or phrases – what would they be?
-        Invite you to go beyond the easy standard words like saviour
-        Discuss
Not easy
Gospels teach us that in Jesus we meet God
ð Next question is – what do these words say about God
-        How do we experience this God?

     
2.    4 Words in Mark 1

David Lose – one of commentators read offers these words from this story
-        Touch
-        Willing
-        Compassion
-        Lonely
Want to use these to look at today’s gospel reading
 

      3.    Touch

Saw last week how urgent Mark’s telling of the story is
Only 40 verses in story and we have had
-        John the Baptiser preaching and baptising,
-        Jesus baptised and tested in the wilderness,
®   Jesus preaching “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom!”
-        and calling his first followers,
-        Lives that in casting out a demon on the Sabbath in the meeting place (synagogue) in Capernaum.
-        Heals Peter’s mother-in-law
-        Heals lots of others who come once Sabbath over
-        Goes out to pray in wilderness
-        When found says has to leave Capernaum and preach across Galilee
Phew!
Also saw Jesus take Peter’s mother in law by the hand
Heals her face to face
-        Kanohi ki te kanohi
Its personal
Its intimate
Life giving
So the first word – touch
Many of you will know power of touch and the pain of losing that opportunity to touch and be touched
This man has skin disease
-        Not Hansens disease of today
-        Enough to have him declared unclean
-        Laws Leviticus exclude him from whanau and community
-        Forced into isolation away from human contact
-        Alone
-        Living death
So in desperation he breaks those laws
Jesus responds by touching him
Even before he is healed Jesus touches him.
That is deeply healing in itself
God meets us in deeply intimate and personal ways

      4.    Compassion

Jesus shows compassion to the man
Except the word translated as compassion can also mean anger
And was in today’s translation
“Incensed,[a] Jesus reached out his hand, touched him,”
Incensed at
-        Man breaking the rules and coming to Jesus?
o   Rules intended to keep the community safe
-        Rules that declare him unclean and isolate him
o   Depriving him of human community and touch
-        How those rules are applied
-        Incensed at powers that hold creation captive
o   Illness
o   Broken community
o   Poverty and injustice
However we translate the Greek
Jesus shows compassion and touches the man
Compassion lies at the heart of this story
Compassion lies at the heart of God
Where do we meet God’s compassion

      5.    Willing

The man challenges Jesus
“If you want, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Jesus responds
“I am willing, be clean!”
Easy to say that God is always willing
And yet Jesus did not heal all people of Capernaum
-        Not heal all people of Galilee
-        Just some
-        In the end there will be too many
All those who were healed got sick and died
Today - many long to be healed of illness
-        And are not
Does that mean that Jesus was only willing sometimes?
What is it Jesus was willing to do?
There are no easy answers to that
Jesus was willing to meet leper in his need
In his case he did touch him
-        Heal him
-        Restore him to his whanau and community
All I can say is that God is willing to meet us in our need

      6.    Lonely

As I have said the physical healing is never the point
The point is the effect of the healings
-        Restoration of family and community
Jesus doesn’t say – “Be healed”
He says “Be clean”
-        Be restored to people of God
Commands “Don’t say anything to anyone. Instead, go and show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifice for your cleansing that Moses commanded. This will be a testimony to them.”
Constant theme in Mark is this “Messianic secret”
-        Jesus telling people and demons to not speak about him
Maybe that was because he knew that once word got out his ability to do what he came to do would be very limited
Maybe because we can only understand what Jesus was about when we come to the cross
That is how Mark tells the story
And we have that shadow here
Man does not go to the priests
starts talking freely about what Jesus did
because of Jesus’ touch he is once again able to freely go into towns and speak
because of that touch, and the man speaking freely
-        Jesus cannot go into towns
o   They are looking out for him
-        Instead he lives in the wilderness
o   Alone
o   With his followers
-        Places are reversed
The touch was costly
Love is costly
It did not stop Jesus from touching him and restoring him
That touch would lead to the cross
God is faithful and compassionate none the less

      7.    What’s the point?

Point of this story is not the healing
One of first stories in Mark
Which set out what rest gospel enlarges on
“Now is the time. God’s kingdom has come. Let that blow your mind. Trust this good news.” (Mark 1:15)
God’s kingdom reflects God’s nature
Seen in the teaching and ministry of Jesus
God meets us in deeply intimate and personal ways
Meets us in our deepest need
Meets us out of life giving compassion
No matter what
One commentators said
“These healings, it is very clear, are signs of what God's reign means for human beings -- a restoration to a condition of blessedness or thriving or flourishing. Humankind will no longer be oppressed by the powers of evil. We have seen Jesus' intense interactions with the demons who know him. We have also heard Jesus insist that it is his calling to destroy these powers hostile to God's reign even as he must go about announcing it so that all may have the opportunity to repent and trust God”  (Sarah Henrich, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/sixth-sunday-after-epiphany-2/commentary-on-mark-140-45)

      8.    Conclusion

we stand on verge of Lent
7 weeks prayer and fasting
7 weeks to reflect on who is God for us
as we read Gospels
invited to join God in creating a world where all can flourish
-        what do we need to flourish
-        how can we provide a place for people to flourish
-        how might we join this work of creating a world where all can flourish
 

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