on February 8, 2015
Place yourselves in the loving hands of Jesus. Raise
up those who are downtrodden. Engage in acts of healing. Cast out darkness. Place
yourself before God and be renewed. And then go. Go out and beyond. Go forth
and proclaim the Gospel. And expect God to be at work in your life—to strengthen
you when you faint, to raise you up when you fall, to call you into spiritual
growth beyond where you last lay your head and into a lifelong relationship of
transformation and love.
How did you get here this morning? What life circumstances, what
twists and turns, what challenges and promises and hopes compelled you to
choose this? How has your life in Christ led you to this moment? Whether you
have grown up in this place or walked in the door for the first time, whether
you have grown up in the church or felt called to it in later life, or stumbled
into it along the way, you will discover, or have already discovered, or know
deep in your heart that the Christian life is not about staying in one place—no
matter how comfortable that place can be.
Jesus begins his earthly ministry on the move. Baptized by
John in the Jordan, he is immediately driven by the Spirit into the wilderness.
From there he passes along the Sea of Galilee calling to Simon and Andrew who
immediately leave their nets and follow him. Farther along he immediately calls
to James and John who also follow. They head right into Capernaum where Jesus
teaches in the synagogue astounding all with his wisdom and before you know it
they are at Simon and Andrew’s house and Jesus doesn’t stop even then. Simon’s
mother-in-law is ill and Jesus wastes no time in raising her up and once she is
healed she immediately begins to serve others.
When Jesus raises her up it is a significant moment. It is a
resurrection act. The same words are used for Jesus when he is raised up from
the dead. And this resurrection act engenders service and healing. The woman
immediately serves others, which after all is the ministry of Jesus. And then Jesus
multiplies this act by healing many, many others who come to the house that
day.
But what happens next is also astounding. The next day, Jesus
gets up before the busyness of the day, goes out to a deserted place away from
everyone else, and prays. He spends time with God. He takes time for reflection
and renewal. And when they come looking for him, he does not return to the
house where everyone is searching for him and where certainly there are more people
to be healed. Instead he says, let us go
on to the neighboring towns so that I can proclaim the message there also. For
this is what I came out to do. Jesus’ gifts and ministry will be multiplied
because he chooses not to stay in one place and heal those who come to him, but
rather to goes out and beyond. I am reminded of our own Baptismal Covenant
which calls us to seek out people in order to serve.
The Christian life is not about staying in one place. Jesus travels,
raises up, heals the sick, steps aside in solitude to pray, and then moves out
and beyond to carry healing to more. It is this movement that I find compelling:
that ministry is followed by renewal and regrouping and then going forth, going
out, taking the show on the road rather than staying in one place and doing all
the good work there is to do.
The Christian life is hardly about the status quo. It is not
about figuring it out and then settling in. It is always about moving on and
proclaiming the gospel. Let us go on to
the neighboring towns so that I can proclaim the message there also, for this
is what I came out to do. We are called to place ourselves in the loving
hands of Jesus and step out. We are called to raise up the downtrodden, to
serve others, to engage in acts of healing, to cast out darkness, to place
ourselves before God and be renewed, and then to go—to go out and beyond.
God is hardly the champion of the status quo. Have you not
known? Have you not heard? Our God is the everlasting God, the Creator of the
ends of the earth, who numbers the stars and knows them all by name. God does
not faint or grow weary and God’s understanding is unsearchable. Youths will faint and be weary, the young
will fall exhausted, but those who wait for the Lord, those who place
themselves in the hands of the living God, they shall renew their strength. They
shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they
shall walk and not faint.
