And Then God Speaks: Love's Lift
Isaiah 40:21-31; Psalm 147. Mark 1:29-39
Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
Can Jesus bring life to a hopeless relationship? Can God heal cancer? Can Christ grant you a more rewarding career? Can the Holy Spirit soften the heart of your hardest relative? Can Christ redeem you though you have that deep and hidden sin you don't want anyone to know about? Has God abandoned our country to the whims of empire and insurrectionists?
Is there any hope?
Yes. Yes. Our Scripture lessons tell us today, YES!. Each one comes from a different angle, but addresses a fundamental, sometimes heart-breaking, question: Is God present and active in our daily lives today: Yes. Can God do all these things we think we need? Yes.
Wait, hope, don't grow weary, is what Isaiah says. We are terrible at waiting. So many messages in our lives say, "hurry up. Do something, faster, stronger, more."
Do you not know?
Of course they know. Israel knew God, followed God from Sarah and Abraham through Moses to the Promised Land. Then it all fell apart. By the 6th century BCE they were captives in Babylon, exiled from their temple, their capital, Jerusalem, under siege . They thought they were abandoned.
The writer of this second portion of Isaiah says, "Wait a minute. Our God sits, stretches, spreads, brings and makes the heavens and the earth." The grammar declares God's on-going activity. The non-fainting God gives power to the fainting creation. The non-weary God strengthens the weary. Love's lift.
There is no comparison to this God. Isaiah's writer calls this memory to the mind of the people through rhetorical questions: Have you not known? Have you not heard? Are you deaf to the power of Yahweh, the power of the universe? There is no god to compare this one--for This One never stops, does not abandon, does not grow weary. Even young people wear out, but not this God.
Waiting is not a passive action. It is done with confident and obedient anticipatory faith. We are called to trust the authority of God to transform our world and our daily lives. Even when we cannot SEE the hand of God at work, even when we question whether God is doing anything, anywhere, anytime. Love's lift.
By its nature, the gospel is a story that demands retelling to each generation. It disturbs and disrupts the patterns of life to which we have become accustom. It is about our Christian identity--our sensitivities, intuitions and discernment one commentator says. The first word is not me, not us. It is discerning what God wants. God Trusts Us - seriously, God EN-TRUSTS US with this gospel to save communities, not only individuals. "The Kingdom of God is at hand, within reach" Jesus says over and over again. His plan is to redeem the whole world with HIs Life, Death and Resurrection, a global action for everyone. Everyone!
Telling this story is not just for the giants of faith, the preachers and proclaimers. It is for garden-variety Christians as well. How do you tell this story? By using the power of God. Where is this power? The power of God engages people right where they are, in the social matrix of their lives--rich, poor, Jew, Gentile, insider, outsider, old-timer and new-comer. I want us to share what we have - a wonderful, diverse, open, inclusive, exciting, generative, deliberative, congregation. Even on Zoom! For strangers are the point of Jesus' encounters in Mark's gospel.
Jesus heals Simon's mother-in-law, who gets up to serve. Not just to offer hospitality, like a traditional woman, but to diaconeo - deacon. A eucharistic ministry. Jesus lifts her up with love, in the same way He will be raised from the dead, in Love's lift.
Jesus breaks the rules, again - He heals her on the Sabbath. Then after sundown, when Sabbath is over, He heals a whole bunch more people. All those gathered at the door.
Not everybody though. Does this bother you? One of my lifelong struggles of faith is to understand how Jesus chooses to heal or not. We pray for healing and miracles every week! Sometimes they come and sometimes they do not. At least in ways we can understand. I do not know exactly why. I know there is no easy answer to this deep and abiding mystery. What I do confess is Jesus Christ is Savior and offers to hold and carry all our sufferings and sorrows in Love's Lift.
In this announcement of the reign of God Jesus proclaims "the kingdom is within reach" and then touches people, the lepers, the demonics, the women with too much blood flow. A pattern we can follow too - pray, touch and serve. In the smallest acts of our daily lives, we have opportunities to reach out in love to lift up all those who are broken, battered, left out, rejected, lonely, isolated.
And know this: If you are in need of this lift, you have come to the right place. If you are NOT able to believe today, you have come to the right place. We will hold faith for you. We love you and we will hold faith for you. Our Beloved Community is rich beyond all measure with love, grace, mercy, generosity. Love's lift.
Whatever might be an alienating force in your life, Jesus Christ invites you to come the banquet table of life. There is no sin too great, no shame too dark, no lack of un-forgiveness too rigid, no guilt too big, for Him to bind it away. This simple meal of bread and cup declares His transforming power is to make US All new. Love's Lift.