Doc in a Box?
Dan Shelly
Elma United Methodist Church
February 5, 2006
(Mark 1:29-31, 1 Corinthians 9:16-2)
At the beginning of our gospel lesson today, Jesus leaves the Synagogue and enters the house of Simon and Andrew. As I thought about houses, I remembered the story of the famous Pittsburg Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw going to heaven.
It seems that after living a full life, Terry Bradshaw died. When he got to heaven, God was showing him around. They came to a modest little house with a faded yellow and black Steelers flag in the window. And God said "This house is yours for all eternity, Terry. I want you to know that this is very special; not everyone who arrives in heaven gets a house up here." Well this made Terry Bradshaw feel pretty special, indeed. But as they walked together up to his house, just as he got on the front porch, Terry Bradshaw noticed another house just around the corner. It was a 3-story mansion with a blue and white sidewalk, a 50 foot tall flag pole with an enormous SEAHAWKS flag waving in the breeze, and in every window there was a blue Towel.
Bradshaw looked at God and said, "God, I'm not trying to be ungrateful or anything, but I do have a question. You see, I was an all-pro quarterback, I hold many NFL records, and I even went to the Hall of Fame."
God said, "So what's your point Terry?"
"Well, why does Matt Hasselbeck get such a better house than me?"
God chuckled, and said, "Terry, that's not Matt's house, it's Mine."
OK, OK I couldn’t help myself. But you do have to admit that it might have taken something like divine intervention for the Seattle Seahawks to actually be playing in the Superbowl today. And now, I PROMISE not to say anything more about it.
So Jesus came to the house of Simon and Andrew, and there he found Simon’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He went over, took her hand, and raised her up. And the scripture tells us that her fever left her and she began to serve them.
Now I’m sorry fellows, but the interpretation of this scripture does not mean that if you invite Jesus into your home, your mother-in-law will begin to make dinners and serve everyone. No what it shows is that once Simon’s mother-in-law met Jesus, her healing was so complete that she could get right up out of her sick bed and immediately go about her business. Hmm… Immediately, we must be in the gospel of Mark.
This occurred on the Sabbath and news of it quickly spread, so that once the sun set and it was ok for observant Jews to travel to other people’s houses, the towns people began bringing Jesus friends and relatives from throughout the whole city who were sick and Jesus was healing many of them. And a large crowd began to gather outside the house. It had to be quite a scene. Suddenly God was breaking into people’s lives. There was new energy, new excitement, and healing taking place. People suddenly were beginning to act as if the Kingdom of God actually were at hand, just like this preacher was telling them.
The next morning, Jesus slipped out before it was even daylight, found a deserted place and there he prayed. And Jesus didn’t just spend a few minutes in prayer. Throughout his ministry Jesus constantly sought out quiet places of solitude that allowed him to pray and stay in constant touch with God. And it was this that energized and sustained him throughout his life here on Earth.
Meanwhile back a Simon’s house people were getting up and there was probably already a line of folks gathering outside the front door waiting to see Jesus. People who still needed healing and wanted to meet Jesus face-to-face. They probably began to think of Simon’s house like a 24 hour urgent care center – what some people refer to as a “Doc in the Box.” You arrive there 24 hours, day or night, and the doctor on call will treat you and help you get well. But Jesus, the great physician, wasn’t there. The Doc had checked out!
So Simon and his new companions went searching for him, looking throughout the city. And when they finally found him, off by himself in a deserted place deep in prayer, they came to him and said “Master, what are you doing? Aren’t you aware that everyone is searching for you? There’s a huge crowd gathering near Simon’s house and all of them want to see you and hear you. You’re a hit in Capernaum and we’re all going to be famous! And Jesus answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ And with that, he left Capernaum and began to travel throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
But what about the people left in Capernaum? They had heard this traveling rabbi and responded. There was new energy and excitement in the town, and then just as quickly as he arrived, he left them to go tell the Good News to others. The writer of Mark never tells us what happened after Jesus moved on, but the hope is that people began to take Jesus’ message to heart and began to live as if the Kingdom of God were at hand.
In many ways they were very much like we still are today. They had encountered Jesus, heard him, believed him, been healed by him, and now they expected everything to stay the same. They hoped to continue just to meet Jesus in the same place, in the same way. They wanted their spiritual Doc-in-the Box available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They’d found something good so now they wanted things to stay the same indefinitely. But that’s no what God is all about. God is all about new life and new growth, about bringing the Good News to everyone and the ongoing journey of Discipleship. Jesus was showing both his disciples and the people of Capernaum that when you follow God’s leading, nothing stays the same forever. There’s always going to be change and new life breaking forth.
And I think this is where so many denominations and individual churches get it wrong too. Usually a new denomination or church is founded because a group of people become aware of the move of God’s Spirit, God doing a new thing. They get energized, they write new songs, maybe they even write new creeds, soon they print new hymnals, and they begin meeting together in the same way week after week, month after month, year after year until one day they wake up to find the sanctuary mostly empty and people standing around singing “Give me that Old Time Religion.” It was good enough for my grandparents and it’s good enough for me. We settle for “enough” and begin to tell stories of how God met our church’s founders and the wonderful spiritual awakening that occurred. Meanwhile the people outside the church’s walls have no interest in hearing this “Good News” of generations past. They have no interest in singing old songs full of thees and thous, and hearing old stories that no longer speak to them and meet their lives right where they are today.
The problem is that these denominations and churches try to put Jesus, the great physician, into a small little box of human understanding so that they can visit Jesus in the same way week after week, whenever they need to. They want to package and retain their spiritual Doc-in-a Box.
But there are others who do get it. They understand that God who led the Israelites through the desert for forty years, is a God of journey. And the blessings and new life come not at the end of a long dry period, a period of waiting for God to return just the way we’ve heard he did in past. The blessings and new life come as we faithfully follow God along that journey.
Just look at the apostle Paul. Because he knew that the Good News was for everyone, Paul traveled throughout much of the known world of his time. Finally arriving in the very seat of World power itself in Rome. And Paul didn’t come bringing his message in the same way to everyone he met in his journeys. Instead he said:
To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law … so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law … so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some.
Paul got it that God’s message of love and forgiveness was not for one people or one place or one time. Instead it was a vital and living message of Good News that spread as he listened to God’s urgings and followed where he was led.
About now you might be thinking, “This is all well and good pastor Dan, but how does it apply to our lives today here in Elma? Are you suggesting that we sell our homes, pack our bags, and hit the highway to spread the Good News about Jesus? Of course the answer to that question is no. But what I am suggesting is that we as a congregation come to understand that God is a God of journey and new life - God is a God of change. And it’s this understanding of God that can allow us to embrace and celebrate change within our faith life together whether it be a new ministry such as Jane Hayes talked about for our elementary-aged youth last week, or the end of an older program that we’ve done the same way here for years and years. Whether it’s new people coming into the congregation and sitting in our favorite seats, the loss of long time members who move or pass away. God invites us as a people to look for and find the new life that is always present in all of these circumstances.
Then like Jesus, we too will find that we’re able to faithfully follow our God. God who invites us to follow on a journey of faith that leads to new life and brings God’s message of healing and wholeness to all of those we encounter along the way.
God is a God of change, and God declares today, “Behold, I make ALL things new!”
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