Illness and Wholeness and Jesus

I've been reading a lot about Jesus healing people this week, as I prepare for a sermon on Mark 1:29-39. This is the story of Jesus healing Simon's mother-in-law, falls directly on the heels of the story of how he cast an evil spirit from a man in the synagogue and in the same day at sunset healed crowds of people who gathered at his door after hearing about the two miracles above.

I have heard many commentators talk about how healing people of their diseases not only healed their physical ailments but also restored them to their place within family and society. No longer are they outcasts, but whole members of society. I myself have preached something similar - I remember a particular sermon about the woman with the hemorrhage in Mark 5:25-34 which had those kinds of overtones.

A preaching blogger, Sarah Heinrich said this:

...illness bore a heavy social cost: not only would a person be unable to earn a living or contribute to the well-being of a household, but their ability to take their proper role in the community, to be honored as a valuable member of a household, town, or village, would be taken from them. Peter's mother-in-law is an excellent case in point. It was her calling and her honor to show hospitality to guests in her home. Cut off from that role by an illness cut her off from doing that which integrated her into her world. Who was she when no longer able to engage in her calling? Jesus restored her to her social world and brought her back to a life of value by freeing her from that fever. It is very important to see that healing is about restoration to community and restoration of a calling, a role as well as restoration to life. For life without community and calling is bleak indeed.

I suppose all of this is true, but these days there is something about that which does not sit quite right, especially as I consider preaching this message in a contemporary context. It is equally true now as then that illness and disease cuts people off from their callings and roles. it is equally true that people with illnesses - whether they be mental or physical - struggle with questions of identity, self and relationship to community, when they are unable to fulfill what has been set before them because of their illnesses.

Another blogger, Brian Stoffregen, asked this question:

How do we proclaim Jesus' power to heal that takes seriously both these biblical passages of healing and the present reality that mental and physical ailments are not usually instantly removed through prayer and evoking Jesus' name and power over the ailments?

Exactly! We do not (usually) have the miracle of healing available to us and yet I believe that the text still has power because of how Jesus responded to people who came to him in their illness. It is important that he did respond. Although in their communities, these individuals may not have had value, may have been untouchable, to Jesus their value was still clear and obvious. Simon's mother may not have been able to serve and care for her family and guests, as previously had been her role and perhaps even her calling. But she was still of immeasurable value, perhaps of even more value, as Jesus attended to her in a special way.

In life and ministry I have encountered or been in relationship with several individuals who have seen terminal illnesses or mental illness interfere with their ability to fulfill their passions and callings. These same illnesses often are isolating, cutting off persons who struggle with them from their communities and friends, making them unable to reach or or take initiative. It is incredibly painful to live with a longing for relationship and the living out of calling and to be trapped in a body that prevents it.

Fortunately we have the clear perspective of history. We, who are Jesus disciples now, are called to restore or maintain the ill person’s role in community. Unlike the crowds and the families of lepers and diseased persons in Jesus' milieu, we can see the value in friend and stranger whose illness can be a dividing wall. We are not able to perform miracles, but we can offer the gift of time and presence. We can offer the intentionality of looking through the eyes of Christ instead of the eyes of the crowd.

Chalking the Doors

This past Sunday, in addition to being New Year's Day, was the Sunday that we celebrated Epiphany. There were few children present, but with those who were, we blessed the church at 3120 NE 125th St in a new-to-me tradition using chalk colored chalk and the initials of the wise men who visited Jesus two millenia ago.

Now, the wise visitors may have been three - or fewer or more - we know they brought three gifts. They may have been advisers to kings, although they were almost certainly not kings themselves, in spite of what songs and stories say. We do not know their names, but tradition has dubbed them Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. They were philosophers, students of scripture, history and culture, who saw a star, read old prophesies and made a connection.

They did, as the song says, 'traverse afar' and they were strangers in a strange land when they were received into the home of Mary and Joseph and Jesus. When we chalk their initials onto our door frames, we bless our door with the prayer that we too may be gracious to visitors, that those who come may bring blessing and be blessed, that we may offer hospitality in the manner of the holy family, and that visitors to our homes may find safe harbor in their coming in and in their going out.

A variation on the prayer below is what I used in worship and what i send home on cards with the children and others from the congregation who wanted to chalk their own doors. You can be certain that it is a wonderful novelty for kids and adults alike to be given permission to write on the walls.

Door and Chalk Blessing:
C+B+M+2012

God of doors and homes, bless this home this year and every year.
Bless all who come and go through this door, both those who live here and those who visit.
May all who enter through this door come in peace and bring joy.
May all who come to this door find welcome and love.
May the love and joy in this home overflow and spread into the community and the world.

Advent Vignettes

Costumed children rehearse in front of a cardboard barn and lighted star. Fits of giggling interrupt the serious scene when they made mistakes or their nerves show. A patient director (the writer of the play) laughs along and their heads bend in together to hear instruction and encouragement.

'Angels' receive their tinsel halos, jostling and making faces as they wait for their turn. Later they will share their crayons as they look up at their senior friends acting out a Christmas narrative.

A banner adorned with the fourth Advent candle walks across the sanctuary carried on long poles. It will be carefully raised to join it's sisters high on the walls, surrounded by watching and guiding hands and eyes.

Fingers on a sound board test levels and prepare microphones.

Tables are erected and laden with paper, glue and scissors, beads, foil and string, cookies and frosting. A celebration of sugar and creativity will be feasted on in this space.

People come in from the chill to bright poinsettias and hot coffee. All around hugs and greetings and laughter are shared.

In that moment, the Advent of Christ was palpable. We were waiting. We were preparing. We were making ready for worship and fellowship and for God-with-us. The anticipation joy was everywhere. And now, as we anticipate the new year I pray for my beloved Seattle Mennonite family that the joy may be sustained. May the potential energy of Advent be know in fulness as we live into 2012.

Annunciation