Today’s gospel reading shows us three aspects of the Christian life: 1) To what we are called to be and do for the world, 2) how we sustain our ministry and recharge ourselves, and lastly 3) to which direction we are headed. In other words, I would like us to reflect on mission, sustainability, and direction. (Healing/restoration/reconciliation, prayer, and on the go)
1) Having a relationship with Jesus heals other relationships. Healing one receives from one’s encounter with Jesus extends to others. It is contagious. We often see some cultic groups separating their members from families and friends. With Jesus, this really isn’t so in the case of Simon Peter. Through Peter’s relationship with Jesus, his mother-in-law encounters Jesus. Her experience of Jesus manifests in a form of healing in which her fever is “rebuked” by Jesus and is gone. Jesus takes her by the hand and lifts her up. This image of Jesus’ taking her by the hand and lifting her up is exactly what he does to all those who know they’re not well. He takes them by the hand and lifts them up. This image of Jesus’ taking by the hand and lifting up also appears when Simon Peter drowns in the sea. He walks on the water as he sees Jesus. As soon as fear and doubt enter his mind, he drowns. Jesus reaches out his hand and lifts him up. (Matthew 14.22-33) Jesus’ salvific act of taking by the hand and lifting up those fallen doesn’t affect everyone though it is always available to all. Only those who recognize and admit their state and condition of illness, misery, or sin can see Jesus’ hand reaching out to them and lifting them up. Only sinners are forgiven and saved. As Jesus often says, only the sick need a physician. Christian anthropology then begins with human misery and suffering. If we can save ourselves or set ourselves free from whatever enslaves us on our own, we don’t need a savior. The Christian faith first acknowledges the sinful condition we are somehow trapped in. St. Augustine terms this as Original Sin. It is socially transmitted. Babies are innocent yet their surrounding isn’t. They are exposed to sinful environments as soon as they’re born. In this sense, infant baptism is more likely to be perceived as the divine protection that shields a baby from all evil things in the world. Jesus’ healing leads to service. Peter’s mother-in-law, once she is healed, serves Jesus and others. This is not something we should treat lightly since all Christians are involved in the ministry of healing. Healing is not simply limited to a physical sense. It involves forgiveness and reconciliation of our entire being. There’s a reconciliation and restoration between what’s broken and what’s to be mended. The Prayer Book answers to the question, “What is the mission of the Church?“ that “The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” (BCP p. 855) For us to do this ministry of healing, restoration, and reconciliation, we ourselves must carry with us this experience of healing. When was the last time you felt that Jesus heals you, loves you, and embraces you as who you are? When was the last time you reflected on the healing and restoration of Jesus in our lives? This, of course, is an ongoing daily practice to remind ourselves we are constantly being healed. There may be some restraining forces to our joining of Christ’s healing work. We might think we should get ourselves together and sort everything out neat and clean as if we have no troubles in our relationships with others. I assure you that even if we’re not in good terms with every single person we have met in our lives, we can still hold on to the hope of reconciliation and healing for ourselves and others. This openness to the future that the Holy Spirit creates for our not-yet-reconciled relationships is in and of itself very healing. This personal experience of healing leads to service. It’s almost a natural outcome for those who are healed to feel the urge and nudge to serve others. This ministry of healing, restoration, and reconciliation is what all Christians are called to do, not alone but as one Body of Christ. Our spiritual agenda for the world is on how we can restore, rejuvenate, reconcile, and heal rather than how we can extinguish, waste, divide, and hurt. How we do this work of Christ’s reconciliation is to join those who are suffering, sit with them, and listen to their stories. We’re healed to heal. We’re restored to restore. We’re reconciled to reconcile. 2) Then, how do we sustain this ministry of healing? How do we continue to join this mending work of Jesus? St. Mark says in today’s gospel reading, “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” (v. 35) Prayer is what sustains Jesus to keep joining the mission of God. He chooses to get up early in the morning when it is still very dark. And he goes out to a deserted place. He seeks out for a time and place where he can focus on God. I wonder what he’s actually praying about. What issues would he bring to God? Jesuit priest and our modern day mystic, Henri Nouwen provides us with what Jesus would possibly pray about that early in the morning at a deserted place. It’s a bit lengthy, but please bear with me. There’s nothing I want to add onto his words on prayer! "As long as issues dominate our lives, whether they are Third World issues, hunger issues, nuclear issues, or women's issues, we cannot pray. Prayer is not directed to issues; it is not meant to unravel complexities or solve problems. Prayer is directed to a personal God who loves us and hears us: it is a cry from heart to heart, from spirit to spirit. Issues easily imprison; a person can set free. Issues easily divide us; a person can unite. Issues easily exhaust; a person can give rest. Issues can easily destroy; a person can offer new life. Despair is caused by orientation toward issues, but hope emerges when we direct ourselves with heart and mind to the person of a saving God. That is prayer. Jesus leaves little doubt about the meaning of prayer when he says: 'Apart from me you can do nothing; those who dwell in me as I dwell in them, bear much fruit' (John 15:5) Dwelling in Jesus is what prayer is all about." (Henri Nouwen, Maryknoll magazine, April, 1985, p. 19) Dwelling in the presence of God is Jesus’ prayer. Our prayer is then to dwell in Jesus who dwells in God. This prayer life restores, recharges, and recharges us to continue to join in Christ’s work of healing in the world. And communally, we gather around the Table of Jesus to pray not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the world. Sunday becomes the early morning and this place of gathering in this sanctuary becomes the desert place. Every Sunday, we are in prayers with Jesus at his Table where we are fed, nourished, recharged, and restored. 3) Always on the go: After the news of Jesus healing the sick and casting demons out, Jesus becomes the most wanted person in town. He can very well settle in and enjoy fame, honor, and respect. Nevertheless, he moves on, saying, “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.” He’s on the go. He never stays in one place. He crosses over all the boundaries to proclaim the good news, to heal, restore, and reconcile. This is what our diocese is working on. Bishop Beckwith continues to urge us to bring a tent to camp in our neighborhoods. Joining God’s mission of healing and restoring the broken hearts of people through God’s sustaining power from prayers to God, we don’t settle in our church building. We move out to the world. We’re not to stay and settle somewhere out of fear and anxiety, seeking comfort and security. We’re to cross the Red Sea. We’re to cross the Jordan River. St. Agnes’ has been crossing over and over again every other Saturday at the Food Pantry. Now, I encourage you to seek where in the river of Food Pantry, you’re to cross over. Get to know them personally. Listen to their stories. Share your stories, person to person. I was deeply touched by Michelle’s story at our diocesan convention table where we sat together. She shared the story of her cat and the food she had left behind. That food of Michelle’s love for her cat was not wasted but handed over to someone at Food Pantry. We’re healed first. And we’re healed again as we join Christ’s healing work of others. We’re restored and nourished at his Table with his Body and Blood. We then again go out and join wherever he is. This is what we see in today’s gospel reading. And this is what we as church, particularly here at St. Agnes’ are called to be and do. This is what Jesus is telling us today. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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