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SERMONS

The Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany
February 23, 2003

Mabel was sick. She was old and her health had been failing for some time. She was in the hospital, too weak to walk and in constant pain. The doctors gave her little comfort. There was nothing really that they could do. The future they laid out to her was one of continuing and increasing pain and debility. Things looked bleak.

Her priest came by for a visit. They talked about what was going on at the church. They talked about her family. They talked about the weather. The priest worked very hard to keep the conversation away from her health. He was trying to take her mind off her problems.

Finally he stood up to leave. "Would you like to have a prayer?" he asked.

"Yes," she said. "Pray for me to be healed."

The priest cringed inwardly. He knew what was going on. He knew there was nothing anyone could do. He didn't want to stir up any false hope. So he did his best.

"Oh God," he prayed, "you see your servant Mabel lying here in great distress. You know better than we the severity of her problems. You know that there is nothing that can be done for them. If it is your will, bring her back to health. If that is not possible, then give her the strength to acknowledge the reality of her situation. Help her to accept the fact that she will not get better and give her courage to face the difficult days ahead. Amen."

As he started to say good-bye, Mabel interrupted him. "You know, I think I'm beginning to feel better," she said. "Yes, I'm definitely feeling better. My legs feel stronger too."

Before he could stop her she pulled her covers back and stood up by the side of her bed. Slowly she straightened up. Then she looked at him with a smile, and marched out into the hall and down to the nurses' station, declaring that she was well and ready to go home.

The priest stood motionless in the room, stunned by what had happened. Then he slowly raised his head up and looked toward heaven. "God, "he said, "don't you ever do anything like that to me again."

In today's gospel, Jesus is at home. Already his reputation is beginning to spread, so much that his house is crowded with people who have come to hear him teach. Four men, who have heard stories of Jesus' healing power, bring their paralyzed friend to him hoping that he can help.

Because of the crowd they can't get in to him. But these are determined men. They climb up onto the roof, and they hoist their friend up with them. Then they cut a hole in the roof and lower the man down into the middle of the room, right in front of Jesus.

Jesus is impressed with their faith and says to the man, "Your sins are forgiven."

The scribes don't like that. "This man can't forgive sins," they mutter.

Jesus looks at them and shakes his head. "You think that's hard? Watch this. You there, stand up, take your mat, and go on home." And that's just what the man does.

Mark tells us that all there are amazed and declare, "We've never seen anything like this." When is the last time you were amazed by anything?

When is the last time you were really surprised by something?

We are educated people. We are smart. We are skeptical, suspicious, not about to be taken in by some simple little trick. We examine everything. We understand the mechanisms of health and disease. We ask why, we ask how, we want to know the prognosis. We don't want to look foolish. We don't want to be surprised. We are like Mabel's priest, uncomfortable about praying for healing and so asking for something less.

In doing this we might be selling ourselves short; and we might be selling God short. For scripture teaches that our God is a God of surprises. Through Isaiah God says, "I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? … I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert." And he might have added: old women and virgins bear children, the lame walk, the blind see, the last become first, latecomers receive a full day's pay, pearls are found in fields, the dead are raised.

Consider the paralytic man's friends. They might serve as examples for us of what it means to live by faith, to trust in God's ability to surprise. They trust enough to drag their friend out to meet Jesus, believing that Jesus can do good things for him. But they get there too late, the house is full, there is no way to get through the crowd.

They might have given up and gone back home. But trusting in God's ability to do new things, they try new things themselves.

And so we are treated with the wonderful and surprising scene of this room filled with people suddenly interrupted by knocking and banging from above, covered by dust falling down upon them as a hole appears in the ceiling, and being forced to squeeze against the walls to get out of the way of a man descending from the sky on a mat. Mabel would have understood, but what would her priest have thought about it?

If God is who Jesus says he is… If God acts as Jesus acts… Then God is constantly at work-in hidden and mysterious and surprising ways-to bring about healing and growth and new life. Trust in it, pray for it, look for it. And prepare to be amazed.

You haven't seen anything yet.

David Christian
The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi

Isaiah 43:18-25
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12