Rev. Eugene N. Nelson, Jr.
The Community Church of Sebastopol
February 5, 2006
Mark 1: 29-39
Ernest Kasemann, the great German Biblical scholar, told a story about a Dutch pastor’s dilemma during the great floods which struck the Netherlands in 1952. Unless a dyke protecting the pastor’s village was strengthened, the entire village would be flooded. The work had to be done immediately. But immediately meant the work would have to be done that day…Sunday. The pastor’s congregation observed Sunday in the strict no-work-of-any-kind Sabbath tradition. As he pleaded with his church council to encourage church members to set aside their tradition and work on the dyke, he reminded the council members that even Jesus had worked on the Sabbath, had in fact taught that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. A venerable, long-time member of the church rose to speak. “I have always been troubled, pastor, by something I have never yet ventured to say publicly. Now I must say it. I have always had the feeling that our Lord was just a bit of a radical.” But isn’t that always the way it is with Jesus? He just doesn’t seem to want to conform to our expectations or agendas. Just when we think we have him boxed in, pinned down, figured out, he’s gone. Always he is the elusive one.
Our text today comes from the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. And already, it seems, he has made it big, hit the big time. Time to build a new sanctuary, start a second service. His fame as a healer and teacher is spreading everywhere. Mark doesn’t hold back. After Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law, Mark tells us that by evening, “They brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door.” The whole city! And this is without benefit of television news, newspapers, or even Oprah! A little Markan hyperbole? Perhaps. But his point is clear. The Jesus phenomenon was big and getting bigger.
But what does Jesus do? He walks away from it. His is the biggest show in town and he walks away. He had to be a publicist’s worst nightmare. Didn’t he ever read the polls? Every Rotary Club in town wants him to speak, Channel 50 wants an interview, and he walks away. “In the morning, while it was still dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He 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.’” The elusive one. Jesus is not going to follow the path of easy popularity. He is not going to be lured off target by the glamour of success. Just when you think you have him figured out, he’s gone.
A colleague shares this story: “A number of years ago, I was waiting in the St. Louis airport for a flight which was now hours late. It was coming from Miami. It got to be 1:00 in the morning and I was about the only person in the gate area. About 1:30, a large group of people began to gather and it became abundantly clear that it was a church group. I soon learned that they were waiting for a group from their church to return from a mission trip to Central America (at that time you could still wait at the gate.) When the plane landed and their friends and church members got off, they had an impromptu worship service right there. I was impressed. The pastor had made the trip with the group and it apparently was the latest of several annual trips that had occurred. He said it was the most successful trip they had ever taken in all the previous years they had gone to this little village in Central America to preach and save souls. This time they went to build a school. While they were building the school, more people asked about their faith than when they were just proclaiming the gospel. I thought the Holy Spirit had blessed them with understanding.”
For years they had talked about their faith. On this trip, building that school, they lived out their faith, embodied their faith, for all to see. On this trip they made a connection between what they said and did. And people noticed…and wanted to know more about them and their faith. That, I believe, is the point Jesus is trying to make with his disciples. He had a good gig going there in Capernaum, and could probably have kept it going for quite a while. But he knew he was called to something more. He couldn’t stay there. He couldn’t just go through the motions, take the easy way out. Faith, for Jesus, was about being something which would then lead to doing something. It was all about being called to embody in his life and teachings a higher way; not just to talk about it or do it, but to be it.
For me it is a powerful and challenging image – Jesus taking the road out of Capernaum…walking away from worldly success – the numbers, the fame, the acclaim – and choosing instead another way, the way of service and sacrifice and compassion, of reconciliation and peace and prayer, a way that might even lead to a cross. All the worldly measures of success, which remain so important to us, have no power over him. He doesn’t need it. His status doesn’t depend on it. And because of that he is free. The whole town is there. Who knows, maybe they would have built him his own church. But he walks away. That is one reason I keep coming back to Jesus, why he has such a hold on my heart. I want to be able to do that, to be that unattached to the things and ways of the world, to be that focused on God and God’s will for me, to walk where Jesus walked.
It is hard to do. I once heard a fiery Walter Brueggemann tell a bunch of us preachers that our ministry and preaching should be an antidote to the “American cultural death wish.” He insisted we needed to lead our people, and ourselves, out of our enthrallment with consumerism and militarism and lift up, indeed impel, an alternative direction. But it’s hard to do. This preacher is well-kept. I have a mortgage. At age 57, I have a pension to protect. I just got a new fly rod for Christmas. How do I summon people into a new world when I am so tied to the old one? We really have to look to Jesus.
Once upon a time a weary traveler was wandering down a dark and scary road. Suddenly there appeared before him a bright and marvelous castle with a welcome sign over the entrance. Knowing he had reached rest and safety at last, he felt glad. But as he approached the open gate, he saw a strange sight. Other lost travelers were walking right past the castle, as if it wasn’t there. He asked a castle resident about this strange behavior and received this reply: “This is a magic castle. It can only be seen by those who realize and admit they have lost their way. The castle can’t appear to people who pretend to know where they are going, who demand their own way.”
What castles might we see, what magic might appear, if we begin to let go of the world’s agenda and let Christ lead the way? In the words of United Methodist bishop, William Willimon, “We cannot read Jesus’ mind. But we can see Jesus in the work he does among us. Sometimes it is in bringing healing of various sorts. Sometimes it is preaching words of promise or challenge. Sometimes it is placing people in our pathways whom we can serve, just as Simon’s mother-in-law served Jesus. Sometimes it might even be casting demons out in Jesus’ name…We must train our eyes…keep on the lookout for the ways that Jesus is revealed among us in our homes, churches and communities. But we cannot capture him, we cannot pin him down. He has a broader agenda than we will ever see. He will do among us that which is best for us and for the kingdom of heaven. If that doesn’t go the way we want, then maybe our desires need to be realigned with the ways that Jesus chooses to be revealed among us.”
“When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on…’” Not pinned down, not held captive by the world’s expectations, the world’s values. Can you see it? Can you hear it? Even at the beginning of the Gospel, already he is calling us to something new and different – not something to be talked about, not even something to be believed, but something to be lived. It’s quite a story he has invited us into. As far as I know, he is still waiting to see how it ends.