Have you ever noticed how often Jesus appears on the covers of Time and Newsweek? Statistics have shown that when Jesus appears on the cover, there is a spike in the magazines' sales. Considering the cultural conversation these days, Jesus is still a very popular person. If we can find him in a taco, a cheese puff and a potato chip, people must be looking pretty hard to find him.
Why look for Jesus in a rock slide, tree trunk or building reflection? Perhaps we are looking for the same miracles that all those who brought their sick and demon-possessed families and friends to the home of Simon Peter's mother-in-law. The word of Christ's whereabouts and the miracle he performed for the woman must have spread like wildfire through the countryside because within a matter of hours, Mark tells us, “That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door” (v 32).
The townspeople were smart to seek the Son of God, for Jesus came out from behind the door, and then and there “cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons” (v34a). The people kept arriving all through the night; good news travels fast even without Facebook, twitter and email.
People of the 21st century are not so different from those who lived in the 1st century. Everyone needs
to heal, to get rid of the demons that have taken up residence in our bodies and minds, hearts and souls. How desperate we are to find him, for many marvel at the miracle of his face on the facade of a building, a tree root or a brain scan. Such things make the news, sell magazines and gets the world wondering. How is it that we can see his face on the inside of an orange but not acknowledge his sacrificial love bleeding out on a tree? Why is it that we will be healed by Jesus of the deadliest disease of all, sin, and yet not respond to this unmerited gift of being saved from death as Peter's mother-in-law did by getting up at once and serving him? Serving Jesus means to follow him not only during the times we are confident and secure but most especially in the dark nights of faith, terrifying times of wandering in spiritual wildernesses, and across the many battlefields in life.
In December 1944, the US Army and its Allies were on the offensive. For six months they had rolled on with relentless precision across Western Europe. There seemed to be no stopping them. But suddenly one day in that December, a major portion of the mighty Allied juggernaut ground to a halt. A brilliant counter offensive had been launched by the Germans.
A few days before the Allied operation, German soldiers dressed in American uniforms, together with American jeeps, were parachuted behind American lines. They carried no weapons; their only mission was to discover the roads over which reinforcing Allied armies might travel and change all the signs which pointed to strategic towns and villages. And this simple task of turning signposts to give wrong directions had deadly consequences.
When the Allies called for help as the Germans attacked during in the Battle of the Bulge, many of the reinforcements never arrived. You see, whole battalions were lost trying to find their way across a countryside where the signposts were either down or turned in the wrong direction.
We live in a time when many of the important signposts have been torn down or turned around—moral signposts, ethical signposts, theological signposts. It is no wonder that we lose our way in life; it is no surprise that many believe they are following Christ onto the serving fields, yet find themselves lost and defenseless on the battlefields because they thought they saw his image on a slice of toast, a dried and brittle leaf, a cookie. Some elements of our daily lives have caused us to go in wrong directions. We are so easily fooled, so inexplicably lost, so utterly confused.
Jesus has told us where to find him. He is with the sick, the hungry, the oppressed; the frightened, the lonely, the lost. No image can cure ailments give strength or protect from harm—even if you cut a hole in the door and carry that image with you wherever you go. Only the saving Lord, the one real healer and the granter of amazing grace will do. Imagery in water stains and rock slides can never bring and be Christ to the sick and sorrowing, the hurt and the hungering, the frightened and the thirsty; no, that ministry belongs to those of us who keep our eyes on him, follow him in the direction he leads, serve those along the way who desperately need to personal touch of God.
Yesterday, as I was beginning to write this sermon, I was called to the hospital, to ICU, where a gravely ill woman and her family had just been through a horrendous night. I did not know them; I may never see them again, for the patient was going to be transported to a hospital in Boston to save her life.
As I leaned over the bed to let her know a chaplain was with her now, I looked into her frightened eyes. I held her hand and her grip on mine let me know that she would not let go. She was intubated and could not speak with her voice, but she said volumes to me with her eyes.
A chaplain goes into a hospital ICU with clear and certain purpose during a most uncertain time: to bring the presence of God, the power of prayer and the gift of strong faith to the person in the bed and those gathered around it.
The one thing I was most aware of at that particular time, yesterday, was that I was a vessel for the presence of Christ to flow through. We are not the Christ, yet the Christ can be seen and felt in us, through us, around us. I needed and wanted to be the living image of Christ for this woman in that hour. In other words, I turned myself over to Jesus, so that it was he in my eyes looking into her eyes. It was his hand with my hand holding onto her hand.
If 41% of pollsters can see Christ's image in a piece of wood, then it seems pretty clear to me that they are desperate to see him; so desirous are they that they settle for an inanimate image. How unsettling this knowledge should be for those who serve the Lord. If everyone is looking for Jesus, then the way for him to be found is embodied in the living flesh and blood of those who follow him to serve him.
When Peter went out early that morning to hunt for the missing Jesus, he went out because he was nervous about the crowds gathered around his mother-in-law's house. Peter was very anxious about the innumerable needs of the people, and he was fearful of what they might do if they learned that the healer they sought was not available to them. Simon found Jesus in prayer, and he was a bit impertinent with the Lord. “Everyone is searching for you” (v 37). If only Peter had understood that Christ could comfort and heal through him, perhaps he would have avoided his anxious fever and done as his mother-in-law had done, that is, to rise up and begin to serve the Lord's people himself.
Christ is the Lord, someone we can follow all of our days. There is much to be done, and the path is not always level and smooth. There will be rough places to travel; mountains to climb and battlefields to cross for the sake of the one who poured out his life on the cross and then rose from the dead. Christ is Lord and invites us to his table today, that we may eat and drink of his passion, filled with his spirit to serve all those who are in need of a Savior. When we come to this table of the Lord, let us eat his body and drink his life's blood, that he may love and heal, forgive and uplift all who are looking for the direction, power and strength that only the Son of God can give. Be the eyes, be the hands, , be the very image of Christ alive in this world. Amen.
February 5, 2012
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
