Mark 1:29-39
A
parishioner gave me a wonderful gift this week. She had written a spiritual
autobiography to give her grandchildren, recounting the moments in her life
when she has most experienced the love and power of God at work. And she came
to my office and shared it with me. And I was quite moved by it. Over the
years, God has blessed her in many ways, and I was especially struck by how
often the Spirit shone through during the dark periods of her life: times of
financial need, emotional distress, spiritual dryness, and loss. What a gift to
be able to look back over your life and see all the ways God’s love has
enfolded you and upheld you. But what especially touched me was that she wrote
it down so that her grandchildren would know, and she came to share it with me
so that I would know. And as I listened to her, the words of the prophet
Isaiah, words which we just heard this morning, kept echoing in my mind: Have you not known? Have you not heard? The
LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not
faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the
faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and grow weary,
and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the LORD shall renew
their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and
not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? By definition, love wants to be known and seeks
to be heard. If I say to a friend, “Hey, man, I really love you,” and he
replies, “I would never have known it,” that’s a bad sign. We believe and
affirm that God is love, and so God is. But that means it is the very nature of
God to communicate that love to us in words and in actions. If we are not getting
that message, something is awry. The whole Bible is essentially the story of
God’s love affair with humanity. There are some rocky moments, but it always
comes back to this: Have you not known?
Have you not heard? God will strengthen you and God will bless you and God
will raise you up because God loves you. We can feel the urgency of that
message in Isaiah, and we can see it in the Gospel today. Jesus is showing love
all over the place: healing a fever, curing various diseases, casting out
demons, and proclaiming the Good News. The whole city of Capernaum is gathered
at the door of the house where he is staying, and Jesus is caring for all of
them. And there are no strings attached: he doesn’t demand they join his
movement; there is no belief statement people have to sign; he’s not handing
out pledge cards. He’s just loving them, because that’s what God does.
And
that explains why he doesn’t stay there in Capernaum. That would be a sweet
gig: people love him there, he could continue to heal and help people there,
and and it would all be good and comfortable. But like Isaiah, Jesus feels
urgent: he has come to show everyone that God loves them. That’s why he travels
from town to town, preaching and healing and showing people that love. That’s
why he commissions his followers to do the same. He’s not interested in church
membership or setting up institutional structures. He wants people to
experience God’s love, so that they can live in a new and better way, the way
God always intended them to live.
Actually,
let me rephrase that. Jesus wants us to experience God’s love, so that
we
can live in a new and better way, the way God always intended us to
live. Christ is risen: his Spirit fills the Church; his Spirit fills all of
creation. And just as he urgently proclaimed the reality of God’s love in
Galilee 2000 years ago, he continues to do so just as urgently in
Charlottesville today. The heart of God has not changed, nor has God’s fervent
desire: Have you not known? Have you not
heard?
Love
is a continuous flow of receiving and giving, and so there are two points I
feel called to emphasize to you this morning. First: don’t ask for God’s love —
assume it! Trust that you are receiving God’s love every moment. We can all
live like God actually loves us. So, for example, when we pray, we don’t need
to plead with God for help, because of course God is going to help us. We can
rather give thanks for that and open ourselves up to that. I was just talking
to a parishioner last week who is going through a difficult time, and her
prayer was having the perverse effect of making God seem distant. She kept
crying out to a God “out there,” begging for his help and feeling like God was
far away. And as she described this, I could sense the Spirit trying to say to
her, “I’m right here, in every breath you take. Trust me and let me love you.”
So she started to pray differently, thanking God for being with her and giving
her strength. She called me a few days later and said that it had made a huge
difference for her. And of course it would. Whether we are just needing
patience for the day or we’re dying from cancer, God’s love will be with us and
will sustain us. Not even death can stop that. If we can allow ourselves to
accept that, it will change the way we live. It has certainly changed the way I
live. So that’s the first point I want you to remember: assume you are
receiving God’s love every moment, because you are — and live accordingly.
But
God’s love not only flows into us — it flows through us. We don’t just receive it: we give it away. So here is
the second point I want you to remember: assume that God’s love will flow
through you to bless others. So urgent was Jesus to convey the Good News that
not only did he go from town to town, he formed a community to carry on that same
work. I shared with the Vestry a saying I think is true: the Church does not
have a mission from God; the God of mission has a church. God is love and God
is always seeking to convey that love through us. Doesn’t matter how flawed and
imperfect we are: God will gladly use us anyway. Every act of kindness we
offer, every word of witness we speak, can help someone else experience God’s
love, both here on Sunday mornings and out in the world the rest of the week. I
received a beautiful card at Christmas from someone telling me how this church
has made him feel so welcomed and so loved. And I regularly hear similar
sentiments from newcomers. That’s awesome, but it’s not because we’re so good —
it’s because God is so good and so loving and so intent on reaching every human
being, even through us. Assume that. Live that.
And
know God’s purpose is clear. The kingdom will come in all its fullness when in
response to those questions, Have you not
known? Have you not heard?, the whole creation shouts as one, “Yes! I have
known! I have heard!”
So
be it. Amen.
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