Present with us. February 7, 2021. The Rev. Kathleen M. Sturges

 

Mark 1:29-39, Isaiah 40:21-31

Then the fever left her and she began to serve them. That part of the story of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law always used to bother me. “The poor woman,” I recall thinking, “she’s just gotten out of bed and right away she’s put to work waiting on a bunch of men who dropped by unexpectedly. Can’t she get a break?” But now in this age of fever, where temperatures are routinely monitored and many of us have at least known someone who has dealt with a fever in the last year, I hear this story differently. I’ve been reminded of how debilitating and worrisome it is to run a temperature. And nothing wears a person out like a fever. Laid up in bed with even the smallest task becoming a huge burden. The one who is sick often would give anything just to have some energy. And even after a fever is gone it can still take days, sometimes weeks, to fully recover.

 So with that in mind, instead of chafing at this account of Peter’s mother-in-law getting out of her sickbed and going straight to work, I now embrace it as remarkable. In this healing account Jesus not only cures the woman’s fever but at the same time takes away her weariness. Her strength is renewed to serve and to love.  

 But fever is not the only cause of such weariness. We are all suffering, to some degree, of pandemic fatigue and tiredness. The toll of the complete disruption of our lives for 11 months now and counting is hard to measure. Then add to that the ordinary struggles and stresses of life and it really adds up.

 It is in the middle of such weariness that people of faith ask questions of God. Perhaps the most difficult question we ask God is not, “Why?” but “Where?” as in “Where are you God?” Because when we ask “Where are you?” we are voicing that we don’t have a sense of God being with us which is a very hard place to be.

 And that is the place where the Jewish people are in our reading from the prophet Isaiah. For them it’s been not one year or two years of disruption, but seventy years. Seventy years spent in exile in the foreign land Babylon dreaming about life getting back to normal - life back in the promised land. And now, after all those wearying years they are beyond excited to return home. But when they arrive their hopes are dashed. The land is in ruins. The holy city, Jerusalem with its great temple, is just a pile of rocks. If there was ever an image of God’s absence, God leaving the building, it was that.

 “Where are you God?” the people cry. “Do you care?” “Do you have power?” and “If you care and have power, why aren’t you showing it?” These are the questions that the Jewish people and people of faith throughout the ages ask when they are weary.

 To which the prophet Isaiah answers. First, by reminding us all of the big picture. That our God is the creator of all things and way above and beyond our understanding. God is the One who does not faint nor grow weary. Yet our God does not stay up on high, removed and apart from creation. Rather he is present with us and is the source of all that we need. For those who wait for the Lord, says Isaiah, 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. 

 That is God’s desire for us. Whenever we are tired or weary our God seeks to lift us up and renew our strength. Just like Jesus did for Peter’s mother-in-law. Even Jesus himself sought this replenishment as he went out early the next morning to a deserted place to pray. He literally stepped away from the pressing needs and demands of life in order to connect with God. And in doing so his energy was renewed so that he might continue on to the next town proclaiming the good news to others.

 The good news that we hear today. The good news that God is indeed with us in this age of fever, this time of disruption. God is seeking to lift us up from our wearied state. Promising to renew our strength. But in order for that to happen we must be willing, in the words of Isaiah, to wait for the Lord. How do we do that? We do that by making ourselves open and available to the power of the Spirit. By pausing in some way during the day - whether that’s through traditional prayer or taking a mindful walk or just remembering to breathe - in order to be fully present in the moment. Because that’s the answer to the question, “Where are you God?” The present moment is the place where we will always find God and the refreshment which we seek so that we too may be lifted up with renewed strength to serve and to love.