Do you ever feel like Simon’s mother-in-law? IN BED WITH A FEVER?
If you had a son-in-law like Simon, you might. [my best Brooklyn Jewish accent] “Look at him,” the Jewish mama might say, “running around with his buddies. He's meshuggina (crazy)! Oh, now you’re a fisherman?! They're taking advantage of you! What about my daughter? Oh, now you’re off and following this man Jesus? He's no good, I tell you!”
Maybe she got so worked up, worrying and fretting and caring that she reaches the point of life threatening illness, and finds herself in bed with a fever!
It’s kind of funny to pin anxiety on the beloved Jewish mamas of our culture, but the truth is that we all harbor that kind on worry and fret at some level. And often when we start worrying like that, we get very suspicious of others. [Jewish mama] “Your employers are crooked Simon! This Jesus who you’re following is no good!”
How we all, like Simon’s mother-in-law, in a state feverish worry can start cutting others down, can sever trust, heighten suspicion and spread gossip….
I’m not sure how many of you knew this but I’m the dean of our Eastern conference of churches here in San Diego. This means that I co-chair our clergy gatherings with the dean of the west SD conference. And once a year we go away on a short 1-night retreat with the other half-dozen deans. That retreat was on Thursday night and Friday up in Temecula.
And there we meet with Bishop Finck, and always at the end of this retreat, our bishop invites his staff to leave the room, and he opens himself up for honest feedback. “How’s it going, really?” he asked us on Friday. “This is an important time for you to share with me…”
And in that time as we tossed out our feedback – mostly critical, I’m afraid – I realized how suspicious we get of one another especially when we’re in anxious times and when we feel disconnected. How we can be like I’m envisioning Simon’s mother-in-law. As if the Bishop and the folks at our national ELCA offices in Chicago are somehow devious or spiteful or selfish. It’s so easy to go there, to get all worked up, like a Jewish mama: pastors expressing their suspicion of the bishop and his staff, synod staff talking about pastors, pastors talking about their congregations (not me of course J), congregational members talking about their pastors (not you of course J).
And that’s just in the church! In anxious, lean times such as these, how easy it is to break one another down with rumors and attacks both in front and behind one another’s backs.
And it seems exactly the opposite of what we need the Spirit’s help to do in difficult times: Everyone is hurting at some level, and probably acting out of that brokenness. Everyone is grieving a loss at some level – we can’t fully understand the depth of our sister and brother’s pain, but we can try by listening. By seeking to understand. By asking. By holding one another in our feverish concerns. By praying for one another even when we’re geographically separated. By building one another up, rather than cutting one another down. That takes faith in God, which is offered to us again today.
And that’s just in church life! How this “ministry of mutual building-up” could be multiplied and shared and spread in the world! Rather than fevers becoming viral, patience and compassion goes viral! Could you imagine?
Jesus reaches down to us, sisters and brothers in Christ! Down to you in bed with a fever of frenzy, with a fever of anxiety, with a fever of worry, with a fever of busyness, with a fever of pain, with a fever of sorrow, with a fever of fear, with a fever of anger – Jesus reaches down to you, takes you by the hand and pulls you out of that funk.
Last week I said that in Mark, every healing, every casting out of demons, is a cosmic clash of Christ’s love and light conquering evil. It’s true here too. The powers of fear and suspicion of our neighbors, the anxiety and frenzy of this daily life can render us bed-ridden. I heard someone say this week that he thinks a most of our hospitalizations today are really caused by something greater than just nuts-and-bolts biology.
There’s a sickness of the soul that’s got us all feverish.
But Jesus arrives, this day, reaches out, takes us by the hand and pulls us into health. So that our spirits may rise and our bodies may serve.
The scripture says that when Simon’s mother in law is healed, she immediately begins serving them…which makes it sound a little self-serving on Jesus’ part, like “we’re hungry, so maybe if I heal Simon’s Jewish mama, we could get some food around here.” But I’d encourage you to think of it more in terms of the suspicions dissolving after we’re healed and be begin by serving one other….not cutting one another down.
The disciples and even Jesus, who Simon’s mother-in-law cut down before, are now her partners in ministry. This healing is restorative community. This healing casts out our suspicion of one another, even our hatred, so that we might join hands and serve, starting with serving each other.
And then who knows where God will lead us next... AMEN.
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