The Power of Hand Holding, Mountain View United, Aurora, CO,2/5/2012 by Rev Steven R Mitchell

This is my first Sunday as Settled Pastor for Mountain View United Church in Aurora, CO. It has been a fun first week with much activity in my office, with a hug snow on Fri! 20" at my aunts house in Littleton, CO where I am staying until we get the furniture here at the first of March. Please pray for Paul and I that we find a house to purchase before the furniture arrives! Peace, Steven

The Power of Hand Holding
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Based on Mark 1:29-39 and 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 2/5/2012

I wish to apologize in advance for the message that I am about to deliver. Since I don’t know you very well yet, I don’t know how much of what I’m going to say as background is going to be “old hat” and potentially boring to you. This of course will change as we become better acquainted.
In this morning’s Gospel we read that Jesus, upon entering Simon’s home, finds Simon’s mother-in-law very ill and when he took her hand, and lifted her up, she immediately became well. This story on the surface seems to be pretty straight forward telling us about another healing that happens when Jesus touches someone and how the word gets out and people from all around come wanting Jesus to heal them, which after all this takes place, Jesus decides to move on to other towns to do more of the same.
A large part of our task as modern readers of the scriptures is to try and step away of our twenty-first mindset and read these passages with the eyes of the first century reader, to hear with the ears of the first generation of listeners; only when we can strip away what we see as “normal”, as “everyday” occurrences, such as reading about Jesus’ activities within the Synagogue and the activities outside of the Synagogue, or about the women that Jesus encounters, will we realize that something new and shocking is taking place. Only then will we start to understand the subtleties of the stories.
Some of this morning’s reading in Mark is setting the stage for the conflict that Jesus finds throughout his ministry. In this passage, we are introduced to Simon’s mother-in-law, the first of many women that Jesus will be encountering. You might say, “Okay, so he heals many women throughout the Gospel. What would make this healing unusual?” Beyond the fact that this is the first woman mentioned in Marks writings, the real news comes in her response as she encounters this prophet, Jesus.
Mark tells us that upon her fever breaking, she immediately “began to serve them.” Now if we read this through the eyes of patriarchal theology, we will conclude that she fixed them all dinner! Yet the Gospels are stories about change, stories about how people change after they encounter Jesus. Theologian Ched Myers in his book, “Say to This Mountain”, makes this important observation: The Greek verb “to serve” (from which we get our word “deacon”) appears only two other times in Mark. One is found in chapter 10:45 –“Jesus came not to be served but to serve”, and the other comes at the end of the story, where Mark describes women “who, when Jesus was in Galilee, followed him, and served him, and…came up to Jerusalem with him” (15:41). This is a summary statement of discipleship: from beginning (in Galilee) to end (at Jerusalem) these women were true followers who, unlike the men practiced servant hood. In other words, both at the outset and at the conclusion of Mark’s gospel, women, in a society which devalued them, are identified as the true disciples. In this “minor” healing, Mark is serving notice that patriarchal theology and the devaluation of women will be overturned!” pg 15,” Say to This Mountain” by Ched Meyers
A second important subtlety that I see comes in the different reactions of those people in the Synagogue, who observed Jesus healing the possessed man in the story just prior to the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law by Jesus in the home of Simon. Worshipping in the Synagogue, implies that the Sabbath laws are to be observed, which basically means for Jesus, no healing of anyone, as that was “work”. Scripture says that people were “incredulous” about Jesus casting out the demon from the man who was interrupting worship.
There seems to be an opposite reaction toward Jesus’ healing of Simon’s mother-in-law, still during the Sabbath time, for people seem to clamor at the door of Simon’s house. So what might be the difference? Are there certain things that one is allowed to do at the temple verses what one can do outside of the Temple? I think the key is found in how Mark continuously speaks about the “crowd” which he mentions some thirty-eight times throughout his Gospel. The inference to the description of “crowd” refers to those who were “disenfranchised”. The crowds are almost always described as being outside of the temple.
So with all this exciting information that I’ve just shared with you, how does this relate to us? Most of us can not heal anyone with our touch, or can we? What I receive from this story is “where ministry” takes place, how we are to “do ministry”, and with “who” is most receptive to receiving the gospel news.
The image that comes to my mind with Jesus holding Simon’s mother-in-law is what happens when lots of people hold hands with one another (take the opportunity right now and feel the energy when we all hold hands). We see the power that comes by holding hands, the solidarity that not only gives those who are hand holding the strength to do what needs doing, but it also gives a message of strength to those who observe the hand holding. I see that ministry is most effective outside of the “Worship” setting. Most of the work that Jesus was doing was done outside of the Synagogue.
I think that the message being shared at the time of Mark was, God isn’t found just in the Temple, but also out amount the population. That is where the majority of people who feel they are not able to be in “church” are found. Many people do not come to worship, because they feel that they are “not good enough” in one form or another to be with those who call themselves followers of Christ. I would suspect, most of us are probably not good enough to be with those who “follow church”, but would much rather feel at home with those who follow Jesus.
Another lesson that I see in this morning’s story is Ministry, doesn’t just come through the spoken word. Ministry comes by doing, by touching, so to speak. Missionaries finally got the message that they were most effective in being able to share the “good news” about Jesus, once they stopped preaching and trying to change people to become “European” and started living with those they were ministering to. To be of service, to serve those in need, by building hospitals, schools, helping dig water wells, helping in agricultural needs, by working alongside instead of insisting that God is found inside church walls. Urban residence are more receptive when they learn job skills that will help them become employable, when they are seen not as those disenfranchised and not worthy, but as equal participants in God’s creation.
How do we do this? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that he became all things to all peoples, so that he might be able to share Jesus’ message of the gospel. To the Jew, Paul was a Jew, to the weak, he became weak, to the Gentiles, he became like a Gentile. We as disciples of Christ, then should always be open to doing things, no matter how unorthodox it may be to our background, so that we might win the honor of being servants to those who either have been hurt by those who call themselves followers of Jesus or who have never experienced Gods love and acceptance in their lives. For no matter who you are or where you are in life’s journey, you are welcomed into God’s grace, love, and mercy. Amen