A sermon for Annual Meeting Sunday at the Church of the Epiphany. Mark 1:29-39

What is this story about? It might depend upon who you ask.

For Simon Peter, it is a story about the first days of his time with Jesus; that time when they went to the synagogue together, and he witnessed firsthand the way in which Jesus commanded the unclean spirits and banished them, confirming for Simon his decision to leave his nets and follow this man, the Messiah. Simon invited him to his house for dinner after the service, and Jesus accepted. Things had not been altogether well at home; Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever; no one knew if she would ever leave it again. Emboldened by what he had seen in the synagogue, Simon turned to his honoured guest and set before him the situation. And Jesus healed her.

They saw many marvellous things that night, healing miracles, exorcisms, teaching with power and authority, the power of the love of God, the authority of mercy. And in the morning, eagerly they sought him, but Jesus was nowhere to be found. Eventually, they saw him in the dawning light, out in the wilderness where they had mistaken him for a lonely tree. He was praying, and Simon hesitated to disturb him, but when Jesus heard his footsteps, he turned and told him, “It is time to become a fisher of people. It is time to entangle them in a net of good news.”

And the story for Jesus? Who knows? But it is the beginning of his time of public ministry, and he begins with prophecy and with healing and with proclamations of repentance and the announcement of the kingdom of God, and with prayer. He is with the people and he takes himself apart in prayer. He is the honoured guest who performs the greatest service of the household. He is the centre, and he takes himself apart in prayer.

For Simon’s mother-in-law, it is a story of new life. A fever could be, can be deadly. It is debilitating. It wrings the humanity out of one. She couldn’t tell how long she had lain there, hovering between earth and heaven, but when Jesus came, and took her hand, heaven and earth came together as one, and she felt that new kingdom flowing through her veins, and her heart stopped only long enough to miss a beat as she leapt for joy, and in gratitude ran through the house to celebrate with cakes and oil and wine, to serve and celebrate him who had healed her.

What is our story? What are we about? Where do we find ourselves reflected in this little picture of Jesus and his disciples and their extended families?

Yesterday and Friday night, Nancy and I were at the Convocation of the Diocese of Ohio, learning about the College for Congregational Development. More about that another time, but yesterday morning’s session was working through a model for congregational discernment. What is the vocation of a parish, of a particular parish, of this parish? Vocation, the quotation goes, is where our deep joy meets the world’s deep hunger. What is our great joy? What are our neighbours hungry for? Where do those things meet?

The easy answer is Jesus, and that is the truth, and the way, and it is life. But it needs a little bit of fleshing out. We are the current incarnation of the Jesus movement. We are the descendants of Simon, Andrew, James, John, Simon’s wife and her mother. What is our story?

… [congregational activity]…

There have been times when Simon’s mother-in-law has been criticized as a bad feminist for going straight from her sick-bed to the kitchen. There are times when her healing and return to service has been interpreted as oppression. But I think that she saw it differently. I think that she found in the touch of Jesus new life, new life with abundance, that she who had given herself over to death found instead new life to celebrate, and that what sprang up in her and propelled her to service was pure and simple gratitude for our loving, liberating, life-giving God.

For those who wait upon 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. (Isaiah 40:31)

May we find our joy in the love and service of our living Lord, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Amen.