I struggle with healing stories in general and with this particular healing story especially. There is a bit of my own baggage in this, but my general struggle with healing stories is they are so fantastical I always worry I’m running the risk of setting people up for false hope. This is not a discount of the miraculous power of God, some people experience healing like Peter’s mother-in-law, and far be it for me to say God does not work in that way. The problem is that God does not often work in that way. Most people do not go from death’s door to full recovery in a matter of moments. For most of us, healing is incrementally slow. And sometimes healing does not look like how we might want it to look. If healing has to look like this, at best, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. And this particular healing story is difficult because immediately upon being healed, Peter’s mother-in-law goes into the kitchen to serve them. Without even going into all the bad complementarian theology that has been built up around this story, that just seems exhausting! The Greek has hints of resurrection imagery in it, implying Jesus has basically raised this woman from the dead, can’t she just rest for a minute!
We’ll get to that, to how to make sense of the healing aspect of this text, and of the immediate call to service thing, but first in his Take One video this week, the Bishop pointed out something in this text I’d never noticed before, that got me thinking in a different way.
A few weeks ago, we heard the calling of the first disciples, how Jesus told Simon, Andrew, James, and John to follow him, and immediately they left their nets, they left their father in the boat, and they followed him. The calling of the first disciples always brings up the question, would we, do we, have the courage to leave everything behind and follow Jesus. And I pondered then, if leaving everything and following Jesus was maybe setting up too strong of an expectation. Here we see that my concern was well based. Because when Simon, Andrew, James, and John, dropped their nets, left their father in the boat and followed Jesus, notice where they went. First they went to the synagogue in their hometown. And then they went to Peter’s house. Friends, Peter took Jesus home with him. To his sick mother-in-law no less. And Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus cared about his disciples’ families, about their lives, about the people they loved.
In the Redevelopment process, we talk a lot about what we are doing for our wider community. For the members of the Woman’s Co-op, for the Post neighborhood, for children and families who are not yet here. We talk about evangelizing outreach, social ministry, how we are setting up our building to be a church for the neighborhood. All of that is great stuff, it is in the model of Jesus, it is how Jesus wants us to act and to be and to move through the world. It is, as we heard in the last couple verses of the text this morning, what Jesus “came out to do,” to go throughout the world teaching the good news and casting out demons. We know from reading the Bible that Jesus cared deeply about the poor, the lonely, the hurting. But what this Gospel story reminds us is that Jesus also cares about you, about your family, your home, your church, about the people and places and things you love. I want to assure you, as your pastor, that in this redevelopment process, as we try to change our congregation to meet the needs of our next phase of ministry that you who are here already are not forgotten. As we talk about how we are going to outreach to our community, as you read on our annual report about how we are trying to be a church for our neighborhood, about all of these things that we are doing for others, that Jesus also loves, cares for, is concerned about, you.
So that’s the first piece of good news in this story. Yes, Jesus cares about all of the people that the world has forgotten. Yes Jesus cares about refugees, people in poverty, people who are ill, people who are hurting. Yes, Jesus is very concerned about all of the people out there in the world who need to know him. Jesus is also just as concerned about all of the people in here. Jesus’ care is not limited, it is not the case that if it is focused out there it cannot be also focused in here. Your value in the eyes of Jesus is not based on how well you serve others; it’s based on Jesus’ love for you.
Now here’s the second piece of good news. When Peter’s mother-in-law got up from her sick bed and began to serve them, that wasn’t about getting up and going immediately to work. It was about reclaiming her place of honor in the family. In the first century, serving such a distinguished guest as a religious teacher would have been a place of honor reserved for the matriarch of the family. This is not so different than today. In my family, long after my grandmother was no longer able to prepare the big family meals, we continued to hold them at her house, using all of her recipes, as a show of respect for her role as the head of our family. In healing Peter’s mother-in-law and restoring her to her place of service, what Jesus did was more than just restore her physical health; he gave her back her purpose and her identity. Peter’s mother-in-law didn’t jump to service because Jesus needed serving, she jumped to service because serving was who she was, it was how she made meaning in the world. As a congregation of worker bees, this is certainly something you all can relate to.
Peter’s mother-in-law’s service of Jesus demonstrates that healing is not just about being physically healed; it is about being restored to our purpose and identity. The other dynamic in this story, is that our purpose and our identity can change over time, so the challenge is how well we are able to shift with the change, to adapt to the new places and purposes we are being called to. Peter, Andrew, James, and John once found their purpose in fishing, now they were learning to find it in following Jesus. How we used to do church in this place worked in that time, now we are being called to find a new purpose for a new time. We still have purpose; it just looks different than it used to.
I’ve maybe told you this story before, but one of the best lessons I learned about how our purpose can change came from a man at my home congregation in Washington, DC. Like many of you, this guy had been a do-er. He was a successful businessman, had served on various boards of the congregation, had been a founding member of Lifeline Partnership, which is an organization that supports people with developmental disability, he’d done it all. The grass never grew under this guy’s feet. And then he got sick. Some weird, mystery illness. He lost his appetite, started losing weight, didn’t have energy, couldn’t move around easily. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him, and it was looking pretty bleak. Then, in what can really be described only as a miracle, he discovered that the only food he could keep down was bing cherries. And what’s more, he discovered that when he ate bing cherries, he could eat other foods as well. He got his appetite back, and his strength, and he began to get better.
As he began to recover, he began to reevaluate his purpose. Because he was never going to be able to do all the things he had done before. He didn’t have the energy for all the board and committees; he still couldn’t do the things he’d done. At first, he told me, he was pretty frustrated by it, pretty depressed. But then, one day, he took home the prayer list from the bulletin, and he committed himself to pray for everyone on it. It felt small at first, just praying at home by himself, when he was used to being out and about. But, he found the practice changed him. It connected him more deeply to the members of his congregation, and helped him connect others. In fact, I heard this story on one of my very first Sundays at First Trinity, and I count it, and him, as reasons that church became my home congregation and had such a deep impact on my life. That congregation, and his prayer, fueled me to do the work I did every day helping homeless and low-income women in Washington, DC. It helped others lobby for immigration reform, teach in inner city schools, provide support for people with developmental disability, expand low-income housing, offer job training, and many other classic social outreach ministries. His ministry in our congregation made ministry outside of our congregation possible. Because he cared for us, we were able to care for others. Healing for him was about finding his purpose again. A different purpose, but one just as important and just as powerful.
This morning we will end our worship together with a service of healing. Anyone who wants to will be invited to come to the table to be anointed with oil and receive a prayer for healing. I don’t know what kind of healing you may be in need of this morning as you come forward. What I know is you will be healed. In fact, I know that you are already healed. That this prayer of healing is really a reminder of what God has already done in you. Because you are beloved of God, you are valuable, you are important, and you have a purpose. My prayer for you is that you may come to know the purpose for which God has already prepared you for. Amen.
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