February 8, 2015
Fifth Sunday After Epiphany
Rev. Amy Welin:
Jesus said, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came to do.”
Last spring, my friend and colleague Jeff Ross walked a part of the pilgrim’s path from France to Compostela. This very ancient pilgrimage is a walking prayer on the way to the tomb of St James of Jerusalem, one of the twelve apostles. According to tradition, St James, or Santiago, traveled to Spain after the resurrection, to preach the gospel of Christ. He returned to Jerusalem and was martyred by Herod. His friends took his body to Spain for a safe burial. Jeff traveled across northern Spain entirely on foot, with a backpack, a walking stick, and one pair of boots. He said that the route itself is not arduous. But walking 25 to 35 km (15-19 miles) every day, and needing to find a hostel every night, was quite the challenge. He had to keep moving in order to complete his pilgrimage. It was one of the best and most spiritual experiences of his life.
In today’s gospel story, what Jesus does most is to keep moving, and not just in the intellectual or spiritual sense. He is literally, physically on the move from one place to the next. Jesus leaves the synagogue in Capernaum, where he has been teaching and healing, and he walks over to Peter’s house for dinner. After another miraculous healing, this time of Peter’s mother-in-law, Jesus leaves the house while it is still dark to go off and pray alone. When his friends find him, he announces it is time to move on.
The gospel does not tell us whether he received an explicit message or just had a feeling, but Jesus discerns that the need to move on is urgent – he wants to go on to the neighboring towns to share more of the good news he proclaims about the Kingdom of God. Jesus is not content to put up his feet to bask in the limelight and enjoy his success. In fact, he assiduously avoids publicity, telling the demons to be silent about his identity. Jesus is not going to settle down and cultivate a nice healing business in Capernaum. He does not seek fame or money or stability. Jesus is on the move.
Jesus moves so much and so quickly in the Gospel of Mark that it has been called a holy travelogue. By the time he is arrested, Jesus has walked all over Galilee, through Samaria and into Jerusalem. His sense of call is so powerful that he is a perpetual pilgrim. Jesus travels so much that he refers to himself as the homeless Son of Man, the one with nowhere to lay his head. (I imagine that his mother did not like that!) And at one point (just before today’s passage, Mark 10.28), Peter plaintively reminds Jesus that his friends have given up everything in order to follow him. Everything.
Jesus promises Peter a reward a hundred times greater than his sacrifice for moving on. There is no record in the Gospel whether Peter was satisfied with that response. I wonder if we are. Most of us struggle to embrace moving on with the passion and commitment that Jesus had, even if moving on is a fact of life. In fact, I think that human nature is inclined to resist change with feverish passion. Nearly all of us know the absence of joy at home when a business transfer is announced. We know about the fearful reluctance that marks going to live with a parent or a child or in an assisted living facility. We feel trepidation when we consider the possibility of changing the words of the church service or the music we use.
The old joke: How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Change?!
Jesus seems to embrace change. He would move on and would call us to join him.
So where are we going? Jesus calls us to follow him on to the next place and the next big thing. What that shall be is not clear. But if we trust Jesus, we can believe that it will be all right.
I must confess that I am not a fan of just moving on to the next thing. I really like the predictable nature of regular life. I am not someone who seeks out surprises. When the cable lineup changes, it irks me. My fashion sense is never avant garde. I do see that there is some irony in working in parish ministry and not relishing the process of change – because each day is different in a parish and the church is in the midst of a huge transition right now. I attribute this to God’s sense of humor. (Tell God your plans and hear God laugh).
In Mark, the ministry of Jesus as he travels in Galilee is not primarily a healing ministry. It is a ministry of power. The power Jesus has and shares is part of his identity as Son of God. Yet Jesus’s implicit promise is that part of the journey with him will involve healing. Shall Jesus heal our fear? Or shall he heal our weakness? Or are they intermingled in our feverish resistance to the changes necessary for new life?
Jesus comes to tell us good news – the good news that we are also connected to the power of God, the good news that we shall never be alone. And, that good news is accompanied by mighty acts that free people from their burdened lives. When Jesus sneaks out to pray early in the morning, and the disciples find him, he responds with a renewed commitment to his mission of proclamation and confronting the power of evil. Lives are changed, the world is different. Can we let Jesus heal us of our fevers – as he healed Peter’s mother-in-law – so that we can hear the good news of deliverance and join him on his mission?
Jesus is on his way. Are we willing to keep moving with Jesus?