A verse from Psalm 34 offers advice that seems to guide my thinking and preaching today: Seek Peace and Pursue It. (Psalm 34:14)
I don't know if you've noticed, but Mark's Gospel is short and to the point. There are precious little embellishments to the news about what Jesus is doing now, what he does next, and how people respond to what he does. Its very pithiness, its modicum of words gives this Gospel much of its glimmer.
I've stated before what I know to be true from study and interpretation and reading, that Mark presents Jesus as a flurry of activity, going from his baptism—to his temptation—to his preaching the gospel in Galilee—to calling his first disciples on the Sea of Galilee—to confronting demons in the synagogue—to healing Simon's mother-in-law...which is today's gospel...which is pithy. In the crafting and in the hearing, these connecting words move the story along-"As soon as"..."Now"..."Then."
In today's reading like many stories in Mark, the focus begins with one and then focuses on the many. First the one: A single woman, Simon's mother-in-law, sick and in bed, no longer able to function as the caregiver for her family, is restored quickly to well-being and with the lifting-up hand of Jesus she is restored to wholeness, a place back in the community, restoring her ability to tend to the household.
Now to the many: No sooner do we hear about Simon's mother-in-law then Jesus is bombarded with those in need. I guess they were polite enough to wait until the end of the Sabbath, but what kind of picture do you see in your mind's eye when it says that the whole city was gathered around the door? Wall to wall people. Gathering hordes. People camping out at Fenway Park for Red Sox Opening Day tickets?
This is what fascinates me. In just today's Gospel reading alone, Mark presents a sequence of events that go boom, boom, boom. Jesus' reputation starts exploding to the masses. He shuts up the demons who wanted to tell everyone who he was (why did he do that?), and then everything comes to a full stop. No slow and go, no slamming on the accelerator, but a removal from the center of attention to a deserted place. Out of satellite range. Offfline. Out of the office. Detached. To pray.
Monks call detachment a virtue. Most people call detachment a problem. Like uncaring, or not paying attention. Do you know Bob, who is really Mr. Incredible from the movie The Incredibles, who is no longer allowed to use his superpowers but assumes a rather mundane life and wistfully dreams about how he might use them, all the while he is inattentive to his family, and one night with his hands on his elbow dreaming about his super self, and not paying any attention to the escalating conflict at the dinner table, his wife who is really Elastigirl, is trying valiantly to have a normal family life and keep the family together, calls her husband out of his detachment, his daydreaming and says, "Engage, Bob. You have to engage!"
But the monastic take on detachment is that one should not allow the world and its cares or our own self absorption to detract from our engagement with God, and with each other. This is how Dorotheus, a sixth century monk, describes detachment: "being free from [wanting] certain things to happen," and remaining so trusting of God that "what is happening will be the thing you want and you will be at peace with all." (Kathleen Norris, A Vocabulary of Faith, "Detachment," p 32)
Now think of Jesus in Mark. Could it be that after the flurry of his singular and communal focus, his frenetic healing and activity to the gathering hordes, Jesus detached himself in order to connect with God and his subsequent mission?
Now think of the first reading. Could this coming to a full stop, not slamming on the accelerator, be similar to the message to the exiles from the prophet Isaiah not to get so bogged down in their predicament and write God off, but as he says "those who wait for 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 be faint?"
And then I think about Jacquie Tiedeman. Could this be the attitude that Jacquie demonstrated in her willingness to stop what she perceived as futile treatment in her final weeks and instead to wait on the Lord, to connect with God and what awaits her in future glory? As her pastor, I was in the habit of visiting with her during her brief hospitalization, walking as it were with her through her illness, discerning her healing process and the meaning of her disease. One time I opened up my prayer book near the end of the visit, and Jacquie, perceptive hostess, said "oh, you need to read from the Bible because you're ready to leave." And out of my mouth came "no, Jacquie, I need to read from the Bible to ask God to frame our time and to guide your way." That was the truth. That is the truth. And Jacquie knew it, even as she herself the day before she died, when I asked her what the image of the feast spread out in the face of enemies from the 23rd psalm meant to her. She wasted little time, cocking her head the way she always did and said "it means peace." Jacquie connected with God, and with God's Word, and with God's shalom for her.
Mark Searle, writes about the Word of God proclaimed in our Sunday assembly. He says that people needed to be prepared to hear, with these words...See if they ring true for you.
Of course God still acts, and of course he still speaks, but how would we recognize him? If we are waiting for the thunder and lightning of theophany, we will probably be disappointed. God speaks in ways which can easily be overlooked. After all, the Egyptians overlooked the presence of God in the Exodus, and many contemporaries of Jesus thought he was a good man, but they were not expecting to experience him as God incarnate. So why should we expect that God will trumpet his presence for us? May it not be that he speaks in the events and circumstances of our own lives and times and we fail to recognize him? The problem may not be that God is absent or silent, but that we do not know God's language.
(from I will Arise Each Day: A Book of the Morning and Its Prayer, (Melissa Musick Nussbaum: Liturgy Training Publications, Chicago © 1996, pp 95-96.)
In today's gospel, Jesus, after his time brief time in a deserted place, detached and presumably connected with God, his followers catch up with him. They want to set their own agenda, which is to bring him back to Capernaum, and deal with his immediate circle. They said, "come back!" Jesus, said, "no, we have to move ahead."
I don't know exactly why Jesus didn't go back, when surely there were still a great number in need. What I do know is that Jesus, known and revealed to the hearers and readers of the Mark's gospel as the divine Messiah, pushes the envelope, and frontloads God's nearness in acts of mercy to an ever expanding audience.
Jesus' going to the edges prompts us to look beyond our comfort zone.
Jesus' stopping all activity to be with God suggests that we seek how God speaks.
Jesus' singular attention to the suffering and marginalized confronts the world and the church today to notice places of poverty and oppression, and to take action.
Do you think that you could say that our Christ the King frenetic activity helps people to focus on God and God's kingdom? Could you say that we come to a full stop in the middle of our activity and pray?
I'm going to answer yes to both questions, but only tentatively. Because while we do many things that reveal God's justice and God's nearness, we do quite a bit that suggests we honor the psalmist's adage Seek Peace and Pursue It, we are still a work in progress. Where we are heading is still in part a mystery, yet to be revealed.
And like Jesus' response to his disciples who wanted him to go back to Capernaum when he said "let us go on," I want to live with the faithful, grounded, and urgent call for all of us to pray and act on behalf of all those for whom Jesus died, moving forward, changing when necessary, and on behalf of the divine one, proclaiming the message and casting out demons that bring wholeness and peace.
Lord Jesus,
be our strength in weakness,
our healing in sickness,
and our gate to eternal life.
Amen
I.N.I.
I.N.I.
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
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