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Sermon - Seventh Sunday after Epiphany (B) - 22nd February 2009
St Aidan's Anglican Church Epping 8:30am
Readings: Mark 2:1-12
Our new media over the last few weeks has been full of stories of disaster and rescue. Our economy is in crisis. For many it is a disaster. But the government hopefully has a rescue package to address the problem. We’ve had the national disaster in Victoria and all sorts of plans to rescue those in need. But the disasters bring with them their own trauma. They remind us of things we mightn’t like. They remind us of our frailty. They remind us of our vulnerability. They remind us of our need to rely on others. We prefer to think of ourselves as independent, able to manage our own affairs, able to solve our own problems.
But these last few weeks have shown us that that isn’t always possible. There will be times when we will need others. And that can be difficult. It can hurt our pride, our desire for independence. This was part of the problem in today’s Isaiah reading. Again Israel faced a national disaster. They had been invaded. The people had been sent into exile. They had lost everything except for the clothes they stood up in. They needed help. And God had good news for them. He would do a new thing. He would turn the deserts into a paradise. Rivers would flow again. The wild animals would be tamed. It would be a great blessing.
But how did Israel respond? They ignored God. They refused to call upon him. They refused to sacrifice. They refused to ask for the forgiveness that was available in abundance. So what we have is the contrast between the blessings God wants to give his people and the people’s refusal to have anything to do with it. It’s a conflict that arises so easily in times of emergency. Even though people are in great need, its almost impossible for them to ask for help, to admit their need, and to accept the gifts of others.
It has a deep impact on how we see ourselves. We will see the same story over and over in Victoria, people needing handouts who have never had to ask for help in their lives. People going to Centalink who have always been independent. And they won’t feel gratitude for what they’re given. They will feel resentment that they had to ask at all.
There is a similar tension in our gospel reading which is one of Jesus most famous miracles. I remember this one from my earliest days in Sunday School. We even had a beautiful model of the house with its flat roof and a set of stairs running up the outside. Jesus had spent some time in Capernaum but had left because of his popularity and the large crowds he was attracting. They were demanding miracles and it was interfering with his teaching ministry.
However, when the news got out that he was back, the house was full and spilling out the front door. Jesus used the opportunity to continue preaching to them. But it was while he was teaching that some men brought a paralysed man on a stretcher. As they couldn’t come in the door they went up to the roof, made a hole and lowered the man in front of Jesus. We know this story so well.
But have you considered that Jesus changed his method in this encounter. Normally, when Jesus was confronted by such outstanding faith he would respond immediately to the request and heal the person. Here Jesus looked at the paralysed man’s friends. He saw their faith. And then you’d expect the healing. But this time Jesus didn’t do it. This time Jesus cleverly combines his teaching and his healing in the one event.
We need to remember that the Jews brought sickness and sinfulness together. The sick person was one under God’s curse. They quoted the Talmud which taught “No one gets up from his sick-bed unless all his sins are forgiven.” Jesus is using this quote when he declared the man forgiven. But notice what the scribes said. They recognised the blasphemy in what Jesus said. This would be the very charge brought against Jesus when he stood before the Sanhedrin. They accused him of blasphemy by making himself equal with God.
But its only blasphemy if Jesus is a fraud. So he set a test for himself before the crowd. “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say ‘Stand up, and take your mat and walk?’” Jesus real point is, “Which is easier to do, to heal the man or to forgive his sins?” Jesus point is that for man, both actions are impossible, but not for God. So to demonstrate he had the power to forgive sins he told the man to stand, take his mat and walk. And the man stood immediately and walked out.
Mark makes the obvious comment that they had never seen anything like this before. But they had heard of it. They knew that it had been promised in Jeremiah 31 where the prophet announced that “days were coming when God would forgive their wickedness and would remember their sins no more.” No wonder Jesus sums up his message as good news when in involved the healing of the sick and the forgiveness of sins. These are all good things.
But we shouldn’t be surprised that it has always been an unpopular message. Because inherently it reminds us that we have failed, we haven’t reached God’s standard, but that, in his love, in his unconditional love, God will forgive us and bless us. But that is the problem. We like to get things because we have earnt them and believe we deserve them. We don’t like receiving charity. In our service, we say a confession and then a declaration of God’s forgiveness. Each week we declare again our failure and our need of God’s unmerited love. No wonder people don’t like that.
During this year the Archbishop has launched his Connect 09 Mission. He wants us to tell the good news to our neighbours. But we know our neighbours won’t be too keen to hear it. We struggle with it as it is. But then we struggle with any relationships. It is always difficult to admit we have made mistakes. People will go to great lengths to avoid saying sorry. Have you noticed how many sportsmen after being caught out behaving badly claim they had a brain snap. It not their fault, its their brain that let them down. How many claim they have an addiction to either violence or sex. So instead of saying sorry, they go to rehab to be cured. They can’t be held responsible. They have a sickness.
So we are left with God’s offer of blessing and forgiveness on the one hand, and our pride and self-centeredness on the other. Yet as we read what Jesus says about us we need to courage to look into ourselves, to see who we really are, and where we have gone wrong. We need too, the courage to thank God for what he has done in his mercy for us. Though we haven’t earnt his love, though it is freely given, it is the wise person who recognises it for the great gift it is. It is the wise person who understands themselves and recognises their need for forgiveness, and who can rejoice in the great hope held out for us in Jesus’ good news.