Mark 1:29-39

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

The Super Bowl is next week and my household is rather excited. Some of us for the game and others of us for the commercials, Usher at Half Time, and most importantly the Taylor Swift appearances. I have always been a football fan, I played growing up and in high school and have always loved watching Colts games with my family. Recently, I listened to a podcast from the Athletic on Andrew Luck. I am guessing most of you are familiar with him, but for those not, Luck was the Colts first round draft pick in 2012.

We had a dismal season in 2011, we lost Peyton Manning, but there was all this hype around a young, nerdy, very athletic quarterback out of Stanford. Despite the enormous pressure Luck faced, he delivered. Immediately, he made an impact: throwing touchdowns, taking hits and getting right back up, even taking the Colts to multiple playoff appearances. At times, Luck seemed more God-like than human on the football field. Everything was pointing to the Colts making a superbowl run, that is until August 24, 2019.

To the shock and disappointment of many, the 29 year old, with potentially some of his best years ahead of him, decided to retire, to move on from football. Over the last four years of playing, Luck went through a vicious cycle of injury, pain, rehab. He was amazing to watch, but it came at the cost of his body: Torn cartilage in 2 ribs, partially torn abdomen, a lacerated kidney, at least 1 concussion, a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder, and a calf/ankle issue that he’d been dealing with. At the press conference announcing his retirement, Luck said “I feel quite exhausted and quite tired. It’s been tiring. I feel tired, and not just in the physical sense.”

But in the very next breath, Luck said "I feel so much clarity [about this] and so grateful for the experiences..." At that press conference, Luck showed us that he wasn’t just a football player, or some superhuman athlete. He was human.

And even though he was beloved by fans, coaches, and this city, Luck discerned that if he continued playing football it would come at the cost of his body, his family, and the life he wanted. So he moved in a different direction. It was a remarkable decision. So what do Andrew Luck and Jesus have in common? They show us what it means to be human: That is, they’re exhausted, they discern what to do next, and with great clarity they move in a different direction.

The last five weeks we have explored stories that show us who Jesus is and what he is all about. Think of the stories we’ve explored: the magi calling Jesus as King of the Jews, Nathaniel saying he is the Son of God, fishermen dropping everything to follow him, and he can even cast out unclean spirits. But this week we are shown something different.

This week our story picks up on the same day Jesus cast out that unclean spirit. He and the disciples are just leaving the synagogue as word spreads about the miracle. They go to Simon and Andrew’s house. Right away, Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever. Amazed, the disciples then bring to him everyone they know who is sick or demon possessed for healing. The whole city has gathered outside this little house to see the spectacle! In just one day, Jesus had taught in the synagogue, performed his first exorcism and healing, and then healed and cast out many that same night.

Jesus had to be exhausted. So that next morning, before the sun is up, Jesus awakes, retreats to a deserted place alone, and prays. And right there we are shown something different about Jesus than in all the other epiphany stories. We are shown that Jesus is human. He hit a limit. He was tired. He needed time alone; to recharge. He needed to pray, to listen to God, to discern what came next, before he was bombarded with the demands of the people around him.

And that time didn’t last long. The disciples hunted for him, frantically searching. And when they found him, they informed Jesus that everyone was looking for him. As if to say, “what in the world are you doing out here? People are looking for you, you’ve got to heal them”. Yet, likely to their shock and disappointment, Jesus said “Let’s move on to other towns; there’s more preaching and healing needed. After all, that’s what I came to do.”

Jesus had clarity about what the next move was in his ministry. He knew he wouldn’t be able to do what he was called to do if he just stayed there.

This life demands a great deal from us. People and powers try to pull us in all sorts of directions, telling us who we should be and what we should do. They want all that you can give and then ask for more. We will get tired, overwhelmed, exhausted even. It’s only human. And it’s so easy to just continue on doing what’s asked of you, even at the cost of yourself and the kind of life God really desires for you. Which is why, just like Jesus, we too need time to recharge, to pray, to listen to God, to discern what comes next, before the bombardment of demands continues. In that time and space, God gives clarity about what we are called to and gives our weary selves power to do it. It might be in a different direction than you thought, it might come as a shock or disappointment to others.

But, by faith, we trust we will be headed where God is leading and giving us strength along the way. Everyone will faint and grow weary as Isaiah says; but those who wait for the Lord, those who go off to pray, to listen, to discern, will have renewed strength.

And just as we need time of discernment and prayer in our individual lives, we need it in our life together, too. We as a community will feel the pull to do so many different ministries, serve in so many ways. The world around us will say we need to be more like this church or that organization or do more programs. It can be overwhelming, exhausting even.

But Jesus shows us another way. A way we are trying to follow with our Holy Conversations that begin today.

It's vital to our mission and ministry that we pray together. That we listen to each other, to our leadership, and most importantly to where we hear God at work in all of this. Where, to what, and to whom is God leading us? Who needs to come alongside us? What is the need that calls us to serve in new ways and in new places?

There is energy and excitement in this place. So now is the time to create the space and time for us to discern together; to dream about what comes next.

Yet in all of this what doesn’t change is who we are and what our ministry is. Jesus went on to the neighboring towns, but he still preached the gospel and healed people; that part never changed. No matter what comes next for us, we remain a community of disciples offering grace, no strings attached. We will continue to worship, learn about, and serve the everlasting God who does not faint or grow weary, but gives power to the tired and strengthens the weak.

And so we pray that God will guide these Holy Conversations, giving us clarity to God’s call, and empowering us to do the ministry that is before us.

Amen.

Matthew 9:35-10:8

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick; raise the dead; cleanse those with a skin disease; cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

No city was too big, no village too small, no sickness too strong. Jesus makes it look and sound all so easy. It makes me wonder, did he ever get tired? When he laid down at night, did his feet hurt and blister from all the walking? Was his throat hoarse from all the teaching and talking? So far in Matthew Jesus has been hard at work: healing, teaching, setting people free from demons, but we don’t get to hear details about what he was thinking or feeling. Afterall, it is kinda hard to get that when someone else is telling the story.

Yet, today we get a little insight! From town to town and city to city, a crowd of people followed Jesus, waiting to hear the teachings, to see the healings, hoping they themselves might be on the receiving end. And as Jesus went to more towns, did more miracles, taught in more synagogues, the crowd grew larger and larger.

Jesus turned, saw the crowd and we’re told: “he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless”. That word compassion literally means “to be moved in one’s bowels”, to be stirred up in one’s insides. Jesus saw their hurt, he likely smelled the stench of their struggle, heard the desperation in their cries. The sight, the sound, the scent; it was gut wrenching for Jesus. He felt the pressure to do something about it all and so he instructed his disciples to pray…”the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. So ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers”.

It’s nothing new to hear Jesus give instructions on how to pray or what to say, but what I love about this prayer is that immediately Jesus gathered his disciples to send them out into the harvest.

Jesus prays and then answers his own prayer. As Pope Francis says, “Pray for the hungry. And then you go feed them. That’s how prayer works.” And that is exactly what Jesus did. Once gathered, Jesus equipped the disciples with authority and instructed them to do all the things they have seen him do: proclaim the good news, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; all works of healing and setting free.

We often say that the church began at Pentecost, but there is a pretty strong case to be made that when Jesus calls, equips, and sends out these disciples to continue his ministry, that’s when the church began.

It is curious though that the disciples are not permitted to go to Gentile or Samaritan areas. Are they not worth healing or setting free? No, quite the opposite in fact. The last words Jesus says in Matthew are “go therefore, making disciples of all nations”, expanding and overriding the limitations he set here. It’s as if Jesus is saying “start with where and with whom you know best. Soon your call will be to the ends of the earth, but not yet.” And so with clear instructions and well equipped, the disciples set out to heal and to set free.

This story confronts us with many questions: What sights and sounds and sensations fill you with compassion? Who are the harassed and helpless of today? Would you agree with Jesus that still today the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few?

Perhaps most of all, this story made me ask the question, if Jesus were to summon us today, call us by name, gather us into one place, and then send us out: what would be our mission?

What authority have we been given? At first, I wanted to say that it would have to be a mission different from that of the disciples, I mean we aren’t really tasked with casting out unclean spirits or curing every disease and every sickness. We leave the latter up to nurses and doctors and as for “unclean spirits”, that sounds a bit like religious fanaticism or crazy talk.

Yet, are there not unclean spirits that harass and oppress in the world still today? Is not racism or poverty or homophobia still at work, hurting our neighbors? Absolutely they are. I just read a report on the rise of violent and hateful acts toward LGBTQ people and communities including armed protest, online harassment, and bomb threats. Poverty in Central Indiana has been on the rise since 1970, especially in black and brown neighborhoods. And while this is anecdotal, our phones have been ringing off the hook with people asking for groceries or gas cards, many for the first time.

As for racism, there is too much that could be said. Last week, I attended the Interrupting Racism Workshop that Pastor Mark set up as a part of his sabbatical. 10 P.I.M will be going over the course of the summer. It was an intense two days that showed the historical and current damage and divisions caused by racism. In Francia’s class on “How the Word is Passed”, we’ve begun learning just how whitewashed our history has been, revealing that the unclean spirit of racism still dwells in our societal systems, our cities, and even ourselves.

For that reason, I largely agree with Washington Gladden who said the most important mission of the church to society is “the reconciliation of races. [what] must be done is to take this chaotic mass of dissimilar, discordant, suspicious, antipathetic racial elements and blend them into unity. The first Christians had a task of this nature on their hands; bring[ing] together in one fellowship Jews and Gentiles. But that was a pastime compared with the herculean labor entrusted to us,--the bringing together of whites and blacks. It is the task of the nation; but the church of Jesus Christ is charged with the business of furnishing the sentiments and ideas by which it may be accomplished.”

Washington Gladden is known as the father of the social gospel movement and the author of the hymn we sing next. He wrote that quote in 1908, more than 100 years ago, and yet here we are.

We have been doing work around racism for a while now. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed or to feel like we’ve talked about it enough. After all, what’s the point? If New Pal is 97-98% white, then the chance or likelihood of Cross of Grace being a racially diverse place is rather low. This is true. But New Pal and Hancock County are growing. Census data says this area has grown 20% in the last 10 years, and all the construction and development I pass on my way here each day tells me that this trend will only increase.

So as this area grows and does diversify, hopefully we will be a place well equipped to welcome and support our black and brown neighbors. Yet I wonder if even more than that, what if the point of all this talk on racism, our proximity to it, learning the history, reading the books, attending the workshops etc, is not to gather in all folks of color into our fold, but rather to be sent out as missionaries, as apostles of Jesus to cast out the unclean spirit of racism in the places we know best: ourselves, our homes, our families, our work, our neighborhoods, our schools, our communities, our town.

When we do that, we are proclaiming the good news that God’s kingdom of justice and mercy has come near. Such a mission is difficult no doubt. You may feel like you don’t know where to begin or what to say or do. Which means, one of the missions of this place is to equip one another for this work.

That’s why we do the workshops, book studies, adult forums, and occasionally even sermons. Because Christ has chosen us as his co-workers: gathered, equipped, and sent to cast out unclean spirits, wherever they are at work, but especially in the places and among the people we know best.

Yet as Jesus said, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. So ask the Lord to send out laborers, and then go cast out those unclean spirits. Amen