ROME IMPROVEMENT 04/18/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 2:1-12

This week, while the much of the Church is hearing about Jesus with his disciples in Luke, I am going to the place Jesus directed us on Easter Sunday—into Galilee, continuing our Epiphany journey from the Gospel of Mark. You may recall during the winter, Jesus coming out of the wilderness and saving the man with an unclean spirit and Jesus saving the man with a withered hand. Then, after Jesus has saved Peter’s mother-in-law and the whole city has shown up at the door of her house, Jesus went out to proclaim the good news to the villages in the area. In this week’s lesson, Jesus and the guys have now returned to Capernaum. A large crowd gathers around Jesus’ home. The crowd is so large that no one can get to the door. We are not told whether this crowd is friendly.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

Coming into Capernaum again, after some days, the word went out that Jesus was at home. A flash mob appeared, and the place was packed; one couldn’t even get to the door.

Jesus was speaking the word to the people when four guys carrying a paralytic came to see Jesus. When they discovered that the crowd was so big that they would not be able to get to the door, they went up on the roof, removed the decking tiles and excavated the roof. When they had a big enough hole, they lowered the paralytic on his cot.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there having an internal debate with themselves. “Why does this man speak like this? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins except God alone?”

Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit the things they were saying to themselves; he said, “Why are you internally speaking to yourselves like this? Which is ‘more good’ to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’, or to say ‘Be resurrected! Take up your mat and walk’? Just so you know that the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins on earth, he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, be resurrected! Take up your mat and go home!”

The paralytic was immediately resurrected, took up his mat, and went out in front of all the people. They were all transfixed and glorified God saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

When we hear the angel’s words in the Gospel of Mark, “He has been raised. He is not here.…Go tell his disciples and Peter that he has gone ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you,” we can easily think, “But the disciples never go there.” To see Jesus in Galilee requires us to start reading Mark again. Once Jesus passes through the wilderness, Jesus is in Galilee. This Galilee place is not only a narrative place it is the world in which we live.

Galilee is that place on ancient maps that says, “Beyond this point, there be dragons.” In short, Galilee is that place where we say goodbye to safety and step into the uncertain world where God’s Good News needs to be heard. There is no guarantee that the world wants to hear that Good News, only that it needs it.

This Galilee world is a dismal place. It is filled with demons, deformities, disabilities, imprisonment, food insecurity, the threat of strangers, governmental oppression, false accusations, death, and disappointment. It needs the word of hope that comes from resurrection promise.

When the vassal of the king/queen is declared a knight, the courtiers hear, “Rise, Sir___.” The knight, now glorified,  rises out of his former status into the new place of favor of the king/queen and is never thought of as other than a knight again. He has been raised.

Jesus’ resurrection is more than a knighthood, but the way that we understand who Jesus is is similar. Once Jesus has been raised from the dead, we can never think of him as being other than raised. And when we see him again in Galilee, speaking with the outcasts of the world and with the leaders of his time, we can only see the one who has been raised from the dead.

This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is this resurrected Jesus that we see here in Chapter 2 of Mark. In Chapter 16 we witnessed with the women that the tomb is empty. We heard the words of assurance and commissioning, “Do not be afraid.…Go!” And now we are there.

Or is it here, in Galilee, back at the beginning? We are confronted with Jesus’ words and the scribes’ inner turmoil: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Of course that is who is sitting with them—God alone. And the one who is God alone asks which is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven” or “Be resurrected.” Salvation is given in either case.

It is not the words of Jesus that create the tension in this story of the paralytic. It is our perception of who Jesus is. Are we willing to go to Galilee to see Jesus? Or are we still on a quest to discover the cross?

Are we looking for death and despair? Or are we looking for hope and wholeness in life? Our orientation makes the difference.

While we, and the scribes, are embroiled in our internal speakings, the paralytic takes up his mat and goes home. In amazement, we, with the people gathered, say, “We never saw this coming.”

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

Each time I read this story I am impressed with the fact that it is not the paralytic’s faith that makes the difference. It is not the paralytic’s persistence that makes the difference. It is the faith, the trust, the confidence of the four who bear him that makes this resurrection wholeness possible.

Four people bring the paralytic to Jesus. When the crowd bars the way, they take him up onto the roof of the house. They remove the tiles and excavate the dirt under them to get to Jesus. Then, when the work is done, these four people lower the paralytic through the hole and put him next to Jesus. We are told that Jesus looks at the people who brought the paralytic and, seeing their faith, sees the paralytic himself. Jesus says, “Child, your sins are forgiven.”

This work of putting people near Jesus makes the difference. With Christ in our midst, wholeness comes. When we are in the presence of Christ, we know salvation. In the relationship of trust, with the confidence of the four, and to the amazement of the people gathered, what was impossible becomes possible. The paralytic takes up his mat and goes home.

Like the crowd around the house, we, as a society, are unaware of the community of the physically disabled, creating a state of invisible death around it. While we have started to create a place at the table for those who live with physical disabilities, their status remains—they are dead to the world.

For example, the unemployment rate for the blind and visually impaired continues to hover around 65%. Among those who are employed, about 20% are under-employed. The unemployment rate for the deaf is better, but compared to the general population, people with physical disabilities, with all the gifts they have to offer, are significantly less employed. We have provided government supports for the disabled, but that financial support is marginal, far short of the cost of the accommodations needed for people with disabilities to fully participate in the able-bodied world.

People with disabilities need people who are first able to recognize the value of disabled people. They need people who are willing to bear them up, sometimes to the roofs, to get them justice. And then, they need to be resurrected, lifted up into a full relationship with their able-bodied partners in the body of Christ.

It is this faith that the four have when they bring the paralytic to Jesus. They have found wholeness in the body of Christ, and they want their friend to know that wholeness too. What we discover is that the signs of disability are not needed in the wholeness of Christ’s presence. There amazing things can happen.

We continue to witness this amazing relationship of wholeness in our baptisms where we hear that we have died to sin. As Christ has died, we too die. As Christ is raised, we too are raised up into the new life given. As the burdens of life surround us, Christ lifts them from us. In the community of faith, we are given the opportunity to bear each other’s disabilities and bring one another into that relationship of wholeness that only Jesus can give.

HANGING THE TRIM

Your sins are forgiven. Rise!

The deed of resurrection is accomplished by Christ, and Christ welcomes you into his justifying resurrection world of wholeness. Go home. Knowing that Christ also raises us and gives us our resurrection wholeness, it is now our turn to raise up those who are considered dead. Alleluia!