“Transformed for Service”
Mark 1:29-39
Isaiah 40:21-31
By: Rev. Kenneth E. Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
www.parkview-umc.org
In the preceding passage, Jesus was in the synagogue.
He had a big audience, and in comes a man who was possessed by an evil spirit.
Jesus healed the man and the people watching were amazed.
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning we read that Jesus and His disciples leave the crowded synagogue and go to the home of Simon and Andrew.
And when they get there they find that Simon’s mother-in-law is sick in bed with a fever.
And as with the man in the synagogue, Jesus heals her.
This tells us something about Jesus, does it not?
He didn’t need an audience in order to perform miracles.
He wasn’t interested in ‘wowing the crowds’—just in doing what was right.
Jesus simply carried the truth that was proclaimed in the house of worship out into the world around Him.
All too often we go to church, but don’t necessarily bring the power of God home with us.
It’s been said that all too often, that people, as they go out of church, leave the truth behind in the sanctuary, like hymnbooks which are stamped with the words “Not to be taken from the Church” on them.
But this is not how Jesus operated, and as followers of Christ, this is not how we should operate either.
We are to put our faith into action as we leave the church and go back to our homes, our workplaces, our schools.
In our Wednesday night Bible study, someone had the honesty to proclaim: “The hardest place to be a Christian is at home.”
If that is so, perhaps we ought to make it one of our goals to allow God to cause us to treat our family members as we treat our church family.
So Jesus and the disciples come back from the synagogue and discover that Peter’s mother-in-law is suffering from what the Jewish Talmud called “a burning fever.”
It was, and still is, very prevalent in that part of the Galilee.
In Jesus’ day there was a very elaborate formula that was used by some so-called miracle workers in order to heal a person of this fever.
The person performing this ritual would put on quite a show.
But, as we see, Jesus didn’t use any of that.
Jesus wasn’t flashy.
Instead, with a simple touch of His hand Jesus used the unique and authoritative power of God.
And that very power of God is what we are called to rely on when we are facing a difficult task.
A Christian doctor tells of how one of the greatest discoveries of his life came to him.
He used to visit an old Christian pastor, who never let him go without praying with him.
He was struck by the extreme simplicity of the man’s prayers.
It seemed like they were just a continuation of an intimate conversation that the pastor was always carrying on with Jesus.
The doctor goes on to say: “When I got back home I talked it over with my wife, and together we asked God to give us the close fellowship with Jesus that the old pastor had.
Since then [Jesus] has been the center of my devotion and my traveling companion.
He takes pleasure in what I do, and concerns Himself with it.
He is a friend with whom I can discuss everything that happens in my life.
He shares my joy and my pain, my hopes and my fears.
He is there when a patient speaks to me from the heart, listening to him or her with me and better than I can.
And when the patient is gone I can talk to Him about it.”
Isn’t this the very essence of the Christian life?
To have a daily walk with our Lord?
What a way to live—really live!!!
And in really living, we can make a true difference in the world around us.
This morning I want us to take a special look at what happened there in the home of Simon’s mother-in-law.
As soon as Jesus healed her—as soon as her fever left…
…we are told that “she began to wait on them.”
She immediately used her recovered health—her transformed situation for service to others.
She was, in essence, “Saved to Serve.”
And isn’t this what Jesus does for all of us?
Jesus helps us so that we can help others.
What a better world this would be if we all took this to heart and action!
Jesus Himself declared that He did not come into the world “to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
He also told His followers: “whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.”
Our God, indeed, is primarily concerned with strength in weakness and godliness in concern with others over self.
Now, it is true that this smacks right in the face of the way the world tends to do things, and in the face of what the world tends to value.
But therein lies the power and beauty of it.
Turn on the news and all we see are reports of shootings, terrorist attacks, and war.
The Christian message is diametrically opposed to all this.
It is a radical life indeed!
To be a servant is to be vulnerable…because in the world’s eyes…power comes through force and selfish gain.
But true power, true freedom comes in our willingness to be vulnerable to the world’s hurts and the world’s pain.
Those who are truly vulnerable are capable of true service, or ministry, because they are freed from the lust for power…and are thus able to become genuinely selfless!
Albert Schweitzer was a selfless doctor in a jungle hospital who labored for half a century in the service of suffering African humanity.
He turned his back on lots of opportunities for greatness in order to serve in obscurity.
Once, in a talk to boys in an English school, Schweitzer said: “I don’t know what your destiny will be. But one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”
In our Gospel Lesson we are told that after healing Simon’s mother-in-law…
… “That evening…the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons…”
That is our world, is it not?
We live in a very sick world; a demon possessed world.
And the question is asked by millions, “Is there anything that can heal and save?”
People are looking for recovery, and wholeness, and whether they use the word or not—they are looking for salvation!!!
Are we not the ones who have been transformed in order to serve the world and bring the message of Christ’s salvation to all in need?
As we come to the Communion Table this morning, let us repent of the times we have neglected to bring the Good News of Christ to those who have yet to hear it.
And may we endeavor to live more and more into the transformed and serving lives we are meant to have.
Let us pray: God, only Jesus Christ can heal and save. Help us, in His name, to go out into the world and bring the healing, restoring and transforming power of Christ to the world which so desperately needs and craves it. Amen.
