St. George's Episcopal Church
Roseburg, Oregon
Seventh Sunday After Epiphany
19 February 2006
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Isaiah 43:18-25
Psalm 41:1-13
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12
The Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA
When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – he said to the paralytic – “I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” (Mark 2:1-12)
Pray, Think, or Whatever: Just Do It
The Rev. Bill Stroop, Ph.D., Rector
It was an absolutely beautiful fall day. The sun was bright, and almost as warm as it was in July. Brown and yellow leaves swirled around the streets and sidewalks of Roseburg. It was a perfect day for a walk, and more people than usual were around and about.
He came out of the stationary store and walked toward his car. All of a sudden he threw up his arms, and reached toward the windshield.
“Oh, man! A ticket!” Holding the ticket aloft and then dropping his hand like he was throwing down his gauntlet, he turned to no one in particular and shouted, “What did I do to deserve this?” (“Forgot to put a quarter in the meter?” I mused to myself).
Roberta was 22 and unmarried when she became pregnant. Helped by friends when she needed it, she made it through her pregnancy without incident, and she received good pre-natal care from her doctor. When her son was born with a hair lip, she lamented, “This is God’s punishment for having this baby out of wedlock.”
After a long day of sight seeing, and fighting traffic all day long, we decided to go for supper. As we drove into the city, it seemed even busier than it had during the day. A steady stream of red tail lights heading in the same direction gave new meaning to the term “major arterial” when applied to a main road. In my mind’s eye I was imagining how long it would take us to find a paring space near the restaurant. As we drove up the street, a car pulled out from a space right in front of the door. My dinner partner looked at me and said, “Wow! You must be living right.”
Recently I participated in a conversation with some other local pastors and we discussed today’s Gospel text and the fact that in the Biblical world many people associated illness, disease, and bad fortune with sin. If you were “bad” you could expect God to dole out some kind of punishment. And this thinking was reinforced by Holy texts such as “ I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Ex 20:5). The view was that no one – not even unborn children – were immune.
I am not so sure that things are all that different today. Whether it is “genetic” to believe in a link between our bad behavior and cosmic punishment, or whether this is a culturally learned thing, it seems that we hold tightly to the belief that when bad things happen to good people it is due to our shortcomings or outright misdoings. We flirt with the idea, or outright believe that things from the trivial – like not finding a parking space – to the terribly serious – like terminal cancer – are linked to sinful behavior.
Today’s gospel reading reinforces that idea. Having returned to Capernaum, his base of operations during his ministry, Jesus’ fame as a healer and a preacher had spread. In this famous story, so many people had gathered around the house that the doors and windows were blocked. Four people carrying a fifth man who was paralyzed climbed up, removed the roof, and lower the paralyzed man into the house and into Jesus’ presence. And what does Jesus do? He first says “Your sins are forgiven,” and then only after being quizzed by the scribes lurking nearby does he say to the paralytic, “ Stand up, take your mat and go to your home.”
Are we hearing in this story Mark’s understanding of a the link between sinful behavior and disease or are we hearing something else? Personally, I believe that there is a link between physical health and mental and spiritual wholeness. That is to say, our mental and spiritual state can and does influence physical wellness. But I also believe very strongly that there are genetic, hereditary, and environmental causes of disease that go way beyond this. And those I do not believe are the result of sinfulness or bad behavior. I believe the Biblical record tells us that all of God’s creation has been given perfect freedom. And, in part that means that the genes that allow the normal development of an embryo into a human being are the same genes that can cause cancer later in life. This is just the way creation works. It is morally neutral, and is apparently the way God intended the world to be. And I for one, am content to accept the good and the not-so-good elements of creation the way they are and just live into that mystery.
But there is something else very powerful in the gospel story that is a mystical but powerful part of the fabric of creation. The paralytic is helpless. He is unable to get to Jesus; in fact we do not know that he even wants to get to Jesus. But the four people with him very much want him to be healed, and it is their faith that propels their actions. It is they who climb the roof, and remove the thatch. It is they who lower the man down to Jesus. They do not ask Jesus to forgive the man’s sins. They do not even ask Jesus to heal him. It is by their actions that Jesus understood their intention: “Please heal our friend.” The power here lies in the faith of the four men and their confidence in expression of that faith.
Their actions speak to the power of intercessory prayer. I do not pretend to understand exactly how prayer works. I just know that it does work. Prayer is something that operates on the metaphysical plane; it is a mysterious force of nature. It can influence the very fabric of creation because it is a part of the fabric of creation like light or gravity.
Prayer is the outcome of our faith, and our faith is the product of our belief in things unseen. Our belief in God leads us to have faith in the creative power given to us by God, and shared with God. When we pray for others – as we do every Sunday in church – we are taking those people and putting them in the presence of God, just as the four friends lowered the paralytic to Jesus. We are praying in confidence that something good will come of our action. We can shout if we want to, or be silent if we choose. It does not matter. What matters is that we go through the effort of offering the needs of our friend to the heart and mind of God, trusting in those metaphysical powers to accomplish that which we cannot.
And it does not matter if we call what we do by the name “prayer” or not. I had a friend once who used to conclude hopeful or encouraging messages with the words, “You are in my thoughts” or “I’m thinking of you.” That was the equivalent of prayer. It was an action that moved the person being thought about and the thinker spiritually closer together. It opened both to the powerful forces possible only in the metaphysical mystery.
Intercessory prayer – and all forms of prayer – is part of creation. At St. George’s we have several avenues for you to exercise your prayer ministries. Of course coming together on Sunday mornings to pray together is the most encompassing and obvious. But we also have a telephone and an email prayer chain that can be activated by communication with the church office, or the individuals who coordinate those ministries. And we are always looking for more pray-ers, so if this kind of ministry appeals to you, let us know and well get you plugged in.
The gospel story is all about meeting in the spiritual plane. The paralytic either asked for help from his friends, or at least was willing to accept their help. By accepting their help, he made it possible for his friends to use their spiritual gifts. When we are unwilling to ask for help, when we are unwilling to accept help, not only is the outcome bad for us, we also compound the tragedy by destroying a divine and sacred moment in which others have the opportunity to exercise their gifts and the power of their spirit to meet us and to meet God on the spiritual plane. And that’s not a good thing. To put it another way, to ask for and to accept help – physical help or spiritual help – is the first step toward our own healing, and a real show of spiritual strength.
What do you need help with? Is it an embarrassing sin or a struggle? How is pride keeping you from asking for the help your need? Is there someone in your life that needs your help to dig deeper to get the help they need?
Let us pray,
“O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning to a place of prayer we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence we will find strength: By the might of your Spirit, lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God, where you may impart to our spirit and the spirits of those for whom we pray a transformation of spirit and of body. Amen.”
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COMMENTS? E-Mail Me
Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise. Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities. I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
1 Happy are those who consider the poor;
the LORD delivers them in the day of trouble.
2 The LORD protects them and keeps them alive;
they are called happy in the land.
You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.
3 The LORD sustains them on their sickbed;
in their illness you heal all their infirmities.
4 As for me, I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me;
heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
5 My enemies wonder in malice
when I will die, and my name perish.
6 And when they come to see me, they utter empty words,
while their hearts gather mischief;
when they go out, they tell it abroad.
7 All who hate me whisper together about me;
they imagine the worst for me.
8 They think that a deadly thing has fastened on me,
that I will not rise again from where I lie.
9 Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted,
who ate of my bread, has lifted the heel against me.
10 But you, O LORD, be gracious to me,
and raise me up, that I may repay them.
11 By this I know that you are pleased with me;
because my enemy has not triumphed over me.
12 But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever.
13 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.
As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been “Yes and No.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not “Yes and No”; but in him it is always “Yes.” For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God. But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first installment.
When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” – he said to the paralytic – “I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Mission of St. George’s Episcopal Church is to lead people to love Jesus, and, through worship and scripture, to become empowered as a servant body – to each other, to our community, and to the world. For information about St. George’s Episcopal Church and its life and mission, please contact us at 1024 Southeast Cass Avenue , Roseburg, OR 97470 or by phone at (541) 673-4048 or (541) 680-3465. Contact Bill by email at wgstroop@earthlink.net and visit our church at http://www.roseburgchurch.net |
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Copyright © 2006, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
16 Feburary 2006
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