This Sunday I gave my first sermon at my home congregation. I have to admit this was a moment I had been avoiding for a while. I guess I just felt a little too much pressure to do well and that scared me off from even attempting it before this point. I have given sermons before but they had always been in conjunction with another organization or at another Church. While these other sermons had been well received it was still a daunting task to write what I did for this Sunday morning. My in-term ministry Pastor Andrew was a great support and help in getting me started and giving me pointers on how to deliver it from the pulpit. Without him this sermon wouldn't have been half as good so this is my big thanks to Andrew! Below you will find the text for that day and the sermon I read. Hope you enjoy it!
Thanks for any feed back:)
Skakes
Mark 1:29-39
Jesus Heals Many
29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
Jesus Prays in a Solitary Place
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
May the words of my mouth and this mediation of my heart be pleasing in your sight Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
As I stand before you today, with pews full of familiar and loving faces, I cant help but feel overwhelmed by a deep sense of gratitude. Growing up in this congregation was a blessing to me. To see weekly examples of how to care for one another as I observed new and old members being welcomed into our doors each Sunday morning. To have been supported by pillars of faith in the pews around me each week. Many of whom were always more then willing to grab a coffee, share your faith journey with me, and allow me to share mine with you. To be constantly surrounded by a community of caring and loving believers who became the very hands and feet of Jesus allowing me to learn and lean on you in times of need. These are not things every youth is blessed with, but I was. The famed anthropologist Margret Mead once said it takes a village to raise a child and I would venture to say that it takes a congregation to raise a youth in faith. So for these and many other things both great and small I say thank you.
While I have attended Good Shepherd all of my life, some of you may not know me well enough to say where I spent most of my waking hours during my high school years. I would love to tell you it was spent in the library studying to get straight A’s or perhaps working with the model UN club to solve world peace. But, if the truth were to be told, I was a gym rat. I loved to play basketball. Anytime, anywhere, and with anyone. As every school I attended seemed to have a basketball team I always had somewhere to fulfill my need to bounce a ball on a hardwood floor and hear the light swish of a ball gracefully making its way though the net. While the smell of a freshly varnished floor may give many of you a slight headache, for me the smell evokes fond memories of time spent on the court with my teammates and coach.
At the start of our basketball season things were always a bit slow. Without fail it would take the team a few weeks to learn all the plays, get used to playing with one another, and suffer a few epic defeats before getting our feet under us.
Before the day of our first big game my school would be in a state of energized frenzy. The kind only a school full of teenage angst and pride can produce. Teachers and students alike would ask us how we thought the game would go, or if we could pull out the win? They would then often promise us they would be there to cheer us on and true to their word, they would often show up with a band of friends they had told about the game and all of them would be full of all the enthusiasm they could muster. The amount of people that would show up was astounding. They filled the bleachers like a can of sardines, not leaving any bleacher space go unused. The decibels reached in that small space seemed like a thunderstorm of noise approaching that would erupt with claps of thunderous applause then die down to a whisper to allow for a referee to make a call for all to hear. When the game finally ended, our peers, teachers, and family would often rush over to congratulate us after cheering us on to a hard fought victory. They would tell us how exciting it was to be there, how they couldn't wait to come to the next game, or how great it was to get swept up in the game day environment.
I can imagine the excitement of this environment was similar to that which Jesus and his disciples faced in Capernaum. It wasn't everyday that the people had such a sensational teacher, and if they did he certainly did not cast out unclean spirits as Jesus did that day. You can imagine what it would have been there. To be swept up in Jesus teaching, to witness such tangible power. It is easy to see why and how over the course of an afternoon, the entire region of Galilee would be swept up in such a fervor that the entire city ended up on the door step of Simon and Andrew. And to think Jesus was just getting started.
At the beginning of the lesson, we find Jesus and his disciples escaping the growing crowds that were amassing in and around the synagogue, and taking refuge in the house of Simon and Andrew. Upon Jesus entry into the home it is clear that there is a two fold purpose to this particular site of rest; Jesus is told of Simon’s mother-in-law who was sick with a fever. Jesus acts swiftly, lifting the woman up from her death bed and instantly healing her of her fever.
After a moment like this, one would assume the disciples would react with some amazement over what had just occurred. Or perhaps Simon or his mother-in-law would drops to Jesus’ feet praising and thanking him for his act of mercy and healing. But neither of these things occur. In fact just the opposite seems to happen. None of the disciples present make mention of the miracle at hand, and Simons mother-in-law instantly begins serving the whole party as if nothing had even happened in the first place.
While those within the walls of Simon and Andrew’s home may have remained quiet in the mist of a great miracle, the streets of Capernaum echoed with great excitement over the story of the man named Jesus, who had cast out an evil spirit, and had raised a woman from death to new life. After the sun had set, the people of the surrounding Galaleeian countryside brought all the sick or possessed to Jesus. I can not fathom the noise that must had arisen from the streets outside of Simon and Andrews house with half of the countryside camped out in front of their door waiting for Jesus. I can see the streets overcrowded, similar to the gymnasium in my high school years, with all the people packed into the narrow streets waiting for a miracle to happen. People with their sick friends and families, their provisions for the night ahead of them, and whatever animals they had used to help get them there. What if you were one of these people? What if you had made your way with the help of your family to be healed? What would it have been like to sit in the dark and wait for the moment to find out if this man could really restore your life.
Leading up to Jesus’ appearance the crowed began to vibrate with excitement at the the possibility of healing. When Jesus appeared he must have been greeted with great cries of excitement and praise. As Jesus moved though the crowd with his disciples, curing many and casting out demons, it must have seemed the city was coming back to life. Everyone Jesus touched that day had a story of pain, hurting, and suffering, but with Jesus’ healing touch they had new life and a future. A night such as this must have been very exhilarating and exhausting for both Jesus and his new disciples. I can only imagine the high the disciples must have felt after seeing so many lives changed in the course of a few hours, and the tiredness that must have set in as soon as the crowds had gone home. The quietness and calm that would have set over the streets at this moment ,after the miraculous events of that evening, must have been refreshing for not only Jesus, but all of his followers as well.
Throughout high school I would get up at 6:30am, but not do to have time to shower and do my hair and make up for the day. For me, my 6:30 wake ups meant 7am shoot arounds in my high school gym. My Father would drop me off every morning at this early hour so I could sneak in a few moments of alone time in the gym. At that hour, the only people in the school were myself, my coach, and a janitor or two. The school, normally a frenzy of teens and teachers bustling from class to class was in these early moments dark, still, and silent. I would grab the keys from my coach, unlock the gym, turn on a few lights, then start to shoot around. In these early morning moments the silence was almost meditative. With every shot, time seemed to slow down and every bounce of the ball seemed deafening to me in the dark empty gym.
The dark quite of the morning was the one time of day I could be completely alone with my thoughts, my feelings, and God. The meditative act of shooting the ball gave my mine time to release to the frustrations, and worries of my life. In those early hours I found solitude in the space between the night and the busyness the morning would bring. God met me there in that gym and listened as I talked both aloud and in my head about my life and I would leave the gym feeling calm.
Similarly for Jesus rising early, seeking solitude, and praying were a source of comfort, and strength for our Lord to spend intimate time in his Father’s presence. The recording of this small incident in the grand scheme of the earlier healing miracles shows the importance of taking time out of the busy-ness to spiritually rest. Jesus knows the needs of those who are sick but He also acknowledges the absolute necessity of silence and communion with God and he encourages us to enter into the same intimacy. This balance in Jesus’ life was an example to His first disciples, and is even more important in our life where so much emphasis is placed on what people do and achieve. We live in a world of deadlines, a world in which we need a few extra hours in the day, a world of business and clutter, both within our faith life and that of the world. Often I lose sight of the importance of “being”, of spending time with the God who created me.
Jesus reveals how to be a whole person; who gives His time and energy generously and lovingly to those around Him to further the kingdom, but who also gives time and space generously and lovingly to God.
and may this be so among us.
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