5 Epiphany B February 4, 2018
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Hutson
Isaiah 40: 21-31 + Psalm 147: 1-11, 20c + 1 Cor. 9: 16-23
Mark 1: 29-39
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Today is a special day in the life of this congregation….it’s a special day for Compass Housing Alliance too. And for Bellwether Housing and Walsh Construction and the city of Seattle. We will celebrate the affordable housing that is being built here as Compass Broadview.
I want to, in the context of this time and this space and this sermon, offer my deep gratitude to each of you. You have made this possible. Your faithfulness to the call of the Gospel to care for others means they will have a home. Or homes. Fifty nine homes.
And you’ve adjusted to parking challenges and mud and noise and a change in worship time in these last months as well. I honor you and every day I give thanks for you.
But…
…. what if instead of moving worship to 10:30, we’d been asked to worship at 5:00am? Don’t worry, that’s not happening, but until this past July, the largest group of people to gather on Sunday morning for worship in the greater Seattle area gathered at 5:00 on Sunday mornings. They gathered in front of their television sets for TV Eucharist, a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia and our NW Washington Synod of the ELCA. Every Sunday 5000 people, give or take a few, watched at 5am.
For a time, I helped produce TV Eucharist, with my Episcopal Colleague Mike Jackson. Every time we taped a service, which always included both Lutheran and Episcopal leaders, I wondered about those 5000 or so people who were watching. Were they too ill to attend worship in person? Did they watch at 5am and then go to worship in their home congregation? Were they pastors still working on their sermons for the day and looking for inspiration? What moved them to watch?
Sometimes we had a bit of a clue, because….the show. Got. Fan. Mail. I’m not kidding. Fan mail. And what we learned in reading that mail was that many of our viewers were in fact, unable to leave their homes. Some were ill. Some could no longer drive. Some simply had no one to bring them or come with them.
Almost every person who wrote to us was lonely. Our hearts ached for them and we were thankful for this unique ministry.
Loneliness is on the increase, not just in our country, but in many places across the globe. Research shows that those most lonely live in cities, as opposed to small towns or in rural areas.
Vivek H. Murthy, former Surgeon General, wrote about loneliness for the Harvard Business Review. He notes: “There is good reason to be concerned about social connection in our current world. Loneliness is a growing health epidemic. We live in the most technologically connected age in the history of civilization, yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s. Today, over 40% of adults in America report feeling lonely, and research suggests that the real number may well be higher. Additionally, the number of people who report having a close confidante in their lives has been declining over the past few decades. In the workplace, many employees — and half of CEOs — report feeling lonely in their roles.”
Murthy goes on to describe the increasing numbers of people who are alone while hospitalized or when receiving difficult medical news. Such isolation is emotionally and spiritually devastating.
This morning’s Gospel reading from Mark tells us the story of Jesus and his brand spanking new disciples going to the home of Simon and Andrew. Not long before this account, Jesus is calling the disciples to follow him and here they are, traipsing into the home of Simon and Andrew after being in the synagogue. Simon’s mother in law was ill, we are told and Jesus heals her. And before the sun can set, the whole city was standing outside their door, bringing every sick person with them, hoping that Jesus could cure them.
Simon’s mother in law’s illness and Jesus’ healing sets off a tsunami of need. The entire city, the sick, those possessed with demons, and those with a variety of illnesses all gathered around the door.
This individual need transforms an entire city through the love and ministry of Jesus.
Illness of all varieties, sickness, addiction, loneliness….it’s never an individual issue. Ask any family or community who has an ill person among them. Watch the news to hear about the flu. Talk to the family of an addict or alcoholic. These afflictions never just touch one life. They ripple out and touch the lives of everyone around them.
In contrast to Simon’s mother in law, Isaiah speaks to a community in crisis in our first reading today. Israel is in captivity in Babylon and they have the opportunity to return to Jerusalem. But they were having a crisis…it was a crisis of belonging. Being in captivity was all they knew. Even if they were slaves in a foreign land, it was what was familiar. And suddenly they are able to return home….and they know the way….but they can’t move….because they aren’t sure they belong to this place God is leading them.
We only need look around to see that all around us there is a crisis of belonging. The lonely need a place to feel welcomed, to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. And we see this, in artificial ways. We see it, for example, at sporting events. Tens of thousands of people gather in stadiums, decked out in the gear, chanting the chants and cheering the cheers…but the truth is that no one on that team would miss them if they weren’t there. It’s a relationship of economy: we pay money for our tickets and in return we get two or three hours of entertainment. And yet, we make it into so much more. Trust me, I know.
Today, after worship, we will celebrate housing. Affordable, safe housing. But that’s not the whole story. After the housing is built…then the families move in. After the families move in….community will form. I can’t imagine anything lonelier than sleeping in a car with your kids, or in the doorway of the neighborhood church, or even in a shelter. And to that societal ill of a lack of affordable housing that is so prevelant in our city, we offer this remedy that will be small in the bigger picture but will be the world, the game changer, to those families who will become community. And we do it in the name of Jesus, who knew that this work could be exhausting and unforgiving and demanding. It’s why he got up very early in the morning to go away by himself to pray.
The entire first reading from Isaiah offers us a faithful reminder: Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Or course we know. Of course we’ve heard. Yes, we’ve been told. The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth; who does not faint or grow weary; whose understanding is unsearchable. Who gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
In the Gospel today, after Jesus has healed a woman and a city; after he has risen early to pray in solitude, the disciples come searching for him. When they find him, they tell him this: “Everyone is searching for you.”
Beloved community, I believe this to be true. That in a world filled with isolation, despair, and uncertainty and loneliness….even when we don’t realize it, we are searching for Jesus. We are searching for his love. Love that says “you belong here.” The whole world is waiting for it. May we show it, in word and deed to the stranger and the friend; to the enemy and the beloved; to others and to ourselves.
Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
Jesus loves you. You are made whole in that love.
Thanks be to God. Amen.