[Propertalk] 5 Epiphany b 2018 - part 1 a

[Robert P Morrison]

I was emailed that the first part is "too big" and waiting to be
moderated.
In the past, I've found that this means that it will never surface
again, so here's the first part of the first part. I'll wait to see if
this arrives before sending the second part of the first. 
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY    5 EPIPHANY b 

	ISIAIAH 40:21-31       4th FEBRUARY, 2018 

	1 CORINTHIANS 9:16-23    PSALM 147:1-12, 21c 

	MARK 1:29-39 

	 Would you have expected otherwise? Even today, in some places, but
particularly two thousand years ago, if your temperature was below
102°, any woman or man would have been expected to be working away,
in Simon’s mother-in-law’s case in her day and age, cooking
sweeping the dusty floor, maybe shaking out the blankets. THAT was a
daily routine. 

	 But it seems that Simon’s mother-in-law was really ill. The whole
house, such as it was, would have depended on her. 

	 Curiously, nothing is said about Simon’s wife. Maybe she was an
invalid too, but then, why didn’t the Gospel writer mention what was
going on in her life. Jesus might have taken care of her also. So that
IS strange. Unless Simon’s wife had died. Nothing is said about
children either. 

	 This makes Simon’s mother-in-law all the more important for the
stability of the home. Simon had been a fisherman, providing food for
at least the two of them and some to sell at the market so they could
buy the other necessities. And don’t forget Andrew. He may have
lived and worked there too. After all, he was Simon’s brother. But
maybe he’d moved out. 

	 This makes Jesus’ visit after Church all the more strange. Who of
you, with a spouse at home with the flu, would have dared to bring
someone home unannounced? THAT would make for an interesting
conversation! We know that Simon had a reputation for being capable of
speaking and behaving without thinking things through, but, really,
was he THAT dense? The more we think about Simon – who was to be
renamed Peter, and on whom the whole Christian Church was to be
developed – the more we learn about Simon, the more interesting he
becomes. 

	 I wonder what scripture passages Simon, Andrew, James, John and
Jesus heard that day as Sabbath worship. We can’t even begin to
guess, but I wonder if they’d anything to do with the compassion of
God, or the power of God to heal and renew. 

	 I wonder what they all talked about as they walked to the house from
the synagogue. “Can you believe Ephraim’s prayer shawl? All those
tassels!” Or “What a klutz that bar mitzvah candidate is!” Or
were they struggling with why Simon’s mother-in-law was so ill, and,
on the Sabbath, when she had to tough it out for another twenty-four
hours before she could get some medical help, however primitive? 

	 I wonder if Jesus knew what He was going to do? I don’t think He
had a computer brain with x-ray vision. His vision would have been
limited to day-to-day situations He’d have seen, and to analyzing
how on earth He could make a difference for the people of that
village, or, probably, for Galilee. 

	 I don’t know if you remember the film with Morgan Freeman and Jim
Carrey which was called “Bruce Almighty”. Jim Carrey’s character
takes over God’s powers and responsibilities for a day, and it
became a chaotic mess. 

	 But Jesus-on-earth was a practical person, one who dealt with people
individually, right where they were. Maybe, as they wandered over from
Church, they DID talk about Simon’s mother-in-law, and, just
possibly, Jesus was trying to sense what might be the best, the most
effective, the loving thing to do. 

	 This is one of the most appealing, most endearing sides to Jesus, I
think. He didn’t make up His mind as if one size of reaction fits
all. He didn’t expect everyone to want or to need to be the same. He
looked directly at the person and held out His hand. He took on
Himself the burden of lifting Simon’s mother-in-law – notice that
she’s nameless – what does THAT say? ; He took on Himself the
burden of lifting Simon’s mother-in-law on to her feet. He made sure
that she was steady, and then He left her to it. In other words, He
left her to find out what it was that she wanted or needed to do, and
He left her to make up her own mind as to how and when she’d do it.
It’s that old free-will thing again!
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