February 6, 2012

Why Me?

By Keith Anderson

Jesus Healing Peter's Mother-in-Law

Why me? It’s one the hardest question a pastor can face. ‘Why me?” When people are diagnosed with disease. When they are dying. When life just keeps falling in around them, and they just can’t catch a break. The question inevitably comes, “Why me?” Or, as the exiles in our reading from Isaiah ask, “Where is God?”

I bet many people in Capernaum felt the same way.

“Let Us Go From Here”
In our Gospel lesson, Jesus arrives in Capernaum in the afternoon. He heals Simon-Peter’s mother-in-law. After dinner, they brought everyone in town who was sick or possessed. The whole city gathered around the door of Peter’s mother-in-law’s. Jesus cured many, and cast out many demons.

The next morning he went off to a deserted place outside of town and prayed. Jesus did this kind of thing a lot. Peter and his friends come and find him and say, “Everyone is looking for you. Let’s get back to town. There are more people that need you.” People who were not healed the day before were already gathering at Peter’s mother-in-law’s door.

Jesus, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so I might proclaim the message there also; for this is what I came to do.”

And they leave.

But what about all those people waiting to be healed? They wait and wait and wait at the door for Jesus to come back. When he doesn’t they ask, “Why me? Why not me? It’s not fair.”

How do we explain what happens here? How do we explain why some people seem to get cured and some people don’t? Continue reading

Leave a comment | posted in healing, suffering

January 31, 2012

Just Your Average Sunday Morning

By Keith Anderson

Today is just your average Sunday morning at Redeemer. I arrived at 8:30, unlocked the doors and turned on the lights, fired up the copier should anyone need it, and flipped on the sanctuary lights. Like an airline pilot doing a systems check, I surveyed the sanctuary. Bulletins, check. Communion, check. The correctly colored stole. Check.

Church began at 9:30 and most people arrived about 5 minutes after that. The liturgy gets underway and we are carried along by its flow. Those of us with worship jobs to do are just trying to do the right thing at the right time – the right word, the right note, the right gesture. Visitors are still trying to figure out which paper in the bulletin is which. Some eyelids are fluttering closed for a quick morning nap. Kids are squirming in the pews. Coffee is brewing.

Its just your typical Sunday morning here at Redeemer. Everything is going according to plan. No surprises.

Saturday in Capenaum

And I imagine this was much like the scene that Saturday in Capernaum when Jesus shows up at the synagogue. Services had started on time. The usual people were there. The liturgy carried them along and there were probably some refreshments waiting for them afterward in the fellowship hall. The usual.

But then Jesus walks in and he begins to teach and immediately people are, Mark says, “astounded” by what he has to tell them about God and the Scriptures. He’s the best guest preacher of all time, the best adult forum leader they’ve ever had. He teaches as one with “authority” – not like the pastor – umm, the scribes, the professional teachers of that day. This is different.

Then, in the midst of this astonishment a man cries out. He probably wasn’t new to the synagogue. In fact, he probably had been there for many years, maybe his whole life, worshipping without incident.

But in the presence of Jesus, the demon in that man jumps to the fore. It recognizes Jesus. It knows where Jesus comes from – Nazareth – and who he comes from – God. And he cries out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus?” Continue reading

Leave a comment | posted in epiphany, Uncategorized

January 22, 2012

Answering the call

By dianejyoung

Jonah 3: 1-5, 10 and Mark 1: 14-20

I had an unusually full week last week. I’m sure it wasn’t busier than your week, but all of a sudden, on top of the usual stuff of work and familial responsibilities, I had a slew of deadlines, and I’d started a course and the work was way more than I expected. And a big town event that I’d been helping plan for months was about to take place. And on top of that there were some fun, social things that I had foolishly agreed to months ago, but now they seemed like a burden and a waste of time. Why did I say I would go to the Symphony?

You know those times when you’re going full tilt, and you just can’t accommodate people–you can’t do what they ask you to do, whether it’s pleasurable or serious. Everyday I had to say no to somebody: no, I couldn’t go to the movies, no, I couldn’t go for a walk, no, I couldn’t write a reference–how about next week?, no, I couldn’t attend the meeting that all committee chairs are required to go to.

There were phone calls that I didn’t answer and messages on my answering machine that I didn’t get back to.

Which is why, when I read the story of Jonah, the man who famously got a call from God and said no, I thought: I don’t blame you, Jonah. Sometimes you just can’t do it all. Continue reading

Leave a comment | posted in Uncategorized

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