5 Epiphany, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
5 Epiphany, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Isaiah 40:21-31 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Psalm 147:1-12, 21c
I Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39
In the name of the one, holy, and living God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
This morning I’m going to do two things I almost never do with a sermon:
give it a title and…
use all the readings!
I did not grow up in churches in which the preacher titled their sermons,
so that is not my tradition nor practice.
However, if I were to title today’s sermon, it would be:
“A Future that’s Bigger than the Past”
This is actually the title of a book written by Sam Wells,
Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.
In the intro Sam says,
“Christians don’t have to look far for a mission statement for the church.”
He says that Jesus supplied the mission statement in John 10:10 -
“I came that they may have life,
and have it abundantly.”
Sam further states…
“Living abundant life:
that’s what the Father intends,
the Son embodies,
the Spirit facilitates.” (pg. 2)
And it seems to me that this is exactly what today’s Scripture readings are all about!
Abundant life:
what the Father intends,
the Son embodies,
and the Spirit facilitates.
In Isaiah we hear:
“Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
‘My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God’?
Well, I could think of some answers to those questions.
Why would an exiled and downtrodden people wonder where God is…
feeling that God was taking no notice?
Well, how would people experiencing any hardship -
whether failing health or loss of income,
or unremitting news of violence and disease,
or the loss of one’s life partner or friend or sibling or child…
how would it be that they wouldn’t wonder where God is?
Sometimes in the midst of life’s dark days we feel closer to God,
and sometimes we do not.
The response in Isaiah to this questioning is this:
“Have you not known? Have you not heard?
“The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
“He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
“He 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.”
God’s intention for us is abundant life!
So…even in the midst of hardship and heartache,
God’s intention is for abundant life.
That is Good News.
That is grounding news…hope-filled news.
News that, perhaps, our ears need to hear anew these days!
We hear more about abundant life in today’s Psalm.
The Psalmist tells us that God rebuilds cities,
gathers exiles,
heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
God lifts up the lowly,
and prepares rain for the earth.
God makes grass to grow upon the mountains
and plants to serve humankind.
God takes pleasure in those who await God’s gracious favor.
Abundant life is God’s desire.
Jesus, himself, embodies this abundant life.
The gospels are replete with stories of Jesus embodying abundant life.
Today Jesus and a few of his disciples enter Simon and Andrew’s house, where Simon’s mother-in-law lays in bed with a fever.
Jesus comes and lifts her up, and the fever leaves her.
It is a small thing…a fever.
But this fever prevents her from engaging in her life work: taking care of her family…
it prevents her from sharing her gifts and abundant life.
We are then told Jesus healed many who were sick and possessed with demons.
We know from other gospel stories that Jesus even raised the dead!
All of these actions embody abundant life…restoring people to wholeness.
Living abundant life:
that’s what the Father intends,
the Son embodies,
the Spirit facilitates.
The Spirit facilitates abundant life.
“In the morning,
while it was still very dark,
[Jesus] got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.”
Apparently, even Jesus, the Son of God, needed to tend to his spiritual life.
He often sought out a place of solitude,
away from the crowds,
where he could spend time alone in prayer,
listening to God.
Isaiah’s words even apply to Jesus:
“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.”
The Spirit facilitates abundant life.
Jesus gets as much alone time with God as he can before Simon and his companions find him.
“Everyone is searching for you,” they say.
Everyone is searching for this man who not only embodies abundant life but offers it to them!
And Jesus responds, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns.”
Let us go.
He doesn’t go alone but invites the disciples to go with him.
And so Jesus continues to preach a message of abundant life,
healing and casting out demons.
Jesus leads the way
and shows his disciples the way into abundant life.
Our dear friend, the apostle Paul, carries forth the message in his own ways,
likening himself to everyone he meets
so that they may meet the Good News on their own terms.
He does not boast of himself because that would be to defeat the purpose.
His goal is to share the Good News of abundant life
so that he may share the richness of blessing with those who find that Life.
Sam’s book, A Future that’s Bigger than the Past,
celebrates the hope of living into the Good News of God’s Kingdom…
here and now
and in our future.
This morning our Scriptures tell us the Good News of a God
who intends us to have abundant life,
of Jesus who embodies such a life,
and of the working of the Spirit who facilitates such a life.
So, how do we live into such abundant life?
And then offer that invitation to others?
These are difficult days,
and many of us are growing weary.
Yet, we have the invitation to live our lives with hope…
in the strength of almighty God.
Henri Nouwen in his book, Spiritual Direction,
offers an image of listening to God that is profoundly personal.
I offer this image to you:
“We are to kneel before God,
just as the prodigal son did upon his return
and put our ear against God’s chest and listen,
without interruption,
to the heartbeat of God. (Nouwen, p. 111)
I can imagine that this is what Jesus was doing early that morning in that deserted place.
In that place of solitude he was waiting for God,
listening to God,
allowing God to fill his cup,
renewing his own abundant life…
before he returned to his work in the world.
This is what we are about as a community gathered.
We listen to God’s intention for us:
that we are offered abundant life both now and for our future.
We hear stories of Jesus’ embodiment of that life
so that we may go out and do likewise…
loving each person we meet along life’s journey…
honoring them as God’s beloved.
Sharing with them the Good News,
even if we don’t use words or Jesus’ name.
We allow God’s Spirit to fill us, renew us, and guide us
as we offer moments of silent listening to the heartbeat of God,
knowing that it is God’s very breath that breathes within us.
We are the Church: faithful followers of Jesus.
Our mission never changes.
Our mission is to live life abundant
and to share that Good News with everyone we meet.
I pray this week that each of our lives may bear forth the Light of Christ in the world,
even when it may seem within us to be just a flicker.
God is much more powerful than we are.
God can do much more than we can ask or even imagine.
I am grateful for each one of you.
May the Light of Christ scatter the darkness from before your path,
that your lives may be a light to the world.
Amen.
