“He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up...and she began to serve them.”
When I first read this part of the text, I was struck by a number of things. My first inclination was that this was one of those pieces of text that has been used by the church for years to continue to keep women “in their place”. That here was a woman who was sick, sick enough that she needed the healing touch of Jesus, and as soon as she was healed, she’s back to work in the kitchen. Is this the model we’ve been given of what a woman’s responsibility in this world is...to serve others--to keep up the household? And what happens when we transfer that message into the real world? The stories of women across the ages have shown us, that the place of women has often been relegated to the household. And even now when we’ve made so much progress for workplace equality, women still struggle with balancing the “second shift”--after a full day of work, coming home to another full time job of caring for the household and family. And so my feathers were ruffled by the retelling of the healing miracle of Simon’s mother-in-law, and I wanted to outright dismiss it. “He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up...and she began to serve them.” With a more patient reading of the text, I went back to look at some of the key words in the original text. The word for “lifted up” or “raised up”, egeire, is the same word that is used in the resurrection story of Jesus. So in a sense, Simon’s mother-in-law is resurrected. When we consider this possibility, we can appreciate her experience as one of a miracle. She was ill and now she has been fully restored to life. The verb “to serve” is the same word that will later be used to describe the action of the early apostles who serve in the early church--diakonia. It is the word from which we later derive the title “deacon”. The role of the deacon is one of service. They stand with one foot in the church and one foot in the world...helping the church to know the concerns of the world, and bringing the love of the God into the world. With this in mind, perhaps Simon’s mother-in-law was the first deacon. Through the healing of Jesus, she is able to serve others. As Ofelia Ortega explains: “Her diaconal work is the beginning and announcement of the gospel. Simon and the other disciples won’t understand it until Easter. They will not want to become servants of each other. She has overcome all the selfishness and restrictive teachings and has been close to Jesus…[she is a] servant of the church gathered in her son-in-laws house.” “He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up...and she began to serve them.” Have you ever been so exhausted, so wiped out by the daily tasks and commitments that you find yourself unable to keep moving forward? Have you ever been so overwhelmed that you feel like you need to be lifted up? Sometimes I think we all experience moments when we’re like Simon’s mother-in-law. We become consumed and depleted--sick if you will--and that in order to continue to do our work, our ministry, to offer our service to the world, we have to be raised up, resurrected, given new life. When I was serving at the church prior to St. Mark’s, I was feeling pretty wiped out. I was contemplating leaving parish ministry because it wasn’t life giving and I didn’t feel like I was making much of a difference in my community. But when I started interviewing here, and then was called to be priest here, I did so with a spirit of resurrection...I had been raised up and my response was to serve. My ministry here has been reinvigorated by the people I have been called to serve--my work not only in the larger community, but right here with our youth group, with the women who gather for bible study, talking and praying with those I visit in their homes, offering ministry to each of you in different ways--this service has breathed new life into me as a servant of Christ. And so this morning, I ask you to reflect on how you might need to be raised up by Jesus, and then once resurrected, how you can offer service to others. Amen.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI don't know what the future of the church is, but I know that we will continue to be a place of sanctuary and hope, working towards healing in the world. Archives
October 2017
Categories |