Join Us for Dinner! – Mark 2:1-17

Lectionary Readings for February 7, 2021           Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany, Year B
Isaiah 40:21-31           v25 “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
Psalm 147:1-11, 20c       v5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.
1 Corinthians 9:16-23 v22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.
Mark 1:29-39  v35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.  

But we’re digging into Mark 2:1-17 this week as we continue through Mark until Easter.

Peace Quotes

“We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.”  ~ Archbishop Emeritus Rev. Desmond Tutu

“We’re all just a bunch of sinners, but we do the best we can.”  ~ Dolly Parton

Yes, we’re all a bunch of sinners, and YES, God still invites us – ALL of us – to work with Him as we jointly pursue creating the peace that is essential for people to experience the joy and freedom that we call the Kingdom of God.

Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me.           God loves me.            God has plans for me.

Preface to Today’s Scripture Reading

OK, first of all imagine that you are the owner of a small house that Jesus is visiting. Since you live outside of the city, that means you are not part of the wealthiest 1% in the area (they all live in the city). As one of the struggling poor, your home is a simple, one or two room adobe structure with a thatched roof held up by whatever tree limbs you could acquire.

The first half of today’s reading is the famous story of four guys who somehow get their paralyzed friend on top of your house, then tear up the thatched roof (gee, thanks fellows!), and lower their friend into the crowd that has now formed inside your home around Jesus. I can’t imagine any of that was comfortable for the paralyzed guy! But these fellows, working together, would do anything to get close to Jesus. That is faith in action!

What happens inside the home is equally strange. “First, the man was brought to Jesus for healing, not for forgiveness. Second, the man does not confess his sin or acknowledge any guilt at all, nor is he said to repent. Third, Jesus forgives him by his own authority, and does not say that the Lord forgives him,” like prophets did in the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament). (Jarvis, Cynthia A., and Johnson, E. Elizabeth, eds. Feasting on the Gospels--Mark. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014; p 64.)

Clearly, Jesus does not understand how ministry works (wink). Considering the way Jesus is just slinging forgiveness around like its free hot chocolate on a cold day, can you really blame the Synagogue leaders for criticizing Him?

Today’s story also includes Jesus associating with a man most Jews would have hated: Levi, one of the local tax collectors. As we have learned during the past two weeks of our Wednesday evening “Faith in Conversation” group, the Jews of Jesus’ time were terribly poor and struggled to survive from one day to the next. Every tax was a burden to them. And Levi, a fellow Jew, collecting yet another Roman tax – of which he’ll take a percentage as his income?? I can imagine what Jewish travelers might say to Levi, “What’s wrong with you man?!? Life’s hard enough as it is. We gotta look out for each other. How can you live with yourself knowing that we’re starving while you make a buck off of us? Call yourself a Jew? I got some words I could call you!” Yeah... Levi had effectively excommunicated himself from his own people.

Naturally, when you hear the phrase in today’s reading, “Levi son of Alphaeus,” you’re gonna think, “Gee, that name Alphaeus sounds mighty familiar.” And you’re right! In the next chapter, Jesus will appoint the 12 disciples which include “James son of Alphaeus.” I don’t know who Alphaeus was, but his sons were tight with Jesus. Just one more example of Jesus hanging out with the wrong people.

Between fast and loose forgiveness and hanging out with the wrong people, I don’t think Jesus has much potential in professional ministry (wink). Time will tell.

With all of that setup, let’s open our ears, minds, and hearts to today’s readings.

Read Mark 2:1-17.

Since today’s service is so long, I’ll cut right to the chase. Here are a few morsels of wisdom and encouragement we can glean from today’s reading.

The four men who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus remind us that our job is not to “fix” people ourselves – or even to decide what needs to be fixed. Rather, our task is to connect people with a loving God who wants to be in relationship with every person. The man’s symptom (paralysis) drew all five to Jesus. The men overcame numerous difficult obstacles to help their friend get as close as possible to Jesus. To what extent are we willing to sacrifice ourselves so that someone else can experience God’s loving, forgiving, healing presence?

When we do approach God with our needs, are we open to God offering us a different answer or path than we expected?
When God does act in our lives in a miraculous way, are we willing to openly praise God for that AND invite others to join us in our praise? Doing just that – acknowledging God’s activity in our lives and praising God – is part of what it means to participate in a community of faith. This is how we help each other (especially future generations) recognize God’s presence in our lives. Can you imagine how many generations told their children the story of when Uncle Joseph was miraculously healed after he was lowered from a roof?

This story also challenges anyone in a church leadership position. When God moves in ways to which we are not accustomed, are we willing to say, “That’s not how we normally do things around here, but if God is moving, we’re willing to get out of the way and see what unfolds.” That’s often easier said than done when it pushes us outside our comfort zones.

As for Jesus having dinner with a social outcast and his friends, that’s a real challenge. As with the first half of today’s story, Jesus never asks Levi to confess and repent for the harm he’s caused his fellow Jews. Jesus simply calls this social reject directly into fellowship over a shared meal. How quickly – if at all – are we willing to share extended periods of our time, concern, and compassion with people society has rejected?

In just a few minutes, we will celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion as a special meal to which we invite everyone. We are not invited because we are perfect, for we are all very imperfect people. We are invited because we are all God’s children. Our heavenly creator invites ALL of His children to join Him at the meal table where we can reconnect with God and with each other.

As God’s children, we are ALL warmly invited and declared worthy of celebrating our loving relationship with God through the elements of bread and juice, symbolically connecting us to the table where Jesus shared a meal with Levi and his very imperfect friends.

There is space for everyone: those who have been miraculously healed, those who are skeptical of healings; those who are curious; those who have been rejected by communities of faith, and those who have never before shared in this meal.

Come, find your place here next to Levi and his friends, next to power brokers and those that are just plain broke, next to the famous and the anonymous, next to the young and the old, and next to a young man who travels the countryside telling people they are loved and forgiven.

This is what the Kingdom of God looks like, everyone equally welcomed, equally accepted, equally embraced. This is a diverse Kingdom that we can ALL call home. Brothers and sisters, can I get an amen? Amen!