Wednesday
7:00 am Holy Communion
A
And going
again into
And they
come, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four (people). And, after not
being able to bring him to him on account of the crowd, they unroofed the roof
that was above him, and after digging it out they lowered the stretcher where
the paralytic was lying.
And Jesus,
beholding their faith, says to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are sent away.”
But some of
the scribes were sitting there and talking it through in their hearts, “Why does
this man speak in this manner? He blasphemes! Who is able to send away sins but
God alone?”
And
straightaway, after perceiving by his spirit that they talked it through in
this manner in themselves, Jesus says to them, “Which is easier, to say to the
paralytic, ‘Your sins are sent away’, or to say, ‘Rise, and take up your
stretcher and go’? And in order that you might have knowledge that the Son of
Humanity has authority upon the earth to send away sins”—he said to the
paralytic—“I say to you, rise, take up your stretcher and go into your house!”
And he was
raised and straightaway after taking up the stretcher he went out before all,
so that all were beside themselves and glorified God saying, “We never saw
something of this manner!”
The Word of the Lord
Homily
The door
captivates me. It might seem odd out of all the things in this text to be the
thing that captivates me, but maybe that is why it captivates me. It just isn’t
one of Mark’s favorite words. It adds superfluous detail. Just a few verses earlier,
Mark says that the whole town was gathered around the door, and now there isn’t
room for anyone at the house where Jesus is staying, not even around the door.
Later the disciples will find a colt tied up at the door and take it for Jesus
to ride triumphantly into
Ultimately,
a door is a boundary control. We build walls to separate places; we build doors
to control who or what gets in or out of those places. We put prisoners behind
walls and we control the doors. We put ourselves behind the walls of our houses
and we control the doors. Sometimes even that isn’t enough. When we go to sleep
the bad guys are locked up behind walls and we are miles away behind our own
locked doors, our own locked bedroom doors, and under our covers even if it is
ridiculously hot. We control the boundaries.
Both kinds
of doors, the kind that lock others in and the kind that lock others out, are
in use. In the house where Jesus stays the crowds are thronging to the door.
You can imagine sitting inside the walls of the house, feeling the pounding of
fists and feet, seeing the door coming off of its hinges. At the tomb they put
Jesus away behind a door. You can imagine the relief of everyone that this
menace to Roman society is safely under a layer of rocks.
Friends of
Christ, the door does not stay shut. The women come to the tomb on Sunday
morning and find that the great stone is already rolled away from the door, and
that Jesus is nowhere to be found. He’s on the loose. No door can control God’s
coming and going.
Sometimes
others block our path to God. The cashier at the grocery store is a jerk. Your
friends tell you that you need to work at being a better person for God to love
you. Work gets heaped on you and you aren’t able to focus on your faith. Other
times we block our own paths to God. We tell ourselves that we can earn our
salvation. We tell ourselves that we do not need God. We lock ourselves away
behind layers of security, right down to the sheets we pull over ourselves at
night.
In Christ,
God bursts through those doors. The obstacles, regardless of who put them
there, are nothing. In a moment, in that split second when no one is looking,
in an act so effortless that it is not even described, the stone is rolled away
and Christ is on the loose and God is at work in the world. No door can control
God’s coming and going.
The love of
God in Christ Jesus is so great that nothing can contain it. The crowds are so
desperate to get at it that they tear the roof off the joint to get at Christ,
and Christ is happy to oblige them. No wall, no door, no roof, can keep God
from us. At the grocery checkout, at work, at dinner, and in the middle of the
night under a warm blanket God is with us. The doors of this place can’t keep
God out, and the doors of this place can’t keep God in. No door can control
God’s coming and going. What we can
count on, is that God promises to be with us, whatever side of the door we are
on. Amen