David Orendorff, Mark 1:29-39

As we continue exploring the first chapter of Mark’s telling of the good news, Jesus teaches and heals in ever widening circles. It begins with the Holy Spirit refining Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus emerges preaching a blessed assurance that the presence of God is with us and a radical trust in the this great good news.

After calling a few disciples to follow him, Jesus goes to the synagogue, to church. There an unclean spirit challenges Jesus and Jesus casts the demon from the man. What began as a personal revelation at his baptism has now come to the church with power and authority; life will be different and better for in Jesus the demonic world is being cast out.

From the church Jesus goes to the house of Simon and Andrew. You remember Simon and Andrew are fishermen who have cast their nets aside to follow Jesus. Simon and Andrew’s house was home to an extended family which at the time would be common. At the house is Simon’s mother-in-law. This, of course, implies that Simon was married and probably had children. Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a fever. Without saying anything Jesus takes her hand and lifts her up and the fever leaves her. And she serves them demonstrating she is indeed well.

Not only are those in church to be healed, but the kingdom of God extends now to the families of those who trust God. If you were to draw circles inside circles the center circle would be Jesus, then the disciples of Jesus and the people of the church.

Then Mark teaches us that the kingdom of God is bigger than church and the circle expands to include family. And in the next verses we find that it is also bigger than family. That evening they brought to Jesus all of Capernaum who were sick or possessed with demons, and the whole city gathered around him. I assume “they” are the church, the disciples, and Simon and Andrews’s family doing what believers do, bringing others to Jesus for healing.

Jesus is expanding the kingdom of God yet one more circle, to the people of Capernaum who now hear and experience the good news that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. And like every other group Jesus tells them to change their thinking and trust this good news. Now the kingdom of God is as big as a town.

The next morning though Jesus is looking for some quiet time and attempts to go off to be by himself with God. The disciples tell him everyone is looking for him and Jesus responds by saying, “Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also; for that is why I came out.” The kingdom expands yet into another circle, the whole of Galilee.

Wherever Jesus goes the kingdom of God grows. We shall see in future weeks that Mark understands the kingdom of God to be bigger than even Galilee. And we know that in our day the circles have grown to include the whole of the creation.

Imagine a placid lake with the water still and mirror like. Jesus is the stone dropped into the water and his influence, his authority and power, ripple out from the Holy Spirit entering into him and into the whole of the world.

I think it is a human tendency for us to want to capture that ripple and bend it to our use as if we could possess it. But the ripple will not be possessed, it will not stay in the church, in the family or in the village, it will ripple out to the very edges of the water and then ripple back. Once the Holy Spirit as the kingdom of God is dropped into our lives it ripples to every part of who we are; first in this part of our psyche and then that, first into this part of our body and then that; first into this part of our community and then that; until the whole of creation ripples to the movement of God’s grace.

We know from the demon’s challenge and the fate of John the Baptist that not everyone loves the inclusiveness circles Jesus is creating. But the ripple of the circles of the kingdom of God cannot be stopped. It was Vicki Weida, a long time friend, who gave me a poem by Edwin Markham:

Outwitted
He drew a circle that shut me out -
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!”

The kingdom of God, with Jesus’ death, will eventually include even the enemies of God. The kingdom of God circles out from Jesus’ adoption at baptism, through the wilderness, into disciples and the church, into the family of Simon and Andrew, then among the villagers of Capernaum, into all Galilee, the Trans-Jordan, and into Jerusalem. And the early apostles preach and live the good news into Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas and Australia. The kingdom of God has even been to Antarctica.

Jesus teaches us with power that the “time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand; change your mind about life and trust this good news.” And so the Holy Spirit descends into the world making the kingdom of God present and the good news to be trusted.

There are some other things to observe in our scripture. Already there is a great diversity in how the kingdom of God comes alive. Simon’s mother-in-law, like the man from whom Jesus cast out demons last week, says nothing. But this time Jesus also says nothing. He issues no commands, asks no faith commitment, doesn’t ask her to be a disciple or be church; in fact he doesn’t even ask her what is wrong or what she wants him to do for her. Jesus simply takes her hand, lifts her up and the fever leaves her. The kingdom of God has simply and lovingly come to her and made her well.

Or note that last week’s encounter with the unclean spirit was provoked by the unclean spirit. In this week’s miracle Jesus is the one that initiates the contact. But when the circle expands to include the village people who need healing in body and soul, they are the ones initiating contact seeking his help. And then Jesus leaves Capernaum to take the good news in word and deed to all Galilee, he is the one going to find others. So does the kingdom of God come to us or do we have to go to it? Biblically and in my experience, both happen as God pleases.

In Mark’s gospel people receive the good news of the kingdom of God and are healed in a variety of ways. Sometimes they come to Jesus and ask, sometimes Jesus goes to them. Sometimes he says something, sometimes he says nothing. Sometimes it is the person’s faith that heals and sometimes persons of no faith are healed. Sometimes Jesus touches the person and sometimes the person touches Jesus. Sometimes the one healed is with Jesus and sometimes they are nowhere near him. Sometimes there is gratitude and sometimes there is none.

It is just like life, isn’t it? The kingdom of God, its comfort and healing seems to function independent of us; to have a will and mind of its own. It may be confusing to our human minds which so like to order things (a way of controlling things), but it is clear in God’s mind. We do not and cannot make the kingdom of God. It is here now in the way it wants to be here now. This person has a miraculous cure from cancer, that person doesn’t but instead has a miracle of family coming home. This person has a mountain top experience sitting right next to that person who is living in the darkness of the valley. It is the Holy Spirit, moving among us, leading us to shalom in the wilderness, healing us in the way we hope or healing us of something in the way we need, but always healing us and our world.

I think that God may sometimes be like the elderly father in Phoenix who calls his son in New York and says, “I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough.”

“Pop, what are you talking about?” The son screams.

“We can’t stand the sight of each other any longer,” the old man says. “We’re sick of each other, and I’m sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her,” and he hangs up.

Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone, “Like heck they’re getting divorce,” she shouts, “I’ll take care of this.”

She calls Phoenix immediately, and screams at the old man, “You are not getting divorced! Don’t do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back, and we’ll both be there tomorrow. Until then don’t do a thing, Do you hear me?” and she hangs up.

The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. “Okay,” he says, “They’re coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own airfares.”

We may be confused, afraid, even angry, but God is just getting us home the best way possible and maybe the only way we will come. The best thing we can do is stand near the phone in worship, study, service and hanging out with others listening for God to call.

The kingdom of God is here and now. And its power is expanding in ever larger circles so that it includes men, women and children; white, red, black, yellow and all the combinations; the well and the ill, the rich and the poor, the religious and the irreligious; the tolerant and the bigot, the gay and the straight; the friend and the enemy; humans and animals; trees and rocks. Whatever it is the kingdom of God holds it and loves it. We are called to trust this good news even when we don’t understand it.

Shalom and Amen.