Sermon

St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Durham, NC

2/19/06 - 7 Epiphany

The Rev. Harriette H. Sturges

"Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old.  I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"

With all the Rite 13 celebrations, we've been having recently, this movement from childhood to adulthood that we acknowledge with a special liturgy, and with my mother's change of address in her move into a retirement facility, and the changing prescriptions I get from my eye doctor, this verse caught my attention.  This new thing may not be what we are prepared for, expect or even want but life with God is seldom if ever boring.

So what happens when you combine a paralyzed man on a mat carried by four friends, with crowds, a blocked door and Jesus?  This is not a riddle but an illustration of this verse: "Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"  Certainly at Capernaum it was a new, a new entrance into the kingdom, vertical not lateral and a creative response of faith to the love and power of God with the surprising response: Son, your sins are forgiven.

This new thing raised the eyebrows, the blood pressure, and the voices of the scribes.  Rightly, they know that only God can forgive sins.  So what's going on?  Is Jesus trying to get their goats? Shock them?  Call attention to himself? Or to reveal a new thing about God?

We're still in the season of Epiphany, the season of manifestation.  Jesus has been healing people. Healing itself wasn't entirely new but the way he healed was.  He had healed Peter's mother-in-law, lepers, and so many that even though he insisted the healed tell no one, he could not even enter a town without being mobbed by the sick and suffering.

Today we see him returning to his home in Capernaum.  He's at home when his teaching is interrupted.  I can't help wondering what he was saying.  Mark says he was speaking the word.  Perhaps, he was telling them how their transgressions are forgiven or how John the Baptist had prepared a way in the wilderness and now they were invited to follow the way, that, indeed, he was the way, the truth, and the life. Or that there was a new way to go.

As he is speaking this word whatever it was, dust begins to fall, followed by clods of earth and tiles.  These begin to fall around him. This hole appears and then is filled with the body of a man descending.

After the teaching, the theory, the lecture, it is time for a living example, proof of what he proclaims, the experience of forgiveness and faith.  No longer do we have to be paralyzed with fear, fear of the Romans, fear of the Law, fear of failure. No longer do we stay glued to the mat of safety which has become a prison.  We are free to take up this mat and go home with it, no longer controlled by it. Good news indeed. 

But new ways and new things are often challenging.  My old routine is not only familiar but useful.  When I follow it I can be sure that I've taken my medicine, where I've put my keys or glasses or if I've fed the cats.  I know where I am going and how to get there.  I know the words to the prayers and hymns, the steps of the dance, the rules of the game, the diagnosis I need to make, what is appropriate to say or do or wear.  I have my mat, my safe place.

So why risk a new thing?  It might disappoint me.  I might fail or make a fool of myself.  But why stay paralyzed when healing is possible.

We have been formed to declare God's praises and somehow with growing up or growing older we continually outgrow our former understandings and experience of God.  We lose our way, become burdened with the sins of the past, weary of our iniquities and no longer know what to say or how.  Sometimes we are so "stuck" we must ask our friends to help us. Sometimes as a community we may have forgotten how to praise and must be amazed out of our set ideas.

However, as important is this revelation, of Jesus speaking the word, of our need to take up our mat, to let our sins be forgiven, Jesus is also revealing and underscoring "their faith."  For years I always thought it was the faith of the four who carried the man and the mat. But there were others accompanying him. And it was their faith and the faith of the paralyzed one as well that refused to be deterred by the crowd, the blocked door, the sturdy roof.  They were not paralyzed by fear, by the risk of feeling foolish.  They were amazingly creative in this apparent dead-end situation.  I don't know what I'm more amazed by- the healing itself or the wildly creative action taken by the these crazy friends.

We have been formed according to Isaiah to declare God's praise.  In the house at Capernaum they were all amazed and glorified God.  In the house of God today or in our homes later what does it take for us to be  amazed, to glorify God, to be glad and rejoice in the Lord as our psalm expresses it. What is it that blocks us?  That keeps us from openings our hearts and mouth with praise? Is it lack of faith or is it sin?

Is it to realize that we are not intentional, not serious about confessing our sins? Might our sin be not believing our sins can be forgiven so we never name them specifically; we just know we sin and bemoan our fallen state, excuse ourselves since sin is part of the human condition? Or do we spend more time complaining about the sins of others, whether people, corporations, governments or religions?

Do we not believe that confessing our sins can lead to happiness, so we wither away?  "Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is put away."  I, I am the one who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins."  These words by the psalmist and the prophet come from their experience of forgiveness, their moving from paralysis to freedom.

Our Book of Common Prayer has the General Confession that you all are familiar with, may know by heart.  It is the community confessing together and along with the creed proclaiming their belief in the forgiveness of sin. But there comes a time when we must pick up our own mat, not be carried by others in confessing sins. Our church also has the powerful Rite of Reconciliation starting on page 446.  Read the italics, the rubrics and both Forms.  Remember that Lent is coming up and it is the ideal time for this sacrament.  Let what this Epiphany season has revealed, this faith and this awareness and desire for forgiveness and happiness inform your Lenten discipline.

Lord, I want to believe.  Help my unbelief. Create in me a new heart and renew a right spirit within me.

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