Year B 5th Epiphany 2024 Getting The Word Out

 Year B 5th Sunday after Epiphany, 4 February 2024

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Getting the Word Out”

Collect: Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

Mark 1:29-39

After Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

We are coming to the end of the football season, and some people care passionately, and some could care less. One of the things about the fall, when it comes to football, anyway, is that some people are easily identifiable as being for one team or another. It stands out. And in this coming week some of your friends may wear a 49ers jersey or some other swag, and others will be sporting the Chiefs gear. Loudly, proudly, and with great joy emanating from them. The rest of us may show up, if for nothing other than the commercials. But for those in the thralls of team passion, enjoy it while it lasts.

Seeing what side we are on, is often not as obvious as the team gear I just mentioned. And like with the Big Game next week, there are those that care, and a whole spectrum of those who stretch across the vast center. Not cold or hot, just kinda there. One thing about the team swag, especially the jerseys, is that it gets your message out there early and readily identifiable. Not all messages are that easy.

Jesus, in our Gospel reading today, is still on the front end of getting the word out that he was here, he was actively doing ministry, and starting a process to take over the hearts and minds of all God’s Children one at a time. It would be long and slow, and it would be hard. He knew he only had a few years to make it visible to his disciples so that he could carry on the work he begins here.

We see him healing Peter’s mother-in-law, and silencing demons who want to undermine his work by loudly proclaiming his work and ministry before Jesus was able to lay the necessary good foundation. And he knew the level of self-care that this would require to accomplish this divine conspiracy to take over the world with love.

I do not think that it is accidental that Jesus models for us, even in the FIRST chapter of Mark, that for him to do what he came to do he has to continually revive and renew by getting away with God. He is not doing under his own power and strength as an individual, but rather, he is relying on God and making that relationship his first priority. He does this so he CAN get the word out. He cannot do the self-care later, he has to do it all along the way.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.”

He did not come to set up a station for ministry, what we would probably call a church, that would make him important in a single place, he knew he had to keep on the move to ensure that the message was spread far and wide “FOR THAT IS WHAT I CAME OUT TO DO.” He did not mince any words.

Paul, likewise, is very clear. His heart is set on the Message, and getting the word out as far and wide as he possibly could. He rode his Roman citizenship so that whether free or arrested and being transported, he preached and shared and got up and did it again the next day. He says he was commissioned by Jesus and made an apostle (that is one sent out) to share this message, and he is obliged by this calling to make it so.

And he knows about communication. Very rare is the message that is “One Size Fits All.” The art of communication is often the art of sales. You have to speak the language of the person you want to receive the message. That is part of the job. Paul’s description may sound divisive and harsh to our ears, but it is clear and what the job required to share the Message. He put it this way…

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak.

To all he found the slant that they needed to hear. Being a “slave” to the message is requisite. The Message is the Master, and finding the necessary slant is the job of the Communicator. While we shudder (rightly) at the word “slave” here, it is the Greek word given. Many translations use “servant” here to appeal to our sensibilities. But the word diakonos, the foundation of our word deacon, is servant or waiter. Dawn+, our deacon, serves at the table we come to today. Diakonos. But Paul uses the word Doulos, slave, as he is possessed with the Gospel and by the Gospel. His self-identification as such is all the more powerful. We still use this word in one who cares for the mother in childbirth, doula. It is still a powerful image.

So as a Doula, slave, Paul slants the Message to Jewish ears, and to Law-abiding, and to  the Lawless, and to the Weak. He finds a way to connect with the one hearing so that he can share this thing that possesses and consumes him. There is nothing higher in his life for Paul, this News so Good that he cannot help himself. He is so transformed that he changes his name from Saul to Paul, from the name of the first King of Israel who thought pretty highly of himself to a name of Latin origin meaning small or humble. In this new life, for Paul, was this message he was commissioned to carry to the known world. 

Today, we have numbed our ears to how radical and life-changing Jesus’ message is. It is an oxymoron to say that it is Old News, but probably we have watered it down so much that it is meaningless to too many.

Communication specialists tell us that the common person needs to have 6-8 interactions with something for the information to stick. And about 14 times for us to take action on it. Kasey and I have to laugh sometimes or we would cry when someone says we did not announce something when we did, repeatedly. But that is the nature of getting a message out. We say it. We say it again. We say it again and again. And even then it may not stick or no action is taken. That is hard.

And for my sanity, and Kasey’s, too, when you feel like we did not say something or get the word out, maybe phrase it, “I did not get that word.” instead of the far more accusatory, “You never said it.” We tossed the ball, really. It just was not caught.

In the coming days you are going to hear us try and get a message out, and we need everyone to hear it. We have had many “helpers'' turning the thermostats warmer. And I get it. We have had some very cold days in recent months. The problem is that the helpers make spaces warmer and then do not turn the thermostat back down. We came into a large space last week and someone had made it 80 degrees and then left it run that warm all night on a particularly cold night. That cost us a pretty penny. Last month’s electric bill was more than double the norm. So please, if you make it warmer you must turn it back down to the programmed temperature before leaving. We check when we walk by, but we cannot go to every thermostat in the building when we leave at the end of every day. 

Now in that paragraph I have tried in many ways to get the message out, don’t touch the thermostats or if you do, turn them back to the programmed settings. We even added little notes to them repeating this message. We have to do this. Electricity is expensive, and we can use those funds for so much more important things, like sharing the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And as already shared, no communication is 100% effective. None. Even Paul says as much as he concludes in today’s reading. 

I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.

All things to all people to save some. Some. Not 100%. But Paul recognizes that we must try every tack we can take to see if one will work. And every group, every person, has their own peculiar slant. We have to find their slant and tack the message to let it have every possible means of being heard.

The other thing as we do what we can to share Christ’s Message is to trust the Holy Spirit to do the Holy Spirit’s job. Even Jesus knew his sticking around was not called for in Capernaum. He shared the world. People saw miraculous signs, and then after he recharged, he moved on. His job was to preach it, and then like a seed planted in the ground, it takes root in ways that we cannot imagine, and if God blesses it something miraculous can come to fruition.

Friends, from Jesus, to Paul, to your parents and Sunday School teachers, and maybe an occasional preacher planted the seed of faith that took root in your heart. And if not yet, I have faith. God can work miracles, and still does. e might not have jerseys to identify who team we play for, but maybe it is better that way. Scripture promises they will know we are Christians by our love, and that is better for the Message anyway.  Amen