Mark 1:31

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“Jesus came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.”

            To me, these are some of the most powerful words in all of scripture. While John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…” is the scripture most often used to describe salvation in a nutshell, I am prepared to argue that Mark 1:31 is an equally, if not more important scripture to think of when considering the full nature of salvation.

In this verse from Mark, we not only see how Jesus accomplishes the salvation story in the life of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law when he takes her by the hand and lifts her to life.  But we also see how Simon Peter’s mother-in-law responds to the healing power of God’s love. She begins to serve. 

            In this verse, we see the intimate connection between the knowledge of our salvation and our call to serve. Forgive me for using this broad generalization but to make my point work I will argue that there are two kinds of churches or two kinds of Christians. There are those who are good at worship and there are those who are good at acts of service. There are those who are good at doing church and there are those who are good at doing work.

            Again, there are plenty who do both well. But I don’t want it to be lost on us that going to church on Sundays is meant to send us out in the world in service. The closing prayer in worship today, for example, calls us to pray, “send us now in peace to love and serve you will gladness and singleness of heart.”

            I also don’t want it to be lost on us that doing service work doesn’t necessarily mean we are serving Christ and his kingdom. I know I need to return to worship to remind myself to ask, “Whose kingdom is it anyway?” Am I serving my own kingdom, my own self-interests? Or am I serving Christ and his kingdom? Am I serving God’s best interests?

            The kind of salvation God is offering in Christ means a deliverance from the world of sin and death into a world of light and life. Salvation is more than our ticket to heaven when we die. Rather, salvation grants us entrance into life of perfect service with Christ in the here and now – a truth that Simon’s mother-in-law claims when she begins to serve. 

            My strong attraction to this story isn’t simply based on theological merit but also on personal experience. My own call to service in Christ’s kingdom began when Jesus took my hand and lifted me up. I trace the beginning of my own discipleship back to a healing service that took place in a chapel in Valley Crusis, North Carolina while on a youth mission trip.

            So, I speak from personal experience when I say that our call to service, our call to discipleship is rooted in the knowledge of our salvation, a salvation initiated by the healing power of God’s love in Christ. It isn’t enough to know the scriptures. It isn’t enough talk the talk. And I will go as far to say, it isn’t enough to walk the walk. 

            In other words, our service to God in both word and deed can only truly come from a place of conversion and transformation, a place of healing. For those of you who haven’t been struck down like Paul on the road to Damascus or experienced God’s healing in a chapel in Valley Crusis, do not despair.

Most stories of conversion and transformation and healing take place over time, over a life-time in fact. In fact, I believe my story of conversion and healing is still on-going. I am still being transformed one day at a time. I believe God is saving me one day at a time. Every time I gather in this place to worship, I open myself up to another conversion experience.
Remember that most conversion experiences don't happen like a bolt of lightening. Think of your spiritual growth like that the growth of a child. It happens slowly over time. Hopefully, one day you will look at yourself and say, "Wow, I really have grown!"
These conversion experiences remind us that the work we do is not our work at all. The work that we do is God’s work, the work that we are called to is the product of being touched and lifted to life by God in Christ – an experience the Church invites us to know in worship, when we are nourished by Christ through his word and sacrament, by gathering around this table to partake in the life of the One who is risen from the dead, the One who lifts us to life.  

And only after Christ touches and heals and transforms us in worship, are we called to service. Through worship, the Church clearly teaches that the knowledge of salvation and the call to service are intimately connected.

Service without stopping to recall our salvation, our conversion, our healing story in Christ is a slippery slope that often leads to self-righteousness and anger and burnout. Conversely, I’ve heard it said, “Sitting in church on Sunday won’t make you a Christian any more than sitting in a hen house will make you a chicken.”

Speaking of chickens, this rhythm of worship and service sometimes causes me to ask, “What came first? The worship or the service?” Obviously, worship comes first. And I say obviously because it is obvious the chicken came first, too. Read Genesis 1:20 for reference. But that is beside the point. The point is that service follows worship and worship follows service.

The same goes for the life and ministry of Jesus. What does Jesus do after his acts of healing and exorcism? He retreats to the wilderness of pray. He returns to his heavenly Father to recharge his batteries. But not for long.

Scripture says, the disciples hunt Jesus down. I guess it was still deer season there too. (add another to the bad preacher joke column). They find Jesus praying and say to him, “Where’d you go? The whole town is trying to find you. They want more.” And to that Jesus says, “I’m glad you found me. It’s time to go to another town so I can proclaim the message there too.”

Jesus is moving on. He is more than a miracle worker, more than a medicine man. He has a message to proclaim, and he only has so much more time to proclaim his Father’s kingdom before the religious and political authorities hunt him down and sentence him to death.

This second part of the lesson is another great example of why returning to God after service and work in God’s kingdom is a critical part of the salvation story. Returning to God in prayer and worship is critical to Jesus’ vocation and it is critical to our vocation. I know if I don’t return to God in prayer and worship, I forget to keep the main thing the main thing. I get side tracked by work that is non-essential to kingdom living.

And it is sometimes hard to notice that I am side-tracked by non-essential work because often this non-essential work is important work. Likewise, the disciples come to Jesus with important work. They tell him that there are plenty of more in the town who need to be healed. There are plenty of more in the town who need their demons exorcised. Imagine the lives Jesus can save if he would just go back to the town.

But Jesus doesn’t. Jesus has even more important work to do. He has a kingdom to proclaim. Inevitably, the proclamation of this kingdom will lead to more healing and more exorcism. But even more importantly, the proclamation of his kingdom will lead others to stay behind and continue the work of healing, continue the work of proclaiming.

Jesus is starting a movement that will overwhelm the world with a story of salvation, a story of healing. Jesus is starting a movement that will transform the world with people who have hearts to love and hands to serve. Now imagine all the good that came from Jesus moving on to the next town. All of you in this church today are visible witnesses to the truth of what happened because Jesus moved on.

In honor of Super Bowl Sunday, imagine what might happen if football players and fans alike penned the scripture Mark 1:31 on eye make-up and poster board? Even more, imagine what might happen to the Christian movement in this city, state, country, world if we took seriously the call to worship and the call to service as a never-ending cycle of loving and serving the Lord? And now imagine Jesus lifting the whole world to life again. Amen.