sermon excerpts: "Open Access"

... What we see in this whirlwind beginning of Jesus’ ministry is a flurry of activity, of healing, casting out demons, prayer and most importantly, movement. He is on the go. We do not know the shape of the future, we’re not sure exactly how much Jesus realized the urgency of his ministry, that his term in office would only be 3 years.

He doesn’t stop to put down roots, he preaches in the synagogue on the Sabbath, that afternoon he’s at Simon’s mother-in-law, that evening as soon as the laws of sabbath passed into yesterday, he is met by the entire city of Capernaum needing healing and casting out of demons.

We also see that he did not offer much in the way of teaching - or at least it is not evident in these verses. In a way, it reveals a priority list of needs. The physical needs of health, the emotional and mental health of exorcism, only when these other needs are fulfilled can they focus on other matters. It’s hard to concentrate on one’s own faith when disease or infirmity, stress or depression consume so much energy.

... How often do we skip over the things that might nurture our soul because we’re too busy with other things that have deadlines and due dates? Virginia Woolf writes about how a room of one’s own is vital for the expression of identity and creation of art, literature. Especially for women, whose sphere of influence in the world has generally been curtailed and overshadowed by having to tend to the needs of others. Even just a little room that she might call her own would be liberation.

Jesus finds a space for himself, carves out a section of time in the earliest morning, for prayer and spiritual nurture. ... When Jesus took that time, he was refuelling in a way, reconnecting to God. Because that is from where his strength and wisdom came from.

... We do detect a shift in what Christ is doing, however. He is bringing God’s grace and presence to the people. A relationship with the holy and divine was becoming something that anyone could participate wherever they were, whatever their life situation. It was no longer about people going to the Temple with sacrifices to encounter God through someone else’s actions and prayers. ... The historical expression of faith in those days was solely mediated by priests. ... The ordinary everyday lay person could not ever encounter the divine unless the priest allowed it.

Jesus changed a number of things in his ministry and one of the most important pieces that he changed was this notion of a faith relationship mediated only through another individual. We can come to know God and follow Christ on our own. We don’t have to give offerings to someone else to live out our faith. We have opportunity and obligation to do so ourselves.

And the holy spirit, the divine, moves among and around us. No longer is God trapped in that little room in that Temple. Like Jesus showed, moving from place to place, seeking all and bringing healing and wholeness to everyone, God’s love and grace is available to everyone and anyone.

Jesus kept removing that barriers that kept people from God. Social customs and standards meant nothing as he routinely went and ate with lepers, widows, prostitutes, tax collectors, every kind of person that had a poor reputation and no standing in society. As was observed in Bible study this week, Jesus was God becoming accessible in a world that was so carefully separated by status, power and wealth. Suddenly it’s as if God was turned loose in the world and is a force that will not be stopped.

So we go to put ourselves out there. Moving, not resting on our laurels, not getting too comfortable with where we are, but always imagining the next step of what might be.