9.30am Sunday 11 November 2007
Readings: Mark 1:29-39; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
If we could choose one word that picks up what is significant about today as we remember those who gave their lives in two world wars, those whose lives are constantly in danger because they choose to follow Christ in lands antagonistic to the Christian cause, and our reading this morning from Mark, the one word would be 'suffering'.
Remembrance Day was first commemorated exactly twelve months after the armistice that was signed between the Germans and the Allies to end the war came into effect at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918, thus ending four years of bitter conflict that had swung to and fro over a relatively small area of land on the German, French and Belgium borders. King George V had personally requested all the people of the British Empire to suspend normal activities for two minutes on the hour of the Armistice. Since 1945 it has commemorated those who lost their lives in both World Wars.
In remembering the 1914-1918 conflict in Europe, what most readily comes to mind is the suffering of those engaged on the front line of battle, much of it in looking back, senseless and needless. Just recently the 90th anniversary of Passchendaele has been commemorated, a battle in which the Allied Powers sustained almost half a million casualties and the Germans just over a quarter of a million.
Personal accounts of that battle give us some insight into the conditions they fought under, such as this one from Private Richard Mercer:
"Passchendaele was just a terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible place. We used to walk along these wooden duckboards something like ladders laid on the ground. The Germans would concentrate on these things. If a man was hit and wounded and fell off he could easily drown in the mud and never be seen again. You just did not want [to] go off the duckboards."
Siegfried Sassoon immortalised much of the suffering in his poems of that time.
"I died in Hell
(they called it Passchendaele); my wound was slight
and I was hobbling back; and then a shell
burst slick upon the duckboards; so I fell
into the bottomless mud, and lost the light"
The last living survivor of Passchendaele, Harry Patch, in July of this year recounted an incident from the battle. It shows how the sufferings they experienced at that time were so indelibly etched in their minds that he could still remember clearly something that took place 90 years ago:
I fell in a trench. There was a fella there. He must have been about our age. He was ripped shoulder to waist with shrapnel. I held his hand for the last 60 seconds of his life. He only said one word: 'Mother'. I didn't see her, but she was there. No doubt about it. He passed from this life into the next, and it felt as if I was in God's presence. I've never got over it. You never forget it. Never.
These things are not forgotten and even today you can visit the cemeteries such as this one at Tyne Cot, about half way between Passchendaele and Zonnebeke, where 12,000 Commonwealth troops are buried. The bodies of another 55,000 soldiers killed in battle were never found. Their names are engraved on the Menin Gate erected at Ypres so that their memory would not be lost to posterity.
Today their memory is preserved for us in poems such as In Flanders Fields, written by Lt Col John McCrae, a surgeon with the Canadian Army at that time.
IN FLANDERS FIELDS
the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead.
Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our
quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Today we remember their sufferings and give thanks that their sacrifice was not in vain.
But there are others who suffer today, who are engaged in a different kind of warfare, not one fought with bayonets and guns. It is a spiritual conflict with the forces of darkness that relentlessly resist the truth revealed in Jesus Christ. Their enemy is, "The god of this age (who) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."[1] The brochure included in your Bulletin this morning tells of the comfort these sufferers take from the fact that they are not forgotten by their Christian brothers and sisters in the free world. Many do not have Bibles to encourage them, and this is why organisations such as 'Bibles in Action' and 'Open Doors' are committed to meeting this need. Two of our congregation shared earlier this year of their experience with the work of such missions.
The cost of the commitment of such believers is high. The danger they face is great. Their stories do not reach the headlines of the papers, or television news. They are courageous men and women, many of them Christian believers in Islamic countries. Brother Andrew, the founder of Open Doors, issues this challenge:
"The Church in the Muslim world is growing rapidly. But our brothers and sisters - who once followed Islam, and now follow Christ - pay a severe price for their new found faith. They need to know someone will "be there" for them - to strengthen and encourage them. Will that someone be you?"
He issues a call to a new kind of jihad - a good fight - replacing vengeance with forgiveness, radical love, and unyielding prayer.
Do our prayers make a difference? Listen to this testimony shared with Johan Candelin, Global Co-ordinator of the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. He shares: A pastor from a restricted nation told me about the time in prison when he was waiting to be executed at any moment. I asked him how he could handle that situation. He answered, 'I could feel your prayers in the cell! I knew that Christian brothers and sisters around the world were praying for me right then. Some nights I felt as if there were thousands of brothers and sisters with me in the cell and that we were all celebrating God's grace. That gave me hope during that worst time in my life. Actually I have never felt Christian love in such a strong way.'
It is important that our prayers for such are not limited to today. Paul wrote to Timothy: "This is my gospel, for which I am suffering to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's Word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory."[2]
We turn now to the passage we read in Mark where first we read of Simon's mother-in-law who in suffering from a fever, is representative of the suffering we face in everyday life. We need to realise it was a very inconvenient time for Simon's mother-in-law to come down with a fever when having visitors for lunch that day. Hospitality was very important in Bible times, and that the hostess of the house could not fulfil her obligation, especially with someone like Jesus being there, was a great embarrassment. We are told that as soon as Jesus was informed of her condition "...he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them."[3] Jesus enabled her to do what she wanted to do for her guests that day, to provide the hospitality that was expected. Here we see the concern and compassion of Jesus not only in attending to the fever, but also in understanding this woman's predicament.
There are two things of note from this brief incident. First, the way in which Jesus healed Simon's mother-in-law. Luke's account adds that it was a "great" fever this woman suffered, and that Jesus simply "rebuked" the fever, using exactly the same word that is found earlier in Mark 1 when Jesus addressed the man with the evil spirit, and also when he commanded the wind and the waves to be still in calming the storm.[4] When praying for the healing of this kind of ailment, we can follow Jesus' example and simply rebuke the condition in Jesus' name.
The second point to make is about the importance of providing hospitality, and particularly to those who are serving God as Jesus was. The Bible stresses the importance of this ministry. Paul mentions it in Romans 12 when teaching about how our faith is to express itself in practice. He says we are to "Practice hospitality."[5] That is, we are not to talk about it, but 'just do it.' It is a practical way in which we can make people feel welcome and an expression of our love for the Lord. Peter says we are to "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling."[6] We are to be generous in sharing this with others as God has been so generous to us. Paul also lists it as one of the characteristics we are to look for in church leaders.[7] There are many blessings that come from exercising this gift. I well remember as a young child our family having visitors to lunch on a Sunday, many times they were young theological students studying for the ministry as the Churches of Christ Bible College in Dunedin. My mother was a great cook and the roast dinner was always cooked to perfection, mostly roast mutton with all the trimmings like gravy and mint sauce, and, of course, a cooked dessert to follow. You could smell it as soon as you walked in the door. It activates your juice buds just thinking about it? The conversation at the dinner table was always lively, with lots of laughs and thoughtful comment. There was a down side to it, however, which was that the older children like myself had the unenviable task of doing the dishes, and because we were a family of nine, and added to that our guests of which there were often several, it took us most of the afternoon to complete the clean up. But overall it was a positive influence on a young impressionable life, and a practice Grace and I have sought to continue in our home. Hospitality is a very important ministry in God's church.
Returning to Mark's Gospel, we read next, "That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed."[8] Why did they wait until after sunset. Earlier in the chapter we are told Jesus taught in the synagogue, so the day was the Sabbath. The Jewish Sabbath began at sunset on Friday and ended at sunset on Saturday. There were strict limitations on the activities of people on the Sabbath, but once the sun had set they were free to do what they liked. As we noted last Sunday, Jesus did not need to advertise his ministry. The testimony of those whose lives had been touched by him was sufficient in itself. Mark tells us, "The whole town gathered at the door..."[9] It certainly may have seemed so, and possibly the healings went on well into the night. Little wonder people were looking for him first thing in the morning, after the exciting things that had happened the night before. It is just as true today. When we do the works Jesus began to do when he was here, then healings will accompany the preaching of the Word.
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"Miraculous powers" are also appropriate to the healing ministry, as we see when we read in several places in the Book of Acts "many wonders and signs" were "performed by the apostles."[13] These often opened opportunities for preaching as well as making people receptive to the message. The same is true today. Some of you will remember Erna Parr. It was the miraculous healing of a serious back condition that renewed her faith and led her husband, Fred, to believe. Erna's healing led them into a healing ministry of their own that took them to many places throughout New Zealand and around the world.
The one verse that stood out to me in the reading from 1 Corinthians 12 was the second part of verse 6: "There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work." God is at work, and in everyone, when the gifts of the Spirit are being exercised. It is this that leads people to say, "Such things cannot happen except God is with them." They bring glory to God and point people to Christ.
In the remainder of the passage from Mark we see Jesus at prayer, and the sense of purpose that motivated all he did. Jesus valued time alone with his Father, and made time for it in his hectic schedule, even when it meant getting up early in the morning before anyone else had stirred to have that time. On another occasion he sent the crowds and his disciples away so that he could have uninterrupted time with the Father.[14] Recently I came across this quote from Sadhu Sunday Singh, a well-known Indian Christian, which sums up the essence of prayer and helps us appreciate what prayer was to Jesus:
"The essence of prayer does not consist in asking God for something but in opening our hearts to God, in speaking with Him, and living with Him in perpetual communion. Prayer is continual abandonment to God. Prayer does not mean asking God for all kinds of things we want; it is rather the desire for God Himself, the only Giver of Life, Prayer is not asking, but union with God. Prayer is not a painful effort to gain from God help in the varying needs of our lives. Prayer is the desire to possess God Himself, the Source of all life. The true spirit of prayer does not consist in asking for blessings, but in receiving Him who is the giver of all blessings, and in living a life of fellowship with Him."
Jesus was also very mindful of why he had come and the work he had to accomplish. We see it in his words to the disciples at the end of this passage: "'Let us go somewhere else - to the nearby villages - so I can preach there also. That is why I have come'. So he travelled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons."[15] Here, as we saw last week, there is a sense of urgency about his work. Luke's account of Jesus' words on this occasion brings out more clearly the sense of divine necessity laid upon Jesus to take the message of the kingdom throughout the land. He has Jesus say, "I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also..."[16] Jesus had only three years to complete his work before he would suffer for the sin of the world. Capernaum had heard his teaching and seen his miracles, and later he would say to them, "If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day."[17] It was Oswald J. Smith who said, "No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once."
The theme for this Sunday is 'suffering' - those who suffered during the wars so that we might have the freedoms we enjoy today; those who suffer because they are not afraid to say that they follow Christ; and those who suffer because of illness or spiritual oppression. In closing let us remember the suffering of Jesus, so that we would have true and lasting peace, 'the peace of God' that comes through having 'peace with God,' the peace of shalom, that makes us whole. Jesus calls us to share in what Paul calls "the fellowship of his sufferings,"[18] alongside those in the persecuted church so that others may know the truth that can set them free.[19] But most of all he wants us to continue the work he began and we do that as we both share the message and exercise a healing ministry in his name. As Leonard Ravenhill said, "The world is not in need of a new definition of Christianity, it's in need of a new demonstration of Christianity."
[1] 2 Corinthians 4:4 TNIV
[2] 2 Timothy 2:8-10 TNIV
[3] Mark 1:31 TNIV
[4] Cf. Mark 1:25 and 4:39
[5] Romans 12:13 TNIV
[6] 1 Peter 4:9 TNIV
[7] Cf. 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8
[8] Mark 1:32 TNIV
[9] Mark 1:33 TNIV
[10] 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 from Greek text
[11] Cf. Mark 2:1-12, and John 5:1-15
[12] Cf. Luke 13:10-17
[13] Cf. Acts 2:43; 5:12
[14] Cf. Mark 6:45-46
[15] Mark 1:38-39 TNIV
[16] Luke 4:43
[17] Matthew 11:24 TNIV
[18] Philippians 3:10 AV
[19] Cf. John 8:31-32