“SHE KNEW WHAT IT MEANT TO SERVE”

MARK 1:29-39

29 And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

30 Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her.

31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.

33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door.

34 And he healed 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.

Jesus Preaches in Galilee

35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, 3

7 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.”

38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”

 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

            Have you ever had an experience with someone in the service industry that didn’t know what it meant to serve? Maybe it was in a checkout line in a grocery store, or trying to get help in one of the big hardware stores, or maybe it was with a waiter or waitress at a restaurant.

I can remember a time not too long ago where I was checking out at one of the chain grocery stores near my home. I got to the register and began putting my groceries on the conveyer belt. While I am doing this the young lady is talking to her coworker who was bagging the groceries. Every so often I would look up expecting her to say hello but she never acknowledged me. She just kept on talking. Being stubborn, and getting a bit irritated, I waited to see if she was going to say anything. The whole time not a word was said. It was as if she was working on an assembly line that required no human interaction.

As I was driving home that night I reflected on growing up in my home town and going to the local grocery store to pick up milk and bread. The local owners were so friendly and would take the time to ask how I was and how school was going. So I began to think, what was the difference? What had changed? In both cases I was the customer buying groceries. The difference was that the young lady in the store was serving me because she had to in order to get paid. She didn’t care if I bought my groceries in that store or down the street. In my home town the owners who served me cared about the store, they cared about their customers and they cared about me. They were a part of the neighborhood and viewed themselves that way. Yes, they were making money for their family but they also genuinely cared about those around them. In both cases, they were in the same business but the motivation and the intention was totally different.

In this morning’s reading which is filled with healings and exorcisms we hear of Simon’s mother-in-law. We don’t know her name or her background. We only know that she is ill and in bed with a fever. That is until Jesus comes along. Mark tells us that “he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them”.

At first glance this sounds a little odd doesn’t it? Neither of them say a word to each other.  “He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up”. He served her, making her whole. And he did it without making a scene or intentionally drawing attention to himself. He served her out of love, by giving of himself without looking for anything in return.

It is very much like what happened one night, at 11:30 PM in Alabama back in the 1960’s. An older African-American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab. She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him.

Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home.

A special note was attached. It read: "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others.

"Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole."

That young man didn’t have to stop that night to help a complete stranger. There was no motivation to do so. In fact, back then some would have thought it odd for him to stop. He could have simply kept driving and no one would have known the difference. But he did. He stopped, reached out and lifted her out of the rain as an expression of caring and love for another.

 I wonder? Does this help us to understand Simon’s mother-in-law’s response to being healed by Jesus? Think about this for a minute. There she is laying in bed with a fever the one minute and the next she is up on her feet serving others. You could say that this was her position in life and she was just doing what was expected. But as we saw a few minutes ago in the example of the grocery store clerk, just because you are suppose to serve doesn’t mean that you are going to or that you are going to do it for the right reasons. My hunch is that if she was doing it because she thought that she had to that she may have lingered in bed a bit longer. But she didn’t did she? The fever left her and without a word or a hesitation she began to serve them. Her serving was a response to Jesus love. She wasn’t serving to make an impression or to make her self look good. Her serving was from a place of great gratitude.

I wonder? Do we always know what it means to serve? Do we always serve as an expression of love and gratitude or do we serve for other reasons?

To one degree or another, we have probably all had exposure to a teacher of one kind or another throughout our lives. When it comes right down to it teachers are servants aren’t they. And who make the best teachers? The smartest teachers or the teachers that teach because they love to share knowledge and they love the children they are teaching? I know that when it comes to my children I don’t want the teacher that is teaching because it is there job or because they only have a few more years until retirement. Why? Because if it is just a job and they no longer love teaching or the kids the only people they are serving are themselves.

And what about politician’s? Do you want a politician representing you because they like the lime light, want to feel important and enjoy the status or do you want a politician to serve you out of gratitude for what they have and because they care about you, your city, state and love our country? It makes a big difference doesn’t it.

It is important to know why we serve and what motivates us because our service to others can become self serving very easily. You can see it manifest itself in some people that coach our youth.  The idea behind coaching is to help all of the youth get better at whatever sport you are coaching, right? Unfortunately that isn’t always the case. This year I am helping to coach my son Kyle’s basketball team. We had a game several weeks ago against a team that had one good player. About five minutes into the game we could hear the other coach yelling, “run the isolation”. Suddenly four players went running to the corner of court and their one good player was matched up with one of ours. He would put a move on our kid and dribble past him to the basket. If this had happened once or twice I wouldn’t have given it another thought but the coach did this for at least half of the game. In a case like this, who was being served? Was it the kids who were getting the message we don’t need you, you aren’t good enough, stand in the corner? Or, was it the coach who was going to feel better if they won the game? Which they lost by the way.

Simon’s mother-in-law knew what serving others meant. Her service was a response, an expression of gratitude. It wasn’t done to impress others and it wasn’t self serving. I wonder what kind of lesson the CEO’s of big companies could learn from this unnamed women. CEO’s who’s companies are  receiving government loans to keep their companies going and people employed. CEO’s who served themselves with large pay bonuses before paying off their debt. Apparently they couldn’t learn it on their own because the government had to pass a law to prevent them from doing this.

General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army understood what it meant to serve. Years ago, the Salvation Army was holding an international convention and he couldn’t attend because of physical weakness. So he cabled his convention message to them. It was one word: "OTHERS." Serving is about others. It is an expression of genuine love, of joy and gratitude. Simons mother-in-law learned this from Jesus when he reached out, took her by the hand and lifted her up. She knew what it meant to serve. May we as well. Amen

February 8, 2009

Michael Gelsomini – Student Minister