Saturday, March 14, 2020

No Ordinary Man


This Sunday, I had planned to preach a sermon entitled “No Ordinary Man” on the miracle recorded in Mark’s Gospel of Jesus healing a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years and raising Jairius’s daughter to life again after death (Mark 5:21-43). Yet as I consider what is happening in the world around us and the important but difficult decisions our congregations made to cooperate with the advice of our conference leadership and government to practice social distancing, I find myself drawn to another story about Jesus’ power over sickness, disease, and—yes—death.

In Luke 7:1-10, some Jewish elders approach Jesus on behalf of a centurion, a soldier in the Roman army who was responsible for commanding 100 men. The centurion has a servant who is very important to him who is on death’s doorstep. Because this centurion, a military official put in authority over others by the occupying Roman government, has been kind and gracious to the Jewish people living in Capernaum, these elders request for Jesus to use his extraordinary power over the forces of nature, such as sickness, to do a favor for the centurion and heal his servant. So far in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has healed Simon’s mother-in-law of a high fever (Luke 4:38-39), healed groups of people suffering from all sorts of diseases (Luke 4:40), cast out demons (Luke 4:41), helped Simon Peter catch more fish than his nets could hold (Luke 5:1-11), healed a man with skin disease (Luke 5:12-15), made a man who was paralyzed able to walk again (Luke 5:17-26), and healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath (Luke 6:6-11). WOW! What is clear from the Gospels’ witness is that Jesus has great power! Certainly, this centurion has turned to the right place for help and healing.

But, as Jesus makes his way towards the centurion’s home on a healing mission, this Roman official seems to have second thoughts—not about Jesus’ ability to help but about his own worthiness to have a man of such power and authority in his homeplace. So, sending friends out to meet Jesus, the centurion requests, “Just say the word and my servant will be healed.” Jesus is impressed with this man’s faith—a faith even deeper than the most faithful in Israel—and that’s a high bar to pass![1] By the time the friends make it back to the centurion’s home, the servant has been miraculously restored to health.

Did you notice? Jesus offers hope to the centurion and healing to his servant—not to mention countless others impacted by this miracle—without ever seeing them or touching them. What an amazing reminder of the strength of Jesus’ power! Jesus is, indeed, NO ORDINARY MAN!

Now, I know that not everyone is happy about my pastoral decision, made in consultation with other church leaders and at the advice of our bishop and medical experts, to suspend worship for two weeks.  I also know some are relieved, some are neutral, and some are more worried now. When the world is frightened and people are hurting or hoarding, when we need each other the most, when our hearts ache to sing and pray with the Body of Christ, it seems like this is the last moment we should be asking people to stay home from church. To not gather for worship is sad. It’s painful. I have cried tears and lost sleep over whether or not this is the right thing to do. But, this decision was not made in fear. Rather, it was a decision made trusting in the God-given wisdom of medical experts and spiritually mature leaders. So, while I could spend hundreds of words trying to explain the scientific and spiritual reasoning not to mention hours of prayer behind this decision, I don’t think that is helpful or pastoral in this moment.[2]

Instead, I’d like to return to the Scripture story, and see what wisdom we might glean from God’s Word and what hope it offers to us in this strange moment in our lives and the world. The centurion in Luke’s Gospel had lived with an authority that gave him the power to order the movements and actions of others. But, now, he suddenly finds himself facing the reality that a person he cares for is in danger of dying, and he is powerless. He has no authority over this situation. And so, he turns to an unlikely source. No doubt, the centurion had heard the stories about Jesus. How he has been traveling around the countryside and healing folks left and right. In terms of the social customs of his day, it would have been unheard of for someone of higher social status, like a centurion, to ask someone of lower social status, like Jesus the nomadic rabbi, for assistance.[3] Yet, because someone he loves is in danger, this man of status and stature lays aside his authority, power, and privilege to ask another—to ask Jesus—to do what he cannot do for himself or for the person he loves. He chooses to trust in Jesus’ power of healing and his mission of helping, and he is rewarded as one who has not seen yet believes (John 20:29).

No matter whether you are scared about the COVID-19 virus, you’re staying calm and cautious, or you think the whole world has gone crazy and is overreacting, what is true is this – Jesus is bigger than all of it! We, like the centurion, are facing a situation over which we have little or no control. No one knows, except the Lord, what will happen in the coming days. But, of course, that’s not new. “You don’t really know about tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for only a short while before it vanishes.” (James 4:14). What we can do is, like the centurion, turn to One who is in control, the One who is bigger than our human fear, the One who is greater than our human pride and boastfulness.

If we trust that Jesus is powerful enough to heal a servant sight unseen from across town, could we also trust that Jesus is powerful enough to weave our hearts, our songs, our prayers together even when we do not physically gather? What if the true power of the church as the Body of Christ might be revealed in what happens when we choose, for the sake of our neighbors and the vulnerable, to not gather for a short period of time? WE ARE THE CHURCH when we check on an elderly loved one with a chat over the phone. WE ARE THE CHURCH when we respond with compassion rather than condescension when others in our community are scared. WE ARE THE CHURCH when we share the resources we have with those who do not have enough. WE ARE THE CHURCH when we love our neighbors, and maybe…just…maybe that looks like not gathering inside our four walls for two weeks. 

But we never needed those walls to be the church anyway.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.



[1] “Finally note that Jesus does not say in this story that the faith of Israel is faulty, bad, or small. In fact, when Jesus praises the centurion, he uses the faith of Israel as an example of the highest kind. Jesus says, ‘This Roman, Gentile, politically advantaged military man, outsider has more faith than even the most faithful in our day.’” from Vaughn Crowe-Tipton’s article on Luke 7:1-10 in Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 1 biblical lectionary commentary (WJK Press, 2009).

[2] If you are interested in the scientific reasoning behind decision to hold off on social gatherings, please read this. If you are interested in another view about the spiritual reasoning for this choice, please consider this article. If you would like to read Bishop Bill McAlilly's pastoral letter concerning the church's response to COVID-19, you may find it here. As always, you are invited to call me and have a conversation about the prayer and discernment that went into this decision, as well as to receive pastoral prayer and counseling in this uncertain season. My number is 901-483-3592.

[3] “An ancient reader would have expected the centurion to use his position to coerce Jesus into helping this servant. Modern readers gloss over this act. In the ancient world, those of higher stature would never ask those of lower stature for assistance.” ” from Vaughn Crowe-Tipton’s article on Luke 7:1-10 in Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 1 biblical lectionary commentary (WJK Press, 2009).

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