Recent Sermons
St. Andrew's Church
An Anglican Church • Grimsby, Ontario, Canada
Preached by
Stuart Pike
Rector
For More Information Contact the Office
Notice any errors? Have a suggestion? Or a comment? Then ....
Epiphany 5 B - Via Media
St. Andrew's Church, Grimsby
5 February, 2006
This morning I have been asked by the Christian Education committee to devote some sermon time to promoting a new Anglican educational program called, Via Media which we will be running here in the Fall. Via Media is a program which creates a safe place to ask questions about our faith and our Church.Considering that one of our lessons today said, "Woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel", I thought I had also better say a few words about our Gospel lesson.
What most jumped out of the Gospel story to me isn't the fact that Jesus healed many of the sick, but that he chose not to heal many more!
We are used to hearing stories about Jesus healing. That's what he did, right? That's what happens at the beginning of today's Gospel story. After preaching in the synagogue Jesus goes to the home of Simon Peter's mother-in-law. The problem is that she is sick with a fever. Jesus holds her hand and raises her up and she is instantly healed and then she waits on them. It's a good deal: Jesus heals her and he gets a good meal served.
However, word travels quickly in those parts and by evening time Jesus is healing scores of people who are sick in body and mind. They go to sleep for the night with the people still pressing against the house trying to get to Jesus.
Jesus leaves very early in the morning, while it is still dark, so that he can have some quiet time to pray. Jesus models ministry to us by show that you've got to give of yourself, and you've got to take time to be fed spiritually.
It doesn't say how he prayed. It doesn't say what questions he might have been wrestling with out there in the desert. Before long Simon Peter and his friends go out hunting for Jesus and when they find him they say, "Everyone is looking for you!" That statement has two levels of meaning as is so often the case in the Gospel. It means, the people who are still sick are looking for Jesus; and it also means that human beings in general are desperately searching for meaning, for truth, for depth and in Jesus they will find what they are looking for.
Then, in the story, comes what jumped out at me. Our kind and gentle-hearted Jesus doesn't immediately go back to heal those who are looking for him. Instead he says: "Let's move on to the other towns because I've got to preach there too. That's why I came." Jesus is basically saying that they've got to leave these sick people behind because he's got more important work to do.
In today's Gospel story we learn that Jesus can and does heal, but we also learn that sometimes he doesn't.
I think the Gospel story is also experienced in our lives. God sometimes does amazing things through prayer. Even scientists today are saying that prayer is good for you. They don't know how it works, but, statistically, prayer does show results in physical healing. However, it is also our experience that God doesn't always heal. Sometimes God doesn't seem to answer prayer. Doesn't Jesus himself tell us that whatever we ask for in prayer, if we have faith, we will receive it? Matthew 21:22 and Mark 11: 24 say just that. How is it, then, that God didn't heal your aunt, or your sibling or your parent or your friend?
A hard question for Jesus. And so many people of faith struggle with that question deeply.
It appears that we don't have a God who will reach down from heaven and fix our lives even though some Christians do believe that. What does it mean that Jesus healed some, but not most?
I think Jesus miracles weren't about fixing everything and making the hurt go away; rather, they are signs of God's kingdom, and of God's will for us and of our responsibility. When Jesus heals, he is showing that God wants us to come to wholeness of being, and we are to be engaged in bringing healing to others. When Jesus feeds the thousands, but the billion are left hungry, he is showing us that God wants us to share so that all are filled.
Jesus' miracles are sign posts for us.
And that brings me to the Via Media program. Many people have hard questions for Jesus or for our Church, and all too often the Church hasn't been very welcoming of hard questions. There are all kinds of Christians who seem to have all the answers. I usually want to know if they have any questions. Because so many Christians would never allow you to question your faith.
Via Media is a safe place to bring your questions. Via Media is the traditional Anglican way. In a world which was struggling between Catholicism and Protestantism, the Anglican Church espoused the "middle way" which is what the Latin words, "Via Media" mean. Anglicanism has traditionally been a broad-based Church which celebrates diversity in unity, rather than uniformity.
Recent events in our Anglican World have tested our Church: tested our bonds of unity because of the scope of our diversity. Some say that we must divide: that schism is inevitable. The Anglican Church of Canada has been in the news recently as some have predicted our demise. Yet there are many parts of our Church that are experiencing new life, new members and even new ideas! Imagine that! St. Andrew's is such a place.
We are also living in a society which has more people searching for depth and meaning for their lives than ever before. In a post-modern world, where the foundations of our society have been shaken, many people feel a lack of stability, a lack of traditions and a lack of direction. Whereas once our society was firmly established on the bedrock of our institutions, now it is more like our people have jumped into a million little boats, without anchors and they have been set adrift.
Via Media is a safe place for new people to have another look at the Church and see what it is about. For some it will be their first look at the Church, for others, they'll be looking at it again, perhaps after a long time. Via Media is a program built for them as well.
It is also a program for those within the Church who have always had those hard questions, and never felt comfortable voicing them. Were you the kid in Sunday School who always got into trouble for asking too many questions? You are welcome here.
It is an eight-week program which begins each week with a meal - of course! Then, after lunch we will view a half-hour video and then we will divide into small discussion groups. Each discussion group will have two facilitators who don't need to be experts, but need to help the discussion to flow. The eight programs are:
1. Via Media: An Anglican way of being Christian.
2. God and Creation: the Abundance of God's goodness
3. God in Jesus: An Incarnational Faith.
4. God the Holy Spirit: The Breath of New Life
5. The Bible: The Word of God for the people of God.
6. Sin: Roadblocks to Abundant Life.
7. They Kingdom Come: The Promise of Christian Hope
8. So What? How do we live as a 21st Century Christian?
This is an exciting program which can reach out to many in our community, as well as being a chance to further educate ourselves. We will need the help of many volunteers and we need you to consider helping us in this way. Members of our Christian Education Committee are now handing out a sheet of paper for you to look at and check off what you could do for this program. Please don't simply throw this away. If possible, fill it out and hand it back in at the end of the service. If not, please take it home with you and do some thinking and praying about it before you bring it back to Church or to the office.
May we follow Jesus' example and work for healing and reconciliation and may this Via Media be for us, a tool to build God's Kingdom in this place.
