A Wellness Plan

Dr. D. William McIvor

February 5, 2006

Presbyterian Church in Sudbury

Mark 1.29-39 (NRSV)

    As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

    That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured 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.

    In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Introduction

    Most health insurers these days, including the medical plan for Presbyterian ministers, have what are typically called “wellness plans.” These plans are based on the truth that the best way to treat illness is to not get sick in the first place or at least try to catch sickness before it becomes serious and hard to treat. So wellness plans emphasize exercise, good diet, not smoking, regular checkups, and routine but critically important diagnostic tests.

    These are all good ideas, not just because they will save money, but because when we are sick, the suffering isn’t just physical. In many cases, I think, the worst part of being ill is emotional and even spiritual. We all know what that’s like. It doesn’t take a very bad headache or a very painful illness before we say things such as. “I feel like I want to die.” Of course, that’s not literally true but it illustrates that physical troubles hurt us in other ways. Physical sickness deprives us, at least to some degree, of the meaning of life, the wellness that God intends for us.

    So in the text we just read there are three distinct incidents intended to describe a typical day in Jesus’ ministry. Let’s reflect on it by asking three questions.

ONE: What’s the point of being healthy?

    First, what’s the point of being healthy? Why does Jesus want us to be well? Let’s think about this in light of Simon’s mother-in-law.

    The mother of Simon Peter’s wife had a fever. To us that could mean many things medically. But people then would have understood it as demon-induced; all illness was. So when Jesus healed her he defeated the forces of evil. He brought meaning of life back to her because wellness, not sickness, is God’s desire.

    Notice what happened after Jesus healed her. “Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.” (1.31b) A lot of women will recognize that because they know that whether they feel good or not they often have to take care of children and husbands and others. But there is even greater significance here for when it says she served them it means more than just fixing dinner. That same word to serve is used three other places in Mark. Early in chapter one Mark says, “[Jesus] was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” (1.13) In other words, the angels served took care of Jesus’ needs. In the tenth chapter Jesus says about himself, “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (10.45) In other words, service expresses the whole purpose of what Christ was doing. And near the end of the gospel Mark describes many who followed Jesus with these words: “these used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.” (15.41) In other words, there were many beside the twelve disciples, including many women, who provided for all of Jesus’ needs. To serve is to give of oneself for the sake of others.

    Simon’s mother-in-law was healed of her fever. She got up to serve. What’s the point of healing? What’s the point of wellness? Watch the ads for health or diet or exercise products and they imply that the point of being healthy is to be pretty or sexy or …“hot”! Well, those are fine things but they are not the point of being healthy. God desires our wellness so we can rise up to serve. Giving of ourselves is the point of being healthy.

TWO: What’s the point of coming to Jesus?

    My second question today is what’s the point of coming to Jesus? The text says “they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.” (1.32) Why bring people to Jesus? Because they knew he could give them what they really needed. So we have this vivid image in verse 33: “the whole city was gathered around the door.” Everyone knew that wellness was the point of coming to Jesus.

    I was searching through my files last week looking for something else and I ran across some notes I made about a Supreme Court decision from several years ago. It wasn’t the illustration I was looking for but I think it applies. This was back in 1994. The United States Supreme Court rejected an appeal by a man from Chicago who was seeking to bar the Boy Scouts from requiring a pledge to “love God” or “do my duty to God” or from excluding anyone refusing to take such a pledge. The case came about because a few years before the man’s son was not allowed to join the Tiger Cub Scouts because he would not recite the pledge to love God. This man and his son both confessed to be agnostics and they argued that the Boy Scouts’ policy violated both the Constitution and the 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawing religious discrimination. But the Supreme Court agreed with an earlier federal court ruling that sided with the Scouts. The court ruled that the Boy Scouts is a private club and thus can set its own membership requirements.

    So as I prepared this sermon I’ve been thinking about that boy. He would now be about 23 or 24. He would have been 7 or 8 when the whole thing got started. How does a 7 or 8-year-old kid become an agnostic? Do children just naturally not believe in God? No. Children are taught to believe in God or not to believe in God. In other words, the issue with the Scouts didn’t begin with a young boy refusing to recite a pledge. It began with a father teaching his son to refuse to recite a pledge. Faith begins with parents and particularly with fathers.

    I say this as a challenge to all of us who are fathers because the statistics are rather astounding. If a father attends church faithfully, the chances are 75-80% that his children will attend church faithfully when they grow up. If the father does not faithfully attend, the chances are less than 25% that his children will attend. And we fathers may say, “what about the role of mothers?” Well, mothers are important but in this area not nearly as statistically significant. “that’s not fair!” It may not be fair but it’s true. So if we value faith for our children, then we better value it for ourselves and get ourselves to Jesus. How are we and how are our families going to be made whole if we don’t get ourselves where we can hear the message of Christ? What’s the point of coming to Jesus? Only he can provide what we really need and we have to bring ourselves and bring others to find that out.

THREE: What’s the point of preaching?

    Finally, my third question is this: what’s the point of preaching? That’s not a question about me as a preacher. It’s about the importance of the message of Jesus. The text shows that Jesus was on the move so that everyone could hear his message. The point of proclaiming Christ is that everyone might come to him.

    I’ve not seen this in person but I’ve read that on the wall of the museum of the German concentration camp at Dachau there is a moving photograph of a mother and her little girl being taken to the gas chamber. The girl, who is walking in front of her mother, does not know where she is going. The mother, who walks behind, does know, but there is nothing, absolutely nothing she can do to stop this tragedy. In her helplessness, the mother performs the only act of love left to her. She places her hand over her little girl’s eyes so, at least, she will not have to see the horror which faces her.

    I’m told that when people see this picture in the museum, they do not move quickly or easily to the next one. You can feel their emotion and almost hear their cries, “O God, don’t let that be all there is. Somewhere, somehow, set things right.”[1]

    In a world of Dachaus and Darfurs and countless other tragedies, what is our great hope? Only the message of Jesus Christ. I don’t put much hope in institutions and organizations though we need to work with and through them. I don’t put much hope in education although I’m married to a teacher and more than once you’ve heard me say how important teachers are. We must educate and educate better but that’s not where my hope is. I don’t put much hope in government although we need good government. And I don’t even put much hope in the church though we surely need a place for God’s people.

    No, what gives me hope is that somewhere, somehow God will set things right. And that is the message of Jesus Christ. That’s why you and I must preach the message, not just in sermons or in words but in how we live, so that everyone within our spheres of influence might hear the message of Christ.

Conclusion

What’s the point of preaching? To come to Christ.

What’s the point of coming to Christ? To be healed.

What’s the point of being healed? To serve.

That’s the Lord’s wellness plan. May it be ours also.

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