Words that Matter

Sermon 2-4-18, Mark 1:29-39

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Every so often an article by Sojourners magazine from a few years ago resurfaces and makes the rounds on social media. It’s called “Thetop 10 reasons men should not be ordained for ministry.” This list includes, but is not limited to, these reasons:

“The physique of men indicates that they are more suited to […physical work]. It would be ‘unnatural’ for them to do ministerial tasks."

“Man was created before woman, obviously as a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment rather than the crowning achievement of creation.”

“Some men are handsome, and this will distract [some of the] worshipers.”

“The New Testament tells us that Jesus was betrayed by a man.”

And perhaps my favorite reason, appropriate especially for today: “Men are too emotional to be pastors. Their conduct at football games” such as the Super Bowl, clearly demonstrates this.

It’s easy to think this type of humor is funny because we think we’re passed all this…. It’s 2018, and little girls can grow up to be anything they want to be, including pastors, right? Especially when we contrast this world with other periods in our history, even recent ones, when women rarely held roles like senator, surgeon, or the owner of a prominent national newspaper like the Washington Post. Kay Graham, owner of the Post who faces many doubt that she could handle the crisis described in the movie of the same name, she uses a quote by Samuel Johnson to make fun of her detractors: “A woman's preaching is like a dog walking on his hind legs. It is not done well, and you are surprised to find it done at all.”

We laugh at this line… But really the joke is on us…. Though this is not the 1700 when this quote originated, or of 1970s of Kay Graham and the Pentagon Papers…. but we’re actually still stuck in a world that CLEARLY is not a safe place for women and those who identify as women, especially in leadership roles. We sometimes forget that there are still denominations that call themselves Lutheran who do recognize women’s ordination. I remember being shocked to learn that 18% of the member churches in the Lutheran World Federation do not ordain women, and just 2 years ago the Lutheran Church in Latvia voted to rescind women’s ordination entirely, after women have been ordained there for over 40 years.

As women in public ministry, myself and my female colleagues over and over again have been forced to defend our calls to other people who doubt that such a call could possibly come from God TO US. All too often, their interpretations of the “word of God” is used against us. All women I know have experienced inappropriate comments about how much we weigh, how we do our hair, the clothes we wear, how young we look. We have been mansplained, stalked, harassed, and called names online and in real life. Our calls are belittled when the culture automatically assumes that the operative pronoun for “pastor” is obviously “he.”

Fixed it. 

For example, the internet meme that makes the rounds this time of year that goes “You should be as excited about church as about the Super Bowl. So, when your pastor makes a point this Sunday, pour Gatorade over HIS head.” Did you notice what’s wrong with that sentence?

Words matter. And word choices matter. Especially when writing supplies are limited, and stories passed on must be copied by hand or remembered by heart. The Gospel of Mark is a short Gospel, and there is not a single word wasted. Do any of you remember the homework I have you a few weeks ago? How many of you have read through all the Gospel of Mark yet? Or even started? Don’t worry, there is still time…. We have Mark until Advent.

Mark isn’t wordy, but Mark knows what he’s doing. He’s painting for us a picture of Jesus who is a man of both words AND action. Jesus chooses his words carefully. He means what he says and leads by example. And when he calls us to follow, he expects us to do the same.

Marks is called a “cosmic Gospel” highlighting the battle between good and evil, such as last week when Jesus encountered the man with the unclean spirit in the synagogue. But today we’re going to cut through the cosmic to get to the core of the Gospel… Jesus’ encounter with a single person person, Simon’s mother in Law, in this case… and focus on one single, vitally important word Mark uses in reference to her, and why that single word changes everything.

Words matter. And the words we choose to use in every moment matters. And we’ve had two thousand years to pars to death the words written about Jesus… and we will still never know all there is to be know about him. Jesus will always still surprise and confound us. Like this week, when I actually cracked open my Greek New Testament. It was a little bit dusty…

Now, I’m going to get nerdy on you, and if you bear with me, I promise this will be worth chasing Greek words through the Gospel of Mark. We heard today about how Jesus healed Simon’s mother in law from a fever. Jesus took her by the hand …. And lifted her up. He touched her, and he raised her…. She was on the edge of death, and he gave her back her life.

And then she got up and began to make everybody some sandwiches… oh wait, what? The feminist in me rankles a bit at first to her response to the gift of new life…. as she seems to repeat the broken systems in place in her old life. Until, that is, we dig into Mark’s word choice.

After the fever left her, she began to serve… “serve” from the Greek word “Diakoneo…” where we get the word deacon (and deaconess). It means to serve, to minister, to wait at table, especially as a servant to other people. So, at first glance, not terribly counter-cultural…

But how and when words are used matters too, and this word diakoneo is used other times in Mark’s Gospel…. Going back in chapter 1, immediately following Jesus’ baptism, he was driven into the desert to be tempted by Satan. After his ordeal, angels came to wait on him… diakoneo.

And it turns out Simons’ mother in law, though she was the first woman to minister to Jesus, she was certainly not the last. After a man betrayed him, and Roman men had mocked and murdered him, and after all the other men disciples had run away and fled… the women stayed and kept vigil and mourned from a distance…the same women who had provided for Jesus over the course of his ministry…. diakoneo again.

And last, but not least, Jesus himself uses this word… about himself. As Jesus and the disciples walked along the road to Jerusalem, to where Jesus would be crucified, James and John – who also featured in today’s story – asked Jesus if they could be his wingmen in the coming kingdom. And the other disciples where ANGRY. So, Jesus called a “time out,” made them huddle up, and told all of them that those who want to be first should be last, and that he came not to be SERVED but to SERVE, and to give his life as a ransom for many… Diakoneo, yet again.

Clearly, James and John completely missed the point that day at Simon’s house. What they thought they saw was a woman healed and restored back to her previous role in a patriarchal society. What they didn’t realize they were actually witnessing was a woman who WAS healed and restored…. healed and restored, to respond out of her gratitude as a mode of true discipleship, following in Jesus’ footsteps. She is raised up by Jesus, to follow his call to service, and shows us the way by then opening her home and her doorstep to be the staging ground for the healing of an entire city in need.

Though Simon, Andrew, James, and John were CALLED first, SHE is first to live out her call - freed, restored, healed, and made whole again. SHE, who was not even given a name in Mark’s Gospel. SHE is the one who shows us the way – the way of Jesus. The way of service to our neighbors in need. And we would all do well to follow her lead.

She was the first woman who followed Jesus, and she certainly would not be the last. Women ministered to Jesus and even stood vigil at the cross. Women were the first to witness the empty tomb on Easter morning. Women like Priscilla, Tabitha, Junia, and a pretty cool one from Greece named Lydia, and also many, many others worked solo or side by side with their male counterparts to help be midwives at the birth of God’s kingdom here on earth. This is what all of us are called to do – members of the family of God with no exclusion for gender, orientation, income level, race, color, language, zip code, marital status, or age. Thanks be to God. Amen.