A Vaccine Is Not Enough to Save Us

Scripture Lessons: Psalm 103: 6-14 and Mark 2: 1-22 Sermon Title: A Vaccine Is Not Enough to Save Us Preached on June 21, 2020 That was 22 whole verses I just read. I don’t know if that seemed like a long reading to you. It did kind of seem like a long reading to me, but that could just be because I’m used to reading only a few verses at a time, maybe half that many, so that my sermons are based on just one moment in Scripture rather than a chain of events. The benefit of basing a sermon on just a few verses or on one particular event in Scripture is that I can focus on just one thing. Like most husbands, that’s better for me. Because it’s impossible for me to multitask, I just focus on one thing at a time. One event in the life of Jesus or one small section of His teachings. Only, when we read several verses describing several moments in the life of Christ as we just did it’s possible to see significant similarities as Jesus moves from one healing to the next, and then to a statement about patches on clothes and new wine in old wineskins. Reading all these 22 verses at once, I see how the whole series of events works together, and for the first time I noticed the similarities between the healing of the paralytic in the first 12 verses of our reading and the healing of Levi in the next five. However, our Bible doesn’t call it the healing of Levi. The heading in my Bible has: “Jesus heals a paralytic” over verses 1-12 and “Jesus calls Levi” over verses 13-17, but what I want to focus on this morning is how Jesus deals with both of these men in a similar way, though we may think of them differently. While we call one of these events a “healing” and the other a “calling”, Jesus deals with them both the same way: by forgiving their sins. Just that may have something important to teach us about the way Christ is at work in the world for we mostly think of sin and sickness as two different things. We go one place to be healed from a physical issue and another for the kind of healing a tax collector might require, but in this series of events we see that Christ came to heal the corrupted soul and the paralyzed body. That our Lord prays for broken hearts no less fervently than he prays for those with blocked arteries. That he concerns himself with every disease which causes us pain, whether it be a virus that attacks our lungs or one that corrupts our society. So, while we sometimes see the physical as one thing and the spiritual as another, Jesus sees a link. You can tell, first of all, because when healing the paralyzed man Jesus says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” He didn’t lay his hands on him. He didn’t take his temperature or suggest a remedy. Nor did he take mud from the ground to rub on the man’s skin as he did for the blind man’s eyes at the pool of Siloam. Instead he says, “Son, your sins are forgiven” suggesting that the Savior knew that our bodies and our spirits are connected. That his spiritual sin had something to do with his physical condition. We don’t always think this way, or not all of us think this way. We mostly tend to think of maladies that effect our bodies as separate from the state of our souls. For example, just the other night I broke out in hives. I don’t like hives and I really don’t like how they keep me up itching until the Benadryl kicks-in. For the second time this summer I couldn’t sleep for some kind of allergic reaction. I told my doctor about it and he told me to check my diet. Then I told my friend Dr. Jeffrey Meeks about it and he told me to relax. Now those are two different responses. One from a medical doctor the other from a man with a doctorate in sacred music. So, which is it, diet or stress? Does the paralyzed man need a doctor or a savior? Do I need pills or prayer? For this moment in our country’s history, do we need Dr. Fauci or Pope Francis? The true answer is not either/or, for we are spiritual and physical beings. We suffer from conditions which require a liberation from disease and despair. We struggle with symptom and sinfulness. We are confined by physical and spiritual paralysis, and while what we all want, while what we all pray for today is a vaccine, a vaccine can’t fix everything. The way Jesus says it: “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise the patch pulls away from it… no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins.” Thinking of this teaching I say a vaccine is not all that’s needed to heal our nation, for this virus is not the only problem we are facing. In fact, you might agree that this time of quarantine is revealing so many problems in our society that the virus appears to be only the tip of the iceberg. Certainly, I’m praying for a vaccine. I’m sure you are too, but that’s not all we need. For as time goes on and quarantine continues what is revealed are just how many cures our society needs. Think about it: I’m tired of being isolated. I’m sure you are too? Only today I realize that many have been living in isolation far before this pandemic hit. We need a cure for loneliness. And I’m worried about our economy and job loss. I’m worried about all those kids who depended on school lunches. Certainly I’m grateful for the way our school system mobilized to deliver meals to kids in our community and I rejoice for the way our church has gotten involved in feeding people, but poverty and hunger are issues that ours, among the richest nations in the world, has struggled with for generations. We need a cure for poverty. This virus reveals so much brokenness, brokenness which has been there, it just wasn’t as obvious before, so in this long Scripture Lesson from the Gospel of Mark what I hear is a call from the Lord to not just think about a patch, but a new garment, not new wine in old wine skins, but new wine in new wine skins, a more perfect union, a noble priesthood, a holy people, a new society overcoming the ills that are not new today, just harder to ignore. For we can’t go visit at the nursing home today, but it’s not as though there was a line out the door to visit our elders before. Home improvement retailers are reporting record sales as people who don’t have anything else to do tackle do-it-yourself projects, but if our concern is only with our own homes than where is our generosity? Protestors rally in the streets marching for an end to racism today, though it’s not as though this were a new problem. And the partisan divide seems greater than ever in Washington DC, only there’s no quick fix, no easy solution, because none of us know how to get along with people who think differently. From sea to shining sea, we all think we’re right and they’re wrong as cities, towns, and households across these states which were meant to be united are divided. Fixing our society is no patch job. A vaccine isn’t going to heal all that ails us. So, Christ goes to heal a paralyzed man by forgiving his sins, then he goes to a tax collector and changes his life. Levi, son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth. Jesus came to him and he too “got up” and walked. Just as Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven,” this man was made clean and new. He walked away from a life of self-interest. He gave up his vocation where taking advantage of people was required. He stood up from the tax booth, and in so doing he gave up who he had been to become a disciple. Maybe like me you can see that our nation needs this kid of miraculous healing as much as we need a vaccine. No longer collecting debts, he invited the Lord and a bunch of other sinners into his house to feed them. No longer focused on what he might take but on what he might give, his table was open to all kinds of people. So many sinners and tax collectors were sitting in Levi’s home with Jesus and his disciples that when the Scribes of the Pharisees heard about it, they asked, “Why does he [Jesus] eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” Based on what I know of Scribes and Pharisees I want to gently rephrase this statement: “Those who think they are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the self-righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” I rephrase that statement because I believe Jesus is saying that we’re all sick. We just don’t necessarily know it. We’re all sinners, we’re just afraid to admit it, but those who are ready to repent are ahead of the game. Are you ready to face the role that you play in our society’s brokenness? And are you ready to ask him for healing? Some would say that’s the only requirement of being a Christian. It’s not so unlike the requirement for entry into Alcoholics Anonymous. All you have to do to become a member is admit that you have a problem that you need help with, and so, all that’s required of us who would follow Jesus is to confess that we have a problem with sin that we cannot fix ourselves. It doesn’t matter how we got so sick. What matters is whether or not we’d let him make us well. The Psalmist wrote: as a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. That’s important in this culture of ours, where in the face of so much brokenness, there are those who double down on their innocence, deny their role in the problem, downplay its severity, blame someone else, or pretend they have it under control. That’s been me. I don’t know what I’m doing so I’ve been constantly looking for some assurance that I’m doing this right. That as a pastor and as I father I’m going to help us all get through to the otherside, but now I see that if I’ve been looking for assurance that I’m doing OK I’m looking for the wrong thing. For what we all must be looking for now is his open hand, calling us to take it and to follow. Precious Lord, take my hand; lead me on, help me stand; I am tired, I am weak, I am worn. Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light; Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home. Some people have been pretending to be innocent and striving to be perfect for so long they don’t know how to do anything else. On this Father’s Day I want to remind you that your heavenly father, maybe unlike your earthly father, doesn’t reward perfection with love. That’s not even how love works. Take his hand this day and feel his love. Our God does not reject sinners but chases after them to eat with them. Just accept his love, for he gives it freely. Take his hand and be made new, that you might become a light in this sin sick world. Amen.