Mark 2:1-12
February 23, 2003
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going bit too fast in his new Jaguar S-Type Sedan. Who could blame him, with his Jag boasting a 3-liter, 6 cylinder, 240 horsepower engine, with 5-speed automatic transmission? He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars. And slowed down when he thought he saw something.
As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door! He slammed on the brakes and spun the Jag back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown.
He jumped out of the car, grabbed a kid with a buzz cut and wearing tattered cargo pants and pushed him up against a parked car, shouting, “What was all that about? Just what the heck are you doing?”
Building up a head of steam, he went on. “That’s a new car and the brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?”
“Please, Mister, take it easy. I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do,” pleaded the youngster. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop.” Tears were dripping down the boy’s chin as he pointed around the parked car. “It’s my brother,” he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair, and I can’t lift him up.” Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.”
Deeply moved, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be okay. “Thank you,” the grateful child said to him.
The man then watched the little boy push his brother down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long walk, back to his Jaguar…a long, slow walk. He never did repair the side door. He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.
God speaks to your heart and soul everyday. Sometimes when you don’t have time to listen, God has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.
Four Friends
The four friends in today’s gospel lesson heard God’s word and took drastic action. They learned that a healer named Jesus was in the town of Capernaum, so they put their paralyzed friend on a mat and carried him to Jesus’ house.
When they arrived, they found the house was packed, and the crowd was spilling out into the street. There was simply no way they could elbow their way inside, especially carrying their friend on the mat.
So in a way, they grabbed some bricks of their own to get Jesus’ attention. Climbing to the roof of the house with their bare hands, they punched a hole through the roof made out of thatch and mud. They lowered the paralyzed man down on his mat. When Jesus saw the faith of these four friends were so courageous, he proclaimed to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Then he said to the man, “Stand up, take your mat and go to your home.” And he stood up, picked up his mat and walked through the front door, amazing everyone in the house.
God spoke to the heart and soul of these four friends. He inspired them to seek out Jesus, using whatever means necessary, and to trust him to heal their paralyzed friend. When the four friends dug through the roof, Jesus looked up at their dusty faces and saw their faith shining through.
Peace March
Last Sunday I walked through the Stockton Tunnel to Market Street to attend the Peace March. They say that 200,000 people were there. The Chronicle said there were only 65,000. It doesn’t really matter how many were there. Some of you went too. There were all kinds of people, young and old, people with different reasons for peace, and people carrying thousands of homemade signs. The majority of the people were ordinary people who wanted to express their opinion that going to war with Iraq is not right.
Last weekend’s Peace March and the millions of other people around the world who came out to express their beliefs—symbolically picked up bricks to try to get the attention of President Bush and his cabinet leaders. Most of the time, we are making too much noise to hear God’s voice calling us. Most of the time, we are too busy to stop and see those who are in need. Most of the time, we are in our cars with the windows rolled up, our CD players cranked up, our 240 horsepower engines roaring to hear anything at all.
Most of the time, we have lost touch with the needy and the marginalized that we need to be hit by a brick to get our attention to know what’s going on. When I walked down to the Peace March, I only stood still and watched others walk down Market Street. I wanted to join the marchers but I knew I had to get back by 2:30. I thought of all kinds of excuses that stopped me from joining the marchers. I found that I needed as much as anyone else to be hit by a brick.
I read in the papers that although President Bush respected the millions who protested against his plans to wage war with Iraq, it has not changed his position. We will continue to pray for him and other world leaders at this critical time of human history to do the life-giving thing. But the important point here is not really whether President Bush changed his position or not. The point is that people heard God’s voice and they put their faith into action. It was not necessarily the faith of the paralytic man that led to his healing, it was faith of his four friends. “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Doing a New Thing
When people of faith find themselves troubled, we turn to the prophet Isaiah to find the message of hope from a people in exile. When the Israelites were deported to Babylon and the Temple in Jerusalem destroyed, they felt abandoned by God. During these days of crisis, we may feel abandoned by God too. Where is God in the midst of the threat of code-orange terrorism or the safety of 200,000 American service men and women in harm’s way?
The Israelites, now having suffered as many as 47 years in Babylonian captivity in punishment for their sins, received the promise that their long night of exile will soon come to an end. God will do a surprising “new thing” in their midst. God will be opening their closed future in ways they have never imagined.
Isaiah in 43:18 said that God will not remember the former things or consider the things of old. For he is about “to do a new thing…he will make a way in the wilderness and the rivers in the desert.”
This is the message we have been waiting for. Our President seems to propose that the only solution to the Iraqi crisis is to go to war. Our military leaders are suggesting that with the mobilization of thousands of troops and military equipment already shipped to the Middle East that we should use them. In our own thinking, we seem to have given into the inevitability that America will go to war probably in March or no later than April.
The prophet Isaiah is telling us that none of these old ways of solving our world problems should be remembered but that God is doing a new thing. God’s way is that in the wilderness where it’s easy to get lost, God’s is making a new way. God’s way is that in the desert where there’s famine and drought, God is making life-giving rivers.
What happened last Sunday is that we are throwing bricks. God continues to speak and act in our lives that reveal that there is a new way, another alternative than what we think will happen. Our inability to see God doing a new thing has led us to a state of complacency. Our inability to hear God’s calling is leading us to simply accept what President Bush is saying.
Hit by a Brick
We don’t pay attention until we are hit by a brick. Our church theme this year is “Word to Works,” a focus on Bible Study and Social Action. For us to begin understanding the challenge of living out our faith in order to make a difference in the world may require us to be hit by a brick.
To get our attention to the needs of the world, we must first get in touch with those in need and who are marginalized. The four friends were in touch with their friend’s paralyzed condition. It means touching the leper—not at arm’s length or never leaving the security of our own turf. It means being vulnerable. It means entering into their pain. When God in Jesus came to live among us, he shared our troubles and felt our hurts. Do we feel the pain of those in Iraq and in other countries?
When we become vulnerable enough to share their troubles and feel their hurts, and then take actions that show that we love our neighbors every bit as much as we love ourselves, our love is not just a warm and wonderful feeling. It’s taking concrete actions, if it’s going to reflect our Christian faith. For if “a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,” observes the letter of James, “and one of you say to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no work, is dead.” (James 2:15-17)
Faith without works is dead, says James, and that’s why the four friends in Capernaum had to punch through the roof to get their paralyzed friend to the healer. It was only when there was dust on their faces and dirt underneath their fingernails that Jesus looked up and saw their faith.
So what are you going to do to make your faith visible?
The young executive in the Jag lifts the hurt boy back into his wheelchair, takes out his handkerchief and wipes the scrapes and cuts. That’s active faith.
The Semanon Fellowship group collected over 200 new toys for the SF Fire Department to give toys to needy children last Sunday. That’s visible faith.
A family devotes a night on a regular basis to working at a local shelter for the homeless. That’s faith in action.
An individual serves as a Care Partner and acts as a caring presence in the life of someone who is feeling alienated from friends and God. That’s faith you can see.
A team of youth and adults going on a mission trip to tutor and share the Christian gospel. That’s faith combined with works, in a vital and world-changing way.
Somewhere between 65,000 and 200,000 people marched down Market Street protesting our government’s one-track mind with only the hope that it is God who is capable of doing a new thing. That’s faith that the world can see.
Change the World
In the first The Lord of the Rings Movie: The Fellowship of the Ring, there’s a small scene that speaks to the issue of active leadership. The elves’ queen, Galadriel, passes a test by overcoming the temptation to take a powerful ring from the hobbit Frodo. With the mounting scrutiny and pressure, Frodo expresses to the queen how alone he feels in his role. She tells him, “You are a ring bearer, Frodo—to bear a ring of power is to be alone.”
In a moment of vulnerability, the reluctant leader Frodo fearfully confesses that he doesn’t like the pressure. Galadriel replies, “But this task was appointed to you…for even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”
The key to solving the problems of the world is to listen to God’s voice and act. To get up, get moving, get lifting, get carrying, get climbing, get digging and get marching…wherever you hear the gentle voice of God calling you to do some work on behalf of others. Sure, there will be some barriers that separate you from Jesus, and from the people around you. Sure, you might think that you are only one person and what can one little person like me do? But like the fearless four friends of Capernaum, you can break through them.
Let us not wait until a brick hits us. Let’s make our voices heard that even in the midst of having built up one of the greatest military capability that the world has ever seen, we don’t have to fire one shot.
Remember what happened at Capernaum. When you place the needs of the world in front of Jesus, amazing things can happen. The paralyzed can be healed. The hungry can be fed. The oppressed can be freed. The poor can be healed. Swords shall be beat into plowshares; spears into pruning hooks. Peace can break out, justice can be done, and hope can replace the most desolate form of despair. Amazed and glorifying God, we too can say, “We have never seen anything like this!”
It all starts with hearing the voice of God and taking action before the next brick hits.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, stir our hearts. Open our eyes. Clear our thoughts. Quicken our steps. Raise our voices. Open our ears. And lead us to live out our faith in Jesus Christ who has called us to costly and courageous discipleship before another brick hits us. We pray, O God that you will do a new thing in our world. Amen.