Be a Care Taker
a sermon based on Mark 2:1-12
by Rev. Frank Schaefer
 

Why do we care? Why care about God? Why should we care about spiritual things? Why go to church? Most of us here have a pretty good reason to be here, and that reason has to do with the fact that we care in very deep ways. Yet, a growing number of people today are asking that very question.

For those of us this morning who are tired of hearing excuses why people don't go to church you should listen to the following reasons why you don’t need to wash:

1. I was forced to wash as a child. 2. People who wash are hypocrites - they think they're cleaner than others. 3. There are so many kinds of soap I could never decide which was right. 4. I used to wash, but it got boring. 5. I only wash on Christmas and Easter. 6. None of my friends wash. 7. I'll start washing when I'm older. 8. I really don't have the time. 9. The bathroom isn't warm enough. 10.People who make soap are only after your money.

To most of us here, we care as deeply about God and about God’s kingdom as we do about washing. We realize that it just as necessary and life-giving to pray, to worship and seek fellowship with others, as it is to wash.

However, we churched people can have a problem with caring too sometimes. It’s Jesus’s demand to care for others that is dificult for us, especially when these others are exactly the people nobody cares about. But then, everybody can care for good Christian folks with good values. Those are the folks we want to hang around, the good Christian folk is who we want our children to be exposed to. But why should we care for sinners, for criminals, prostitutes, drunks, and the disabled? Why does God call us to do that?

Because God is a God who has compassion; God is a God who deeply cares and WE ARE MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD. We are God’s children. Caring and loving is the only way we can live in this world and be fulfilled inside. Caring seems to be our way to happiness. It does something for us. Caring is a benefit.

And if we we are serious about learning to care for others, Jesus’s ministry is the best place to look. The healing of the paralytic is one of those places where we can learn about caring the Jesus way. Kind of like Jonah: “In three days you’ll get zapped for your sins--see ya!” That’s a terrible attitude to have. And then the people of Nineveh repent, God shows mercy and Jonah is angry at God. He goes: “I knew it God! I knew you would do this to me. This is why I didn’t want to take the job: (Jonah 4:2): “for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful. You know what your problem is God? You care too much! And God does care doesn’t He?

Jonah misses the point and goal of God’s message altogether. It’s not about me, it’s never for the messenger, it’s about reaching out to and caring for others. It’s not about my fulfillment of duty, about my faithfulness, it’s about whether I am really willing to help my hurting neighbor. Evangelism, sharing Christ with others is not an end unto itself. Sharing Christ with others must have the best interest of the other as a goal. That’s the way Jesus cared, isn’t it?

Let’s look at our bible story.

1) The first expression of care is when the paralytic is helped by his friends.

Jesus was impressed with the man’s friends. They really went out of their way to take him to Jesus. They had their friend’s needs in mind. They felt so much compassion, they felt the pain of their friend and cared so much for his well-being that they took some risks for him. No mean feat to break through a roof. They could have told his friend, “you don’t need this Jesus to get healed. According to our theology, God is in the synagoge.”

In earlier days, I tended to think that sharing the good news is about fulfilling an obligation. Whenever I shared Christ with others, I felt like I had done my part. I thought to myself: “Hey, I shared Christ with this person and if he doesn’t accept it, that’s his problem!”

That’s not really having the other’s needs in mind, is it? That approach to outreach really puts the emphasis on my faithfulness. The friends of the paralytic, on the other hand, reach out to their friend in a caring way. They may have even acted outside of their theological comfort zone. Perhaps, that’s one of the reasons why Jesus was so impressed.

And so I believe we are called to step outside of our comfort zone in order to reach out to others. Evangelism is about caring in my view, having the other’s needs in mind.

2) We find a second expression of care in our lesson when Jesus says to the paralytic: “your sins are forgiven you.” Before the paralytic even opens his mouth to speak, Jesus lets him know very clearly: “I do not condemn you, I do not judge you.”

Did you know that one of the one most prominent criticism against the church is fear of judgment? People are afraid to walk through these doors because they fear that they may be judged for their life-style, their theology, or even their apparel.

And I don’t think it’s that they think God is not in the church. I remember marrying a couple once that had no connection to church whatsoever. But they wanted to get married in a church. They talked about how they didn’t go to church because of various encounters with hypocracy in church. To bbe honest, I felt angry about that. And finally I just came right out and asked them the obvious question; “well if you think that church is a bunch of hypocracy, isn’t it rather hypocrytic of you to get married in the church?” That day I learned something. See these people believed that God dwells in the church, that the church is God’s place. They said: “it is important to us to exchange our promises before God. And on our wedding day we will be surrounded by our friends.”

We don’t have the power to forgive sins, but we better make sure that we don’t do the opposite either: i.e. to judge them.

3) The third lesson on care surfaces when Jesus expects something of the paralytic too. He asks him to get up. “What do you mean get up?” Why do you think these men carried me here?” Why does Jesus ask him? Because he believes in us even though we may not believe in and for ourselves. Jesus is an encourager. He fannes the little flame that is left inside of us and helps us to make it work for us. In Isaiah 42:3 (Mat 12:20) we read that God’s Annointed “will not break a bruised reed,” nor “quench a smoldering wick.”

I think this aspect of care has also something to do with how we look at others, especially the ones who have a lot of problems to deal with. Are we going to look at them as failures like the rest of society tends to do? Or do we look at them as equals, as people made in the image of God, who are under extreme duress. There is a great illustration of this principle of care from my CPE training: Someone shared about an encounter he had with a mental patient who had lost a big business and was now at a point in his life where even something mundane as taking a shower had become a challenge to this patient. After talking to this man for a while, my colleague asked him a surprising question: where do you take the strength to carry on with such a lot on your plate? The man was taken aback. He probably didn’t think that anybody could see ability in him. It made him think; his countenance lit up as he apparently started to look at things from a different perspective: “Yeah, that’s true, I am doing something, I am willing to live and to deal with it. I could also say: it’s too much to handle, I want to die.”

In conclusion, I just want to say: wouldn’t it be wonderful if people who walked through the church doors on Sunday mornings would feel the kind of care Jesus showed to others. If they could say: “I feel like I am surrounded by friends. These people don’t judge me, they accept me!” Wouldn’t it be great if first-time visitors would report to their friends: “the people in this church I went to really have my best interest at heart, they don’t push me into their theology, and they really think that I have the ability to believe and to make good choices.” If we Christians started to care the Jesus way, I have a feeling that the church of Christ would soon be filled beyond capacity, just as people crowded around Jesus. What hinders us to be that kind of church? Let us pray: . . . .