Sunday, January 28, 2018 | Epiphany
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Year B
Gospel Mark 1:21–28
Jesus starts his ministry with four fishermen and he takes his ministry to the neediest. The neediest are the ones that can see the kingdom of God, most readily. It is easier to see what you need, when you have very little going your way. When things are going well, at least in a worldly way, why look to God, right?
Jesus goes to desperate people in desperate places in the kingdoms of the world. These are the places that need to experience the kingdom of God, the most and who can perceive the kingdom the best.
Think of people today, whose lives seem a mess.
How about people what are living with diseases?
How about the hungry?
Those in desperate need of clothing and shelter.
Jesus opens the doors to faith for all that He encounters. He shows them something more. He shows them something other than how the rest of the world shows and treats them.
What can you do to be part of that, “Opening doors to faith?”
Jesus preaches at the synagog, He gives them the words of God and the Word in the flesh.
Jesus shows us even today, there is no time like the present, to open the doors to faith, each and every day. His healing that day, that day of sabbath, will cause Him trouble but brings faith to others.
It could be very easy to look at this story today about the miracle of healing that Jesus does. Or simply that Jesus heals on the Sabbath, a day of reset. It is so so so much more.
Jesus takes His message, first to the church….they don’t need it, right? Sometimes those that seem the most faithful, are the most faith starved. It is easy to need God in the bad times but how about responding to God, even in the good times. How about responding to God, in all that God has given, by:
Giving thanks through prayer.
Through action.
Through engagement with the world.
Through opening doors to faith.
As I have said many times before, God did not put First Lutheran on Dakota avenue for no particular reason. We are here for ministry. We are here to stay. We are here to serve. We are here to respond to God’s love for us in Jesus Christ.
Think about all the ways we do respond.
Pray about more ways we can respond.
Pray about how you can respond.