Homily, SMMCC
5th OT, 2/7/21
Job 7: 1-4, 6-7
Ps. 147
1 Cor 9: 1-6
Mark 1: 29-31
The pandemic has given us a whole new outlook on work. For many people, work has acquired a huge overlap with home. There are lots of jokes about pajamas and Zoom meetings from closets. Meanwhile, medical workers and other front-line workers like first responders, those in food sales, and those in package shipping and delivery services, have found themselves spending much less time at home, while they meet increased demand. Many people in the restaurant and entertainment industries have not been able to work, or have had to be very creative in finding new ways to market their products. So “work” these days has taken on many new meanings.
Work is central to our readings today. Life is hard work, for all these characters. Starting with Job, in the first reading. Now, in his past life, Job worked hard as farmer. But by the 7th chapter of this book, where today’s reading comes from, Job’s land, family, animals, crops, and everything else has been taken from him, and Job is hard at work trying to figure out why. Is life a game of reward and punishment, he asks? He doubts it-- God can’t be punishing him, because he has lead a very holy life. So why has he lost everything? He is in despair, and agonizes over this question and we’re not sure if he ever does completely work out the answer.
For Paul, in the second reading, ministry is hard work, and he is standing up for his rights as a worker. He is claiming his position as an apostle, called by Jesus the Christ, and his right to support, physical and emotional, like being able to travel with his wife. He is seeking the same recognition and privileges afforded to the other leaders of the early church.
Then, in the Gospel, Jesus is working hard, teaching, preaching, gathering disciples, and healing. In the next verses after this gospel, it says Jesus went and healed and taught in every village throughout that whole region, which was surely very hard work. But there is another hard worker here, Peter’s mother-in-law. In Greek, the word for mother-in-law is penthera, so a recent trend has been to name this woman Penny, short for penthera. Everyone deserves a name, after all. After Jesus raises Penny up from her sickbed, she gets right back to work, and the Greek verb used here is diakonei. The writer of the Gospel of Mark only uses this verb three times: to refer to Penny’s work, to refer to Jesus’ work, and to refer to the work of the women who stood at the foot of Jesus’ cross. They were Mary Magdalene, Mary, Salome, and some, again, unnamed, others, who had followed and provided for Jesus. It seems that Penny, Mary Magdalene, Mary, Salome, and these other women, in Mark’s mind, ministered as Jesus did. No office of deacon existed yet at that time, but we could say that these women were the first deacons.
So life is hard work, for the people in these readings, as it is for us. Job’s grief is hard work. Jesus’ healing is hard work. Fighting for your rights is hard work. Ministry is hard work. Getting along with difficult people is hard work. Understanding why bad things happen is hard work. Bearing illness is hard work. Looking out for people who are not being treated fairly is hard work.
I wonder sometimes if life is hard work even for God. Love is the work God has given us all to do. We are to love God, and love others as God loves us. Love is not hard for God. God IS love, as our Psalm attests to today, as when it says God numbers and names every single star in the sky. Even Job has figured out that God is love by the end of his journey, that God’s creativity and power of love far exceeds all human reason. So love is not hard for God. Love is very hard work for us, however, and we often refuse our work of love. After all, love requires empathy, and communication, and even respecting people we have a hard time identifying with. Sometimes it requires tough-loving people who have behaved destructively through accountability. Those are all very hard work for us.
I believe God loves us so much, that God does not force us to love. God gives us the freedom to choose our own behavior, whether to love or to not. But God is always working to get us to cooperate in the ongoing creation of the world, in increasing the love in the world, in making sure all God’s creatures are loved and cared for. God does not use force, but rather inspiration, encouragement, persuasion. Even though we probably sometimes make these very hard work for God.
The point of all this is that love is worth all the hard work. Love is the purpose of our lives, the way we reach communion with one another and with God. When we come outside of ourselves enough to truly love one another, we glimpse what today’s Psalm calls the peace of God. When we imitate the love of Jesus, binding one another’s wounds and healing one another’s hearts, we understand ourselves what it is like to be healed and how God’s goodness fills the earth. God is our hope, as it says in the Psalm, our bread, the wind that propels us, our fortress sure. Loving others as God loves us, day by day, becomes its own reward. This is truly, the work of our lives.
5th OT, 2/7/21
Job 7: 1-4, 6-7
Ps. 147
1 Cor 9: 1-6
Mark 1: 29-31
The pandemic has given us a whole new outlook on work. For many people, work has acquired a huge overlap with home. There are lots of jokes about pajamas and Zoom meetings from closets. Meanwhile, medical workers and other front-line workers like first responders, those in food sales, and those in package shipping and delivery services, have found themselves spending much less time at home, while they meet increased demand. Many people in the restaurant and entertainment industries have not been able to work, or have had to be very creative in finding new ways to market their products. So “work” these days has taken on many new meanings.
Work is central to our readings today. Life is hard work, for all these characters. Starting with Job, in the first reading. Now, in his past life, Job worked hard as farmer. But by the 7th chapter of this book, where today’s reading comes from, Job’s land, family, animals, crops, and everything else has been taken from him, and Job is hard at work trying to figure out why. Is life a game of reward and punishment, he asks? He doubts it-- God can’t be punishing him, because he has lead a very holy life. So why has he lost everything? He is in despair, and agonizes over this question and we’re not sure if he ever does completely work out the answer.
For Paul, in the second reading, ministry is hard work, and he is standing up for his rights as a worker. He is claiming his position as an apostle, called by Jesus the Christ, and his right to support, physical and emotional, like being able to travel with his wife. He is seeking the same recognition and privileges afforded to the other leaders of the early church.
Then, in the Gospel, Jesus is working hard, teaching, preaching, gathering disciples, and healing. In the next verses after this gospel, it says Jesus went and healed and taught in every village throughout that whole region, which was surely very hard work. But there is another hard worker here, Peter’s mother-in-law. In Greek, the word for mother-in-law is penthera, so a recent trend has been to name this woman Penny, short for penthera. Everyone deserves a name, after all. After Jesus raises Penny up from her sickbed, she gets right back to work, and the Greek verb used here is diakonei. The writer of the Gospel of Mark only uses this verb three times: to refer to Penny’s work, to refer to Jesus’ work, and to refer to the work of the women who stood at the foot of Jesus’ cross. They were Mary Magdalene, Mary, Salome, and some, again, unnamed, others, who had followed and provided for Jesus. It seems that Penny, Mary Magdalene, Mary, Salome, and these other women, in Mark’s mind, ministered as Jesus did. No office of deacon existed yet at that time, but we could say that these women were the first deacons.
So life is hard work, for the people in these readings, as it is for us. Job’s grief is hard work. Jesus’ healing is hard work. Fighting for your rights is hard work. Ministry is hard work. Getting along with difficult people is hard work. Understanding why bad things happen is hard work. Bearing illness is hard work. Looking out for people who are not being treated fairly is hard work.
I wonder sometimes if life is hard work even for God. Love is the work God has given us all to do. We are to love God, and love others as God loves us. Love is not hard for God. God IS love, as our Psalm attests to today, as when it says God numbers and names every single star in the sky. Even Job has figured out that God is love by the end of his journey, that God’s creativity and power of love far exceeds all human reason. So love is not hard for God. Love is very hard work for us, however, and we often refuse our work of love. After all, love requires empathy, and communication, and even respecting people we have a hard time identifying with. Sometimes it requires tough-loving people who have behaved destructively through accountability. Those are all very hard work for us.
I believe God loves us so much, that God does not force us to love. God gives us the freedom to choose our own behavior, whether to love or to not. But God is always working to get us to cooperate in the ongoing creation of the world, in increasing the love in the world, in making sure all God’s creatures are loved and cared for. God does not use force, but rather inspiration, encouragement, persuasion. Even though we probably sometimes make these very hard work for God.
The point of all this is that love is worth all the hard work. Love is the purpose of our lives, the way we reach communion with one another and with God. When we come outside of ourselves enough to truly love one another, we glimpse what today’s Psalm calls the peace of God. When we imitate the love of Jesus, binding one another’s wounds and healing one another’s hearts, we understand ourselves what it is like to be healed and how God’s goodness fills the earth. God is our hope, as it says in the Psalm, our bread, the wind that propels us, our fortress sure. Loving others as God loves us, day by day, becomes its own reward. This is truly, the work of our lives.
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