"I will not let you go" - Sermon for Epiphany 5, Feb 8, 2015

Sermon:
Text: Mark 1:29-39

This is a link to the song referenced later in the sermon. "I will not let you go"

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who will not let us go.

            It's been a heavy feeling week. I’ve been very aware of the empty office across from me this week with Patty gone mourning the loss of her son. I’ve also been amazed at all the connections that I discovered that I didn’t know about, as person after person checked in on how Patty and Norm were doing, and told me of how they knew Mike. On Patty’s behalf I thank you for all your prayer and support.

            But, it’s been more than that, or maybe it’s just that I’m aware of it more this week. I got an email from my Mom Thursday saying that she is going down to Boyden, where she grew up and my Aunt and Uncle still live, for the funeral of her Uncle which was yesterday. This meant that she missed the funeral of a former colleague of my dad’s who just passed away this week as well. I also found out that the son of one of my Aunt’s friends died in a car accident down in Arkansas and the funeral was also Saturday, and my uncle in Grand Forks had a funeral at his church as well on Saturday.

            Just in those few things I feel a sense of heaviness. It’s a text like the one we have today that I need when I find myself feeling like this.

            I find myself exceptionally drawn to the statement in verse 37, “Everyone is searching for you.”

            I think that is remarkably true at times when we feel that heaviness of life upon us. I look at all the people who are searching for Jesus in this text, it’s not happy, rich, no problems folk. It’s full of people who up until now had no where else to turn. Those who were sick, had demons, who felt cast out. And Jesus heals them, cures them, welcomes them.

            And the next day, Jesus goes off by himself to pray, but everyone around the area has now heard of him, and they all want to find him. So, what does Jesus do? Everyone is searching for him. He decides to go to them. Instead of the neighboring towns having to come to him, Jesus decides to go out and around all of Galilee.

            When everyone is seeking Jesus, Jesus goes out to find them.

            When we are seeking Jesus, when we are those who are sick, grieving, worried, worn out, depressed, Jesus goes out to find us.

            And to what does Jesus heal us? To a life of purpose. At the very beginning of this text When Jesus heals Simon Peter’s mother, she gets up and begins to serve them, Jesus allows her to be who God created her to be. Who she was, was someone who served those who came into her house, and Jesus restored her to that.

            When Jesus goes out to find us, it’s to heal us, and to restore us. To allow us to be who God created us to be.

            Things in this world, sickness, sin, anger, fear, grief they all stop us from being who God calls and created us to be.

            That’s what this time of Epiphany is all about. Being opened to who God is, who Jesus is, and through that, who we are. That’s part of what I would have talked about in last week’s sermon. There are a handful of copies of last weeks sermon out in the Narthex, if they are out please email me or talk to me and I will get you a copy should you want it. It’s also available through our Facebook page. Epiphany means awareness or awakening, and this idea that Epiphany isn’t just one day, but each week of this season of Epiphany shows us a little more about who Jesus is.

            We learned that Jesus is God with us, he is the Son of God, he is the one who calls us, who heals us and restores us, and gives us purpose.

            And he does all of this by going to us when we are searching for him. When we cried out, God came deep, deep down to us as a child.

            I was reminded of a song that I first learned when I worked at Outlaw Ranch as a Camp Counselor and relearned this last summer at Synod Assembly. We sang it at our monthly pastor’s meeting this week at the Luther Center. It’s by a band called Tangled Blue and called “I will never let you go”

            I want to teach you the chorus now, the words are simple, No matter what, No matter what may come, No matter what may come I will not let you go.

            I think that speaks to the heart of what this week, and all the weeks so far of Epiphany have taught us about Jesus. Jesus as God with us, Son of God, God who calls us, God who restores us, God who heals us, they are all about Jesus seeking us out, and attempting to bring us back into relationship with God.

            When Jesus goes to find us, in our hurt and empty states, he goes to be with us, and then never let us go. It’s in the splash of water in baptism, the gasp of air we take as a infant or adult as the water hits our head, the scent of the oil marking the cross on our forehead, the flicker of our baptismal candle, it’s in all of that that Christ first finds us.

            And so, when we read, “Everyone is searching for you.” It means that Christ has already found us.

            In our sickness, our depression, our grief, our anger, our fear, Christ is already with us. When you ask, Where are you Christ? Christ is already there.


            That’s the message of Epiphany, the grand realization, that Christ come to us as a Child, the Son of God, and it means that we can never be alone and God will never let us go.

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