Would You Rather?

To start off today’s sermon I thought I would play several rounds of “Would you Rather” to get our mental juicing flowing. Now the way the game is played is that you have to decide without giving it too much thought, which of the two scenarios I read together that you would rather do. It’s a fun game to see what people will say, but it’s also a way to both get to know people’s thoughts on scenarios as well as a way to get to know people in general. Let’s get started:

Have the super strength of Samson or wisdom of Solomon?

Have to fight the giant Goliath or fight in a war against the Philistines?

Glean crop leftovers from a farmer’s field or make bricks out of mud and straw?

Be cooped up in the ark for 377 days taking care of animals all day or lay on your side for 390 days?

Eat only homemade bread for over a year or eat only vegetables and fruit for the foreseeable future?

Be forced to marry a monarch and live in a palace for the rest of your life or wander in the desert for 40 years?

Deceive your father into giving you your sibling’s blessing or have your father believe you had been killed by a wild animal

Live through a famine or live through the 10 plagues of Egypt?

Hide spies in your house or hide a baby from Pharaoh?

Carry the ark of the covenant across the Jordan River or carry Jesus’s cross to Golgotha?

Be imprisoned for over 2 years or be swallowed by a whale?

Carry the 10 Commandments down from a mountain or help rebuild the walls surrounding Jerusalem?

Have God add 15 years to your life or be carried to heaven in a chariot of fire?

Thank you for playing along with me today. So now you’ve gotten a glimpse at the game “Would You Rather” and you may have been watching your family or friends sitting around you and now you maybe know a little bit more about their decision process, and you may have a few more questions for them based on what you saw them answer and vice versa. Today’s stories from Mark seem to be about choices which is why we just played a game all about choices. In fact the first story that we hear about is the healing of a paralytic man.

Jesus returns to Capernaum and that fame that we talked about last week has not waned a bit, so when he is at home people continue to come to him so much so that he is basically trapped in his house. Then we hear the incredible story of faith of a group of friends that bring their friend who is paralyzed so that Jesus can heal him but they can’t get to him so they rip apart the roof and lower the man to Jesus. Jesus sees the faith of his friends, not the man mind you, and he declares the forgiveness of the man’s sins.

Now let’s play one last round of “Would You Rather” but we’re going to change it slightly by asking you instead of’ would you rather’ it is ‘which is easier’. “Which is easier to proclaim forgiveness of sins or stand up and take your mat and walk?”

It’s not an easy thing to answer. It’s especially harder for the scribes and all those who were gathered there listening to Jesus. The reason why the scribes are so upset is that Jesus gave the pronouncement of forgiveness of sins, which they rightly call out to Jesus, is only given by God. So in this moment Jesus is almost, but not explicitly, calling himself God. You see there is a big difference between being a teacher who astounds and amazes people, and a healer vs. being God made flesh. So the choice Jesus makes is to also declare to the man to get up take his at and walk.

However, if this man has been paralyzed there is a good chance that he is viewed to have had this handicap due to either his own sins or the sins of his parents. So it may have been technically easier for the scribes to have Jesus tell this man to take his mat and walk because he is not pronouncing God’s forgiveness, except for the fact that by walking, it is verification that whatever sins this man had that caused him to be paralyzed were no longer over him. Meaning that the forgiveness of sins that Jesus gave to the man was also verified by telling the man to walk.

As Jesus leaves the house he calls another disciple to his side. This time he calls Levi, a tax collector who he has dinner with that night and is once again questioned by the scribes. Once again Jesus essentially gives them a choice. Which is better, to be around those people who need to be haled or to hang around those people who are already healthy? I’m sure that Jesus would have no real problem hanging out with the scribes and debating with them the interpretation of the law and all the different writings of the prophets, but they’ve already got it figured out for the most part. The tax collectors and sinners were on the outskirts of Israelite society. They needed to hear Jesus share with them the words of God. How were they supposed to know how to change their lives to conform to God if no one was willing to teach them? Jesus makes the choice to be their physician to bring them back to wholeness.

As you can probably guess by now, the final story from today is also about choices. The part that caught my attention the most was about the cloak and the wineskin. The best and most intelligent choice is to put an old patch on and old cloak and a new patch on a new cloak. Likewise to put fresh wine into fresh wineskins and old wine into old wineskins. There is a need for old patches to sew onto old cloaks because that might be your favorite cloak and you don’t want to get rid of it. And wine is almost always better as it ages, but you can’t have old wine without having a fresh batch at some point.

I believe Jesus is teaching us that there are good reasons to have the old and the new and that both have a place and need to have the right approach and understanding for each one. Jesus is bringing a new teaching to the old, but he is not ripping apart or abolishing the old. As we learned last week he had new interpretations of the ancient texts. These texts seem to reinforce that idea. Jesus came to share the same old word in a new light. Jesus came to share that word with those who weren’t able to hear it or be a part of it whether they were physically ill or had been cast out for something they had done or not done.

Perhaps that is the word that we need to hear today. When we are faced with difficult choices, may we focus on answering the questions raised with this main idea: How do we bring more people closer to God? How do we bring this paralyzed man closer to God? How do we bring those who are tax collectors and sinners closer to God? How do we bring those who are marginalized and the outcast of our own society closer to God? Do we need to find new ways to share the old? What are those new ways that bring people to a better relationship with the God of grace? What choices do we make that ultimately tell people that God loves them?

In a world where we seem to be much more connected globally than ever, also seem to be making choices that are pushing ourselves apart. May we embrace the God who has always made the choice to bring us together. The God who sent Jesus to choose love and forgiveness over perfection. Jesus who chose to welcome you into the family of God. Jesus who chose to welcome all to the family of God, all to the table. May you embrace that incredible feeling of what it means that God chose you and loves you this day and every day of your life. Amen.