Our readings from the Gospel of Mark over these next three Sundays plunge us into the heart of Jesus' ministry among the people of Galilee. As the season of Epiphany moves forward from Jesus' nativity on towards Lent, we are invited by the Gospel to spend some time with him now as he ministers among God's people. Here is the Messiah, the Savior of the world, doing what he came to do: teaching, healing and preaching. Doing his ministry of teaching, healing and preaching. Pay careful attention, friends, for we are being shown in these stories the blueprint for our lives as his faithful disciples. His ministry is our ministry: to teach, to heal and to preach.

In today's story, we see him heal the mother-in-law of Simon, the first fisherman he'd called into his service. The former fishers of fish were there: Simon and Andrew, James and John. Jesus had called them from their nets to fish for people, remember? And here, in the home of Simon's mother-in-law, he shows them more of what that means. He demonstrates that to fish for people, to be his disciple, is to have compassion for the sick and make them whole.

Mark tells us that by sundown, the whole of the city is gathered at the door. Jesus heals many, casting out their demons-relieving them of their torment, their affliction, their brokenness, of every evil that had beset them. He heals the people and sets them free. This is the work of ministry.

But, surprisingly, after accomplishing this, Jesus does not remain long in the center of attention. Instead, he goes off by himself to pray, to re-focus, to seek greater clarity from God. And he emerges from that time of prayer clear about the next steps to take. "Let us move on and out," he tells his fellow fishing buddies, "my work now is to proclaim the message, for that is what I came out to do."

Now, stay with that thought for a moment and let it sink in. It's clear from all the people who were clamoring to be healed that Jesus could have easily spent his whole ministry curing physical ailments. And people would have loved him for it! Just look at the popularity of healing evangelists still in our day!

But it's as if Jesus is uncomfortable with this "success" and all that crowd. He goes off by himself to rethink the purpose of his ministry. Through prayer, he remembers that proclamation of the Good News is as necessary, even more necessary, than doing good works. Jesus himself tells us here that his primary purpose is to preach!

The story moves from healing to prayer to preaching. Jesus wants us to understand that healing is much broader, much more comprehensive than healing physical ailments. Healing must also come through the hearing of News that sounds like something really good, through the liberating message of God's love. To preach, to proclaim the Gospel, is another way, you see, of having compassion for people, of offering wholeness and new life.

God's people-now, as then-need to hear that their broken hearts will not always remain broken, that their poverty is not forever, that their oppression is not the final word, that they need not live in fear, that the powers of evil will not hold sway over their lives.

To fish for people, we must proclaim God's love for them in Christ Jesus, in ways that will heal them and set them free. How do we do that? One commentator recommends that we learn to "gossip the Gospel"! Gossip! From the root words for "God" and "sibling." God+'sib'=gossip. Telling our brothers and sisters about the love of God. We are called, as Jesus shows us here, to travel around and talk about God with anyone and everyone who will listen.

From time to time throughout history, there are people who get caught up in this understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. One such disciple, who lived in 12th century Italy, was Francesco Bernardone, more familiar to us as St. Francis of Assisi. In a new biography of Francis by Donald Spoto entitled Reluctant Saint, Francis is described as a wealthy adventurer, wayward son, rebel, soldier, itinerant preacher, defender of the poor, mystic, environmentalist before his time and friend of animals. His is a fascinating story, for Spoto places his life in the context of his day: the social, political and religious forces of medieval Italy. It was a time of great affluence and achievement. The urban economies were growing. Improvements were made in farm and military equipment. Universities were built and the great cathedrals.

But this was also a time of cruelty, violence and war. There was continual fighting between cities and states. And it was the time of the Crusades, which were defined by, in Spoto's words, "the worst kinds of venality and the infliction of cruel massacres and plunder on both sides."

The young Francis, born into a wealthy, merchant family, was the life of every party-funny, popular, wasteful, squandering his wealth and embarrassing his family. But later, injured in battle and weakened by malaria, Francis began to lose interest in his friends and their activities. A solitary spiritual journey lead him finally to a powerful conversion as he prayed in front of a cross, and in that mystic experience, the suffering Christ spoke to him and called upon Francis to rebuild the church.

Gradually that calling becomes clearer and clearer to him. Over time he breaks with his family, breaks with the established church, and comes to understand that "rebuilding the church" meant preaching the truth of God's love. And for Francis, that came to mean a life of radical poverty, commitment to the poor, and itinerant preaching. He began to dress in the fashion of a lay hermit-and this is the way we think of him today-wearing a burlap tunic, sandals, a belt and carrying a staff for walking. He owned nothing and gradually gathered around him a band of fellow disciples who roamed the countryside preaching the Word of God to any and all who would listen. And, of course, legend has it that when people didn't want to listen to his message of repentance and love, Francis would preach to the birds and to all the animals who, it is said, responded to his voice in harmony and joy.

Francis changed the way preaching was done. He took it from the formal settings of the church out to the highways and byways of the country. Like Jesus, he went out to where the people lived and worked. To better communicate with them, he adopted the vernacular of his day: poetry, drinking songs, and the popular political rhetoric of the time. His preaching was spontaneous and unstructured. His goal was simply to urge people to "turn their hearts towards God, [and] to reform their lives by prayer, simplicity and concern for the poor."

There are no transcripts or firsthand accounts of Francis' sermons. It is reported, however, that his customary greeting to one and all was, "May the Lord give you peace." How strange this greeting must have sounded in a time when peace was nowhere to be found, in church or society. But for Francis, peace was the central message of the prophets and of Christ's gospel. And it became his mission to proclaim God's peace in a violent world. For Francis, this meant peace among individuals and peace among the nations and faiths. As he said to his companions: "As you announce peace with your mouth, make sure that greater peace is in your hearts. We have been called to this: to heal the wounded, to bind up the broken and recall the erring. Everyone should be attracted to peace, kindness and harmony through your gentleness." And he and his followers lived what they preached. Surely, their own poverty and radical example of discipleship spoke even louder than their words.

For Francis of Assisi, as for Jesus in whose steps he followed, the preaching of the Word of God was the primary mode of healing in God's Kingdom. But, God's Word is still as challenging in our time as it was in his. Like Francis, we are at first very reluctant saints! We are hesitant to speak, and unsure of what to say. Francis found the way that was right for him. We must each work to find the way that is right for us.

As we get about our work of fishing for people, what are some things we could say that would be good news to those we meet, those we know? How might we share a word about how the love of God is real in our lives? About how our faith makes a difference in how we live? About why we cherish the fellowship of the church? About the power of grace and forgiveness? About a kind of healing that comes from God? About a vision that the poor will be lifted up and the outcasts invited home? And in a time such as this, how might we lift up Christ's way of peace and hope to those who have lost vision and courage?

The Word of God creates the vision of a new heaven and a new earth. The Word of God sets us free. The Word of God sustains us for the work of discipleship.

In our time, in our way, may we learn how to gossip the Gospel and offer a blessing to all we meet: "May the Lord give you peace." Amen.

NOTES:

1. Donald Spoto. Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc. 2002.

© Patricia E. Farris, 2003. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution. All other rights reserved.