Towards Sunday, August 28, 2016

Reading:  Mark 2:1-5 (Jesus began healing and teaching in Capernaum, then just when the people got excited about it and drawn to him, he left to heal and teach others.  Now he is back, people are lined up to see him, and four men are able to jump the line to get an especially sick man to Jesus.)

Queue-jumpers.  How do you feel about them?

About people who get help because of who can pull strings (or ropes) for them?

About special people of the day who get help when there are so many others (like "us") who need it just as much.

Our summer sermon series is about celebrating and listening to the little people of the story, and there are lots of little people in this story:

• the little people of Capernaum who were left out of the healings the first time Jesus was there, and now are lined up ten and twenty deep at the doors waiting again for something good to happen to them
• the four nameless men who give up their place in the line to help a friend get in while they watch from outside on the roof
• the equally nameless but deeply powerless man who is airlifted by friends and deposited safely to a place of healing for his life  

I wonder if at some time in our life, each of us has been in that third position -- deeply indebted to others (or even just one other) for helping us be saved and healed.

If we have ever been -- or have a chance, now, to help some desperate other (or others) to get to a place of healing for their life.

And how we handle all the feelings that arise in our hearts when it seems that others are somehow ... maybe unfairly ... maybe always ... getting help and support ahead of us.