Strong: None of us like coming across as weak, no matter whatever age we are. And you know how some people latch on to any sign of weakness in another. Perhaps part of your story has been learning to deal with such people and such situations much better than you once did. You have worked to find your voice, your strength, your ways of not being put down. Working out how to live with the areas where we are not so strong is a life-long learning task. Learning to do that in the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, maybe that is one of the secrets of being happy that doesn’t show up in any formal curriculum.
1 Cor 12:9. ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in human weakness.’ I suspect somewhere during the year Pastor Michael will explore that idea of strength with the Trinity College community. That is a important part of your wonderful theme: strong together. Together with Christ.
Strong together: great theme. Let’s look at the Gospel text in that light.
Strength. I see that in Jesus. On the Sabbath, the day of rest, straight after the teaching and casting out of the unclean spirit in the synagogue, they walk to Peter and Andrew’s house. Their mother-in-law is in bed with a fever. It could well have been malaria. He reaches out to her and takes her hand. He shows great strength in reaching through all sorts of barriers. Healing on the Sabbath is work. Unmarried male touching a married woman. He is ritually clean and healthy– he touches someone who is sick and takes that uncleanness and illness off her and perhaps into himself. He raises her up. The same word will be used about him at the end of the Gospel. He is raised up to new life, after the cross. This touch points to that. That is a lot of things in one action and a few words. He gives of his strength to her, and restores her from sickness and death into life.
How do you give strength to others? Take what you are good at, secure in, and use that to help others. You do that as part of your position, as a teacher, or in your work or as a parent or grandparent. You provide boundaries, set limits, within which good, safe learning can happen.
Strong together: we catch a glimpse of where Jesus got his strength from what happened the next morning. He goes off very early, to reconnect to his Heavenly Father. We all need resourcing, spiritually, as well as emotionally and physically. For Jesus that quiet time was essential, and there are little hints references to that hidden away in all the Gospels. His personal prayer practice grounded him in knowing how to deal with relentless pressure and expectations. Trust in that God connection for you, and allow some space and time for that. Strong together is not just about working as team. It’s about that God space inside each one of us being allowed to work in a healthy, life-giving way. Off course God loves us, whether we do this or not. But working and living flat-out without that heart centre strong, is like trying to play sport with dodgy hamstrings, or knee issues. You can do it, for a while, but you will be slow, you can’t move smoothly, or always on the edge of having to come off. Fix the hamstring issues, get the knees attended to, then you can run. Some daily Christian prayerful practice that reconnects us means that we will not be totally drained at the end of each day.
Jesus raised up the unnamed woman, and she served them. That’s not a put-down of her. She had been healed, and she responding by sharing her joy. Serving is how Jesus characterised his whole ministry. I have not come to be served, but to serve. The biggest service was Jesus going to the cross, but doing that not as some tragedy, or senseless act, but doing that in great love, for each one of us. There is the secret to Christian strength. Our God has taken on himself our sins, the evil and stupidity done to us, or that we have done to others. In our moments of utter helplessness, there is the promise that Jesus knows that experience, and goes there with us, never letting us be alone. And just as that woman was raised up, so was Jesus, into Easter, into new life that is stronger than anything else. That is our hope, and our strength, whether we can see things working out beautifully, or whether we are utterly powerless. We trust, we hope, we hold on, for ourselves and for others. We trust that we will be raised up, and that strong together is real.
Hear the invitation to trust in the strength and touch of Jesus. Use your strength to help others. In times of helplessness, trust that Christ is with you, and with those you care about, and that he does raise us up.