I went to lunch at an Indian restaurant with a friend on
Friday. At this restaurant for
lunch there is a buffet and after eating you pay at the cash register. The
young man taking our payments asked me with a smile, “Are you excited about the
Super Bowl?” Perhaps that was his
stock question for all customers that day, but it seemed an incongruous
question to be asking a couple of “ladies” who were lunching.
But if I could reframe his question a bit, it might fit a phrase from
our Collect of the Day, which is, “give us the liberty of abundant life.” “The liberty of abundant life” in the
specific context of the collect asks God to free us from the effects of our
sins through Jesus Christ—especially as Jesus has shown us what abundant life
looks like by the way he lived.
Of course, we don't have Jesus attending or commenting on sporting
events in the scriptures. It was
the conquerors and occupiers of Palestine, the Romans, who engaged in sports. But I think we can expand the scope of
the phrase “the liberty of abundant life.” In the context of the young man's question, I think this
phrase could mean this, “Do I expect to find joy and fulfillment in what I may
experience in a couple of days?”
Of course, I had no time to do this theological work as I opened my
purse and paid him—so I just deflected the question and said I had enjoyed my
lunch.
But we certainly have the time to ask this question of the folks who
populate our scripture readings today and finally of ourselves. So let's ask, “How does each one expect to find abundant life—that is, joy
and fulfillment—in what they were experiencing or what they expected to
experience.”
Elisha: As a prophet, his call came to carry on
the tradition Elijah had begun of speaking truth or God's word to those in
power. But he came to care about
this couple who provided him and his servant with hospitality. When he declared
God's blessing on them, he did not expect the trouble that came. When trouble
came, Elisha's servant tried to push the woman away from a prophet busy with
obviously more important things.
But Elisha found abundant life came not only from his dealing with those
in power, but in his aid to those in need. It also came from exercising the gift of healing God had
given him.
The Shunammite woman:
Her abundant life appears to come from her persistence in doing what was right,
no matter what her social place might have dictated. She prevailed upon her husband to spend money to show
extravagant hospitality to this man of God, before there was any hint of a
benefit to her. Then when fate seemed to destroy that abundant life with her
son's apparent death, her persistence brought Elisha back to revive her son.
She was empowered to act at a time when most women were without power and in
doing so experienced abundant life.
St. Paul: Abundant life for him was serving Jesus
Christ. His conversion experience
on the road to Damacus so empowered him that he no longer worried about his
reputation or his personal safety.
In another passage Paul said that he can give thanks to God in all
circumstances. In the passage we
heard this morning, he told the Corinthians: “I have become all things to all
people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share
in its blessings.”
Simon's mother-in-law: Her illness kept her from what gave her
life its purpose—running her household.
In hearing this passage we must be careful not to lay our modern
expectations on her. Rather we
should see her in the light of the second part of Proverbs 31's ode to a
capable wife who’s clever, entrepreneurial, wise, reverent, and hardworking.
Her ability to have an abundant life had been taken from her, but Jesus
restored it to her. Mark's gospel
says that Jesus “came and took her by the hand and lifted her up.” Her lifting up seems both literal and
metaphorical. Her healing by Jesus
lifted back to her to where she had been, restored to the abundant life of
service.
Jesus: For him, as for Elisha, abundant life
involved both a bigger picture and a smaller one. Everyone he healed received abundant life, but Jesus'
abundant life needed to be balanced between service to others, prayer time
along in a deserted place, and proclaiming the message that the reign of God
had come and the long awaited Messiah was here: Repent, believe the good news and follow. We see in all the gospels that Jesus
struggled with balance among service to others, prayer away by himself, and
preaching and teaching in his ministry.
For him abundant life meant seeking God's will and balancing the
different facets of his ministry—in all situations—even in the face of
execution.
And now for each of us and for our parish we can ask—what does “the
liberty of abundant life” look like?
Perhaps you are expecting me to give you an answer to that
question?? For each of us that
answer must be worked out in the context of our lives, as we reach out for
God's guidance. For our parish, it
must be worked out in the context of our life together, as we reach out for
God's guidance. But as we have seen, there are many examples in scripture. “The liberty of abundant life” for
these holy women and holy men included faithfulness to tasks given them,
compassion for the people God has placed in their lives, persistence,
thankfulness, and a balance of prayer and action. Help us, O God, to follow not only these examples in
scripture, but also the examples of holy men and women who have blessed our
lives.
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