I want to share with you today some random thoughts I have had about this scripture. I hope that some of what I have to say with resonate with you and prompt you, as it has prompted me, to think a bit more about this passage and what it means in our live today.

The story of the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law occurs early in Jesus’ relationship with the group of disciples he has gathered around him. It occurs shortly after he calls the fishermen Simon, Andrew, James and John. He has just cast out demons from a man in the synagogue, so these new disciples have witnessed his power. He must, though, still be somewhat of an intimidating stranger to them – powerful enough to cast out demons, charismatic enough to move them to leave their families and livelihood, but still somewhat of an unknown quantity. The friendship is still being formed. It is perhaps cemented when they go to Simon’s house to share a meal together.

Sitting down at table together has long been a way to develop and strengthen relationships. I think that’s why churches have become known for their good food. Whether it’s the Trinity Fish Fry or the Tuesday lunches at St. Paul’s, you will always find new friends and old sharing a meal, conversation, and concern for one another. Jesus and his disciples did the same, and of course, it was their last meal together that we remember whenever we celebrate Holy Communion.

It was, perhaps, this early gathering over food that brought these new friends closer together. But the meal was only possible through Jesus’ intervention. Simon’ mother-in-law was sick with a fever when they came into the home. Jesus’ immediate reaction is to go to her bedside, take her hand and lift her up from the bed. She is cured instantly, feeling so well, that she immediately begins to serve them.

So, I see in this little scene a number of important things:

• The gathering together of the group in Simon’ house to rest and to share a meal, reinforcing the need for food and fellowship if relationships are to grow.
• I see Jesus’ compassion for the sick. His own needs are set aside whenever someone is in need of help.
• And I see the way Jesus enters lives. He comes into our ordinary, everyday routines and habits. He comes to us where we are – at work, at home, during illness, and as we go about daily living.

Now this part of the story has in the past made me a little antsy. You have probably noticed that when Jesus cures a man, that person usually goes off to tell others what has happened and to offer praises to God. This woman, on the other hand, gets up and starts preparing dinner! Why is that, I wonder? Why is she not out in the street preaching the Good News?

Now, we could get a little bent out of shape about inequality, oppression of women, etc. but let’s think about this. Gender roles were very specific 2000 year ago and a woman’ role was to care for her family and to serve guests in the home, both extremely important and necessary functions.

Maybe the message here is not so much about women cooking and men preaching as it is about what happens when Jesus comes into your life. An encounter with Jesus equips us for service. In Mark, Chapter 10, verse 45 we read: "For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many." Jesus came to serve and to teach us service. Does it really matter so much the form that services takes? Isn’t it more important that God and God’s people are served and cared for so that the work of spreading the Good News can happen?
Jesus was likely exhausted and in need of quiet time, rest and refreshment so that he could continue his ministry. Simon’s mother-in-law gave that to Jesus.

It’s like the women who provide a hot meal three days a week for the men and women who are renovating the C.E. Building (at Trinity). The work would not go as well if that meal were not there to provide nourishment, a break and continuing fellowship. When we serve God, all service is of equal value in God’s eyes. If Jesus could kneel and wash the feet of his disciples, surely we can humbly serve one another.

Something else that struck me when reading this was the thought: the poor man! Jesus was almost hounded by the crowds that clambered after him. He had no privacy, no time alone. He must have been exhausted! And when he did try to get away to pray and to rest, they hunted him down. Even the disciples seem to have not realized his need for rest.

I guess that’s a lesson for us all. If Jesus needed "down time" we certainly do. I know that I personally am very good at forgetting or ignoring that little piece of advicre. I also know that when I do ignore it for too long, the work I do is not my best. Like a car that needs regular fill-up’s with gas, we need regular times of rest and relaxation if we are to function well. We each must find a way to shut out the busyness and the noisy demands of life for a time if we are to live as fully as we can.

It’s important to remember how Jesus got his second wind. He sought solitude in order to pray - to deliberately spend time in communion with God. We need that every bit as much as Jesus did. How can we discern God’s will for us if we never talk to God? How can we get direction, support, and comfort if we never ask for it?

Quiet time for rest is very important.

Quiet time with God is an absolute necessity!

I want to take us back for a moment to Simon’s mother-in-law and to our early passage from the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah begins with:

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?"

Have you not known about God from your own beginning? Have you not understood that all you see and touch and feel has come from our great Creator, a gift of unsurpassing love?

And the gift was Jesus, who came to teach us, to lead us into life eternal with God. And though the world may place on him demands most strenuous, he will not faint or grow weary – and neither will those who love and serve him.

We have God’s promise as delivered by Isaiah:

"Those who serve the Lord, shall renew their strength,

they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary,

they shall walk and not faint."

I love that eagle imagery. That sheer power rising up, as Simon’s mother-in-law rose from her fevered sickbed, renewed in strength, no longer weary.

In 1852, Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote a short poem, "The Eagle". I first encountered it in an old primary school reader, "Shining Skies", a little blue book I still cherish today. I have always enjoyed that poem and went back to it this week after reading Isaiah. Suddenly, it took on a whole new meaning for me.

"He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Surveying the world he created, "close to the sun in lonely lands, ring’d with the azure world he stands", God watched and listened and then when the needs of the world became so great, when the people needed so much a Saviour to teach them and to lead them to God’s ways,

"Like a thunderbolt he falls"

Whether Jesus comes to you quietly and gradually over a period of time so that it seems he was always there, or whether he comes in a dramatic moment, the result is the same. He is a thunderbolt, forever changing everything and everyone he touches.

Ten little verses. So many lessons. So much to learn. So much to do with what we learn.

May we take the many different threads of this story and weave them into our own meaningful life of service. And may God bless us in the weaving.

Amen