Isaiah 40:21-31 Those who wait upon God shall renew their strength.
Mark 1:29-39 Simon’s mother-in-law and many others healed
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Did you realize we read today last year’s scheduled reading? Gail caught it! I… who planned the day… did not until she pointed it out. It’s then I realized what I was intending to preach I ought to preach to myself. I am trying to pour tea from an empty cup.
I don’t know where the phrase came from – but I always picture it as if I have company coming over. Not family or friends – but like, I’m hosting thanksgiving. There’s always a list of things to prep, right? Make sure the floor is swept, the dishes clean. Be sure there’s food and drink to offer. Be sure there’s entertainment – music, or magazines, or games, or a good story….
By the time everything is done, and the guests are here, you go to offer them coffee or tea … and pour them a large cup of air from the empty carafe. And you find there’s no more tea or coffee in the house. We forgot to get it! And… its evening. The store is closed.
Pouring from an empty carafe. An empty cup.
We have the best of intentions, but sometimes… we’re dry.
And we can’t be hospitable. We can’t host. We can’t care for others.
Busyness – being too busy. Being a Martha of the world. Rushing and serving and coming up short.
But Martha was doing what was expected, and what is scriptural – be a good host. Welcome in strangers. Care for one another.
I think Jesus invited her to sit because she cared so much she’d poured her cup empty and was trying to keep going with nothing left for herself.
The first healing couplet in the book of Mark is Jesus healing Simon’s mother-in-law after the rebuking of the bad spirit weighing on the man in the synagogue. Neither Simon’s mother-in-law nor the man are named. They are just people living in the area. But both aren’t well and whole. Both are weighed and put-on and in need of release. Both can’t keep going doing good. Both are worn thin.
Simon’s mother-in-law may have known she was going to host the up-and-coming rabbi who had gathered a small following, including her son-in-law. I imagine she cleaned that house top to bottom. She had a spread of the best food she could get her hands on. She had good wine and fresh water to share. She’s anticipating the wonderful conversations she’s going to have with Jesus and his group.
… and she can’t serve any of it. She takes to bed with a deadly fever.
Her cup is empty. And she can’t help others any more.
We hear from our ancestors that after Jesus leaves the synagogue, heading to Simon’s for dinner, he is told that his hostess is deadly will with a fever. And without delay, he goes and raises her up. It’s the same verb used for Jesus being raised up on the cross… or raised up in glory…
At once, we’re told, she goes and serves him. This is the same verb used for the disciples who follow Jesus and serve him. The same verb Jesus uses for himself when he says, “The son of man has not come to be served, but to serve…”
She is the first raised up – resurrected. She is the first to serve Jesus – to be a disciple living into the new realm of God.
To be a follower of Christ, we are told, is to die to self and to rise to Christ. And this is an example of how it is done…
You love. You love and love and work and pray and strive to be hospitable. You do all you can to leave this world a better place than you find it. To end the cycles of abuse in your family. To end generational poverty. To reconcile with the peoples our faith have injured and injures. To put an end to that harm. You love and love and love and…
… you run out. Your cup is empty.
Doctors call it compassion fatigue. There’s too many hurts. It is exhausting to care still.
Social workers call it PTSD. Trauma in the mind and body from hearing about all these horrible things and sitting with people in their worst moments.
Psychologists may refer to secondary shock syndrome; and your job may call it burn-out.
My mother would say it’s when you don’t have a [curse word] left to give.
I call it trying to pour from an empty cup.
Whatever you call it, it means you’ve done all the good you can. And yet… there still are more people left hurting. Still evils to correct. Still good to be done.
And you’re exhausted.
This is like a death. This is like a fever. This is like a bad spirit that settles in on us. This is us needing a resurrection.
And the strength of God does not fail. God is the source of endless water. God is who overfills our cups. God is who cools the fever, banishes the oppressive spirit, and raises us up from our deaths.
How?
Christ models it for us.
When our cups run low, it is time to care for ourselves.
Simon’s mother-in-law needs all those she has cared for to now care for her.
Jesus, after all his healing and work, leaves to pray and be alone. To recuperate.
Then Jesus is ready to move on. There are still people left to be healed in this town… but he’s done the good he can. Now it is time for others to pick up the load. He’s off to the next town to raise up the fallen and restore them to doing good in their communities.
Simon’s mother-in-law is ready to serve. She’s been revived and she wants to return to loving those around her. She wants to pick up the load. She wants to return to doing good.
We are the same. When we feel we can’t handle another piece of bad news… turn off the TV. It’s okay.
When we feel we can’t see another sick person… take time off. It’s okay.
When we notice ourselves tightening our shoulders, skipping meals, sleeping fitfully, forgetting things… it’s time to wipe the calendar and do what you must instead to fill your cup.
Sometimes all we need is five minutes. Sometimes we need a night or two. Sometimes weeks. I needed an evening of solitude. That’s my refill. For many who are quitting during this COVID time – they need whole new careers and lives and places and people. Mid-life crises are simply a person realising their cup is empty and it is time to re-evaluate who they are, and find joy and wonder, verve and passion, in life again.
To serve others, we must be served ourselves.
To be hospitable and to care, we have to have the reserves to do so.
To pour life and love into other’s cups, we have to be sure life and love is being poured into our own.
Let us refill one another’s cups. Let God overfill your own. Then let us go find those who are running low and top them off… and share where we find good, living waters for all who are thirsty. Ourselves, included.
Amen.
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 