March 19, 2006

Marit Rong. Service at

The Norwegian Memorial Church, Minneapolis 02.19.2006, 7 Epiphany

Lessons: Isa 43,18-25, 2 Cor 1,18-22

Theme: The Pilgrimage

I think that this is one of the more funny stories about Jesus. Try to imagine: Four men who might be a little late for a meeting. Jesus is the one in charge, and he is preaching. He appeals to many people, so inside it is overcrowded. However, the four friends have a very important mission. They bring their friend on a stretcher. He is unable to stand on his feet because he is paralyzed. The friends have heard rumours that Jesus can heal paralyzed people. They care for their friend. They have tried almost everything else; now Jesus is next in line. Unfortunately, there were no room for them; it is not possible to sneak in. You will need some space for a stretcher. What were they to do? Go back home? No, their friend’s health was too important to do so. The friends were never at a loss as to what to do. Most of the Palestine houses have an outdoor staircase to the roof, which they use. On the roof the digging starts. The hole must be big enough to let down the man on the mat.

Jesus is in the room below. Did he notice what happened? Did the other people in the room notice what happened? I think so. We don’t know whether Jesus stopped his teaching to see what was going on. Try once more to imagine: To be inside the house looking up to the ceiling to see four men who wonder whether the hole is big enough, and whether they have dug the right place to lower the mat right in front of Jesus.

The first pilgrimage

I think that the story about the paralytic and his friends may be named the first pilgrimage. The four friends carried their sick friend to a particular house in Capernaum believing that Jesus could make miracles. Later on this story has provided hope and has served as an example for many people. Throughout the ages many have done their pilgrimage. The motives have been to strengthen their relationship to God by receiving forgiveness of sin. However, often the hope of being healed has been another important motivation. The pilgrimages have been focused on specific geographical destinations, places where miracles have happened. To give some examples; Santiago de Compostella, Olavskilden in the cathedral of Nidaros, the crucifix of Røldal stave church. In Røldal the pilgrimages took place well into the 19^th century. Røldal is a tiny village high up in the mountains between the western and the eastern part of Norway. In the local church, which is a stave church, there was said to be a miraculous crucifix that sweats every Midsummer eve. Whoever got the chance to wipe a piece of cloth across it and then place the cloth upon his body, would be cured, no matter what illness he or she was suffering from, provided that was the merciful will of God. When Midsummer Eve was approaching, many people were gathering. The last part of the road they were supposed to crawl on their knees.

In his first book called Cleng Peerson the Norwegian author Alfred Hauge tells how Cleng went together with Sara Larsdatter to Røldal. Sara had become mute because of a chock that Cleng had caused. They had to travel secretly, as the church and its pastors had prohibited the pilgrimages to Røldal. They told people that if the crucifix had any healing powers, it vas a delusion caused by the Devil and popish obscurement. However, as one of the co-travellers of Cleng said: "I don’t worry much about them, if only my fingers don’t get any shorter than they are already. I certainly would like them to get back their full length, but for that I think a stronger faith is needed than mine." He was suffering from leprosy.

Alfred Hauge describes Cleng’s first meeting with the sick ones. "That day still more boats arrived with sick people, and everyone spoke about the crucifix: the previous year it had been sweating more than usual, and many people had been cured. Strange tales were told about the lame who had begun to walk and the deaf who had regained their hearing, about the blind who had regained their eyesight, and others who had been possessed by evil spirits but had gotten rid of them. In one of the boats two men lifted up a stretcher covered with a white sheet and a coverlet; nothing but a wax-coloured and wasted face could be seen. In another boat a young mother held her deformed child in her arms; the child was crying, it had a harelip and cleft palate. Each one knew full well the pain that was his own; no one knew much about the others’ sufferings, but they all knew that they belonged among the pilgrims."

The hope for Anne was that her voice would return and her tongue be released from its fetters. When Cleng and Anne approached the church, crawling on their knees, they were saying the Lord’s Prayer. The nave of the church was enveloped in darkness, but the choir shone as if the gates of Paradise had been opened wide; great and small candles had been lit on the altar. Hymns were sung, petitions prayed. After a rather long while a white-bearded man took the crucifix down from its place above the choir door and lifted it up in his arms, crying in a loud and trembling voice: "Our Lord Jesus Christ is sweating for us!" The leper stretched his wasted fingers up toward the cross. His wife brushed a white linen cloth across the face of the Crucified One and then over her husband’s hands and the sores in his face. They saw that the woman with the pale face, the one who had been carried across the mountains and the seas, rose up from her stretcher, and she grasped the piece of cloth that had been laid across her face and pressed it to her mouth and kissed it again and again. Cleng stroke the hard wood of the visage of Christ with his white cloth. Anne opened her mouth, and Cleng stroke it across her tongue and then across her throat. She opened her mouth, but nothing happened. No word was heard. Everything seemed to be in vain.

The one who carries everything

There are many stories like this. Throughout all ages they have had a prominent position in the popular belief. Are they only myths, or have the miracles indeed taken place? And what happened to those who were not cured? Wasn’t their faith strong enough? I will return to Capernaum and the story about the paralytic. That day two miracles happened, not only one. First: The man was cured from his disability; he left the house walking on his own feet. Second: The man was cured from his sins, which was a miracle that no one had expected. The first miracle amazed all the present persons, the second miracle made the scribes angry. Because, when Jesus forgives someone’s sins he is acting as God. However, this second miracle is even more important than the first one. Sooner or later our bodies will waste away and die, no matter how many cures we might have experienced. To be of good health is a great and important gift. Nevertheless, we will have to depart from this life, whether it is early or late in a lifetime. But even though our bodies die, the gift of forgiveness is still there. That goes beyond the grave straight into God’s heaven. That’s why this gift will be the biggest a human can have. Jesus is carrying all of us even though the physical, visual miracles don’t happen.

A responsible community

It is worth to consider that if the physical miracles were meant as a proof of faith, it would have been hard to believe in Jesus. Many people have been disappointed because they were not cured, even though they had put all their trust on that Jesus would heal them. Who had failed, God or themselves? It is reasonable to think like this. It is not easy to live with diseases, either physically, nor mentally. Nevertheless, miracles do happen even today, it would be false to say otherwise. However, Jesus never promised that everyone would be cured from all human diseases. Nor did he claim a strong faith to be cured. What Jesus promised was to walk aside us throughout life, for better or worse. Jesus wants to carry us when we are unable to carry ourselves.

We are meant to be a responsible community. Thus the four friends are an example to us. We are all meant to carry for each other. However, in certain periods of life all of us will also be in the position of being carried, the one who is not able to walk himself or herself, periods when we are dependent upon other people’s faith and help. In a well functioning community the roles may be reversed. In periods we will have to depend on other people’s faith and hope. In times like these we have no energy left to believe and hope for ourselves. To quote the saying: "He who carries a load for others, seldom carries too heavy a load."

The texts for today point to the baptism. Through the words of the prophet Isaiah we learn that God is creating something new. God gives water so that the chosen people can drink, and all our iniquities are deleted. This is what baptism is about: To wash away sin. The source is the source of life. Jesus forgave the man his sins, even if he didn’t ask for it. Through the bath of baptism God cleanses us and restores the broken relationship. At the same time God grants us faith, the faith we cannot achieve by ourselves. Nothing illustrates this better than when a child is baptized. The child is carried to him who carries everything.

Through the Holy Communion, too, God meets us with forgiveness, future and hope. All our sins are forgiven, those we are conscious about and those we do not know of, the sins we just suspect we have committed, in words, deeds or attitudes. Having received communion, we can start afresh with new possibilities to live in the faith in Jesus. Every Sunday is a pilgrimage in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716