Remote or In-Person

• Preacher: The Rev. Andrew Van Kirk

• Passage: Mark 7:24-37

What would you give to get the Meeting ID of Jesus Christ's Personal Meeting Room on Zoom? If you could just click start on that meeting right there.

I wonder what sort of Zoom background Jesus would use? And do you think he takes advantage of the "Touch Up My Appearance" feature in the video settings?

These hypotheticals aside, Jesus was working from home before "working from home" was a thing. And he did it without Zoom.

This is obvious in the creedal sense: the Son of God sitting at the right hand of the Father is obviously working from home. They're not seated at a baseball games.

But the thing I mean is that Jesus was good at working from home when he was down here on earth too.

In today's gospel reading from Mark we have both "remote work" Jesus and "in-person work" Jesus. This is good news. As we scale the peak of this Delta variant coronavirus surge, we need the comfort of a Savior who works well remotely *and* we need a Jesus who will touch us directly. We also must remember that because Jesus could and did work remotely and in-person, we can and must as his Church.

Let's look at the passage, shall we. If you take out your bulletins, you'll find it on page 4. We have two paragraphs. We have two miracles. There's a one-to-one correspondence here between paragraphs and miracles. And they are very different from each other.

First one: "From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre." Tyre is on a peninsula that juts out into the Mediterranean Sea; today it is in southern Lebanon. But even back then it wasn't Jewish. It's a beach town in a foreign country; sorta like Cancun. "And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there."

Sometimes when you're working from the house, you've just go to buckle down and get some stuff done. Am I right? No interruptions!

"Yet he could not escape notice." Argh! See, that's the thing about working from home. Since you're there, everyone just figures they can constantly interrupt. It's so hard to get anything done!!

"Immediately [a woman] heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet." And her first problem is that she has a daughter possessed by a demon and wants Jesus to cast it out. Her other problem is that she's not Jewish, and so it's not clear yet if Jesus' mission extends to her.

Now there's a conversation about this that ensues, in which the woman is compared metaphorically to a dog. I've preached about this several times before. The dog thing is not going to be my primary concern today. But I will note that sometimes, when you're trying to work from home and people keep interrupting you, sometimes it's a little aggravating, and you're short with people. You know?

Anyway, she convinces him, and without going anywhere, he says to her: "Yo may go–the demon has left your daughter." He performs a remote exorcism.

As Deacon Logan pointed out to me, this is a very COVID-safe practice. No large gatherings indoors. No extended close contact. Dr. Fauchi would very much approve.

Now, I know some of you have bought houses remotely, negotiated multi-million dollar deals remotely, and tried cases remotely. You've also ordered frozen margaritas, attended funerals, and had job interviews. But none of you, to my knowledge, has remotely cast out a demon during this pandemic. Try to beat that.

Jesus, you see, was very good at remote work before remote work was even a thing.

New paragraph; new story. And this next story is very, very different. Jesus returns from Tyre – remember Tyre's kinda like Cancun, as least for the purposes of this story – and on his way back a deaf man with a speech impediment is brought to him and his friends beg Jesus to heal him.

Now, verse 33. This part is quite wild: "He [that is Jesus] took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue."

We had a great staff meeting this week trying to figure out what that looked like. We decided there was no "wet-willy" here; the spitting came after the ears. But the touching of his tongue?

At what point do you think that deaf mute man wished that he could have asked Jesus if he could please work remotely today?

I think it was this moment right here.

It's visceral, this thing. It's so much more intimate than a hand on the shoulder, or a side hug. Jesus is all up in his business.

And here's what happened: with the hands of God that formed Adam and Eve, the hands of Jesus remake the the man's ears and mouth. And at the end there is a sigh and then the mysterious healing word, ephphatha.

Boom. The man can both hear and speak.

Jesus was very good at in-person work too.

Whether remote or in-person, to borrow from that last line of our reading, Jesus did everything well.

Around here in the last month or so, everything has not been well. On top of the natural and foreign policy disasters that have dominated the headlines, COVID has pushed many of us back from in-person gatherings. There are people who were in this room with us at the end of July who have gone back to being online. I want to say, "That's ok – Jesus is really good at remote work."

There are those who are here in-person today who just need to come up to this altar rail and have Jesus touch their tongue. And I want to say, "Good – Jesus is really good in-person too."

Now, if our Lord, in his time on earth, was good at both remote and in-person work – well than we as the church, who are his hands and feet today, must also be good at remote and in-person work, because that's how Christ is going to work through us. We can't just wait for the day we are close enough to stick fingers in each other's ears.

Truth be told, I long to be close enough that we could stick fingers in each others ears. (Now, I don't want to actually do it; I just want to be able to.)

But I also know that what makes St. Andrew's is not our being able to touch each other, but being people through whom the Lord can touch others, in-person or remotely. Whether he casts the fear and despair out of a heart from far away as we pray, or feeds a family from the Little Free Pantry with food we gave, Jesus is working in us and through us as his body, his hands, his feet.

Let me give you two concrete examples that happened within two days of each other last week. And I share these not because they are the best examples, but because they happened last week. They are examples of the little things the Lord is up to all the time.

First, our annual Belize silent auction raised over $4,000 to support the work of our partner parish there. That's great in and of itself. But right as the auction closed, Stephanie and I lost the item we were bidding on to another couple. This other couple was not even at the dinner! They were bidding remotely from across town. As surely as Jesus cast out that demon from across town, that cast us out from the winning bidder spot. And that money will, remotely, get down to Belize and one of the things it will help support is the school down there. Christ is at work in the life of a kid – remotely.

Just two days earlier I was sitting in a medical room with a parishioner. I had the sacrament in my hands, and as I gave it they had tears in their eyes. And Jesus touched their tongue. I know as parishioners you don't always get to see the church at work, especially in the quiet, private moments like this. I wish you could, because it'd give you a whole new perspective what your generosity makes possible in the lives of one another. You can almost hear the healing breath of God. That was Christ in-person.

Now these are examples of Christ at work remotely and in-person in others; but his power is there for you too.

This time is not easy, but we shall not despair that Jesus cannot act. We wait patiently for the crumbs from the table; we long to hear the mysterious divine ephphatha – "be opened" – uttered over our closed hearts.

I've read these stories, even preached on these stories, lots of times. But something about this time, with our world such as it is, has made me see them this new way. Whatever the world throws at us, as Christ's Church we can be sure that Christ can work. Remote and in-person, these passages are testimonies to the power of God, a power that we need in our lives right now, a power that is there for you wherever you find yourself in this pandemic.

Whatever choices you make to navigate this pandemic as best you can, you can't make a choice that puts you out of reach for Jesus. Ask him. Beg him. Remote or in-person; Jesus works.