Are You Nuts!?

 Mark 3:20-35

The crowd came together again, so that Jesus and the disciples could not even eat. When Jesus’s family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

In 1847 Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis ran two hospitals in Vienna.  One was the fancy, expensive teaching hospital with doctors and students (all male of course).  That’s where the rich went.  The other was a maternity clinic for... you know... the common folk.  The maternity clinic had no doctors… only midwives (all female of course).  But here’s the thing, in the fancy, high priced hospital, the women who went there to have their babies died from fever... A LOT… while over at the low-rent clinic things were MUCH better.  This statistic was SO well known in Vienna that all women, regardless of means or social status, BEGGED to go to the hospital with the midwives.  

Dr. Semmelweis eventually figured out that the reason for the huge difference in outcomes was because the midwives all WASHED THEIR HANDS.  In the fancy hospital, the doctors would just go from an autopsy to a surgery to a birth never washing their hands.  It just wasn’t done that way!  He proved that when they washed their hands infant mortality dropped... from 20% to less than 1 %!  It made him a hero, right?  Nope!  The doctors were outraged by being questioned about their cleanliness.  So offended that even the doctors who had been washing their hands before, stopped in protest!  The death rate tripled.  So THAT must have changed their minds, right?  Nope. 

Dr. Semmelweis fought for years, but eventually the fight broke him and he began to drink... A LOT.  He was committed to an insane asylum by his family where he was beaten, left in a dark cell, and died of... you guessed it... a fever.  Twenty years later, a man named Louis Pasteur proposed the idea of “germ theory” and hand washing took off around the world. 

The Scribes and Pharisees thought Jesus was insane like the other doctors thought Dr. Semmelweis was insane.  Jesus’s family thought he was insane as well… sad and to be pitied and in need of being quietly spirited away.  The thing is... from those outside, experienced points of view... he was!  Jesus was bonkers!  Jesus wasn’t AT ALL normal.  Jesus did things and said things that went against what everyone KNEW was true.  Who in their right mind would TOUCH a leper after all!  What sort of rational human being would take on the entire Roman Empire?  Who would do that?  Who would suggest that if someone asks you for a coat, you give them the rest of your clothes leaving you naked in the street?  Blessed are the poor?  Really!?  Have you BEEN poor?  It’s not that much of a blessing!  ALL of that sort of thinking was... WELL... CRAZY! 

Whether it was hand washing with Dr. Semelweiss, turning the other cheek with Jesus, or figuring out how to emerge from quarantine today, changing the way the world’s always done things… or even the way things have been done for the last  14 months… is really, really hard.  And frankly, trying to change those sorts of things will often look to your colleagues, to your family, to the authorities, and sometimes to the entire world, like you’re completely insane.  So how on earth do we do that?  How do we change the world, because that’s exactly what God is calling us to do!

Frederick Buechner wrote, “A Christian is one who is on ‘The Way’, though not necessarily very far along it.”  The way we change anything is to set one foot upon The WAY.  To do that it really helps to be part of a caring community who will keep reminding you that the “WAY” is not a destination, but a journey.  It’s a journey that may very well churn for years and years, even long after the people who began it are gone.  That’s how it was for Dr. Semilweiss.  That’s how it’s been for those trying to change sexism and systemic racism in our country.  That’s how it’s been for the LGBTQIA+ community and that’s how it’s been for the last 14 months trying to help people understand how science, masks, vaccines, and HAND WASHING works!  HAND WASHING!  Over 170 years after Dr. Semmelweis began trying to change the way things had always been done, we’re still working on it!

Changing the world to the Jesus Way of doing things is that sort of marathon, walking one step at a time toward racial justice, radical inclusion of everyone without regard to gender identity or sexual orientation and even toward hand washing!  It is a step by step journey on a life long path with each step taking with compassion, generosity and self-sacrificial love.

For those of us walking that path, it really is best to walk that path together.  To help each other not get discouraged.  To remember that each step, no matter how seemingly small is a milestone… that each step really does make a difference… that each step taken in compassion, generosity and love is a step of faithfulness.  

The world... ?  It’s nuts out there!  But to be fair, they all think we’re nuts in here too!  They think that because the Way we walk is as Robert Frost wrote, “the Road Not Taken”… it’s a poet’s road, a prophet’s road, an artist’s and a dreamer’s road and I am thankful every day that it is also the road we all share together and I'm so looking forward to walking it with all of you again in person very soon! Amen.