The Seventh Sunday after Epiphany
Year B

And God said, "Yes!"

Readings: Isaiah 43:18-25 & Mark 2:1-12

I am by no means an avid sports fan.  But I enjoy watching basketball from time to time.  I love the showmanship, the sense of timing, the grace as a player soars through the air and sinks a basket.  Most of all I love watching the antics afterward, as the athlete expresses his “Yes!” His triumphant fist and smile says it all.  “There.  That is how it is supposed to be done! That is my very best!”   

I can imagine God making such gestures as Jesus goes about healing, touching, forgiving.  Yet there are many times when we find it difficult to imagine God as really saying “Yes!” at all.  “Does God answer prayer?” we question.  Is it like dealing with a child and a cookie?  We can say “no”.  Or we can say, “You may have a cookie when you have eaten your dinner.”  God’s “yes,” affirms the possibilities there are for us in our personal lives as in our future as a church.  So how do we begin to hear God’s “yes”?   

God says “yes” to forgiveness.  God’s “yes” is that God will not remember our sin.  God will forget the past so that we can be open to the future.  What a wonderful gift of grace that is! Isaiah reminded the people of Israel that it was God’s gift to them.  “Don’t forget God’s saving acts from the past,” Isaiah says to them.  ‘Forget the disasters that have happened.  Don’t dwell on the past.  Take responsibility for what has happened.  But rely on God.  Remember what God has done – manna in the desert, water gushing from a rock! Remember what God has promised.  Let your past experience of God carry you through the difficulties.’  Good advice for the Israelites! Good advice for us here this morning!  

Forgiveness was the gift offered to the paralytic.  This is someone who didn’t even have the resources to get to Jesus himself.  Even with the help of his friends he couldn’t get in the normal way.  He couldn’t get through the crowded doorway.  His faithful friends didn’t give up on him.  They found a way, a pretty drastic way! They cut a hole in the roof and lowered him to Jesus on his bed. 

What a great gift Jesus gave to the paralytic! “Your sins are forgiven,” he told him.  What a great gift God gives us! “Your sins are forgiven,” God tells us over and over again.  Wiped clean! Erased! A new beginning! A clean slate!  

It is, after all, a common metaphor to link paralysis and guilt.  That is not because we think that paralysis is caused by sin.  It is because guilt can be like a paralysis in our lives.  It can keep us from feeling truly free.  It can keep us from realizing God’s continuous love and forgiveness.  It is by freeing ourselves from that paralysis, by accepting God’s forgiveness that we are freed from all that paralyzes us.  Then we can look back and see how God has been at work in our lives.  We can look back and recognize that it is in the wilderness times that God has been most with us.  We can remember the times that we have called out to God for help.  It needs to be the ground of our belief that God will continue to be with us. 

Forgiveness has to be the most difficult gift for anyone to really take in and accept.  Let’s face it! Even on a human level it is pretty difficult to simply accept graciously.  There is an episode of “Dharma and Greg” that illustrates that beautifully.  Dharma says to Greg, “OK, let’s make up.”   

“What?” says Greg. 

“ I’m done arguing. Let’s make up,” she says.  

“But we haven’t resolved anything. Nobody won,” he says. 

“ Good point! You win.”

“But you can’t just do that!” he says. 

“ OK. I win.”

“ No you don’t!” replies Greg. 

“Boy, you really love to argue, don’t you?” Dharma says to him. 

“I do not.”

“Then stop it,” she says. 

“ But we’re not done yet.”

“Yes we are.”

“No we’re not.”

“I love you!” says Dharma.

“ What?”

“ I … love … you.”

“ Oh man, you really don’t play by the rules, do you?” says Greg. 

“ Nope.”

Greg kisses her, “I love you, too.”