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The American architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed and built the famous vacation home, "Falling Water" at Bear Run, PA, for the Pittsburgh Kaufmann family, founders of the chain of department stores. One evening Mr. Kaufmann was entertaining guests at dinner in his new vacation house and suddenly the roof began to leak on his head in the middle of dinner. Angrily, Mr. Kaufmann reached for the telephone, called up Frank Lloyd Wright and asked what he was supposed to do now that his new house was leaking rain on his head during dinner. Frank Lloyd Wright answered, "Move your chair."

Sometimes you and I are tempted to blame the great architect of the universe when our lives aggravate us, when truth-to-tell it may not be the architect’s fault. Maybe it’s our move, to take advantage of the opportunities the creator gives us. In today’s gospel lesson, Mark shows us so many people crowded into Jesus’ house, others have trouble hearing Jesus teach them God’s word. How easy to turn and walk away if you can’t even get through the door.

Look how this lesson teaches us a better way. However we in this church organize our activities, it’s easy to find some excuse to stay away from Jesus. "I’m too busy." "I don’t like the music." "The preacher talks above my head." "I don’t get anything out of that class." "The people are too dressed up, or too casual." "Nobody is friendly to me." "All they want from me is my money." "They don’t preach the Bible, like my home church did, where I grew up." "They talk too much politics." "I’m just as good as those hypocrites!" "I know, we’ll need church someday, but I’ll put it off until the right time." At some point, each of us finds an excuse that keeps us away from Jesus.

Here’s the better way this lesson teaches us. Some people do not turn away, don’t get discouraged, distracted, or put off, when their access to Jesus is blocked. They find a way forward to meet Jesus. We don’t know their names, or how many, but four of them are carrying a poor crippled, paralyzed man. They find a way to get to Jesus because they are motivated to help their brother. They know Jesus is for everyone. They want to hear and meet Jesus, and they carry their brother who cannot come in his own strength. He cannot walk at all.

And here is our first lesson. If you are weak in your faith, slow to get up some steam, disappointed in your own initiative and energy, maybe it’s because you are thinking primarily of yourself. If you know you need Jesus, what about your neighbor, your own family, your friend who most likely needs Jesus just as much as you do? Can you help your brother or sister to get to Jesus? If you can help someone else, the Bible teaches us, you will surely help yourself as well.

So what does this group do? Together, they raise the roof. Remove and cut through whatever barrier or ceiling separates them from Jesus. They deliver their paralyzed brother directly into Jesus’ presence. Jesus looks up, sees this new hole in the roof above him and watches as this paralyzed man is lowered so he rests right in front of him. What does Jesus see? Of course Jesus sees this poor man who needs him, but Mark tells us Jesus sees "their faith," the faith of the group, the four carrying their brother, now successful in their quest. Does "their faith" include the paralyzed man himself? Most likely, but not his faith alone, for Jesus sees everyone’s faith. And seeing this corporate expression of faith, Jesus is quick to say, "My son, your sins are forgiven."

The lesson here is that even if this poor man has faith, he cannot act on his faith because he is paralyzed. He cannot get to Jesus on his own. His friends rally together as his supporters, and in their faith and using their muscle, all together they can and do do whatever it takes to transport this paralyzed brother unto Jesus.

Jesus does not say, "I forgive you your sins." He uses passive voice. Your sins are forgiven, meaning God our heavenly Father, whom I represent; God has already forgiven your sins. But now you can hear and receive this blessing and I declare this good news unto you in recognition of the faith, yours and your friends who bring you unto me. Jesus continues, "Now its time for you to stand up, take up your mat you’re resting on, and go home restored to your normal life." And the man rises, bones creaking, finding new strength he receives, picks up his mattress and leaves, goes out, right in front of everyone, so that everyone is amazed and glorifies God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this before," witnessing to the kingdom of God breaking in upon them, giving thanks and praise to God.

Ah, but not everyone there is rejoicing. Some of the scribes are mumbling under their breath, "This is blasphemy. No one can forgive sins, except God alone." Jesus knows in his heart their attitude and explains, "Yes this is true, but God can work through human beings and through me, I who have been baptized and anointed to bring this good news unto you all. You don’t have to wait unto the end of time for the arrival of God’s savior, for the Son of Man is present with you here and now even though he looks just like and indeed is a very real human being." Shocking to hear this reality, for they are unprepared for this news. Their ceiling is too low. Their horizon is too limited. They are stuck in their familiar, comfortable boundaries, and blinded to this new presence. They need to raise their roof.

And here is our second lesson. When you share your faith with someone paralyzed and when you raise your roof to bring your paralyzed neighbor unto Jesus, forgiveness of sin and healing flows from Jesus’ presence to restore us unto a saving relationship with God our heavenly Father. Jesus honors their faith. Jesus does not explain or describe their faith, but we see them hearing, seeking, open, motivated and committed to bring their suffering brother to Jesus for Jesus’ healing. This is the faith Mark presents. Their faith is not correct knowledge or doctrine, but simple trust, looking away from themselves and their circumstances and looking forward into the face of Jesus who promises them new life, life abundant in fellowship with God and with each other. And in their looking, their trusting, in their belief, their hope, their picking up their paralyzed brother, they have raised the roof, raised the roof of whatever cap or ceiling separated them from the love of God in Jesus Christ, whom they would come to know and worship as their Lord and Savior.

And here we come to our third lesson set before us in this passage. Each and every one of us has been in the same predicament as this paralyzed man. For each of us has benefited from the faith and love of someone else, usually more than one, but someone else who has carried us unto Jesus. Jesus says, "Come unto me all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." But we cannot come on our own, independently, on our own steam, for like this crippled and impotent man, we rest immobile in our own paralysis unless and until someone else shares strength and faith and energy to help us to come unto Jesus. Who was it for you?

For me, my parents and family and childhood teachers lifted me up, supported me, and carried me unto Jesus. Who was it for you? When Jesus addresses the paralyzed man, he says, "My son, or my child," and we remember Jesus says except you come unto me as a little child you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." Each of us comes to Jesus needing spiritual food, some of us starving for love, some of us undernourished, all of us needing the bread of life, the body of our Lord, the blood of his sacrifice.

And we come soon to the season in our church year when we are called to prepare ourselves to receive and celebrate our Lord’s arrival in Jerusalem, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. This is the season of Lent. The word Lent comes from Old English lengthening, referring to the days getting longer because it’s spring and more daylight gives us more hours to study and learn of our Lord. Lent is the 40 days between Ash Wednesday, March 1, and Easter; not counting Sundays, and this year Easter, April 16, is the first Sunday our new pastor, Bill McCoy, will be in this pulpit.

Immediately after his baptism in the Jordan River by John, the Holy Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan for 40 days, being ministered unto by angels. We may feel every day of the year we are in a tug of war between Satan and the angels, and let us count it a great blessing if we do so feel, for that means God’s Holy Spirit is working within us. But the 40 days of Lent is our season when we deliberately focus our attention upon preparation for Holy Week. Our liturgical color changes from green to purple, the color of royalty and of mystery.

Our Christian Education Division has organized thirteen Lenten Growth Groups, some new, some continuing through the year, small groups when we can join together to study God’s word, listen to Jesus teaching us, and bearing one another’s burdens in fellowship and prayer together. Remember this lesson, for in this lesson God invites you and me to bring some week or crippled or even paralyzed person unto Jesus, and Jesus will give God’s forgiveness for sin and heal human suffering, human need for the spiritual food and energy only God’s Holy Spirit offers unto all who come unto Jesus. How shall they come unto Jesus unless you and I share our faith and bring them unto Jesus?

Take this brochure and review this list of Lenten Growth Groups. Which one of these small groups, or what other activity of this congregation meets your and your neighbors needs and offers an opportunity through study, prayer, fellowship to meet Jesus our Savior and Lord? Joan Steven will now share what goes on in one of these small groups.

(Joan Steven describes the Lenten Growth Group she is organizing, "Knitting into the Mystery," Mondays 10:30-11:30 am, Room E-406, five weeks starting March 6. Barbara Brown reports her experiences with the group and displays her shawl Judy Keller knitted for her. Joan invites everyone to choose a Lenten Growth Group from the list of 13 choices.)

Thank you, Joan, for your witness, your leadership, and your faith you share so lovingly with us all in the season of Lent.

I close with this poem by Joan Ellison in her book, Wheat from Chaff. Joan will also be teaching one of these small groups, teaching you how to do creative writing, as she does to share her faith.

"Pick up your bed and walk,
be not captive to status quo
nor allow your mind
no space to grow.

Pick up your bed and walk.
Let not your spirit stultify,
nor fear the future and thereby die.
It can’t be done with brakes applied
but with faith’s vision and open eye.

Pick up your bed and walk
implies a creative urge, a zest to grow,
to pioneer with healthy hope,
to condescend to try the new
with courageous fortitude.

Pick up your bed and walk!
Only the stalwart faithful few
seem willing to launch without excuse,
to hear the call, receive God’s cue…

Pick up your bed and walk!"