Can you read the writing on the wall? Not always. That seems
to be the dilemma of King Belshazzar in the Book of Daniel today. Tomorrow we
will learn more as once again Daniel is called into their midst to be a source
of Godly wisdom. There are earthbound writings on the walls of our lives and
there are writings that rise from the heart/mind of God.
In Luke's Gospel today Jesus visits Simon Peter's house
where his Mother-in-law is ill with a fever. Only in Luke does this event occur
before there is any mention of Jesus having met Peter. So we might well
assume that they have already met and it is not mentioned in Luke. Yet this odd
story might be seen as the writing on the wall of Peter's life.
When Jesus heals her, she is the only mention of a family
relation to the twelve other than brothers. Jesus seems here intimate with
Peter's household. In both Mark and Luke this is a very early encounter. Jesus
stands over her bed which might be in the main room of the house and rebukes the
spirit of illness. She rises and serves the group, a sign of her healing and her
desire to return to her normal tasks. How unliberated this may seem to us
today, a woman immediately going to domestic duty. But what we have here is a sign of the fullness of her healing. Here is
the writing on the wall for Peter.
And so I must wonder, what role did this healing play in the
mind of Peter as he became one of the twelve who would form Jesus' inner
circle? Peter would be first to proclaim Jesus as Messiah, find himself
proclaimed "Rock" of faith. He would witness the Transfiguration, deny Jesus in
the courtyard of his trial, be instructed after the Resurrection to tend and
feed us all as sheep. This last being the sign of Jesus healing forgiveness
forever in Peter's being and life.
So I wonder, was it this intimate healing in his family that
was the writing on his soul? Did each event to follow come more deeply home to
him because he had already been touched deeply in his own physical home? Did each
following healing, act of care and understanding find its initial grounding in
this moment which defies our reason?
Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever,
and they asked Jesus about her. Then he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and
it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them." Luke
4:38-39
On Jesus' part this seems so simple. It makes me think about
the times I have read the scripture and found my own story buried there. There I
see my own hurtful anger instructed. There I see my own moments of deceit practiced and
even forgiven. There I find the stories of loving actions that both cost
something and build character. There I find instruction on how to live, correct
errors, accept and give grace, seek healing for wounds that are normal or not so
normal in life. I see the writing on the wall to receive life as a gift, mend
life, give life and forgiveness to my intimates.
Perhaps this is what the author of the First Epistle of John
knows as he writes to that early Church:
"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we
love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey
his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born
of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our
faith." 1 John 5:2-4
Our faith is but a repeated reflection on some good that we
see in our life as a gift from God. Perhaps it begins as we identify love in
our lives and ground it in God's love. Perhaps it comes from holding the
memory of when we first found our home in God. Or perhaps it comes by a deep
healing of some intimate wound that we have opened by intention to God or one of
the "children of God" placed in our lives.
I will think more deeply today about the writing on the wall
of my being. I will think about how the grace of God has reached into me or
touched those I love. Here I may reconnect with the writing on the wall of my
being and grow in my faith. Will you join me?
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