I try to avoid reading commentaries in advance of my writing of these reflections because I want to focus on my heart’s response to the text. If I were actually writing a homily I would then go on to the commentaries. In a sense, this week’s reflection is an exception. Having just finished reading Gordon Lathrop’s recent book, The Four Gospels on Sunday: the New Testament and Reform of Christian Worship, I cannot help but immediately read the word “house” in this Sunday’s text as “church” or “assembly”. Lathrop proposes that the use of the term “house” in Mark is always in some way a directive for the reform of the church’s worship. In this particular instance, Lathrop might suggest that Mark is reminded the Christian community that their gatherings are not just Greco-Roman supper clubs but, in a very real sense, hospitals. Further, this healing is not just for insiders, e.g. Peter’s mother-in-law, but for “the whole city.”
Who are the sick and possessed in our cities? Are they welcome in our churches? What would we do if they started showing up? Is our worship community centered on itself or on the other? These are the kinds of questions Lathrop suggests this Marcan text is asking of our churches.
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