A Healing Story          Mark 1:29-39      February 4, 2006

Mark 1:29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30Now Simon's mother in law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

32That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." 38He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." 39And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This healing story takes place near the beginning of Jesus' ministry, not long after his baptism by John. So far, everything was going well. Jesus had gathered a few disciples, and now one of them, Simon, asked him to come to his house and heal his mother in law from her fever. Jesus took her by the hand, and the fever left her.

When the news got out, the whole town came to the little house, and Jesus healed many of them and cast out many demons. Then suddenly Jesus was gone. His disciples had to hunt for him. Jesus could have stayed in Capernaum and continued every day. He could have built a huge following, become rich and famous, and settled down and raised a family. But Jesus had to leave to bring the kingdom of God to other towns, and to the whole world. He had to move on, and heal the sick, feed the hungry, and give good news to the poor. He followed the path that would take him to Jerusalem, where he would give up his life on the cross.

His kingdom of God was for all people, of all time, for all places. He was building a universal, eternal kingdom that would stretch though all time and space. He could not simply settle down in Galilee. He had to go to other places, and tell his disciples to teach the world about his kingdom. He died on the cross and was raised from the dead to give the universe his victory of life.

Before his returned to his Father in Heaven, he gave his disciples the power to forgive sins, heal infirmities and cast out the demons of human destruction. According to the book of Acts, the disciples continued to heal and to forgive sins long after he ascended.

Unfortunately, some people po po the notion that demons still exist, or that God intervenes to heal human sickness. The truth is we still have many demons to cast out and infirmities to heal. People everywhere are looking for healing stories to help them heal their souls. Here at Grace Lutheran, I hope that soon we will have healing services for all people in their own language. On this Super Bowl Sunday, there is a story of a healing, of a demon that has been cast out.

Until a few days ago, I never heard of a football player on the Seattle Seahawks named Isaiah Kacyvenski. I’m still not sure I can say his last name! Kacyvenski is just a special teams player, a fourth round draft pick that doesn’t have the size or speed to play every down on defense. As you watch tonight's Super Bowl, you’ll have to really look hard to find his number. But he has become one of the hottest interviews because fans like to hear his story, a healing story of perseverance and character, and love.

In the interviews, Isaiah Kacyvenski says his childhood "made me everything I am today. Not a day goes by when I don't think about it." I was a kid without much of a chance.”

“Someone’s looking out for me,” Kacyvenski said. “My mom was very religious. She made me believe in the fact that there’s a god. The way I grew up, the circumstances of my childhood, helped me become the person I wanted to be.” Kacyvenski grew up in Endicott, N.Y., the youngest of five children. His father, David, was a janitor and his mom, Margaret, raised the kids. His father was also an alcoholic that made life hell on his family.

"It wasn't easy," Kacyvensky said softly to one reporter. "We didn't have a lot of money. There were times when we didn't have hot water, when we didn't have electricity, when we didn't have a home. It made me everything I am today. Not a day goes by when I don't think about it. I have had this fear of failure my whole life. I knew I didn't want to live like that when I grew up."

“Here’s just one example,” Kacyvenski told reporters on Wednesday. “My oldest brother’s in high school and my dad was on a drinking binge. He comes home late one night and sees a ‘D’ on a report card. It’s three in the morning and he wakes my brother up and beats the *#* out of him. That’s not something you let go of easily, and that’s just one story of many.”

Kacyvenski’s parents divorced when he was nine. His mom and the five kids squeezed into an apartment meant for three. Isaiah was a solid athlete and mediocre student who decided as a high school freshman he’d no longer sell himself short. He put up a sign that said, “Let no one outwork you today,” and hung it in his room. "It was like, bam, a light went off," Isaiah said.

From then on, he was focused. He would awaken at 5:30 a.m. and lift weights. He became an honor student, asking his teachers so many questions he would become annoying. He was a dominant player in high school. He set a school record of 31 tackles in one game, and the record for tackles in a season and career.

During his senior year, Union Endicott reached the state quarter finals in Syracuse. Kacyvenski awoke that morning, and his father came home in tears. He told the boys their mother had just been killed in a car accident.

“He hit me with the news and I remember just falling on the ground,” Kacyvenski said. “I decided to play, even though everyone told me not to. I cried for an hour and a half on the bus the whole way to the game, but once I got on the field I was able to lose myself in the game.”

Kacyvenski still keeps Isaiah 49:15, which his mother had highlighted in her Bible, posted in his locker: Can a woman forget her own baby and not love the child she bore? Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you. I can never forget you. I have written you in the palm of my hands.

"She showed us how to love people when they show you hate," Isaiah said. "She had seen so many ugly things in her life growing up in an orphanage, people neglecting her and treating her wrong. She made her mind up she wasn't going to treat other people like that, no matter how bad she was treated."

Until a few years ago, the 28-year-old used to hide his story from others. Today, with a Harvard education behind him, with six years in the NFL, and with the Super Bowl ahead of him, he doesn't hide anymore. He tells young students how it was, growing up poor.

He tells them about the times he would sit in the family car with his brothers, watching as his father fished through a garbage container to try to find something to eat. Maybe a loaf of bread that had been opened and discarded. He tells them about wearing the same clothes so often the other kids noticed the grass stains. He tells about how quickly food stamps disappear, and about listening to his first Super Bowl on the radio because their electric was shut for months at a time. He talks about putting water on popcorn so he could pretend it was cereal, and eating discarded doughnuts that had fallen on the ground.

The hardest part is when he has to take a breath and talk about his father's anger. "Maybe my talking about this will help one other kid," Isaiah said. "Some kids who are poor forget how to dream. Dreaming is what got me to where I am today."

These are good days. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Lauren, and the two are expecting their second child. He fears that he will raise spoiled children. There are worse things that could happen to a child.

As for his father, David Kacyvenski, his phone rings often these days. David's voice is similar to his son's, soft and wounded, open and direct. He is embarrassed by parts of the story, he admits. It is not an easy thing for a nation to open your wounds.

"It's hard to talk about some of the stories. “But I don't live that way anymore. I know I've been forgiven by Isaiah, by God, and by myself."

David Kacyvenski is now 65, has been sober for 15 years. He got into a program and found God’s forgiveness and healing power long ago. David is talking to reporters about his demon, alcoholism, just like he does at the weekly AA meetings in the church basement. “Booze had a grip on me. I knew I was in a pit, and I didn't know how to get out. My children didn't know if I was going to buy them ice cream or say "Shut your mouth.”

David is amazed to see what the Kacyvenski children have accomplished. All five of them are college graduates. There are two teachers, an artist, an environmentalist and, a football player that will play in the Super Bowl today, at least on some special teams.

Three weeks ago, there was a moment after their last game when the men found themselves standing together in the kitchen. On impulse, Isaiah reached out and embraced his dad, as if they had both made it to the other side of their problems. "It was a treasure chest moment," David said.

This week, David will board a plane for Detroit. His three sons will meet him there. Even Danny, the one brother who still does not acknowledge his father. "When I talk about it, tears come to my eyes and I start shivering," David said. "This is a love affair that's going on in my family. It's about healing and reconciliation and forgiveness and restoration.”

There may come a time when Isaiah stands over my gravestone and thinks maybe he shouldn't have put out so many things so explicitly. But I can't lie, and I can't hide it. We're as sick as our secrets. How true!

But I like the Kacyvenski’s story. Turns out, it ends in forgiveness. "This," David said, "is an incredible chapter to a life beyond expectation.”

Such stories help me realize is that the problems in our lives are more than we can solve by ourselves, yet we trust God to do what is needed. I hope that maybe, the light of God grace and forgiveness will go off to heal broken lives and broken families.

As we come together as God’s people in Holy Communion, sins are forgiven and we can be truly healed. In our fellowship as God’s people, let the light of Christ shine upon us to scatter the darkness of sin, with the power to cast out all the demons who are trying to destroy you. Amen

Amen!