LIKE AN ANGEL

2000. This song, was written for the World Diakonia Assembly in July 2001. Like many songs, many things contributed to it. Rick Strelan, in ‘Crossing The Boundaries’, a commentary on Mark’s Gospel, writes, “But his death is not his only act of service. His whole life is a ministry of service to the unclean, the possessed, the poor, the outcasts, the blind, the deaf, the sinners.” I read this while preparing for a worship service on Feb 6, 2000, the 5th Sunday after Epiphany. The Gospel for the day was Mark 1:29-39, which includes the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. The Preaching Helps in ‘Currents’ (from Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago) included this: “There is something beautiful ... in the picture of Jesus and Simon’s mother-in-law. Here he is engaged, directly and intimately, with human need. He touches her; her hands become tools for service”. Even better, and what really laid the foundation for ‘Like an Angel’, came from Rick Strelan: “The word used here (diakonia) is the same as that used of the angels in 1:13 ... It is also the word used by Jesus in 10:45, to describe his own purpose in coming. The woman responds to the humanising, healing touch of Jesus by acting in the way that he acts. What is said here of this woman is never said of any of the male disciples. She becomes a miniature model of discipleship, of following in the way of Jesus.” Interesting that the word is so often connected to women in the gospels — Mk 15:41, the women who followed him served him after his death, Luke 8:3, the women serving him (Susannah et al). Then there’s John 12:26: ‘If a person wants to enter my service, (s)he must follow my way; and where I am, my servant will also be.’