Amazing, Wounded Healers

Luke 10:25-37 7^th Sunday after Pentecost, July 14, 2013

I tell you a story. Tis true, 'tis true. 'Joanne', a young woman, is walking downtown early one evening. She could have been on either Robson or East Hastings. To Joanne the exact location makes little difference. Walking along, looking in shops, observing people - some joking, seemingly happy, others downcast, apparently sad, she doesn't hear one coming up behind her. Then, in a fraction of a second before she or anyone else can say or do anything, when no one else is watching, Joanne is struck over the head and dragged into the corner of nearby alley. Her purse is taken. She is battered and bruised, left in an unconscious state. Many of her designer accessories have been removed from her person - her watch and rings, her I Phone, even her shoes now have all been removed. She is left with her blue jeans and a tee shirt. She is dazed. She has been unconscious for a few minutes. Eventually she manages to stumble down the alley to the edge of the sidewalk where she falls yet again. Now Joanne is whimpering like a lost puppy. Her head injury prevents her from making lucid comments. Her feet, now bare protrude out  into the hustle and bustle of that sidewalk.

 

People continue "on by". Most of them steer clear of Joanne's prone figure. Who knows why they do that? Most don't want to get too close to her. "Another homeless person", they think. "She'll just ask me for money, or want something from me. And I'm busy with things to do, appointments to keep". A very few people venture a bit closer, close enough to see Joanne's face, the blood trickling from her nose around her lips. Those particularly blessed with acute hearing hear her whimpering. They may deduce that she is in a drug-induced stupor. Absolutely NO ONE  reaches out to touch her.

 

Eventually though one woman dressed in a very short skirt, walking in laced boots that run high, high up her legs, whose chest is scantily covered by a low cut sheer blouse stops. She sees Joanne. She draws closer. She bends over and gently touches Joanne. This woman utters a cry herself, "Oh my God". She reaches into her own purse taking out a variety of materials to lovingly, carefully attend to Joanne's facial lacerations. This woman caresses Joanne's head in her arms. Other people now veer even further away looking disdainfully at the 2 prone women on the sidewalk. But this woman's compassion will not be deterred by other's glances or opinions. She gives Joanne sips of bottled water. Then this woman helps Joanne to her feet taking her to her own place, where she cares for her until Joanne's speech and cognative abilities return.

 

Who we are we in this story?

 

When you meet someone on the street, someone asking for something from you, someone obviously with a need or many needs, what do you do?

 

Sometimes I am afraid. Sometimes I steer clear of such people or put my head down and keep on going – a weak pretense. You see, I too have appointments to meet, places to go, things to buy. I have a wife and three adult children, a congregation with their own needs and two older parents whose health is continually changing. But I am also a law-abiding person. I just about always obey the law of the land. Well, occasionally I bend the speed limit.  Can you identify with any of my confession?

 

I do also know a little bit about the law of God. But what about the will of God? I wonder. Do you ever think about or wrestle with the "spirit" of the law, its intent, its very purpose? How much of my time, my talents do I invest with others who are in need – individuals, even groups of people in need, whether they are on Robson Street or East Hastings or 1 Road or 2 and Blundell or? 

 

Or, might we identify with the person or persons who beat and robbed Joanne? Probably not! Not us, we aren't like them! We hesitate to admit that sometimes (unintentionally) but nevertheless actually we do rob and injure others. How so? In  many ways! When we purchase clothing or food cheaply we rob those who put the clothes together, those who raise the animals or the plants, of a just living. When we purchase any goods and services cheaply we rob those who have labored to harvest or transport those goods to us. When we live a life of luxury we often exploit not only people but also this earth.

 

Or, might we identify with Joanne? She was simply living her life, out for an evening's shopping. Surely we can all identify with that. But suddenly everything changes. She is beaten, temporarily stripped of her legal identity, left completely vulnerable, on the street. On a literal level many of us are unable to identify with  Joanne. But let me assure you – we all have needs. As mortal beings we are vulnerable. Each of us is in need of unconditional love, a love that can't be earned or deserved by any of us. All of us have been hurt at one time or another. Some of us are hurting now. We all need help.

 

Thank God for the woman who helps Joanne! I wonder if we might identify with her? She is shunned by so many, misunderstood by most. Nevertheless she is the only one who reaches out to help Joanne. This woman is very familiar with vulnerability. This woman overcomes her fear and bridges whatever distance may have existed between herself and Joanne. This woman cares because she actually can see Joanne, a person in need. And this woman realizes that she has the ability to care. She also realizes that such caring may cost her. But she cares anyway.  

 

Caring involves giving ourselves: our  time, our money, trusting without knowing the outcome, allowing ourselves to be moved beyond just ourselves. Who knows what the police may have thought if they had come across this woman bent over Joanne? Still, she cares!

 

Caring, helping, trusting, believing, listening – all these are important qualities for any follower of Jesus. Yet none of these are easy to live out. Indeed they are impossible if we are at all worried about what's in "it" for us!

 

I have to tell you that I am amazed when people tell me that worship is boring or that they leave one congregation for another congregation or for no congregation because "church" just isn't relevant to their lives. Not one of us fully realizes our needs. At different times in our lives each of these characters in the biblical parable and my own story may actually be (is in fact) us. Without a doubt we need to see ourselves as that one in the ditch,  or as Joanne lying bludgeoned just beside the sidewalk. Our truth may just be that only when we are most vulnerable are we open to receiving the unconditional love and help that we desperately need. If we can imagine that lying injured on the sidewalk is symbolic of all the powers of evil and death, we can begin to glimpse that through the woman Jesus Himself draws near to help us. In coming to the vulnerability of our sidewalks, where many (including us) are hurt and bleeding Jesus not only tends to us but takes our place. He wills to give us new life each and every day.

 

The person injured in the ditch doesn't do anything to earn the Samaritan's help. Nor does Joanne do anything to deserve that woman's help.

 

Have we done anything that would warrant Jesus' help, his dying on the cross? More likely, the opposite is true. Too often we tend to push Jesus away by convincing ourselves that we don't need any help. And so we attempt to go it on our "own", all the while fracturing relationships with God and with others.

   

But then something happens "making" our vulnerability undeniable. God sends someone to help us by Himself/Herself taking on human flesh.

 

Are we open to God's good and gracious will? Shall we respond with joy and thanksgiving or with fear/apathy? May God help us to refuse to walk around others in need and instead see them,  realizing that we have God given gifts to help, even as they do. Who knows, by God's grace we may actually become part of each other's healing!

 

Now that's something amazing! Amen.   

LIVING GOOD NEWS!

7th Sunday after Pentecost, July 7, 2013 (Luke 10:1-11, 16-20)

Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem. We know why he is going there. Or at least we know a bit. He is going there to empty himself – to be beaten, to be spat upon, to be humiliated – and yes to do His Father's good and gracious will in the midst of all that horror. Evil will seek to do its worst to him. But Jesus will  overcome evil, suffering, and death not by eradicating those who perpetrate such things upon him but by forgiving them even as He trusts God – and then is raised by God. In all of that He entrusts others to live out of this reality – to live the story.

 

Yes, Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem. As He does so He sends others out 2 by 2. They are to go into all the places where He will be going. They are to tell all the people in those places, no even more than tell, show all the people in those places that the very influence, the very REIGN OF GOD is coming near. They are to do all this by bringing peace to those places – a peace that God gives – not in an induced "high" from some chemical or drug – but rather a presence of God with us – no matter what. Part of this peace is to enter into people's lives, to hear their stories – to enter into their pain, to love them, pray for them, accompany them. Somehow God is there then. And what occurs then is new life, healing, a reality that can only be described by metaphors – rebirth.

 

As Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem He sends out 70, 2X2. Why 70 or 72? Well according to Genesis that's how many nations there were in entire the world. A metaphorical symbolism is unfolding. Jesus is sending out his disciples both to deliver and to announce his coming: his reign of influence, his upside down power of forgiveness, care and advocacy that seeks to envelop to include the entire world.   

 

I am convinced in many ways that Jesus is still on his way to Jerusalem. Look around. My goodness – in His suffering, death and resurrection his reign is inaugurated. The powers of evil have been served notice. Thanks be to God! But they are still doing their very "best" to wreak havoc, to create chaos – to deceive us into a conviction that the only person we can trust is ourselves or some form of human power, like money or military might. Forgiveness, love and God...........the other "powers" work diligently to have us laugh, doubt, give up, be paralyzed by fear. Forgiveness, the transforming love of God in Jesus Christ? Just so much... DELUSION, they say.

 

But, dare we listen to God's voice? God's "voice" is heard, even "glimpsed" in the life of God's Son, Jesus.

Let me ask, "Who loves you?" Would anyone die for you, so that you might live? Can anyone but God cut through all the powers of darkness: of hatred, even of ourselves and others; envy, fear,  doubt, compulsion, addiction?

            God is the source of wisdom. There is a genius in God giving us each other – even though such gifts are so far from neat or orderly. When we personally are floundering – caught up by that which is around us or within us: realities like a child being left in a scorching car – or people sleeping in dumpsters or kids with no lunches in our schools – or wars raging where unspeakable things are being done to children and women – or 6 figure bonuses for executives while sooo many have no homes. There are many causes for our floundering, aching, wondering, questioning. But even then, right now, God gives us each other – and God's Spirit. We may never know just where God's Spirit will show Himself/Herself. But I can tell you – I do see God's Spirit – often in you and in others.

            I remember an El Salvadoran woman – Eva by name. Her husband had been killed in the conflict of her homeland. Now certain "forces" in El Salvador were recruiting boys to do unthinkable things – boys that were merely 12-14 years old. Eva realized that she had to get out. Entrusting most of her six children to her sister, she took one of them and swam across the Rio Grande River in the middle of the night to escape first to Texas. There she worked for awhile as an illegal alien. As soon as possible she began the process to become a Canadian immigrant.  Once in Canada Eva worked like a dog as a seamstress to bring all of her children to their new home. So, she came to church to worship God, bringing her clan, singing, making piñatas at Christmas and wondering all the time why church was so short. Eva was a woman filled with joy.

            And then 10 years later as she contracted cancer, I watched her meet that journey with hope, faith and incredible resolve – that could only come from God. I also observed an anonymous woman – one with financial means, step up to help Eva be able to live in a hospice house where her own physical needs and the growing emotional needs of her family could be met. What gifts.  In all of that I glimpsed the reign of God coming near. Death seeks to hold onto us. Red tape and fear seek to hold onto us. But God continues to call us to go out  being open to the Spirit and fueled with hope.

            I have also seen the kingdom of God draw near as an interfaith group of people in this community are beginning to wonder about what we can do to address the reality of hunger in this community. A small step today is to donate food and money. But more can be done!

             I have also seen the kingdom of God draw near as our little community strives to tell the story in word and deed to children in this community each and every year. We do this by investing in the lives of these children with our lives – listening to their stories, pointing to Jesus in our own unique and humble way.

            This isn't all roses. It isn't easy. Some who oppose us. Many do not want everyone to be included.  Pick and choose they say. There are forces that work against us whenever we seek to follow Jesus, even as a group – forces that demand for us to believe that might is right, profit is of utmost importance, that not all people have value, that the creation is simply for our disposal.   

            But remember – we are sent out by the One who cares for all, who loves the world, who promises that his kingdom is coming, even now, if not fully yet. Remember - He is the One who has died for us, in order that we might have new life now. He continues to go to all the Jerusalems of this world. Whatever is happening, He refuses to abandon us, now or in the future. And God gives us each other – as messy, as complicated, as wonderful as that is.

Are we listening? Do we wish to. We can listen for God, to God, in scripture, in prayer, in the Sacraments, even in each other's stories.  As we are listening – even now I can begin to hear Him saying,  "Go my children, with my blessing. Announce that I and my rule are drawing near."               Let me tell you people – this is good news – which comes no matter the difficulty. Ame

Setting Our Face to a New Way

Pentecost 6c, June 30, 2013-06-30 (focusing on Gospel, Luke 9:51-62 with Gals 5:1,13,=-25 in bg)

There are times when we like to set our face – to be absolutely determined to do something. I have seen this by and among a variety of people. I watch my 88 year old mother resolutely doing her exercises – 5 X a week, no matter how much it hurts. I watch some students dedicate their lives to becoming a dentist or a doctor with little or no regard to cost of time or money. And I watch some people love their kids, no matter what. While sitting in a fast food place last night I watched a mom and dad, much older than myself, come in with a handicapped son, well in his 30's. I observed them feed him. They have "set their face" to be his parents. Nothing will deter them.

 

Today's Gospel tells us that Jesus "sets his face" to go to Jerusalem. Just a few words... but so much meaning. Jesus is setting his face to carry out his mission – the mission, the purpose God His Father has given him from before his birth. Luke has earlier spoken of Jesus, back there in Jesus' hometown of Nazareth. Jesus goes to the synagogue as was his custom and is given the scroll to read.  "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

 

To carry all that out – to actually overcome evil and the powers of death: hatred, envy, jealousy, apathy – Jesus must go to Jerusalem, where all of those powers are brought to bear against him. Seemingly they vanquish him even as they kill him. He empties himself to a cruel and incomprehensible death. But ------ that is not the end of him (as in the "termination" of him), nor the termination of his mission. Instead his execution marks a new phase of his mission – a fuller "bearing" of the ramifications of Who he is and what he is doing. After all – Jesus is raised from the dead. He lives! Having set his face to Jerusalem, Jesus goes to Jerusalem and then far beyond only Jerusalem. (Pause)

 

And we are here – gathered, indeed being formed under the sign of his cross. Through His Spirit by water and the word we are given his name, called as his sons and daughters to bear his creative and redeeming word to the world.

 

We smile when a child is brought to this font, sprinkled with water, marked with the cross, anointed with oil. But my goodness – there is so much more happening here that should warrant a lot more than the broadest of  smiles – however heartfelt that may be.

 

Being claimed by God as God's own sons and daughters – being called through the Spirit to follow Jesus is at the very least .... daunting. As His children we are commanded to love our enemies; to be able to give account of the hope that is within us – even as waters ravish cities and country sides and soldiers continue to do unspeakable things to women and children.

 

To give account of the hope that is within us and give of ourselves to others seems foolhardy even ridiculous to many and naive to most.

 

After all we are part of a culture and a people that loves to seek control: control of ourselves including some significant influence over others whom we like, or care about. Control: of the way we dress, what we eat, even whom we choose as "friends" and "associates".  Oh, yeah – we like to be in control, refusing to show our vulnerable selves to few others, if any.

 

But don't we see – being in control is merely illusory. The rains fall. The rivers swell, breaking banks and dykes. The markets plunge or soar beyond any government's machinations. Illness spreads undetected until the diagnoses. Bad news! One(s) we loved, trusted, betray(s) us. Our parents grow in fraility,  our children like their parents sometimes make poor choices. The good we would we don't, but the bad we wouldn't – sometimes we do. Paul knows us.

 

The early disciples have already been following Jesus for some time but when those "bloody" Samaritans refuse hospitality to the disciples' beloved Jesus, well, the disciples lose it. They want to "get" those Samaritans, even call down fire from heaven. But this – is not Jesus' way. He has "set his face" to Jerusalem not only for the disciples, not only for others Jews, but for all people, including those same then inhospitable Samaritans.

 

Don't you ever get tired of attempting to be in control?

 

Don't  you ever get tired of having people tell you, that if only you would just give control over to Jesus or God or your investor or ... something or someone else, that everything will be OK? That's magic, or robotics or fatalistic. Certainly such "living" is anything but exercising Christian faith.

 

Jesus does call us, does invite us daily to follow Him, to trust Him! But it's not because He is somehow in control of every single thing – or will wave some magic wand and things will be easy, only for those who so "follow" Him. Not at all. See what happens to him as he arrives in Jerusalem. He is falsely tried, beaten, ridiculed, suffers and is executed.

 

And his disciples, as they are energized through Jesus' Spirit, do follow him. Now they too set their faces not necessarily to go to Jerusalem, but by God's grace to follow wherever the risen Jesus and the Spirit of God may direct them. For most of them this is a difficult path – a path where some welcome them, but many reject them. Paradoxically this is also a path of new life, whatever comes.

 

We are surrounded by so much. We are inundated by many "voices". But there is One voice who daily not only calls us to follow Him, but promises to be with us and for us. Not necessarily to make things easy. Nor necessarily to promise any kind of "control". But rather to be with us in whatever comes – the good and the bad, the chaos and the craziness. This One promises also to lead us through all of this to another "side" – a side where hope and love, vision and empathy not violence nor hatred are truly His way. There, these realities  gradually become our way – the way that He speaks about in John's Gospel.

 

Could we by God's grace set our face towards Him? That would be not only be to resist illusion but to be delivered again and again to a new way, His way. Amen.