Amazing, Wounded Healers
Luke 10:25-37 7th 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.