Shepherds, disciples, and prayer

Proper 11 Year B
July 22, 2018

I wish I could remember the exact wording of something I saw this week.  It said something to the effect of, “Faith isn't about believing everything will turn out alright; faith is about knowing God will be with you when it doesn't”.

There are lots of reasons I like that… I am not an “everything happens for a reason” person or a “God never gives you more than you can handle” person. I tend to think that most of the time when we say things like that it's because we don't know what to say.  I don't think God just acts in ways that are harmful to us...God doesn't seek to hurt any of us...But let's be real; there are times in every life when it seems like we’re getting beat up on. Stuff of all sorts piles up, we get super busy and can't seem to find our way out of the mess we find ourselves in.  In those times it's hard to know what to do or what to believe.
I would also say, that it's just as damaging to believe that if we have enough faith, whatever that means, and if we pray hard enough, whatever THAT means, that God will make everything alright.  Both of these approaches seem to me to put more power into our ways of thinking, rather than placing power where it belongs, which is with God.

Both psalm 23 and our gospel lesson today helped me to think about faith and about our life with God.  Psalm 23 has been a comfort to many of us at various times in our lives. But notice that the psalmist still has to walk through the darkness, through the valley of death; the faith of the psalmist doesn't protect them from the darkness.  However, their faith helps them to realize that they are not alone as they journey through the dark… their faith helps them to go through it and come out the other side. Faith in God, it seems, gives the psalmist the encouragement that no matter how dark it gets,
God will be with them to guide them through it… not lessen the darkness, but guide them through it.  

Jesus shows us more in our Gospel today.  He tells the disciples that they must go away to a deserted place to rest and to pray...the work of discipleship isn't easy and without time to pray and renew one’s relationship with God, the life of a disciple is impossible.  We can only really know God’s presence when we take the time to know it. As they get to the other side, people start to swamp them again and Jesus has compassion on the crowd. They are scattered and afraid. I can imagine him saying to the others, you go on and rest.  I will take care of this...and then he stays with the crowd to heal and to teach. Their land was occupied by the empire so there was lots of reason to be afraid. I imagine as in other times, Jesus taught them about God’s kingdom and the fact that they had a place in it, a place that made them equals, a place where there were no occupying forces.  He healed those who were brought to him, a sure sign that God’s kingdom was beginning here on Earth as it was in heaven.

Jesus does have compassion, and wants to alleviate their suffering… he certainly heals, but what about those who aren't brought to him?  And what about the occupation? Jesus hasn't come to overthrow earthly power forces; but he has come to teach people what the kingdom of God looks like...he has come to tell them that God is with them, that HE is with them as the one who God lives in in human form.  Prayer, is necessary for us to know God. But prayer is not about controlling the outcomes. Jesus didn't heal everyone. Jesus didn't bring down some mighty lightning to undo the occupation...but he did enter into relationship with the people. He taught them what right paths looked like, and he taught them that unlike the empire, God’s kingdom had no walls, no barriers, no outcasts.  

Faith, love, life in God...none of it has manipulation as it's beginning or it's goal.  We don't always get what we want in our prayers...physical healing isn't always given. But God’s love, given to us in Jesus and the Holy Spirit are a given.  No matter where we find ourselves, Jesus is with us helping us get to the other side. I encourage all of us in this hectic world to go away to a quiet place to pray so that we will always know that we can be led through the darkness, back into the light.  Relationship with God is crucial to our well-being and to be in relationship we must pray… and we, like Jesus, are asked to have compassion on our brothers and sisters who need a Shepherd; may we teach them about the kingdom of God in all that we say and do.

Woman healed

Proper 8 Year B
Pentecost 6
July 1, 2018

    A long time ago, when I first started going to an Episcopal church, there was a women’s retreat in the diocese.  Several of us from the cathedral went on this retreat. I remember the name of the retreat: it was called “And Sarah Laughed”, referring to Abraham’s wife and her reaction to being told that she was going to have a child.  At that retreat, we were all assigned different women from biblical stories. The story I was assigned, was the one that we heard today, the woman who was healed by touching Jesus’ clothes. I spent the weekend writing about this unnamed woman, and praying about her experience when she met Jesus.  Since then this story has always been a very personal and very special story everytime I hear it. Several years ago, the Episcopal church adopted using the Revised Common Lectionary for it’s Sunday worship schedule of readings, rather than using the Episcopal schedule of readings. Sometimes, I am not a fan of the new lectionary; but, today, I am quite a fan.  In the old lectionary the story of the woman was removed; I vowed if I ever preached on a weekend where this passage came up, I would add this woman’s story back in, so could preach on her story. Fortunately, I didn’t need to add it back in.

    This story has followed me since that retreat.  When I was in seminary, it came up again. I was doing my daily bible reading from a different translation than we were using in church.  When I read the story, which was the version in Luke’s gospel, the woman said if she touched Jesus’ clothes, she knew she would be healed; in the version I read, much like today, it said “I shall be made well.” We were doing greek word studies, so I did the study to find out what the original greek said and meant.  It definitely was more of a made well than a healed.

    I find this to be an important reminder of what it means to be part of the kingdom of God.  For me, this story illustrates that the kingdom of God is both here and not here… Sometimes, I think we get so tied up in what happens to us after we die, that we forget that there’s more to Christianity than that.

    This woman’s healing, or being made well affected everything about her, just as her illness had.  She was bleeding for 12 years. Bleeding like that would mean that she couldn’t have children: it would mean that she probably wasn’t married, if she ever was.  She was considered “unclean” because of her bleeding for that whole 12 years which separated her from worship, family, friends, and likely had to beg or depend on the kindness of others to live.  Basically, everything about her life was taken away except the isolation of being untouchable.

What I love about her story is that she realizes when she is close to Jesus that she has already lost EVERYTHING, so taking a risk really didn’t have any consequences she hadn’t already suffered daily.  A strange woman touching a man was already a problem, but a bleeding woman? Oh no… that would make him unclean for at least 24 hours, and likely cause problems, if anyone knew. But all she knew, is that her wholeness depended on touching  Jesus. I don’t think she expected what happened. He knew someone had touched him and that power had healed someone… she knew, she was healed. And now, she needed to fess up because HE knew. She was afraid because she knew touching him could get her in trouble… but it didn’t.  I don’t think in her wildest dreams she could imagine the exchange that happened. “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed from your disease…” This woman who was shunned from all aspects of normal life, is suddenly called a daughter… BAM ... pulled on the spot by God into the kingdom… adopted as one of God’s own beloved forever… from isolated to loved more than she could ever imagine… and everything about her life that had been taken away, through no fault of her own, I might add, is now hers again.  By being physically healed, her live here and now is restored, as well as her life in the after life. She received a whole lot more than she bargained for… All of it, in the second it took her to touch Jesus, who by the way, is not the LEAST bit concerned with her making him unclean… because, well, it’s Jesus… no one can make him unclean…

What I want to say about this story, is that it has implications for us too.  I think many of us get tied up into what is going to happen to us when we die.  I know growing up I was constantly threatened with some book that God made marks in either for or against us depending on what we did… the holy checks and balances that decided whether we went to heaven or hell…

Having the comfort of eternal life with God is absolutely important and necessary.  And here’s the spoiler alert: Marked as Christ’s own forever. There is NOTHING you or I could do to separate us from the love of God.  Jesus as already destroyed the gates of hell so that we don’t have to worry about it any longer. Like the woman in the story, we have been adopted as God’s own forever.  So, no worries there.

What I want to remind all of us about is that the kingdom of God is also about our lives here and now.  “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on EARTH, as it is in heaven.” We don’t know what happened to the woman after she left Jesus but I can imagine that her life became one where she never took anything for granted and tried to help others as much as she could.  She was now one of his disciples, responsible for helping to bring the kingdom to earth… just like you and me. We might look at her story and think that we aren’t so primitive as to exclude someone for an illness like hers, but if we are honest with ourselves and search our hearts, we KNOW that there are people we consider untouchable in ways that are deeper than physical, where our attitudes and behaviors succeed in pushing people to the margins and beyond.  I would guess that for almost ALL of those people that we find untouchable in deep ways that affect their wellbeing, that the situation that makes them untouchable is something that is beyond their control, perhaps the color of their skin or where they were born, or their inability to work… and yet somehow we have our own purity codes that are every bit as destructive as the ones that helped this woman’s suffering for 12 years. And there are people too, who suffer in ways that we cannot even see; people who look ok, like they’re making it and everything is fine… and yet, some hidden thing, is keeping them from participating in life fully; something is destroying relationships, or destroying them, and we have no clue.  

Suffering people are everywhere… and as those who have been adopted by God, marked as Christ’s own forever, we are filled with the Holy Spirit to do God’s work in the world so that the kingdom might be a reality here and now; a reality that includes all… because God loves all… not just those whom we would consider touchable.  

The woman’s very life blood was escaping her body at an alarming rate… no doubt without healing, she would have died.  There are those in our communities that are hemorrhaging in ways that are every bit as serious. Some have bled hope until it looks as though there is none left.  Maybe, like the woman they will reach out and touch one of us to get the healing they need, but probably not. WE need to reach out, and like Jesus not be concerned with who or why… excuses like, “Well, homeless guys just use your money for booze” may or may not be true, but either way it’s none of our business.  If we have the power, we must use it, no matter who the outcast is. There is much that needs to be healed. I pray we can all be such beacons of Jesus’ light, that those who need to be healed will reach out and touch us… and if they can’t for some reason, I pray we may love enough to bring them into our embrace.