Community Church Sermons
Fourth Sunday After Epiphany – February 2, 2003
“A Faith Worth Finding:
Did you ever play the game “pig-pile”?
I remember playing it as a kid. It usually started with some one of the neighborhood kids tackling another, and then shouting, “PIG PILE!!”
And the next thing you knew, fourteen smelly little kids were piling on, forming a massive pig pile. Everyone would be laughing and tickling each other. Except, of course, for the kid on the bottom of the pile. Invariably, pig pile was not as pleasurable for him as it was for the others piled on top of him.
Pig pile.
Sometimes life feels like a pig pile. Yesterday was one of those experiences. We were just moments away from beginning the funeral service for our dear friend Steve Summers when we heard the first cryptic report about the space shuttle Columbia and her crew. Losing Steve and coming to grips with our grief over his dying was hard enough. To add another tragedy on top of that just seemed like piling on.
Pig pile.
Later in the day, Sandy and I were watching the news reports on that great national tragedy when Diane Hamrick called to tell me about the death of her mom, Mildred Blake. Diane had spoken to her just yesterday morning, and she was fine. But last evening, she died. It was pretty unexpected. And given the fact that Diane’s husband Ken lost his dad Harvey back at Christmastime, it’s been a pretty rough year for the Hamricks.
I’ll bet it seems almost like piling on.
And you know what I’m talking
about, because you’ve been there too. With the heartaches and heartbreaks and
heartburn of life all piled up on top of you like a pig pile.
One of the reasons I’m a Christian is because our faith understands this. This faith does not pretend that life is anything more than life. Real life. True life. With all its joys and sorrows. With all its triumphs and tragedies. Warts and all.
And into the middle of this very real and sometimes overwhelming human experience steps Jesus Christ. And what an amazing thing Jesus offers us and others.
Jesus offers healing.
In our Gospel text from Mark this morning, we are in the very beginning stages of Jesus’ ministry. Mark is trying to show us some of the reasons the Good News of Jesus really is Good News indeed! So in his very first appearance at a church service – actually, a synagogue service in Capernaum – we are told not about the sermon, not about the anthem, not about the scriptures or the prayers.
We are told that Jesus exorcised a demon from the life of a possessed man.
In the very next scene, Jesus goes with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law – now wait just a second here. Simon, you know is Peter. And Peter will later become the first Bishop of Rome. Which means that Peter was the first Pope, and you know, all the popes trace their lineage back to Peter.
And Peter…had a mother-in-law??? Hmmm…how can a Pope have a mother-in-law… unless …?? Well, that’s another sermon!
Back to this one – after setting free a demon-possessed man at church, Jesus goes to Simon’s house and Simon’s mother-in-law is sick with a fever.
And Jesus makes her well.
And then the last scene of our text today: “That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases…”
What do you suppose the Bible is trying to tell us here?
Well, theologians will rightly point out that these healing and exorcism stories establish Jesus’ identity as the long-awaited Messiah. They show that Jesus has authority from God. And that analysis is absolutely correct.
But there’s something more here.
I think Mark is showing us how important it was to Jesus that among the very first lessons his disciples had to learn about this new Way was that it is first and foremost about the healing of human beings.
Wouldn’t the Church today be able to more effectively deal with its sexual abuse scandal if it replaced its zealousness for protecting the Church with the same zealousness for healing its children? Wouldn’t the Church today have more influence in the world if it spent less time condemning people and more time healing people? Wouldn’t the Church today lead more people to Christ if it did a little less preaching and a lot more reaching out with healing hands to the hurt and dispossessed and marginalized people of the world?
The Christian Faith is a healing faith, and all Christ’s followers are first and foremost called to be healers. Isn’t that a wonderful thought? YOU are a healer! So the next time someone asks you why it is you’re a follower of Christ, don’t give them a theological answer. Just tell them you follow Christ because you believe in healing. And when they ask you what Christians do, tell them the truth. Christians heal broken people and broken things. You’ll be surprised how many people will want to become Christians themselves for that reason!
Now not many of us think of ourselves as Oral Roberts or Benny Hinn. Thank goodness! Our model for healing is none other than Jesus himself, and if you look at Jesus’ life, you can begin to see a series of postures that make it possible for us to become healers ourselves.
A number of years ago, I suffered a pretty catastrophic eye injury. I ended up with a hole in my cornea, and all the fluid in my eye leaked out, and I was a mess! Fortunately, I happened to end up at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary on the very weekend all the world’s leading cornea specialists happened to be there for a Conference! Talk about God’s Providence!
Well, they all agreed on the treatment. The best way to fix this hole in my eye was by using Crazy Glue! Well, some medical form of Crazy Glue. The idea was to put this glue over the hole in my eye, and let it sit there for as long as it took for blood vessels to grow out to the wound and make scar tissue. And then, if it worked, they’d scrape the glue off and hopefully – the eye would hold together!
I didn’t think it was such a great idea. So I told the lead doctor that I thought we ought to just go ahead with a corneal transplant. But he disagreed. He sat down and very patiently explained to me why it was better to proceed in the least invasive way, the most conservative way, always leaving an option if it didn’t work. Then he said, “You know Marty, the first principle of the Hippocratic Oath is ‘First, Do No Harm.’”
First, do no harm. All the physicians in our midst know all about that.
And that is the first posture of Christian healing. It is the commitment that you and I make out of our faith in Jesus that we will not intentionally do harm to others.
You know, if every person who is a follower of Christ would get up in the morning and begin their prayers by asking God for the strength that day to do no harm – by word, or deed – to anyone or anything, this world would be a better place! Just for that one healing posture alone!
First, do no harm. That’s the first posture of Christian healers.
The second posture is that of inserting yourself into the injuries of others.
I love the part of Mark’s reading that tells us that, after sundown, they brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed, and he healed many. You do understand who these people were, don’t you? These were the folks who were not welcome in the synagogue. Because of their illnesses and disabilities, they were considered sinners and outcasts.
But where the religious institution wouldn’t go, Jesus did go. He stepped right into the middle of their injuries and became a source of healing to them.
You know, I think this is one of the most distinctive things about the Christian Way. We are called to recognize that there is a cruel underside to life where people hurt and suffer. And we are called to embrace it and them! But we religious people often miss the point!
I’m reminded of the old story about a man who fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out. A series of people came by, each one representing a common religious view:
The first was a person whose
religion was all about love. “I feel your pain,” the man said… as he
walked by the pit. Next came a person whose religion was all about sin and
judgment. “Only bad people fall into pits!” she said… as she sauntered
by. A Presbyterian came by and noted that the man must have been predestined
to fall into that pit. And then came a Methodist who was pretty sure it
happened because the man was a backslider. Next came the person so very
aware of the power of God in his own life, “I was in a pit, too – deeper
than the one you’re in - and God got me out!” he said… as he went on his
way. And then came a bunch of folks from that church where they believe you can
control reality with your thoughts. “The pit is only in your mind!” they
promised the man stuck in the pit. A positive-thinking Unitarian said, “Things
will get better!, and a negative-thinking Baptist said, “Things will get
worse!”
Then Jesus came by and, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit.
The second posture of healing is inserting ourselves as helpers into the wounds of others.
One of our members was telling me about their cancer treatment. It’s an amazing thing. They have to take this pill some time in advance of having radiation treatments. What the pill does is release some chemical that goes directly to the tumor and makes it visible to the radiation that follows. That’s a parable of Christian healing!
In a sense, we become the chemical agents that provide a point of contact for God in the midst of the world’s injuries. Our Stephen Ministers know this because they are taught from the very beginning that, when they become involved in a person’s life as a caregiver, God who is the curegiver can use their very presence as a context for helping the person become well.
And this posture applies not only to individuals, but to society as well.
I think the first real Christian healer I ever knew was my boyhood pastor, George Seale. During the days of Civil Rights when there was so much resistance to true integration – even up north – George rented an apartment he owned to a black family. The white neighbors threatened to kill George, and the family. But George wouldn’t budge. Into the deep and hurtful wound of segregation, George inserted himself as one little point of helping his black neighbors.
And even during the Vietnam conflict, George was a healer. He had very strong convictions of his own, of course. But when the demonstrations started – with pro-war activists on one side and anti-war activists on the other – and the protests began to become violent, George put down his own convictions for a time in order to go and stand in the middle of both groups. To be a healing presence in the midst of the wound. I’ll always remember the day he came home covered with the residue of the eggs that had been thrown at him by those on either side of the argument.
Sometimes healing is dangerous work.
But when we insert ourselves into the wounds of others, and make ourselves available to God to become pinpoints of healing, wonderful things can happen!
I’ll bet there are some people in your life right now who need a healing presence with them. They’re facing a conflicted relationship. An illness. Some doubts. A loss. Uncertainty about what to do. A moral failure.
What they don’t need is someone to judge them. What they do need is someone who becomes the presence of healing.
Jesus reached out his hand, and lifted the man out of the pit.
First, do no harm. Second, insert yourself into the wound as a helper and healer.
And third, share Christ.
Sometimes the most powerful words you can share with another is simply a story of how Jesus lived. What Jesus said. What Jesus did.
He loved people. Never rejected anyone. Tried to help everyone.
And Jesus will help you, too, if you ask him!
It’s really that simple!
Unfortunately, telling people about Jesus in our day has become more of a heavy-handed dissertation on the theology of it all, and less a sharing of how much Jesus did and does for real people living in the real world. Don’t do that to people!
Just tell them, in your own words, what Jesus does for people like them.
Last Sunday, in between services, I ran up to Steve and Vicki Summers’ house to spend a little time with them. Steve was very weak, and nearing death. He could barely talk.
Vicki was giving him a sip of grape juice when he asked how much grape juice they had. She said several containers. Then Steve asked me if the church needed grape juice. I said, “Sure, we can always use grape juice for Communion.” And then it occurred to me.
“Steve,” I said, “would you like me to serve you Communion?” He smiled and nodded his head.
So Vicki went and got enough grape juice for the five of us – Steve, Vicki, Steve’s mother, his son, his sister, and me. She brought it into the bedroom, along with a plate of broken bread.
I knelt at the foot of the bed and began the words of the Communion service, remembering what Jesus has done for us. And as I spoke, a most remarkable thing happened. Steve, as weak as he was, rolled over onto his side, slid off the edge of the bed, and got down on his knees beside me.
And then, taking the plate of bread in his hands, Steve held it out and served his family Communion!
Even without words, it was a powerful sharing of Jesus and His love.
And the dying man became a healer.
First, do no harm. Second, go into the injury as a source of help and hope. And third, share Christ in simple ways.
We followers of Christ are called to be healers in the world. That is our number one job.
And God needs more healers!
Can I enlist you in the cause? And will you go and enlist others?
This is a faith worth finding!