healing – Salvaged Faith

Taste and See God’s Purpose

Posted on June 28, 2022Leave a comment

Text: Matthew 5:1-13

In his translation of the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, Eugene Peterson concludes the Beatitudes with these words:

“Let me tell you why you are here…”

You see, this sermon from Jesus is full of instructions for the people of God.

It reminds us of the attitudes we are supposed to carry with us into the world.

Jesus tells us what to do and how to live and how we can serve his Kingdom and what our purpose is for being.

“Let me tell you why you are here…” he begins. “You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.”

I must admit, when I dove into studying salt into the scripture, I thought that I would just find these passages from the New Testament about being salt and light in the world.

But salt is woven throughout the Bible as God forms a relationship with the Hebrew people!

In the Ancient Near East, salt was often a part of covenants between two parties – as they broke bread, and signed deals, they also ate salt, as part of their promises to fulfill their responsibilities.

So when God makes a covenant with the people, they were also salt covenants.

In Leviticus 2, Numbers 18, and 2 Chronicles 13:5, we find this language of the salt covenant.

As Margaret Feinberg writes, “In each instance, God is asking the people, priests, and kings to enter into a permanent commitment to his purposes.” (Taste and See Bible Study, page 83)

This covenant was remembered through the regular grain offerings, but even in the post-temple Jewish faith, during the Sabbath meal, bread is dipped into salt and then eaten. It remains a symbol of God’s covenant.

What is that covenant?

Well, there are quite a few covenants in the scriptures, but all of them have to do with our purpose.

In Genesis 9, God makes a covenant with Noah after the flood, renewing the blessings of creation and reaffirming that all people are made in God’s image. God promises to preserve humanity – an expression of love and mercy. Our purpose is to bear God’s image and be God’s caretakers for this world.

Just a few chapters, but many years later, we read about the covenant God made with Abraham. It is the promise of land, descendants, and blessing, and through this family, God’s blessings would extend to all the earth. Our purpose is to be a blessing for all the world.

In the book of Exodus, the story of God’s people continues with liberation from oppression in the land of Egypt. God rescues his people and establishes a covenant through Moses, saying “I’ll take you as my people, and I’ll be your God” (Exodus 6). Part of what it means to be God’s people, holy and set-apart, is to live a certain way. God promises blessings if we obey his commands, and consequences if we don’t. Our purpose is to commit ourselves to God’s ways because they are the ways of life!

There is also a covenant with David, a promise that God would lift up a descendent that would make the promises of Abraham and Moses a reality – a never-ending kingdom dedicated to God. Our purpose is walk in the way of the Lord.

And then, we have the new covenant. Spoken of in scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, God sees all of the ways that we have failed to hold up our end of the deal. But rather than give up, God promises to write these commands on our hearts, forgive our sins, give us the Spirit that will finally allow us to be God’s people, and renew the heavens and the earth. Our purpose is to accept the gift of God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that will allow us to do all of the other things that we had promised to do and to be a witness to all the earth.

These covenants, whether officially “salt covenants” or not, all remind us of our salty purpose.

Our job is to point to the hidden work of God in this world and bring it out.

We are supposed to help the world taste and see and feel and experience the blessings of God.

We are God’s people.

We are the salt of the earth.

I must confess that I have watched more than my fair share of cooking shows.

And one of the things that I notice is that salt is vital for good food.

Whenever a dish is being judged, whether or not it has enough salt seems to be essential for its success.

When you sprinkle salt on watermelon or tomatoes, the flavor of those fruits become sweeter and more crisp.

When you add salt to soup, it becomes rich and deep.

When added to roasted vegetables or French fries… let me tell you – you almost can’t have enough salt on French fries.

Salt takes what is there and brings out the flavors.

And that is our job.

We are called to be out in the world and point to all of the ways that God is moving among us.

Our purpose is to bring out the “god-flavors” of the earth and to help others get a taste of heaven.

But what God is doing in this world is about more than just some spicy good deeds and blessings.

It is about salvation, healing, and abundant life, too.

Which seems a bit ironic, since too much salt can destroy land and turn it into a barren waste.

We talk about rubbing salt into a wound as if it is a bad thing.

But salt is an agent of healing, preservation, an anti-septic, and is essential for life.

In fact, many fertilizers incorporate sodium or potassium chloride as ingredients and salt is needed even in manure placed on crops because it breaks it down so that plants can absorb the nutrients.

If you head to the hospital, one of the first things they will often do is hook you up to a saline drip, because salt is critical to the functioning of our cells, enables our nerves to transmit impulses and stimulates our muscle fibers (Taste and See 103).

My husband and I will often watch the History channel show, Alone, in which ten contestants are dropped off in the wilderness to survive on their own for as long as they can. They can choose to bring with them only ten survival items and for the first time in nine seasons, a contestant has chosen to bring a block of salt. So often, that salt deficiency has played havoc with the health of contestants who are pulled before there are ready to quit.

Feinberg recounts in her book about how the Romans saw salt as vital to the expansion of their empire. As the armies were sent great distances to conquer new lands, salt deprivation was impacting their efficiency – causing “confusion, seizures, even brain damage.” So the Romans, “began including salt, sal in Latin, in their soldier’s pay. This is where we derive the word ‘salary’.” (Taste and See, p. 103-104).

We find this in our scriptures as well.

Elisha tosses salt into a cursed spring in order to purify the waters.

Ezekiel describes how newborn babies are rubbed with salt after they are born – a cleansing practice as salt serves as both an exfoliant and disinfectant.

In the incense for worship at the tabernacle and temple, salt was an essential component and the scent played a role in reminding people of their relationship with God.

But, therapies related to salt inhalation have also been used since the 1800s, and is seen as beneficial for breathing, stress, and your immune system… so I do wonder what positive impacts such practice might have had for the people.

And the very root of salvation, is that same Latin base word, sal.

Salvare means to save.

To preserve.

To rescue.

When Jesus calls us to be the salt of the earth, he reminds us of our purpose.

“Let me tell you why you are here…”

Jesus is asking us to be his hands and feet in this world.

To be his people.

To serve his Kingdom.

And what God is doing through us is bringing life, healing, blessings, renewal, and salvation to this world.

Feinberg shares in her book some wisdom from the Talmud that says:

“if someone is suffering and in need, and you can take away 1/60 of their pain, then that is goodness, and the call to help us from God…. Your one little grain of salt can help with something someone else’s grain can’t. And when all [our] grains get mixed and sprinkled together, preserving and flavoring and helping others flourish occurs everywhere.” (Taste and See p. 114).

Friends, I know that this country is starkly divided about a lot of things.

There are major conversations happening as we speak about rights related to abortion, guns, and human sexuality.

In some of cases we are expanding those rights and in so many places, laws and work is being done to curtail them.

And I keep thinking about the role of salt.

Too much can be deadly and it can destroy a land.

But a healthy dose is necessary for life.

I keep thinking about my sisters who have had to have procedures that in some places would be illegal in order to preserve their lives or to care for their bodies in the wake of a miscarriage or even delivery.

You have to pay attention to what someone or something needs and be able to respond with the right kind of care to provide for healing, blessing, renewal, and salvation.

My colleague, Elizabeth Brick, shared some words yesterday that I wanted to borrow and adapt to share with you.

As your pastor, but also as a fellow Christian on the road with you, “I will drive you to your medical procedure, no matter what it is, and I will care for you afterward if you need, because that is what love looks like.”

I will support you as you seek the opportunities that bring you life… whether it is playing sports or getting married or simply holding down a job… no matter your gender or gender identity, because you are a child of God.

And in all of our decision-making, I promise to hold you accountable and set before us all the vision of responsibility and care that God has invited us to practice towards one another.

“I will be there for you, as you have been here for me, as together we will be there for others, because this is what a healthy community looks like.

This is how we continue to create, grow, and nurture a world of mutuality, compassion, and joy, not just for ourselves, but for those who follow behind us.”

God is working through us to bring life, healing, blessings, renewal, and salvation to this world.

We are called to preserve the teachings of Christ and carry them forward.

We are called to reach out and point to the sweetness, hope, and joy of a life with God.

We are called to influence others, bring out new life, and offer mercy and compassion and love.

But we don’t do it alone.

It is God working through us.

It is us pointing to God already busy and active in the world.

And just like with salt added to a meal, even a little bit makes a difference.

What Happened in Damascus?

Posted on July 4, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Acts 9:1-20

Our scripture today starts with lines drawn in the sand.

Us verses them.

The faithful, orthodox, Jewish leader vs. the rebellious believers of the Way.

Division.

Destruction.

And everyone so sure that they were on the side that was right.

You know, on this national holiday weekend, I can’t ignore how this kind of “us” vs “them” language echoes the kind of nationalism we find too often in the world.

We, the shining city on a hill have been blessed by God.

And in defense of our beloved nation, we’ll come after anyone who disagrees with us.

Anyone who is a threat to our way of life and our values.

That is what Saul was doing, after all.

He believed in his tradition, in the law, in who God had called him to be.

And he was willing to defend it all with his very life… taking other lives if he had to.

If you weren’t with him… you were against him.

But in the same way, that “us” vs “them” mentality was present in the followers of the Way of Christ.

When Ananias receives a calling from the Lord to go to Saul, his very first response is to name that man as doing evil… compared with the saints on his own side.

Good verses bad.

Right verses wrong.

Insiders verses outsiders.

Both have cause for why they believe what they believe.

Each can point to actions of the other that would justify their own positions.

There is that old adage that there are two sides to every story and today, I certainly don’t want to get caught up in excusing either side from their actions.

Nor do I want to say that there is not, in fact, a good… a standard… a godly measure of how we should be that we should all be held up against.

Maybe more of what I’d like to note is a simple observation from Stephen D. Jones, “not many of us are ‘breathing threats and murder’ against our opponents. However, we have all been on wrong paths… We have all been headstrong, stubborn, blinded to our own ambition, selfish to meet our own need…”[1]

And in part, I think this story of what happens in Damascus is a reminder that God is not interested in the lines that we have drawn.

God is not interested in the labels we throw at one another.

God doesn’t care about our nationality or pedigree or longevity with the faith.

God is not interested in our us verses them arguments.

In fact, God flips all of the scripts and expectations on their head to change everyone’s lives and instead orient us towards life in the Kingdom of Heaven.

In our Acts study book, N.T. Wright calls Saul a “hardline, fanatical, ultra-nationalist, super-orthodox Pharisaic Jew.”

And yet… he’s the guy that Jesus calls to reach out to the non-Jewish, Gentile community.

Ananias is likely a newcomer to the way of Christ. Damascus was about 135 miles from Jerusalem and you can’t imagine that in this short of time that the good news about Jesus would have taken a very deep hold this far out yet.

And yet, this non-Israelite is the one who Jesus calls to go to Saul.

This non-apostle, non-deacon, ordinary, regular guy is the one who God uses to heal Saul and who baptizes him with the Holy Spirit.

In many ways, God is telling us that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what your story was…

You, too, just might be called into this inside-out, upside-down, community of Christ.

No one is safe from God breaking in and disrupting everything you thought you knew about your life.

And that… well… that’s a little terrifying.

As a pastor, I sometimes shy away from this story about Saul’s dramatic conversion because it really is just too incredible.

He is a guy who literally makes a 180 degree turn in his life.

He goes from persecuting Christians to preaching the cross of Christ.

His old life dies on the Road to Damascus and three days later, he is born again as an apostle of Jesus.

There are very few of us who can compare our stories with his and William Muehl writes that this can give us a bit of a “faith inferiority complex.”[2]

Or, maybe even more than that, we fear something coming along to cause such a dramatic change in our lives.

Over these last sixteen months, we experienced what it is like to have life come to a stand-still and have everything that we knew to be “normal” upended.

It isn’t something we seek out unless we are desperate or at the end of our ropes.

Maybe that’s why we identify a bit more with Ananias in this story.

You know, the ordinary fellow, going about his day, who gets called to walk down the street and pass along a message to his mortal enemy.

What… that doesn’t happen to you on a regular basis?

I just have to keep telling myself that the main character in this story is not Saul.

And it’s not Ananias.

It is Jesus Christ.

For many chapters now, the disciples and apostles have been talking about Jesus.

But he shows up and calls these two individuals to action.

This is a word about how our Savior continues to show up in the lives of unexpected people to challenge us and push us beyond everything we thought we knew and understood.

Beyond our boundaries and borders and beliefs.

And sometimes, that happens in a heartbeat – like it did on that road to Damascus.

But sometimes, it happens over a lifetime.

Sometimes, truth comes to us in a dream or a sign or a message…

But sometimes it comes through a friend who has the courage to tell it like it is.

All around us, God is moving…

God is pushing us beyond our artificial divisions…

God is opening up our eyes…

God is calling us out of our privilege and bias…

Jesus stands before us, waiting for us to stop breathing threats and running from enemies and to start working together for a Kingdom that is far wider and more expansive than we could ever imagine.

May it be so.

[1] Jones. Stephen D. Feasting on the Word, Year C Volume 2, p 403.

[2] William Muehl, Why Preach? Why Listen? (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), 11.

Follow the Star: Service

Posted on February 7, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Mark 1:29-38, Isaiah 40:21-31
Today, as we follow the star, we hear an invitation from God to serve.
Why do we serve?
Is it because we are trying to earn our salvation?
Is it to gain brownie points with God or with others?
Do we serve from a sense of duty or obligation?
Or is our service simply the fruit of a life spent focused on God?
The way we demonstrate our gratitude for the gifts that have blessed our lives?

Today we have two passages to consider and before we dive into these powerful words from Isaiah, I think we need to situate them a bit in history.
Isaiah was a prophet of Judah, or the southern half of what was Israel.
After King David died, his kingdom was split into two. The blue part of this map was known as Israel and the yellow portion is the southern kingdom of Judah.
God wanted the people to serve.
To trust.
To let God be the king of their lives.
Not because God needed anything from them, but because it reflected God’s desires for the human family.
But both kingdoms had basically said, “No thank you, Lord! We want to try to do this ourselves.”

This is the God of all creation!
This is the one who sets the stars in the sky and raises up nations and kings!
This is the one who had rescued them from Egypt and had given them the land in the first place!
Instead of having hearts full of gratitude…
Instead of allowing their lives to be shaped by the one who had given them life…
They turned their backs on their Redeemer.
And God let them fall.

As Isaiah is called to prophesy to the to the kingdom of Judah, Israel, the blue portion of this map had just been conquered by the Assyrians.
They were wiped off the map and out of history, never to be heard from again.
And the word that comes to Isaiah is this:
I am the God of all creation.
I am everything that you need.
Tell the people of Judah that if they don’t start to follow me, if they try to trust in their own might, they will only find ruin.
My way is the way of life… yours is the way of death.
For 39 chapters, this is what Isaiah preaches to the people of Judah.
He warns them.
He pleads with them.
All he has to do is point to the north and remind them of what happened to their neighbors.
But his words fall on deaf ears.
And the consequence of their failure to trust and obey and live faithful and fruitful lives is that the Babylonians come in and Judah is conquered.

But here is the really important part.
God does not forget the people in exile.
God calls Isaiah once again, this time with a message of comfort and hope.
This chapter you see, chapter 40, is a turning point.
The people realize they can’t do it on their own.
They realize how futile it is to try.
And now, when they have hit rock bottom, God is right there offering strength and hope and life.

Isaiah tells them that even young people will faith and grow weary if they try to do it on their own. They will fall exhausted by the side of the road.
Youth is not a prescription for strength.
Military might will not save you.
Protein shakes and weights will not build the kind of muscles you need.
If you want to be spiritually strong and whole and full of life the only place to turn is the Lord.
Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Those who wait for the Lord…
Does it mean that we sit quietly and patiently?
That we stop everything else we are doing and just see what happens?
Not at all.
In fact, the Hebrew word for “waiting” is the same as the word used for twisting – like making a rope.
Far from being passive, this kind of waiting invokes the idea that you are being worked on, formed, and bound together.
Waiting on the Lord is being open and available to what God wants to do with your life.
There is the old joke about the man who prayed to God that he might win the lottery… but he never went out and bought a ticket.
This kind of waiting isn’t just sitting back and seeing if God will act.
It is active.
It is expectant.
It is full of hope and tension and we put our lives in the right place by waiting upon the Lord in service and worship.

I have been thinking about the process of bringing new life into the world through pregnancy. Any mother can tell you that this kind of waiting is not passive.
It is painful and full of uncomfortable moments.
You can’t just sit back and wait for something to happen.
What you eat matters. What you drink matters. How you move matters.
And in the process, two lives are entwined and bound together.

That’s what it is like to wait upon the Lord.
Our live becomes entwined with Gods as we serve and worship.
In the process, God’s strength becomes our strength.
And then God takes the single cord that is our life and twists it together with others in the church so that we are made even stronger.

Which brings me to Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.
In our gospel reading for today, Jesus enters this home and discovers that she is ill.
This isn’t just a cold, she is confined to bed with a fever.
Jesus enters the room and gently takes her by the hand and the fever is gone.
He helps her to her feet.
The very next thing she does… is to wait on them.

Now, there have been many times in the past when I have read this verse with a little bit of indignation.
I mean, what kind of a sexist message is being taught here, that the instant a woman is well, she jumps out of bed to serve the men?
But if we examine the text a little bit closely, we discover something interesting.
She waits upon them… like we are called to wait upon the Lord.
Her labor is not a menial household task, but the word we find here in greek is diakanos.
Diakanos is ministry.
It is the same word used to describe how the angels wait upon Jesus in the wilderness.
The same word Jesus uses when he washes the feet of his disciples and calls them to serve.
The same word used by the church to send out the first deacons.
Those who wait upon the Lord renew their strength.
Those who serve the Lord find abundant life.

Here was a woman who was trapped in her bed by her illness, much like the Judeans were in exile.
And yet, she waited in expectant hope.
She actively lived a life ready for God to work through her.
And just as God reached out to bring the people of Judah out of captivity, Jesus stretched out his hand to lift her up.
Her act of service in this moment is not just out of gratitude for what God has done and is doing in her life.
It is the fruit of a lifetime spent attentive to God’s will in her life.
And before even her own son-in-law figures out what he is doing as a disciple, she is already at work saying yes to God.
As Megan McKenna notes: “the first four followers of Jesus become five…”

Throughout this season of Epiphany, we have been following the star.
We’ve explored how God is revealed in our lives and reclaimed our identity.
Together we have received the invitation to follow… along with the call to repent.
Last week we talked about what it means to allow the authority of God to shape our realities.
Each of these star-words have been a step in a journey.
A journey that helps us to let go of the idea that we can do it ourselves.
A journey that reminds us that it is only in God that we find the strength and the power to keep going.
Only when we place our lives in God’s hands, in worship and service, will we truly discover life.

In her weekly reflection, Debie Thomas shares a quote from Annie Dillard’s book, The Writing Life: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.”
Even as I say those words, I think about how many hours in the last year I have spent on the couch watching shows on Netflix.
So often, we have grand plans for how we will live out our faith in the future.
I’ll be a disciple someday when I have time, or more energy, or the kids are grown.
As Thomas notes, they are “days filled with intention, purpose, and meaning. Days meticulously scheduled and beautifully executed. Days marked by attentiveness, order, devotion, and beauty. When I get around to living those days – maybe tomorrow? Maybe next month? – then I will begin to sculpt my life.”
What if instead, we simply allowed Jesus to take us by the hand and we got up and began to serve?
What if we stopped trying to do it our way and instead allowed God’s strength to lift our weary spirits and to twist and shape and transform our moments.
What if we stopped passively waiting for a mountain top moment, but claimed this day, right now, as when our life in God can begin.
How will you spend this day?

Untitled

Posted on October 7, 2018Leave a comment

Text: Mark 9:38-41

Sometimes the best thing a preacher can do is to be real and authentic.

And so I’m going to confess that I’m really struggling with how to share this text with you this week.

This fall, we are loosely following the lectionary – the three-year cycle of texts that help us to explore the fullness of the scripture. Rather than just preaching on my favorite texts each week, the lectionary challenges us to think outside of our comfort zone.

But we also are building up to our Stewardship Sunday at the end of this month, and as we organized the texts and the themes, we wanted to ask the question – Are you able to support the ministry of others? Are you able to invest in the work of your fellow siblings in Christ – even if you don’t always do things the same way? Are you able to encourage people you disagree with?

I still want to preach that sermon.

But I admit that it is harder to preach today than it was a month ago or a year ago.

And that is because what we see all around us, in both the church and our larger political landscape and indeed in our world, is a whole lot of us vs. them mentality.

I was sitting at an event in Chicago two weeks ago with other members of the General Conference delegation from our jurisdiction. And there is this particular person with whom I have a very difficult time finding any common ground. They weren’t even sitting at the table with me, but I could see them across the room and every single time they caught my attention, I could feel my anxiety rise. My heart beat faster. My chest clenched up a bit.

I realized that I see this person as my enemy.

We are on the same team.

We both love the United Methodist Church.

And yet everything we believe appears to be so diametrically opposed… and not only that, but I feel like their position actually harms people I love within the church.

I don’t want them to win.

And I don’t know what to do about that and how it is impacting my own soul.

Politics is the social life that we share together and we have witnessed our political discourse crumble to pieces.

In these past few weeks, anyone who has tried to say something about what is happening in our nation, particularly around the Supreme Court – for or against it – is immediately swarmed by people who both criticize their position and criticize them for not going far enough.

We are so entrenched that we cannot even see clearly.

The red side and the blue side are enemies and the slightest mention of anything political and you can watch a room fill with tension as people discern when to engage and how in order to be victorious.

But, friends, there simply have not been any winners in these political battles.

We have all lost.

As we have been following the gospel of Mark this fall, we come to a moment of struggle for the disciples. They have worked so closely with Jesus and even though they don’t always get it completely right, they understand who their tribe is.

To use a sports metaphor, Jesus is the coach and they can point to the other eleven players.

They know who their teammates are.

But as our pericope begins, the disciple John tells Jesus about how he and some other disciples noticed these other people who were doing ministry in his name. Specifically, they were casting out demons, something that the disciples themselves had just failed to do successfully a few verses earlier.

What was their very first response to encountering these people?

Resentment. Hostility.

They tried to stop them.

If they aren’t part of our team, our tribe, we have to shut them down.

Into our tribalism and partisanship, into our entrenchment and division, Christ speaks.

From the message translation:

“No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath cut me down. If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally. Why, anyone by just giving you a cup of water in my name is on our side.”

Whoever is not against us is for us.

Those are really hard words to hear when you feel like you are on the battlefield.

They are hard words to hear when you consider someone your enemy.

They are especially hard words to hear when you look at the actions or the policies or the attitudes of someone and you actually believe that they will harm you or people you love or things you care about.

And maybe that is why I have struggled so much with this text this week.

Because there are bigger issues out there in the world than simply accepting or encouraging the ministry of someone who sets up communion a different way that I do.

I think our division is so intense because we believe there are issues of life and death, holiness and faithfulness, justice and covenant, on the line as a result of the direction we take… from either side.

But I wonder if what Jesus is really calling us to in this passage is a different way of engaging those battles.

What if instead of seeing those on the other side of the aisle or the other side of the church or in another part of this world as enemies, we saw them first as allies.

Jesus says that you demonstrate you are on his side by giving others a cup of water, giving the hungry food, clothing the naked, comforting the mourning.

Not by destroying those with whom you disagree.

If we continue just a bit farther in this chapter, Jesus talks about how if your hand or foot or eye causes you to stumble, cut it off. And then he reminds us that everyone will go through a refining fire sooner or later… and we need to consider how our actions demonstrate our faithfulness.

I think Jesus is calling us to get busy doing good, to worry about our own actions and our own failings, and to let God sort out the rest.

I got to thinking about my friend, Doug, as I thought about this work.

Doug was a Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor in the community that I first served in Marengo.

While we are both Christian, our two traditions have very different understandings of communion, ordination, and the place of women in the church.

The very first time I met Doug, I admit I had a lot of anxiety.

This was a person whose faith taught him that I couldn’t and shouldn’t be a pastor.

Everything in my being was preparing for an argument or to figure out a way to defend myself and my personhood. I had already drawn lines in the sand. I had already thought of him as a potential enemy.

Do you know what Doug wanted to talk about?

He wanted to ask if I would be willing to join him and some other pastors for breakfast every Wednesday morning to talk about the lectionary.

He didn’t see my as an opponent or someone he had to convince, but as an ally, a colleague, a friend.

He was offering me a cup of water…. Or coffee in this instance, in the name of Christ.

He was doing ministry in Jesus’ name.

And he recognized that I was doing the same.

We shared breakfast every Wednesday morning for four years.

And when we are invited to this table, we are called to set aside our weapons and our armor and to see people we believed to be enemies as brothers and sisters.

We will not agree.

We will not do things the same.

We might even believe that the actions of another person might harm our witness or people we love and care about.

But if we engage one another in love…

If we greet them in the name of Christ…

If we offer them a cup of water…

If we open ourselves to allow them to do the same for us…

Then at the very least we are preserving that place in our own souls that dies a little bit every time we consider someone to be our enemy.

Once we allow someone to sit with us at the table and break bread and share a meal, we discover that there are new ways to have a conversation about our differences.

We find there are good things that we can do together in Christ’s name.

And we have a chance to build the kind of trust and relationship that will allow us to truly hold one another accountable for our actions. We will finally have the authority and respect in one another’s life to call out actions that are done in the name of Christ that harms the body. And we can do so in love, with compassion, trusting and knowing that we are on the same team and that if our sister or brother is calling us to account it is because they want what is best for not only our own soul, but for the church and the world that we share.

So are you able to invite someone you disagree with to the table?

Are you able to point out the good things they do in Christ’s name?

Are you able to encourage them and love them so that one day you can both hold one another accountable?

May it be so.

You Are Family

Posted on April 29, 2018Leave a comment

As a child, when I feel down and skinned my knee, there was nothing I wanted more than to be held in the arms of a parent. Their soothing words helped me to know that this moment of crisis was only temporary and that I would be okay.

When I was a bit older, I suffered an injury of my own making. I had decided to stand on the landing of the staircase and leap! trying to determine just how far I could jump. I was old enough I should have known better. I was old enough that I shouldn’t have needed a parent to offer comfort. And yet, even when you know its your own fault or when you think you are too big, the comfort of a parent is still welcomed.

As we grow up or as the hurts and wounds of our lives increase, that feeling doesn’t necessarily change. In those vulnerable moments of our lives, we want to be surrounded by people that are our family… whether our biological or our chosen family. When my own dad lost a couple of fingers in a workplace accident, countless relatives made the trip up to Mayo in Rochester, Minnesota to visit him and to sit with my parents during that long recovery.

And Pastor Todd and I have joined so many of you and your loved ones around hospital beds, in pre-surgery suites, and at home, as you have navigated illness and injury as well. I always find myself incredibly honored to be able to join in those moments. They are spaces of vulnerability and intimacy, holy spaces, and it is a joy to be able to name and lift up the presence of God that accompanies you on your journey.

Marcia McFee reminds us that we feel “at home” whenever we are in a place and surrounded by people where it is safe to be vulnerable. Where we can bring our full selves – wounds, scars, faults and all, and we are still loved and accepted. There, in that space, among those people, we are family.

You accidently back the car into the garage, but you know you will still be loved.

You fail a test at school, but there will still be dinner on the table.

A difficult diagnosis comes at the doctor’s office and there is someone beside you holding your hand.

You lose your job, but there are people who have your back and will support you until you are back on your feet.

You can share your struggles and you know they will be heard and that somehow you will be okay.

But, many of us have not experienced family in that way.

The homes some of us grew up in were not safe spaces.

Maybe it was the constant demand for perfection…

Or Alcoholism…

Neglect…

Or maybe even just that Midwestern work-ethic… Iowa nice… that invited you to always put on a smile because we don’t talk about our problems.

Or perhaps there has been a disagreement or a conflict that grew so impassioned that no one feels safe to authentically be themselves or to speak more than surface level small talk – fearing rejection or the dissolution of relationship.

My heart grieves when I hear about young people who are on the streets because they have fled from a home where they are not safe or where they have not be accepted.

I lament the brokenness of so many of our homes… that busyness and conflict have turned so many families into strangers that simply share space with one another.

And I am particularly saddened when I discover ways that this family, this community – the church, has turned their back on one of their children or has not been there in a time of need.

The church is like any human institution. It is full of imperfect people who make mistakes.

And yet, we claim to follow Jesus, and that is supposed to make a difference in the way we love and treat one another.

Perhaps that is why the disappointment is even greater… I expect more of us.

Today, and throughout this week, the bishops of the United Methodist Church are gathering to be in a time of discernment around how we might continue to live together as a family. I invite you to join with me in prayer about how we might truly, authentically, bring our full selves into relationship with one another and how we might offer love and acceptance to even those with whom we mightily disagree.

It is not an easy time for our church or for this particular church.

But when I think about where we lose our way and why we might have forgotten what it means to be a family, I begin to wonder if maybe we have forgotten who we follow.

Maybe we have become so preoccupied with rules…

So busy thinking about physical structures…

Too worried about how something sounds or how long we have been gone…

We have stopped paying attention to the one who called us here in the first place.

In the epistle this morning, this first letter from John, we are urged to consider the kind of love that the Father has given to us. “What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it – we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are… and that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him- and in seeing him become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own…”

We see God’s marvelous love through Jesus Christ. The one who was born into a human family. Who took on our flesh. Who relied upon the care of a mother and a father. Who created a family of disciples. Who reached out to touch people in their brokenness and offer forgiveness and healing. And who ultimately took our sin and our shame to the cross and who died for our sake.

We are called to keep our eyes on Jesus.

And when we do so, we remember that although his heart was pure, his body was far from perfect.

He bore within his very skin and bones the wounds of God’s love for us.

When he appeared among the disciples after his resurrection, those wounds were not something to be hidden and they did not magically go away.

No, Jesus invited them to reach out and touch his hands and his feet.

These disciples were the same ones who had rejected him and turned their backs.

They had not caused his physical wounds, but they had certainly caused harm through their actions.

And yet, Jesus shows up, right there in their midst, offering love, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Not hiding how he has been hurt, but through is hurt, sharing God’s love.

Henri Nouwen, in his reflection on the Wounded Healer reminds us that “nobody escapes being wounded. We are all wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The main question is not, ‘How can we hid our wound?’ so we don’t have to be embarrassed, but ‘How can we put our woundedness in service of others?’ When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers.”

In the church, there are certainly wounds that abound among us. Physical illness. The damage of an unkind word. And unintentionally brush-off. Mistakes and missteps. The pain of being gone too long. The feeling that we are not good enough to offer our gifts or our talents. But if we truly were to follow the example of Christ in this building, in the United Methodist Church, in our Christian families, then those wounds, that brokenness would find safe space here. We would find that we are able to be present with one another and offer peace and forgiveness. We wouldn’t hide our illness, but would invite others to journey with us and pray for us. We would not be ashamed of physical limitations, but would celebrate the ways we can serve. We would speak truth and peace to those who have hurt us – just as Jesus invited us to in Matthew chapter 18.

In a family, among loved ones, wounds are healed. Hurts are forgiven. Faults are accepted.

And God our Parent, Christ our Brother has called you into this place so that you might know that love that so far surpasses any earthly love you might ever experience.

And as our God loves us, we are called to love and accept and offer healing and forgiveness to one another – one family, united by Christ.

May it be so.

Focus!

Posted on February 4, 2018Leave a comment

My aunt Barb was an amazing woman. She put a positive spin on everything that she experienced. She had an incredible work ethic and loved her catering and restaurant businesses. But she also deeply loved those she worked with and her family grew to include not only her own flesh and blood, but also their employees. She lived out her faith with such a genuine passion that encouraged others to claim their own.

And, my aunt had a focus in her life. She knew that God loved her and that God had called her to love and serve others. She found her passion – cooking – and used it to bless as many people as possible in this world, loving and serving them through food. Whether it was bread broken around a family dinner table or a festive celebration, Barb was an instrument of God’s work in this world.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Barb as I wrestled with the text from Mark this morning.

When I think about Simon’s mother-in-law, lying in that bed, sick with a fever that was threatening to take her life, I think about the low points in my aunt’s journey with cancer.

The days when the pain was too much. Or when she felt too weak.

When her singular focus was trying to get back up out of that bed and to get back to taking care of others.

When we read this passage in Mark, sometimes we might wonder what kind of cultural expectations would have led this woman, who only moments before was ill, to serve these men who have visited her house.

But we miss that this is her opportunity to once again reclaim her focus and take up her calling: her place in the community, her role. The phrase used her for her service is the same term used for a deacon. As Megan McKenna notes (On Your Mark: Reading Mark in the Shadow of the Cross):

She “ministers” to him, just as the “angels ministered to [Jesus]” during his time in the desert. Jesus has gone out to Simon’s mother-in-law in her disease and grasped her by the hand … In gratitude for his taking hold of her and giving her life to do his work, she responds wholeheartedly. Now the first four followers of Jesus become five in number.

Her strength comes not only from the healing power of Jesus.

Her strength comes from her focus on serving Jesus.

She has bound herself to him.

She has let him come into her life and now it is Christ’s strength that flows out of her.

Even on really difficult days, I was amazed at the strength my aunt found to do just that because she hoped in the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth.

In Isaiah, chapter 40, we are reminded that even young people like myself will faint and be weary if we try to go on our own. We will fall absolutely exhausted by the side of the road. Simple youth is not a prescription for strength or health. Military might cannot save us. Protein shakes and lifting weights cannot build the kind of muscles that we need to endure through our darkest days.

My aunt Barb was able to tap into a spiritual strength that helped her to make the most of every moment of her life. She crossed items off her bucket list, passed on wisdom and insight, brought joy to her grandkids and nieces and nephews and their kids.

Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Those who wait for the Lord…

The Hebrew word for “waiting” here is the same as the word used for twisting – like making a rope. It is not a passive state, but one of tension as you are being worked on. This kind of waiting is focused, expectant, gathering together all that you need to keep going. (from Lindy Black).

As an expectant mother waits for new life to come into the world, the waiting is not passive… it can often be painful. It is full of uncomfortable moments. It is filled with longing and stretching. And a kind of singular focus takes over: What you eat matters. What you drink matters. How you move matters. A relationship is formed in the process of the waiting. Your life and their life is bound together – it is entwined.

That’s how it should be when we wait for the Lord…

our life becomes entwined with God’s as we worship and serve…

as we are bound together…

and in the process, God’s strength becomes our strength.

God takes our single cord and with others in the church we are made into the many… we are made strong.

God’s strength and Barb’s strength became the strength of our entire family as God took her by the hand and raised her up to find healing in the next life.

For Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, that healing came in this life, as Jesus entered her room, took her by the hand, and raised her up.

As Sarah Henrich notes (http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1200) , this “raising” describes the strength given to someone so they “may again rise up to take their place in the world.”

And this is how the church should always be responding to the power of God in our midst.

Suzanne Guthrie writes:

[She] is lifted up, as in the Resurrection…

And she begins to serve – just as the apostles are sent out…

She is the church’s first deacon. She announces the Gospel by her action.

Healed, transformed, and readily at service she slips into her role as easily as if her life-time had prepared her for it…

She serves, like Jesus himself…

She receives the Light into her home, she is raised up by the Light, the Light shines through her as she ministers to others.

The healing, transformative power of God in our lives enables us to get up and be servants ourselves.

God reaches out to touch us through the bread on this table, through a prayer shawl from a friend, through a hug or a kind word.

And we, are called to rise up, to get out into this world to take our place and to live out our own calling.

Perhaps it is to make food or to teach.

Maybe it is to share music or laughter.

Maybe you have a ministry of writing cards and knitting or woodworking.

Whatever it is, God is asking you to focus on the strength of the Lord that will fill you up as you live out your purpose in this world.

So, let us come and be healed, so that we might go out and serve.

The Spirit of Healing

Posted on July 23, 2017Leave a comment

A few years ago, I was in Tampa for a church conference in a part of town that had a lot of homeless folks around. I have to be honest that when I saw the folks standing on the street looking for handouts, I didn’t stop to respond. I spent a lot of time diverting my eyes, or politely saying I’m sorry and moving on quickly.

Until a man on a bench asked me for some money for food.

I went through my usual explanation – I don’t have cash, I’m in a hurry, I’m sorry… and kept moving.

But I got about 25 feet from him and I stopped.

I knew that I could help him. I knew there was something I could do.

The Holy Spirit filled me up and turned me around and before I knew it, I was introducing myself to Fred and taking him across the street to Quiznos.

I really was in a hurry, but I stood in line there with him and he ordered a nice hot sandwich and we talked about his life. He had lost his job and had moved here looking for work. He hadn’t found any. He was waiting for his unemployment check to catch up with him and until it arrived he had nothing, so he was staying in a shelter.

He was hoping to be back on his feet in a week or two… but I had the feeling that this was only the beginning of a tough road for him.

I knew I couldn’t fix all of his problems… but I could get him a nice, hot dinner. As we parted ways outside the door, he gave me a huge smile and said, “God bless you.”

As we heard in our scripture this morning, a lame man was carried to the temple every single day to beg for the resources that would sustain his meager life.

He was begging for bread and water and shelter.

And when Peter and John encounter him – his life is turned upside down and would never be the same again.

It wasn’t a sandwich that stirred his blood – it was the power of the Holy Spirit and the name of Jesus Christ that strengthened his weak legs. This broken man stood up leaping and laughing.
He ran in through the temple gates and made a joyful exuberant scene – praising God for the chance at new life.

I want to invite us to look at this story from a couple of different angles this morning.

First, from the perspective of Peter and John.

After the ascension of Jesus, these two had found themselves leaders of a small movement – three to four thousand people were now following their guidance and were committing themselves to the way and the teachings of Christ.

Each person had given up everything they knew before in order to support and care for and nurture this precious new community. They had gone all in with their time, money, and talents.
One of the primary things they did together was to worship and pray. One of the customs of the Jewish faith is to pray three times a day – morning, afternoon, and evening – as a way of keeping your whole life focused on the Lord.

And so it is not surprising that these two are on their way to the temple for the 3:00 prayer.

They walk to the temple, passing through the same gate they may have entered hundreds of times before, passing the dozens of beggars who would often gather along the way.

I think to fully understand this story of healing, we need to understand the culture of begging that would have been present. It was present in downtown Tampa, some of our participants on the VIM Trip to Memphis experienced it, and it would have surrounded Peter and John at the temple.

Bob Deffinbaugh describes his experience with a begging culture in India this way:

There were so many beggars there was no way one could respond to all of them. The solution was often not to “see” any of them. But the beggars made this difficult. Those who were mobile would press themselves on you. They would approach your taxi at an intersection, tugging at your sleeve and pleading for help. Those not mobile would call our for charity. The beggar would be aggressive, something like the salesmen as you try to walk through the appliance section at Sears. You would concentrate on not seeing them as they converged on you, and you hurried to get through the section before you were trapped.

Living in the midst of this culture, you train yourself to ignore them, because you simply cannot respond to the needs of all.

Maybe you occasionally stop and help one person to make yourself feel better.

But you don’t make eye contact. You keep moving.

Peter and John are walking along the same road they do every day and they see countless beggars along the path.

What is different about today? Why do they stop? Why do they reach out to this particular man?

I think Peter and John felt that tug on their heartstrings that caused me to turn back in Tampa. It is the feeling we get when we encounter someone that God is inviting us to help – even if we might not have the confidence, or money, or resources to do so.

Peter and John felt that tug of the Holy Spirit and knew there was something they could do for this man.

They had not a dime in their pockets, no food to offer, nothing that could satisfy this man’s earthly needs, except for their faith in Jesus Christ.

These two disciples knew that was enough.

They had once been sent out to preach and heal and teaching with nothing but the clothes on their back. They had learned through practice that God truly can be depended on, that God is our very present help in times of trouble. They knew that faith could move mountains… and if it can move mountains than it can certainly help this lame man to walk.

They looked him in the eye, they reached out their hands in faith, and the lame man leaped for joy.

Every day, you and I pass countless people who are broken and hurting.

They may not be sitting on the street corners and their pain might not be visible to the naked eye, but if we look closely – we can see the strain of tension by the eyes, we can hear the waver in the voice, we feel the frustration and despair in the way they move and live in this world.

And because it is so common, we keep walking. The world we live in is begging and crying out for healing and we don’t have the heart to pay attention because it might overwhelm us.
Listen to those promptings of the Holy Spirit that stop you in your tracks.

God will give you everything you need to share with that person the hope and faith and love you have experienced through Jesus Christ.

You know, sometimes we have the opportunity to be Peters and Johns – going through our daily lives and coming across the opportunity to heal someone.

But we are also the lame beggars who sit by the gate.

Each of us has a whole host of problems – aching backs, sore knees, family disagreements, conflicts in our marriage, struggles with our children, sinful pasts and temptations in the present, stress around deadlines and finances, cancer, disease, death.

You name it, this community has experienced it or will experience it.

But unlike the lame beggar, we tend to hide our struggles. We don’t sit with them out in the open for all to see, but hold them close to our hearts and silently wait for an answer.

This lame man knew he couldn’t remain at home and do nothing. So every day, he convinced someone to carry him from where he slept to the Beautiful Gate.

For nearly forty years he had done this daily.

He went to the temple, to the place of God, and begged.

I wonder if sometime during the last year or two, he heard rumors of Jesus passing by.

I wonder if he had heard about the miracles taking place all around Jerusalem.

Maybe Jesus had walked through that very gate, but that man was too weak or too quiet, to catch his attention and to ask for a miracle for himself.

Maybe he didn’t feel worthy, like a lost cause, a hopeless mess.

It doesn’t matter how sick you are, how broken or how sinful; the grace of God has time for you.

The Holy Spirit has time for you.

And so even though our beggar could not even look them in the eyes, Peter and John stopped in front of him and healed him.

He leapt for joy.

Some of us have experienced miracles, healing, and forgiveness… and we know that when we have, we cannot go back to life as it was…. nothing will ever be the same.

I must admit, I always have a deeply engrained “BUT” on the tip of my tongue whenever I talk about the power of healing and the miracle of faith.

I know too many people who have prayed for miracles that have never come.

Earlier this week, I got word that Greg Leonard passed away. We have been praying with the Harvey and Leonard families without ceasing for healing in his life and yet no cure was to be found.

I have watched with agony as so many friends and so many of you have prayed for healing for loved ones that did not come in this lifetime.

One summer, I worked as a hospital chaplain and watched one young woman healed and watched another die within a week. Both had leukemia and both were clutching their faith.

Sometimes, I think we hide our problems, our disease, or our sins because we are afraid that we will be found wanting.

We are afraid that if we tell the truth, everyone will know we “didn’t have enough faith” for the answer we desire to come to pass.

Friends, prayer is not magic.

It is not an incantation we can repeat over and over in order to get what we want.

Prayer is a relationship with God. A two-way relationship.

And sometimes the answers we receive are not the ones we initially begin praying for.

Sometimes we receive the gifts of peace and comfort instead of cures.

Sometimes we hear a calling to be strong and to share our faith with others in spite of the pain we are experiencing.

Sometimes the answer to our prayers is that we ourselves have to change – that we need to forgive or give up a lifestyle that was harming us or move away from a difficult relationship.

But in the miracles of healing in the scripture and in my experience, Jesus or the disciples never told someone to go out and find more faith and THEN come back and be healed.

No, the words the Holy Spirit speaks into our hearts are: “be still and know that I am God… trust in me and my goodness… I am with you… Do not be afraid…”

Sometimes, as is the case with our lame beggar, the healing comes in the present moment.

Sometimes, complete healing and wholeness only comes after our time on this earth is over.

But still we pray, and still we have faith, and still we trust, because we have a relationship with the One who is able to bring some goodness and beauty out of the brokenness of our lives.

Today, we are both disciples and beggars.

We can both offer prayers of healing for others and we can ask for healing in our lives as well.

One of our primary gifts, one of our strengths, a huge piece of our vision is prayer… and this room is filled with people who believe in the power of miracles and that God truly can work for good in our lives.

I want to invite us to claim that gift today and before you leave the sanctuary this morning, I encourage you to take time to talk with someone, to listen to their prayers, and to pray with and for them.

Cries for Healing

Posted on June 12, 2016Leave a comment

“I alone am left. “

That was what Elijah had started to believe in his heart, as Trevor shared with our congregation last week.

But Elijah was not alone. He was not the last of the faithful prophets.

In fact, right there in that very cave, Elijah hears the name of the one who would succeed him – Elisha.

Elisha was no one special. He was the son of a wealthy land-owner but not immune to labor and work. And so when he is called, he tells his family goodbye and follows Elijah. For seven or eight years, he serves as his apprentice until Elijah is taken up into heaven by a fiery chariot and Elisha takes up his mantle.

And all summer, we will be exploring the everyday people who received an extraordinary calling to serve God in their time and place.

Lest we forget that these are simply every day people, one of the very first “miraculous” acts that Elisha performs is to get revenge on a bunch of kids that call him “Baldy.”

In 2 Kings chapter 2 – Elisha is walking down the road when a group of young people start taunting him for his lack of hair… “Get going, Baldy! Get going Baldy!”

So, he curses them and bears appear out of nowhere and attack the youth.

No one is perfect.

Elisha answers his call to guide the people by warning the kingdom of ambushes, and has a role in the downfall of the house of Ahab. He speaks God’s word about who will be king in both Israel and in Syria.

In the midst of political intrigue and the constant fighting between nations, Elisha’s story is also deeply woven with signs that the power of God was present in the lives of the people. He was a great wonder-worker and filled with the Spirit of God he brings healing and resurrection, he multiplies loaves and creates food in the midst of famine. Water springs forth with a word and a song. And these miracles are for both the leaders and for the overlooked and downtrodden.

I find great comfort in that.

Because in our time and place, like Elisha’s, famines and disaster, war and politicking are an ever present reality. The problems of this world are so big and seem so out of our control.

And sometimes it is hard to even imagine that God would listen to the cries of someone like me… like us.

But in the midst of even our individual pain and brokenness… God is present.

One of the most famous of these miracles of healing done by Elisha was that of the Aramean military commander, Naaman. He was a great warrior and helped to lead raiding parties into Israel to capture and conquer. Yet he lived with leprosy, a skin disease that greatly bothered him.

In our text for this morning, we discover a number of ways in which God works to bring healing to our lives… in spite of our preconceptions, our pride, and our inability to see the providential love of God at work.

First, God brings healing through providential bystanders.

Donald McKim describes God’s providence as “God preserving creation, cooperating with all creatures and guiding or governing all things toward the accomplishment of God’s purposes.” Or, as Carrie Mitchell puts it: “God employs ordinary people to act in extraordinary ways.”

In the story of Naaman, it is the voice of a young Israelite woman, a servant in Naaman’s household that points his way towards healing.

She has no name in this story and she had been captured and taken far from home, against her will. And yet, in spite of her lack of power or agency, she allows God to use her to bless another.

I’ve been thinking a lot about bystanders this week, especially in the wake of the national conversation about the Stanford sexual assault case. Two young men, who happened to be passing by, made a difference in that young woman’s life.

One of the realities of our human story is that we are not immune from pain and violence, tragedy and illness. Our bodies our fragile, our spirits are bent towards sin, and we harm one another through our action and inaction.

But we also have the fantastic capacity to help. In those moments when we become aware of the pain, suffering, and tragedy of another, God is guiding us, directing us, shouting out for us to hear the call to be a difference maker and work towards healing and hope in another’s life.

It is the prompting of the Spirit that causes us to turn around when we would have walked past. It is that tug of the heart that calls us to speak a word of comfort or to reach out with a personal touch.

And that is exactly what the young servant girl did. She knew the power of God was with Elisha and so she used her voice to speak a word of good news to her troubled master.

You may be an ordinary person, but wherever you are, if you are paying attention, God can and will use you to bring healing and hope into another person’s life. Maybe God is calling you to visit someone or to pray for them. Maybe God is inviting you to point someone in a different direction or refer them to someone who can help.

Pay attention to where you might be in just the right place at just the right time to bring healing and hope.

Second, God’s healing is bigger than our faith.

One of the fascinating parts of this story is that it is about the healing of an enemy.

That young servant girl is only in Naaman’s household because she was captured on a raid. There is conflict and distrust between Israel and Aram… further evidenced by the way in which the King of Israel tore his clothes when the request for healing came. He thought it must have been a trap, an enticement to war… rather than an opportunity to show the power of his God.

The king’s distrust in this moment put both his enemy AND his God into a box.

When we look upon another person and are not willing to see the possibility of transformation in their life, it is easy to write them off. We do it with enemies, but we also do it with people who have disappoint us, or who are different than us.

And when we are not willing to see God work in the lives of the people we have written off, then we miss the opportunity for transformation in our own lives.

Last fall, I was part of the Right Next Door conference and we explored what it means to really listen to the stories and lives of people who are just down the street. Sometimes, the label we attach to another person: poor, felon, addicted… keep us from sharing the transforming love of God with them… AND keep us from seeing how the transforming love of God is already at work in their lives.

When we read this story of Naaman, what we discover is that the point is not even the healing of Naaman, but the way that Naaman is brought to faith because of the healing he experienced. Elisha offers to heal him, even though he’s not part of the elect of Israel. Even though he is an enemy. Even though he doesn’t believe in Elisha’s God. And as Naaman returns from the river, he declares: “Now I know for certain that there’s no God anywhere on earth except in Israel.”

And if we refuse to see God working in the lives of the other, we miss the opportunity to be transformed ourselves.

Finally, God’s healing doesn’t always look the way we want it to.

This is perhaps the most important lesson of our scripture this morning.

As Naaman finally got the opportunity to meet Elisha, he was greeted by a servant instead of the prophet.

The instructions seemed too simple and Naaman stomped away in anger.

When we pray for healing, we are initiating a conversation with God and the answer we get back is not always the answer that we want.

Healing does not always happen according to our plans and I have no simple answers as to why that is.

Sometimes we get miracles. Sometimes we are invited into a difficult journey that is full of joy and sorrow. Sometimes healing comes in the next life instead of this one.

All that we know is that this scripture, as Haywood Barringer Spangler puts it: “discourages our tendancy to look for God’s work in terms of our own desires or expectations. Naaman’s healing does not occur as he expects, but as God chooses.”

We are not immune from tragedy and we cannot always see God’s picture of this world.

Prayer is not a magic word. Rather, it is a relationship where we both cry out and we must be silent and listen. When we pray for healing we stay in the conversation, in a relationship with our God so that we might be comforted in our suffering and so that we might start to hear and understand God’s will is in the midst of our pain.

Today, we have the opportunity to pray for one another. We have the opportunity to bring our prayers and concerns, our hurts and pains and to place them in God’s hands.

May we be the answer to another’s prayers. May we look for God to work in unexpected people and places. And may we listen as much as we speak so that we can understand God’s healing presence in our own lives.

Amen.