"DOUBTERS ARE BELIEVERS"
JOHN 20:19-31
HAVE YOU EVER HAD SOMEONE REFER TO YOU AS A "DOUBTING THOMAS" OR HAVE THEM CHALLENGE SOMETHING YOU ARE TELLING ABOUT BY REQUESTING THAT YOU "SHOW ME"? BOTH PHRASES HAVE THEIR ROOTS IN THIS GOSPEL STORY ACCORDING TO JOHN. THE DISCIPLE THOMAS WASN'T GOING TO ACCEPT SOMETHING JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE ELSE SAID IT WAS SO.
YEARS AGO I HAD TO MEMORIZE FOR THE GOD AND COUNTRY AWARD ANOTHER PASSAGE OF SCRIPTURE WHICH HAD THOMAS AS ONE OF THE KEY PLAYERS. IN JOHN 14 JOHN HAS JESUS AND THE DISCIPLES HAVING ANOTHER ONE OF THEIR SUPPERS. "IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE ARE MANY MANSIONS: IF IT WERE NOT SO ... " - YOU ALL REMEMBER THE STORY? AND JESUS WENT ON WITH: "AND YOU KNOW THE WAY THAT I AM GOING." THIS IS ONE OF THOSE TIMES WHEN I APPRECIATE THOMAS - WHEN I SENSE HOW MUCH LIKE THOMAS I AM.
NOBODY ELSE BREATHED A WORD - THOMAS SPEAKS ON BEHALF OF ALL OF US WHO DON'T REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT HAS JUST BEEN SAID, "UH, EXCUSE ME, LORD. WOULD YOU GO OVER THAT AGAIN FOR ME? I REALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS TALK ABOUT YOUR GOING SOMEWHERE. I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA WHERE YOU ARE GOING AND I CERTAINLY DON'T KNOW THE WAY."
IF THOMAS DIDN'T UNDERSTAND SOMETHING, HE WASN'T GOING TO PRETEND HE DID. HE WASN'T AFRAID OF APPEARING DUMB. HE HAD NO INKLING THAT HIS QUESTIONING/DOUBTING/CHALLENGING MIGHT REFLECT THE NOTION OF FAITHLESS. HE WASN'T GOING TO ACCEPT SOMETHING AS TRUTH JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE ELSE - EVEN PEOPLE HE ADMIRED AND RESPECTED - TOLD HIM IT WAS. "IT MAY BE YOUR TRUTH BUT I'VE GOT TO FIND OUT FOR MYSELF IF IT'S MINE." IT'S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THOUGH THAT HIS PURPOSE FOR DOUBTING WAS NOT TO DENY THE TRUTH OR THE FAITH, BUT TO GROW IN THE FAITH - TO UNDERSTAND IT SO THAT HE COULD CLAIM IT AS HIS OWN.
WELL, WE'RE A LITTLE BIT AHEAD OF THE STORY. THERE'S A WHOLE LOT MORE THAT HAPPENS IN THIS STORY LEADING UP TO THOMAS' EXPRESSION OF DOUBT AND FAITH.
SOMETIME BACK, FORMER TALK SHOW HOST JOHNNY CARSON VISITED HARVARD UNIVERSITY TO RECEIVE AN AWARD. AFTER THE CEREMONY HE AGREED TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PRESS. ONE REPORTER ASKED, "WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE INSCRIBED ON YOUR TOMBSTONE?" CARSON THOUGHT FOR JUST A SECOND, THEN HE ANSWERED WITH THE WORDS HE USED BEFORE EVERY COMMERCIAL BREAK ON HIS TELEVISION SHOW. "I'LL BE RIGHT BACK." (1)
JESUS HAD BEEN TRYING TO TELL THE DISCIPLES THAT HIS DEATH WASN'T GOING TO BE THE END OF THE WORLD - THAT HE WAS GOING TO ".. BE RIGHT BACK .. " - BUT THEY NEVER QUITE GOT IT. AND SO ON THE EVENING OF THE SAME DAY - ON THE EVENING OF EASTER SUNDAY - DESPITE WHAT MARY MAGDALENE HAD REPORTED TO THEM ABOUT HER ENCOUNTER WITH THE RISEN JESUS - THE DISCIPLES ARE IN HIDING - THEY ARE BEHIND LOCKED DOORS - PERHAPS THE SHADES ARE EVEN DRAWN - THEY HAVE HEARD THE REPORTS AND THEY ARE AFRAID - THEY FEARED THE HATRED AND HOSTILITY OF THOSE WHO DESTROYED JESUS - EVEN IF THEY BELIEVED MARY'S TESTIMONY, THEY STILL BELIEVED THAT "LYING LOW" WAS THEIR BEST STRATEGY. THEY WERE PROBABLY SPEAKING IN MUFFLED TONES TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OUT OF WHAT HAD HAPPENED. EVERY TIME THEY HEARD A NOISE THEY THOUGHT THAT SOMEONE WAS COMING TO TAKE THEM AWAY TO PRISON OR WORSE.
IT REMINDS ME OF A FOOTBALL STORY. PENN STATE AND MIAMI WERE COMPETING FOR THE NATIONAL TITLE IN THE FIESTA BOWL. SOME MAY REMEMBER THAT PENN STATE EKED OUT A 14-10 VICTORY THAT INCLUDED A NAIL-BITING GOAL-LINE STAND IN THE CLOSING MINUTES OF THE GAME. SOMEHOW, PENN STATE'S STUBBORN DEFENSE MANAGED TO HOLD OFF MIAMI'S TALENTED QUARTERBACK, VINNY TESTAVERDE, ONE LAST TIME TO THWART THE HURRICANES' FINAL DESPERATE EFFORT TO PULL OUT THE VICTORY.
IN THE FRENZIED JUBILATION FOLLOWING THE FINAL GUN, TV CAMERAS ZEROED IN ON VARIOUS PLAYERS, INCLUDING ONE OF PENN STATE'S ALL-AMERICAN LINEBACKERS. HE CREDITED PENN STATE'S HARD-HITTING DEFENSIVE BACKS WITH THE VICTORY. "MIAMI'S RECEIVERS JUST DIDN'T WANT TO CATCH THE BALL," HE SAID. "THEY HEARD FOOTSTEPS ALL NIGHT LONG, AND THEY JUST DIDN'T WANT TO GET HIT." (2)
I GUESS WE COULD SAY THE DISCIPLES WERE HEARING FOOTSTEPS. THEY WERE FRIGHTENED. BUT THEN, SUDDENLY, OUT OF NOWHERE - DEMONSTRATING THAT HIS RESURRECTED FORM WAS NOT SIMPLY HIS OLD HUMAN BODY REANIMATED - JESUS SUDDENLY APPEARS IN THEIR MIDST - HE STOOD AMONG THEM - AND HE SAID "PEACE BE WITH YOU."
NOW, MY GUESS IS THAT THEIR RESPONSE WAS ANYTHING BUT PEACEFUL - NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHERE THEY WERE HIDING - HOW DID JESUS FIND THEM? AND HOW DID HE ENTER WITHOUT USING THE DOOR? THE DISCIPLES WERE ANXIOUS - THEY WERE AFRAID - THEY WERE UNCERTAIN - YET, HERE WAS THE MASTER RIGHT IN THEIR MIDST - ECHOING HIS WORDS AT THE LAST SUPPER - OFFERING THEM THE GREETING THEY LONGED TO HEAR: "PEACE BE WITH YOU." AND THEN HE SHOWED THEM HIS HANDS AND SIDE - THE PLACES WHERE THEY HAD LET HIM HAVE IT - AND THEY FINALLY KNEW THAT THIS WAS THE MASTER. AND THEY REJOICED BECAUSE NOW THEY TOO BELIEVED THAT THEIR MASTER WAS ALIVE AND THEY NEED NOT FEAR ANYMORE!
THEIR REJOICING WAS SHORT LIVED HOWEVER, BECAUSE WHEN JESUS AGAIN SAID TO THEM, "PEACE BE WITH YOU" HE ADDED, "AS MY FATHER SENT ME, EVEN SO I SEND YOU." HE WAS COMMISSIONING THEM TO CONTINUE THE WORK THAT HE HAD BEEN DOING. JOHN GOES ON IN HIS ACCOUNT AND TELLS HOW HE BREATHED ON THEM AND SAID, "RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT." "I KNOW THAT WHAT I AM TELLING YOU TO DO WILL TAKE MORE THAN THE PEACE I HAVE OFFERED YOU. HERE THEN IS ALSO THE POWER I PROMISED YOU - THE HOLY SPIRIT." AND HE BREATHED ON THEM - HE UNLEASHED THE HOLY SPIRIT INTO THEIR LIVES. HE ENDS THIS EMPOWERMENT TRAINING SESSION BY TELLING THEM WHAT THIS BEING SENT AND RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT MEANS. "YOU HAVE THE POWER TO FORGIVE SINS."
YOU SEE, THE PURPOSE OF THE RESURRECTION WASN'T JUST TO RELIEVE THEM OF THEIR FEARS OR TO ASSURE THEM OF THEIR ETERNAL LIFE BUT TO EMPOWER THEM FOR THE CONTINUATION OF CHRIST'S MINISTRY - TO SEND THEM INTO THE WORLD TO UNLOCK THE DOORS OF FAITH FOR OTHERS - AND HOW WERE THEY TO DO THAT? - BY FORGIVING SINS - BY LETTING PEOPLE KNOW THERE WAS RELIEF FROM THE GUILT THAT ENSLAVED THEM TO THEIR PAST MISTAKES - FORGIVENESS - IT IS OURS TO HAVE BUT IT IS ALSO OURS TO GIVE. OUR RESURRECTION INSTRUCTIONS ARE THAT WE OUGHT TO BE ABOUT THE TASK OF OFFERING TO GOD'S PEOPLE THE HEALING POWER - THE WORD OF FORGIVENESS. JESUS IS LIKE A COACH - "NOW GET OUT THERE AND FORGIVE THOSE SINS!"
NOW, THOMAS WAS NOT WITH THEM WHEN ALL THIS REVEALING AND INSTRUCTING WAS TAKING PLACE. WE'RE NOT REALLY SURE WHERE HE WAS - ONE COMMENTATOR, WITH TONGUE IN CHEEK I'M SURE, SUGGESTED THAT MAYBE HE WAS OUT HAVING A CUP OF COFFEE OR STROLLING THROUGH A NEARBY PARK WATCHING PIGEONS.
THE EXPLANATION I LIKE THE MOST IS THAT THOMAS MIGHT HAVE BEEN ONE OF THOSE PERSONS WHO FELT MORE COMFORTABLE DEALING WITH STRESS - WITH DIFFICULTIES - ALONE. ONE OF THE THINGS I LIKE TO REMIND FAMILIES OF DURING THEIR DAYS OF GRIEF IS THAT ALL OF US HANDLE GRIEF DIFFERENTLY. SOME NEED TO BE AROUND OTHER PEOPLE, SOME NEED TO CRY MORE TEARS, SOME NEED A TIME OF ANGER, SOME NEED TO LAUGH - BUT SOME NEED TO BE OFF ALONE - AND THAT'S OK TOO. THOMAS COULD HAVE BEEN SUCH A PERSON - HE COULD HAVE BEEN SO BROKEN UP THAT HE COULD NOT FACE THE EYES OF ANYONE ELSE.
NOW, DESPITE WHAT I HAVE JUST SAID, THAT IT IS OK AT TIMES TO SUFFER ALONE - THAT EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO GRIEVE IN THEIR OWN WAY - I DO THINK THERE IS A SPECIAL KIND OF HEALING TAKES PLACE WHEN WE SHARE OUR GRIEF - OUR SORROW - WITH THOSE WE LOVE AND WHO LOVE US. WHEN WE WITHDRAW FROM THE CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP WE CUT OURSELVES OFF FROM ONE OF THE PRIMARY SOURCES OF SUPPORT AND THUS HEALING. ONE COMMENTATOR DESCRIBED IT THIS WAY: "WE MISS A GREAT DEAL WHEN WE SEPARATE OURSELVES FROM THE CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, AND WHEN WE TRY TO BE ALONE. WHEN SORROW COMES TO US, AND WHEN SADNESS ENVELOPES US, WE OFTEN TEND TO SHUT OURSELVES UP AND REFUSE TO MEET PEOPLE. THAT IS THE VERY TIME WHEN, IN SPITE OF OUR SORROW, WE SHOULD SEEK THE FELLOWSHIP OF CHRIST'S PEOPLE, FOR IT IS THERE THAT WE ARE LIKELIEST OF ALL TO MEET HIM FACE TO FACE." (3) FOR WHATEVER REASON, THOMAS WASN'T WITH HIS FRIENDS THAT FIRST EASTER EVENING WHEN JESUS APPEARED AND HE MISSED OUT ON THE HEALING THEIR BEING TOGETHER WITH THE RISEN LORD PROVIDED.
WHEN HE RETURNED THEY ALL TOLD HIM WHAT HE MISSED. ON THE ONE HAND, THEY WEREN'T SURPRISED BY HIS REACTION. "UNLESS JESUS COMES BACK AGAIN AND SHOWS ME THE NAIL MARKS AND LETS ME TOUCH THEM, I'M AFRAID I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU. I THINK YOUR VISION IS THE PRODUCT OF WISHFUL THINKING OR SOME OPTICAL ILLUSION."
ON THE OTHER HAND, THEY HAD TO BE A LITTLE DISCOURAGED THAT EVEN WITH THEIR NEW INSTRUCTIONS AND POWER THEY FAIL AT THEIR FIRST ATTEMPT AT WITNESSING ABOUT THE RISEN CHRIST. THOMAS IS EVEN MORE STUBBORN THAN THEY EXPECTED. SOME SUGGEST THAT HIS RESPONSE IS ACTUALLY EVEN MORE NEGATIVE THAN MOST OF THE TRANSLATIONS PRESENT IT. THEY SUGGEST THE MORE ACCURATE AND ABRASIVE PHRASES MIGHT BE MORE LIKE: FOR "PUT MY FINGER" WE MIGHT WANT TO PICTURE SOMETHING MORE LIKE "JAB". AND WHEN HE INSISTS THAT HE "WILL NOT BELIEVE" - IT ACTUALLY MIGHT HAVE BEEN EVEN MORE EMPHATIC, LIKE - "I WILL NEVER BELIEVE".
NOW, ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I THINK IS SIGNIFICANT ABOUT THIS PASSAGE'S INCLUSION IN OUR HOLY SCRIPTURES IS THAT OUR EARLY GATHERERS OF THE STORIES OF THE FAITH FELT THIS WAS AN IMPORTANT ACCOUNT. I THINK THEY KNEW THAT IN THE FUTURE THERE WOULD BE OTHERS WHO WOULD HAVE DIFFICULTY ACCEPTING THE DESCRIPTION OF THE RESURRECTION AND THEY WANTED TO SAY THAT THAT WAS OK - THAT THERE WAS A PLACE IN THE KINGDOM FOR THOSE WHO STRUGGLED - THOSE WHO NEEDED MORE THAN SOMEONE ELSE'S ACCOUNTING - THOSE WHO DOUBTED. I HAD ONE PROFESSOR PHRASE IT THIS WAY: "DOUBTS ARE THE ANTS IN THE PANTS OF FAITH." WHAT HE MEANT WAS THAT OUR DOUBTS - OUR QUESTIONS - OUR CHALLENGES HELP KEEP OUR FAITH ALIVE AND MOVING AND VITAL. FAITH IS BELIEVING IN THE MIDST OF OUR DOUBTING. WHEN THE POSSIBILITY OF DOUBT, OF QUESTIONING, OF SEARCHING IS GONE - WE ARE NOT LEFT WITH FAITH BUT WITH THE RISK OF STAGNATION.
THERE'S A MOVEMENT IN SOME RELIGIOUS CIRCLES TO ALLOW A SELECT FEW TO DO THE THINKING FOR THE GROUP. "DON'T GIVE DOUBT ANY ROOM IN YOUR LIFE WHEN IT COMES TO RELIGIOUS MATTERS - DOUBTS ARE THE WORK OF THE DEVIL - LISTEN TO ME." BELIEVING SOMETHING TO BE TRUE JUST BECAUSE GRANDMA RUTH OR AUNT JANE OR REV. MICAH SAYS IT IS SO IS DANGEROUS. THE DANGER OF CULTS, OF TV PREACHERS AND MANY OF THE REST OF US PREACHERS - IS THAT WE THINK OUR ANSWERS SHOULD BE EVERYONE ELSE'S ANSWERS. "THE WAY TO GOD IS FOR YOU TO ACCEPT WHAT GOD HAS TO SAY TO YOU AND LET ME TELL YOU WHAT IT IS GOD IS SAYING. LET ME INTERPRET THE SCRIPTURES FOR YOU." WE NEED TO TEACH PEOPLE HOW TO THINK CRITICALLY - TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES - TO THEOLOGIZE - TO QUESTION - NOT TO BECOME DEVOTEES OF THE LATEST POPULAR BUZZ RELIGIOUS PHENOMENON. THERE'S NO QUESTION THAT WE ALL NEED SOME EARLY GUIDANCE - SOME PARAMETERS OF THE FAITH - BUT WE DO OURSELVES A GREAT DISSERVICE IF WE SPEND MOST OF OUR TIME GIVING PEOPLE ANSWERS AND ASKING THEM TO REGURGITATE THEM RATHER THAN TEACHING THEM TO THINK AND TO SEARCH.
MANY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE NUMBERS THAT FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCHES AND PARA CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS AND TV EVANGELISTS DRAW AND THEIR CLAIM THAT IT'S BECAUSE THESE GROUPS ARE RIGHT. I DON'T THINK THAT'S TRUE AT ALL. I THINK THEY ARE PROVIDING ANSWERS FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT BEEN TAUGHT HOW TO EXAMINE RELIGIOUS ISSUES. TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE MISREADING CONFIDENCE IN ONE'S BELIEF AS AUTHENTIC FAITH. AND THAT'S SIMPLY NOT HISTORICALLY TRUE.
DO YOU KNOW WHO THE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE PEOPLE ARE TO THE ADVANCES OF THE CULTS? ACCORDING TO JOHNCOOPER, A PROFESSOR AT WINEBRENNER SEMINARY BACK IN THE SEVENTIES AND AUTHOR OF "NOT FOR A MILLION DOLLARS," IT IS THOSE WHO WERE RAISED IN DOGMATIC CHURCHES AND HOMES WHERE THEY WERE TAUGHT (DARE WE IMPLY DOGMATICALLY) WHAT TO BELIEVE. (4) WHAT HAPPENS, ACCORDING TO HIS RESEARCH, IS WHEN THEY GET AWAY FROM PREACHER BOB OR MOM AND DAD AND THEY ARE ASKED WHAT THEY BELIEVE OR SOMEONE CHALLENGES ONE OF THEIR BELIEFS THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO OR SAY AND SO THE FIRST TIME SOMEONE COMES UP TO THEM AND REASSURES THEM THAT THEY ARE A PART OF A CHRISTIAN GROUP THAT BELIEVES IN THE BIBLE AND THE TRUTH AND OFFERS THEM A LOT OF ANSWERS AND LOVE - THEY ARE HOOKED. THEY HAVE REPLACED ONE DEPENDENT RELATIONSHIP FOR ANOTHER AND THEY THINK THAT THE NARROWER THEY BECOME - THE SAFER THEY ARE - AND THE CLOSER TO THE TRUTH THEY MUST BE.
NOT THOMAS. THOMAS ABSOLUTELY REFUSES TO SAY THAT HE BELIEVES WHEN HE DOES NOT BELIEVE. HE WOULD NEVER SAY THAT HE UNDERSTANDS WHAT HE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND. THOMAS WOULD NEVER STILL HIS DOUBTS BY PRETENDING THAT THEY DON'T EXIST. THOMAS WAS NOT THE KIND OF MAN WHO WOULD RATTLE OFF A CREED WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WHAT IT WAS ALL ABOUT. TENNYSON ONCE WROTE:
"THERE LIVES MORE FAITH IN HONEST DOUBT,
BELIEVE ME THAN IN HALF THE CREEDS."
THERE IS GREATER POTENTIAL FOR FAITH IN PERSONS WHO INSIST ON BEING SURE THAN IN PERSONS WHO GLIBLY REPEAT THINGS WHICH THEY HAVE NEVER THOUGHT OUT AND WHICH THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHETHER THEY BELIEVE OR NOT.
SO, A WHOLE WEEK GOES BY WITH THOMAS STRUGGLING WITH THE STORIES OF HIS FRIENDS. NOTICE THAT THEY MUST HAVE STAYED IN TOUCH WITH ONE ANOTHER - THEY DIDN'T RUN OFF AND START A NEW CONGREGATION OR AVOID ONE ANOTHER BECAUSE THEY WERE AT DIFFERENT PLACES IN THEIR ACCEPTANCE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE FAITH. JUST BECAUSE THOMAS DIDN'T BELIEVE EXACTLY AS THEY DID, THE OTHER DISCIPLES DIDN'T EXCLUDE HIM FROM THEIR FELLOWSHIP. RATHER, HE WAS ALLOWED TO VOICE HIS DOUBTS WITHIN THE FAITH COMMUNITY.
AND WHAT HAPPENED? HOW DID JESUS HANDLE THOSE WHO DOUBTED? CAST THEM OUT OF THE CHURCH? CHARGE THEM WITH HERESY? EXCOMMUNICATION? DID HE GIVE UP ON HIM? NO! HE CAME AGAIN AND HE STOOD AMONG THE DISCIPLES AND HE GREETED THEM WITH "PEACE BE WITH YOU". THEN HE TURNED TO THE DOUBTER AND HE SAID: "THOMAS, PUT YOUR FINGER HERE; SEE MY HANDS. REACH OUT YOUR HAND AND PUT IT INTO MY SIDE. STOP DOUBTING AND BELIEVE."
THOUGH IT'S NOT SPECIFICALLY MENTIONED, THERE APPEARS NOT TO BE ANY ATTEMPT ON THOMAS' PART TO TAKE JESUS UP ON HIS INVITATION TO FINGER HIS WOUNDS. INSTEAD, HE PROCLAIMS THIS UNQUALIFIED CONFESSION OF FAITH: "MY LORD AND MY GOD!"
THOMAS CAME TO BELIEF - TO FAITH - THROUGH HIS DOUBTS. FAITH AND DOUBTS ARE NOT OPPOSITES - BUT DIFFERENT SIDES OF THE SAME COIN OF BELIEF. CHRIST INVITED THOMAS TO HAVE THE VERY EXPERIENCE WHICH IN HIS DOUBT HE DEMANDED. THOMAS' DOUBTS PREPARED THE WAY FOR HIS RECOGNITION THAT JESUS IS GOD. BUT JOHN PUSHES US EVEN FURTHER BY SPEAKING OF THE BLESSEDNESS OF FAITH WITHOUT SEEING.
PRAYER: O LORD OF US ALL, WE KNOW WE ARE RELATED TO THOMAS - THANK YOU FOR GIVING US SPACE TO GROW. USE OUR QUESTIONS LORD TO STRENGTHEN OUR FAITH. REVEAL UNTO US THAT WHICH WE NEED TO BELIEVE YOU ARE RISEN FOR US. AMEN.
1. King Duncan, "Unlocking the Doors," sermons.com.
2. Being the Best, (New York: Pocket Books, 1987). p. 157.
3. William Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of John, Volume Two (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 2001), ebooks.
4.. John Cooper, Not For a Million Dollars (Impact Books, 1980).
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Sunday, April 27, 2014
"Serenity House"
"Serenity House"
Serenity House was the name we chose for the coffeehouse a couple of us decided to make available in Ottawa in the summer of "68." It had a short, one-summer lifespan. As I remember it, Horse and I were the primary owners with lots of help from "Big Dave" and Mud and some others as their political persuasions allowed (nicknames intentionally used to mask the identity of those involved except for those who knew us best by those names). There's no doubt in my mind we worked a lot harder getting the first floor of the old Gulker building presentable for business than we did the whole rest of the summer! (Let me clarify alittle. I was referenciung the work at the coffeehouse - I worked third shift at Sylvania also: first unloading the tubes from the ovens, then salvage)! The only reason we were ever able to open was because of Big Dave's construction knowledge and work ethic!
Several of our views about the world experienced some tweeking during our just completed first year in college. We thought differently about race relations and the Viet Nam war and the plight of the migrant worker and authority and religion and .... a lot of other stuff. Our primary intent for opening the coffeehouse was to provide a safe place for people to exchange ideas over the summer. The warm and soft light from candles sat on the card tables we had borrowed from our homes and picked up at garage sales. We were going for a sense of sereneness.
Well, while there was plenty of conversing, poetry reading, folk singing and political discussions that went on around the candles in the coffeehouse we observed that there wasn't always an atmosphere of serenity created as a result. We'd been warned by our more seasoned friends at school and had been part of such scenes on and off campus ourselves. So, we weren't all that surprised or disappointed with what happened inside the Serenity House.
No, our real disappointment and pain was the result of the reaction outside the walls of the Gulker building. It was rumored that we had prostitutes on the second floor and the coffeehouse was just a front. The truth being we had only ventured up there once and refused to go up there again because of the amount of pigeon poop all over - think of Bill Cosby's comment to God by Noah for a picture of the reality: "Have you looked in the bottom of the ark, Lord? Seriously, who's going to clean that up?! Not me, no siree!!"
It was also rumored that we sold drugs - I guess because I had longer hair than when I graduated and the popular image of what people associate with coffee houses. The only things we sold were snacks, coffee, and flavored teas. We've been teased over the years about our unique Lifesaver flavored teas!
Probably the thing that disturbed me the most though was that some guys who had returned from Nam were commenting on what they would do to me if they met me on the streets. One of them was engaged to one of my friends, a friend since the first grade. I wanted to meet with him. More than one friend suggested that I not pursue it - that it would only heighten the tension. My desire to meet with him was not to try and discuss our positions about war but to reassure him that my attitudes and ideas were based on political and religious beliefs and not a criticism of military personnell who risked their lives for the nation and for all of us. I wanted to make a case for being able to have differing points of view and to do so civilly. I wanted to make a friend, not an enemy; build bridges, not destroy them. Our paths never did cross that summer nor have they in the years since.
It was a long, hot summer. I was supposed to gain 20 lbs. for football that summer. I drank a banana milkshake from Tony's every day! I also worked the ovens at Sylvania and worked out every day and got very little sleep, I returned to football practise at ONU two lbs. heavier!
It was not a wasted summer by any means though. I learned a lot about myself and other people. It was another one of those stepping stones that helped clarify my call to ordained ministry and shape some of the tenets that would guide me in that ministry. I'm not sure I could have vocalized it then, but it certainly influenced adjusting my way of dealing with my beliefs and those of others. At some point along the way thoose early years I decided that my role was not to convince people of the rightness of my way of thinking - religious, politics, or whatever - but, a desire to be more open to exploring with others their ideas, opinions, dreams, and hopes with the intent that they develop their own path through life. And yes, that meant some chose atheism (I have a real problem with fellow Christians who choose to make jokes about the serious-minded ones it's been my honor to count among my friends), some are racist, some are republicans, some are Steeler fans, some are conservative, some are liberal, some blame the poor for all the problems in our world and specifically our country, some blame the same on the rich, etc.
Have I been true to that principle 100% of the time? No, I'm as hypocritical at times as all of us. But, I don't want to be. In fact, I think I need to attempt to refriend someone on Facebook I defriended a few weeks ago!
Bye! Oh, and it wasn't the most serene summer of my life!
Serenity House was the name we chose for the coffeehouse a couple of us decided to make available in Ottawa in the summer of "68." It had a short, one-summer lifespan. As I remember it, Horse and I were the primary owners with lots of help from "Big Dave" and Mud and some others as their political persuasions allowed (nicknames intentionally used to mask the identity of those involved except for those who knew us best by those names). There's no doubt in my mind we worked a lot harder getting the first floor of the old Gulker building presentable for business than we did the whole rest of the summer! (Let me clarify alittle. I was referenciung the work at the coffeehouse - I worked third shift at Sylvania also: first unloading the tubes from the ovens, then salvage)! The only reason we were ever able to open was because of Big Dave's construction knowledge and work ethic!
Several of our views about the world experienced some tweeking during our just completed first year in college. We thought differently about race relations and the Viet Nam war and the plight of the migrant worker and authority and religion and .... a lot of other stuff. Our primary intent for opening the coffeehouse was to provide a safe place for people to exchange ideas over the summer. The warm and soft light from candles sat on the card tables we had borrowed from our homes and picked up at garage sales. We were going for a sense of sereneness.
Well, while there was plenty of conversing, poetry reading, folk singing and political discussions that went on around the candles in the coffeehouse we observed that there wasn't always an atmosphere of serenity created as a result. We'd been warned by our more seasoned friends at school and had been part of such scenes on and off campus ourselves. So, we weren't all that surprised or disappointed with what happened inside the Serenity House.
No, our real disappointment and pain was the result of the reaction outside the walls of the Gulker building. It was rumored that we had prostitutes on the second floor and the coffeehouse was just a front. The truth being we had only ventured up there once and refused to go up there again because of the amount of pigeon poop all over - think of Bill Cosby's comment to God by Noah for a picture of the reality: "Have you looked in the bottom of the ark, Lord? Seriously, who's going to clean that up?! Not me, no siree!!"
It was also rumored that we sold drugs - I guess because I had longer hair than when I graduated and the popular image of what people associate with coffee houses. The only things we sold were snacks, coffee, and flavored teas. We've been teased over the years about our unique Lifesaver flavored teas!
Probably the thing that disturbed me the most though was that some guys who had returned from Nam were commenting on what they would do to me if they met me on the streets. One of them was engaged to one of my friends, a friend since the first grade. I wanted to meet with him. More than one friend suggested that I not pursue it - that it would only heighten the tension. My desire to meet with him was not to try and discuss our positions about war but to reassure him that my attitudes and ideas were based on political and religious beliefs and not a criticism of military personnell who risked their lives for the nation and for all of us. I wanted to make a case for being able to have differing points of view and to do so civilly. I wanted to make a friend, not an enemy; build bridges, not destroy them. Our paths never did cross that summer nor have they in the years since.
It was a long, hot summer. I was supposed to gain 20 lbs. for football that summer. I drank a banana milkshake from Tony's every day! I also worked the ovens at Sylvania and worked out every day and got very little sleep, I returned to football practise at ONU two lbs. heavier!
It was not a wasted summer by any means though. I learned a lot about myself and other people. It was another one of those stepping stones that helped clarify my call to ordained ministry and shape some of the tenets that would guide me in that ministry. I'm not sure I could have vocalized it then, but it certainly influenced adjusting my way of dealing with my beliefs and those of others. At some point along the way thoose early years I decided that my role was not to convince people of the rightness of my way of thinking - religious, politics, or whatever - but, a desire to be more open to exploring with others their ideas, opinions, dreams, and hopes with the intent that they develop their own path through life. And yes, that meant some chose atheism (I have a real problem with fellow Christians who choose to make jokes about the serious-minded ones it's been my honor to count among my friends), some are racist, some are republicans, some are Steeler fans, some are conservative, some are liberal, some blame the poor for all the problems in our world and specifically our country, some blame the same on the rich, etc.
Have I been true to that principle 100% of the time? No, I'm as hypocritical at times as all of us. But, I don't want to be. In fact, I think I need to attempt to refriend someone on Facebook I defriended a few weeks ago!
Bye! Oh, and it wasn't the most serene summer of my life!
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
2014 ALS Advocacy Letter Info
Dear Family and Friends,
Most of you are aware that due to a drug interaction I had to cancel going to Washington D.C. last May for the 2013 National ALS Advocacy Conference. Fortunately, we were able to deliver 380 letters from many of you to both Senator Rob Portman and Senator Sherrod Brown (and to other senators because of friends all over the U.S.) by dropping them off to The ALS Association's Central & Southern Ohio Chapter's executive director, Marlin Seymour, the night before her departure. We've been informed it left quite an impression.
Well, Dorothy and I have been given a second chance to share our story with our senators! We've again been invited to attend this year's event representing the area ALS Chapter. We worked out the kinks for traveling with our trip to Florida in February and with the help of Jeremy & Megan, our children, are going to make it happen this year. We believe we represent many voices when we go and we want to properly represent yours by delivering another stack of letters to our senators!
To that purpose the third page of this email is a form letter written by the national office seeking to change a very important decision that was made by CMS to no longer purchase speech generating devices and changing to a per month rental (you can read about the concerns this raises for those of us who depend on such equipment in the letter). If you only have time to sign two letters to Portman and Brown, that's fine. Feel free to email them back to me at bcroy22@gmail.com, or snail mail them to me at 2700 Unbridled Ct., Powell, Ohio, 43065. PLEASE RETURN THEM TO ME BY SUNDAY, MAY 4!
Now, a good friend of ours who has quite a bit of experience with lobbying efforts shared with us recently that letters are even more effective if there are some words different in each letter. The second page of this email is what we are going to send as an example. If you have the time and are willing, we invite you to consider doing this. At the very bottom of this email is a short note from Marlin in response to my questioning if this effort is worth it.
Again, we cannot thank you enough for your support in all of our advocacy efforts! Feel free to forward to your family and friends as well. (Oh, my apologies if you are the recipient of more than one email. I combined numerous lists I have compiled and while I tried to catch duplications, I'm sure I missed many.)
We love and appreciate you all,
Bill & Dorothy Croy
Dear Senator Rob Portman, Dear Senator Sherrod Brown, (two separate letters!)
I'm very concerned about the decision, effective April1, made by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) changing the manner in which it pays for speech generating devices (SGDs). This decision potentially took away the voices of thousands of people living with Lou Gehrig’s Disease who rely on SGDs to communicate. I was fortunate enough to have needed mine over a year ago and cannot begin to tell you how vital it has been for communicating with others for my caregiving, staying in touch with people, and developing a blog about my journey as a form of personal advocacy. My blog is "Giving Wings to Thoughts": http://wcroy22.blogspot.ca/.
As you may know, ALS is a fatal neurological disease that robs people of the ability to control their muscles. They lose the ability to walk, use their hands and arms and ultimately the ability to breathe. The disease is fatal in an average of two to five years following diagnosis and there is no effective treatment available to slow or stop its progression. As the disease progresses, people often lose the ability to speak and therefore rely on SGDs for all of their communications needs. SGDs become a person’s window to the world. Without it, they are isolated and awake, trapped inside a body they cannot control and unable to communicate even a single word.
Under the change implemented by CMS in April, called “capped rental,” people with ALS who need SGDs will be required to rent them over a 13-month period, after which time they will own the device. Under the previous policy, people with ALS had the option to purchase SGDs up front, which is how over 99% of them obtained SGDs. While this switch may seem to be a minor change in policy, it may have significant impacts on patients. Those impacts include:
Access: If people have an extended hospital stay, are in hospice or a nursing facility while they are in the 13-month rental period, Medicare will not cover the rental fees. Instead, the device must be returned to the manufacturer while the patient either will have to obtain a new one from the hospital, hospice or nursing facility, or pay the entire monthly rental fee out-of-pocket. This will result in patients losing access to SGDs while they are institutionalized, during a time when their health is at the highest risk and when the devices are most needed to communicate with medical staff. These institutions and facilities do not have access to SGDs, are not funded to supply the devices and do not typically have staff experienced in providing SGDs. In addition, because SGDs are highly customized devices, designed and adjusted to meet the specific medical needs of each individual patient, they cannot readily be substituted with “off the shelf” technology.
Cost: People who rent SGDs for the full 13-month rental period will pay 5% more out-of-pocket than if they had purchased the device up front.
The ALS Association is working with Members of Congress to oppose this regulation and give a voice to people with ALS. I urge you to work with The Association in this fight. ALS robs people of so many things that most people take for granted. Please work with us to ensure that CMS polices do not also rob people of the ability to communicate. Please contact The ALS Association at advocacy@alsa-national.org if you would like to join this fight in support of your constituents living with ALS.
Sincerely,
Name: ________________________________________________________________
Street Address:________________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip:_______________________________________________________________
Email: ________________________________________________________________
Dear Senator Rob Portman, Dear Senator Sherrod Brown, (two separate letters!)
On April 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) changed the manner in which it pays for speech generating devices (SGDs) and in the process took away the voices of thousands of people living with Lou Gehrig’s Disease who rely on SGDs to communicate.
As you may know, ALS is a fatal neurological disease that robs people of the ability to control their muscles. They lose the ability to walk, use their hands and arms and ultimately the ability to breathe. The disease is fatal in an average of two to five years following diagnosis and there is no effective treatment available to slow or stop its progression. As the disease progresses, people often lose the ability to speak and therefore rely on SGDs for all of their communications needs. SGDs become a person’s window to the world. Without it, they are isolated and awake, trapped inside a body they cannot control and unable to communicate even a single word.
Under the change implemented by CMS in April, called “capped rental,” people with ALS who need SGDs will be required to rent them over a 13-month period, after which time they will own the device. Under the previous policy, people with ALS had the option to purchase SGDs up front, which is how over 99% of them obtained SGDs. While this switch may seem to be a minor change in policy, it may have significant impacts on patients. Those impacts include:
Access: If people have an extended hospital stay, are in hospice or a nursing facility while they are in the 13-month rental period, Medicare will not cover the rental fees. Instead, the device must be returned to the manufacturer while the patient either will have to obtain a new one from the hospital, hospice or nursing facility, or pay the entire monthly rental fee out-of-pocket. This will result in patients losing access to SGDs while they are institutionalized, during a time when their health is at the highest risk and when the devices are most needed to communicate with medical staff. These institutions and facilities do not have access to SGDs, are not funded to supply the devices and do not typically have staff experienced in providing SGDs. In addition, because SGDs are highly customized devices, designed and adjusted to meet the specific medical needs of each individual patient, they cannot readily be substituted with “off the shelf” technology.
Cost: People who rent SGDs for the full 13-month rental period will pay 5% more out-of-pocket than if they had purchased the device up front.
The ALS Association is working with Members of Congress to oppose this regulation and give a voice to people with ALS. I urge you to work with The Association in this fight. ALS robs people of so many things that most people take for granted. Please work with us to ensure that CMS polices do not also rob people of the ability to communicate. Please contact The ALS Association at advocacy@alsa-national.org if you would like to join this fight in support of your constituents living with ALS.
Sincerely,
Name: ________________________________________________________________
Street Address:________________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip:_______________________________________________________________
Email: ________________________________________________________________
Bill, I have seen letters have a tremendous positive effect on Members and their staff and particularly if we can walk in and physically HAND a stack of letters directly to them at the meeting -- I think it is worth it.
Regarding wording, yes, I would agree that having different wording would be the best. However, I've seen the process slowed down greatly or letters never written, if it takes too much time for someone to accomplish. I think it helps the "advocate" to not have to start with a "blank slate" so we like the idea of providing the "body" and then asking the writer to personalize the letter in at least one paragraph and to do it near the beginning of the letter. If they have limited time and you are trying to get the task out to the masses, this is the way to go. If it is a group that has more time available to them to write a compelling personal letter, all the better!
Thank you for taking this on - - my opinion is that it is definitely worth the effort.
I worked for my Member of Congress from TN on the Hill and I can tell you that we paid attention when someone walked in with a stack of letters on a particular issue and they were signed and had handwritten names and addresses included -- it was then a priority to be put before the Member to at least look at for consideration.
M.
Marlin K. Seymour
Executive Director
The ALS Association Central & Southern Ohio Chapter
1170 Old Henderson Road Ste 221
Columbus, Ohio 43220
Phone: 614-273-2572 ext. 102
Toll Free: 866-273-2572 ext. 102
Fax: 614.273.2573
mseymour@alsohio.org
Most of you are aware that due to a drug interaction I had to cancel going to Washington D.C. last May for the 2013 National ALS Advocacy Conference. Fortunately, we were able to deliver 380 letters from many of you to both Senator Rob Portman and Senator Sherrod Brown (and to other senators because of friends all over the U.S.) by dropping them off to The ALS Association's Central & Southern Ohio Chapter's executive director, Marlin Seymour, the night before her departure. We've been informed it left quite an impression.
Well, Dorothy and I have been given a second chance to share our story with our senators! We've again been invited to attend this year's event representing the area ALS Chapter. We worked out the kinks for traveling with our trip to Florida in February and with the help of Jeremy & Megan, our children, are going to make it happen this year. We believe we represent many voices when we go and we want to properly represent yours by delivering another stack of letters to our senators!
To that purpose the third page of this email is a form letter written by the national office seeking to change a very important decision that was made by CMS to no longer purchase speech generating devices and changing to a per month rental (you can read about the concerns this raises for those of us who depend on such equipment in the letter). If you only have time to sign two letters to Portman and Brown, that's fine. Feel free to email them back to me at bcroy22@gmail.com, or snail mail them to me at 2700 Unbridled Ct., Powell, Ohio, 43065. PLEASE RETURN THEM TO ME BY SUNDAY, MAY 4!
Now, a good friend of ours who has quite a bit of experience with lobbying efforts shared with us recently that letters are even more effective if there are some words different in each letter. The second page of this email is what we are going to send as an example. If you have the time and are willing, we invite you to consider doing this. At the very bottom of this email is a short note from Marlin in response to my questioning if this effort is worth it.
Again, we cannot thank you enough for your support in all of our advocacy efforts! Feel free to forward to your family and friends as well. (Oh, my apologies if you are the recipient of more than one email. I combined numerous lists I have compiled and while I tried to catch duplications, I'm sure I missed many.)
We love and appreciate you all,
Bill & Dorothy Croy
Dear Senator Rob Portman, Dear Senator Sherrod Brown, (two separate letters!)
I'm very concerned about the decision, effective April1, made by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) changing the manner in which it pays for speech generating devices (SGDs). This decision potentially took away the voices of thousands of people living with Lou Gehrig’s Disease who rely on SGDs to communicate. I was fortunate enough to have needed mine over a year ago and cannot begin to tell you how vital it has been for communicating with others for my caregiving, staying in touch with people, and developing a blog about my journey as a form of personal advocacy. My blog is "Giving Wings to Thoughts": http://wcroy22.blogspot.ca/.
As you may know, ALS is a fatal neurological disease that robs people of the ability to control their muscles. They lose the ability to walk, use their hands and arms and ultimately the ability to breathe. The disease is fatal in an average of two to five years following diagnosis and there is no effective treatment available to slow or stop its progression. As the disease progresses, people often lose the ability to speak and therefore rely on SGDs for all of their communications needs. SGDs become a person’s window to the world. Without it, they are isolated and awake, trapped inside a body they cannot control and unable to communicate even a single word.
Under the change implemented by CMS in April, called “capped rental,” people with ALS who need SGDs will be required to rent them over a 13-month period, after which time they will own the device. Under the previous policy, people with ALS had the option to purchase SGDs up front, which is how over 99% of them obtained SGDs. While this switch may seem to be a minor change in policy, it may have significant impacts on patients. Those impacts include:
Access: If people have an extended hospital stay, are in hospice or a nursing facility while they are in the 13-month rental period, Medicare will not cover the rental fees. Instead, the device must be returned to the manufacturer while the patient either will have to obtain a new one from the hospital, hospice or nursing facility, or pay the entire monthly rental fee out-of-pocket. This will result in patients losing access to SGDs while they are institutionalized, during a time when their health is at the highest risk and when the devices are most needed to communicate with medical staff. These institutions and facilities do not have access to SGDs, are not funded to supply the devices and do not typically have staff experienced in providing SGDs. In addition, because SGDs are highly customized devices, designed and adjusted to meet the specific medical needs of each individual patient, they cannot readily be substituted with “off the shelf” technology.
Cost: People who rent SGDs for the full 13-month rental period will pay 5% more out-of-pocket than if they had purchased the device up front.
The ALS Association is working with Members of Congress to oppose this regulation and give a voice to people with ALS. I urge you to work with The Association in this fight. ALS robs people of so many things that most people take for granted. Please work with us to ensure that CMS polices do not also rob people of the ability to communicate. Please contact The ALS Association at advocacy@alsa-national.org if you would like to join this fight in support of your constituents living with ALS.
Sincerely,
Name: ________________________________________________________________
Street Address:________________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip:_______________________________________________________________
Email: ________________________________________________________________
Dear Senator Rob Portman, Dear Senator Sherrod Brown, (two separate letters!)
On April 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) changed the manner in which it pays for speech generating devices (SGDs) and in the process took away the voices of thousands of people living with Lou Gehrig’s Disease who rely on SGDs to communicate.
As you may know, ALS is a fatal neurological disease that robs people of the ability to control their muscles. They lose the ability to walk, use their hands and arms and ultimately the ability to breathe. The disease is fatal in an average of two to five years following diagnosis and there is no effective treatment available to slow or stop its progression. As the disease progresses, people often lose the ability to speak and therefore rely on SGDs for all of their communications needs. SGDs become a person’s window to the world. Without it, they are isolated and awake, trapped inside a body they cannot control and unable to communicate even a single word.
Under the change implemented by CMS in April, called “capped rental,” people with ALS who need SGDs will be required to rent them over a 13-month period, after which time they will own the device. Under the previous policy, people with ALS had the option to purchase SGDs up front, which is how over 99% of them obtained SGDs. While this switch may seem to be a minor change in policy, it may have significant impacts on patients. Those impacts include:
Access: If people have an extended hospital stay, are in hospice or a nursing facility while they are in the 13-month rental period, Medicare will not cover the rental fees. Instead, the device must be returned to the manufacturer while the patient either will have to obtain a new one from the hospital, hospice or nursing facility, or pay the entire monthly rental fee out-of-pocket. This will result in patients losing access to SGDs while they are institutionalized, during a time when their health is at the highest risk and when the devices are most needed to communicate with medical staff. These institutions and facilities do not have access to SGDs, are not funded to supply the devices and do not typically have staff experienced in providing SGDs. In addition, because SGDs are highly customized devices, designed and adjusted to meet the specific medical needs of each individual patient, they cannot readily be substituted with “off the shelf” technology.
Cost: People who rent SGDs for the full 13-month rental period will pay 5% more out-of-pocket than if they had purchased the device up front.
The ALS Association is working with Members of Congress to oppose this regulation and give a voice to people with ALS. I urge you to work with The Association in this fight. ALS robs people of so many things that most people take for granted. Please work with us to ensure that CMS polices do not also rob people of the ability to communicate. Please contact The ALS Association at advocacy@alsa-national.org if you would like to join this fight in support of your constituents living with ALS.
Sincerely,
Name: ________________________________________________________________
Street Address:________________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip:_______________________________________________________________
Email: ________________________________________________________________
Bill, I have seen letters have a tremendous positive effect on Members and their staff and particularly if we can walk in and physically HAND a stack of letters directly to them at the meeting -- I think it is worth it.
Regarding wording, yes, I would agree that having different wording would be the best. However, I've seen the process slowed down greatly or letters never written, if it takes too much time for someone to accomplish. I think it helps the "advocate" to not have to start with a "blank slate" so we like the idea of providing the "body" and then asking the writer to personalize the letter in at least one paragraph and to do it near the beginning of the letter. If they have limited time and you are trying to get the task out to the masses, this is the way to go. If it is a group that has more time available to them to write a compelling personal letter, all the better!
Thank you for taking this on - - my opinion is that it is definitely worth the effort.
I worked for my Member of Congress from TN on the Hill and I can tell you that we paid attention when someone walked in with a stack of letters on a particular issue and they were signed and had handwritten names and addresses included -- it was then a priority to be put before the Member to at least look at for consideration.
M.
Marlin K. Seymour
Executive Director
The ALS Association Central & Southern Ohio Chapter
1170 Old Henderson Road Ste 221
Columbus, Ohio 43220
Phone: 614-273-2572 ext. 102
Toll Free: 866-273-2572 ext. 102
Fax: 614.273.2573
mseymour@alsohio.org
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
?SERMON?: "Tears and Cheers"
"Tears and Cheers"
John 11:32-44
Another one of the PALS from our ALS support group passed away recently. She was diagnosed about the same time I was. She and her husband are one of the couples we've known the longest dealing with this reality of being one who is continually getting worse physically and the one providing the caregiving. They were such a positive and supportive couple - open about their situation and able to both laugh and cry in the group.
She stopped coming to group maybe about two years ago. He continued to come by himself for awhile. They began to use the help of hospice and their experience was probably one of the most influential reasons we decided to do the same last fall - a decision we haven't regretted. We have stayed in touch as Facebook friends. They are also the ones who recommended that we contact the Liberty Township Fire Department when we moved to the Powell area because of the special needs program they have. We did and it's a fabulous asset to the community and to our sense of comfort and security.
Her visitation was on Wednesday night and funeral on Thursday. One of the limitations of ALS is I tire and there's simply no way we can go to everything we want to. Especially frustrating is not being able to go to all the visitations and funerals for former church members, relatives of friends, etc. Because the visitation was in nearby Mt. Sterling and despite not having one of my best weeks physically or emotionally - perhaps partially because of her somewhat surprising death, perhaps partially because of having numerous health care visits, perhaps .... who knows - we decided we wanted to give it a go.
A side benefit was the opportunity to drive on out to Deer Creek State Park and spend a few hours in one of our favorite Ohio lodge lobbies. For two hours we sat next to each other (I still was in my wheelchair), sipping our Diet Cokes (no Diet Pepsi available!), and read books on our iPads. The Deer Creek State Park lobby is so warm, inviting, and comfortable. It doesn't provide the greatest water hole to look at, but the lobby makes up for it. It also brought back several memories of church workshops and family outings.
And then it was time to drive back into Mt. Sterling for the visitation. We saw numerous deer on the drive which added to a really nice afternoon. When we arrived at the funeral home just a few minutes after the start of visitation, there was no place to park. Sure it's what happens in small towns, but I think it also had a lot to do with the very special woman she was and that her family is. There were tears and there was laughter as family and friends came to comfort and remember. That's what communities do - communities of faith, family and friends - we cry together and we celebrate the well-lived lives of our loved ones.
The 11th chapter of the Gospel of John records the story of an episode in the life of Jesus and his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. The three were siblings and close to one another as well as to Jesus. The only part of this lengthy and theologically inviting text I want to reference in this reflection is that verse often referenced in trivia games as the shortest verse in the Bible - "Jesus wept."
The two sisters had gone to Jesus to inform him that his friend and their brother, Lazarus, was not well. I guess Jesus didn't consider Lazarus' illness to be very serious because he took two more days finishing what he was doing. When they arrived in Bethany, the hometown of the trio, they were informed that Lazarus had been dead for four days and stunk. All of the siblings' friends were grieving with Mary and Martha - including Jesus. His grief was so great, he cried - wept.
It's what we do as a community of supporters/friends/caregivers - we grieve together - we shed tears about our loss, our common pain. And I'm not referencing here only communities of faith. It doesn't matter whether our community is made up of neighbors and friends, a bunch of people we worked with, people from the different towns we've lived in, family members, friends of our loved ones, past or present members of social or recreational groups we met with regularly, or even those who just knew of the deceased because of reputation in the community or world. I cried when Nelson Mandela died. I cried when members of my congregations died. I cried when parents of my high school or college friends died. I shed tears when I was informed of the sudden death of a classmate and then asked to do his memorial service. I mourn every time I hear of the death of another PALS, even if I only knew them as a fellow contributor on our "Living With ALS; for PALS Only" Facebook page.
"Jesus wept." This passage ordains tears as a proper response when we lose a friend or relative. The one who referred to himself as “the resurrection and the life” was sad about losing a friend. It is not a sign of a weak faith or a weak person to grieve. It simply is not true, as some of our faith seem determined to portray, that “real Christians” should only be joyous about everything that happens – that tears should never be shed, because pain is caused by God for our own good (Ugh! Sorry, just ugly untruth). We grieve – we are sad – we weep in the face of death because we are fully human just as our Savior Jesus was fully human. Healthy human beings grieve when painful things happen. Jesus cried because even if death does not speak the last word, it does speak a painful and hard word. The empty tomb is testimony that death is defeated, overcome, but not abolished.
“Jesus wept.” There’s nothing wrong with grief. There’s nothing wrong with shedding tears. It is a part of what it means to be human. It is expected of Christians as it is of all human beings. It’s one of the things we do with one another when someone important to us dies or even suffers.
But communities - all communities again - do something else very important with one another when someone dies. We hold funerals, more commonly and I happen to think appropriately referred to today as memorial services or services of celebration. We get together to remember and celebrate the life of the one who is no longer physically a part of our community. Sometimes we hold these events in funeral homes, sometimes in churches, sometimes in people's homes, sometimes in a favorite park or restaurant or bar, and sometimes in a school or a cemetery. And most of the time our tears are coupled with some cheers. Oh, not "Rah, rah" cheering, but laughter and hugs and words of encouragement and smiles and joy and hope as we remember the good times and the uniqueness of our loved ones - quirks and all. (True, it doesn't always happen. There are those occasions which are just too sad, too painful, too senseless. I don't want to ignore those realities even as I try to paint a picture of what is my most common experience. Please forgive me all those who've experienced such a tragedy in their life.)
When I think of the cheering role of our communities during the time after the death of a loved one, I cannot help but think of the passage in Hebrews (Hebrews 11 & 12) when the author provides this litany of folks who make up the "cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1) cheering us, encouraging us on our life journeys. I've often described that cloud of witnesses as our cheering section - usually as those who've gone before and play this role in the heavenly realms, but today I'm thinking it's helpful to consider our physical, living, communities who surround us in our day-to-day living.
As a community, we are those who live in the tension of shedding tears and cheering – we live as those who are able to shed tears and cheer at one and the same time – we are those who grieve deeply while deep inside us percolates this joy for the life lived by the one we loved. I think that's what was going on in that funeral home on Wednesday night as those who loved our friend and her family gathered. There were plenty of tears flowing, but there were also some cheers being offered - words of encouragement and hugs and laughter. May we all be mindful of our shared ministry of crying and cheering as we continue on this path of life together.
John 11:32-44
Another one of the PALS from our ALS support group passed away recently. She was diagnosed about the same time I was. She and her husband are one of the couples we've known the longest dealing with this reality of being one who is continually getting worse physically and the one providing the caregiving. They were such a positive and supportive couple - open about their situation and able to both laugh and cry in the group.
She stopped coming to group maybe about two years ago. He continued to come by himself for awhile. They began to use the help of hospice and their experience was probably one of the most influential reasons we decided to do the same last fall - a decision we haven't regretted. We have stayed in touch as Facebook friends. They are also the ones who recommended that we contact the Liberty Township Fire Department when we moved to the Powell area because of the special needs program they have. We did and it's a fabulous asset to the community and to our sense of comfort and security.
Her visitation was on Wednesday night and funeral on Thursday. One of the limitations of ALS is I tire and there's simply no way we can go to everything we want to. Especially frustrating is not being able to go to all the visitations and funerals for former church members, relatives of friends, etc. Because the visitation was in nearby Mt. Sterling and despite not having one of my best weeks physically or emotionally - perhaps partially because of her somewhat surprising death, perhaps partially because of having numerous health care visits, perhaps .... who knows - we decided we wanted to give it a go.
A side benefit was the opportunity to drive on out to Deer Creek State Park and spend a few hours in one of our favorite Ohio lodge lobbies. For two hours we sat next to each other (I still was in my wheelchair), sipping our Diet Cokes (no Diet Pepsi available!), and read books on our iPads. The Deer Creek State Park lobby is so warm, inviting, and comfortable. It doesn't provide the greatest water hole to look at, but the lobby makes up for it. It also brought back several memories of church workshops and family outings.
And then it was time to drive back into Mt. Sterling for the visitation. We saw numerous deer on the drive which added to a really nice afternoon. When we arrived at the funeral home just a few minutes after the start of visitation, there was no place to park. Sure it's what happens in small towns, but I think it also had a lot to do with the very special woman she was and that her family is. There were tears and there was laughter as family and friends came to comfort and remember. That's what communities do - communities of faith, family and friends - we cry together and we celebrate the well-lived lives of our loved ones.
The 11th chapter of the Gospel of John records the story of an episode in the life of Jesus and his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. The three were siblings and close to one another as well as to Jesus. The only part of this lengthy and theologically inviting text I want to reference in this reflection is that verse often referenced in trivia games as the shortest verse in the Bible - "Jesus wept."
The two sisters had gone to Jesus to inform him that his friend and their brother, Lazarus, was not well. I guess Jesus didn't consider Lazarus' illness to be very serious because he took two more days finishing what he was doing. When they arrived in Bethany, the hometown of the trio, they were informed that Lazarus had been dead for four days and stunk. All of the siblings' friends were grieving with Mary and Martha - including Jesus. His grief was so great, he cried - wept.
It's what we do as a community of supporters/friends/caregivers - we grieve together - we shed tears about our loss, our common pain. And I'm not referencing here only communities of faith. It doesn't matter whether our community is made up of neighbors and friends, a bunch of people we worked with, people from the different towns we've lived in, family members, friends of our loved ones, past or present members of social or recreational groups we met with regularly, or even those who just knew of the deceased because of reputation in the community or world. I cried when Nelson Mandela died. I cried when members of my congregations died. I cried when parents of my high school or college friends died. I shed tears when I was informed of the sudden death of a classmate and then asked to do his memorial service. I mourn every time I hear of the death of another PALS, even if I only knew them as a fellow contributor on our "Living With ALS; for PALS Only" Facebook page.
"Jesus wept." This passage ordains tears as a proper response when we lose a friend or relative. The one who referred to himself as “the resurrection and the life” was sad about losing a friend. It is not a sign of a weak faith or a weak person to grieve. It simply is not true, as some of our faith seem determined to portray, that “real Christians” should only be joyous about everything that happens – that tears should never be shed, because pain is caused by God for our own good (Ugh! Sorry, just ugly untruth). We grieve – we are sad – we weep in the face of death because we are fully human just as our Savior Jesus was fully human. Healthy human beings grieve when painful things happen. Jesus cried because even if death does not speak the last word, it does speak a painful and hard word. The empty tomb is testimony that death is defeated, overcome, but not abolished.
“Jesus wept.” There’s nothing wrong with grief. There’s nothing wrong with shedding tears. It is a part of what it means to be human. It is expected of Christians as it is of all human beings. It’s one of the things we do with one another when someone important to us dies or even suffers.
But communities - all communities again - do something else very important with one another when someone dies. We hold funerals, more commonly and I happen to think appropriately referred to today as memorial services or services of celebration. We get together to remember and celebrate the life of the one who is no longer physically a part of our community. Sometimes we hold these events in funeral homes, sometimes in churches, sometimes in people's homes, sometimes in a favorite park or restaurant or bar, and sometimes in a school or a cemetery. And most of the time our tears are coupled with some cheers. Oh, not "Rah, rah" cheering, but laughter and hugs and words of encouragement and smiles and joy and hope as we remember the good times and the uniqueness of our loved ones - quirks and all. (True, it doesn't always happen. There are those occasions which are just too sad, too painful, too senseless. I don't want to ignore those realities even as I try to paint a picture of what is my most common experience. Please forgive me all those who've experienced such a tragedy in their life.)
When I think of the cheering role of our communities during the time after the death of a loved one, I cannot help but think of the passage in Hebrews (Hebrews 11 & 12) when the author provides this litany of folks who make up the "cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1) cheering us, encouraging us on our life journeys. I've often described that cloud of witnesses as our cheering section - usually as those who've gone before and play this role in the heavenly realms, but today I'm thinking it's helpful to consider our physical, living, communities who surround us in our day-to-day living.
As a community, we are those who live in the tension of shedding tears and cheering – we live as those who are able to shed tears and cheer at one and the same time – we are those who grieve deeply while deep inside us percolates this joy for the life lived by the one we loved. I think that's what was going on in that funeral home on Wednesday night as those who loved our friend and her family gathered. There were plenty of tears flowing, but there were also some cheers being offered - words of encouragement and hugs and laughter. May we all be mindful of our shared ministry of crying and cheering as we continue on this path of life together.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
SERMON: "Bad Things Happen To Everyone"
"Bad Things Happen to Everyone"
John 9:1-41
I've forgotten the number of times people have sent me the interesting list of truths children have learned. While I’m sure many of you have already seen the list, I want to introduce my sermon blog with it.
“No matter how hard you try you cannot baptize a cat.”
“When your mom is mad at your dad, don’t let her brush your hair.”
“Never ask your 3-year-old brother to hold a tomato…or an egg.”
“You can’t trust dogs to watch your food for you.”
“Don’t sneeze when somebody is cutting your hair.”
“School lunches stick to the wall.”
“You can’t hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.”
“Never wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts….no matter how cute the underwear is.” (1)
I can't imagine the experiences these children had to have had in order to come to these “great truths.” Can’t you just picture a child attempting to baptize a cat? I think I remember learning the broccoli lesson myself – only it was a piece of tough steak. The point of my using this illustration today is that many new insights, new perceptions come to us as a result of such dramatic eye-popping experiences.
The disciples observed a man born blind and it dawned on them that this would be a good case study for them to learn from the master his perspective about such things – you know, what he believed about the relationship between sin and suffering. Personally, I find their question repulsive - I know that has to do with how we see things differently today, except I find a lot of the attitude the question represents still guiding the theology and comments by far too many people. Here’s a guy suffering and they want to connect it to someone’s sin – to something God intentionally did to the man as punishment for something. All I can say is WOW! What I wonder is, what kind of God do some people believe in?
Kathryn Lindskoog had MS, multiple sclerosis – a chronic disease that gradually weakens and paralyzes the body. Some of the things she reports people said to her in her life are utterly amazing. “You must really like to be sick; you bring so much of it on yourself.” The comment was made by a relative who never even sent her a get-well card.
Another relative once said to her: “the reason I have perfect health is that I think right; nobody gets sick unless he thinks wrong.”
And then there were these: “I know just how you feel about being crippled; I had a bad case of tennis elbow last month.” “Your present improvement is just wishful thinking.” “I know you fake your limp to try to get attention.” That one was from her pastor and he was serious. And then, perhaps the cruelest one of all: “God must cherish you to trust you with this burden." (2) Can you believe the kind of God some people believe in?
A country preacher visited his parishioners after a flood. One of his farming parishioners lost his crops and cows. The preacher tried to offer comfort by quoting: “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” The farmer just looked at him and drily replied, “Well, I believe he overdid it this time.”
Who among us can forget the comments made by TV evangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell after the 9-1-1 bombings; when they claimed that it was God’s unhappiness with gays, feminists and People for the American Way? (3) Of course, we've had the unfortunate experience of having to continue to hear such irrational venom from Fred Phelps and his followers from the Westboro Baptist Church. They've gained a modest amount of notoriety for their picketing the funerals of American soldiers who gave their lives for their/our country but whose deaths Phelps claimed were God's punishment for our country's expanding acceptance of the rights of our homosexual brothers and sisters. (Fred Phelps passed away a few days ago and at least some who have opposed his message of hate have chosen to use his death as an occasion to reach out to his loved ones with messages of love and forgiveness. I am proud of those who have done so and hope the message is heard and accepted. There have been others, more personally hurt perhaps, who've felt the need to make more vengeful responses and I understand their reaction.)
"Who sinned?” the disciples asked Jesus. "What?" we exclaim hardly able to believe such a question could be asked. The truth of the matter is that it is one understanding of the relationship between sin and suffering that existed in those days and relatives of it still surface in our own day.
Well, whenever I come across something as confusing or questionable as this suggested concept, I usually turn to my good friend, William Barclay (famous Bible scholar of the last century), to see what he has discovered. And, again he did not fail to provide some background of the mindset of the day. He notes first that there was indeed a view among some of the Jewish theologians that pre-natal sin was a possibility. They believed that an embryo could somehow begin to sin while still in the womb. Perhaps they perceived the kicking of a baby as an example of inner and pre-birth sin (that was my aside, not Barclay's).
Another explanation Barclay offers is the belief in the pre-existence of souls, a notion of Plato and the Greeks. The idea was that these souls existed together someplace and took turns entering a human body. It was believed that these were inherently good and it was the entering of the human body that corrupted them. Now, some of the rabbis believed that these pre- existing souls were both good and bad and ... capable of sinning before the entry into a human body. (4) Yep, the question reflected belief in a God who caused suffering either by an embryo sinning or the parent even before conception. Really? What some people believe about God is really strange.
I don’t know about you but I can’t help but wonder also about how the blind man and his parents felt about being the object of such a theological discussion. I mean, here was a man born blind and the reaction of the disciples was to have a theoretical discussion with Jesus about the man’s suffering.
Have you ever had it happen to you? You have a health problem and share it with some folks and they proceed to give you their perspective on why your sick.
One preacher told of just such an experience in his life with these words: “I put myself in the place of this man (the blind man) the other day. I had awoken earlier with a wretched sore throat. At a meeting that morning I said to some participants, ‘I’ve got a horrible sore throat. I can hardly talk. Don’t know how much I’ll be able to contribute to this meeting.’
“With that the two people to whom I said this launched into an energetic conversation on the origins of sore throats: ‘I heard that if you don’t intake enough vitamin C you are a candidate for lots of sore throats.’ The other said, ‘People just don’t take good care of themselves anymore. At this time of year people ought to know that with the constant changes of weather a sore throat is always a possibility.’
“On and on they went – I turned away in disgust. What I wanted was a modicum of sympathy, not a debate on how I had failed to take good care of myself and how I had no one to blame but myself for my sore throat! If I felt that way about a theoretical debate over my sore throat, think of how this poor man born blind felt about the disciples’ theological discussion! You’re blind? Well now, let’s get out our Bibles and see if we can find good material on the issue of the moral origins of blindness.” (5)
One of my pet peeves is those phone calls we pastors get from the media after a disaster, “Tell me pastor, what do you have to say about this terrible thing has happened?” You have to understand, they don’t call wondering about our opinions about the thousands of children who die every day because of hunger or the thousands who are being killed in wars. They want to know why God kills people with hurricanes or floods or earthquakes. They want us to defend God or explain God or … I don’t know, you tell me what they want.
Bishop Willimon tells of the phone calls he received after the Tsunami hit the day after Christmas in 2006. “At first I wanted to reply, ‘How do I explain it? Well, I’m not an oceanographer myself but I think that the earth’s crust cools, the plates shift, earthquake happens, and then the tremors set off huge waves out at sea. At least that’s what I picked up on the Learning Channel.” But, he resisted because he knew what they meant by their question was really, “You say that you believe in a good God, so how could a good God allow something like
this to happen?” (6)
I don't know if you caught it or not, but Jesus really never answered the question. What he said was: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him." (John 9:3) Frankly, that comment doesn't thrill me much either. It's important that we don't read the story too literally. There's no way the way I understand God that I can believe that God causes suffering (blindness) with the sole purpose of demonstrating something else or to make a point. There must be a deeper meaning to this text.
Bible scholars on the Gospel of John note that in this Fourth Gospel especially there is usually something more than what is written we are to think about. This healing miracle is one of the seven "signs" it is the author of John's hope to highlight. It's remembered as an occasion when Jesus portrayed his reason for being as his being the light of the world - the light that disturbs the darkness and blindness of the religious establishment.
Friends, there are no easy answers here. Bad things happen to everyone - all of us. I have to admit to you that I mistrust almost all answers offered about why bad things happen to both good and bad people. I don’t think there are any good answers to the question.
In the British movie “Whistle in the Wind,” a pet kitten dies after the children had prayed that it would get well. They went to see their pastor. They found him in a teashop, taking a morning break. He was obviously enjoying his tea and reading a newspaper. They asked him, “Why did God let our cat die?”
The pastor was a little annoyed at being disturbed during his tea about a dead cat, but he dutifully launched into this long, complex, theological response. The children stood there patiently and listened. He wished them well when he finished and went back to reading his newspaper.
As they walked away the little boy held his older sister’s hand. He looked up at her and said, “He doesn’t know, does he?” (7)
For me, it’s not about providing an answer to the question about why, but understanding what’s going on with God when we suffer. For me, the most comforting thought is that God cries with me – that God hurts with me – that God is compassionate – that God resurrects out of the bad – that God heals – that God walks alongside - that God breaks through the fog so that light can help clear things up.
One of the most helpful ways I have ever heard it put was reported in a newspaper interview many years ago with Father Ron Wilker, then priest of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Coldwater, Ohio after the tragic deaths of several members of one family in his parish. He said: “The first tears shed were the tears of God. This was not God’s plan. This was another example of how fragile our lives are." (8)
Professor Lew Smedes says in his book, How Can It Be All Right When Everything is All Wrong: “God’s own answer to suffering is to join it, feel it, hurt with it. A sufferer screams to God in the all-wrongness of his life, ‘Why have you abandoned me?’ God answers by joining him in life’s most horrible wrongness. Jesus hangs on a cross and somehow, God hangs with him. God joins us and gets himself hung for his trouble.”(9)
In my opinion, the real miracle here is that Jesus stood with the blind man in the midst of his suffering and had compassion and tried to do something about his suffering, thus revealing the true nature of God, compassion. Jesus cared for the man in need more than he cared to enter into a theological debate with his followers about the man’s suffering or what day of the week it was (remember one of the things he did wrong that day was healed on the Sabbath thus earning the view that he was a sinner).
Behind everything that happens to us, there is a loving God who will never leave us or forsake us. Suffering is not necessarily the result of human sin. Bad happens to everyone – both the good and the bad. Our statement of faith is “God is with us.”
James W. Moore, “Encounters With Christ I: Jesus & the Man Born Blind,” Encounters with Christ, 2001, 0-0000-0000-15.
Kathryn Lindskoog, “What Do You Say to Job?” Leadership (Spring, 1985), pp. 93-94. Quoted in Ron Lee Davis, Healing Life’s Hurts (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1986) and further quoted in King Duncan’s sermon: “What Kind of God Is That?” Collected Sermons (Dynamic Preaching, 2005), 0- 000-0000-20.
King Duncan, “What Kind of God Is That?” Collected Sermons (Dynamic Preaching, 2005), 0-000- 0000-20.
William Barclay, The New Daily Bible Study: The Gospel of John Vol. 2 (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 2001), Kindle ebook p. 43/346
William H. Willimon, “The Glory of God,” Pulpit Resource, January – March, 2008, p. 38.
Ibid.
Dr. Bill Bouknight, “Why Did God Allow That to Happen?” Christ United Methodist Church, for www.eSermons.com, Memphis, TN, 0-000-000-01.
The Lima News, 1978-1985.
Lewis Smedes, How Can Everything Be All Right When Everything is All Wrong? (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982), p. 68.
John 9:1-41
I've forgotten the number of times people have sent me the interesting list of truths children have learned. While I’m sure many of you have already seen the list, I want to introduce my sermon blog with it.
“No matter how hard you try you cannot baptize a cat.”
“When your mom is mad at your dad, don’t let her brush your hair.”
“Never ask your 3-year-old brother to hold a tomato…or an egg.”
“You can’t trust dogs to watch your food for you.”
“Don’t sneeze when somebody is cutting your hair.”
“School lunches stick to the wall.”
“You can’t hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.”
“Never wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts….no matter how cute the underwear is.” (1)
I can't imagine the experiences these children had to have had in order to come to these “great truths.” Can’t you just picture a child attempting to baptize a cat? I think I remember learning the broccoli lesson myself – only it was a piece of tough steak. The point of my using this illustration today is that many new insights, new perceptions come to us as a result of such dramatic eye-popping experiences.
The disciples observed a man born blind and it dawned on them that this would be a good case study for them to learn from the master his perspective about such things – you know, what he believed about the relationship between sin and suffering. Personally, I find their question repulsive - I know that has to do with how we see things differently today, except I find a lot of the attitude the question represents still guiding the theology and comments by far too many people. Here’s a guy suffering and they want to connect it to someone’s sin – to something God intentionally did to the man as punishment for something. All I can say is WOW! What I wonder is, what kind of God do some people believe in?
Kathryn Lindskoog had MS, multiple sclerosis – a chronic disease that gradually weakens and paralyzes the body. Some of the things she reports people said to her in her life are utterly amazing. “You must really like to be sick; you bring so much of it on yourself.” The comment was made by a relative who never even sent her a get-well card.
Another relative once said to her: “the reason I have perfect health is that I think right; nobody gets sick unless he thinks wrong.”
And then there were these: “I know just how you feel about being crippled; I had a bad case of tennis elbow last month.” “Your present improvement is just wishful thinking.” “I know you fake your limp to try to get attention.” That one was from her pastor and he was serious. And then, perhaps the cruelest one of all: “God must cherish you to trust you with this burden." (2) Can you believe the kind of God some people believe in?
A country preacher visited his parishioners after a flood. One of his farming parishioners lost his crops and cows. The preacher tried to offer comfort by quoting: “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” The farmer just looked at him and drily replied, “Well, I believe he overdid it this time.”
Who among us can forget the comments made by TV evangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell after the 9-1-1 bombings; when they claimed that it was God’s unhappiness with gays, feminists and People for the American Way? (3) Of course, we've had the unfortunate experience of having to continue to hear such irrational venom from Fred Phelps and his followers from the Westboro Baptist Church. They've gained a modest amount of notoriety for their picketing the funerals of American soldiers who gave their lives for their/our country but whose deaths Phelps claimed were God's punishment for our country's expanding acceptance of the rights of our homosexual brothers and sisters. (Fred Phelps passed away a few days ago and at least some who have opposed his message of hate have chosen to use his death as an occasion to reach out to his loved ones with messages of love and forgiveness. I am proud of those who have done so and hope the message is heard and accepted. There have been others, more personally hurt perhaps, who've felt the need to make more vengeful responses and I understand their reaction.)
"Who sinned?” the disciples asked Jesus. "What?" we exclaim hardly able to believe such a question could be asked. The truth of the matter is that it is one understanding of the relationship between sin and suffering that existed in those days and relatives of it still surface in our own day.
Well, whenever I come across something as confusing or questionable as this suggested concept, I usually turn to my good friend, William Barclay (famous Bible scholar of the last century), to see what he has discovered. And, again he did not fail to provide some background of the mindset of the day. He notes first that there was indeed a view among some of the Jewish theologians that pre-natal sin was a possibility. They believed that an embryo could somehow begin to sin while still in the womb. Perhaps they perceived the kicking of a baby as an example of inner and pre-birth sin (that was my aside, not Barclay's).
Another explanation Barclay offers is the belief in the pre-existence of souls, a notion of Plato and the Greeks. The idea was that these souls existed together someplace and took turns entering a human body. It was believed that these were inherently good and it was the entering of the human body that corrupted them. Now, some of the rabbis believed that these pre- existing souls were both good and bad and ... capable of sinning before the entry into a human body. (4) Yep, the question reflected belief in a God who caused suffering either by an embryo sinning or the parent even before conception. Really? What some people believe about God is really strange.
I don’t know about you but I can’t help but wonder also about how the blind man and his parents felt about being the object of such a theological discussion. I mean, here was a man born blind and the reaction of the disciples was to have a theoretical discussion with Jesus about the man’s suffering.
Have you ever had it happen to you? You have a health problem and share it with some folks and they proceed to give you their perspective on why your sick.
One preacher told of just such an experience in his life with these words: “I put myself in the place of this man (the blind man) the other day. I had awoken earlier with a wretched sore throat. At a meeting that morning I said to some participants, ‘I’ve got a horrible sore throat. I can hardly talk. Don’t know how much I’ll be able to contribute to this meeting.’
“With that the two people to whom I said this launched into an energetic conversation on the origins of sore throats: ‘I heard that if you don’t intake enough vitamin C you are a candidate for lots of sore throats.’ The other said, ‘People just don’t take good care of themselves anymore. At this time of year people ought to know that with the constant changes of weather a sore throat is always a possibility.’
“On and on they went – I turned away in disgust. What I wanted was a modicum of sympathy, not a debate on how I had failed to take good care of myself and how I had no one to blame but myself for my sore throat! If I felt that way about a theoretical debate over my sore throat, think of how this poor man born blind felt about the disciples’ theological discussion! You’re blind? Well now, let’s get out our Bibles and see if we can find good material on the issue of the moral origins of blindness.” (5)
One of my pet peeves is those phone calls we pastors get from the media after a disaster, “Tell me pastor, what do you have to say about this terrible thing has happened?” You have to understand, they don’t call wondering about our opinions about the thousands of children who die every day because of hunger or the thousands who are being killed in wars. They want to know why God kills people with hurricanes or floods or earthquakes. They want us to defend God or explain God or … I don’t know, you tell me what they want.
Bishop Willimon tells of the phone calls he received after the Tsunami hit the day after Christmas in 2006. “At first I wanted to reply, ‘How do I explain it? Well, I’m not an oceanographer myself but I think that the earth’s crust cools, the plates shift, earthquake happens, and then the tremors set off huge waves out at sea. At least that’s what I picked up on the Learning Channel.” But, he resisted because he knew what they meant by their question was really, “You say that you believe in a good God, so how could a good God allow something like
this to happen?” (6)
I don't know if you caught it or not, but Jesus really never answered the question. What he said was: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him." (John 9:3) Frankly, that comment doesn't thrill me much either. It's important that we don't read the story too literally. There's no way the way I understand God that I can believe that God causes suffering (blindness) with the sole purpose of demonstrating something else or to make a point. There must be a deeper meaning to this text.
Bible scholars on the Gospel of John note that in this Fourth Gospel especially there is usually something more than what is written we are to think about. This healing miracle is one of the seven "signs" it is the author of John's hope to highlight. It's remembered as an occasion when Jesus portrayed his reason for being as his being the light of the world - the light that disturbs the darkness and blindness of the religious establishment.
Friends, there are no easy answers here. Bad things happen to everyone - all of us. I have to admit to you that I mistrust almost all answers offered about why bad things happen to both good and bad people. I don’t think there are any good answers to the question.
In the British movie “Whistle in the Wind,” a pet kitten dies after the children had prayed that it would get well. They went to see their pastor. They found him in a teashop, taking a morning break. He was obviously enjoying his tea and reading a newspaper. They asked him, “Why did God let our cat die?”
The pastor was a little annoyed at being disturbed during his tea about a dead cat, but he dutifully launched into this long, complex, theological response. The children stood there patiently and listened. He wished them well when he finished and went back to reading his newspaper.
As they walked away the little boy held his older sister’s hand. He looked up at her and said, “He doesn’t know, does he?” (7)
For me, it’s not about providing an answer to the question about why, but understanding what’s going on with God when we suffer. For me, the most comforting thought is that God cries with me – that God hurts with me – that God is compassionate – that God resurrects out of the bad – that God heals – that God walks alongside - that God breaks through the fog so that light can help clear things up.
One of the most helpful ways I have ever heard it put was reported in a newspaper interview many years ago with Father Ron Wilker, then priest of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Coldwater, Ohio after the tragic deaths of several members of one family in his parish. He said: “The first tears shed were the tears of God. This was not God’s plan. This was another example of how fragile our lives are." (8)
Professor Lew Smedes says in his book, How Can It Be All Right When Everything is All Wrong: “God’s own answer to suffering is to join it, feel it, hurt with it. A sufferer screams to God in the all-wrongness of his life, ‘Why have you abandoned me?’ God answers by joining him in life’s most horrible wrongness. Jesus hangs on a cross and somehow, God hangs with him. God joins us and gets himself hung for his trouble.”(9)
In my opinion, the real miracle here is that Jesus stood with the blind man in the midst of his suffering and had compassion and tried to do something about his suffering, thus revealing the true nature of God, compassion. Jesus cared for the man in need more than he cared to enter into a theological debate with his followers about the man’s suffering or what day of the week it was (remember one of the things he did wrong that day was healed on the Sabbath thus earning the view that he was a sinner).
Behind everything that happens to us, there is a loving God who will never leave us or forsake us. Suffering is not necessarily the result of human sin. Bad happens to everyone – both the good and the bad. Our statement of faith is “God is with us.”
James W. Moore, “Encounters With Christ I: Jesus & the Man Born Blind,” Encounters with Christ, 2001, 0-0000-0000-15.
Kathryn Lindskoog, “What Do You Say to Job?” Leadership (Spring, 1985), pp. 93-94. Quoted in Ron Lee Davis, Healing Life’s Hurts (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1986) and further quoted in King Duncan’s sermon: “What Kind of God Is That?” Collected Sermons (Dynamic Preaching, 2005), 0- 000-0000-20.
King Duncan, “What Kind of God Is That?” Collected Sermons (Dynamic Preaching, 2005), 0-000- 0000-20.
William Barclay, The New Daily Bible Study: The Gospel of John Vol. 2 (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 2001), Kindle ebook p. 43/346
William H. Willimon, “The Glory of God,” Pulpit Resource, January – March, 2008, p. 38.
Ibid.
Dr. Bill Bouknight, “Why Did God Allow That to Happen?” Christ United Methodist Church, for www.eSermons.com, Memphis, TN, 0-000-000-01.
The Lima News, 1978-1985.
Lewis Smedes, How Can Everything Be All Right When Everything is All Wrong? (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982), p. 68.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
"A Saturday Night Happening!"
"A Saturday Night Happening!"
Now, I have a feeling this could end up reading like a description of a neighborhood party on the Social page of a small town newspaper (no criticism of such informative pieces intended), but that's a little like how it felt. To better introduce this blog post and review: Maple Grove United Methodist Church, the Folk Ramblers (Bill Cohen & Carl Yaffey), and Bill's Backers joined forces for a fundraising kick-off on behalf of the 2014 Walk to Defeat ALS organized by The ALS Association Central & Southern Ohio Chapter. This year's walk in Columbus will be held at a new location, the Columbus Commons, on Sunday, September 21.
So, around 250 supporters crowded into Maple Grove's fellowship hall for a Folk Music Sing-a-Long (a statistic not to be shared with the fire department!). What a hoot! Bill observed distinctly hearing on several occasions beautiful 85-part harmony! It was great - singing folk songs of old with family, friends, and folk music fans! I remembered singing most of them in the Ottawa UM church basement and fellowship hall; the family or living rooms of high school friends; the Camp Wesley paneled room; and various places on ONU's campus during college.
The Folk Ramblers warmed us up, beginning promptly at 7:00 pm, with three or four timeless pieces and then introduced me to share a few words. I have a feeling some thought I was going to preach and were relieved to find out I only had about three minutes worth typed into my Verbally app on my iPad (I'll end this blog post with it).
On my way to the center of the room I decided I had to at least try and mention a few of those who had gathered for the cause. My voice and energy limited how many I could note so my intention is to expand it a little bit for this piece. (This is the part that is going to sound a little like a report of a gathering in one of our backyards in Ottawa or Continental. I decided to write it this way because of a friend's comment at the event about appreciating seeing the names of the Cimbles in a recent piece.) First, I had the members of our family stand. There were about 15 of them including our children, Jeremy and Megan, and grandson, Evan, my two sisters, Nancy & Phyllis, Dorothy's sister, Susie, two brothers-in-law, Gary & Tim [Jefferson Award Winner!], a niece, Anji, and her family, a nephew, Peter, and his fiancee, Katie, and many others in spirit. We can never say enough about how fortunate we are to have the support and love of our families.
Others noted included: Marlin Seymour, Executive Director of the ALS Chapter; Clint Clouse and his son, Drew, from Tiffin - we met Clint last fall when we stopped to see him and his wife, Chris (Ruhe), a fellow PALS who passed away a few weeks after our visit and sister to two of my high school basketball teammates, Dave & Butch); Deb Jenkins Valentine, one of my YF "kids" from my first journey through Lima who came all the way from Atlanta; and then I ran out of steam and played the below recording.
If I hadn't tired, I would have also noted Bruce Hays and his wife, Mindy, who drove up for the evening from Celina. Bruce and I competed against each other in football and track in high school and were teammates in both sports at ONU. I would have mentioned the Continental schoolmates of Dorothy's, Randy & Linda Coble and Ken & Betty Kosch; our friends from Lima, Ben & Nancy Rose; the numerous members of Maple Grove, North Broadway, and Worthington UM churches; the retired UM clergy friends, Russ Clark, Jim (Mary Kay) Freshour and Keith (Laverne) Nash; and the still active neighboring sisters of the cloth, Rev. Cyndy Garn of Worthington and Deb (Gary)Stephens of North Broadway; a friend of Nancy's and mine, Barb (Dickinson) Tornatzky (Bob) who was part of the high school group that got together to sing those old songs in our homes; Randi Cohen, Bill's wife and a good friend from my active days in the neighborhood, who ran the sound controls; Jack & Maxine, our Aldrich neighbors who had to leave early to go watch the UD game; Eric Chivington and his little girls who stole the show with their dancing; the new PALS and his wife we met that night and look forward to meeting some more at our monthly ALS support group meetings; and the numerous Folk Music enthusiasts and Bill Cohen loyalists.
Yes, it was a grand evening of music and laughter and trivia. Oh, and we raised close to $4,000!! Further thanks are included in the message from my iPad with the aide of the Verbally app below:
"Good evening! First, Dorothy and I want to thank Bill Cohen for suggesting tonight's Folk Music Sing-a-long. When he talked to pastor Glenn last fall about holding this event and then shared the idea with me, I enthusiastically thanked him but warned him that I was unsure how much self-promoting I would be able to do by then and even if it would be possible for me to still be going to things. Well, we are here and I think you are all probably a little tired of the amount of information you have had to read and see.
"Second, we would like to thank Miriam Abbott for agreeing to play the role of event coordinator between the church and Bill. We also want to thank whoever else she successfully roped into helping with this ALS Benefit. I know Mozart's deserves to be thanked for their generous gift of cookies. What a combination Miriam and Anand are! Two people who do a lot to make Clintonville the special place it is.
"We would also like to thank Pastor Glenn and all of the Maple Grove staff for their going the second mile so many times these last few years to remind us that we are loved and cared about.
"We are most appreciative of Kevin Parks and the This Week newspaper for helping not only publicize tonight's event but continue to share the story of this journey with ALS we are on.
"And finally, thanks to all of you for coming tonight to add your voices and gifts to this new Bill's Backers sing-a-long fundraising event on behalf of the ALS Association. I believe a couple members of the staff are here tonight and I hope you get a chance to meet them.
"While I lament I can not share these words with my own voice, I know you are relieved because otherwise I'd say more than this. So, Bill and Carl, Let's sing!"
Now, I have a feeling this could end up reading like a description of a neighborhood party on the Social page of a small town newspaper (no criticism of such informative pieces intended), but that's a little like how it felt. To better introduce this blog post and review: Maple Grove United Methodist Church, the Folk Ramblers (Bill Cohen & Carl Yaffey), and Bill's Backers joined forces for a fundraising kick-off on behalf of the 2014 Walk to Defeat ALS organized by The ALS Association Central & Southern Ohio Chapter. This year's walk in Columbus will be held at a new location, the Columbus Commons, on Sunday, September 21.
So, around 250 supporters crowded into Maple Grove's fellowship hall for a Folk Music Sing-a-Long (a statistic not to be shared with the fire department!). What a hoot! Bill observed distinctly hearing on several occasions beautiful 85-part harmony! It was great - singing folk songs of old with family, friends, and folk music fans! I remembered singing most of them in the Ottawa UM church basement and fellowship hall; the family or living rooms of high school friends; the Camp Wesley paneled room; and various places on ONU's campus during college.
The Folk Ramblers warmed us up, beginning promptly at 7:00 pm, with three or four timeless pieces and then introduced me to share a few words. I have a feeling some thought I was going to preach and were relieved to find out I only had about three minutes worth typed into my Verbally app on my iPad (I'll end this blog post with it).
On my way to the center of the room I decided I had to at least try and mention a few of those who had gathered for the cause. My voice and energy limited how many I could note so my intention is to expand it a little bit for this piece. (This is the part that is going to sound a little like a report of a gathering in one of our backyards in Ottawa or Continental. I decided to write it this way because of a friend's comment at the event about appreciating seeing the names of the Cimbles in a recent piece.) First, I had the members of our family stand. There were about 15 of them including our children, Jeremy and Megan, and grandson, Evan, my two sisters, Nancy & Phyllis, Dorothy's sister, Susie, two brothers-in-law, Gary & Tim [Jefferson Award Winner!], a niece, Anji, and her family, a nephew, Peter, and his fiancee, Katie, and many others in spirit. We can never say enough about how fortunate we are to have the support and love of our families.
Others noted included: Marlin Seymour, Executive Director of the ALS Chapter; Clint Clouse and his son, Drew, from Tiffin - we met Clint last fall when we stopped to see him and his wife, Chris (Ruhe), a fellow PALS who passed away a few weeks after our visit and sister to two of my high school basketball teammates, Dave & Butch); Deb Jenkins Valentine, one of my YF "kids" from my first journey through Lima who came all the way from Atlanta; and then I ran out of steam and played the below recording.
If I hadn't tired, I would have also noted Bruce Hays and his wife, Mindy, who drove up for the evening from Celina. Bruce and I competed against each other in football and track in high school and were teammates in both sports at ONU. I would have mentioned the Continental schoolmates of Dorothy's, Randy & Linda Coble and Ken & Betty Kosch; our friends from Lima, Ben & Nancy Rose; the numerous members of Maple Grove, North Broadway, and Worthington UM churches; the retired UM clergy friends, Russ Clark, Jim (Mary Kay) Freshour and Keith (Laverne) Nash; and the still active neighboring sisters of the cloth, Rev. Cyndy Garn of Worthington and Deb (Gary)Stephens of North Broadway; a friend of Nancy's and mine, Barb (Dickinson) Tornatzky (Bob) who was part of the high school group that got together to sing those old songs in our homes; Randi Cohen, Bill's wife and a good friend from my active days in the neighborhood, who ran the sound controls; Jack & Maxine, our Aldrich neighbors who had to leave early to go watch the UD game; Eric Chivington and his little girls who stole the show with their dancing; the new PALS and his wife we met that night and look forward to meeting some more at our monthly ALS support group meetings; and the numerous Folk Music enthusiasts and Bill Cohen loyalists.
Yes, it was a grand evening of music and laughter and trivia. Oh, and we raised close to $4,000!! Further thanks are included in the message from my iPad with the aide of the Verbally app below:
"Good evening! First, Dorothy and I want to thank Bill Cohen for suggesting tonight's Folk Music Sing-a-long. When he talked to pastor Glenn last fall about holding this event and then shared the idea with me, I enthusiastically thanked him but warned him that I was unsure how much self-promoting I would be able to do by then and even if it would be possible for me to still be going to things. Well, we are here and I think you are all probably a little tired of the amount of information you have had to read and see.
"Second, we would like to thank Miriam Abbott for agreeing to play the role of event coordinator between the church and Bill. We also want to thank whoever else she successfully roped into helping with this ALS Benefit. I know Mozart's deserves to be thanked for their generous gift of cookies. What a combination Miriam and Anand are! Two people who do a lot to make Clintonville the special place it is.
"We would also like to thank Pastor Glenn and all of the Maple Grove staff for their going the second mile so many times these last few years to remind us that we are loved and cared about.
"We are most appreciative of Kevin Parks and the This Week newspaper for helping not only publicize tonight's event but continue to share the story of this journey with ALS we are on.
"And finally, thanks to all of you for coming tonight to add your voices and gifts to this new Bill's Backers sing-a-long fundraising event on behalf of the ALS Association. I believe a couple members of the staff are here tonight and I hope you get a chance to meet them.
"While I lament I can not share these words with my own voice, I know you are relieved because otherwise I'd say more than this. So, Bill and Carl, Let's sing!"
Saturday, March 22, 2014
SERMON: "Those People, Too, Lord?"
"Those People, Too, Lord?"
John 4:5-42
This is one of those scripture texts that births in my gut the tension between the need to create more than one sermon and the reality of time and space. There's just so much that begs for attention - interpretation. One is all I will share - whew!
There was this woman – this Samaritan woman – who had been married five times and was currently living with a man who was not her husband. The townies considered her to be a loose woman – a slut. She was despised, talked about, and criticized wherever she went.
One day she went to the community drinking hole around noon to draw water. It is assumed that she went at that time to avoid the rest of the community who tended to draw their water in the coolness of the morning. At the community drinking well she ran into a Jewish man – John shares with us that it was Jesus. He was traveling through Samaria because he was in a hurry to get to Galilee and out of Judea and the route through Samaria was the shortest route.
Jews in that day tried not to travel through Samaria if they could help it. There wasn’t any love lost between the two sects. Most scholars believe it went back to the days when their country was invaded, almost 700 years earlier, and those who remained, the Samaritans, married those from other countries that moved in. They didn’t consider their intermarrying an issue because they believed their own people were never returning.
The Jewish people who moved away didn’t see it that way. They considered intermarriage to be an unforgivable sin and wouldn’t have anything to do with the Samaritans as a result. They considered the Samaritans social outcasts - untouchables, racially inferior, practicing a false religion - and would do everything possible to avoid coming into contact with them – even if it meant adding days to their journey by routing themselves around the territory of Samaria which lay between the northern part of Palestine known as Galilee and the southern territory of Judea.
The split was further widened when the Samaritans built a temple at Mt. Gerizim for their worship. The Jews held that the only true place of worship was the temple in Jerusalem. Both groups considered themselves the true descendants of the nation of Israel. So, you get a bit of the picture of why it was unusual for Jesus and his disciples to be passing through.
Now, the reason Jesus and his disciples were traveling from Judea to Galilee was because some controversy had apparently surfaced concerning Jesus’ disciples baptizing and they had to get out of Judea.
O.K., so Jesus stopped outside of Synchar at the well while his disciples went into the town to buy some lunch. And, while he was sitting by the well, this unnamed Samaritan woman approached to draw water. Oh my, the awkwardness – a woman – a Samaritan woman – and a Jewish man. It was taboo for a man to be seen in public with a woman and unthinkable for a rabbi to speak to a woman in public. Again, she probably went at that time of day so she wouldn’t have to put up with the sneers, looks, or comments of others. It was a lonely and rejected woman that approached the well at noon that day.
There’s another significant reason the author of the Gospel of John noted that the encounter happened around noon and that is to make sure we understand that it was a thirsty Jesus that was hanging around the well. He needed something to drink and had nothing with which to draw water from the well. The Samaritan woman had to have paused for a brief moment when she saw this Jewish man by the well, not only because he was a Jew but also because of her own unacceptability as a woman and as a Samaritan. But her own need for water apparently outweighed any concern she had with the chance encounter.
And Jesus said to her: “Give me something to drink.” It wasn’t a request: “Would you draw me some water?” It was almost an order – probably not in a demanding voice – but still with the expectation of having his need met.
The thoughts that had to have raced through her mind – the thoughts that had to have raced through the minds of anyone who heard the story in that day - had to have been ones of bewilderment. “What in the world was he doing?” – “Talking to a woman?” – “Talking to a Samaritan woman?” – “Talking to this kind of Samaritan woman?”
Now the woman also had to have observed that he had nothing with which to draw water from the 100’ well and that he was indeed thirsty. Yet again, probably because of the circumstances, her being a woman and a Samaritan and he, being a man, a Jewish one at that, she had to ask: “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” Even with her overworked inferiority complex, there had to have been a snideness in her voice: “Oh, look at big Mr. Jew, asking me – lowly Samaritan that I am, woman that I am – for a drink.” Her first observation of Jesus – her first understanding of Jesus was as a Jew – as a man with a label. And she pigeon-holed him as someone who had to be really desperate not to deal with her with the same ethnic, gender tags that the rest of society used to determine whether persons should be approached given the time of day. The barriers which were normally in place seemed not to exist and she thought it strange enough to inquire about it.
And Jesus’ response was: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” Can you imagine the feelings that rushed into her then? Here sat a man without a bucket – there was no stream close by from which to draw “living water” which was how they referred to water which flowed in a stream – and he referenced living water. It may have crossed her mind that scripture reference to the Lord being the source of living water but she wasn’t sure and so her retort was almost sarcastic, although perhaps with a beginning note of recognition: “Sir, you have no bucket and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”
And the conversation deepened and the conversion was on. Then followed the dialogue about her relationship with men and about worship. When the disciples returned from town they arrived just in time to see her rushing from the well toward the town and they probably started questioning what was going on between the two of them, although not out loud.
The result of this woman’s encounter with Jesus at the well was that she became an evangelist. She went to her neighbors – those that had sat in judgment of her – those who knew all about her questionable past – the town gossips – the town pious – and invited them to “Come and see.” Oh, her faith wasn’t yet fully developed, but she knew that her encounter with this man meant that her attitude about herself could be different. He accepted her. He didn’t treat her as an object, a possession to be used to satisfy his own desires. He treated her as a person. She felt the living water flow through her, cleansing her, healing her even though she didn’t yet fully understand what was happening.
Tom is a minister in a very large church. One of the things he does every month is he goes down to the homeless shelter in his city to work in their soup kitchen. After all the homeless have been fed, he invites them to the chapel at the shelter for a short communion service. He just thinks it’s appropriate after sharing soup together in the soup kitchen to share the bread and cup together at the altar.
One of those times, as he was walking down the rail serving the bread and juice, one of the men kneeling there looked like he had been out on the streets for a very long time. When Tom got to him, the man looked up at Tom and whispered: “Skip me.”
“What? Pardon me?” Tom asked.
In a somewhat louder voice, the man said again, “Skip me.” “Why?” asked Tom.
The man said, “Because I’m not worthy.”
Out of Tom’s mouth came, “Neither am I.” And then he added, “I’ll tell you what. I’m going to serve communion to these other people. Then, I’m going to come back and serve communion to you and then I would like you to serve it to me.”
The man blinked and said to Tom: “Father, is that legal?” “Yes, it’s legal and that’s what we’re going to do,” Tom answered.
And so, Tom proceeded down the line and served all the other people kneeling there … and then he went back to the man who was reluctant to receive the elements and he said: “What’s your name?”
And the man said, “Josh.”
And Tom placed the elements of the holy meal in front of him and said, “Josh, here is the Body of Christ and here is the Blood of Christ given for you. Eat this and drink this in remembrance that Christ came for you and Christ died for you. Amen.”
Josh blinked back the tears in his eyes … and he received Holy Communion. Then, Tom knelt and handed Josh the trays of bread and wine and said: “Now, you serve me.”
Josh nervously took the trays and again asked: “Father, are you sure this is legal?”
“Yes, it’s legal. Just do it,” Tom answered.
“Josh’s eyes were darting from side to side as he looked over this shoulder and then the other … as if he expected (at any moment) the police, the FBI, the CIA or the Pope to come rushing in to arrest him.
“Finally, he held the trays before Tom and as Tom received the sacrament, Josh muttered: 'Body – Blood – for you, hang in there!'
Tom later said: “Of all the communion rituals I have ever heard, I don’t recall the words ‘Hang in there’ in any of them … but at that moment for me, Holy Communion had never been more ‘Holy.’”
And Josh walked out of the homeless shelter that day with an extra ‘spring in his step,’ and it is reported that he went everywhere saying: “You won’t believe what I did today.” In fact, the story became so widespread that from that day on Josh became known on the streets as ‘The Rev.’”1
The Samaritan woman so stirred up the people in her hometown that they rushed out to the well and when Jesus saw the throng coming he said to his disciples:
“You say that there are four months left until the harvest. I say to you lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white unto harvest.” Jesus was saying to those twelve and to us, “do not draw boundaries around the kingdom of God. Don’t limit its scope. No people, no race, no gender, no sinner is exempt from God’s grace. The time is now and the people are all around.”2
“Those people, too, Lord?” Yes, even the Samaritan woman – even the slut on the corner – even the gossiping neighbor – even the racist coworker – even the rich neighbors with their multi-million dollar homes – even those standing on our street corners seeking a handout – even those who spend way too many hours in the local bar - even those who spend hours chatting or reading in the neighborhood coffee pouring joints that populate our area – even those anti-war and pro-war activists who stand on the corner on Saturday mornings – even those who hold different political views than the norm – even those vegetarians and meat-lovers – even those Presbyterians and those atheists and Catholics and fundamentalists – even those … “Those people, too, Lord?” we want to ask. And the Lord’s answer comes thundering back from the well outside of Synchar, “Yes, even those that make you the most uncomfortable, even those you hate, all are welcome at my table – all are invited to be part of the kingdom – all are given grace.”
James W. Moore, “Encounters With Christ IV: Jesus and the Woman at the Well,” Encounters with Christ (ChristianGlobe Network, Inc., 2001), 0-0000-0000-15.
Brett Blair and Staff, “Living Water for a Thirsty Soul,” Collected Sermons (ChristianGlobe Network, 2005), 0-000-000-001.
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