“Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” These days, we don’t really consider eating food sacrificed to idols to be anywhere on our list of dilemmas. Nobody makes documentaries about it or writes ethics books about it. But we do have considerations to weigh in which we have personal choice that doesn’t matter in the least to God which choice we make, however how it affects our neighbor is the key consideration and does matter to God, a lot.
Last year this reading could have
been interpreted to apply to the wearing of masks. Everyone makes their own choice about whether
to mask or not, however we have to consider those around us with vulnerable
immune systems. It is one thing to chose
for yourself whether to risk getting sick, but we will all be held accountable
if we infect someone else, especially those most vulnerable. This year I see it applying to vaccines. We all have a personal choice to make based
on our views, our doctor’s advice, and finally our effect on our neighbor. We are a nation based on the principles of
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We believe in individual rights.
But we forget that God looks at the whole picture and sees the plight of
the weak and asks us if life might be more fulfilling when we consider the most
vulnerable.
Pastors are nowhere on the timeline
in Washington to get the vaccine.
Neither are childcare workers, for that matter, who are first in line in
Oregon. Pastors in other states are at
the front of the list, since they are considered front-line workers, visiting
the sick and imprisoned and caring for the elderly and most vulnerable. Out here in the wild west, people don’t know
what pastors do, so we fall to the end of the line.
Although I plan to get the vaccine
when I can, I don’t mind waiting. I have
been so excited to see on FaceBook my healthcare worker friends getting theirs
and hearing from you about your appointments.
I know that my turn will come and when I do I imagine tears of joy. This virus has had such a hold on us and I am
in awe of God’s work through medical science to bring a vaccine so
quickly. I imagine what it must have
been like in 1918 to have to stay home without the benefit of technology to
communicate, never knowing if another wave was on its way. God has given us such advances in medical
science, research that had already been happening on other forms of corona
virus—I give praise to God and thanks to people who had the foresight to work
on this over the years to bring us some relief from this terrible illness.
Whenever someone else gets the
vaccine, I give thanks to God, even though it isn’t me, because that person is
a precious child of God, that person will not be spreading the virus to another
precious child of God, and that person will be protected by the healing power
of God who has given us the gift of medical science and people working around
the clock to ensure that people are protected.
Each person who receives it brings us all one step closer to being able
to visit people in the hospital or assisted living or prison. It brings me one step closer to meet my niece
who is a year and a half. It brings us
one step closer to in-person church. It
brings us one step closer to seeing a movie in a theater and eating out at a
restaurant. It brings us one step closer
to a return to school. It brings us one
step closer to health, wholeness, and hope.
This man in the synagogue is one of
these vulnerable people. If he was here
we’d probably mute him. He’s making a
ruckus. The other people there are
embarrassed. They don’t know what to
do. They are looking anywhere but at
him, hoping that ignoring him will make him go away. They feel helpless. Their community is incomplete. Maybe they knew him as a youngster. Maybe they saw him going down a path of
mental illness or falling prey to an unclean spirit. Or maybe he’s a transient that’s just walked
in the door that they have never seen
in their lives. This man is suffering and his suffering is
causing pain in the community—nothing like the pain he’s feeling. Jesus is our great healer. He moves toward the pain, toward the wounds,
toward the unclean, toward the vulnerable.
The unclean spirit recognizes Jesus, the Holy One of God. Jesus’ own disciples, own mother and
siblings, the scribes and pharisees and priests don’t recognize who he is, but
this unclean spirit does and names him, proclaims truth. And Jesus casts the unclean spirit out.
People
are amazed at Jesus’ authority. Maybe it
is because he’s just completed his rabbinical studies. He’s a young rabbi, just starting out and he
speaks with authority and wisdom. But
what they don’t know is that Jesus is the Christ Spirit that has been at work
throughout the ages. His authority comes
as the author of life. There is
something very different about Jesus.
His authority comes from his integrity—what he says matches what he does
and he does a whole lot more than he says.
He feeds the poor and heals the lepers and crosses the borders between
Judea and Samaria, crosses boundaries between clean and unclean, Jew and
Gentile, men and women. His words and
actions are consistent.
The unclean spirit recognizes his
foe from over the millennia. The unclean spirit divides people, it makes them
sick, and not just individuals, but whole communities. This man’s disturbances have wreaked havoc in
this and other communities for years.
His parents blamed themselves, their neighbors blamed his parents,
everyone wondered where they went wrong, they longed for him to fully
participate in community, but they were afraid and helpless. Jesus brings his willingness to go toe to toe
with this unclean spirit. He brings his
authority, his integrity to face what and who is uncomfortable. Jesus goes to the one that is hurting the
most and gives his healing power. This
man certainly was not the only one there suffering from an unclean spirit. There were spirits of pride, of greed, of
jealousy, of arrogance. But this man was
the one who was so weakened by this unclean spirit that he was able to receive
the healing of Jesus, and from this one act of healing, it truly did work like
a vaccine, in that it brought healing to the whole community. Everyone was affected by this healing. They saw that if someone like this could
approach Jesus, maybe they could too.
They saw Jesus giving his time and energy to someone they had written
off—maybe it was time for them to invest in someone that they considered to be
a lost cause. Maybe their troubles were
not hopeless, if Jesus could heal this man.
As long as he was sick, their community could not be whole.
Our country’s values are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
God’s values are abundant life, liberation, and the pursuit of
wholeness. Abundant life—living fully in
relationship with God and all other beings, thriving in the fullness of
life. Liberation—being freed from that
which is reducing your life, isolation, selfishness, greed, racism, oppression
to serve God and neighbor and be in healthy relationship and community. And the
pursuit of wholeness, which is discovering who you are, God’s precious child
and using your gifts or living your vocation or calling in service to God for
the common good of all that God has created.
It is about living our calling with authenticity, practicing what we preach,
continually learning and growing.
This week I attended Bishop’s
Convocation for the Northwestern Washington Synod, a gathering of rostered
leaders, pastors and deacons from Vancouver to Federal Way to Port Angeles and
Forks and Aberdeen. We received
anti-racism training. A big take away
for me was an acknowledgement that as a white person I am used to being
comfortable and others assimilating to the way I do things. People of color in our culture are accustomed
to feeling uncomfortable—stared at, suspected, avoided, targeted. One thing Jesus did, he moved toward
the discomfort, he approached people
different from him and he learned and grew and showed us all a vision of the
beloved community, the people of God. I
am challenging myself to move toward discomfort, so that God can teach me, heal
me, and bring healing to our communities.
No comments:
Post a Comment