(prayer)
Last Monday, when I found my seat in Commonwealth Stadium for the
annual provincial high school all-star football game ("The Senior
Bowl"), I noticed that all around me were small shiny pieces of
plastic paper (about half an inch by two inches).
I figured out pretty
quickly that it was confetti left
over from the Beyoncé concert a few days earlier.
Queen B's tour was in town
to promote her newest album - which is called Lemonade.
Okay, other than watching
her perform in the Super Bowl halftime show, I haven't listened to the music on
the album (my car radio is usually tuned the oldies station... oldies now-a-days being defined as the
music of the 70s and 80s)... but the all-knowing internet tells me that the
concept theme of Beyoncé's Lemonade record
is "every woman's journey of
self-knowledge and healing".
The album title owes itself
to the 100 year old proverb - when life
gives you lemons, make lemonade.
I am not going to get into
the tabloid speculation of what Beyoncé's lemons
have been, but I am quite sure that none of us needs to be pop-music royalty to relate to optimistic invitation to make
lemonade of life's lemons: to create a sweet option to a bitter situation
//
//
We don't exist in a utopian
paradise devoid of pain, or difficulty, or struggle.
Even though there are texts
at the beginning and end of our Bibles that claim such a paradise as our
'metaphoric' earliest past and
our long-hoped-for future promise, they are not any lasting experience anyone
has yet known in any lasting way.
//
Although, every life has
experiences of wonderfully sweet bliss (that we wish could last forever), we
also lay claim to times of miserable bitterness (that we must -at best - live
though).
//
Last week, I noted that our
best observations tell us that our species has only been around for 0.0014% of
the Universe's history (only about two hundred thousand of fourteen billion
years).
Given that the worldwide
human life expectancy is 71.4 years (82.2 in Canada), on average, each of us
will make up only 0.0000005% (five, ten millionth of one percent) of the span
of creation.
Limiting it just to human
history, each of us holds only 35/1000th of a percent of our species' story.
Feel small, yet?
//
However you do the math, we
are limited by the time we have been graced with.
The potential impact that
each one of us has in this world is finite.
The simple truth is that we - all - will leave more on the table,
when we breath our last. No one leaves
this world having done it all.
//
It is a simple reality to existence that we are hostages to the
scarcity of time.
//
We all know this.
//
And because we all know
this, every person - at some point or another - struggles with what is truly
important to them.
How will we use the time
graced to us?
//
//
The most common guide that
people use... is to make choices that can result in inner joy and comfort
over the long haul.
To varying degrees people
want this not only for themselves but for a circle of those around us. The social question (that each person decides
for themselves) is.. how wide will this
circle be?
//
In an environment of scarcity, some
choice-mechanism needs to be used to decide how best to use what we have
available.
With zero judgment in my voice, I
believe that, in an environment of scarcity, we learn to feel comfortable with tests of worthiness - what/who is worthy
of my time, energy and resources?
And... I will say again, that even the most generous among us will leave good
possibilities on the table at the end of this life.
//
//
Although, Jesus spent most of his life
in the land-locked village of Nazareth, as we read the New Testament, it makes
sense to assume that the seaside fishing village of Capernaum served as Jesus'
home base for later-life career as a travelling teacher and healer.
It was on the shores of the Sea of
Galilee that Jesus is said to have begun to accumulate a group of committed
disciples.
Today, we heard a story from Luke
chapter seven of an encounter in Jesus' adopted home.
//
I must admit that there is much in
today's reading that doesn't sit easy with my 21st century mindset.
Similar to last week's reading from the
book of Acts, the story centres around the entitled value that someone placed
in their indentured servant (slave).
It bears noting that - although the
theme of spiritual liberation is raised throughout the New Testament - the
institution of human slavery is not challenged.. not even by Jesus - as we see
in Luke 7 today.
The best the early church leaders could
do is to proclaim that slavery might divide people in the eyes of the world,
but not in the eyes of God.
And the goal was that people of the church would view all
of the faithful as 'one in christ'.
The Apostle Paul put it the most
clearly in a letter he wrote to the Christians of Galatia:
In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As
many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or
free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are
one in Christ Jesus.
(Galations 3:26-28)
//
Paul needed to write these words because, decades after Jesus walked the
earth, people (proclaiming a faithfulness to Jesus' Way) were still making worthiness judgments towards other
members of the church based on things like gendre, social status, religious
background, nationality.
If that was still a growing edge for
the early Christians 20 years post-easter, we should not be surprised to see worthiness debates in stories from the
life of Jesus.
//
We can infer from the passage today,
that Jesus was relatively new to Capernaum at the time of the story. He had been around long enough to have earned
a reputation as a skilled healer, but short enough that the town's jewish
elders felt the need to share the local history about roman soldiers at the
Centre of today's story.
//
Jesus was being asked to come to the
aid of a person-in-need who (although from a very different cultural community
than Jesus) was held in high esteem by the Hebrew leaders in Capernaum.
//
As I said, there are contextual things
about this passage that bother me. Like
the fact that the centurian's unnamed slave was not really the focus of the
conversation.
Ironically, it was not the person who was ill that Jesus was asked to help. The focus was entirely on the respected Roman
soldier - who was bothered that he would lose the services of his highly valued
slave.
To be fair, the text does not explain
why the slave was so valuable to the centurian.
It could be that he performed services that would be hard to
replace. It could be that a real friendship
(as much as is possible) had developed between master and slave. The cynic in me is drawn toward the end of
the spectrum where the impending death of the centurian's slave was more an
issue of inconvenience than a broken heart.
//
Sadly, through my 21st century glasses,
the issue of whether a sick person was worthy
of healing is never brought up.
And it is not really even the
Centurian's sake that Jesus is asked to act.
The elders' motivation based on their
own selfishness desires. They have
benefited from the philanthropic attitude of the centurian. He put up the money to have the local
synagogue built. In an era of foreign
occupation, the Hebrews living in Capernaum were very fortunate to have an
advocate among the ranks of the occupiers.
"Jesus, you have to help this guy... for our sake!"
//
Even though the core of this story - to
me - seems to be centered on questionable motivations, I do believe that Luke 7
can point us to to helpful reflections for our lives today.
//
//
I think that it is good for us to be
thinking about what it might mean for our spirituality today to see how the
boundaries of worthiness were stretched in today's bible reading.
I am going to try and make some
lemonade out of the lemons.
//
Paul's well-articulated boundaries had
not yet worked their way into the Christian lexicon, but in this story we see
Jesus challenge the assumed boundaries that serve to divide people. These boundaries were one of the first
considerations when faced with limited resources.
Jesus was just one person - there were
innumerable needs for healing in every community. Jesus only had so many hours in a day in which to share his talents.
It just wasn't practical for him to
meet every need.
He needed to set some priorities.
If you had to choose between his own
people and the foreigners (if you could only help the master or the slave),
people will come to their own conclusions of who is most worthy of your
attention.
//
The assumption was that Jesus, the
Jewish mystic rabbi and healer, might be reticent to getting involved with
people outside his own cultural and religious community.
But this centurion held a prominent
place in the lives of the people of Capernaum - Jesus hadn't lived there long
enough to have learned that for himself.
On the surface, it might look like helping the centurion would be crossing
that boundary between Jew and Gentile, but the elders wanted to make the case
that Jesus would be really helping out his own people by helping their wealthy
and powerful benefactor.
"He is worthy", the elders pleaded.
//
As Jesus approached the centurion' home
where the ill slave was, Jesus got a different message from the benefactor -
through his messengers.
"I am not worthy to have you in my home."
I never know how to take this part of
the passage.
If we take it on face value, it is a
high compliment towards Jesus and an unusual self-condemnation by the
soldier. But it seems counter to the
centurion's original request. Remember
it was he who approached the Jewish
elders about asking Jesus to heal the slave.
If that is where the message ended, it
would sound like the centurion was backing out.
But... it was a challenge for Jesus to
perform the healing in a non-conventional way.
There would be no physical exam, no balms or herb tonics.
"Heal my valued salve with the
power of your will alone, Jesus."
Here is where the centurion changes
tune. No longer is he too lowly to have
great Jesus in his midst. Now they are peers.
"I am a commander. I don't need to go to the front line of a
battle to wage war. I simply have to
order my soldiers to go and do my bidding.
Because, I have power over them, because I control them, they do what I
say."
"Jesus, you don't need to come to
the front line. Order your spirit of
healing to do your bidding from out here in the street."
Was this deep humble faith on the part
of the centurion or was it a test of Jesus' authority?
As the early Christians reflected on
this story over the years, they told it as a story of faith that ignored the
boundaries between people.
This story supported the reality of the
time when Luke's gospel was written that the faith movement centred in Jesus
included but Jews and non-Jews.
//
It still bothers me that the actual
person who is in need of healing is all but a footnote to the story, but I do
like the fact that Jesus' chooses to bring a wide healing to more than just one
person.
By ignoring the wall between people,
Jesus shows that God's love and compassion are not as limited as we might be
prone to assume.
The lemonade I see in this lemon of a
healing story is that - in the end the focus is on the impact on the people
most affected... and how they are immersed in the life of the wider community.
//
//
//
As I pointed out earlier, during the
story time, you can't make lemonade with only
lemons.
Somewhere along the way, life has to
have given you some other ingredients that when mixed in the right proportions
to transform the bitter into sweet. Or
more accurately bitter into bittersweet (part of the enjoyment of lemonade is
its tartness). The harshness of the
lemons remains, but it is tempered.
//
So it is with life and ministry.
We are limited in our
time... that is the bitter truth... so the challenge is to use our time as well
as possible - consistent with our best hope and desires for ourselves.
One of the other things
given to us in this life is a faith that God limited by human divisions.
Jesus invites us to stretch
our circles of care outward. When we
think it can't stretch any further, Jesus lovingly whispers... push harder... you can go a little further.
//
//
Yes, we are finite beings.
We have limits and
limitations.
We are NOT God with the
capacity to express and live out a practical compassion to meet every lonely
need in the world, each of us, on our own.
And yet we are gifted with
as much of the loving resources of our God that our limited hearts and minds
can hold.
In our mind, we are invited
(as Paul wrote to the Galations and as Jesus demonstrated in Capernaum), the
barriers of unworthiness are to be brought down and ignored by the people of
Christ.
So, intellectually, emotionally, we are challenged to see no one
(any where) as unworthy of our concern, worry and care... to love as we profess
that God loves.
The limitations of time and
energy means that - as individual people of faith our circles of influence will
always feel as if they are not wide enough.
We may believe that everyone is worthy of our care, but only a portion
of that 'everyone' is within our personal influence.
We can approach that two
ways:
We can lament that our
circle is never wide enough and see ourselves as less than worthy followers of
Jesus; or
We can stretch the circle
of our influence to the limit gifted to us AND trust that - there are others
doing the same.
As our circles intersect,
the worthiness of the whole of God's creation is upheld.
//
Let us pray:
God of Grace, the Good News is clear:
there is no one who is unworthy of your compassion. Nothing we do or think stops you from loving
us with all your heart. We pray that
your love is contagious and that we will shine that light to the world. Amen.
#145MV
“Draw the Circle Wide”
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