When you cut yourself, the body has an amazing way of creating a scab to heal over the outside of the cut while the body continues healing on the inside. Healing inside healing. When the deepest part of the cut is healed, the scab naturally falls off and the final part of healing occurs.
Our gospel lesson speaks of two moments of healing; healing inside of healing. First Jairus approaches Jesus to heal his daughter. Inside that story we hear of the woman who hemorrhaged for 12 years being made well by touching Jesus’ cloak. Then Jairus’ daughter, who is declared dead, is brought back to life; healing of disease, restoration of life. At first these two stories seem unrelated. One is acute while the other is chronic. One person is grown and the other is only 12 years old. Jesus heals both these two marginal people; a woman unclean and destitute, and a little girl with very little status. Jesus healed many people, many marginal people; the blind man, the leper, the paralytic, these two women. Jesus healed marginal people. Jesus welcomed marginal people. Jesus loves all people!
This week I have been struggling with two unrelated events that need Jesus’ healing. I pray Jesus would heal the way we think about and address homelessness in our community. Before you tune me out, I want to remind you that Jesus was homeless. For the three years of his ministry, Jesus went from town to town preaching God’s word, without a place to call his own. The people we so lovingly refer to as disciples were homeless too. Well we know some had homes like when Jesus visited Peter’s home to heal his mother-in-law. But the disciples left their families and their homes to follow Jesus. Jesus was homeless, but somehow we see those who are in our community without shelter as, dare I say it, “bums.” Of course they are not; each one is a child of God and a person Jesus died on the cross to save just like you and me. Yet we get uncomfortable when we drive past the Homeless Services Center on the way to Costco. Then we hear Jesus’ words “whatever you do for the least of these who are members of my family, you do also for me” (Mt. 25:40).
I guess that is why I worked to gather the faith community together to address the needs of the homeless in our community. Back in November we gathered 17 churches in the mid-county region to work on this. We considered housing homeless on our campus, but after much prayer and consideration decided to team up with the ongoing ministry to homeless in the Aptos area. St. Andrew has committed to pray for those without shelter for the month of July and I ask that you take that request to heart. Pray for their health, their wellbeing, the place they will one day call home. Pray with great compassion. Pray for them the things you would like in your life. In the fall we will collect travel sized toiletries to share with the men and women who gather for a hot meal on Resurrection campus every Saturday at noon.
I am so thrilled that St. Andrew has risen to the challenge to take food to the Recuperative Care Center twice a month. This is a generous gift of grace. “Charis” is the Greek word for grace and one translated also as “generous undertaking” in Paul’s letter. You also have an opportunity for a “generous undertaking” as you consider if you feel called to contribute to the Homeless Services Center. Paul was asking for the support of Christ’s church, but the question still applies, is there “a fair balance between your present abundance and their need?” (v.13-14). Only you can answer that. I pray the answer is a generous undertaking.
Friday evening, President Obama powerfully reminded us, “Grace is the free and benevolent love of God” as he moved this nation with words to eulogize the nine African American slain Christians, gunned down in a Charleston AME church. Oh do we need healing inside of healing! Since that tragic and hate filled day we have all been reminded of the great racial divide that plagues our nation. I saw pictures of postcards sold door to door of black men being lynched. Now black and white people were hung in the south, lynching was racial terrorism; seeking to control, terrorize and oppress blacks. I was amazed to learn that Martin Luther King Day in three southern states is shared with the Confederate General Robert E. Lee. More recently we have watched countless black men being killed in our streets and a disproportionate number of blacks incarcerated.
We are finally facing the uncomfortable truth about racial bias, about our racism. Our faith demands we look at our thoughts, behaviors, beliefs and culture and ask ourselves, “What part do I personally play in racism and poverty?” If your answer is none, I ask you to look again. For healing inside of healing to occur, we get to be honest with ourselves, maybe even pull off the scab and look a little closer, look a little deeper. For so long our nation has convinced itself that we are a country where everyone is equal, but that is not the truth of how we live. As Bryan Stevenson wrote, “Slavery did not end in 1865, it just evolved” (The Marshall Project). Racism is a disease – a cancer in our society – and I pray we can take the medicine needed to hear Jesus’ words said to us, “Your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (vs. 34). Healing the disease of racism; restoring life to our nation. I pray the cloak of Jesus will cover this nation with Christ’s healing power creating healing inside of healing that will transform lives and racial biases so that we can live in equality and hope.
Hope in the grace the families of the slain victims shared.
Hope in the Confederate flag being removed from Wal-Mart shelves
and from flying over State capitols.
Hope in our thoughtful reflection and self-examination of our racial biases.
Hope in our President, the President of the United States, singing Amazing Grace at Rev. Clementa Pickney’s memorial service.
Hope in the hymn, the prayer, we will sing closing this worship. It was written by Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, a PCUSA pastor in Willington Delaware. She finished composing these lyrics at 4 am last Saturday and posted them on Facebook. Danny Massie the Sr. Pastor at my first church is now serving in Scot’s Presbyterian Church in Charleston and they sang this hymn that Sunday. Four days after the shooting in their town. The hymn made it all the way to Glasgow Scotland with the words read while the pastor lit 10 candles- nine for the victims, and one at the foot of Christ’s cross.
Let us have hope in Christ’s healing inside of healing. Amen.
