Preached on Sunday, January 20, 2019
Scripture
readings: 2 Kings 5:1-19; Matthew 9:1-13
Usually,
when people ask me how I’m doing, I just say: “Fine! How are you?” Sometimes
they’re already gone by then, because “how are you” can be just like saying “Howdy,
catch you later!”.
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| Looking around near Bridgeport Bridge Near Malakoff Diggins and North Bloomfield California, May 2015 |
This
winter, this past month, when people ask how I’m doing I tell them how long
I’ve had my cold; and I explain how this is not because I’m getting old. It’s
because I’ve always had disgustingly long colds. I go on to tell them how my
roommates in college would complain about how long my cold had been going on,
and how annoying I was, and why didn’t I go to the doctor?
Maybe
that’s why it might be more polite, sometimes to just say “fine”?
No, when
I ask you how you are, I really want to know. I Want to know how you are!
I wanted
to be an astronomer, off and on, when I was a kid. I still have a small
telescope that my parents bought for me when I was about ten years old. It’s
been a couple of years since I’ve taken it out but I have used it, now and then.
I’ve used it since I’ve lived here.
In the
summer, I like to put a cot out in my back yard, with a sleeping bag, and just
lie there looking up. I like looking at the stars and the planets and guessing
which ones they are.
All of
you are just like that!
To me, at
least.
I mean, I
really could just stare, and stare at you and wonder what you are and where you
really are, way up there in the heavens above me.
Last
Sunday I started a short series of messages in which I want to think and share
what it might mean to care for the spiritual needs of others. How can we do
that when we are like distant but wonderful stars and planets moving in the
circles of the heavens? We’re all so mysterious.
That
could be a good way of playing it safe with each other. One of the scary things
my mom said to me when I was a child and I had done something wrong was this:
“I can read you like a book.” That sure scared me. And school teachers claimed
to have eyes in the back of their heads. Grown-ups were strange creatures who
could know everything about you without your even saying a word. They know
exactly what you will do next, and you can never know what they have in mind
about you.
Now that
I’ve more or less grown up, I don’t quite buy into that scary part anymore. I
know that I can’t read you like a book. Although, I have been held responsible,
before, for things that I should have known without having been told.
That’s
just not in my grasp. If you tell me something important and expect me to read
between the lines in order to “get it”, that will never, never happen. I am
incapable of reading between the lines.
It can be
a lonely thing, being a star out in the Milky Way, so far from the other stars.
How can we help others in their need if we can’t read them? How can we ever
hope to have our own inner needs understood and cared for if we are such
mysterious creatures to each other?
We could
share more. We could talk more, and be more personal.
That would
help.
But that
can be hard, too. And, then, what if our own hearts seem as far away from us as
the stars and the planets of everyone else? What if you are too separated from
your own star to know what’s really going on way out there, or way in there?
Today’s
readings from the scriptures tell us about how the spiritual needs of people,
including our own, can be hidden and disguised, or else How these needs can become
visible, and clear, and accessible to our care, and the caring of others.
Naaman the Syrian General with his leprousy; the paralyzed guy who was carried
by his friends to Jesus; and the tax officer named Matthew, who because the
source of our first gospel, all showed their spiritual needs that differed
greatly from their apparent needs, or lack of needs.
I mean
they all showed their innermost, genuine needs to Jesus. The people in the
crowd hardly had a clue.
In the
gospel, Jesus gave the young paralytic exactly what he came for, which was
healing, but healing was not the first this he needed. The first Jesus gave him
something completely different from physical healing. Jesus gave him
forgiveness first.
Jesus
gave Matthew something that no one else of his own people would ever dream of
giving him. Most of his own people wouldn’t have given Matthew the time of day,
if he asked for it. (Of course, no one had watches back then, to tell the time
by.) Matthew’s real need was for forgiveness, like the paralyzed guy. Or, was
it acceptance? Was it a purpose that mattered?
The young
paralyzed man and his friends came to Jesus because he clearly needed more help
than any human being could possibly give him. No human being could take away
his paralysis. His best friends gave him the only thing they had to give by
bringing him to Jesus; whatever Jesus might be.
All five
young men were people of faith. They had no theologically and Biblically
correct idea of who in the world Jesus was. But I think they could have said
something like: “This Jesus comes from God. He comes right here to our town and
he can take care of absolutely any need that anyone brings to him. Maybe he’s
the king Daniel writes about, who goes to heaven on the clouds to sit on the
throne with God. Who can know?”
It would
be nice if the five of them knew this. But they may not have been that clear.
It was only clear that Jesus was wonderful, and that he helped everyone who
came to him.
Matthew
had no faith. Maybe he once had a faith he had said “no” to. In any case, he
had left his faith behind to work for the Roman dogs who had invaded and occupied
the land that God had promised to Israel.
There’s
no sign that Matthew was aware of any spiritual need at all. He as doing quite
well, thank you. Matthew didn’t come to Jesus at all, let alone ask Jesus for
anything.
Jesus
came to him. Only Jesus saw Matthew’s real need.
Jesus
came as a care giver for those in spiritual need. The healings, the miracles,
the turning around of people lives, and calling them away from their old way of
life (whether fisherman or taxman) was only part of the caregiving purpose of
Jesus.
In the
twentieth chapter of Matthew, Jesus tells us that he has a caregiving job to
restore the world to God. The job of caregiver, no matter how big and great, is
still always the job of a servant. “Whoever is great among you must be your
servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the
Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom
for many.” (Matthew 20:26-28)
Jesus
came to save an enslaved world. We are born with a need to be ransomed from the
slavery of the sin of the world.
The Old
and New Testaments, from that point of view, both give us servants (except for
Elisha’s servant) who know how to help, and (more importantly) servants who know
the root of the need.
The
servant girl knew where the general could be healed. The general’s servants
knew that their “father” (as they call him) needed to stop playing the hero and
the great man, if he wanted to be healed. The general, after his tantrum, thoughtfully
listened to the wisdom of his daily caregivers.
Because
their identity as servants taught them their master’s greatest need, he became
a changed man. He became a servant of the God of Israel.
The
prophet Elisha had, from the very first, given the general a little task for
his deeper healing. Elisha knew how to do this because he was, at heart, a
servant. Elisha knowingly gave, for the general’s physical healing, a silly,
repetitive, boring task, that could easily humiliate him, and enrage him.
The
prophet was a caregiver, too, and was wise, like any servant of Jesus, to read
between the lines and see the real need, not the obvious need. Serious
caregivers learn how to look deeper, and go deeper, than others can see or do.
Jesus,
from the first, gave the young, paralyzed man the forgiveness of his sins.
Two
things make us forget that there is a simple purpose in forgiveness and so (if
that is true) then Jesus intended to give forgiveness, plain and simple. The
Pharisees turn forgiveness into a distraction and a complication.
In his
effort to reach out to them, Jesus asks them to use this forgiveness to learn
from him more willingly. Jesus tells them that now they know what his authority
is, but that’s not why he started with forgiveness in the first place.
First, I
want to explain something about authority in the Bible. There are a couple
words for authority and power in the New Testament language. This one is
“exousia” which cannot be passed on to anyone, although it may be shared.
Exousia, in this way means “substance”. It has to be part of what you’re made
of. There is a substance to being a spouse or a parent that really can’t be
given to you. It must be ingrained in you, in these cases, over time, and they
are never finished forming.
Ok, when
it’s not part of who you are by birth, it must be learned, and you never stop
needing to learn learning.
The
authority of forgiveness in Jesus is a very part of him. In the animal kingdom,
some animals (like wolves and dogs, maybe with the exception of poodles) are
essentially, substantially predators. It’s their inborn authority to be
predators.
Jesus is
a forgiver. It’s as essential to the nature of Jesus as the authority of love. Because
God is love. Jesus shares the nature and authority of God.
It may
sound as though Jesus gives us the authority to go out into the world, but it
is actually, always his authority, and not our own. Jesus’ authority is not a
matter like saying that “the buck stops here”. It means that when we do what we
are authorized to do, we are not doing it on our own.
Jesus is
doing our task with us, and through us. Every act of our authority is a
partnership, and a communion with Jesus. Jesus is being the caregiver through
us.
The
wisdom of the Caregiving God is working through us, helping us to see what
others don’t see. The wisdom of the Caregiving God, in Jesus, is helping us to go
and to do what others don’t know how to go and do.
The young,
paralyzed guy needed forgiveness more than anything else. This much is the same
with all of us. We all need forgiveness more than anything else.
But there
was something that only Jesus could see. It wasn’t that sin or shame caused the
paralysis. Forgiveness was simply the greatest need in this one person’s life. In
some way his life was marked by failure that made him ashamed. It overshadowed
him in a way that may not be common to most of us.
Without
the wisdom of the Caregiving God, in Jesus, we might miss the need in others
for simple, unconditional grace and forgiveness. We are called to be servants
who serve with caregiving wisdom to forgive others with the love and grace of
God.
Matthew’s
greatest need was to be a servant of the Kingdom of God and not of the Empire
of Caesar. Matthew needed to be the traitor and thief among the first disciples
called by the grace of the Lord.
Matthew
needed this, because we all need a traitor and thief to be loved, and close,
and a chosen servant of Jesus. It’s by Jesus caring for the need that he saw in
Matthew that we know that Jesus can call us away from being thieves and
traitors; and not be like Judas.
Not
everyone can come, and love, and serve Jesus as an honest man or woman. We, in
order to be true servants of Jesus, need to know this. We, ourselves, need a
life changing call. There are people around us who need a life changing call
and purpose in life. There are people whose greatest needs may be acceptance
and purpose.
We might
only see those who don’t deserve such a call or invitation, but the wisdom of
the Caregiver God, in Jesus, will tell us otherwise. Our own hearts will be changed
by that wisdom to change the lives of the spiritually failed and loveless into
the inspired and beloved of Jesus.
Naaman
must have had a real spiritual need lodged underneath his outstanding
competence and his ability to be recognized for always coming to save the day.
The caregiver Elisha healed Naaman not only by having him wash in Israel’s
river, but made him, from that time on, an undercover Israelite behind enemy
lines. When Naaman led the king of Syria into the royal temples, he was really
worshiping the God of Israel and the Father of Jesus Christ, to come.
There are
people who have the spiritual need to live with family and friends as if he or
she is an undercover agent behind enemy lines. They may live in a world empty
of the people of Jesus to love and understand them. We see their real need. We
are ready to be there for them, to help them.
What
benefits came to those whose deeper needs were met? Did they go on to live
happy, fulfilled, successful lives?
Naaman
had to live the rest of his life knowing that so much of what he did was
fulfilling his duty to the wrong side. He had his troops, his treasures won in
war, his palace and his servants who called him “father”, but he lived the rest
of his life knowing that the world should not be the way it is. He lived
knowing that he was of very little use where he was, and he would watch
everything go on to the breaking of his heart. Naaman went on to become sad,
but wise.
The
forgiven and healed young man may have gone on to live the rest of his life as
a normal, ordinary, independent human being. What a great gift that would be,
don’t you think?
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| Malakoff Diggins, old hydraulic mine Looking across that big hole in the round |
If he and
his family went on in living faithful to Jesus after the Cross, and the
Resurrection, and Pentecost, he would have been a perfectly normal human being
who would have to keep his priorities clear and hold onto Jesus, no matter how
the persecuting world was moving around him, and maybe against him. He would be
persecuted, but useful to his brothers and sisters in Christ, and possibly
happy in spite of the fear, or persecution.
In the
rest of his life, following Jesus, Matthew traveled with the good news of Jesus
to a whole lot of places (Persia/Iran, the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and
especially south of Egypt) South of Egypt is said to be where he was a very
successful witness for Jesus. He was so successful that he was killed there (burned
alive) for his success. We just don’t know much about Matthew and how he ended.
There are
other spiritual needs hidden in the stars of the souls around us. Caregiver
Jesus, calls us to be caregivers with him to these and many, many others.
We can’t merely
say, “How are you,” and know what to do. We don’t know where our caregiving
will take those we help or where the help we receive will take us, in life. But
we can learn what servants learn when we start serving the Servant-Lord Jesus.
