Luke 7:11-17
Pr. Jim Arends
of Trinity Lutheran Church, Spring Grove, Minnesota, tells of an old cartoon
that pictures a pastor at the pulpit and a deacon sitting behind him with a
grumpy expression on his face. The pastor says, "So until next Sunday,
remember that God loves you, I love you and Brother Al behind me is working on
it."
Prayer
As I prepared this message a
teenager was shot and killed in the city of Flint which is near where I live.
I’m sure this is repeated in the city of Detroit as well. To say that God loves
you and I love you seems like a ridiculously easy thing to do… yet ridiculously
hard thing to accomplish given the places we live in.
Over the past few weeks we’ve
seen expressions of both hate and love. Hate in our streets, destructive &
deadly tornadoes, and love by those who drop everything to help. Even where I
live where a tornado touched down and damaged several homes… people from our
community showed up in droves to help and care for those affected. Literally thousands of people
over the past couple of weeks have offered love & compassion to those whose
lives had been turned upside down. And…. We see such love from the people in
our bible story this morning.
Vs 12… “they saw many people walking and carrying the
body of the widow’s only son.”
I can’t imagine what this
would be like. I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose a child… the hurt
must be devastating. For this widow… not only is it her only son, but also her
means of support and survival. Most women we not self-supporting in Jesus’ day
and you don’t have to go back to far in this country for the same comparisons. Women
relied on husbands and sons for their economic livelihood and survival. Luke’s
story doesn’t mention daughters, so we assume this widow is now alone and in a
world of hurt, both from an economic stand point as well as from an emotional
stand point. And now Jesus and friends encounter a funeral procession. My bible version, CEV says, “He (Jesus)
felt sorry for her”… The NIV has a better translation… “His (Jesus) heart went
out to her.” Which I believe is the heart of the story and how Jesus wants
us to respond in our lives.
What is happening here is
Jesus has COMPASSION for this widow. Feeling
sorry for someone doesn’t really impact a hurting person like your heart going
out towards someone. Feeling sorry for someone doesn’t really inspire you to respond. But, the heart going out… that does
something. If your heart is affected… you have compassion and compassion I
believe not only inspires, but empowers a response.
In Luke’s story… Jesus not
only heals the son, but resurrects him back to life. This is 1 of 4
resurrection stories in the gospels.
Mark 5… Jairus’s Daughter
Mark 5… Jairus’s Daughter
John 11… Lazarus…
and of course Jesus’ resurrection.
While Jesus has the authority to heal and bring people back to life… and while we don’t have the authority to raise people from death back to life… I do believe we have the limited authority to heal people from hurts & pain. And we do this when we have compassion and love for others. When we open our arms to others hurt and pain we are embracing them in God’s love and compassion… this plays a huge roll in a person’s healing.
How does this happen?
First… by Paying Attention.
Are we paying attention to
those around us? Jesus is walking
along, sees a funeral procession & notices the mother… and then responds. Not only does he notice her… His heart
went out to her… he has compassion. Whose
hurting here at Cana? Are we noticing them?
Do we see their tears… their hurt… their struggle? Are we paying attention???
Second… Do we Care?
A colleague says it this way,
“Do we give a crap about others? It’s
easy to just keep walking like those who didn’t stop in the Good Samaritan
story in Luke 10. How many people walked by the beaten and hurting guy? But the unlikely Samaritan cares and
stops to help. Do we care? Or are we
so tied up in our own stuff… our own politics, rules, church prerogatives we
don’t even notice? Do We Care?
Third… Are We Willing to Feel?
Jesus’ heart went out to her…
Jesus was willing & open to feeling the woman’s hurt. This is compassion… and I admit that I sometimes struggle with this…
I believe we all do in some fashion. Feeling…
having Compassion is at the heart of healing.
For us as Christians… the
dead are healed… they are made whole in Christ… there’s no more hurt &
pain. Salvation has come. The living however… there’s where
healing needs our attention.
Diana Butler Bass states in her book, “The End of the
Church & The Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening,” she says, “The word
Salvation has come to mean eternal life in most religious circles, it is
helpful to return to the words Latin root… “Salvus”… meaning Whole, Sound, or
Healed as a way to understand health and wellbeing.”
What she’s saying is healing
doesn’t only upon death… healing can happen when Salvation is expressed as
Compassion we embrace the healing of one’s spirit. So… can we in this faith
community have compassion for others? This is an important question to ask
ourselves. There are some of you that are hurting... you’ve lost your pastor. I
want you to know that I understand… I’ve had to endure this kind of hurt as
well… I feel your hurt… if you want to talk… I am available for you… to listen,
to love, to embrace you with compassion.
Church… can our hearts go out
to those hurting? Can we embrace one another in love? If we can… healing will
take place… it may not be all that supernatural or immediate, but the pathway
to healing will happen. If we can demonstrate as individuals… and as a faith
community this kind of love & compassion… then we will heal like Jesus.
Closing:
Ask congregation to clench their hands to make a fist…
Do you feel the tenseness.
Adolfo Perez Esquivel, in his Nobel Prize acceptance
speech, said this: "Because of our faith in Christ and in humankind, we
must apply our humble efforts to the construction of a more just and humane
world. And I want to declare emphatically: SUCH A WORLD IS POSSIBLE.
To create this new society we must present
outstretched, friendly hands, without hatred, without rancor - even as we show
great determination, never wavering in the defense of truth and justice.
Because we know that seeds are not sown with clenched fists.
TO SOW WE MUST OPEN OUR HANDS."
--10
December 1980 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, as quoted in Anne Broyles,
Meeting God Through Worship (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992), 84.
We mustn’t only open our
hands, but open wide our embrace of the other.
Can we open our hands and
arms wide to embrace love and compassion of others? Can we have a wide embrace
of the other to at least begin the healing?
See You Out on the Road
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