Sunday, February 14, 2010
Luke 5:17-26
Minister of Discipleship
This scripture
passage may be one of the most famous stories of Jesus ever told. Our children’s choir camp even did a musical
about this story just a couple of years ago.
Most of the times we read or hear this story, we focus on the men
carrying their friend or maybe the friend himself. Sometimes we even focus on the crowd or the homeowner and how
they must have felt when these men appeared from up on the roof. But today, I would like us to consider
Jesus’ point of view – how did it feel to be interrupted in the middle of his
important teaching? We all know what it
is like to get interrupted when we are in the middle of something important. It can be frustrating, even irritating……How
did you feel when the youth suddenly came running out just as we were beginning
the service this morning. Sure, once
you stopped to think about it, you probably figured it had to do with today’s
message. But, for just a second or two
didn’t it trigger something within you and remind you of the last time you got
interrupted? A friend I worked with a number of years ago
(who got interrupted often) used to
call it “getting pecked to death by chickens.”
That’s what interruptions often feel like. They aren’t life-shattering, they just
“peck” away at your time and your focus and your energy. They get in the way of what you were
intending to do. They can de-rail your
train of thought. Sometimes they can
even sap your energy. They can come
from family or friends or co-workers or sometimes from people you don’t even
know. But, one thing they have in
common – they cause you to shift your attention from what YOU were planning to
do to someone else’s agenda. That is
what happened in this story in Luke’s gospel.
Jesus had a plan.
He had a reason for being in that house on that day. He was teaching. And, this is important teaching – just look at who was in the
crowd: Pharisees and other teachers of the law. This was an important opportunity for Jesus to help them begin to
understand God’s law in a new and significant way. This was early in his ministry and he was just beginning to lay
out his teaching plan. After years of
working at home and waiting for the right time, it was Jesus’ chance to turn
people’s thoughts and hearts around to a new way of living out their faith.
In the midst of this significant time of teaching, an
interruption occurs. This is not the
only time that Jesus’ planned ministry will be interrupted. The gospel narratives are filled with
examples of Jesus beginning a lesson only to be interrupted by someone with
their own plans or needs or words to speak.
Perhaps all these stories of interruptions are in themselves an
important lesson for us.
The first lesson for us to learn is that this is a
person, not an interruption. After the
four friends have totally disrupted the lecture, the scripture says they
brought their friend and lay him before Jesus and Jesus “sees their faith.” He doesn’t just stop, wait for the dust to
settle, and then go back to what he was doing.
First, he acknowledges their presence.
He looks to see who this is that has caused the interruption. He sees them as people who need something,
not just an interruption. Once an
interruption has happened and our train of thought is de-railed, we have that
moment of opportunity to either put things right back “on track” or take a
moment to look more carefully at the cause of the interruption.
Sunday evening I
was doing what I imagine many of us were doing – I was watching the Super Bowl
– when suddenly the phone rang. Of
course, that was an unwanted, unexpected interruption, especially since the
Saints were just beginning to pull it together! My first thought was, “who in their right mind would be calling
during the Super Bowl?” But, I decided
I better at least check the caller id and see who it was. I recognized the last
name and decided I better mute the TV and pick up the phone. As it turned out, it was important and I am
glad that I was able to talk to that person for a few minutes. In those moments being about to share
compassion was more important than watching the “most important game of the
year.” I will freely admit that there
have been many other times when I have been interrupted by the phone and when I
see it is one of those irritating 800 numbers, I just go back to whatever I was
doing and don’t worry about it. But, it is always important to take that
moment and ask yourself….who is this?
Is this a person with a need or just another interruption?
I had never been
a big fan of “reality tv” until a friend encouraged me to watch “Extreme
Makeover” Now it is one of the few
times during the week when I purposely sit and watch television! Each week “Extreme Makeover – Home Edition”
selects a family who have given of themselves in some way to their community
while living in a house that is literally falling apart. They surprise the family and send them away
on a vacation while they tear down and rebuild their house in a week. The stories you hear are so inspiring and
very moving. Just a couple of weeks ago
they surprised an older woman named Clara.
Miss Clara is confined to a wheel chair, but she hasn’t let that stop
her from changing the lives of many children in her neighborhood in Erie, PA.
Her neighborhood
is struggling as many neighborhoods are today.
There is poverty and vandalism.
Miss Clara is confined to a wheelchair and spent a lot of time looking
out her front window watching the children in the neighborhood. Most of these children and youth had no
supervision. Their parents were
working multiple jobs or were absent from their lives completely. Many people would see these children running
wildly through the streets and into the yards as a distraction, maybe even a
threat, but, not Miss Clara. After
watching these children from her window for a while, she asked her grown son
who lived with her to roll her out into the front yard so she could talk to the
children. As time went on, she invited
the kids into her yard where they could play and talk and even do their
homework. She even enlisted her son –
who is legally blind – to help the kids with their homework!
“Extreme
Makeover” interviewed a few of these kids and they all said the same thing,
“Miss Clara cares about me.” “Miss
Clara encourages me to do better in school.”
One little girl said that she had never had anyone ask her if she had
done her homework before she met Miss Clara.
Now, this young girl has developed a real sense of pride and plans to go
on and become a nurse so she can help other people just like Miss Clara has
helped her and her sisters. Some of the
neighbors saw these kids as nothing more than a distraction in the
neighborhood; Miss Clara saw them as
children who needed healing. It’s all
in how you approach the interruption.
Once you are
able to determine that an interruption is a person, not just a distraction you
then have the opportunity to decide how you will respond. The thing that makes interruptions so
irritating is that they take you away from your original plan. When that happens, we must decide how we
will respond. Missions work can be a
great teacher when it comes to learning how to respond to interruptions. When you go through Volunteers In Mission
training one of the most important lessons they teach you is the difference
between the “task” of your mission project and the “purpose” of your mission
project. The “task” may be
re-roofing a house or painting a school
or installing a toilet . But, your
purpose is “sharing the love of Jesus Christ in ways that make a Christian
difference.” This is hard lesson for
most of us to learn. We are task
oriented people. We make plans; We set goals; And, we intend to complete the task no matter what it takes. This is fine until you meet a young child
who wants to talk because no one else has time to listen to them. It works fine until you find that there are
a group of people standing around who have never seen people who look like you
working in their neighborhood and they want to know why you are there.
Suddenly, what
looks like an interruption to the work plan becomes an opportunity to see God’s
healing presence. On our trip to
Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina we saw how this might work. Our team was assigned to work on the roof of
a woman who had had her own beauty salon in Moss Point. She had been able to salvage some of her
equipment and had gone back to helping the women in the area – giving them a
short respite from the dirty work of mucking out their homes. Each morning she would hang around a little
while as we arrived for work and want to talk.
She had collected pictures of the devastation from her clients and put
them into a scrapbook that she wanted to share with each member of the team. She had story after story to tell us. At first, it seemed like this was a
distraction, an interruption from our work day. It was keeping us from getting our job done – our job of
re-roofing her house. Then the last day
she came to bring us lunch and as we all sat down to eat we saw she had tears
in her eyes. And, she said, “I don’t
know how to thank you for all you have done.
The roof is nice, but what I really mean is, you have given me a chance
to talk to someone. I listen to these
horrible stories every day from my clients and every day I see the horrible
mess all around me and I never had anyone I could to talk about how I was
feeling.” “She ended by telling us,
“Now I know that God has time for me.
Even the midst of all this horrible mess and all God has to do, I must
be important to God because God sent you to listen to me.” When we take the time for a some
conversation, when we share some snacks
together (we always have snacks, we are
Methodists after all!), when we find the time for a game of soccer or jump
rope, we have told these people that
they are not interruptions, they are children of God. We have shown them that God has time for them.
This all sounds
great on paper, but how do you really live it out? How did Jesus find the strength and the patience to deal with all
the interruptions and all the changes in his ministry plan? The answer is in the scripture we read
today. Luke 5: 17b states, “the power
of the Lord was with him to heal.” This
is an interesting statement if you think about it. Earlier in verse 17 Luke says that Jesus was teaching and all
these important people (Pharisees and teachers of the law) were there to hear
him. Then it says that the power of God
was with him for healing. He wasn’t
doing healing at the time, he was teaching….hum….. I think Luke wants us to know that even when we think we have a
plan, God is preparing us for something else!
We may set out to roof a house, but God is planning to heal a woman in
need of a caring ear. This is how it
works. God can use many of the
interruptions in our lives as moments for healing and caring, but only if we
are filled with God’s power.
Where do we get
such power? Luke has an answer for that
also. Look at the verse just above
where we began today. Jesus has been
working hard; Jesus is busy as many
people would gather around him for his teaching or healing, but according to
verse 16, “he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.” We will never be able to deal effectively
with the hectic pace of daily life much less the interruptions which occur if
we do not withdraw to “deserted places” and pray. Prayer and quiet time alone with God provide the power and the
discernment and the gentle spirit we need for all those moments that will come
upon us unexpectedly! Henri Nouwen, the
great spiritual writer and teacher, once stated, “Jesus was always listening
and in touch with God, and out of his intimacy with God there was a power that
radiated out to everyone.” [Spiritual
Direction – Wisdom for the Long Walk of Faith, pg 130]
“A Godly power
that radiates out to everyone”…..what a wonderful thought! Wouldn’t it be great to have such power and
to watch it radiate out to those around you?
I imagine we all would like to have such a gift to share with others,
but it doesn’t always happen. I have
seen this in my own life. I am not as
caring, I do not stop and evaluate the distractions and interruptions, I do not
respond nearly as well when I have missed my meditation time for a day or
so. If Jesus even needed such times
away to be with God, how can we ever think that we can be Christ-like in our
behaviors without such a discipline?
This Wednesday
we will begin the time in the Christian year we call Lent. It is a time for renewing our commitment to
a Christ-like life. Lent is a time to
practice and strengthen the spiritual disciplines. This could be the perfect time to work on opening ourselves and
filling ourselves regularly with God’s power of love and healing. This year during Lent we will be providing
such an opportunity: Each Tuesday
during Lent beginning Feb 23, over the lunch hour – from 12:15pm to 12:45pm we
will be holding a special time of prayer and quiet reflection in the
chapel. There will be no sermon or
special liturgy, it will be designed as a time for you to come and find a quiet
place just as Jesus did. We will have
prayer suggestions available each week or you can just come and enjoy the quiet
space to be refilled. I hope you will
consider joining us because you never know when that next interruption may
occur!!