February 19, 2006

February 19.2006

This morning I want to invite us to hear the message from this morning’s Gospel by considering the story from four different perspectives.

First, let’s consider the paralytic man who was healed. Being paralyzed, there wasn’t much he could do to help himself, was there? So, he asked his friends for help. Asking for help is not always easy to do. It means swallowing our pride. “Pride,” says the writer of Proverbs, “goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). We want everyone to think we’ve got it all together. We don’t want to admit we can’t make it on our own. And so we suffer in silence, out of prideful ness.

In the United States, 33.6 million people including almost 13 million children live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger. This represents approximately one in ten households.(10.7 percent).

In America, it is a shameful thing to be poor. It means that you have failed to live up to the American dream. To admit you need help means that you are somehow flawed. Consequently, many of those who are suffering from poverty try to say invisible. They don’t ask for help.

We may all have enough food, but I would imagine that there are some of us here today that need help of some kind, but don’t ask for it, because of their pride. Here is the lesson for us from the perspective of the paralytic man; if you want help; if you want God’s healing, you have to humble yourself enough to ask for help.

The next perspective I want us to consider is the friends who lowered this man through the roof so that he could be healed by Jesus. These are some pretty creative friends. When they see the huge crowd filling Jesus house, they didn’t give up on their promise to help their friend. They got creative, and got the job done.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked to you about an effective form of evangelism based on the saying, “Make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Christ.” This story is a literal picture image of how to do this kind of evangelism. When we commit to befriending someone, we don’t give up when things get difficult. We stick with the, we be a real friend. And we never forget that in the end, we cannot offer them the help, the healing that they seek. We bring our friend to Christ.

Next, let’s consider the perspective of the crowd watching this man being lowered from the roof. I would imagine that some of the crowd were not that pleased. Here they had stood in line, pushed and almost trampled by the crowd, in hopes of getting near enough to Jesus to receive his healing touch. And this guy cuts right in. It’s not fair. He cheated! Why should he get healed, when I’m the one whose been waiting in this crush of flesh for hours!

Life isn’t fair all the time, is it? And sometimes God doesn’t seem fair. The wind of the Spirit blows where it will. We don’t see the big picture, so we may never know why this person is touched by God an another is not. But, if we give in to feelings of resentment and envy, one thing is assured; we will have moved farther away from God. When another is blessed by god, rejoice with them, and give testimony to others of the mighty acts of God.

And finally, let’s consider the scribes. They are not pleased that Jesus had the audacity to declare the forgiveness of sins without all the ritual their tradition required. Once again, the wind of the Spirit blows where it will. And yes, especially on this point, I am preaching to myself. We must be careful not to limit our experience of God by trying to put God in a box. Our ways are not God’s ways. If you want to know if something is of God, consider the fruit of the work. The man was healed. The healing offered by Jesus was obviously of God. Instead of rejoicing, the scribes are complaining that Jesus didn’t use the right liturgy! Don’t let your pride block your view of God moving among us, loving us, and healing us.

Ask for help. Be a helper. Bring the wounded to God. Rejoice in the good fortune of others. And be open to experiencing the healing of God in unexpected places.