I am on out of town for vacation for a week. Visiting family and dear ones and I'm also having a meet up with Inner Dorothy. Catch you all on the flip side.
LYMI!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Vacation!
I am on out of town for vacation for a week. Visiting family and dear ones and I'm also having a meet up with Inner Dorothy. Catch you all on the flip side.
LYMI!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Bent not broken
Luke 13:10-17
Sheila married her high school sweetheart early in life. The relationship with her husband felt like a roller coaster, the peaks were exciting, romantic, almost adventurous, but when the peaks gave way to the lows, it was dark. Since the beginning of their relationship her husband sought to control her, to try to literally own her. It began with a put down here and there. Then it grew to an all consuming jealousy where he constantly needled her about who she was with and where she was going. This led insults hurled at her to make her think that he was the only man that would have her. Then after a while the emotional abuse escalated to physical abuse. Each time he told she was stupid, or insulted her appearance or hit her, she bent little by little until she was only able to see things the way her husband wanted her to see them. She believed that she could do no better than him, she believed that she deserved to be abused, she believed that no one but he could love her. She was bent so much so her soul had become accustomed to only looking down or just slightly ahead but never upward. Sheila was bent…but not broken.
In the gospel we meet a woman who has been bent, unable to stand up straight for eighteen years. The gospel states that a spirit had crippled her, bound by Satan for eighteen long years. Over the years she has become accustomed to here physical state. Imagine what it must have been like for her to be bent, to have to strain to see the sun, the sky, and the stars. Imagine how for eighteen years only being able to look down or just slightly ahead but never upward. Imagine not being able to look someone in the eye…and not questioning your fate. (1) I am sure she didn’t wake up one morning bent, unable to stand up straight. It probably happened slowly, a back ache here, a snap of the bones there, a stoop that kept getting deeper and deeper until eventually walking bent over was all she could do, and for this unnamed woman and those in her community, being a crippled woman becomes all that she is. She was bent…and Jesus called her over.
Sheila stayed with her husband for several years and even had a couple of children. It appeared that she was living the dream. The house with the picket fence, the two cars in the garage, her husband making enough money so she could stay home with her children. However in spite of outward appearances, Sheila was worn down. Having lived with the emotional and physical abuse for all these years she was resigned to her fate. Sure she knew that what was happening to her wasn’t right but she couldn’t see how she would support herself and her kids on her own if she left her husband. She didn’t have a college degree or marketable skills that would give her the economic means to support her family without her husband. Most of all she was afraid of being alone, she was afraid that her husband was right, that he was the only person who would ever love her and that she was nothing without him.
On a Sunday morning, Sheila and her children went to church. She tried to go to church as often as she could for her children. She wanted them to grow up in the faith, to know God and his son Jesus. Little did she know that one Sunday morning Jesus would call her over, to set her free from her bondage. Sheila doesn’t remember the gospel story that was being read that morning or the content of the sermon that was being preached. She just remembered realizing that she was a beloved child of God and that she did not deserve the abuse that she had been enduring all those years. As Sheila puts it, “It was as if the hands of the Lord came upon me and I was able to stand up straight again.” Her perspective changed, she was able to begin to free herself from her abusive marriage. Yes, she was bent, she was bent to the limit but she was not broken. Sheila is the first to admit that she could not have realized this on her own, that she would not have the strength to leave her abusive situation without the source of her healing, power of the Holy Spirit and God’s amazing grace as shown through his son Jesus.
I heard Sheila tell this story as her first sermon at a church where she was serving as a pastoral intern. She was preaching on Jesus healing the crippled woman, the text that I am preaching on this morning. I almost fell out of my pew as she preached. You see, Sheila and I were seminary students together. I had always seen her as a strong and capable woman. I knew that she was a single mother but I had no idea what her life was like before seminary. It is hard for anyone to talk about their dark history, especially when it involves something that we’d all like to sweep under the rug such as spousal abuse, and yet, and yet, here was Sheila up in the pulpit sharing her story of being bent but not broken, seeing only her feet and having the hand of the Lord bring her upright.
It made me uncomfortable to hear her share such personal details of her life from the pulpit. My reaction was like that of the indignant synagogue leader, “This is not appropriate for a sermon on Sunday morning, it is not appropriate to talk about ourselves from the pulpit…all our preaching books and our professors tell us that it’s not about the preacher, but about the scripture text.” Yet all of my academic abilities to interpret the gospel text from its original cultural context could not bring the word of God to life the way her story did. My perspective, my bendedness was based on my book learning, my perception of what is good and proper preaching, whereas her perspective came from her life experience and the very real encounter that she had with God on that Sunday morning years ago. I wonder if by chance there may have been someone who was struggling in an abusive situation hearing a word of hope in Sheila’s sermon.
There is a prophetic witness in Sheila’s story and the story of Jesus healing the crippled woman. These stories of healing challenge us to move beyond our limits to consider our witness. In what ways has God healed us and how are we called to praise God for our healing through the sharing of our stories.
The story of the bent woman wasn’t just about physical healing but spiritual healing. Many of us carry burdens to weigh us down, sometimes bending us to the point where we think we might break. In the midst of our burdens it is hard to see anything but the ground. However healing comes through the power of God, making it possible for us to take Jesus’ hand, stand up straight and in our healing begin praising God.
May it be so,
Amen
(1) Stephen L. Cook, David Lyon Bartlett, and Barbara Brown Taylor. 2009. Feasting on the Word. preaching the Revised common lectionary Year C, Volume 3. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. 382-387.
Sheila married her high school sweetheart early in life. The relationship with her husband felt like a roller coaster, the peaks were exciting, romantic, almost adventurous, but when the peaks gave way to the lows, it was dark. Since the beginning of their relationship her husband sought to control her, to try to literally own her. It began with a put down here and there. Then it grew to an all consuming jealousy where he constantly needled her about who she was with and where she was going. This led insults hurled at her to make her think that he was the only man that would have her. Then after a while the emotional abuse escalated to physical abuse. Each time he told she was stupid, or insulted her appearance or hit her, she bent little by little until she was only able to see things the way her husband wanted her to see them. She believed that she could do no better than him, she believed that she deserved to be abused, she believed that no one but he could love her. She was bent so much so her soul had become accustomed to only looking down or just slightly ahead but never upward. Sheila was bent…but not broken.
In the gospel we meet a woman who has been bent, unable to stand up straight for eighteen years. The gospel states that a spirit had crippled her, bound by Satan for eighteen long years. Over the years she has become accustomed to here physical state. Imagine what it must have been like for her to be bent, to have to strain to see the sun, the sky, and the stars. Imagine how for eighteen years only being able to look down or just slightly ahead but never upward. Imagine not being able to look someone in the eye…and not questioning your fate. (1) I am sure she didn’t wake up one morning bent, unable to stand up straight. It probably happened slowly, a back ache here, a snap of the bones there, a stoop that kept getting deeper and deeper until eventually walking bent over was all she could do, and for this unnamed woman and those in her community, being a crippled woman becomes all that she is. She was bent…and Jesus called her over.
Sheila stayed with her husband for several years and even had a couple of children. It appeared that she was living the dream. The house with the picket fence, the two cars in the garage, her husband making enough money so she could stay home with her children. However in spite of outward appearances, Sheila was worn down. Having lived with the emotional and physical abuse for all these years she was resigned to her fate. Sure she knew that what was happening to her wasn’t right but she couldn’t see how she would support herself and her kids on her own if she left her husband. She didn’t have a college degree or marketable skills that would give her the economic means to support her family without her husband. Most of all she was afraid of being alone, she was afraid that her husband was right, that he was the only person who would ever love her and that she was nothing without him.
On a Sunday morning, Sheila and her children went to church. She tried to go to church as often as she could for her children. She wanted them to grow up in the faith, to know God and his son Jesus. Little did she know that one Sunday morning Jesus would call her over, to set her free from her bondage. Sheila doesn’t remember the gospel story that was being read that morning or the content of the sermon that was being preached. She just remembered realizing that she was a beloved child of God and that she did not deserve the abuse that she had been enduring all those years. As Sheila puts it, “It was as if the hands of the Lord came upon me and I was able to stand up straight again.” Her perspective changed, she was able to begin to free herself from her abusive marriage. Yes, she was bent, she was bent to the limit but she was not broken. Sheila is the first to admit that she could not have realized this on her own, that she would not have the strength to leave her abusive situation without the source of her healing, power of the Holy Spirit and God’s amazing grace as shown through his son Jesus.
I heard Sheila tell this story as her first sermon at a church where she was serving as a pastoral intern. She was preaching on Jesus healing the crippled woman, the text that I am preaching on this morning. I almost fell out of my pew as she preached. You see, Sheila and I were seminary students together. I had always seen her as a strong and capable woman. I knew that she was a single mother but I had no idea what her life was like before seminary. It is hard for anyone to talk about their dark history, especially when it involves something that we’d all like to sweep under the rug such as spousal abuse, and yet, and yet, here was Sheila up in the pulpit sharing her story of being bent but not broken, seeing only her feet and having the hand of the Lord bring her upright.
It made me uncomfortable to hear her share such personal details of her life from the pulpit. My reaction was like that of the indignant synagogue leader, “This is not appropriate for a sermon on Sunday morning, it is not appropriate to talk about ourselves from the pulpit…all our preaching books and our professors tell us that it’s not about the preacher, but about the scripture text.” Yet all of my academic abilities to interpret the gospel text from its original cultural context could not bring the word of God to life the way her story did. My perspective, my bendedness was based on my book learning, my perception of what is good and proper preaching, whereas her perspective came from her life experience and the very real encounter that she had with God on that Sunday morning years ago. I wonder if by chance there may have been someone who was struggling in an abusive situation hearing a word of hope in Sheila’s sermon.
There is a prophetic witness in Sheila’s story and the story of Jesus healing the crippled woman. These stories of healing challenge us to move beyond our limits to consider our witness. In what ways has God healed us and how are we called to praise God for our healing through the sharing of our stories.
The story of the bent woman wasn’t just about physical healing but spiritual healing. Many of us carry burdens to weigh us down, sometimes bending us to the point where we think we might break. In the midst of our burdens it is hard to see anything but the ground. However healing comes through the power of God, making it possible for us to take Jesus’ hand, stand up straight and in our healing begin praising God.
May it be so,
Amen
(1) Stephen L. Cook, David Lyon Bartlett, and Barbara Brown Taylor. 2009. Feasting on the Word. preaching the Revised common lectionary Year C, Volume 3. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. 382-387.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
And now for something completely different
My blogging pal Mindy is hosting a give away at her blog. Come check it out at http://princessandthebeads.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-fill-like-i-won-csn-stores-lottery.html.
Now you may go back to your regularly scheduled blog reading.
Now you may go back to your regularly scheduled blog reading.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Praise God from whom all blessings flow
 |
| The first red tomatoes of the season. |
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| The first carrot. |
 |
| A salad made completely with ingrediants from the garden. Now that's what I call home cookin'. |
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| Zinnea |
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Faith in Things Unseen
Genesis 15:1-6
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Mary was a 46 year old woman who suffered from severe depression for most of her life. I met her while she was hospitalized in the psychiatric unit of the hospital where I was doing my chaplaincy internship. She was admitted into the hospital because she had told her therapist that she wanted to kill herself. Mary felt like she reached the end of her rope. She had been in therapy for years and tried different medications to alleviate her depression but nothing was working. She asked to see a chaplain because she was mad at God for abandoning her. She was a church go-er, she often prayed and listened to Christian music for inspiration but she could not feel God’s presence in her life. Her faith was gone.
I asked her, “What makes you think that God is absent?” and she said, “If God was there, he’d answer my prayers. I’ve tried going to church and listening to the songs and the preacher but it is not sinking in. The preacher keeps talking about how God is always supposed to be there but it isn’t sinking in.” I then asked her what she prayed for and she said, “I ask God to take away my panic attacks, I run around and pray pray pray. I think I’m better but the next morning I get a panic attack anyways.”
In this morning’s reading from the older testament we find Abram in the same quandary as Mary. He is hearing God to have faith in him, that God will be Abram’s shield and that Abram’s reward will be great but God’s message is not sinking in. “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless…You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” We remember that in the book of Genesis, God called Abram and his wife Sarai to leave their home and go to a new land without any real assurances, just a promise of blessing and prosperity. Abram and Sarai were “great in years” and yet they had no children because they were barren. Throughout Abram and Sarai’s journey to the new land, God speaks to Abram and Abram listens. God makes promises to Abram and Abram believes. God commands Abram and Abram obeys. However, some note “there comes a point…when Abram finally says, ‘Wait a minute. I have a question…How can this be, since I do not have a child?’” (1) How is it that this person who has the audacity to question God be lifted up as a model of faith.
In our epistle reading this morning, we hear the author share in his letter to the Hebrew’s the characteristic of faithfulness. Written to approximately 65 years after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection this early Christian audience had not seen the risen Christ but came to believe in him through the sharing of the Gospel. History tells us that some of the members of this young Christian congregation had suffered persecution, “some had already been subjected to prison and plunder of possessions and most had experienced hostility, ridicule, and shame simply because following Jesus, a crucified savior, set them at odds with the surrounding culture.” (2) The audience was expecting that Jesus would come again in their lifetimes and perhaps were disappointed that Jesus’ kingdom had not yet come, some were even leaving this church community.
Wanting to combat the melancholy of this community of faith and encourage Christians who were having trouble holding on to the hope of Jesus Christ, the author of the book of Hebrews gives us a definition of faith. The verse, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Could be reinterpreted to say more actively, “Now faith gives substance of things hoped for, offers a proving of things not seen…In other words, faith makes real in the present God’s things, often thought of as future.” (3)
We all hope for things, yearn for things, and in faith we ask God for things. Sometimes our prayers are answered, but sometimes things take longer like it did for Abram and Sarai in our older testament reading. They struggled to have children, a reality that many of us are familiar with either in our own families’ or those whom we care about who struggle with infertility. In spite of the obstacles that Abram faced “[he] [continued] to obey God and stay true to God so much that he followed God without knowing where God was leading.” (4)
It is difficult to follow God when we don’t know where God is leading us, especially when we don’t see proof of God’s action. We pray to God for that job, that good diagnosis, that cure and when our prayers seem to go unanswered we wonder if God is looking out for us. However, faith does not expect God to be like Santa Claus. Faith means that we trust that God is for us, that God wants what is good for us and that God holds our future.
Essentially faith moves the believer from merely wishing for change to becoming the change that they want to see in the world. By faith Abram obeyed God and set out for a new land which was his inheritance from God. By faith he was able to stay the course of his journey and tolerate the harsh realities of tent living by looking forward to the city that has foundations, the city of Jerusalem, whose architect and builder is God. By faith, he and Sarai were able to conceive and descendants were born from him as many as the stars from heaven and as many as grains of sand by the seashore.
Mary was wishing to change her depression. Having tried every medical treatment unsuccessfully that she could for her depression, Mary was running out of options. She had thought that God wanted her to give up because she felt God had given up on her. Unfortunately one of the physiological effects of depression is a feeling of spiritual alienation. It is like a gray cloud blocked Mary from feeling God and thus she felt that she had lost her faith.
Having exhausted all pharmaceutical solutions for her depression, the only thing she had left to try was Electroconvulsive therapy otherwise known as ECT, a somewhat risky treatment where seizures are electrically induced in patients to treat severe depression. She was nervous about the treatment but had a kernel of faith that it would work. One of the women on her floor was receiving ECT treatments and she was feeling better. As our visit was winding down, I wanted to hold fast to this bit of hope but I didn’t want to come off as too preachy. I read to her the scripture from Hebrews 11 and then I told her that it is not uncommon for people struggling with depression to think that God has abandoned them, that it was one of the physical manifestations of depression. But even though she couldn’t viscerally have faith, that she could hold on to the promise that is given in this epistle that God is with her even though she could not see God or feel God. She looked at me blankly and I told her that it’s ok to question God’s presence, even great people of faith like Abram had courage enough to question God. Amazingly as I got up to leave she called me back to prayer with her.
A few weeks later I came to her ward for a follow up visit. When I saw her I couldn’t believe my eyes, she was smiling, her eyes were twinkling. The ECT had been successful and she was going to be discharged in a couple of days. As we sat down to chat she told me how she couldn’t believe how good she was feeling. It was as if the gray cloud had lifted and now she was able to enjoy the sun. God did not abandon Mary, even in her darkest hour. Even though she thought she lacked faith, she still knew that God existed and that God was not done with her yet. This was the kernel of hope that she held onto as she had her ECT treatments. “And she believed in God, and God declared her faith as good and right.”
I never saw Mary again after she was discharged from the hospital, but I still think about her and pray for her knowing that God is for her just like God was for Abram, and Sarai and us and that it is God who holds our future in God’s hands.
May it be so.
Amen.
1. Feasting on the Word
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Mary was a 46 year old woman who suffered from severe depression for most of her life. I met her while she was hospitalized in the psychiatric unit of the hospital where I was doing my chaplaincy internship. She was admitted into the hospital because she had told her therapist that she wanted to kill herself. Mary felt like she reached the end of her rope. She had been in therapy for years and tried different medications to alleviate her depression but nothing was working. She asked to see a chaplain because she was mad at God for abandoning her. She was a church go-er, she often prayed and listened to Christian music for inspiration but she could not feel God’s presence in her life. Her faith was gone.
I asked her, “What makes you think that God is absent?” and she said, “If God was there, he’d answer my prayers. I’ve tried going to church and listening to the songs and the preacher but it is not sinking in. The preacher keeps talking about how God is always supposed to be there but it isn’t sinking in.” I then asked her what she prayed for and she said, “I ask God to take away my panic attacks, I run around and pray pray pray. I think I’m better but the next morning I get a panic attack anyways.”
In this morning’s reading from the older testament we find Abram in the same quandary as Mary. He is hearing God to have faith in him, that God will be Abram’s shield and that Abram’s reward will be great but God’s message is not sinking in. “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless…You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” We remember that in the book of Genesis, God called Abram and his wife Sarai to leave their home and go to a new land without any real assurances, just a promise of blessing and prosperity. Abram and Sarai were “great in years” and yet they had no children because they were barren. Throughout Abram and Sarai’s journey to the new land, God speaks to Abram and Abram listens. God makes promises to Abram and Abram believes. God commands Abram and Abram obeys. However, some note “there comes a point…when Abram finally says, ‘Wait a minute. I have a question…How can this be, since I do not have a child?’” (1) How is it that this person who has the audacity to question God be lifted up as a model of faith.
In our epistle reading this morning, we hear the author share in his letter to the Hebrew’s the characteristic of faithfulness. Written to approximately 65 years after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection this early Christian audience had not seen the risen Christ but came to believe in him through the sharing of the Gospel. History tells us that some of the members of this young Christian congregation had suffered persecution, “some had already been subjected to prison and plunder of possessions and most had experienced hostility, ridicule, and shame simply because following Jesus, a crucified savior, set them at odds with the surrounding culture.” (2) The audience was expecting that Jesus would come again in their lifetimes and perhaps were disappointed that Jesus’ kingdom had not yet come, some were even leaving this church community.
Wanting to combat the melancholy of this community of faith and encourage Christians who were having trouble holding on to the hope of Jesus Christ, the author of the book of Hebrews gives us a definition of faith. The verse, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Could be reinterpreted to say more actively, “Now faith gives substance of things hoped for, offers a proving of things not seen…In other words, faith makes real in the present God’s things, often thought of as future.” (3)
We all hope for things, yearn for things, and in faith we ask God for things. Sometimes our prayers are answered, but sometimes things take longer like it did for Abram and Sarai in our older testament reading. They struggled to have children, a reality that many of us are familiar with either in our own families’ or those whom we care about who struggle with infertility. In spite of the obstacles that Abram faced “[he] [continued] to obey God and stay true to God so much that he followed God without knowing where God was leading.” (4)
It is difficult to follow God when we don’t know where God is leading us, especially when we don’t see proof of God’s action. We pray to God for that job, that good diagnosis, that cure and when our prayers seem to go unanswered we wonder if God is looking out for us. However, faith does not expect God to be like Santa Claus. Faith means that we trust that God is for us, that God wants what is good for us and that God holds our future.
Essentially faith moves the believer from merely wishing for change to becoming the change that they want to see in the world. By faith Abram obeyed God and set out for a new land which was his inheritance from God. By faith he was able to stay the course of his journey and tolerate the harsh realities of tent living by looking forward to the city that has foundations, the city of Jerusalem, whose architect and builder is God. By faith, he and Sarai were able to conceive and descendants were born from him as many as the stars from heaven and as many as grains of sand by the seashore.
Mary was wishing to change her depression. Having tried every medical treatment unsuccessfully that she could for her depression, Mary was running out of options. She had thought that God wanted her to give up because she felt God had given up on her. Unfortunately one of the physiological effects of depression is a feeling of spiritual alienation. It is like a gray cloud blocked Mary from feeling God and thus she felt that she had lost her faith.
Having exhausted all pharmaceutical solutions for her depression, the only thing she had left to try was Electroconvulsive therapy otherwise known as ECT, a somewhat risky treatment where seizures are electrically induced in patients to treat severe depression. She was nervous about the treatment but had a kernel of faith that it would work. One of the women on her floor was receiving ECT treatments and she was feeling better. As our visit was winding down, I wanted to hold fast to this bit of hope but I didn’t want to come off as too preachy. I read to her the scripture from Hebrews 11 and then I told her that it is not uncommon for people struggling with depression to think that God has abandoned them, that it was one of the physical manifestations of depression. But even though she couldn’t viscerally have faith, that she could hold on to the promise that is given in this epistle that God is with her even though she could not see God or feel God. She looked at me blankly and I told her that it’s ok to question God’s presence, even great people of faith like Abram had courage enough to question God. Amazingly as I got up to leave she called me back to prayer with her.
A few weeks later I came to her ward for a follow up visit. When I saw her I couldn’t believe my eyes, she was smiling, her eyes were twinkling. The ECT had been successful and she was going to be discharged in a couple of days. As we sat down to chat she told me how she couldn’t believe how good she was feeling. It was as if the gray cloud had lifted and now she was able to enjoy the sun. God did not abandon Mary, even in her darkest hour. Even though she thought she lacked faith, she still knew that God existed and that God was not done with her yet. This was the kernel of hope that she held onto as she had her ECT treatments. “And she believed in God, and God declared her faith as good and right.”
I never saw Mary again after she was discharged from the hospital, but I still think about her and pray for her knowing that God is for her just like God was for Abram, and Sarai and us and that it is God who holds our future in God’s hands.
May it be so.
Amen.
1. Feasting on the Word
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
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