You are not alone. Those are the words on the hands on the front of your bulletin. I don’t know whose hands they are, but I know who knows. Of course, God knows, but there is another. A friend and mentor of mine, Michelle Thomas Bush, is the Associate Pastor for Youth and Families at Myers Park Presbyterian in Charlotte, NC.
Some time back she was the keynote presenter at a Montreal Youth Conference. Before the conference, she had gotten her youth to put together some videos. One of them featured high school students with “You Are…” on one arm and different labels that we give each other on the other arm. Some were not so bad. Others were downright mean.
Finally, one student grabbed the hand of another, and on the other side of that outstretched arm it said, “not alone.” Slowly, more and more students connected until everyone shared the same message of connectedness and relationship. It wasn’t just their arms that changed though. It was their faces, their smiles, and their posture. Their whole countenance changed.
Sure, this was just a video of what could be, but it was also an image of what we are called to do and to be as the church – the body of Christ. I remembered it a few years back when I was putting together our Facebook page. I checked with Michelle, and she was overjoyed that we would use that image to describe what it meant to be FPC.
I am sharing this with you today because I believe it to be a fundamental illustration of what our scriptures proclaim about God, about what God has done through Jesus, and about what God is doing through us.
In our Old Testament reading, we find David reclining from conquest, enjoying his new estate, and thinking, “Hmm… I’m treating myself better than I treat God. I should do something about that.” Even the Prophet Nathan says, “Sounds great, boss! Do it!” because he assumes the Lord is OK with whatever David does.
That’s when God does a little break check and says, “What makes you think I need a house? I’m God. You are not going to build me a house. I am going to make you into a house. I’m going to make a house built in the flesh your offspring, who will be my son.”
Of course, at the time this was understood as Solomon. Truly he was the one to build the temple, yet we know that through Christ God has incorporated all of us into the structure of that holy temple that is the church.
This crazy idea of a united humanity in Christ is what a disciple of Paul wrote about in the letter to the Ephesians. I think it’s important to keep in mind that this letter bore the hope of uniting Jewish believers and those God-fearers and interested Greeks that were intrigued by the idea of a God of providence and love and mercy.
Of course, the greater hope was that all might be brought into the household of God. The greater hope is that we will realize that hostility is just a byproduct of our disconnection with God. The greater hope is that there might be a place at the table for saint and sinner, for those estranged by pain and suffering, and for those that have been told that they simply do not belong.
All of this hope is built on the shoulders of the saints that have gone before us – on the Wes Cadys and Joe Clarks and Bruce Turners and so many more; on the freedom riders of civil rights; on the apostles – with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone that anchors the whole frame of our reality.
Is it not this Jesus who creates the opportunity to be at one with the God of all creation? Is it not this Jesus that has taken all the hostility of the world into himself on the cross? Yes! And he did it so that there would be no excuse for the hostility that remains except for our disconnection with God.
For when we recognize that God is in our midst we cannot help but to see the humanity in the stranger, no matter how threatening she or he might be. When we recognize that God is in our midst, we cannot help but celebrate and tell the stories together like the disciples reporting back to Jesus.
Yet, just like the first disciples, there are times when the work that we are following Jesus into is unrelenting. There are times when we must suffer with others (that’s what compassion means) even though it is not our spiritual gift. Yes, we have to take care of ourselves. Yes, sometimes we have to get in our own little boat and get away from the world, but even then, we have to realize that Jesus may walk on past if we aren’t following him.
Even then, we have to realize that sometimes we might not even go where we thought we were going. You see, in verse 45, Jesus told them to get in the boat and go to Bethsaida, yet after the storm – even with Jesus navigating – they ended up in Gennesaret.
That doesn’t really seem to matter, though. The people still came and brought those who were suffering into the marketplaces and town halls and public squares. Just the very mention of his name gave permission for those that were unseen and unheard apart from their moaning in the night and were brought in hopes that they might touch the hem of his cloak.
Sound familiar? It should. Two weeks ago, we talked about the woman with the issue of blood who Jesus called “daughter” because her faith had made her well. Now there were whole crowds of people, because of her faith and the healing and wholeness that it brought into her life.
Now, I have to say that I’ve always struggled with these healing texts. It’s probably because of a friend who once told me that she did not have diabetes because of her lack of faith, it was a lack of insulin. That said, I’ve seen prayer give the hope that allowed others to come back from the edge of death. I’ve also seen prayer help reconcile the loss of a loved one, and I’ve experienced it in my own life as a means of finding wholeness and meaning in the midst of brokenness and senseless violence.
I believe that finding wholeness is the type of healing that matters most in the end. It begins with a release of the things that separate us from God and from one another, and it finds its fullness when we are able to see those who are the most different from us as equally beloved children of God.
I believe that is what we are about as congregation of believers. In fact, I want to you take a look at the mission statement on our bulletin and think about how it describes who we are and what we do.
“We at First Presbyterian Church are seeking the wholeness we believe Almighty God, our Creator, promises through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Through our worship, study, and life together, we are finding God’s wholeness for ourselves and, guided by the Holy Spirit, seek to share it with our community and our world through prayer, service, outreach, music, and fellowship.”
Admittedly, some of that is kind of boilerplate stuff you’ll find anywhere, but the heart of it is the fact that we are seeking wholeness together. That means we aren’t there yet. Yet it also says that we are finding God’s wholeness in our common union as followers of Jesus.
In a few minutes, we are going to put that into action in a time of healing prayer. As we prepare for that event, I want you to think about what needs to be removed for you to find the wholeness that allows you to see everyone – and I do mean everyone – as beloved by God.
It could be as simple as the labels that you’ve been given (or maybe you have given to yourself). Think about it this way. If you had “I am…” written on one arm, and some kind of label for the part of you that longs for healing, what would the other arm say? Mine says, “Never enough”, but when I come together with you that label becomes “God’s beloved.”
Beloved of God, after we stand and sing we will have a time of healing prayer. During that time, we will bring petitions for healing and wholeness for our bodies, our minds, and the brokenness between us as we all move toward the wholeness that God offers us together.
We are all, after all, in this boat together. We are all bound in the hope that we might be part of something bigger than ourselves. We are all bound in the hope that our lives may touch others – just as ours have been touched – in ways that ripple through eternity. And may God be glorified by that, now and always, amen.
https://myersparkpres.org/author/mthomas-bush/
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