You know what bugs me? The fact that the gospel stories in the post-Pentecost season in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary are so darn good! Why does this distress me, you ask? Because the post-Pentecost season comes during the summer months when so many people choose to skip church. Hey! I have to tell you: If you're soaking up the sun at the Jersey shore this Sunday morning, you're missing out on a really good read from sacred scripture.
Fortunately for you, my friend, your Old Religious Guy--in an homage to David Letterman--will now present you with the Top 10 insights from this Sunday's lesson.
The gospel reading assigned for Pentecost 3 is from Luke 7: 11-17 and tells the story of how Jesus raises a widow's only son from the dead to the astonishment of the people of a town called Nain. Here are my Top 10 insights on this miraculous tale:
NUMBER ONE: No one should ever have to bury their own child. The tragic irony of parenthood is that we have complete responsibility for a life over which we ultimately have no control. When our children are born we meet both supreme joy and supreme terror. We cannot imagine the pain of losing such a precious gift. And if our child dies, there is no consolation. We may learn to function, but we are never the same again.
In the world of this Bible story, the death of this woman's only son is even more catastrophic. As a widow with no son to protect her, she will be reduced to a life of dependency on other family member or a life of begging. She will be considered abandoned by God.
NUMBER TWO: Jesus touches the bier of the dead man. Ick! Who wants to touch dead things? Think about it. Do you like to go to funerals? Are you comfortable with other people's pain and grief? Are you willing to enter into emotionally devastating places with someone else? Or do you choose to avoid the subject? Can you deal with questions of mortality? Can you go into a hospital room and face a cancer patient whose body is wasted away, whose hair has been sacrificed to chemo therapy, who is impaled with IV needles, whose arms are purple with bruises? Can you enter a nursing home and tolerate the smell of urine and feces and imminent death?
Jesus can.
NUMBER THREE: Jesus raises the young man from the dead. This is a troublesome miracle for folks in the post-modern world. We might have a tendency to try and explain it away. A neurologist at the hospital where I serve as on-call clergy keeps telling me that "dead" may not be as dead as we think. That is, our scientific methods for determining brain death may not be accurate, and some patients might actually have the possibility of revival after appearing to have demised. But if we apply this interpretation to the gospel story, we rob it of its miraculous character.
Unfortunately, purely miraculous thinking can lead us down a troubling path, too. I was once called to the above-mentioned hospital to minister to an African-Caribbean family who had just lost a twenty-year-old son to a long-time illness. Through her sobs the boy's mother asked me if I could raise her son back to life. I had to tell her, "No."
What do we do with a story like this one in Luke's gospel? I think it's best just to take it at face value: In this particular incident, a miracle occurred. And sometimes they do. Yesterday, a woman was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in Philadelphia after having been buried in debris for thirteen hours. This was a miracle. Other people died under the same collapsing roof. This was tragedy. It's best for us not to impose a meaning on any of it. Doing so only leads to guilt or a lack of faith.
NUMBER FOUR: The entire community gave glory to God. A cynic might say that the people of Nain rejoice when this boy is raised to life because they know they're off the hook for taking care of the boy's mother. Still, I'm convinced that there are other issues at play here. First, the people rejoice that there is a prophet in the land (verse 16), and that God has not abandoned them. No matter how lost we get in our own misery, God always has a word of hope for us should we be willing to hear it and believe it. Second, these folks know how to rejoice with each other. There is a complete lack of selfishness in this community. If one person is blessed, they are all blessed together. How very unlike our competitive culture!
Perhaps we could take a lesson from these first century folks and learn how to mourn and rejoice together as a people. How would it feel to be part of a community willing to enter into grief without fear and enter into joy without selfishness? Imagine a screaming baby in church, and the whole congregation smiling because a family has been blessed with a child (however disruptive!).
NUMBERS FIVE through TEN: There are no numbers five through ten. I just thought "Top 10" sounded better than "Top Four."
Thanks for visiting, my friends. May you have a lovely summer, and may God's peace be with you!
Fortunately for you, my friend, your Old Religious Guy--in an homage to David Letterman--will now present you with the Top 10 insights from this Sunday's lesson.
The gospel reading assigned for Pentecost 3 is from Luke 7: 11-17 and tells the story of how Jesus raises a widow's only son from the dead to the astonishment of the people of a town called Nain. Here are my Top 10 insights on this miraculous tale:
NUMBER ONE: No one should ever have to bury their own child. The tragic irony of parenthood is that we have complete responsibility for a life over which we ultimately have no control. When our children are born we meet both supreme joy and supreme terror. We cannot imagine the pain of losing such a precious gift. And if our child dies, there is no consolation. We may learn to function, but we are never the same again.
In the world of this Bible story, the death of this woman's only son is even more catastrophic. As a widow with no son to protect her, she will be reduced to a life of dependency on other family member or a life of begging. She will be considered abandoned by God.
NUMBER TWO: Jesus touches the bier of the dead man. Ick! Who wants to touch dead things? Think about it. Do you like to go to funerals? Are you comfortable with other people's pain and grief? Are you willing to enter into emotionally devastating places with someone else? Or do you choose to avoid the subject? Can you deal with questions of mortality? Can you go into a hospital room and face a cancer patient whose body is wasted away, whose hair has been sacrificed to chemo therapy, who is impaled with IV needles, whose arms are purple with bruises? Can you enter a nursing home and tolerate the smell of urine and feces and imminent death?
Jesus can.
NUMBER THREE: Jesus raises the young man from the dead. This is a troublesome miracle for folks in the post-modern world. We might have a tendency to try and explain it away. A neurologist at the hospital where I serve as on-call clergy keeps telling me that "dead" may not be as dead as we think. That is, our scientific methods for determining brain death may not be accurate, and some patients might actually have the possibility of revival after appearing to have demised. But if we apply this interpretation to the gospel story, we rob it of its miraculous character.
Unfortunately, purely miraculous thinking can lead us down a troubling path, too. I was once called to the above-mentioned hospital to minister to an African-Caribbean family who had just lost a twenty-year-old son to a long-time illness. Through her sobs the boy's mother asked me if I could raise her son back to life. I had to tell her, "No."
What do we do with a story like this one in Luke's gospel? I think it's best just to take it at face value: In this particular incident, a miracle occurred. And sometimes they do. Yesterday, a woman was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in Philadelphia after having been buried in debris for thirteen hours. This was a miracle. Other people died under the same collapsing roof. This was tragedy. It's best for us not to impose a meaning on any of it. Doing so only leads to guilt or a lack of faith.
NUMBER FOUR: The entire community gave glory to God. A cynic might say that the people of Nain rejoice when this boy is raised to life because they know they're off the hook for taking care of the boy's mother. Still, I'm convinced that there are other issues at play here. First, the people rejoice that there is a prophet in the land (verse 16), and that God has not abandoned them. No matter how lost we get in our own misery, God always has a word of hope for us should we be willing to hear it and believe it. Second, these folks know how to rejoice with each other. There is a complete lack of selfishness in this community. If one person is blessed, they are all blessed together. How very unlike our competitive culture!
Perhaps we could take a lesson from these first century folks and learn how to mourn and rejoice together as a people. How would it feel to be part of a community willing to enter into grief without fear and enter into joy without selfishness? Imagine a screaming baby in church, and the whole congregation smiling because a family has been blessed with a child (however disruptive!).
NUMBERS FIVE through TEN: There are no numbers five through ten. I just thought "Top 10" sounded better than "Top Four."
Thanks for visiting, my friends. May you have a lovely summer, and may God's peace be with you!
No comments:
Post a Comment