[Propertalk] Proper 5 c Part 2

[Robert P Morrison]

I posted the sermon in two parts, but someone told me part 2 wasn't
"there". I didn't receive either part back, so I didn't know this.
I'll try to post part 2 again.
Bob

	 The Tuesday evening group is in the middle of watching a documentary
called “Bully”. It deals with all the ways in which adults and
children pick on one another, seeking out whatever weaknesses they may
find so that they can torment others. 1 

	 I would suppose it may give the tormentors a feeling of power and
control. No matter, as the documentary points out, and as we know from
our own community right here, that there comes a point when some
people simply cannot stand the violence perpetrated on their bodies
and minds. So they take their own lives. 

	 This person is different. She or he talks with an accent, or has
different skin tone, or walks and dresses in some fashion a few others
don’t like. So the victimisation goes on. 

	 This is nothing new. Read both parts of the Bible, our Holy Book, to
see that this behaviour is as old as the hills. And the consequences
remain the same – isolation, ridicule, abuse, even legislation to
ensure that “the other”, whoever she or he is, won’t be accorded
full and equal rights. 

	 This is what goes on in our own communities, in our own nation, in
the whole world. And when those children and teenagers are attacked,
are not protected, are, metaphorically or literally, separated from
their mothers you have the same intensity of pain and grief
experienced by the widows in the two stories we heard this morning. 

	 We DO know that the man described in the First Book of Kings died of
some disease. However, we know nothing about the death of the man from
Nain. It’s just possible that he’d met a violent end, for whatever
reason. 

	 BOTH mothers’ pain and shock were, nevertheless, real. BOTH must
have wondered where on earth they might turn. BOTH must have felt
incredible emptiness – just as mothers and fathers do today. It
doesn’t matter in which century this happens. It doesn’t matter
what the faith, or the depth of the faith of the parents. It doesn’t
matter one bit what the tensions may have been in the family
situation, the separation, the FINALITY of separation, is almost
unbearable. 

	 Think of Mary at the cross, inconsolable at what was happening to
her Son. Of course, Elijah knew nothing of what would happen centuries
later. Jesus didn’t know what lay three years down the road. Both of
them, however, reached out, trying to demonstrate that God heard the
sobbing, the anger, the frustration of those whose lives were so
desperately fractured. 

	 I’m aware that medical science is continuing to make strides to
attack diseases and disasters. And I thank God for that! I’m aware
that there ARE people who step into terrible social crises, in schools
and other educational facilities, for instance, where prejudice and
bigotry and just plain cruelty try to demean people. And I thank God
for all who try to prevent physical, and social, and spiritual death!
Yet we know that this may never be eradicated, certainly in our
lifetimes, not our grandchildren’s. 

	 BUT, there ARE those prophets, those messengers from God, who will
come into human society and will bring touches which will try to heal,
to repair, to build up life. We DO believe that Jesus is the Lord of
the Living and the Dead, and that we will ALL be safe with Him. It’s
how we deal with the here and now that’s so troubling, though. 

	 Suzanne Guthrie wrote, “(This Gospel) story offers scant comfort
to the parents of children Jesus doesn't bring back from the dead. I
certainly did not call the widow's son to mind when my two little
grandchildren died on the day they were born last summer. My son and
daughter-in-law cradled their son and daughter, comforting the
children and each other during the hours the babies lived. And after
they died, I didn't expect Jesus to arrive at the hospital and raise
them from the dead. The surprising thing is that Christians take hope
in the raising of Jairus's daughter and the widow of Nain's son in
spite of the deaths of our own children.” 2 

	 These two stories, in fact – the ones of Elijah’s and Jesus’
actions – may serve only to make things really difficult for us to
deal with trouble, with disaster, with disappointment. But there’s
one thing that Suzanne pointed out that gives me hope, that shines
light even in the midst of the darkness. So many of the sparks of life
which the Spirit nurtures in us come at such moments of darkness, of
uncertainty. As Jesus touched the bier on which the man was being
carried out of Nain to be buried, “the bearers stood still.” They
were waiting to see what might happen, perhaps. They wondered whether
Jesus would defile Himself by doing what would make Him unclean. But
Jesus didn’t hesitate. He reached out. The bier bearers must have
held their breaths.  

	 In the depths of grief, we all may be brought into such stillness.
We may find something of holiness that can effect healing. In the
intensity of the pain that we and others may feel; as we struggle with
grief, with doubt, with what may take us towards unbelief, we are
invited to come back, week after week, to find our place at God’s
Table. 

	 Mothers’ pain can be incredible, there’s no getting around that.
But through His touch, Jesus now assumes that pain with them, with us.
And while He lives with us in that pain, He calls also that we explore
with Him what it means to live a Baptismal Covenant life. Even in
darkness, we’re invited to trust in God’s love, and to reach out
to eat at His Table. 

	NOTES: 

	[1] The Bully Project [Full Documentary] on Vimeo [1] vimeo.com ›
Jim Harris › Videos 

	2 _“At the Edge of the Enclosure Soulwork Toward Sunday:
Self-Guided Retreat Proper 5 (Year C)”_ _“But Joy Comes in the
Morning”_ June 5, 2016 http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper5c.html
[2] 



Links:
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[1]
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj16IC1kY3NAhUES2MKHXCADbcQtwIIMjAH&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvimeo.com%2F89091209&usg=AFQjCNGpaMjmUJcDG0XjaBvchPaO-wgMcg
[2] http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper5c.html

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