Recently I had the privilege of officiating a wedding for a wonderful young couple. It was obvious that they were truly in love with each other. I remember at one point when I walked into the room prior to the ceremony, the groom was sitting off in a room to himself facing the wall with his back toward the crowd that would come through the doors. As I looked at him, I realized he was being teased by many of his groomsmen, and the reason he was sitting there with his face to the wall was so he would not see the bride and the bridesmaids as they were having their pictures taken. Now obviously, it was indeed a sacrifice on his part, but he wanted to be sure that he did not spoil their special day.
As I reflected on it, I realized that most weddings offer a great testament to the healing power of love. The wedding serves as the vehicle in which people are gathered together in order to share the special moment with people who they love. The bride and groom motivates this gathering and they have people from different backgrounds, different geographical locations, different races, different ages and different abilities, all who were gathered there to witness this special union. Those who respond to the invitation come and focus their attention on pleasing and assisting the bride and groom in enjoying their special day. Many of the attendees go to great lengths in order to be present. Some are required to rearrange their schedules, others have to pick up extra items for the wedding and some guests have to set aside their differences in order to accommodate the joyful couple. Usually, all of these witnesses leave the gathering filled with great stories about the occasion.
As I continued to reflect on the wedding, I thought about how great it might be if each one of us would live our daily lives as if we are guests at a wedding, the union between Jesus and the church. Scriptures refers to the church as the Bride of Christ but if each of us individually were to live as invited guests, our interactions with each other might very well be very different when we encounter persons who look differently, speak differently, believe different or even dance differently than we ourselves. Love for the bride and groom would be the motivating factor for our initial response to these persons. We would not readily respond to each other out of fear or suspicion as we saw with Elijah, but because of our relationship with the bride and groom, we would be more apt to trust because that is what a relationship would be built on – faith and trust in Christ and the church.
We would be better able to express tolerance and acceptance for others since we all are invited guests. In that role perhaps we would be more apt to ask the question, “How do you know the bride and groom?” “What is your relationship to the bride and groom?”
This is the very question that we find being asked in Luke’s Gospel, and the person asking the question is a man whose experiences have taught him to be suspicious and fearful of those he encounters on his journey. Luke tells us that the man is homeless, the man is naked and the man is deranged and members of the community of ______, up till this point, have responded to him only out of fear. They have pushed him to the margins of the community and he is now relegated to a life among those who are no longer alive, those in the tombs. Therefore, when Jesus comes to the place where this man is he responds in the same way he has been responded to all of his life. He does not even realize that Jesus has made a special trip just to visit him. His first words to Jesus are spoken out of fear. “What are you to do with me Jesus, Son of the most high God? I beg you, do not torment me?” Can you hear it? He’s afraid, Jesus has come to inflict more pain and anguish on his current condition. Obviously, this man has not had a relationship with Jesus. He does not know that Jesus has come to bring life and light into the world. This man does not know what to expect from Jesus and though he recognizes him as God’s Son, he does not understand that God is love. He does not know how much Jesus cares about him. He has no idea. Jesus has made his way there just to deliver him out of all of his troubles. Up until this point, this man is only familiar with demonic power, powers of evil, the type of power that has been in control of his entire life.
Every day through Community Ministry, we encounter people
very much like this man in Luke’s Gospel.
We encounter those who are in need for food, clothing, and those in need
of healthcare. We encounter persons who
are fearful and suspicious. These are
people who have encountered demonic forces in some fashion for their own
lives. Therefore, they are in need of
powerful witnesses, witnesses who know about the healing power of love. Perhaps one of our most powerful witnesses
takes place here on Tuesdays and Thursdays when Alan and Nancy Harris and
others, many who volunteer their time, they work with these persons whose daily
lives are now impacted by mental illness.
Many of these persons have experienced evil powers in the form of
isolation away from the community. They
find themselves walking the streets of
Our society as a whole has attached such a stigma to mental illness that many family members are ashamed and afraid to acknowledge they need help in advocating for the right environment and the right treatments for their loved ones to live, for their loved ones to be healed. Yet the Harris’s and others, they take the time to listen to these people’s stories, they take the time to complete the paperwork needed in order to document their illnesses.
They call to identify possible living relatives and they schedule appointments so that these persons can receive the healthcare that they need. They are witnesses, witnesses who are able to respond to these persons out of love all because of their relationship with the bride and groom. In addition, we are blessed to have the Samaritan Counseling Center here, but we also know only all to well how limited financial resources often becomes the evil power that prevents the reality of God’s Healing Power from being made visible and available to those who are in need. And thanks to the generosity of many caring witnesses, a way is made so that they too can receive care and treatment.
As evidence in Luke’s Gospel, economic power should not hinder healing and wholeness for those in need. When the townspeople came to the place where Jesus and the man were after the healing, scripture tells us they found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind and they were afraid. They were afraid of this type of power, this power which changed a man’s condition, this power which allowed the man to no longer suffer, this power which meant that the man would no longer be isolated, no longer would he be without hope. This is the man who has received the power to now become a contributing member of the community, but now that he’s healed, the townspeople are afraid. Could it be they are fearful because they’ve grown accustomed to the man living in the state that he had been in prior to Jesus’ visit? That is exactly why the Session members of this church and Hillside Presbyterian Church voted nearly five years ago to enter into a partnership, a partnership so that we might serve together as witnesses to the healing power of Jesus. One of our partnering agencies is the Georgia Justice Project better known as
the GJP.
The GJP specializes in working with persons who find themselves on the margin of society. In our prison visitation ministry with them, we encounter families who have loved ones in prison. Unfortunately, their economic situation does not enable them to be able to afford their own means of transportation. Therefore, they have to rely on the compassion of others to transport them to visit their loved ones and one Saturday we took a mother and several of her grandchildren to visit her son and their father. On the trip down there they were quite apprehensive because they had not seen him in over a year. His six-year old son was extremely quite during our trip down. We drove them to the prison about two hours away, dropped them off and came back to pick them up at the appointed time. When we drove up, each of them had broad smiles on their faces and they could not stop talking about their visit with him. They talked through our entire two hours back. Seeing their son and father and having a chance to see him face to face made a tremendous difference for each of them, and for him also because of our relationship with the bride and groom, Christ and the church. We too receive joy when we assist those who are in need. You see each of us should have a story to tell about our relationship with God and the church. We each should be able to recall how our relationship has prompted us to serve as witnesses to the healing power of love.
Another one of these stories involves the courage and
faith of eighty
and spirit can be justified in light of scripture.” We shall solve our difficulties when we learn to walk in obedience to the Golden Rule. “Therefore, all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you do ye even sow to them, for this is the law in the prophets.”
These great visionaries among whose names I recognize, Harry Fifield and
J. Davison Philips, they were able to see God’s sovereignty in all of creation. Rather than demonizing those who were different, they encouraged dialogue and communication as a means of building trust within the community. In his book, Crisis In The Village: Restoring Hope In African-American Communities, Robert Franklin suggests that we all place an emphasis on renewing a culture of commitment that fosters healthy relationships. Did you know that eighty percent of all African-American children are being raised in single parent homes? When we encounter others, other invited guests rather than being afraid to reach out to them, we might first remember our connectedness. We are all created in the image of God and with that might help us to take the time to stop, ask them their name. We might take time to hear what their experiences have been on their faith journey. We might even go so far to sign our names to a cause which promotes healing and well-being for all members of the beloved community, especially those who have been on the margins for quite some time. After all, we are the church, the Bride of Christ and our Lord has invited many guests. Together we share the healing power of love with the entire world. Essentially, God is asking us the same question and commanding the same actions of us as he did with the Elijah and the demoniac. Who are you? Why are you here? Where is the Lord sending you – Go and declare how much God has done for you, and I say until the day that very special day that we meet our Lord and Savior face to face.
Allow the healing power of love to be your testimony, to be your guide every step of the way.
Amen.