University Presbyterian Church - Chapel Hill, NC

This past week I spent several days with my Rehoboth ministers group. These groups were formed by way of Union Presbyterian Seminary and New Hope Presbytery from a gift by the Lily Endowment

Rehoboth, coming from the name where Isaac dug a well near Beersheba in Genesis 26, these groups were encouraged for the purpose of offering ministers a “well” to renew and strengthen them in their ministry as they come together to share with one another.

And that is what we did. We talked by the fire, read from St. Francis of Assisi, did exegesis together, heard from each other what is going on at other churches, what is happening in others’ lives. Over good food in Blowing Rock we sat, but really, we were standing. We were standing by each other/ with each other… supporting one another… laughing with one another… crying with one another… rejoicing with one another… learning how to be family with one another…  Granted, we all had plenty to be doing elsewhere, but for these three days, these three days, we were drinking from Isaac’s well.

What does it mean to stand with one another? To listen as if it is your concern? The pain of another is your pain? The loneliness, the happiness, the fulfillment, frustrations, all are, yes, yours too?

James Forbes, former minister at the Riverside Church in New York City and a North Carolina native, said, “You have to learn that every child is precious.” In an interview where he was asked what inspired him from Burgaw, NC, to Union to Riverside, Forbes responded, “I suspect I kept hearing in my community that God has plans for the world, but God needs persons who are willing to try to embody the truth and to help others to do so.

So, I kept getting the feeling that I could be a partner with God in helping to make a better world.”

Forbes, for his 18 years at Riverside church, challenged his congregation to think outside of themselves to the needs of others. “We are all, all, handmade by God”, Forbes said. And where did he learn this profound lesson how way we care for others? Maybe his Pentecostal father, his mother, his family, friends, probably, but I am sure at the top of his list would be Jesus… our Christ that penetrates and challenges the comforts of this world. This Jesus, our Lord, invites each of us to partner with God in helping make a better world.

One of the minister’s in my Rehoboth group shared a story about her grandfather, a grandfather she would never meet.  He was a physician in a Kentucky coal-mining town. Turns out going into those homes and sitting at bedside of those with black lung had an effect on him too. He would not live a long life, but in those short years he was known for being a physician that truly cared for his patients even if it meant being exposed to their illness.

“So I kept getting the feeling that I could partner with God in helping to make a better world…”

Signs of God’s kingdom all around us…

And as they were gathered in the synagogue on the Sabbath, a woman appeared… who knows; maybe she was there curious about this new teacher of the law? Maybe she had no other place to go? Maybe she was looking for a healing? It had been so long since she was well. 18 years infirmed by this spirit. But she did not ask to be healed. She was not trying to impose…

But Jesus noticed the woman and healed her--And she praised God!

She would not have gone to the Temple in Jerusalem to find a priest, for the Temple had been destroyed by now. Nothing much left, but a western wall where the people of God would come to grieve for what had been. She was here… in the synagogue with Jesus, the leaders, the officials, the curious…

Wrapped up in this pericope is a theme of bound and loosed. The woman was bound by an evil spirit… the ox and donkey are bound before being led to the water for a drink… and the leader, the hypocrites… bound to a tradition that is holding them captive from participating in God’s compassionate kingdom.

Jesus is the one that is loosing the captives… How dare you be attentive to the needs of your animals, even on this Sabbath day, and not to this daughter of Abraham.

Seems like they missed an opportunity. And they thought it was their day off.

But the crowd rejoiced for what he was doing because these were signs of God’s reign and how nothing could keep a daughter of Abraham from being noticed and cared for. Luke’s gospel has a way of teaching us that God’s kingdom, Christ’s message, is not some regional good news. It is the good news for the whole world. 

Fred Craddock says of this particular text, “If helping a stooped woman creates a crisis, then a crisis it has to be.”

Jesus speaks directly to the leaders of the synagogue; Jesus is speaking directly to us as we try to appropriate God to a day, a place, a particular person.

“So I kept getting the feeling that I could partner with God in helping to make a better world…”

4 years ago in Santa Monica, CA, at the 3^rd Street Promenade, Mark Johnson, founder of “Playing for Change” recorded Roger Ridley playing his guitar and singing Ben E. King’s, “Stand By Me.”

“Playing for Change”, has taken the virtual YouTube world by storm. Mark Johnson says, “That we have to inspire each other to come together and music is the way to do this.”

Traveling around the world from Nepal, to South Africa, to New Orleans, to Dublin, native reservations, Himalayan mountains, African villages, India, and the Congo, “Playing for Change” has found a way to make a beautiful sound by blending instruments and voices from all over the world. Sitar, guitar, bass, washboard, harmonica, Bono, Grandpa Elliott, Joe and the Ganja Muffins, Keb Mo, Northern Ireland Youth Choir, Tula from Tel Aviv, and Twin Eagle Drum Group from New Mexico, are a few that come together to make for a symphonic sound singing and playing songs like Bob Marley’s, “One Love” and Sam Cooke’s “Bring it On Home.”

Each time I listen to these songs and watch these videos, I am moved at the beauty of how they sound and what happens when voices and musicians join together speaking to the resurrection hope embodied in compassion.

Today, this weekend, around the world… a wide variety of religious institutions are joining in one voice to support the Charter for Compassion. Following the lead of the Dalai Lama, Desmund Tutu, and others…

We are being called to:

A)   Restore compassion at the center of morality and religion

B)   To return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate

C)   To ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions, and cultures

D)   To encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity

E)    To cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings, even those regarded as enemies

At the heart of this Charter is the celebration of the Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

“The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honor the sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.”

“So I kept getting the feeling that I could partner with God in helping to make a better world…”

Is this not the model we see in our Lord, Jesus Christ, when he is in the synagogue with the other leaders on an “off day”? To be a people of compassion is to be committed to the needs of our neighbor… the neighbor that we are called to love.

Are we not called to notice the daughter of Abraham and loose her so she may stand with us to give praise to God whose kingdom has and will continue to come?

 “What does the Lord require of us? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” 

Not too far from here, in Chatham County, we hear a story about what happens when people learn to “dethrone the self from the centre of our world.” Paul Cuadros, author of A Home on the Field, moved to Pittsboro to study the impact of the growing Hispanic community because of meatpacking and poultry processing plants, particularly in Siler City, and their impact on the local community.

Imagine with me the woman noticed by Jesus in the synagogue. Imagine the woman’s surprise when she was noticed and healed. Imagine the woman giving praise to God as she is able to stand straight up for the first time in 18 years. 

                                   
  Imagine the crowd rejoicing at the sign of God’s kingdom.

To make a long story short, Cuadros (now Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication here at UNC, and the first book written by a sitting professor to be chosen as the first-year summer reading) pushed through with a little help from a county council person, a soccer team at Jordan Matthews High School. After a couple of years as the recipient of threats, slurs, and a rally led by David Duke, Cuadros and his Jets in 2004 won the state championship.

Granted, there were plenty that still held the position that these people and their sport are not welcome, but the tide was noticeably changing. As they held the trophy high in the air at the SAS soccer park in Cary, back home in Siler City many, black and white, hurled these players as heroes.

Guided by the lessons of determination from his immigrant father, Cuadros said, “Over time, everyone has to deal with each other. When you get to know people a little bit, you see their humanity.”

Our Christian faith calls us to loose the bonds of those that might go unnoticed. Christ teaches us to speak and act even when tradition would say otherwise. How are you standing with and for all God’s children. How are you helping to loose the bonds where we can all join together and praise the Living God? Despite all odds, how are you, how are we joining together in one voice to be partners with God and God’s work in this world?

Jesus has come to loose us. Jesus has healed us of the things that would keep us bent over. Why do I love Jesus? I love Jesus because he makes me look at the world with a new center.

Thanks be to God! Amen.