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A sermon on Jesus' healing of a paralytic:

Have you ever felt like the friends in today’s Scripture? Have you ever been so fed up, frantic, forlorn, or just plain frazzled that you’d do anything you could to change your situation? I’m sure you have. We all have.

And, if you’re anything like me, you hate feeling that way, too. In fact, most of the time, you probably try to arrange your life so that you never have to be in that kind of a pinch. Don’t you? I know I do. 

Sadly, though, it goes without saying that we still find ourselves in a fix more often than we wish. Don’t we? It can come to pass in any number of ways. A change in health, career, or relationship can do the job. But so can a lack of change. A stubborn habit or ingrained relationship dynamic can also drive us to desperation, too. Can’t they?

Speaking for myself, I hear this story and long for something like that. Deep down, I want to grab that stretcher that is my life and haul it into the presence of the Lord. Honestly, the trouble of lugging it all, clambering over the obstacles, and clawing through the barriers all sound better than being stuck—stuck with the anxiety that comes from change and stuck with the frustration that comes from lack of it.

And since you’re HERE, too, when you could be anywhere else, I have to suspect you feel the same way. Don’t you? After all, you could be sleeping in, making brunch, or reading the Sunday Times at Starbucks with everyone else. Yet, HERE you are. And I’d be willing to wager that you’re here on your better Sundays because you, too, want to do whatever you can to haul the stretcher of your life before Jesus. Don’t you?

…And yet. And yet, for all this desire of ours, when the moment comes, we so often shrink back from putting our hand to the stretcher. Don’t we? Or, worse yet, we become so accustomed to the daily grind that we fail to notice or even bother looking for those stretchers in our lives.

Why do you think this is? Why do you think, for as much as we might wish for this kind of encounter with Christ, when the moment comes, we so often hesitate or miss it altogether? 

If I had to guess, I’d say the main culprit is fear. We’re afraid that we might look foolish. We’re afraid that we’ll be perceived as naive. We’re afraid that our hand could be brushed away if we try to take the stretcher. And maybe we’re even afraid that the stretcher is just too much for us to handle. 

Worst of all, though, I think we’re afraid that it doesn’t really matter anyway. We’re afraid that the tough breaks don’t mean anything. We’re afraid that the hard times are just one more darn thing. And, most horrifyingly of all, we’re afraid GOD can’t, or won’t, be bothered. And that’s the really scary thing. Isn’t it? 

Truth is, we’re all at risk of contracting a deadly despondency of the spirit. We’re all in danger of coming down with an indifference more numbing than the man’s paralysis in today’s Scripture. Our diagnosis is really much worse than we think. Not only are we at our wit’s end, but we’re so far gone we can’t even tell we’ve already slipped past the edge.

…I can’t help but wonder, though, if the folks in today’s passage had any idea they’d wind up in the Holy Writ when the whole escapade began. I wonder if they were trying to be faithful when they took such extreme measures. I wonder because, honestly, nothing about this passage seems to suggest it! The friends’ solution doesn’t seem particularly planned or even especially effective. Does it?

No, on the contrary, this episode reads like a tale of improvisation and desperation! When you hear this incident report, you can’t help but get the sense that these folks were just at the end of their rope. They just wanted to get their buddy in front of Jesus. 

And when the door was blocked, they did the next best thing they could think of: they clawed through the roof! Not the most elegant solution. Is it?

It worked, though! Didn’t it?!? It was enough for Christ! Wasn’t it?!? When Jesus saw that slapdash solution, he saw everything he needed for a miracle! No sooner had the man’s mat touched the ground than Jesus was over the moon and up to his usual grace-filled tricks!

This is why we like to say around here that when you're DOWN to nothing, Jesus is up to something! The desperation of those friends was everything Jesus needed to pull off a win for the Kingdom of God! The friend’s wit’s end was really the beginning of faith, at least as far as Jesus Christ himself was concerned!

…Maybe you’re afraid. Maybe you’re afraid it doesn’t work that way anymore. Maybe you’re afraid you don’t have what it takes. Or maybe you’re afraid you’ll mess it up.

What today’s passage proclaims, though, is that all that is utterly beside the point! Everything giving you second thoughts is nothing less than Christ’s FIRST idea about how to make ministry happen! Christ can use all your insufficiency a whole lot better than any of your self-sufficiency! As Saint Paul said, Christ’s power is made perfect in weakness! Christ’s grace really is ALL sufficient! 

Remember! When you’re DOWN to nothing, CHRIST is up to something!

Let me tell you about a time I experienced this for myself. It was about this time of the year four years ago that Brenda died. And you might remember that this is the passage we read from at her funeral. It was just the right one, too. Wasn’t it? But that didn’t happen because I was being particularly creative or thoughtful. No, it happened because I was down and out. 

Brenda’s death wasn’t right. Was it? No, Brenda was still in the midst of her life when she died. We were robbed of something when Brenda died. Her death did not come as a comfort. No, it came screeching and halting. 

And it brought me up short. When I visited Brenda in those last days, she wanted to talk about her funeral. But I couldn’t bear it, so I’d put her off. When death stared me down, I blinked first. As such, when it came time for her funeral, no passage had been chosen. 

With time running out, we landed on this passage. But only because it had been assigned for that Sunday! In the moment, I didn’t have it in me to come up with anything better. As it turned out, though, it was the absolute perfect passage! Wasn’t it? If ever there was a woman who’d do something as audacious as those four friends, it was Saint Brenda! Wasn’t it?

I take it as a great gift that the Holy Spirit assigned this passage when my grief got the better of me. The Holy Spirit hauled just the right words under my nose when I needed them most. The Holy Spirit insisted that Christ doesn’t compromise with Sin or Death. No, Christ stares that dastardly duo down! Sorrow might have gotten the better of me, but it didn’t beat Christ!

And that’s not all the Holy Spirit did, either! Hearing this passage in conversation with Brenda’s witness taught me that it’s not for lack of opportunities that we don’t find ourselves in those four friends’ shoes, or should I say sandals. Do we? No, we don’t have these kinds of experiences today’s Scripture depicts on the regular because of our lack of attention, courage, and conviction. 

…Now, if this observation stings you, as it does me, the proper thing to do is praise God. Rejoice! Yes, I said rejoice! We ought to rejoice because that sting is nothing but the prickling of your spirit waking up! This is the worldly sting that does a world of spiritual good!

Every day, whether we know it or not, whether we do anything about it or not, we find ourselves in the presence of stretchers just begging to be carried before the Lord! And you don’t have to be especially well-prepared or  particularly courageous to do the heavy lifting, either. No, you just have to be desperate! Christ will take care of the rest.

And if you’re not so sure, too bad! There’s nothing you can do about it anyway! It’s already too late for you! By your indifference, you’re already suffering from a soul-deadening spiritual paralysis. You’re already on that stretcher whether you know it or not! 

But that’s not all! By your fellowship with us, your fellow spiritual-pelagics, you also already have your hand on a stretcher, too; theirs! Mine! All of us here, in your midst, right now! 

We are all the very friends in Christ you’re carrying to the Lord whether you’re ready or not! AND we’re all also carrying you to the Lord in turn, too! And we’re carrying you to the Lord whether you want us to or not! But, judging by your presence here, you want us to, don’t you? And that’s a good thing, too! It’s a good thing because it’s happening anyway! 

My advice would be to just go for it! Hold onto one another AND all God’s promises, too. And then let the chips fall where they may. After all, if property damage is held up as saving faith, you don’t have much to worry about— now, do you?!?

…This is all church is, sisters and brothers! It’s all here already! The Church is nothing more than a fellowship of the simultaneously sick in sin and cured in Christ! And each week, we gather to be carried AND to carry one another into the presence of Christ! Christ, the one who makes the wounded whole! 

In fact, if you’re up for it, reach out to someone nearby, take their hand, and give it a squeeze. Go ahead! These fellow sinner-saints are the motley crew dragging your SORRY corpse before the presence of the Lord! And what’s more, these fellow sinner-saints are also the helpless rascals you're hauling before the presence of the Lord, too! 

Best of all, though, is the promise that Christ, the great Physician, can’t keep away from a bunch of misfits like us! Christ, the chief cornerstone of the Church, can’t help but look upon a bunch of scamps like us and see all the makings of the true Church! You don’t need to go on any pilgrimage! This is everything Christ needs to make another miracle! Everything that’s got us stuck is really nothing less than absolutely all that Christ is using to get the Holy Spirit moving in our midst! And us moving in the Holy Spirit, too! 

And so, moved by Christ’s Holy Spirit, let’s take our hymnals, turn to hymn number 614, and sing for what God is doing in our midst! Our Hymn of the Day is There is a Balm in Gilead! Hymn number 614.

The Holy Spirit is at work! Christ is with us. And healing is happening, too! Let’s sing! Hymn number 614, There is a Balm in Gilead!