at the junction of right now & a little too late

you'll see one with open gates

A sermon on a crowded doorway and four unlikely ministers

 

This is a great story. Isn’t it? As Al read this passage, it practically came to life of its own volition! This episode crackles with liveliness. Why this Scripture barely needs a sermon. It speaks for itself. Doesn’t it?

One of the things this passage says, though, is, “would you?” 

Would you haul your pal to a house you heard Jesus was at? Would you, if the doorway was blocked, scale the roof and dig through the thatching to get your friend before Christ? Well, would you?

Speaking for myself, I want to say “yes.” I hear this story and long for something like that. Deep down, I want to grab that stretcher of life and march it into the presence of the Lord. Even the trouble of hauling it all and climbing the obstacles sounds better than how life can so often feel, like an endless slog of one trivial thing after another. 

And since you’re here, too, when you could be anywhere else, I have to suspect you know what I mean. After all, you could be sleeping in, making brunch, or reading the Times at Starbucks with everyone else. Yet, here you are. 

I’d be willing to wager that you’re here on your better Sundays because you, too, are trying to get in the presence of Jesus. Jesus who’s more compelling than all those alternatives out there. And there are plenty of alternatives. Aren’t there?

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 life. Don’t we?

Why do you think that is?!? Does anyone have a theory? I have a few of my own, but I’d be curious to hear what y’all think first. Why do you think, as much as we might wish for this kind of encounter with Christ, when the moment comes, we hesitate or miss it altogether?

Speaking for myself, I’d say that the main culprit is fear. Fear that I’ll look foolish. Fear that I’ll be perceived as naive. Fear that my hand will be brushed away if I try to take the stretcher. Fear that the stretcher will be too much for me to carry. 

And worst of all, fear that it doesn’t matter. Fear that God doesn’t work that way anymore. The truth is, we are all threatened by a potential spiritual despondency that’s more numbing than the man’s paralysis in today’s Scripture.

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 their escapade began. I wonder if they were trying to be faithful when they went to such extreme measures. Because the truth is, nothing about this passage seems to suggest it! The friends’ solution doesn’t seem particularly planned or especially elegant. 

No, this episode reads like a tale of improvisation and desperation! When you hear this passage, 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 pal in front of Jesus. And when the door was blocked, they did the next best thing they could think of! Although there were plenty of other much better ideas!

That’s why we like to say around here that when you're DOWN to nothing, GOD is up to something! The desperation of those friends was all Jesus needed to make a miracle worthy of the Good Book! Their wit’s end was the beginning of faith. At least as far as Jesus Christ himself was concerned!

…We’re about to get Stephen Ministry started here. And maybe you’re afraid. Afraid you’re not qualified. Afraid you’ll do it wrong. Afraid you don’t have what it takes. 

What today’s passage reveals, though, is everything that’s giving you second thoughts is nothing more than Christ’s FIRST thought about how to make ministry happen! Christ can use all your insufficiency a whole lot better than any of your self-sufficiency! 

In fact, that’s all Stephen Ministry is! Isn’t it, Ann? That’s the refrain you’ll hear over and over again in your training! You’re just the caregiver. CHRIST is the cure-giver! 

…When Brenda died, we read this passage at her funeral. Didn’t we? This is because Brenda was still in the midst of her life when she died. Her death did not come as a comfort. No, it came screeching and halting. We were robbed of something when Brenda died. 

And it brought me up short. When I’d visit Brenda in those final days, she’d want to talk about her funeral. But I couldn’t bear the thought, 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 not because I was being particularly creative or because this passage especially fit, although it did! If ever there was a woman who’d do something as audacious as those four friends, it was Brenda! In the end, though, we chose this passage because it had been assigned for that Sunday, and I didn’t have it in me to come up with anything better.

Blessedly, though, it was just the right passage. 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. 

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

Now, if this observation stings you, and it does me, the proper thing to do is rejoice! Rejoice! That sting is nothing but the prickling of your spirit waking up after too long a sleep! 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. No, you just have to be desperate! Christ will take care of the rest.

Stephen Ministry is one way to fling yourself into this. And if you’re not so sure, my advice would be to just sign up and let the chips fall where they may. Christ can work with any potential disasters! If property damage is held up as saving faith, you don’t have much to worry about!

But I want you to know, by your presence here, right now, you’re already out of the frying pan and into the fire! The truth is, by our indifference, we’re all already suffering from a soul-deadening spiritual paralysis. We’re all already on that stretcher. Whether we know it or not!

And that’s not all, either! By your fellowship with these fellow spiritual-pelagics, you also already have your hand on a stretcher, theirs! Mine! All of us here, in your midst, right now, are the very friends in Christ you’re carrying to the Lord! Whether you know it or not! Whether you want to or not!!

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

The Church is nothing more than a fellowship of the simultaneously sick in sin and cured in Christ. And each week, we gather to carry one another into the presence of Christ, the healer of our every ill. Best of all, though, is the promise that what makes the Church the Church is that Christ, the great Physician, can’t keep away from a bunch of misfits like us! 

Christ, the chief cornerstone, can’t help but look upon a bunch of scamps like us and see all the makings of the true Church! Everything he needs to make a miracle! All that’s holding us back is really nothing more than everything 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 up our hymnals and sing for what God is doing in our midst!