Don Friesen
The Christian gospel story is a good story, one well worth sharing, and one that has been shared by many. That's evident in the stories told in the Book of Acts, and in the story of the Church ever since. The gospel story inspires us to reach out and love as Jesus loved, and to tell the story of his love. This week I came across a story about an Australian youth group that decided to reach out in this spirit to itinerant carnival workers, people from a sub-culture of Australian society quite out of the mainstream. Every year, at Christmas, a travelling carnival stayed in their seaside town, and a small group of young people decided to organize a lunch for the carnival workers. They approached the manager of the carnival, who was taken aback but delighted by the invitation. The whole carnival crew turned up for Christmas lunch, and by all reports it was a moving experience. The minister thanked the carnies for the great family atmosphere they brought to town every Christmas. One of the carnies expressed appreciation, and offered to say grace, which he did, with tears in his eyes. The carnies had their first experience of "church" in a very long time, and responded very graciously; they lingered long after lunch had finished, talking with their new church friends.
At the next church business meeting, however, those who had organized the lunch were hauled over the coals for what they did. The reason? It wasn't that the church leaders didn't want their youth fraternizing with carnies. It wasn't that this wasn't a good example of Christian outreach. It wasn't that this church didn't believe in outreach. The reason the church leaders were upset was because the spontaneous outreach of the youth group was not one of the congregation's planned mission goals! The youth had deviated from the course set down in the annual mission planning workshop, and that couldn't slip by without criticism! (story by Len Sweet, cited by Chris Lockley)
Life is hard when you're dumb — I mean "rigid" — and it's hard to see the forest for all those wretched trees in the way!
Gospel Stories of Success
I was struck by the two stories of outreach in our readings from John 5 and Acts 16. They too are success stories! Only no rigid church leaders tried to stop the sharing of Jesus' love in these stories.
The story from the Gospel of John is the story of a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years! Jesus found him beside a pool called Beth-zatha. It was near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem and was surrounded by five porticoes, or porches. Jammed into these porches was a depressing assortment of invalids — some were lame, some were paralysed, some had diseases or injuries of some sort or other — and they were clustered beside this pool because when the water in the pool moved, the first invalid to reach the water was cured!
The waters in the pool moved mysteriously every now and then. Perhaps there was a subterranean stream which every now and again bubbled up and churned the waters of the pool — a natural type of Jacuzzi! It stirred up what some believed to be the healing properties of the water, and it gave hope to the crowd of invalids camped beside it. Whenever the disturbance in the pool took place the invalids surged forward to bathe themselves in its healing waters. Some made it, others did not.
The man who had been ill for thirty-eight years was still waiting for his turn when Jesus met him. And perhaps because Jesus knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" (John 5:6) The man answered, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." (5:7) Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." (5:8) John's Gospel tells us, "At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk." (5:9) It's a great story! The man didn't even have to wait for the waters to move. It was a poolside cure, and I imagine it didn't take long for the man to find a healthier place to live. That's one story — a success story, for illness changed to health, immobility to supple movement, and all was well!
Acts 16 tells another success story. It's the story of Paul's trip to Philippi. On the Sabbath Paul and his companions went down to the river in Philippi, for they had heard that people gathered there for prayer. It turned out to be a group of women, led by a woman named Lydia. She was a merchant, a dealer in purple fabrics — a luxury item — so I imagine she was a merchant of some means.
Luke tells us that "the Lord opened (Lydia's) heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul." (16:14) Indeed, the gospel so appealed to Lydia that "she and her household were baptized". (16:15) A household, in biblical times, often included many children, several generations, as well as servants and staff, which in the case of a woman of means like Lydia, may have been extensive.
Lydia became the driving force of the Philippian congregation. Paul and his friends were not able to stay long in Philippi, and Lydia and her friends established the church without benefit of apostolic help. They established a flourishing congregation, one for which Paul had a unique affection. The Church in Philippi is the only one from which Paul ever accepted personal support, and it was also very generous in its financial support of the Jerusalem Church when that church fell on hard times.
Phillipi was in Roman territory, a city strategically located on the chief overland route from the Middle East to Europe, on the ancient military and commercial highway known in Roman times as the Via Egnatia. It was an important centre of commerce between the Aegean and Adriatic Seas, a key location for laying the foundation for the expansion of the gospel into Europe! This is Lydia's legacy. Another success story! Not only is the gospel welcomed, but it took root in a whole new cultural context, and it took root through the leadership of women. This is a long way from the rigid restrictions placed on women in other congregations of the time.
Brooding about a Bent World
The season of Easter is a time to applaud the successful spread of the gospel, as told in the stories in the Book of Acts. It's nice to have an upbeat worship season after the gloominess of Lent, but, truth be told, I find it difficult to sustain an upbeat attitude. I find it tiring to always look on the bright side of life. Nineteenth-century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) wrote, "the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods," and I appear to have been blessed with an eye for that which is bent! But then Jesus came to give us good news, not necessarily good times!
The story of the poolside man is not a story of good times! He had been ill for thirty-eight years! John tells us that he had lain near the pool for a long time — hopefully not for the full thirty-eight years! Whatever the length of time he was there, I can imagine his frustration. There he lay, so close to the source of healing — on the verge of vitality — yet it continued to be just beyond his reach. After a long time at poolside, surrounded by disease, I can imagine that a measure of resignation crept into his spirit.
The poolside man told Jesus, If only I had someone to roll me into the pool! It's the an attitude we take on from time to time, especially when we examine the lot of those whose lot is better than ours. If only I had more money... If only I had a better education... If only I had a different partner, a better relationship... If only we had whatever it is we think will solve our problems.
Jesus asked the poolside man, "Do you want to be made well?" It seems a rather silly and unnecessary question, unless he was addressing the man's attitude. Otherwise Jesus' question seems cruel. I simply cannot imagine the man lying there for so long without getting a bit jaded about the scoundrels who always scrambled into the pool ahead of him! There were obstacles to his healing, but perhaps they couldn't all be blamed on outside forces.
The story of Paul and Lydia seems like a very positive story, until you read the fine print at the beginning of the story. There is a most unusual description of the activity of the Holy Spirit in the introductory verses. Luke writes, "They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them...." (Acts 16:6-7)
We're accustomed to speaking of the Holy Spirit as a Comforter and an Advocate, but not as a Blocker! We don't usually think of the Spirit of God as one who frustrates our plans! Paul was on a missionary journey through what we now know as Turkey. His plans were set, and he was trying to carry them out with his usual passion and drive. Paul's plans had probably been approved by the church leaders in Jerusalem, yet Paul was "forbidden" by the Holy Spirit to carry them out! He tried another approach, but again "the Spirit of Jesus" would not allow him to fulfill his plans.
There's a Freshness deep down things
Just like the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years may have felt sidelined by his inability to enter the pool, and the Apostle Paul may have felt stymied by closed doors, so we may feel on the sidelines of what is significant, or blocked from a significant pursuit.
Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) was a young man who wanted to be a teacher. As soon as he graduated from college he plunged into his chosen profession, but failed miserably. He wrote in his diary concerning his students: "They are the most disagreeable set of creatures without exception that I have ever met...." After his dismissal from teaching, he wrote: "I don't know what will become of me and I don't care much; I ...wish I were fifteen years old again. I believe I might make a stunning man: but somehow or other I don't seem in the way to come to much now."
Brooks was humiliated and frustrated by his inability to achieve his goal, but what appeared to be a blockage in his journey turned out to be a redirection, for Brooks went on to become a very influential Episcopalian preacher, bishop and hymn writer, his spiritual ministry of benefit to many.
The same Holy and sometimes frustrating Spirit that closes certain doors to us often opens up others. A closed door is not necessarily a defeat — it may but a correction in direction. It's important not to become too rigid in our plans and expectations. I'm impressed with how flexible Paul turned out to be. Twice he was blocked by the Holy Spirit, but he hardly missed a step! Blocked twice, Paul went into Macedonia and helped to found one of his favourite congregations.
Some of our experiences may seem — on the surface — like failure. They appear to be obstacles, or we feel frustrated because something or someone held us back. We feel thwarted by a sense of un fulfilment, or that we had to settle for second-best, but deep down — and with the benefit of time and perspective — we can see evidence of God's handiwork.
In a poem entitled "God's Grandeur," Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, "The world is charged with the grandeur of God." Though this "bent world" is "seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil ...there lives the dearest freshness deep down things...." ("God's Grandeur")
Some of us find it difficult to see below the surface when the things on the surface are overwhelming. I certainly find it difficult to detect God's leading in the present moment, and too often I find that the future to which I may look with hope turns out to be just as murky as the present moment. But if we have the uneasy promise that the future will be just as murky as the present, I think it also true that the present moment is not as ordinary as we may think. God is present in the here and now. It is in the routines of our everyday life that God touches us and transforms us.
It's interesting that Jesus healed the poolside man, not by helping him into the pool, but right where he was, on the side of the pool. The lesson to be learned may be this: while we are waiting and watching and ruing the distance between ourselves and a more abundant life, we are already fully in the midst of those forces. Though Jesus may not remove all of the impediments and obstacles that hold us back, yet by his grace and power we are redeemed, often in unexpected ways that change us, if not our situation. Thanks be to God.
THE world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.