Covenant: Our Life Together
Scriptures: Galatians 1:11-24, Luke 7:11-17
The Rev. Felix Carrion is on the UCC national staff, leading the UCC’s “God is still speaking” ministry. I was reading his story in the new UCC Still Speaking Magazine (which is a beautifully done glossy publication that comes out twice a year, and which you might very well want to have in your homes; see me afterwards if you’d like to subscribe). One paragraph in his story leapt out at me as being relevant to what I want to talk about this morning. Felix talks about growing up in an Assemblies of God church, about which he says, “I grew up in an environment where people said, ‘God is speaking right now,’ and they meant it….. “We grew up saying, Listen for the voice of God.’ We heard that a lot.” The article goes on to say: “Now, he finds it a bit ironic – even serendipitous – that his conservative Pentecostal upbringing and his present-day progressive religious worldview share some common underpinnings: a dynamic God that is anything but static.”
This passage jumped out at me because of what it says about the commonality we are share as Christians. We tend to point to our differences and then put down those whom we feel practice their Christianity differently than our own. Used to be Protestants versus Catholics; nowadays it’s more likely to be ecumenicals versus evangelicals or Pentecostalists. Or like that story I told during Humor Sunday when two men meet as one is about to jump off of a bridge and then they discover how much they have in common as Christians – until the one learns that his companion is a member of the Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915 – to which he responds, “Die, heretic scum!” and pushes him off the bridge. We do like to revile those we think are heretics, don’t we? But Felix Carrion discovered a commonality between his Pentecostal upbringing and his United Church of Christ progressive faith. In such discovery do we find the covenant that leads us to compassion and community.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit here.
Compassion, community, and covenant are what I’m going to be talking about today…..but let’s start with another “c” word: the crowds. In our gospel passage Jesus is going to a small town called Nain; he is going, however, not only with his disciples but “a large crowd went with him”. Not only that: when he meets the widow, who will become the focal point of this story, “with her was a large crowd from the town.” What we have set up here with all these people around to observe and take it all in is another identity story – who Jesus is will become clearer by what he does with this widow and her only son. Unlike the disciples, who keep not quite getting who Jesus is or what he is all about, these crowds are ready to acclaim what they see – they truly get him here in the 7th chapter of Luke. Even though they may be afraid, there is great excitement as they proclaim “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favorably on God’s people.” The crowd may not be fully aware of who Jesus is, but they are deeply correct in two ways: they recognize that Jesus is called and has been empowered by God who is “among” them; they recognize that Jesus is, at the least, a man called from obscurity to do the work of God, the work of healing and saving, even of non-Jews.
But this recognition only happens after the raising of the widow’s son. And here once again we are in trouble. This is one of those miracle stories – prefiguring the more familiar raising of Lazarus, which is only told in the gospel of John, and so this son of a widow from Nain is the only account of a raising from the dead in Luke. We have trouble with miracle stories, don’t we. Just as we talked about over the past three weeks with the story of the Ascension, this kind of a miracle challenges our modern scientific worldview.
Putting aside for the moment the miraculous nature of it, here is yet another event in Jesus’ ministry that begins so simply. As with Jesus’ strange initial question to the paralyzed man who had been waiting 38 years outside the pool at Bethzatha, which we talked about on Mother’s Day, “Do you want to be made well?”, when he first encounters this woman, her dead son, and the crowd that accompanies them, Jesus’ initial response is just the command, “Do not weep”. As Luke says, leading up to this statement, “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her…..” That was the first and overriding concern – to demonstrate that he knew what she was feeling…and also that he could do something about it. Note that this is the first time in Luke’s gospel that he refers to Jesus as “the Lord”. As Sarah Henrich, professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, notes about this usage at this point in the gospel, “He is at his most ‘lordly’ as one who shows mercy.” In other words, the defining characteristic of one who would be considered “Lord” – which usually connotes royalty, power, dictating to others – is the quality of compassion. Would that some of our present-day earthly rulers who like to consider themselves to be “lordly” might learn this trait.
Dr. Henrich goes on to say, “What actions, what relief, might lead folks to recognize that God is visiting God’s people? In this story, unlike the preceding one, the woman is a small-town resident, powerless, and without an advocate. Yet, Jesus ‘sees’ her. Many stories in Luke’s gospel, including the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man, the Good Samaritan, and even Zacchaeus, turn on the ability and willingness of the Lord (and his disciples) to ‘see’ those who are often invisible. ‘Seeing’ people into our own reality and enacting the mercy that stems from such sight is surely part of the call of those who call Jesus Lord.” Dr. Henrich puts “see” in quotation marks in that statement, because what she really means here is that Jesus “gets” the woman – understands and empathizes with her at an in-depth level, and is not willing to dismiss her due to her status in her community and her culture.
And so out of his compassion for her Jesus turns to the deed that he can do for her. And this time he does it where all the crowds that are there – the community that surrounds her – can see and experience what he is doing. He is not hiding it and being mysterious about it, telling his disciples to keep it to themselves as he does at other important stages of his ministry. The result, as Luke reports it, is that “This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.” Whether or not we believe that a person who had actually physically died was reanimated by Jesus’ simply saying to him, “Young man, I say to you, rise!”, what we can take from this story, to put it most succinctly, is that “healing happens” – healing not just of a young man but of the widow’s aching heart and the community’s fear.
“Healing happens”. That’s a word that we very much need to hear today (as over-against that other locution that begins with another word and that is often used to define a difficult life situation). “Healing happens”. It happens in your life and mine. It happens even in the times of death. It happens because of the compassion that Jesus shows to all of us even 21 centuries later. Like with this widow and her son, Jesus is moved to promote life where there is so much death.
There’s one more important aspect of this story to note: what happens does not depend on the presence or absence of faith. The Rev. Dr. Kimberleigh Buchanan, pastor of Pilgrimage United Church of Christ in Marietta, GA, puts it this way: “But in today’s story? No word about faith. Not one word about gratitude or praise. Just a mother’s tears before the raising and a son’s random talking after it. Maybe this story is about grace — pure, unadulterated, undiluted, unbidden, unearned, un-asked-for grace. This raising doesn’t happen because of a mother’s faith or her son’s worthiness. It happens because Jesus has compassion for her. Period.”
Moreover, it happens within the context of community. The community had gathered around this widow to offer her comfort, and now they gather around Jesus to marvel at what he has done and to share in the compassion that has been given. This community will never be the same again. They have experienced the “unadulterated…un-asked-for grace” that Dr. Buchanan speaks of. Once that has been experienced no one wants to go back to their old way of doing things again.
Another leader of the church will have that same experience. Saul of Tarsus, wanting desperately to be accepted and trusted as Paul, the bringer of the gospel message to many parts of the world, writes to the Galatians describing what his past life has been but then what has happened to him: “I received it [the gospel] through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” This is no less a miracle than the rising of the young man at Nain. Paul is hungering and thirsting for acceptance, understanding, and forgiveness – and he finds all this and more in the community of the early church. When he speaks of going to Jerusalem and visiting Cephas and James, the Lord’s brother, there is such a warmth to his tone and to his description of what the community there has meant to him – so much so that he can hear people saying, “:’The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.’” And thereby God was glorified.
When we like the crowds have gathered, when we have been shown the kind of compassion that Jesus offers even to the least of these, when we find ourselves to be in community together, then we are on the path that leads to the covenant that we have one with another and with God. We covenant with one another to remain as part of the community, no matter what hurts might be there. We covenant with one another to show compassion not just to ourselves but to all those who are hurting. We covenant with one another to be God’s people here in this place. Our covenant is sealed by the symbols we take and eat and drink when we gather around this table. Here, then, is yet another “c” word for us: the communion that is ours to share and enjoy and take its meaning out into all the world.
Amen.
Dave Pomeroy
First Congregational Church, UCCLas Vegas, NV
June 6, 2010
Covenant: Our Life Together (Galatians 1:11-24, Luke 7:11-17)
Galatians 1:11-24
11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me. (ESV)
Luke 7:11-17
11 Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12 As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” 17 And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. (ESV)
