Choices

Kate Thoresen February 15, 2009

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Isaiah 61:10-11
Luke 2: 22-40

Introduction

Little Andrew lay awake in the middle of that stormy night. Thunder loudly boomed that made him want to draw the bedcovers over his head. The wind and the rain on his window sounded like thousands of tiny fists were knocking to come in. He shivered, wanting it all to stop. He tried everything his six year old mind could imagine, but nothing seemed to help. Finally, he crawled out of bed and bravely went down the hall. He shook his mother awake. "Mommy, I'm scared. I don't like all this rain and the wind and the thunder. Will they hurt me?" Will they ever stop?

His mom, sat up in bed. Even though Andrew was a big boy now, she pulled him onto her lap and stroked his back. "Oh Andrew, I know that this storm can frighten people. But you are o.k. Besides, you know that God is with you and that you can always pray to God for help."

"Oh, I know that God loves me and is with me, Mommy," replied Andrew. "But sometimes I just need God with skin on."

Jesus-God "with skin on"

God, in God's amazing wisdom, knew our human need to sometimes know God with skin on. God did come as Jesus, God's Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. He was the One who could teach, preach and show us how God is on our side.

These healing stories throughout the Gospels show Jesus, Emmanuel and God with us, as someone who constantly reached out to bring peace and good will to people who were hurting, hungry, fearful, imprisoned by unclean spirits or habits or dominated by circumstances beyond their control.

What I love about this story is not just the fact that the leper found health and hope in Jesus Christ. What attracts me is also the attitude that Jesus conveys. When the man with leprosy asked for Jesus' help, Jesus stopped and saw a person in need.

Let's go back to this story. I invite you to picture the face of Jesus as he sees this man kneel. Jesus hears, "If you choose, you can make me clean."

In all of his busyness, Jesus does not rush on. He sees him. He hears him. He gives him his full attention. And breaking the restrictive customs of his day, Jesus reaches out to the man and touches him. I imagine a face full of concern for the man's suffering and a heart full of compassion. No judgment. No distance. But rather, Jesus responds whole-heartedly, perhaps even with a reassuring grin like "Of course I do choose. Be made clean!"

Biblical theme of God's Grace of Choosing to Give Us Life and New Life

The grace we hear in this story is the on-going theme of the Bible itself. God chooses good, abundant life for us.

• In the very beginning, God chose to create human beings as companions with free choice.
• Later, we are told about God's calling a particular people, a covenant people, a chosen people to be a light to all the nations.
• Then God chose to reveal God's redeeming power through Jesus Christ.
• And Jesus chose to walk with the marginalized of society, dine with rich and poor, bringing healing and new life where he went.
• In the Gospel of John, Jesus told his disciples and all of his followers since, "You did not choose me, but I chose you. I have called you friends."
• And finally to confront the evils of this broken world that has spun out of a loving relationship with its Creator, Jesus chose to go to the Cross to overcome all that divides us from God.
• And on Easter morning God chose to bring new life and new hope and is continuing to invite people to partner together to work for this New Creation on earth.

Applications Today

So what does this mean for our lives today? Today I hear in this story two things:

First, an affirmation that God in Christ is one our side, choosing to work for the well-being of all of us. That says that God is not an indifferent God so remote and distance from us. Yes, God is so far beyond our understanding and so beyond us, but God in Christ has revealed that God is also with us, knowing our deepest prayers and helping us through the Holy Spirit to guide us in a prayerful relationship with God.

I know what it's like to ask God for healing: for myself, relatives, dear friends, and people we hear about in prayers concerns every week.

So when I come to God in prayer like that, it makes all the difference in the world to me to imagine that the gentle, caring and compassionate face of Jesus who seems to be right there in whatever situation of suffering there is. I can almost hear God with skin on whispering, "Yes, I do choose. I want the total well being for this person. I want my Spirit that is holy and wholesome to pulse through this situation you are bringing to me. I know. I care."

Just sensing that this is God's intention as revealed in this caring attitude of Jesus makes all the difference. Somehow, I'm released from my own need to fix it, to relax more in trusting that those positive, healing energies of God are flowing. I lean on the assurance that God is indeed working God's purposes out, and that these purposes are always for the ultimate good, for the restoration of all creation.

The second lesson in this story is that we, too, have the power of choice. We make choices everyday, choices that can have life giving or life destroying results.

As I was thinking about inspiring stories and examples of people who are living out these life-giving choices, so many came to mind! I am in awe of all the people around me, who are making such positive choices on behalf on the greater good for others.

For example, I met with the Stephen Ministers team last Thursday. I caught their spirit of seeking to simply be a listening presence who chooses to care for another. Each Stephen Minister makes the choice to be a compassionate companion who journeys with another, especially during a challenging time. They embody Christ's attitude of care. They choose to give their time, their energies and their attention to continue studying more about practices that can enhance their own skills of generous listening. They choose to schedule their time and attention to offer this gift of companionship to others.

Another example: My husband Tom and I have gotten to know people who are reaching out to foster care kids and youth. In a way, these children are the most vulnerable and invisible in our society today. Like the lepers in Jesus' day, they are largely invisible to the general population. I know, through working with several congregations, that foster care issues were not even on the radar screens for most of us.

And yet now we are privileged to meet people who have stopped, listened and looked around them to care for kids without safe places to live. One young man we've met is an English teacher in a local high school. In his spare time he works with a group called "StandUp for Kids." He goes to the places where homeless youth hang out, and he listens to their stories. He shows them where there are youth shelters, where they can get clothes and food. He chooses to spend some of his free time to reach out and touch the life of a young person in need.

Aren't these children and youth asking us today those same words we heard in Mark's Gospel lesson today: "Do you care? If you choose to, you could help to give me a chance to live a good life. If you choose, you could help me clean up this life that I find myself in, often through no fault of my own. If you choose, you can help me be a contributing part of society."

Conclusion

There are people all around who need to experience God with skin on; they need to know that there is a larger force at work in the world for their well being. A greater force that knows them by name, that calls them to be the best they can be, and who stands ready to help and show the way.

As Christians we believe that God is still working for the good of this world. Through Jesus' sacrifice, death and resurrection, God has the final word, and that last word is peace and good-will. And so by faith and bold hope, Christians continue to work for the greater good in this world.

We are inspired by the Living Christ to still make a warm place for the homeless: to partner in mission with people in Guatemala, to visit the nursing homes, to dish out countless meals, to tutor in schools, to worship exuberantly, to read the Bible and study it, to pray daily, to create a safety net for foster kids and youth at risk, to seek reconciliation and forgiveness, to sacrifice, to spend ourselves in serving others, to ensure that all know that they are wanted and welcome at our Lord's Table, to visit the sick, to strive for justice, to educate.

Why? Because we are Easter people who have tasted the awesome power of God's goodness. We know that God's love will prevail over any of the destructive forces that run counter to the well being of God's creation.

And God has chosen each of us, you and me, to share in Christ's amazing work to bring God's blessings and to proclaim that God has come with skin on to love us all with a love that never lets us go.

Thanks be to God in whom we live and move and have our being.

Amen.

©Kate Thoresen 2009