“Keeping the Door Open”
Luke 7:11-17
Sanbornton Congregational Church, UCC
June 10, 2007
(Please do not re-print or re-use without permission of the author)
When we look around our country and world and see some of the challenges that confront us – homelessness, poverty, AIDS, malaria, climate change – we can feel overwhelmed. These problems seem too big, too complicated to solve, too insurmountable. It is easy to feel discouraged as if in some way – a door has closed on our future and our children’s future.
As we travel along with Jesus and his entourage this morning, Jesus comes upon a funeral procession. A widow has just lost her only son. The scripture tells us that when Jesus sees the widow, his heart breaks. To get the full impact of this, we have to understand that for this widow- this is doubly tragic. Not only has she lost her beloved son. The door on her future security has just been slammed shut. Her son, the last remaining male of her immediate family would have provided for her, cared for her into her elder years. Now she would be at the whims of remaining family members (if she has any); the good nature of the people in her village. The widow is not only grieving her son. She is grieving her lowly station in life and the uncertain future that lies before her.
Unlike other healing stories in the Gospel, the widow never approaches Jesus. She is fully occupied in the funeral procession and by her grief. She may not even have been aware of Jesus’ presence. Jesus simply comes upon the scene and responds with compassion. There is nothing said about the woman’s faith. Jesus revives her son in compassion for the widow’s station in life and in compassion for her grief.
Such healing stories can bring us to a tight spot in our faith. We can find ourselves getting all tied up in knots about the questions these stories present. Are we meant to take these stories literally? Are we to believe that God intervenes in people’s lives? If God intervened in the past, then why not now? After all, we just named all kinds of problems facing our world – why doesn’t God just do something? When we most need a miracle, where is God?
One distinction that may be helpful to us – is to consider Jesus’ act a “deed of power.” As Marcus Borg says,
“To attempt to explain how these healing happened is beyond our purpose and probably impossible…” He goes on to say that Jesus’ ability to perform these acts were connected directly to the Spirit of God, in his words…”The mighty deed of Jesus were seen as the product of the power that flowed through him as a Spirit-filled mystic.” (Jesus, p. 148)
In other words, our questions about how and why and what – in many ways distract us from the larger question: do we believe in the Risen Christ? Do we believe that there is a Power available to assist us, to help us to beat the odds, to show up when we’re not even looking or expecting it?
The Gospel writers certainly believed in that Power and were touched by it. The healing stories are meant to give us an experience of what they felt about Jesus- about the depth of his compassion and love for us all.
After all, Jesus acted from his heart; so it only seems fair that we give our hearts a chance to reveal deeper meaning to us.
This morning I invite you to place yourself in place of the widow and to consider – what is it that you are mourning? Is there a person, a problem, a situation that you have given up on? What is the door that we feel has closed on us? Is there a place inside of us – that feels dead, forever lost to us?
Mother Teresa shares the story of visiting an Aborigine reservation in
Mother Teresa said, “Please, let me clean your house, wash your clothes and make your bed.” He answered, “I’m okay like this. Let it be.”
Mother Teresa insisted and he finally agreed. As she cleaned she discovered a beautiful lamp, covered with dust. Clearly it had been a very long time since he last lit it.
She asked the man, “Don’t you light your lamp” Don’t you ever use it?”
He answered, “No. No one comes to see me. I have no need to light it. Who would I light if for?”
She asked, “Would you light it every night if the sisters came?”
He replied, “Of course.”
“From that day the sisters committed themselves to visiting him every evening. (They) cleaned the lamp, and the sisters would light it every evening.”
Two years passed and Mother Teresa forgot about the man and then she received a message from him from the sisters: “Tell my friend that the light she lit in my life continues to shine still.” (Mother Teresa, Essential Writings, p. 125)
Faith is allowing for the holy place of mystery. And if we cannot quite allow ourselves to believe in Jesus’ deeds of power, then faith is at the least – is keeping the door open, the window open a crack, the lamp lit – for that one percent chance, for the impossible to become possible; for the unexpected grace to flow through exactly at the moment when we thought the door had slammed shut.
We spoke of some of the world’s problems. I want to leave you with a hopeful note about a couple of them – malaria and climate change.
Last Sunday’s Business section in the New York Times, featured an article about young entrepreneurs who are using leading edge scientific techniques to address some of the world’s most pressing problems.
They have developed a low cost drug to treat malaria. And are now working on a bio fuel that would be replacement for gasoline, and would not emit carbon into the atmosphere.
These scientists have taken the most difficult questions and instead of asking “why”? and throwing up their hands in despair; have instead responded with “why not?”
It is far too easy – to give up on difficult people, situations and circumstances. We can so easily close the door, wash our hands and say, “enough.” We can lament our inability to make a difference, or to think that we ourselves are good enough, smart enough, capable enough to bring about a change.
The message this morning – is that Jesus never gave up. Even on the cross, Jesus never gave up, never gave in to the forces and powers that say – there is no hope, this is the end.
C.S. Lewis wrote that in Christ’s resurrection, he pushed open a door that had never been open before.
It is up to us to keep the door open. We keep it open for the One who has the power to enter our lives at any moment – perhaps just when we’ve given up, just when we think no one will come, just when we think all is lost and our future is gone. Amen.
