April 7, 2002
“YOUR FAITH HAS MADE YOU WHOLE”
The words were exactly what she wanted to hear: “You
will no longer be in pain.” They
are the words we need to hear in this difficult age.
It takes courage to be human
today. On my final Sunday in
Toronto, we baptized 19 babies, and we baptized one here this morning. As
I held all those babies and initiated them into the Christian faith and the Holy
Christian Church, I thought, “How unfortunate it is, in one sense of the word,
that they have to grow up.”
Those children know nothing of arthritis, congestive
heart failure or clinical depression. They
are unaware of political bickering, suicide bombers, Afghanistan, Palestine,
AIDS, famine, or religious persecution.
They are quite content to be held, loved, fed and
kept dry. There, in that innocent
and contented state, we say, “Robert, Mary, Jane or Thomas, I baptize you in
the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and pray you may be God’s faithful
steward forever.” It’s a
marvelous time and declaration.
We are saying to them, “God has loved and accepted
you from the moment of your birth.” That
is God’s gift. It cannot be
earned. And that is why baptizing
babies is so beautiful; they are God’s. And,
in their innocence, of course, they have not earned God’s love.
It is a gift.
Now, it is the task of the Church, our task,
to see that these youngsters are reared in the faith, with teachers, supplies
and equipment, so they experience love, forgiveness and acceptance and thus will
not reject that which they have received.
So we baptize them; we love them. But
we know they will grow, and we know they will learn. They
will learn that Bee’s sting and beautiful flowers have thorns. They will learn that some children push or hit or bite or
throw rocks.
They will ponder why some children have brown skin,
some black, and others yellow. They
will question why some children can’t walk and others have cancer, and why
people we love –– like grandparents –– die. And we will ask ourselves, we adults, what, about life, are
they learning from me? What do my
actions and words say to them about people of a different color or a different
sexual orientation or different economic bracket. If I say to them, “I am a Christian,” what, about Christ,
are they learning from me?
In the early 1950’s when I was a student at Aurora
University, we had one black student in our dormitory. One
day, Bill came to his room and found a sheet of paper tacked on the door;
scrawled on the paper was “KKK.”
Our dorm President was from a rural section of North
Florida, which, in those days, was segregated. He called a dorm meeting. All
he said was, “When I find out who wrote this, they will answer to these,”
and he held up his fists. Then he
went over and gave Bill a hug.
She was desperate. She was in pain. She
was a woman of faith. “Oh, there
is so much about Jesus that I don’t know. If
I can just touch the edge of his garment; if I can just do the best I can with
the little faith I have!” So she
stretched …. and touched …. and Jesus said, “Who touched me?” Then he said, “Your faith has made you whole. Go
in peace.”
Duet sings Verse 1 of “He Touched Me”
“Shackled
by a heavy burden,
‘neath a load of guilt and shame.
Then the hand of Jesus touched me,
And now I am no longer the same.”
“He
touched me, O He touched me,
And O, the joy that floods my soul:
Something happened, and how I know.
He touched me and made me whole.”
Matthew 14: 22-33
RSV
KJV
NIV
CEV
Matthew’s gospel accounts are quite different from
Mark’s. Mark dwells on the
suffering of Jesus, while Matthew does all he can to convince his readers that
Jesus is, indeed, the Messiah, the promised one, who comes in the line of David.
Both Mark and Matthew talk about
Jesus coming to them on the water. It’s
a stormy night, the disciples are afraid in their little boat, and then, they
see Jesus coming to them on the water. He
says, “Don’t be afraid; it is me,” and he gets into the boat –– and
the storm stops.
The story, for Mark, ends with the words, “They
were astounded.”
Matthew isn’t content with that. He
cannot leave Jesus as a storm pacifier or a fear-conquering night-light. Matthew
has them crying out with fear when they saw him coming on the water. “It’s
a ghost,” they said. But Jesus
said, “It’s me; don’t be afraid.”
Peter says, “If it is you, let me come to you on
the water.” Jesus says,
“Come.” So Peter gets out of
the boat and begins walking toward Jesus. But
he was afraid and began to sink, and said,
“Lord save me!” Jesus
does and says, “You really don’t have much faith.”
That’s sort-of how it is in my life. How
about you? I find that I have too little faith, and I want to have more.
It’s confusing, because while I
seek faith, I also have to understand that faith in Jesus does not
protect me from the realities of life.
People of deep faith DO get cancer and die. People
of faith do have marriages that fail –– and have children who are unloving,
cruel, and disappointing. People of
deep faith do go bankrupt and are hurt in terrible accidents.
But people of faith defy logic: they go on. They
overcome. They do not sink. So,
we are gathered to worship a God we do not fully understand, a God who speaks to
us out of mystery. Yet we proclaim
our faith in the way of Jesus Christ. We
can get out of the safe, dry, boat and walk on the waves of difficulty and
trouble that we face. We do so with
the assurance of Matthew. “Surely,
you are the Son of God. I can make
it –– because you touched me!”
Choir sings Verse 2 of “He Touched Me”
“Since
I met this blessed Saviour,
Since He cleaned and made me whole,
I will never cease to praise Him,
I’ll shout it while eternity rolls.
He
touched me, O He touched me,
And O, the joy that floods my soul:
Something happened, and how I know.
He touched me and made me whole.”
Isn’t it strange how we approach this life we have?
We’ve got to be in control. Listen
to us! “I’m training to get into this career.” “Got
to make enough to live well, retire, and have some fun.” “Get
those people off of welfare; they have got to earn
their keep, like I did!”
I can’t explain all this evil. Look
at our world. It’s so bad. It’s
not our fault. Of course no! But,
why? There must be a Devil. And
when our world falls apart, and everything seems to be going wrong we say, “I’ve
lost control!”
We plan as wisely as we can. We
have two children …. Spaced-out just right, so that our investment program will pay
for their college education, one at a time. We’re working; the savings are modest, but in ten years, the
house will be paid for, the cars 5 years old, and then ….. there’s a lump on
her breast. It’s just a little
one, but the biopsy confirms our worst fears.
….
We smile. He’s
so excited. It’s only a used car,
but he’s so happy. He’s so
grown- up, mature for his age … so in control of himself. The siren wails, and his broken body is taken to the hospital.
In a split second, all the control
is gone: all the plans are shattered…. and you are left alone with God ––
a God you know and love –– OR: a God you have shunned and now fear.
….
The young woman was a widow, left alone early in
life, and all she had left was her son. As a widow, in her society, she could not remarry, and she had
to live on whatever income people of greater means would give to her. There
on the road, following the coffin containing her son, she sees Jesus, and he has
compassion on her.
How many are the people –– good people ––
with relationships gone wrong?