July 23, 2006 - Reverend Johnson


ALL IS WELL
 "All ate and were filled. . ."
  Wherever the man from Nazareth goes, all is well.
 
Early last Sunday afternoon, I said goodbye to my older son, jumped in my truck and began the two hour trip home. I had just spent five glorious days with Steve and his daughter -- my granddaughter -- in Chicago where she was playing in a national girls basketball tournament. It was the first extended quality time I had had with Steve in quite some time.
 
Everything seemed glorious. My heart and mind sang, rejoicing in God for the good times we had together and the happiness we all shared over those five days. All was well. All was very well indeed!
 
But, as I drove into the valley an hour and a half later, I realized suddenly that all was not well. I saw the smoke rising from the wildfires and remembered the human pain and grief that exists even amid so much of my own personal joy. And I remembered some of my friends and neighbors in need.

A very dear woman, struggling with the harsh reality of a diagnosis of cancer and the uncertainty of the future -- and her loving husband with his own struggle.
-- Another acquaintance, once outgoing, who is trying to extricate himself from the dark, cold pit of depression.
 --Yet another acquaintance, a kindly man devastated when his wife left him, taking the children to live with someone who had been his closest friend.
-- The neighbors in the high desert who lost their homes and all their possessions-- and the family who lost their father and husband..
 
Then I thought of the wider wave of calamities and diseases afflicting humanity. Terrible injustice and terrorism and war. Disease and poverty, hunger and homelessness, road rage and domestic violence, drug addictions and youth suicide.
 
Though all is well, yet at the very same time all is not well.
 
How then can I, in the same hour, presume to celebrate my good times with such exhilaration?
 
My answer is simple. Because of that divine, human being named Jesus. He is the one who combined the deepest joy with the most profound grief. He is the source of thanksgiving that rises up even though we may be laid low by many disasters.
 
His is the light that shines even in the darkest pit, and the laugher that echoes across all the graveyards of the world. His is the new life that rises from the ashes. He is the man of salvation, the supplier of needs: Rescue and healing abounds wherever he goes.
 
Jesus reveals God, the ultimate healer of a broken world. Because of this I am enabled to celebrate even as I pray for the healing of the multiple ills that afflict and imperil humanity.
 
Turn again with me to that brilliant snapshot produced by Mark, of Jesus at work in the land on the far side of Galilee.
       As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd ; and he had compassion for them , because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. . . And taking the five loaves and two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. . . And all ate and were filled."
 
Can you picture that scene?
 
The far side of Galilee was a territory avoided by the strict Jews. Many of the inhabitants there were of mixed blood. The fastidious Pharisees saw them as mongrels, not much better than the despised Gentiles. Yet it was there that Jesus came ashore from the fishing boat and was soon surrounded by a mass of people. And He had time for them.
 
Can't you visualize them all? A swarm of humanity in its vast need. As Mark says, they were like sheep without a shepherd. Lost, confused, without direction, they came from all over to looking for hope. And by the end of the day, they were hungry, with no restaurants or markets in this deserted place. So, besides teaching them many things, assuaging their spiritual hunger, he also satisfied their physical hunger. ". . . All ate and were filled."
 
 This is the man who amazes me. The one who had compassion and meets every need. True child of humanity, true Child of God. The fellow who knew how to deeply laugh and cry. The person who allowed both the bubbling happiness and the unfiltered misery of this world to invade his personal space, and responded to it with a gift of salvation. The man who challenged 'bad karma' with free grace.
 
Jesus of Nazareth encourages us to live life to the full, to be thankful without ignoring the needs of others, to suffer pain without begrudging the health of others, to have faith and love without despising those of little faith and scant love.
 
The Gospel that has grasped me comes from a Jesus who stands in the midst of human need with hope, who calls us to remedy whatever ills we can, to pray for one another in sickness and in health. My hope comes from the one who himself willingly suffered a most horrific death for the sake of his faith in God and his inclusive love for all. The Gospel is not an insurance policy against disaster. It is a Gospel of Emmanuel; God with us, present in all circumstances with transforming love.
 
Some critics call believers escapists. Not so. The church building is not a place where we hide from the ugly facts of life. Nor is the church community a fellowship where we pretend that bad things will never happen to God's people
 
Here we do not shut our eyes to the anguish of those around us, in order to sing other-worldly songs of thanks and praise. The church is a place where we can both celebrate and lament together, in the knowledge that God in Christ is with us and for us. The cup of Christ holds tears; both tears of joy and tears of grief. We lift up that cup to God with thanksgiving.
 
There is one minor post script to this story.
 
It was Jesus' day off.  The events of our Gospel reading took place when he was hoping to get away from the pressures of ministry and relax..
 
Everyone is entitled to some time off, aren't they?  I treasure precious times off. I'm sure you do. Jesus took his disciples across the lake to get away from the crowds for a bit. He was very weary.  His was an exhausting ministry. He said to his friends: "Come away to a deserted place, and rest a while."
 
He went to that lonely shore looking for a bit of peace and quiet. Yet when he arrived, another crowd of human misery found him there, and he did not send them away. He had compassion for them. He let them invade his space. His love included them.
 
It is that same incomparable Jesus who allows us to celebrate life in joy or grief. He is the one who is there for people, even on his day off. This Christ enables us to continue on celebrating even in the most adverse circumstances. Through him, all is well and all will be very well.