Family, Faith and Future: God with us, in worries, in worship and wherever
It is a blessing for us to gather to praise God together and also to support each other in our faith journeys. Worship matters!
In Revelation 4 today, St John witnesses no less than worship in Heaven, around the throne of our Lord. I and perhaps you too have worshipped in some beautiful cathedrals and churches around the world whose wondrous architecture (a layout in the shape of the cross and with steeples calling us to look up to God and windows that show us Biblical stories and saintly followers of Christ), all pointing us to God. And historic buildings can also remind us of the faithful ones who have gone before us and live now in God. But I’ve also delighted in prayer and chanting at Taizé, and vivid praise at the EO Jongerendag and elsewhere, full of joy and spiritual energy, to lift our hearts. And I also always value small-scale and quiet prayer moments, where we experience God’s presence in another way, but also lift up those in need to God.
Worship feeds us, calls us, points us, and prepares us for what is to come.
In the awesome vision of worship in Heaven that St John shares in ch 4 of the Revelation, John can understandably barely describe what he sees. It is beyond words. John mentions the radiant brilliance of various gemstones and of a rainbow – a reminder of God’s covenant of peace with Noah and humanity. 24 elders are seated on thrones – are these the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles, possibly together? Symbolizing all the ages and all peoples? There are the 4 living creatures – reminiscent of Ezekiel’s prophecy. Do these represent all earth’s creatures? Or do they symbolize, as medieval artists suggested, the work of the 4 Gospels, fulfilled? In any case, together, they all worship God, Who is above and beyond description.
This splendid vision must have given encouragement to churches during terrible persecution in the first century. I hope it still does! It reminds us that God, not any earthly Caesar, is Lord over all, on the heavenly throne. In our troubled times, too, this gives us hope: a glimpse of awesome worship, of God’s glory, above the flux of history. A vision of what God wants for us, when there will be no more violence and tears, but deep peace and endless joy. Our sincere worship of God here on earth is to point us to God’s will for a glorious time to come.
And a significant and reassuring detail is that John experiences this heavenly worship through and in the Spirit (v2). Unlike other biblical visions of heaven, he did not have to be carried up by angels or escorted through gates. He is brought there by the Spirit. A reminder that the Spirit whom Jesus assured us is with us links us to Heaven. We must be thankful!
And as we also reflect on Luke’s Gospel today, we realize that recognizing God’s ‘awesomeness’ is important, but not the only virtue of worship. It is also very much about our relationship with God and His care for us. Jesus assures at the opening of our reading from Luke that all who hear, receive and live God’s words are part of God’s family with Him. Jesus wants us all to be family with God and never to forget this link and to live it.
Even and especially when we are living through difficulties.
Some intrigued people had only for a short time been following Jesus, this remarkable teacher and healer, without yet really recognizing who he truly is. In our reading, He invites them to follow him, this time to get in a boat and go to the ‘other’ side. Jesus offers to accompany us to the other side of everything, including eternal life. Later writers have seen much symbolism for the church in this little boat of nervous disciples, battered by the waves. We are reminded that all is well, if and only if the Lord is indeed in our boat, in our worship, in our service and in our lives. Paul reminded us we do not see perfectly in this world, and some feel the Lord is asleep, but that is just a view. The Lord can have things under control, even when we lose control. The Creator, come in human flesh, could and can still any storm. Inside us and outside us.
The disciples were in awe when Jesus calmed the storm. They questioned their own view: “Who is this??? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?” Our Lord ever protects us, but may indeed need to prod us, when we are in panic. He ask us, ‘Where is your faith?’ May it be in God.
In Christ we have learned that the awesome God above us loves us so much that he comes near to be beside us in the panic and in the quiet. The God is awesome and deserves our worship, but He is beside us in Christ and by the Spirit now. Intimacy. Worship life is therefore also about being in God’s loving presence.
I’m not sure any single worship service, whether in a great cathedral or stadium or in a lovely church among friends, fulfils all aspects of worship or ever can. Perfect worship is to be fully found in heaven alone. But awe and intimacy are vital to all worship. We are expressing our love for a God who is greater than we are but who knows us & loves us intimately.
God is with us to heal us, to change us, to make us and His creation better. Even and especially when we don’t understand or accept how God needs to transform it and us.
After calming a storm outside those disciples, which also calmed the storm inside them, Jesus shows how he can bring powerful spiritual healing to a disturbed, possessed man.
In the next section of our Gospel reading (Luke 8:26-39), Jesus liberates a poor, ridiculed man in extreme difficulty – a miracle that also scares people, because it challenges their assumptions. Jesus is trying to free us and all human society from our own fears and prejudices, so we can live more courageously, faithfully and lovingly.
Verse 26 is the first and only time in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus crosses over into predominantly Gentile territory: Gerasene or Gadarenes, on the Sea opposite Galilee. Jesus is blazing a new trail, forcing his people to get over thinking that the Gospel is only for ‘people like us’. He’s also breaking social taboos about sickness and troubled people that hold cultures hostage.
Jesus steps out of his boat, and a crazed and naked man, possessed by demons, falls at his feet. Nowadays, he might be described as severely psychologically disturbed. Psycho and therapy come from Greek words meaning soul and healing. Psychotherapy has become secularized in modern times, but thankfully, many in modern psychiatry now recognize that faith can make a positive contribution to mental health. Jesus is the soul-healer, bringing the spiritual healing all of us humans need.
This possessed man had too many (a Legion of) personal demons but had become a public problem. He had been chained and under guard. He was an social anathema. Historically, even people with mild psychological illnesses were barred from ‘normal’ life, locked up and hidden away. Sad.
But Jesus courageously cares for this man and frees him from his demons. Sadly, this great miracle too is not socially accepted; his new freedom is not celebrated. The crowds were frightened of Jesus’ power, and cannot cope with the positive change that has happened to the local crazy man. They have no scapegoat anymore. Must he now be accepted, integrated? Jesus’ healing inspires new and intimidating freedom from prejudice, showing how open-hearted and healing God’s work can be, for individuals and societies.
Jesus lives and proclaims the Kingdom of God, regardless of and in defiance of public opinion. He brings God’s freedom to humans: freedom from sin, from demons, from injustice, from racial hatred, freedom from slavery to evil things and people, and freedom from one of the greatest fears: fear itself.
Faith is to bring a new and caring kind of freedom to live for God and follow Him closely, even and especially in a confused, close-minded world.
The last two stories we encounter, wrapped together, in today’s Gospel reading are also about other aspects of Christ’s miraculous healing. They too are about much more than physical healing. They are about living hope in the face of fear and even death.
Jairus was a leader in the synagogue, sort of churchwarden, worship leader, and building caretaker all in one. A respected man of authority and prestige. What would move him to risk everything? To come out into a crowd, for everyone to see, and kneel down and beg a controversial teacher to help him?
It was simply this: his great love for his child. I suppose any parent can identify with that. Even to lay your job, your earnings and your reputation on the line if your child is dying. Jairus was forced to realize that his own status could not guarantee his daughter’s health. A man used to being in control had to give up the faith he had in himself and his position, and put his faith completely in Christ. His twelve year old daughter was at death’s door. His love for her made his desperate faith possible.
12 years, that is also how long one poor anonymous woman in the crowd following Jesus had endured painful and embarrassing bleeding. She had tried every doctor in town, probably alternative medicine too, and nothing, absolutely nothing had worked. She was probably at the end of her rope and at the end of her finances. And if that was not bad enough, in her day, in Jewish society, she was also an outcast because of her illness, not permitted to worship or be involved in community life, because anyone who touched her would also be considered unclean.
We can thank God that most people who are ill in our society are not ostracized. But illness is still an isolating thing, even if hospitals are filled with kind staff, and if friends and family visit. This poor woman was a complete victim of her illness. Jairus was a public figure. This woman had become nameless, or was simply identified by her illness.
But she decided to defy it all, to risk the ridicule or even fear of the crowd, to open herself up.
There was a fine film many years ago about prison life entitled The Shawshank Redemption. One of the lines on the posters to promote the film was ‘Fear can hold you prisoner: hope can set you free.’ In a key scene, the main characters Andy and Red discuss life beyond prison. A mutual friend, Brooks, was released, but fear of the outside world drove him to suicide. Andy contemplates what brought him to prison and his hopes for the future. He asks Red, ‘Do you think you’ll ever get out of here?’ But Red doesn’t want to risk losing control of his emotions in prison so he says ‘No.’ But Andy responds, ‘You can live your life as though you are almost dead, or you can die living.’
The nameless bleeding woman wants to die living, so risks rejection and literally reaches out for long denied healing.
Though she did probably physically die sometime late, on that day, her faith saved her. It brought healing far beyond the physical, though that was part of it. She, who was not allowed to be touched, reached out for Christ. And was healed. Her hemorrhages stopped. But just as importantly, Jesus noted to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you!’
He recognized her as a sibling in the family of God when everyone else had refused to. He restored her to life in so many ways. Saving and healing are more than physical.
And Jairus’ daughter, she is more than healed. She had, while Jesus had been delayed, pretty much died. Jairus and his wife and family must have been crushed by this news. Yet Jesus responds, ‘Don’t be afraid, just believe!’ Courageous prophetic words of defiance, not the soothing ‘Oh, it’ll be all right.’
Jesus told the mourners: ‘Stop wailing. She is not dead but asleep.’ That might have sounded cruel. But perhaps Jesus is giving us a glimpse at how God sees death.
Sometimes those we love do pass on. And that hurts, and we, like those in the boat, may wonder about silence. But tears can also open our eyes, though. Jeremiah, known as the weeping Prophet, did not try to conceal his feelings. Neither did Jairus, nor did the poor suffering woman. They witnessed God’s work, even if it came later than expected.
Each of them gave up control, and that faith in only themselves. They gambled on uncertainty, and took the risk tp have faith in God. The two daughters in the Gospel – daughter of Jairus and the older woman – it was not just physical healing that saved them – those were just signs of salvation. Desperate faith saved them, hope beyond typical human hope. It was a surrender of control to God, that brought salvation. A lesson to us all, regardless of our circumstances.
I hope our worship always reminds us of our being family with God and each other, that it shows us that, thank God, we are not, nor should be, in control of everything, but we should allow God to be, that we follow his wise words to us, accept his unbounded love, and serve Him, following Christ, in the Spirit.
With such faith, we have incomparable hope and thanks for the one who takes us, with Him, to the other side, where all will be different and better, where heaven and earth will be one, as we hear at the end of Revelation (21:3):
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ We must look forward to and live for this and celebrate it in our worship together. Family, faith and future in God.