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Stephen Ministry

Why is it so hard for us to believe? We question our children. We doubt our political leaders. We aren’t always sure of our friends. Even our families are in question. Human relationships disappoint us; we say one thing and mean another; we place ourselves first, before anyone else. We make excuses, deny our behavior, and simply are not always trustworthy. So is it any wonder that we treat God in the same way?

Furthermore, we place obstacles in our path to believing. We expect God to be like us. But God is not. God does not lie or cheat, make excuses or break our trust. God places us first and showers us with blessings. God is God, perfect in ways we find in no other. In fact, God is the only being we can totally trust. Now some of you would disagree. You might say, "Well, I have prayed and God did not give me what I prayed for, therefore God cannot be trusted." But of course our prayers are not commands.

Another barrier for believing in God is our constant need for proof. We can’t seem to get beyond believing only in the tangible. We are dependent on using our senses and our logic to evaluate relationships, develop opinions or determine truth. We "read" other people watching body language, hearing a tone of voice, translating a gentle touch, sorting out their words, all pretty much inaccessible with God. With God we must learn how to hear in new ways; to see differently, to feel God with our hearts.

Long ago the Israelites demanded a tangible god too; one that they could touch and who would act as they thought a god should act. It didn’t work, so God gave them Jesus. And still the people did not believe. It’s odd isn’t it? The things we can see, or hear or touch are not always as they appear; and the One whom we cannot see, touch, or hear, is the real thing.

So we enter this story today, of Jesus claiming his authority by teaching in the temple, and surprisingly, it was the religious leaders who questioned his authority. In essence they say, "Who do you think you are, a carpenter from a small village, coming into the temple, as though you know as much as we do? Show us your credentials or we will not believe." Of course, you and I know that everywhere Jesus went and everything he said and did, was a show of his credentials and why he had authority.

The religious leaders were threatened. After all, the people might turn to Jesus instead of them. But the people recognized him as one with the authority to teach, to heal, and to forgive sins. They saw him as caring and loving towards them. They recognized him as someone who was God- like; with a healer’s heart.

After claiming his authority, Jesus goes on to tell them a parable about the importance of believing. The father says to the first son, "I need you to do some work in the vineyard today." The first son said "No way", but then later he had second thoughts and went. The father asked the other son to work as well, and he immediately responded yes, of course, but then did not show up. Jesus asks, "So which one did the will of the father?" It was the one who obeyed, they said. Jesus points out that even the dishonest tax collectors and the prostitutes were like the second son. They said no at first, but then thought better of it. Their hearts were opened. They believed and were saved, not through their actions but through their faith.

One with authority cares for others, even over themselves. Now, like then, recognizing Jesus and believing in him takes some doing on our part; it is not all up to God. It takes something beyond the classes we take, the disciplines we practice, or even the Bible we read. It takes a certain kind of listening.

In our action oriented world, listening has become a multi task behavior. We listen to our kids, our colleagues, our spouse, while doing something else. We are only partly present. I think it can be the same way with God.

Our desire, even our demand for the tangible, can prohibit our relationship with God. In the absence of something we can touch or prove, our finite minds are tempted to make gods of whatever is near to us. We make other gods of many things; our possessions, our money other people, even the Bible itself, so driven are we for the tangible. But such behavior separates us from God and each other and puts our faith at risk.

Whether we like it or not, God intentionally chose to be invisible to the human eye, yet revealed in other ways. The Bible is full of accounts of how God became real to the people; how God even came in a human form through Jesus that we might believe. Jesus, both human and divine, capable of miracles, with a love so deep he even died that we might live, and yet still we say, "Prove to me you are real." I think God wants a relationship with us more than anything; it is why we were created. But this God will not force us into a relationship. The choice is ours.

Down deep we know this but still we doubt that God can really do anything. How often do we hear someone say during a crisis, "There’s nothing left for me to do but pray". God, who knows us better than anyone else, becomes a last resort, instead of being the first one we seek. Why do we demand our kind of proof before we believe? Why must we hear an audible voice, like Samuel did, which quite frankly might scare us to death, before we say "I believe"? Must we, like Thomas, keep saying "…. not until I see the nail prints in his hands." will I believe.

Learning how to listen differently might be a key for us. I love to be outside and often feel quite close to God hiking on a high ridge, or walking through leaves in the fall, or snowshoeing on a mountain trail. I can talk with God, but my mind wanders to what I am seeing or thinking. But when I take the time to put on a favorite classical music CD, not as background music, but rather allowing the music to envelop me, it becomes something very different. I enter a place where I am more ready to hear God speak to me. It is a fully present, undistracted sort of listening. A relationship is being built; the kind we long for from others.

It is this kind of listening that ideally occurs between a Stephen Minister and another person. God is invited into the conversation. Only God knows what solutions, support, hope and care we need. When we practice this holy kind of listening, it is then that the Healer’s Heart is present for us.

People trained as Stephen Ministers know how to listen to another’s story without having to share their own. They have learned how to care without fixing; to offer compassion without conditions. But most important of all, they have learned how to get out of the way and let God speak; to recognize and be led by the Spirit in this encounter.

There are times in all of our lives when life is upside down. Solutions seem impossible. We think and pray; we read and maybe seek some counseling, all of which can be helpful. But it is the very process of setting aside our demands and learning how to be present that allows us to receive God’s direction when we need it the most.

This kind of listening is learning how to listen with your heart as well as your head. It is putting aside your own anxious needs to analyze, judge, counsel, fix, teach, or share your own experience. It is staying with the subject, while resisting your own need to make the other feel better. It is offering gentle questions, and honest words of encouragement that allows the other, to discover what needs to be done. It is allowing God to speak through you.

Listening is hard work. It takes compassion for the other person. It takes being aware of which kind of listening is needed. Sometimes we listen for information, or to another’s argument. We may listen to sympathize, or to solve problems, or to make someone feel better. All of these are helpful ways to listen. But the kind of listening I am describing is of the Stephen Minister listening to the Spirit in himself and the other person at the same time, comfortable with the mystery of it all. It is about believing in the healing love of Christ.

As you might imagine in a church this size, neither Ron nor I alone, can meet the needs of this congregation. You are in conversations we are not. You are aware of events in people’s lives that we might not know about. So we need your help in either becoming a SM, if your gifts lie here; or suggesting a SM to another person who might not be aware of it; or by requesting one for yourself. It is a connection with the healing heart of Jesus that leads the way for us.

Recently, I came across a moving story in the paper of a boy, a girl and an apple during WW11. Herman Rosenblat, a teenager lived in a ghetto with his family. When his father became very ill with typhus, he summoned his 12 year old son and told him, "If you ever get out of this war, promise me you won’t carry a grudge in your heart, but tolerate everybody." Two days later his father died and Herman was separated from his family and moved to a concentration camp.

A Jewish girl, Roma, lived outside the camp with her family, who were posing as Christians. One day as she walked by she noticed Herman through the barbed wire and their eyes met, but they dared not speak, so afraid were they of the guards. Carrying a bag of apples, she threw one of her apples over the fence, and he caught it. So it began. For months, every day she threw and he caught an apple that bound them; with never a word spoken or names exchanged; so fearful were they of being killed if discovered.

After the war Roma went to nursing school in Israel and Herman moved to London, and later they both found themselves living in NY City. One evening Herman was fixed up with a blind date. Eventually their talk turned to their war time experiences and they discovered they had been in the same town; he in a camp and she hiding from the Nazis. She told him her story of bringing a boy an apple each day. Stunned, he replied "That boy was me."

He knew he could never leave her and proposed that very night. She thought he was crazy, but 2 months later they were married. That was in 1958, over 10 years since they had first met. Herman is now 79 and Roma is 76 and this year they celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary. Amidst all the horror of WW11, where people were asking where was God in it all, God was at work, saving, protecting, healing. It is the story of The Healer’s heart.

Last week, Ron announced the story of Lee and Joan Shelton, members for many years in this congregation. Lee has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and together they have decided to share their story so that others might benefit. This past week Channel 7 played the tape of their interview. It is with their generous permission that we are going to play that clip now so that we all can share that interview together. It is a gift they have given us of permission to know; permission to speak to them; permission to support them in whatever ways are helpful to them.

For me, both the news article of a Jewish girl risking her life in kindness for a stranger, and the Shelton’s risking the reactions of others in telling their story, are acts of love. They are wearing the healer’s heart so that others may find theirs. They are setting aside their own fears and concerns for the benefit of others. It is when we rise above ourselves, if only for a moment, that we too, can wear the healer’s heart of Christ. And when we do it just might bring a change of heart to someone else. It did for me and I hope it does for you too.

Amen