Commandments

Acts 14:8-18; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35

Of all the commandments in the Bible, there is only one that has the power to sum up all the rest. And, this is the commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples in our gospel lesson for today: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

And, so, the disciples, eager to please the Lord after his resurrection and ascension into heaven, went forth and did what they could to love their fellow humanity.

Our lesson from the book of Acts talks about how Paul and Barnabus tried their best to act out this commandment in their traveling around. In fact, in this lesson for today, we read about how they healed a man who had been lame from birth and had never walked in his life. For them, healing this man was a very practical way to do what Christ had commanded: Love one another.

For a long time now, our culture has believed in a very powerful myth: that we can be in control through technological manipulation and mastery. The quest to control nature has led to an explosion in scientific knowledge -- allowing us to spice genes, wipe out diseases and multiply our food supply. Likewise, our belief that we should be able to manipulate time and space has led us into the tiny world of the microchip and out into the vast expanses of the unexplored galaxy.

We control our environment -- using it and abusing it, even completely hiding from it. In fact, some people living in big cities can successfully rush from home to car to office to shopping mall to home without ever stepping outside. About the only thing we can't control is the weather -- which explains why, no matter how hot, cold, wet or windy it is, the weather always seems to be the subject of our conversations. It annoys us to no end that it will probably rain next Memorial Day weekend and there is nothing we can do about it!

But the greatest exercise we get in control is when we try to convince ourselves that through our knowledge, skill and good works, we can control our own bodies -- avoid pain, escape disease, sidestep suffering, and cheat death. Ever since medical science finally made the connection between microscopic bacterium and viruses and disease, and began finding ways to combat infecting organisms, doctors have been at the top of society's "most respected" list. Here are men and women who are really in control -- the healers -- giving us ways to keep our bodies strictly within the bounds of health and wholeness.

It is little wonder then that when illness or injury invades our lives we feel panicky and desperate -- we want a cure and we want it NOW! In search of instant control we forget what health is, what wholeness means, what healing takes.

Establishing a healing, loving relationship wherein we are able to fulfill Christ's commandment of love requires three kinds of encounters -- none of which are controlled or controlling. First, in order to begin healing there must be movement toward the other. The greatest healing relationship ever establised was God's movement toward a broken, crippled humanity through the person of Jesus Christ. Movement toward requires that each party accept the other without judging the other in the relationship. In this week's text from Acts, Paul is actively involved in "movement toward" as he and Barnabas turn away from the synagogue and begin to devote their attention to the Gentile population. Other scriptural healing encounters also begin with "movement toward," such as the dramatic steps taken by Zacchaeus to move towards Jesus.

The next step in aeffecting a healing relationship is even more unnerving and out-of-control than willfully moving toward another. No healing can occur until the healer spends time, energy and self in being with the other. In his healing encounter in Lystra Paul shows a remarkable ability to be with those who were before him. Seeing the crippled man in the crowd Paul locks his eyes, his heart and his soul onto that man. Through such concentration, Paul is with this man, eye-to-eye, face-to-face, heart-to-heart, reading his desires and faithfulness as they opened up to each other.

Jesus also took the time to be with those who sought him out for healing. More often than not, it was this tendancy that got Jesus in trouble with the authorities and even with his own disciples. Eating and drinking with tax collectors, preaching and walking among the street rabble were generally viewed as demeaning and worthless activities. When Jesus spent time with Zaccaeus, he was criticized roundly for such "wasteful" behavior. Entering fully into a healing relationship does not therefore insulate us from other hurts. We should be prepared for gossip, criticism and innuendo to run amuck while we are attempting to be with those whom others perceive as less-than-whole.

"In Jesus Christ we are related to God as receivers, that is, in terms of our neediness. Jesus makes it clear: He comes to the poor and to the sick. Those who are well have no need of that physician"

Clearly Hebrews 13:3 makes this plain: "Visit those in prison as if in prison with them. Care for the sick because you are still in the body." It is not the well helping the sick, but the sick helping the sick.

Finally, to complete the healing process, we must be able to move on. Our desire for control always entices us to stay longer than we should, fixing things, fussing over the other, trying to keep any more intrusive, unhealthy consequences from infringing on "our" work. But healing does not come from us, even if we are skilled surgeons or brilliant psychiatrists. Healing, as Paul and Barnabas were frantically trying to get across to the pagan Lystraens, comes from God alone. If we open ourselves up and make ourselves available as conduits for God's healing power, we may at best call ourselves instruments of healing. Like a cast or an inoculation we can create an environment conducive to healing, but the journey back to health can only be affected by God. Therefore we should not be afraid to move on, to go on with our mission and lives and commitments simply because we fear that our accomplishments will unravel behind us. If they do, there was probably never any real return to health or wholeness in the first place.

Despite the free-for-all that breaks out, the temptation to claim healing powers for themselves, and the near-fatal stoning of Paul and Barnabas, both of them go on. In fact, first Paul gets up and goes right back into the city that had just misunderstood and abused him so completely. The next day, Paul and Barnabas boldly resume their Gentile mission.

Correspondent Ed Bradley visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington and happened to notice a letter propped against the black wall. This is what it said:

"Hi lover. I wanted to come back to say hello. You know, I went ahead and married Dick and we have a beautiful little girl. Her favorite color is purple, the color of this stationery. I went to Arlington to see your grave and on it, it said you got a Purple Heart for dying. Well, this is your purple heart for having lived. I hope that our daughter finds as wonderful and as beautiful first love as you were for me. Good-bye. Hello. Nancy.

A truly healing relationshuip transforms both people. Both are changed as a result of the encounter. Though we hear nothing more of the cured man in Acts 14, we know his life has been radically changed. His whole identity has been redefined. With his body now whole and his spirit filled with Christ's healing love, how can he be the same? Zacchaeus is also transformed by Jesus' touch. And while we do not hear what Zacchaeus said to Jesus, it is clear that Jesus the healer is also significantly affected by his encounter with Zacchaeus.

Our own healing occurs when, in courage or despair, we recognize our inability to cure ourselves physically, emotionally, or spiritually. We must first move toward the love and forgiveness God offers us before we can begin to heal. Yet our desire for wholeness must be sincere. Our encounter with God can only be fruitful if we open ourselves up and risk genuinely being with Christ in all our weaknesses and failings. Once our physical and spiritual mending begins, Christ calls us back out onto the road.

Out-patient surgeries and shortened hospital stays attest to medicine's new emphasis on light exercise and activity, instead of complete bedrest, as the most beneficial way of helping the body heal. It is the same for our souls. We are called to go on, gently flexing our mended hearts and souls, demonstrating to others the remarkable curative powers we have encountered. Our new wholeness is an opportunity to carry wholeness out into the world, not to hoard it safe at home. God's gift to us is healing love, but it was made accessible to the whole world through the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

A man had a 1500-piece jigsaw puzzle which formed a map of the entire world. One gloomy weekend he gave it to his 12-year-old son, secure in the knowledge that it would occupy the boy's entire weekend. Three hours later his son marched into his study and announced the puzzle was completed. Stunned, the father asked how the boy had managed to put the complex puzzle together so quickly. "It was easy," the son replied. "On the back of the world puzzle is a picture of a man. When I put the man together, I had the world together." And so it is with us.

Amen.