TrinitySundayB, Sullivan Park Care
Center, May 31, 2015 by Annette Fricke
As I stepped
into the treatment room in one of the evenings of this past week, I went about my
scheduled routine. Just before any
ointment was put upon my resident, we suddenly saw a bright flash, like that of
a very large camera. He says to me, “Did
you see that?” I work on the dementia
unit, so questioning what one sees or hears is frequently a way to test one’s
hold on reality. I confirmed that what he saw, I also saw and then we saw
another. It was the beginning of a
powerful, but short-lived rain and wind storm.
The usual conversation ensued when I mentioned that my hope was that it stops
by the time I get off-duty so I don’t get doused on my way to my car that sat
in the parking lot below. Being the perfect gentleman, trained in the proper
way from many years before me, he offered to allow me to borrow my
umbrella. I declined the offer,
mentioning that I had an umbrella.
Unfortunately, my umbrella was in the trunk of my car, in a place that
wasn’t of much use should the storm continue for a few more hours. Fortunately, the storm raged for just an hour
afterwards, the aftermath consisted of the gently groomed and laid beauty bark
spilling out onto the sidewalk and roadway.
As I and my co-workers walked around it on my way to the parking lot to
get into my car to drive home, I thought to myself that the groundskeepers
would definitely need to put it back in the intended space. Later in the week, I received the news that a
portion of my home town, Rockford had a flash flood covering the street by the
city park with rushing, muddy brown waters as well as running straight up to the
basement windows of the Rockford United Methodist Church. A new pastor had just moved into the
parsonage and apparently reported that the toilet downstairs had regurgitated a
bit. She was told to not be concerned,
the water was receding. My thoughts went
back to the flooding in Texas which was of a much greater amount and more
widespread. On Wednesday morning, a father
and son came to visit during our mid-week Eucharist from Houston, at least
temporarily escaping the devastating effects.
Although in
our day and age, we may dismiss such happenings in the weather as just a meteorological
event, our ancestors would see these quite clearly as acts of God. As kids, I remember my dad telling us every
time it would thunder that God was bowling.
Other kids were told similar stories or explanations. In Old Testament times, for example in Psalm
29 that I just read such nuances in the weather were seen as the almighty God
at work. God was showing us that God is
the God of all creation, as well as the heavens. God was God over people, the world, and all
of the heavenly places and was throned in heaven as the King of kings. There was no one greater than God. There are
no small gods, for example one for the weather, one for the crops, one for
fertility. That is what God through the prophets and preachers was trying to
impress upon the people throughout the ages before Jesus, during Jesus’ stay
here on earth, as well as now. Because there are no small gods, those are
merely idols and things which people somehow think are more important. We, as people want to manipulate and control,
not heeding the Biblical witness to God who is in control and ultimately has
the final say in what happens to us in our lives. The minute we step out of the Biblical
thinking and into our own is when we enter the world of delusion and
self-deception. God has the final
say. No one yet has been able to harness
the tempestuous sea or the earthquakes and tornadoes. We somewhat have the ability to predict when
these happenings will occur, but controlling them remains elusive. God does not take sides. We are told that the rain falls on both the
good and the evil. Compared to God, we
are small, just as a baby is small compared to fully grown adults.
God gives us
the freedom to go with God or against God, although God remains in control of
our lives and all that is around us.
Within that freedom, it is by God’s grace that we can trust in God who
nurtures us to become more and more transformed into what it means to be God’s
people. We are always living in the
context of God’s being our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of
trouble. We are admonished by the words of St. Paul, “For you did not receive a
spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of
adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it
is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of
God.” Our greatest temptation in life is
to fall back into our old selfish ways of being in the world and following
after things and ideas that draw us away from God. We must always be engaging in
self-examination. Am I listening to the
voice of God in my life? Or am I so
wrapped up in my own thoughts and problems that I can’t see beyond them? The
challenge of dementia is that it can overtake a person’s memory, but there can
still be pockets of clarity. One
resident offers the use of his umbrella and another resident offers to pray for
my safety to get home during the storm. Another way that God works is our
ministry to each other, to be thankful enough for others that we show it by
acts of offering practical action or praying for them. Still another question
we can ask ourselves is this: how can I be the love of God to this person, at
this moment? Am I open to the Spirit of
God’s movement within me? How can I show
God’s compassion to those around me? You
and I are children of God today and into eternity. As children of God, we are joint heirs with Jesus,
the same Jesus who died for us on the cross.
Through the blood of Christ, we are brothers and sisters, called to walk
in the way of God. There will continue
to be challenges along the way in our attempts to be compassionate to our
brothers and sisters. The road is not an
easy one. It has many obstacles, many
rocks and pot holes that threaten to steer us away from God. Sometimes people will be mean and rude to us;
they will take exception to or outright oppose our words and our ethics. Yet still,
this is our calling.
Although the
traditional viewpoint of the story of Nicodemus is that he was just an inquirer
of Jesus, not a real follower, there is an aspect of this story that points to
promise and openness. He is open to what
Jesus has to say and later argues with the Sanhedrin against arresting Jesus,
stating that Jesus had not been given a fair hearing. So despite the supposed secrecy of his
meeting with Jesus at night, he did risk his own life by defending Jesus. He knew enough and considered what Jesus had
to say that the seed of his belief in Jesus grew and caused him to grow as a
believer in Jesus and Jesus’ teaching. He demonstrated openness to God that
allowed him to see God’s work in Jesus, perhaps even to the point that he
believed Jesus to be the incarnation of God.
Regardless, he remains an example for us to be open always to God’s
transformation of us.
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