God Satisfies our Deepest Desires

Proper12B9Pentecost, Sullivan Park Care Center, July 26, 2015 by Annette Fricke

            A woman by the name of Sara Miles is attached to these sentences, “There’s always someone inappropriate at Jesus’ table.  Sometimes it’s you and me.”  Although these two sentences have an illusion to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and most certainly to the person named Judas whose reputation as a follower of Jesus was certainly suspect at the very least, we should also consider that any meeting of a group of believers in Jesus or even non-believers has this same dynamic.  Observe if you will, any table with or without food of a meeting, even if gathering to play bingo will occasionally reveal some, who to some of the rest of us appears to be a bit off color in their language or suspect in their actions.  We all have our virtues as well as our vices. But what if what we see as those virtuous actions performed by us as gifts of God.  That way, the focus is off us and more correctly onto that which God has given to us. It begs the question, doesn’t it as to how we measure our lives?  Most of us look at accomplishments and achievements.  Our lives are full of them from the very beginnings of childhood.  The baby books record our first words, our first steps, our first time at feeding ourselves and tying our shoes. About a month or so ago, there was a special on all the high achievers of the local high school seniors.  If you followed the questioning of the interviewer and each student’s responses, your conclusion would also be that we are rewarded in life for our accomplishments and our achievements.  But hold on: the interviewer has one more question, “How many of you have had a job?” Out of a group of around twenty people, only two raised their hands.  My co-worker, who probably has more in common with me that she would care to admit, really disliked the whole story about the success of the elite intellectuals.  She saw through the whole thing stating that the only reason, or at least the main reason that these students were such high achievers academically is because their parents had the money and resources to make it happen.  She is truly jealous of what she sees as someone who has it better in life and she is stuck with a short stick. Sure, you can look at other things, like the interviewer as well as the response of these young, and claim that the parents did not influence their motivation.  In my experience of interviews, I know that this is not true and any interviewer can make what they want by the questions and body language they present. Few, with the opportunity for an interview will argue with the interviewer. But the bottom line is, our education system, as well as different work settings, throughout life is based on competition and performance.  You and I resonate with that premise, if not by our actions, certainly by the results we see. Your performance in your job determines your pay raises.  This is true even if you work for and by yourself as your own boss. Many of us have lived under the principle that if you work hard, you will go far in life. Yet, “life lived under the performance principle makes us slaves to insecurity and anxiety, constantly comparing ourselves to others, struggling to reach a level of achievement which always eludes us. Life seen as “gift,” as grace, can set us free. Once you know you are loved unconditionally by God, there is such freedom (-Br. Geoffrey Tristram).” 

            One of the thoughts someone is bound to think as a result of this story of the feeding of the 5,000 is a parent loudly proclaiming, “That’s my boy!  Isn’t he smart?  I taught him that.  That’s my boy.”  My boy is the one who had the loaves and fish and he shared them with everyone!  Isn’t that great?  Yet the protectiveness of parenting is always an element.  The rationale is that the parents know best and try to instill those values in their children.  But, eventually, the children will find out that there are other ideas in the world.  The truth be told, we constantly live in the midst of cultural values and what the voice of Christianity tells us.  And then we are confronted with a number of interpretations of various passages in the Bible, hoping to glean from them some semblance, some shred of meaning for our existence.  We are children of God as taught from the very beginning of creation and yet we continue to struggle with just what that means to our daily lives.  I know residents where I work who are clearly jealous of a certain bingo player who wins more often than they do.  He seems to know which bingo cards to pick and has more success.  But isn’t that descriptive of life in general?  Given the same conditions, some succeed where others are mediocre or actually fail.  We look for and seek justice to be done, but still the results are uneven.  We want to think that hard work will get us to our goals, but even that premise does not seem to pan out.  Maybe we can just look at the bingo winner’s methods and we can figure it out; maybe not.  You might say that bingo is just a game to trivialize the situation, but you’re still upset that he manages to win and you don’t.  But even winning has its shallowness.  What do we really need in our lives, what really puts us right with God? 

            Oftentimes, our eyes are open so much to what goes on around us that we fail to see God’s hand in any of it.  We attribute everything to our or someone else’s effort even though we sense there are other factors involved.  We know that this doesn’t work and yet we sometimes act that it does.  For those of you who have ever struggled with occupations and providing for a family, you know that feeling of fear and insecurity.  You know that despite the best efforts, you are never quite secure.  You see the tornadoes, fires, and earthquakes and realize that even what seems most secure around us can disappear so quickly.  No matter how many times we may try to tell ourselves that our lives are secure, we take back that lie every time we are hit with the realization that we do not have security.  Our lives are truly dependant on God.  God is our source as well as our sustenance.  It is God who brings us what we need from heaven.  God is the one who is able to calm our anxieties and fears in a way that simply clinging to the false securities of this world cannot.

            The reason that Jesus was so popular is because people attributed to him what they were unable to do themselves.  Jesus walked with them in their lives as one of them.  He appeared as an ordinary human being with a vision for a new world.  He had many followers because this is one who put them at ease, who calmed their fears and anxieties about life.  He brought healing in the face of sickness and death.  He brought hope in the midst of despair.  Jesus had, above all a compassion that surpassed anyone they had ever known throughout the course of their lives.  And yet, there is evidence in this gospel text that Jesus was not who the people thought he should be.  They wanted him to be their king.  Yet God, in wisdom knew that was a temporary fix as well.  God surpasses the temporary, the fleeting by continuing to give us what we need and satisfies our deepest desires.

God Heals

Proper11BPentecost8, Sullivan Park Care Center, July 19, 2015

By Annette Fricke

            How does God through Jesus Christ view our mortality and our feeble attempt to interrupt the cycle of disease and physical malady?  What does Jesus do and what is our response? 

            Last Saturday was the date I had personally picked for our fortieth class reunion to take place at Comstock Park, thinking that we would have a nice sunny day.  The forecast said we would for the several days beforehand, yet when the day finally arrived, even the “light rain in the morning” prediction was wrong.  A classmate of mine who had been adopted finally tracked down her biological mother, learning that her mother too had Multiple Sclerosis.  Like always, here comes the rumor mill grinding up the same whole grains of truth into flour of questionable integrity. It was like being transported back in time to when we were much younger. Someone had commented that they didn’t know she was that bad!  I’m sure that some could hear me inwardly groan.  Unlike many of my classmates, including myself, she had remained living in Rockford moving only from the Freeman area.  As usual, she put on her strong armor insisting she had done well despite her illness, stating emphatically that she had already outlived her mother who died in her early forties.  She never wanted what she would term a pity party.  She doesn’t like people to feel sorry for her in her so called “condition.”  Come to think of it, when a woman is pregnant, that phrase of being in that “condition” is also used to describe such a state of being.  I have very mixed feelings about the current announcement when a husband states that we are pregnant.  Well, yes, but your body is not undergoing all those changes that produce such annoying nausea and vomiting every morning and your body is not being stretched to the limit ever becoming more and more uncomfortable. If you mean pregnant as in expecting a baby, yes.  We’re all expecting that.

            People can say things that really hurt others whether they hear it from someone directly or in person, face-to-face.  I’m not talking about those moments when the brain is simply having a difficult time coming up with the right intentional, well-meaning words.  I am talking about such statements as, “I didn’t realize she was that bad!”  It was evident years ago that she had MS and as is the course, she still has it and has not recovered.  That is the nature of MS and has been since we, as a people, observed the symptoms and came up with a name for it.  People talk as though she is the illness rather than she is a person with an illness.  She wants, as I am sure also the rest of us, the same respect and recognition as a person, not an illness. We are not our illnesses.

            Who is this God, who in Jesus already has an understanding of disease that is just now coming to be realized in the twenty-first century?  There is a mind-body connection that the medical community largely ignores and many psychiatrists do not believe in God.  The attitude is to prescribe a pill and let people go about their “normal” lives which are anything but normal.  Only certain forms of counseling/therapy and Christianity work at forging the mind, feelings, and body together into one cohesive whole.  They are not separate entities as many modern day practitioners would have you believe; they are interrelated aspects of the oneness of our persons.

            The ancient Hebrews knew that and yet somehow forgot.  Both the book of Job and Jesus fought hard to dispel the belief that people become ill or fall into misfortune because somewhere they or their ancestors sinned.  Many times, when people draw near to death, those who would ordinarily come for a visit stop coming as if death were a disease they could catch.  All relationship ties are severed.  The book of Job is very instructive as well as insightful as to the nature of what people do in the face of someone who suddenly has lost everything.  How can we, as Christians act and feel differently?  Or, more importantly, how can we teach others to look beyond their skewed notions of what other sources tell them whether it be the people in their social circles, the newspapers, the news on TV, or the internet?

            And this is the other aspect of the mind-body connection, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick;" he said. "I came not to call the righteous but sinners." (Mark 2:17).  Modern phrasing would probably render this passage as, “I am well, I don’t need your help, God.” Or “I’ll call on you when I really need your help, but in the meantime, I’m busy.”  I am busy doing other things without giving God a second thought.  I can’t be bothered with reading from the Bible and praying every day.  There just isn’t enough time in the day; I will leave it to the religious nuts.  They can pray for me; it isn’t necessary for me to do so as well.  God doesn’t need to hear from all of us. Keep telling yourself that. Keep telling yourself that God is disinterested in connecting with you.  Like parents who continue to be there for their children, so God is there for you. The prayer books, the rosaries, the pilgrimages, and the retreats are aimed at one thing: our connection with God. 

“Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”  Afterwards, re-engage in the world, have compassion, teach and bring healing to others.  Jesus isn’t here physically anymore, but is still in charge and can work through you in amazing ways.  This past week, I finally managed to take a mini vacation and go out to a lake I hadn’t been at for over forty years.  Of course, it was free then; now, it’s $5.00.  I, one who is guilty of always pushing through and not taking time off, did nothing by the lake for an entire afternoon.  It felt good until I encountered the traffic back-up on the freeway as I drove home.  However, I would not allow that to bother my mood too much.  I got off on the first exit I could into the quiet of residential Spokane.

Until we come to terms with the fact that we are all sick and in need of healing, we do die in our sins.  We can so complicate our lives with the worries and preoccupations of our minds and negative perceptions of our current situation in life that “life” hardly describes our lives.  We become no better than the movies or advertisements we watch on TV.  We can begin to resemble the very things we detest, like repeating the same wording of a favorite game show, limiting our vocabulary to very simple expressions. 

No matter what we think about Jesus being our savior, the word does actually mean both salvation and healing.  The healing dimension is often what we forget, yet is most important in the present moment.  Healing is a bold concept that is meant to be acted out.  Many of you have better connections with people from the Church other than me. If you want a religious representative to do more than what they do, tell them.  Ask them.  At the same time, offer yourself towards the healing of others. Touching is fundamental, going beyond the verbal and intellectual.  Remember this: all who touched even the fringe of Jesus’ cloak were healed.

            

Peace is Uncertain

Proper10BPentecost7, Sullivan Park Care Center, July 12, 2015 by Annette Fricke

            The miracle stories of Jesus fail to give insight as to what Jesus is all about or who Jesus is.  This is quite evident when we observe that the people think that Jesus is: (1) John the Baptist, raised from the dead. (2) Elijah (fulfillment of the prophesy presented in Malachi 4:5-6). (3) One of the prophets (perhaps fulfilling God’s promise of a prophet like Moses in Dt 18:15-20). These same three responses are given by the disciples when Jesus asks at Mark 8:27-28, “Who do people say that I am?” I propose that the same is true for people today, especially those who are outside of the Church looking in.  My brother has encountered those who talk about what the Church was in their childhood days, got mad and left, assuming that it is the same now as it was.  They appear to take so little interest in what the Church says or does in regards to Jesus that their judgment of the Church is not only outdated, but quite inaccurate. I find that type of apathy and lack of research labeled to the extremes of calling people stupid, idiots, or needing to “dumb it down” so that even the most uneducated can understand.  The tactic of “dumbing it down” for others doesn’t work either for those who simply do not want to know and have no interest in changing their opinions which are, in fact, not based on reality.  The name of Jesus is tossed around to justify every sort of political or religious argument you could possibly imagine.  One meme on Facebook puts it this way, “Jesus was a radical non-violent revolutionary who hung around with lepers, hookers, and crooks.  He was not American and never spoke English, was anti-wealth, anti-death penalty, anti public prayer but was never anti-gay, never mentioned abortion or birth control, never called the poor lazy, never justified torture, never fought for tax cuts for the wealthiest Nazarenes, never asked a leper for a co-pay, and was a long-haired, brown- skinned homeless community organizing, anti-slut shaming middle eastern Jew (John Fugelsang).”  If you took the name of Jesus out of this, most people, especially those not associated with or no longer associated with the Church, would not recognize and attach Jesus’ name to it.  It is meant to sound ridiculous and at the same time convey what Jesus did and did not stand for or against.  For those who get it, it actually brings a chuckle.  As I said last week, Jesus and culture are not the same and we need to choose wisely if we are to make the choice of culture vs. Jesus less we confuse the two.

            The gospel lesson for today once again presents this dilemma, but in a specific way.  How do we deal with the powers that are above us?  What is my response to rules in the workplace with which I disagree?  And for you as residents, where can I take my grievances about this institution so I feel that I am being heard and respected as one who helps pay for this building and the hired staff?  Either way, as staff or residents, it hits us where we live.  Where I work, we are constantly reminded that there is an eleven story building going up right next to the seven story building where I work and residents I work with live.  It’s not just an eyesore, it actually blocks much of the sunset so cherished by most of us.  One resident suspects that the last three raises in her board and room bill are actually paying for that building next to us, not the one she lives in; one that only others will live in.  She is angry and rightfully so. 

            I mentioned the co-pay that many people are required to pay for medical services.  A co-worker and I were comparing notes on a casual basis one day.  It’s a $10 co-pay to see a family physician, it is $20 to see a cardiologist, it is $200 for an echocardiogram and $250 for a treadmill test.  So you go along with it for a whole year and then get a letter in the mail stating that you need to make an appointment, it’s time for another check-up.  Never mind that you have been seen by 2 cardiologists, one a surgeon all year long.  We both feel like we have been getting the run around, like someone is just trying to make a buck off the poor.  This was my solution:  I remembered that early in the treatment process the cardiologist said that there is no surgical solution.  OK, he said that then proceeded to send me to the surgeon who charged me for two visits, sent me back to the first cardiologist for a treadmill test which I passed.  The bottom line is that there is nothing they can do surgically.  I think I understand what that means.  However, the first cardiologist said that my medication dosage was rather low yet he only bumped up the dosage by 50%.  In light of figuring out what was bothering my stomach and seeing that I am taking double the amount of Lipitor of anybody I know, this is how I dealt with the power over me: I e-mailed my primary doctor and said this, “I want to take 50 mg Atenolol, half of the Prilosec and half of the Lipitor.”  A week later, she agreed.  Time and blood tests will determine if I was right. 

            The gospel story is a gruesome one, much like the modern-day thriller movies of blood and gore and society’s current preoccupation with zombies and the walking dead.  What are we to make of the violence in this story that continues to this very day?  Herod had so much guilt about what he had done to John the Baptist that he thought perhaps Jesus was the ghost of John the Baptist coming back to haunt him and in some ways, he was.  God’s kingdom has a way of continuing to come despite all that surrounds us, despite wars foreign and domestic, in spite of those who continue to inflict violence on even their own children.  Disagreements among people living side by side continue as they have for multiple generations.  As the Jesus movement people, we have a long way to go towards improvement to make this place one that is more civil in its behavior.  As citizens of this world, we have not grown out of responding to our baser instincts of self-preservation at all costs.  Yet self-preservation is not what we are called to by Jesus.  Jesus never talked about self-preservation as a virtue.  He actually said just the opposite.  Jesus’ answer to most situations is that of love and respect above all else.  As TS Eliot said in his play, Murder in the Cathedral, “The peace of this world is always uncertain, unless men keep the peace of God.  And war among men defiles this world, but death in the Lord renews it.” There are some who have difficulty with martyrdom, yet should that be our situation, may the Lord have mercy on those of us who did what we were able to follow our Lord Jesus.  We are called to fight against those who would mock us or prevent us from living a Christian life, but remember that peace is up to us.  The justice and peace of the world is in our hands.  We are God’s children in both life and death and during our time on earth, Jesus is our model.  Many people of his time and ours were against him.  Each moment gives us opportunity to once again follow in that path.

Culture vs. Christianity

Proper9B6Pentecost, Sullivan Park Care Center, July 5, 2015, by Annette Fricke

            My great nephew by way of my oldest brother is now in a similar position to where I was when I was his exact age.  He was born on my fortieth birthday.  Like me, he signed up for and was accepted into the military.  What is different is that I joined the Coast Guard as an enlisted member, but he is a new cadet at West Point.  The social norms of our society identify his position as being slightly more admirable when it comes to comparing military service.  On the down side, there is a risk with any such undertaking entering military service whether it is on a voluntary basis or being drafted.  Most of you know that having lived through all that you have known and experienced in World War II or the Korean War.  For example, there are those who are deemed 4F, unfit for military service and those who are simply weaned out during the process of the first few weeks.  Probably one of the most gut-wrenching events in young people’s lives is when they are eliminated, or more accurately rejected for service.  It’s an automatic discharge for medical or emotional reasons.  You were one of us, but now you aren’t.

            For better or for worse, in sickness and in health, our society as well as others has built into it the pressure to conform to the social norm.  We take our cues from the people around us as to what values we ought to hold, what to believe and what not to believe, what to act on and what to let go.  It is only through the rigors of the testing of our beliefs through time and life events that we come to a more mature understanding of what we really believe or don’t believe.  Each juncture of life calls on us to make a decision that reminds us that we are disciples of Jesus.  What would Jesus do if rejected?  We would do as the gospel lesson dictates; we carry on and continue to preach and teach about the kingdom of God, mindless of the obstacles along the way.  The kingdom of God can only gain momentum as we join with Jesus to spread the news of the kingdom to everyone along the way of our journey through life.  It is our task as his disciples to accept that invitation to draw others into that life-giving reality that is living in and through God and God’s grace. God can do great things through us from the greatest of us to the most ordinary and the least of our society; from the strong leaders down to those who feel the most helpless and from the officers down to the new cadets.  Remember that you all are called to and contribute to the betterment of society by your actions.  It doesn’t matter that you are no longer associated with the military or other social organization; you are still of worth to God and represent God in the world.

            Rejection is a real and sometimes very strong feeling depending on how strongly attached you have become to a previous association.  It is associated with the feeling of loneliness and isolation.  It is based on the norm of society that we need each other.  Fortunately, needing each other is also a Christian value.  I have seen that feeling of rejection where I work when a person is newly admitted to our floor.  It feels like you have been cut off from your friends and that your friends are in the place where you were.  Even though from one perspective it is a natural consequence of change due to physical and/or mental deterioration of the body, our emotional attachments are not easily discarded.  Making new friends when that feeling of rejection is clouding our senses is not an easy task.  Sometimes we need help to overcome that feeling of rejection.  We find ourselves asking, “Whom can we trust with our feelings or who can sympathize with our plight?  Who can empathize with our dilemma?”  This question comes from another reality I have seen.  I have observed staff members and residents who are actually quite cruel to residents who are having a difficult time with their emotions and thinking processes. Perhaps there are some who are unaware of their remarks which are perceived by others as mean.  I would suggest that it is our role to say something about it.  Our text tells us to press on.  We are not called to simply sit back and say or do nothing.  This is just the equivalent of bullying among young school-aged children.  Despite whatever fear is involved, when we are in need of help, in order to become stronger, we need to ask for help.  We need each other.  When we are unable to ask for help, we need others to become our advocates; the perceived strong helping the perceived weak.  The problem of rejection is that we can allow fear to overtake us and paralyze us, stopping us from asking for help. Beware of fear because fear of the unknown will keep us in a state of inaction. Fear causes us to think erroneously that everything will remain the same no matter what we do or say, so we do or say nothing. Fear is our enemy more times than not.  I might add that the basis for all foreign policy is fear—fear that other countries want to harm us, so we need to strategize so that does not happen.  Of course the real premise is that they are out to get us, therefore we need to do something first.  Whether you deem that to be good or bad is up to you. It is basically self-preservation for the country.  There are some very good reasons why a country would want to remain intact as a united entity just as there are good reasons to fight for the preservation of the propagation of Christianity.  It is the means by which that is accomplished that is sometimes questionable to a Christian way of thinking.

            Finally, do not allow yourself to be confused between culture and Christianity.  They are not one and the same.  Our country has made many errors in the past and some of them have been quite inhumane such as holding our own citizens, those of Japanese descent, hostage during war and not allowing black people or women to vote in local or national elections. Let us take a good strong look at our past as a nation and learn from the mistakes, mistakes that have caused people to feel less than human and rejected.  It’s certainly OK to be proud of our country and its citizens, but be wary of giving blind obedience.  We are still a young country growing towards maturation.  We have yet to understand and put into action equal rights for all people and to not discriminate among different classes of people.

            The words of Jesus are just as challenging today as they were during the years he walked this earth in the flesh.  There are many obstacles, many potholes in the road of our journeys on this earth, yet we all must walk it if we are to be his disciples like those of long ago.  We are to move forward anyway.  Fear is merely a fleeting reality when we have God and our fellow believers at our side.  Fear is only a permanent problem if we allow it.  Don’t allow it, but be strong in the Lord.  Robert Frost wrote a poem about two roads diverging in a wood and as one being the better choice.  Let me suggest that it is true that one is the better choice, but that there is always that option to come back to the better choice. There may be two roads, but I think scripturally speaking there is always the option of re-setting our courses in life. Each day, each hour, each moment has the opportunity to make a choice.  Make life better for your neighbor.