It was a grim scene. I was driving like a bat out of hell towards a place called White Salmon. I had never been there; I only knew that at a particular fork I was to turn left. I was calming myself by saying that I somehow would know when to turn. Then a voice floated on my right making the scene even more cinematic. “loves” the voice said. It was my girlfriend who was uncomfortably lying in the passenger seat. I glanced over, careful not to careen off the cliffs on my right. “yeah?” she wearily uttered ”3 taps means I love you. OK?” After which she taps on my hand 3 times with her finger. At that point my mind goes into any sort of schmaltzy “Beaches,” Fried green tomatoes type of movie. You know the kind my mom loves to go to. Or sit up and watch round about Christmas time, bawling her eyes out between Hallmark commercials. The one where the cancer patient tells the faithful husband of 25 years “3 taps means I love you” before entering into a coma. And he sits next to her side and at one point before they’re about to pull the plug she gives him 3 taps. I’m thinking “is this how it ends?” as my girlfriend in stuntman type of gusto has been launched from a 9 foot teeter totter to come plummeting to the earth. I could only pray, I could only think of one destination I needed to get to, As we are racing towards the hospital, I felt the gentle touch of her finger 3 times - tap tap tap. All I could think about was when we get to the Doctor, we’ll know.
Have you ever had the experience of needing a doctors help? You feel utterly helpless, and completely needy. We all have gone sometime, and we all will need to go sometime. What are feelings you have associated with doctors?
I think it could be odd to picture. But in Ireland, after the family that was hosting me was asleep, there I was, in my shorts, on doing squat thrusts in front of my old college roommate. I know it looks sordid, and when I say he was checking me out it might sound sordid, however my old roommate is a physical therapist and I had a sports related injury. Doing capoeira outside on Alberta street in May. And Messed up my knee. He was checking it out because I never saw anybody for it. (insurance reasons) Anyway, he ended up looking at my knee. After doing a couple tests on it and having me squat and other things, he said “good news, it seems like it’s a muscle tear and you can probably do up to 98% of what you did before.” He told me that I needed to use it. I said “I’m scared because it might hurt again” So he proscribed a couple exercises and encouraged me to try to use it equally with the other. 2 months later…I’m able to run on it.
Now I know that you all have doctor related stories, times you got better and times that you got sick, and you might tell me this isn’t health class, or this isn’t an insurance seminar, where are you going Geoff?
Well it’s been on my mind because I’ve been sick the past three days.
And being sick is never fun for me.(as if its fun for anyone else) My body tends to shut down. It’s completely lame because … I have stuff to do. I’m an important person. I can’t be in bed. I have to have a personality. And what sucks is that one of the first things that go out the window when I get sick is I lose my personality. I begin this routine of Frankenstein versus the rest of the world. Questions get shot my way and my response is ahhhhhhh. How are your doing “ahhhh” do you want anything to eat “ahhhh” what do you want to eat “ahhhhh”. But more than the last three days I’ve found out that I’ve been sick my whole life. And the scary thing is…its terminal. Yeah, I haven’t told a lot of people yet, perhaps you have noticed it in me before but I am sick… sick…and wrong.
Only someone as sick as I am would tell you this joke:
“Three vampires walk into a bar. One orders a blood on the rocks. Another orders a double blood. The third simply asks for a mug of hot water."Why didn't you order blood like everyone else?" asks the bartender. The vampire pulls out a tampon and says, "I'm making tea!" ”
I know… I know…I don’t condone vampires either, anybody who dresses in goth without dangling a huge crucifix around their neck has something wrong with them. Anyway, Oh yeah… I’m totally sick. The fact that as I was studying for this message I got detracted for a good ten minutes reading about some guy’s explosive diarrhea experience that caused him to vomit into his elastic ankled sweatpants. Gives you a good indication on how sick I really am.
So again you’re asking… Geoff I get it, you now no longer have any credibility? So why are you still talking?
I’m trying to shake you up. Make you think differently. You probably got up this morning and said. I wonder what the lord has for me this morning. You probably came to church thinking, we’ll get to sing some songs and hear a message that will make my heart be excited for being a Christian for today. Little did you know that sick ol’ Geoff was going to tell you about the fabled launching of his girlfriend in ’05 or explosive diarrhea?
But there was a toppling of people’s religious contexts in the year 30 AD as well. And there was a man who seemed a little nuts and was noticed by the religious folks in the crowd. This man asked people to follow him, because he told them that he was the Son of God. Sound nuts? Maybe not to you because you’re in a church, but to the religious of the time, only a very sick person would make such claims.
Have you ever had the experience of needing a doctors help? You feel utterly helpless, and completely needy. We all have gone sometime, and we all will need to go sometime. What are feelings you have associated with doctors?
I think it could be odd to picture. But in Ireland, after the family that was hosting me was asleep, there I was, in my shorts, on doing squat thrusts in front of my old college roommate. I know it looks sordid, and when I say he was checking me out it might sound sordid, however my old roommate is a physical therapist and I had a sports related injury. Doing capoeira outside on Alberta street in May. And Messed up my knee. He was checking it out because I never saw anybody for it. (insurance reasons) Anyway, he ended up looking at my knee. After doing a couple tests on it and having me squat and other things, he said “good news, it seems like it’s a muscle tear and you can probably do up to 98% of what you did before.” He told me that I needed to use it. I said “I’m scared because it might hurt again” So he proscribed a couple exercises and encouraged me to try to use it equally with the other. 2 months later…I’m able to run on it.
Now I know that you all have doctor related stories, times you got better and times that you got sick, and you might tell me this isn’t health class, or this isn’t an insurance seminar, where are you going Geoff?
Well it’s been on my mind because I’ve been sick the past three days.
And being sick is never fun for me.(as if its fun for anyone else) My body tends to shut down. It’s completely lame because … I have stuff to do. I’m an important person. I can’t be in bed. I have to have a personality. And what sucks is that one of the first things that go out the window when I get sick is I lose my personality. I begin this routine of Frankenstein versus the rest of the world. Questions get shot my way and my response is ahhhhhhh. How are your doing “ahhhh” do you want anything to eat “ahhhh” what do you want to eat “ahhhhh”. But more than the last three days I’ve found out that I’ve been sick my whole life. And the scary thing is…its terminal. Yeah, I haven’t told a lot of people yet, perhaps you have noticed it in me before but I am sick… sick…and wrong.
Only someone as sick as I am would tell you this joke:
“Three vampires walk into a bar. One orders a blood on the rocks. Another orders a double blood. The third simply asks for a mug of hot water."Why didn't you order blood like everyone else?" asks the bartender. The vampire pulls out a tampon and says, "I'm making tea!" ”
I know… I know…I don’t condone vampires either, anybody who dresses in goth without dangling a huge crucifix around their neck has something wrong with them. Anyway, Oh yeah… I’m totally sick. The fact that as I was studying for this message I got detracted for a good ten minutes reading about some guy’s explosive diarrhea experience that caused him to vomit into his elastic ankled sweatpants. Gives you a good indication on how sick I really am.
So again you’re asking… Geoff I get it, you now no longer have any credibility? So why are you still talking?
I’m trying to shake you up. Make you think differently. You probably got up this morning and said. I wonder what the lord has for me this morning. You probably came to church thinking, we’ll get to sing some songs and hear a message that will make my heart be excited for being a Christian for today. Little did you know that sick ol’ Geoff was going to tell you about the fabled launching of his girlfriend in ’05 or explosive diarrhea?
But there was a toppling of people’s religious contexts in the year 30 AD as well. And there was a man who seemed a little nuts and was noticed by the religious folks in the crowd. This man asked people to follow him, because he told them that he was the Son of God. Sound nuts? Maybe not to you because you’re in a church, but to the religious of the time, only a very sick person would make such claims.
“9 Passing along, Jesus saw a man at his work collecting taxes. His name was Matthew. Jesus said, "Come along with me." Matthew stood up and followed him. 10 Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew's house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. 11 When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus' followers. "What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riff-raff?" 12 Jesus, overhearing, shot back, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? 13 Go figure out what this Scripture means: 'I'm after mercy, not religion.' I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders." (MATTHEW 9:9-13)
And if the Religious leaders at the time looked up that scripture. They would have looked up Hosea 6:6 that was talking about a group of people that were doing all of the correct religious sacrifices but had no concept of the reasoning why. They were doing it with pride, thinking they were top of the food chain when God saw that they were clueless.
Are you sick this morning? Are you seen as a crook, riffraff, disreputable, maybe an outsider? Or do you see yourself as someone who has it all together, upstanding, and healthy.
I was hurt this week as I was reading a website of a church that proudly expresses that John 3:16 states that Jesus died only for those who believe. And that in itself didn’t hurt me because it does say “JOHN 3:16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” It hurt me because they used this scripture in conjunction with a predestination scripture to form this particular stance: if you do not believe in Jesus, Jesus didn’t die for you and therefore you are Not worth the church’s time. Not redeemable ..possibly even subhuman. They use this view to fuel a rage that is teeming within them that allows them to look upon humanity. And those that are crooks, riffraff, disreputable, sick, or maybe simply outsiders are targeted, and they get a message. But it isn’t a message of a Jesus who stayed in their dysfunctional home, or came up to them on the street, or saw them for who they are. It is a message of judgment. A message of anger.
These insiders are allowing the “good doctor”, “the great physician”, “the wonderful counselor” to give only and singularly the bad news of judgment. No wonder people want a second opinion.
No wonder people want to hear better news of a god that doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus. No wonder people only switch on the Trinity Broadcasting Network if they want a good Chuckle. No wonder people are so confused about whether Christians are actually safe people or are they SICK?
In a very difficult time in my life, I had just seen my counselor that day, when some news came my way that was devastating. I knew I didn’t want to freak out and call my counselor after I had just seen her 3 hours previous. But I didn’t know what to do. Immediately I sat down on my couch and began looking at the chair in front of me. And I began to think that Jesus was sitting in the chair, very much like my counselor would be. I then talked to the chair for an hour, the way I would my counselor. Am I a nut? Perhaps… Do you think I’m sick? well I’ve already proven that one. But did I gain incite into myself that calmed me down, yes. Did I view this as a prayer to God, yes. Why do I keep asking questions and answering them? I don’t know.
Perhaps because I want us to see this: Doctors have that ability to tell you what’s wrong, and if they pinpoint it correctly, even though you still hurt, somehow the effect of knowing tends to put you at ease and have the effect of making you feel better. The Doctor’s diagnosis is one that can be good news or bad news, but it is the news that allows you to move into a better place for yourself.
The interesting thing was when my friend told me that my knee injury wasn’t permanent… I believed him. So I began walking on it squatting on it and not favoring my other leg. And it is in fact getting better.
And Today …Doctor God has some bad news for us… Your sickness, is terminal. If you do nothing for your sickness it will eat you alive. But God has some good news too… Its referred to as Gospel… good news, our sickness has a cure. It has a miracle healing everlasting cure. What is that cure you may ask?
But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us! (Romans 5:8)
Regardless whether we view ourselves as insiders, or outsiders, sick or well. It is God’s desire to see that you become who you’ve been created to be. Whole. And no matter how healthy, sick, uppercrust, or riffraff you are… God wants you to know that you are loved, we are loved, all on an equal playing field, whether you feel like you are reaching your potential or just barely making it. Jesus is your cure. You can believe it or not.
His love. Grace, in turn should cause us to become a great lover of people, whether they are reaching the maximum potential or not. A lover of mercy, and lover of forgiveness. One of the great commandments is Love your neighbor. How can you build up the person next to you? Across the hall. Downtown. How can you get to know them outside of their labels. Your labels…Economic, spiritual, or other.
Where is God’s heart this morning? Its where it always is. Its where it always has been. Its asking you to be whole. The Doctor sees you and even though you have quite a bit of therapy ahead of you. Its beckoning you forward. Its pulling you out of your circumstance and saying that “you are mine.” The great physician’s heart is always in love with you. You, as you were meant to be. God’s heart is compassionate towards your life. The Doctor Knows exactly who you are and where you’ve been. The Counselor knows beyond a shadow of a doubt what makes you wince about your life, what sickens you about yourself, and what you feel trapped in. The Doctor is “in” and he is here to speak into that that trap, that sickness, and say “come.” Those habits are not who you’re meant to be. “Come,” You don’t need to be embarrassed. “Come with me,” “follow me” and you will be well.
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