Winter Continues

Well. It's March 1st. I'm supposed to be at GLCC today helping Esther with a panel discussion about worship and worship ministry. However, last night the snow fell and then fell some more. We in Lansing awoke to six inches of blowing snow with the prospect of another two to four inches today and one to three inches this evening. It is not the way most of us would want March to start, but what are you going to do. We cannot change the weather, or can we?

This week at church Joy read scripture during our gathering time. She read the passage out of John 9 where Jesus heals a man who was blind from birth. Jesus heals him with some spit and dirt--not things that you would look to for healing power (though, with the market of odd things like Mother Mary grilled cheese, we could make lots of money with some holy spit and dirt on eBay). In the process of healing him, Jesus causes trouble with the Pharisees and their belief system, turning the tables on their "all knowing" pride and understanding of who God is and how his Kingdom is to be.

Now, the thing that struck me most this past Sunday was not the narrative that Joy read. Rather, it was the fact that Joy is physically blind. How many of the people made the connection? They should have seen another one of our ladies lead Joy to the pulpit, step back while she read, and then step forward again to lead Joy off the stage. Even if they made the connection, did any of them think that it was odd to have a blind person reading this story? Did it make them feel uncomfortable? I know that for me, anytime we sing songs about blind people being healed and Joy is on the worship team, I am uncomfortable. How can we sing such things or read such things without having a want or even possibly an expectation for Joy to be healed?

Interestingly, I have been thinking on the idea of healing and miracles for some time now. As I have been working through my thesis the last few months, I have been working through the idea that those of us who make up the church need to be focused on how we live out the kingdom of God as the Body of Christ present in the world today. In our gathering time, this means that we are unified in the ways we praise God for who he is rather than dividing into separate musical style groups. It also helps us understand that what we do in the gathering time is for God alone, not for us or non-Christians. It also means that our existence as the body of Christ outside of the gathering is also cross shaped. Thus, the way we live out our lives must embody Christ in every way. This means that we are Christ-like when we drive. We are Christ-like as we surf the internet. We are Christ-like as we talk on the phone to telemarketers, and so on and so forth.

Also, I believe that as we do this cross shaped living, the Holy Spirit works in us and around us to show that life in the Kingdom of God is different than life in the world. In turn, we are a people of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Gal 5:22) I believe that this was the same thing that was happening as Jesus lived out his ministry.

Yet, as Jesus embodied the Kingdom of God in his living, there was something more happening. The poor were treated with respect and sinners were treated with love and acceptance. Things like blindness and leprosy did not have a place. Jesus had power to heal and to cast out demons. He had power to raise the dead. The men in Mark 2 knew this and they cut a hole in someone's roof to get a paralized man in front of Jesus to be healed. The woman with the bleeding problem knew this and just touched him and she was healed.

The issue for me then is if we are living out the Kingdom of God, why are those miracles not present? Does it mean that we are not living up to our kingdom potential and embodying the life of Christ as much as we could? Have we reasoned away our belief that God could move in these ways in the here and now, thus limiting the power of the Holy Spirit? Even more grave, is our living out of Christ so incomplete that the Spirit cannot or does not want to be present? Or, is God just choosing to not move in those ways?

We as Christians really need to think hard about how we are living. Are we living in ways that these miracles could even be possible? Are we embodying Christ and living out his love and compassion for the poor and the sinners? Are we living out the love for one another within the church? Are we living out the Kingdom of God or are we living out the world?

Can we change the weather like Jesus did as he and his disciples sailed across the Sea of Galilee in Matthew 8 and Mark 4? It's still snowing outside. Will Joy get the chance to read God's Word with her eyes rather than her fingers before Christ's return? I do not know whether God will choose to move in that way between now and then. I do know that we as the body of Christ, the presence of God's Kingdom here on earth right now, need to have more faith and live more like Christ in every part of our lives. (Matthew 16, Mark 8, Luke 9)