Healing Tears
Stories
Object:
Contents
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "Back from the Dead"
Sermon Starter: "Healing Tears" by John Sumwalt
Shining Moments: "Wandering Eye" by Paul Calkin
Scrap Pile: "Healing Deep Wounds" by John Sumwalt
What's Up This Week
When King David heard of the death of his wayward son, Absalom, he wept. He went to his bedroom and wailed: "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you. O Absalom, my son, my son!" (2 Samuel 18:33). When was the last time you heard or saw someone express their grief so profoundly? Keening for the dead is not heard much in middle class North America.
n this week's Gospel we read that Jesus mourned unabashedly for his friend Lazarus, though the Gospel writer states simply that "Jesus wept." We know that Jesus shed tears publicly in a way that is not often observed in western society today. We are taught to keep grief private. Big boys don't cry. Nice girls don't fall apart in front of their friends and relatives. We find it embarrassing when someone makes a public display of raw emotion. We would have been embarrassed by and for Jesus that day. We would have been concerned about King David's mental health.
Check out the stories of grief in this week's Sermon Starter. Tears can be healing in so many ways. Jesus showed us that weeping is one of the characteristics of the abundant life. Paul Calkin's "Wandering Eye" story in Shining Moments is another good example of the healing power of tears.
There is a story in the Scrap Pile that I hope will be told in every pulpit in the land. It speaks to the prejudice and hatred toward Islamic people that has been enflamed by 9/11 and the Iraq war.
A Story to Live By
Back from the Dead
When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."
John 11:43-44
In Berlin in 1908, a 21-year-old Polish pianist, Arthur Rubinstein, was lonely, hungry, and in debt, his career at an impasse. He felt there was nothing left for him but suicide; the problem was finding a way. He had no gun, no poison, and the idea of jumping out of the window was revolting. ("I might have to go on living with broken arms and legs," he explained.) He chose strangulation with a belt from his robe. He went into the bathroom, stood on a chair, and secured one end of the belt to an overhead hook. Then he tied the other end around his neck and kicked over the chair. The worn-out belt immediately came apart, and Rubinstein fell on the floor with a crash. For a time he lay where he had fallen, weeping. Later, going to the piano, he cried himself out in music. Afterwards, though, on the street, he saw the world as if reborn. The famed pianist never forgot what the experience taught him; "Love life," he said later, "for better or for worse, without conditions."
(Arthur Rubinstein, My Young Years, Knopf, 1973, pgs. 254-255)
Sermon Starter
Healing Tears
by John Sumwalt
(This is some of the material I am working with as I prepare a sermon titled "Healing Tears" based on John 11:1-45.)
Lazarus was one of Jesus' best friends. Jesus often stayed in the home of Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. Their home and their friendship were a haven for Jesus, a resting place away from the continual demands of the crowds that followed him wherever he went. It is no small blessing to have friends like this.
When Mary and Martha sent word of Lazarus' illness they simply said, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." When you hear that about someone you love, you go. And Jesus went -- at great risk to his own life, he went. But he arrived too late -- or so it seemed.
When he saw Mary weeping, and those who were with her weeping, he was deeply moved and said, "Where have you laid him?" They took him to the tomb. And when he came to the place where Lazarus' body was resting, the Gospel writer described what happened by simply stating, "Jesus wept." He didn't say Jesus wept uncontrollably or unreservedly. He didn't need to.
There was Jesus, as vulnerable as we all are when we go over to the funeral home to view the body of one we love. In that first moment of comprehension that the one we love is no longer alive, there is nothing to do but weep.
Weeping is the best way of coping with overwhelming emotion. It is unfortunate that our culture has not encouraged weeping, particularly among men. Many men and some women are taught that it is a sign of weakness to weep, that public displays of emotion are unseemly.
John Warren Steen, editor of the International Christian Digest, writes: "I have been to only one funeral in which people wailed and screamed. It was on a mountainside in Kentucky, among people who were poor and uneducated. In contrast I have attended many a funeral in which no tear was shed. Middle-class, educated people try to maintain their composure because it is expected of them." Steen says, "Crying in our society is considered a symptom of instability." And yet, he asks, "What about the stability of the psalmist, who writes in Psalm 6:6 'Every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping'? Perhaps the psalmist knew something we tend to forget."
In his book Visions: The Soul's Path to the Sacred (Loyola Press, 2000), Eddie Ensley tells of a vision he had when he was 13 years old. Eddie had been brain-damaged at birth and was not able to do many ordinary tasks like dressing himself or writing his name: "...the part of the brain that processed visual-spatial information wasn't working right." He suffered great abuse because of his disability. Teachers called him lazy and careless; his peers teased him mercilessly. Music was a refuge, and one day while listening to Schubert's Unfinished Symphony Eddie's head started spinning:
"I was spinning and going somewhere, yet staying in the same place. The room twirled. I twirled. The pain began to flow from me. I became aware of a light, a light I saw not with my eyes but with my heart. That light filled the room, and in the light I saw a gentle, somewhat bluish figure surrounded by a white brightness. The seeing was richer than eyes can see, and the feeling richer than normal feelings can sense. The light was all warmth. And the warmth of the light spoke to me, but without words. I asked the light, 'Who are you?' 'I am the one who dries the tears of little boys... I am the one from whom people hide their faces.' 'They hide their faces from me, too,' I responded, speaking to the light not with words but with the communication of the heart. 'I know, that's why I came. I am here to cradle you.' "
Tears release overwhelming emotions; they are the safety valve of the body -- and the soul.
Music often evokes healing tears. Internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma tells about a time in his youth when he was trying to break with his father's strict orthodox beliefs about music. He told his father, " 'If you want me to be really obedient I can do that, but it means absolutely not finding my own voice. If you want me to be a good musician, it means I have to go deeply into myself to find out.' He got his chance in 1971, when he was 15 and away from home for the first time at Meadowmount music camp in upstate New York. Wendy Rose, now a violinist with the Toronto Symphony, was a fellow camper. She recalls a moment when Yo-Yo did begin to find his own voice. 'I heard Yo-Yo playing the Franck sonata, and I burst into tears. The sheer beauty of his playing was totally overwhelming. I just couldn't stop crying.' " ("We Are the World" by Gerri Hershey, Parade Magazine, January 30, 2005, http://archive.parade.com/2005/0130/0130_we_are_world.html)
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist William Janz wrote about his oldest son's first day of school: "His first day without us. Scott had his name tag on a string around his neck. 'Don't come out,' he said. He asked us to kiss him inside the house, so nobody would see. Then we stood in the living room, where he couldn't see us, and we watched him going into the garage. 'I hope he isn't going to drive to school,' I said. He took a small red metal child's chair, carried it down the driveway, unfolded the chair, sat down, and waited for the school bus. His mother and I held each other, tears running down our faces. And we watched the boy on his little red chair, as he waited for the rest of his life to begin." (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, April 2, 1995)
Shining Moments
Wandering Eye
by Paul Calkin
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.... But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
Romans 8:6, 9
I remember a teacher. We first called her Mrs. Lofton. She taught us Sunday school in the basement of the church. She used these flannelgraphs -- they were flannel boards which she placed objects on and moved around to teach us Bible stories. I was in the third grade at the time. We had a large class, probably 20 kids, and so she had the corner of the basement because it had the most room. She always had a beautiful smile and a wonderful hug for everyone. One morning she seemed a bit sad, however, and one of my classmates said to her just a few minutes into the lesson, "Mrs. Lofton, my mom said we should pray for you today."
So we gathered in a circle as Mrs. Lofton had taught us to do, and we held hands, and we prayed for her. Tears streamed down her face, and because she cried, we cried. We didn't find out until a few minutes later why we prayed for her. Her husband Woody had died Saturday afternoon. Yet Mrs. Lofton came to be with us that Sunday morning. Her children and most of her family attended that church. She got her best care there. That morning she needed to be there.
Over the next few months, we noticed a change in Mrs. Lofton. She was sad. The smile was gone. The hugs weren't as frequent. We wanted to help, but we just didn't know what to do. We decided as a class that we would pray for her, and so we did. After a few months, her spirits began to brighten a bit, and we thought that it was our prayers. We felt pretty good about that. Time went by.
Then, one day, an announcement was made in church that she was getting married. I heard the gentleman sitting beside me say it was too soon, it wasn't a proper length of time. I didn't know what that meant. All I knew was that I wanted her to be happy.
After worship, some of us children overheard the adults say something about the man that she was going to marry. They said that he had a "wandering eye." When we kids met him, we decided that the left one did float a bit to the left. Why that could possibly worry someone, we didn't know. We just knew that she seemed happy.
They had been married about a year. Suddenly, one Sunday morning her new husband, Leonard, walked down the aisle of the church, made his profession of faith, and was baptized. Those of us who had been in her Sunday school class stood up in the back of the church and cheered. They say his eye never wandered again. I still think it drifted to the left. Leonard became one of the best workers in that church, one of the most committed Christians that I have ever met.
Paul Calkin has served a variety of congregations in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Arkansas, and has served since June 2003 as associate pastor of First United Methodist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Scrap Pile
Healing Deep Wounds
by John Sumwalt
(The ushers gave every worshiper a bottle of water as they entered the sanctuary.)
Is anybody thirsty? What I am about to say might make you thirsty -- and if it does, I invite you to take a drink of this (bottle of water) or this (Bible).
We heard in the Gospel reading a few moments ago how Jesus offered "living water" to a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (John 4:5-42). We know that he is offering more than just plain well water -- and that this is about something more than an offer of eternal life. It is that, but it is also more than that.
Jesus' very presence in a land where Jews ordinarily did not go because they hated Samaritans (and where Jews were not welcome because Samaritans hated them), and the fact that he speaks to a woman in public (Jewish men never spoke to women in public), lets us know that this is a healing act, an attempt at healing deep national wounds. Jesus also offers to heal the woman's deep personal wounds when it is revealed that she has had five husbands and the man she has now is not her husband. This is an outcast woman in what to the Jews is an outcast land. Jesus has come to heal both this woman and her nation.
The Samaritan woman is surprised by Jesus' presence. "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" There is always surprise and often shock when someone crosses accepted lines of social division. A story is told of a bearded Jew, attired in old-fashioned garb, who had some personal business that required that he leave his ghetto neighborhood. That afternoon he found himself in an exclusive area of New York's "silk stocking" district. Feeling hungry, he entered a posh restaurant. As soon as he was seated, he was approached by a haughty waiter. "I'm sorry," the waiter said, "but we don't serve Jews here." "That's all right," the old man said, "I don't eat Jews!"
Some of you may remember when President John F. Kennedy resigned from Washington's exclusive Metropolitan Club as a protest against its refusal to admit African-Americans. About the same time, he refused to grant an entry visa to the United States to the Congolese rebel leader Moise Tshombe. Whereupon the New York Times' Arthur Krock, a Metropolitan member, took Tshombe's side and pled with the President to grant the visa. Kennedy told Krock, "Arthur, I'll give Tshombe a visa if you'll take him to lunch at the Metropolitan Club."
Humor is a good way to ease the pain and salve the deep wounds caused by evil. It may also be the best way to expose the ultimate powerlessness of evil. "Jim Wallis writes that when the South African government canceled a political rally against apartheid, Desmond Tutu led a worship service in St. George's Cathedral. The walls were lined with soldiers and riot police carrying guns and bayonets, ready to close it down. Bishop Tutu began to speak of the evils of the apartheid system -- how the rulers and authorities that propped it up were doomed to fail. He pointed a finger at the police who were there to record his words: 'You may be powerful -- very powerful -- but you are not God. God cannot be mocked. You have already lost.' Then in a moment of unbearable tension, the bishop seemed to soften. Coming out from behind the pulpit, he flashed that radiant Tutu smile and began to bounce up and down with glee. 'Therefore, since you have already lost, we are inviting you to join the winning side.' The crowd roared, the police melted away, and the people began to dance." ("Roll Call," John Ortberg, Christian Century, August 9, 2003)
Another good way to thwart the flood of evil is to name it, to call it out whenever it raises its ugly head. This makes deep healing possible for both the wounded and those who wound. A few years ago the district clergy met here in our parlor for our regular monthly meeting. I'll never forget one of our pastors telling about going out for supper with a new member class in her church. While they were trying to decide where to go for supper, someone suggested the Cracker Barrel restaurant. The pastor said, "I don't go there because they have a national policy not to hire people who are homosexual." Whereupon one of the prospective new members said, "I am not going to join your church. You are a gay lover."
A few days ago one someone sent me one of those stories that is making the rounds on the internet. A prison chaplain tells about attending an annual training session that's required for maintaining state prison security clearance. During the training session there was a presentation by three speakers who represented the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim faiths. The chaplain says:
"I was particularly interested in what the Islamic imam had to say. The imam gave a great presentation of the basics of Islam, complete with a video. After the presentations, time was provided for questions and answers. When it was my turn I directed my question to the imam and asked: 'Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that all of the imams and clerics of Islam have declared a holy jihad [holy war] against the infidels of the world. And that by killing an infidel, which is a command to all Muslims, they are assured of a place in heaven. If that's the case, can you give me the definition of an infidel?' There was no disagreement with my statements, and without hesitation he replied, 'Non-believers!'
"I responded, 'So, let me make sure I have this straight. All followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of your faith so they can go to heaven. Is that correct?' He sheepishly replied, 'Yes.' I then said, 'Well, sir, I have a real problem trying to imagine Pope John Paul commanding all Catholics to kill those of your faith or Pat Robertson... ordering Protestants to do the same in order to go to heaven.' The imam was speechless. I continued, 'I also have a problem with being your friend when you and your brother clerics are telling your followers to kill me. Let me ask you a question... would you rather have your Allah who tells you to kill me in order to go to heaven or my Jesus who tells me to love you because I am going to heaven and wants you to be with me?' You could have heard a pin drop as the imam hung his head in shame."
This is a deeply disturbing story. What is most disturbing about it is that it is being passed on to thousands of people -- and it is not true! It is a lie! A quick check of http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/allah.asp revealed the following:
"Reporter Greg Kearney, writing for the Lee News Service, traced the story to a correctional facility in Fulton, Missouri, and came away with a decidedly different version of events from Missouri state officials. According to Tim Kniest, public information officer for the Missouri Department of Corrections, the event described was a training program for prison volunteers, for which ministers from several faiths were invited to give presentations in order to acquaint prison volunteers with the varied religious beliefs of the inmate population. The man who gave the presentation about Islam was not a Muslim minister; he was an inmate pressed into service to present a short film on Islam and answer some questions when the prison's volunteer coordinator was 'unable to find an imam to speak.'
"Moreover, reported Mr. Kniest, the prison's volunteer coordinator said that 'the inmate did a good job,' adding, 'He was asked a few questions that were beyond his ability to answer. But he was not asked anything like that question [in the editorial]':
" '...the Volunteer Coordinator at the prison said that no such exchange as the editorial reported ever took place. "He certainly did not 'hang his head in shame,' " according to Kniest. In fact, the inmate was thanked by the assembly before being escorted back to his quarters. Furthermore, the coordinator does not recall any questions dealing with jihad [holy war] against the infidels of the world as reported in the editorial.'
"Whatever may have transpired at the prison training session referred to above, the notion expressed by this piece is inaccurate. Islam is not a monolithic religion in which unanimity of belief and action is coordinated from a central authority. No one Muslim (especially one who wasn't even a cleric) could speak to what all of Islam believes, any more than a single member of a Methodist congregation could speak for every denomination and follower of Christianity. Many, many Muslims reject the idea that 'all followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of their faith,' or even the suggestion that such an interpretation has ever been a valid tenet of Islam."
It is also disturbing that this story, though blatantly false, is being passed on because many Americans want to believe it is true.
Jesus' work through us in the church is about the healing of these deep cultural wounds.
Care for a drink of "living water"? (Spoken while holding up the Bible)
The first half of a sermon preached at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee on February 27, 2005. For a copy of the complete sermon, write to jsumwalt@naspa.net.
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How to Share Stories
You have good stories to share, probably more than you know: personal stories as well as stories from others that you have used over the years. If you have a story you like, whether fictional or "really happened," authored by you or a brief excerpt from a favorite book, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply click here share-a-story@csspub.com and e-mail the story to us.
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New Book
The third book in the vision series, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives (edited by John Sumwalt), is now available from CSS Publishing Company. (Click on the title for information about how to order.) Among the 60 contributing authors of these Chicken Soup for the Soul-like vignettes are Ralph Milton, Sandra Herrmann, Pamela J. Tinnin, Richard H. Gentzler Jr., David Michael Smith, Anne Sunday, Nancy Nichols, William Lee Rand, Gail Ingle, and Rosmarie Trapp, whose family story was told in the classic movie The Sound of Music. The stories follow the lectionary for Cycle A.
Other Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
You can order any of our books on the CSS website; they are also available from www.amazon.com and at many Christian bookstores. Or simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. (If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.)
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About the Editors
John E. Sumwalt is the pastor of Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, and is the author of eight books for CSS. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS), John received the Herbert Manning Jr. award for Parish Ministry from UDTS in 1997. John is known in the Milwaukee area for his one-minute radio spots which always include a brief story. He concludes each spot by saying, "I'm John Sumwalt with 'A Story to Live By' from Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church."
John has done numerous storytelling events for civic, school, and church groups, as well as on radio and television. He has performed at a number of fundraisers for the homeless, the hungry, Habitat for Humanity, and women's shelters. Since the fall of 1999, when he began working on the Vision Stories series, he has led seminars and retreats around the themes "A Safe Place to Tell Visions," "Vision Stories in the Bible and Today," and coming this spring: "Soul Growth: Discovering Lost Spiritual Dimensions." To schedule a seminar or a retreat, write to jsumwalt@naspa.net or phone 414-257-1228.
Joanne Perry-Sumwalt is director of Christian Education at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee. Jo is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, with a degree in English and writing. She has co-authored two books with John, Life Stories: A Study In Christian Decision Making and Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit: 62 Stories For Cycle B. Jo writes original curriculum for church classes. She also serves as the secretary of the Wisconsin chapter of the Christian Educators Fellowship (CEF), and is a member of the National CEF.
Jo and John have been married since 1975. They have two grown children, Kathryn and Orrin. They both love reading, movies, long walks with Chloe (their West Highland Terrier), and working on their old farmhouse in southwest Wisconsin.
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StoryShare, March 13, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "Back from the Dead"
Sermon Starter: "Healing Tears" by John Sumwalt
Shining Moments: "Wandering Eye" by Paul Calkin
Scrap Pile: "Healing Deep Wounds" by John Sumwalt
What's Up This Week
When King David heard of the death of his wayward son, Absalom, he wept. He went to his bedroom and wailed: "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you. O Absalom, my son, my son!" (2 Samuel 18:33). When was the last time you heard or saw someone express their grief so profoundly? Keening for the dead is not heard much in middle class North America.
n this week's Gospel we read that Jesus mourned unabashedly for his friend Lazarus, though the Gospel writer states simply that "Jesus wept." We know that Jesus shed tears publicly in a way that is not often observed in western society today. We are taught to keep grief private. Big boys don't cry. Nice girls don't fall apart in front of their friends and relatives. We find it embarrassing when someone makes a public display of raw emotion. We would have been embarrassed by and for Jesus that day. We would have been concerned about King David's mental health.
Check out the stories of grief in this week's Sermon Starter. Tears can be healing in so many ways. Jesus showed us that weeping is one of the characteristics of the abundant life. Paul Calkin's "Wandering Eye" story in Shining Moments is another good example of the healing power of tears.
There is a story in the Scrap Pile that I hope will be told in every pulpit in the land. It speaks to the prejudice and hatred toward Islamic people that has been enflamed by 9/11 and the Iraq war.
A Story to Live By
Back from the Dead
When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."
John 11:43-44
In Berlin in 1908, a 21-year-old Polish pianist, Arthur Rubinstein, was lonely, hungry, and in debt, his career at an impasse. He felt there was nothing left for him but suicide; the problem was finding a way. He had no gun, no poison, and the idea of jumping out of the window was revolting. ("I might have to go on living with broken arms and legs," he explained.) He chose strangulation with a belt from his robe. He went into the bathroom, stood on a chair, and secured one end of the belt to an overhead hook. Then he tied the other end around his neck and kicked over the chair. The worn-out belt immediately came apart, and Rubinstein fell on the floor with a crash. For a time he lay where he had fallen, weeping. Later, going to the piano, he cried himself out in music. Afterwards, though, on the street, he saw the world as if reborn. The famed pianist never forgot what the experience taught him; "Love life," he said later, "for better or for worse, without conditions."
(Arthur Rubinstein, My Young Years, Knopf, 1973, pgs. 254-255)
Sermon Starter
Healing Tears
by John Sumwalt
(This is some of the material I am working with as I prepare a sermon titled "Healing Tears" based on John 11:1-45.)
Lazarus was one of Jesus' best friends. Jesus often stayed in the home of Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. Their home and their friendship were a haven for Jesus, a resting place away from the continual demands of the crowds that followed him wherever he went. It is no small blessing to have friends like this.
When Mary and Martha sent word of Lazarus' illness they simply said, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." When you hear that about someone you love, you go. And Jesus went -- at great risk to his own life, he went. But he arrived too late -- or so it seemed.
When he saw Mary weeping, and those who were with her weeping, he was deeply moved and said, "Where have you laid him?" They took him to the tomb. And when he came to the place where Lazarus' body was resting, the Gospel writer described what happened by simply stating, "Jesus wept." He didn't say Jesus wept uncontrollably or unreservedly. He didn't need to.
There was Jesus, as vulnerable as we all are when we go over to the funeral home to view the body of one we love. In that first moment of comprehension that the one we love is no longer alive, there is nothing to do but weep.
Weeping is the best way of coping with overwhelming emotion. It is unfortunate that our culture has not encouraged weeping, particularly among men. Many men and some women are taught that it is a sign of weakness to weep, that public displays of emotion are unseemly.
John Warren Steen, editor of the International Christian Digest, writes: "I have been to only one funeral in which people wailed and screamed. It was on a mountainside in Kentucky, among people who were poor and uneducated. In contrast I have attended many a funeral in which no tear was shed. Middle-class, educated people try to maintain their composure because it is expected of them." Steen says, "Crying in our society is considered a symptom of instability." And yet, he asks, "What about the stability of the psalmist, who writes in Psalm 6:6 'Every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping'? Perhaps the psalmist knew something we tend to forget."
In his book Visions: The Soul's Path to the Sacred (Loyola Press, 2000), Eddie Ensley tells of a vision he had when he was 13 years old. Eddie had been brain-damaged at birth and was not able to do many ordinary tasks like dressing himself or writing his name: "...the part of the brain that processed visual-spatial information wasn't working right." He suffered great abuse because of his disability. Teachers called him lazy and careless; his peers teased him mercilessly. Music was a refuge, and one day while listening to Schubert's Unfinished Symphony Eddie's head started spinning:
"I was spinning and going somewhere, yet staying in the same place. The room twirled. I twirled. The pain began to flow from me. I became aware of a light, a light I saw not with my eyes but with my heart. That light filled the room, and in the light I saw a gentle, somewhat bluish figure surrounded by a white brightness. The seeing was richer than eyes can see, and the feeling richer than normal feelings can sense. The light was all warmth. And the warmth of the light spoke to me, but without words. I asked the light, 'Who are you?' 'I am the one who dries the tears of little boys... I am the one from whom people hide their faces.' 'They hide their faces from me, too,' I responded, speaking to the light not with words but with the communication of the heart. 'I know, that's why I came. I am here to cradle you.' "
Tears release overwhelming emotions; they are the safety valve of the body -- and the soul.
Music often evokes healing tears. Internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma tells about a time in his youth when he was trying to break with his father's strict orthodox beliefs about music. He told his father, " 'If you want me to be really obedient I can do that, but it means absolutely not finding my own voice. If you want me to be a good musician, it means I have to go deeply into myself to find out.' He got his chance in 1971, when he was 15 and away from home for the first time at Meadowmount music camp in upstate New York. Wendy Rose, now a violinist with the Toronto Symphony, was a fellow camper. She recalls a moment when Yo-Yo did begin to find his own voice. 'I heard Yo-Yo playing the Franck sonata, and I burst into tears. The sheer beauty of his playing was totally overwhelming. I just couldn't stop crying.' " ("We Are the World" by Gerri Hershey, Parade Magazine, January 30, 2005, http://archive.parade.com/2005/0130/0130_we_are_world.html)
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist William Janz wrote about his oldest son's first day of school: "His first day without us. Scott had his name tag on a string around his neck. 'Don't come out,' he said. He asked us to kiss him inside the house, so nobody would see. Then we stood in the living room, where he couldn't see us, and we watched him going into the garage. 'I hope he isn't going to drive to school,' I said. He took a small red metal child's chair, carried it down the driveway, unfolded the chair, sat down, and waited for the school bus. His mother and I held each other, tears running down our faces. And we watched the boy on his little red chair, as he waited for the rest of his life to begin." (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, April 2, 1995)
Shining Moments
Wandering Eye
by Paul Calkin
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.... But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
Romans 8:6, 9
I remember a teacher. We first called her Mrs. Lofton. She taught us Sunday school in the basement of the church. She used these flannelgraphs -- they were flannel boards which she placed objects on and moved around to teach us Bible stories. I was in the third grade at the time. We had a large class, probably 20 kids, and so she had the corner of the basement because it had the most room. She always had a beautiful smile and a wonderful hug for everyone. One morning she seemed a bit sad, however, and one of my classmates said to her just a few minutes into the lesson, "Mrs. Lofton, my mom said we should pray for you today."
So we gathered in a circle as Mrs. Lofton had taught us to do, and we held hands, and we prayed for her. Tears streamed down her face, and because she cried, we cried. We didn't find out until a few minutes later why we prayed for her. Her husband Woody had died Saturday afternoon. Yet Mrs. Lofton came to be with us that Sunday morning. Her children and most of her family attended that church. She got her best care there. That morning she needed to be there.
Over the next few months, we noticed a change in Mrs. Lofton. She was sad. The smile was gone. The hugs weren't as frequent. We wanted to help, but we just didn't know what to do. We decided as a class that we would pray for her, and so we did. After a few months, her spirits began to brighten a bit, and we thought that it was our prayers. We felt pretty good about that. Time went by.
Then, one day, an announcement was made in church that she was getting married. I heard the gentleman sitting beside me say it was too soon, it wasn't a proper length of time. I didn't know what that meant. All I knew was that I wanted her to be happy.
After worship, some of us children overheard the adults say something about the man that she was going to marry. They said that he had a "wandering eye." When we kids met him, we decided that the left one did float a bit to the left. Why that could possibly worry someone, we didn't know. We just knew that she seemed happy.
They had been married about a year. Suddenly, one Sunday morning her new husband, Leonard, walked down the aisle of the church, made his profession of faith, and was baptized. Those of us who had been in her Sunday school class stood up in the back of the church and cheered. They say his eye never wandered again. I still think it drifted to the left. Leonard became one of the best workers in that church, one of the most committed Christians that I have ever met.
Paul Calkin has served a variety of congregations in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Arkansas, and has served since June 2003 as associate pastor of First United Methodist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Scrap Pile
Healing Deep Wounds
by John Sumwalt
(The ushers gave every worshiper a bottle of water as they entered the sanctuary.)
Is anybody thirsty? What I am about to say might make you thirsty -- and if it does, I invite you to take a drink of this (bottle of water) or this (Bible).
We heard in the Gospel reading a few moments ago how Jesus offered "living water" to a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (John 4:5-42). We know that he is offering more than just plain well water -- and that this is about something more than an offer of eternal life. It is that, but it is also more than that.
Jesus' very presence in a land where Jews ordinarily did not go because they hated Samaritans (and where Jews were not welcome because Samaritans hated them), and the fact that he speaks to a woman in public (Jewish men never spoke to women in public), lets us know that this is a healing act, an attempt at healing deep national wounds. Jesus also offers to heal the woman's deep personal wounds when it is revealed that she has had five husbands and the man she has now is not her husband. This is an outcast woman in what to the Jews is an outcast land. Jesus has come to heal both this woman and her nation.
The Samaritan woman is surprised by Jesus' presence. "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" There is always surprise and often shock when someone crosses accepted lines of social division. A story is told of a bearded Jew, attired in old-fashioned garb, who had some personal business that required that he leave his ghetto neighborhood. That afternoon he found himself in an exclusive area of New York's "silk stocking" district. Feeling hungry, he entered a posh restaurant. As soon as he was seated, he was approached by a haughty waiter. "I'm sorry," the waiter said, "but we don't serve Jews here." "That's all right," the old man said, "I don't eat Jews!"
Some of you may remember when President John F. Kennedy resigned from Washington's exclusive Metropolitan Club as a protest against its refusal to admit African-Americans. About the same time, he refused to grant an entry visa to the United States to the Congolese rebel leader Moise Tshombe. Whereupon the New York Times' Arthur Krock, a Metropolitan member, took Tshombe's side and pled with the President to grant the visa. Kennedy told Krock, "Arthur, I'll give Tshombe a visa if you'll take him to lunch at the Metropolitan Club."
Humor is a good way to ease the pain and salve the deep wounds caused by evil. It may also be the best way to expose the ultimate powerlessness of evil. "Jim Wallis writes that when the South African government canceled a political rally against apartheid, Desmond Tutu led a worship service in St. George's Cathedral. The walls were lined with soldiers and riot police carrying guns and bayonets, ready to close it down. Bishop Tutu began to speak of the evils of the apartheid system -- how the rulers and authorities that propped it up were doomed to fail. He pointed a finger at the police who were there to record his words: 'You may be powerful -- very powerful -- but you are not God. God cannot be mocked. You have already lost.' Then in a moment of unbearable tension, the bishop seemed to soften. Coming out from behind the pulpit, he flashed that radiant Tutu smile and began to bounce up and down with glee. 'Therefore, since you have already lost, we are inviting you to join the winning side.' The crowd roared, the police melted away, and the people began to dance." ("Roll Call," John Ortberg, Christian Century, August 9, 2003)
Another good way to thwart the flood of evil is to name it, to call it out whenever it raises its ugly head. This makes deep healing possible for both the wounded and those who wound. A few years ago the district clergy met here in our parlor for our regular monthly meeting. I'll never forget one of our pastors telling about going out for supper with a new member class in her church. While they were trying to decide where to go for supper, someone suggested the Cracker Barrel restaurant. The pastor said, "I don't go there because they have a national policy not to hire people who are homosexual." Whereupon one of the prospective new members said, "I am not going to join your church. You are a gay lover."
A few days ago one someone sent me one of those stories that is making the rounds on the internet. A prison chaplain tells about attending an annual training session that's required for maintaining state prison security clearance. During the training session there was a presentation by three speakers who represented the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim faiths. The chaplain says:
"I was particularly interested in what the Islamic imam had to say. The imam gave a great presentation of the basics of Islam, complete with a video. After the presentations, time was provided for questions and answers. When it was my turn I directed my question to the imam and asked: 'Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that all of the imams and clerics of Islam have declared a holy jihad [holy war] against the infidels of the world. And that by killing an infidel, which is a command to all Muslims, they are assured of a place in heaven. If that's the case, can you give me the definition of an infidel?' There was no disagreement with my statements, and without hesitation he replied, 'Non-believers!'
"I responded, 'So, let me make sure I have this straight. All followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of your faith so they can go to heaven. Is that correct?' He sheepishly replied, 'Yes.' I then said, 'Well, sir, I have a real problem trying to imagine Pope John Paul commanding all Catholics to kill those of your faith or Pat Robertson... ordering Protestants to do the same in order to go to heaven.' The imam was speechless. I continued, 'I also have a problem with being your friend when you and your brother clerics are telling your followers to kill me. Let me ask you a question... would you rather have your Allah who tells you to kill me in order to go to heaven or my Jesus who tells me to love you because I am going to heaven and wants you to be with me?' You could have heard a pin drop as the imam hung his head in shame."
This is a deeply disturbing story. What is most disturbing about it is that it is being passed on to thousands of people -- and it is not true! It is a lie! A quick check of http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/allah.asp revealed the following:
"Reporter Greg Kearney, writing for the Lee News Service, traced the story to a correctional facility in Fulton, Missouri, and came away with a decidedly different version of events from Missouri state officials. According to Tim Kniest, public information officer for the Missouri Department of Corrections, the event described was a training program for prison volunteers, for which ministers from several faiths were invited to give presentations in order to acquaint prison volunteers with the varied religious beliefs of the inmate population. The man who gave the presentation about Islam was not a Muslim minister; he was an inmate pressed into service to present a short film on Islam and answer some questions when the prison's volunteer coordinator was 'unable to find an imam to speak.'
"Moreover, reported Mr. Kniest, the prison's volunteer coordinator said that 'the inmate did a good job,' adding, 'He was asked a few questions that were beyond his ability to answer. But he was not asked anything like that question [in the editorial]':
" '...the Volunteer Coordinator at the prison said that no such exchange as the editorial reported ever took place. "He certainly did not 'hang his head in shame,' " according to Kniest. In fact, the inmate was thanked by the assembly before being escorted back to his quarters. Furthermore, the coordinator does not recall any questions dealing with jihad [holy war] against the infidels of the world as reported in the editorial.'
"Whatever may have transpired at the prison training session referred to above, the notion expressed by this piece is inaccurate. Islam is not a monolithic religion in which unanimity of belief and action is coordinated from a central authority. No one Muslim (especially one who wasn't even a cleric) could speak to what all of Islam believes, any more than a single member of a Methodist congregation could speak for every denomination and follower of Christianity. Many, many Muslims reject the idea that 'all followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of their faith,' or even the suggestion that such an interpretation has ever been a valid tenet of Islam."
It is also disturbing that this story, though blatantly false, is being passed on because many Americans want to believe it is true.
Jesus' work through us in the church is about the healing of these deep cultural wounds.
Care for a drink of "living water"? (Spoken while holding up the Bible)
The first half of a sermon preached at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee on February 27, 2005. For a copy of the complete sermon, write to jsumwalt@naspa.net.
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How to Share Stories
You have good stories to share, probably more than you know: personal stories as well as stories from others that you have used over the years. If you have a story you like, whether fictional or "really happened," authored by you or a brief excerpt from a favorite book, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply click here share-a-story@csspub.com and e-mail the story to us.
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New Book
The third book in the vision series, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives (edited by John Sumwalt), is now available from CSS Publishing Company. (Click on the title for information about how to order.) Among the 60 contributing authors of these Chicken Soup for the Soul-like vignettes are Ralph Milton, Sandra Herrmann, Pamela J. Tinnin, Richard H. Gentzler Jr., David Michael Smith, Anne Sunday, Nancy Nichols, William Lee Rand, Gail Ingle, and Rosmarie Trapp, whose family story was told in the classic movie The Sound of Music. The stories follow the lectionary for Cycle A.
Other Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
You can order any of our books on the CSS website; they are also available from www.amazon.com and at many Christian bookstores. Or simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. (If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.)
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About the Editors
John E. Sumwalt is the pastor of Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, and is the author of eight books for CSS. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS), John received the Herbert Manning Jr. award for Parish Ministry from UDTS in 1997. John is known in the Milwaukee area for his one-minute radio spots which always include a brief story. He concludes each spot by saying, "I'm John Sumwalt with 'A Story to Live By' from Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church."
John has done numerous storytelling events for civic, school, and church groups, as well as on radio and television. He has performed at a number of fundraisers for the homeless, the hungry, Habitat for Humanity, and women's shelters. Since the fall of 1999, when he began working on the Vision Stories series, he has led seminars and retreats around the themes "A Safe Place to Tell Visions," "Vision Stories in the Bible and Today," and coming this spring: "Soul Growth: Discovering Lost Spiritual Dimensions." To schedule a seminar or a retreat, write to jsumwalt@naspa.net or phone 414-257-1228.
Joanne Perry-Sumwalt is director of Christian Education at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee. Jo is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, with a degree in English and writing. She has co-authored two books with John, Life Stories: A Study In Christian Decision Making and Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit: 62 Stories For Cycle B. Jo writes original curriculum for church classes. She also serves as the secretary of the Wisconsin chapter of the Christian Educators Fellowship (CEF), and is a member of the National CEF.
Jo and John have been married since 1975. They have two grown children, Kathryn and Orrin. They both love reading, movies, long walks with Chloe (their West Highland Terrier), and working on their old farmhouse in southwest Wisconsin.
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StoryShare, March 13, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
