Spiritual Truth
Stories
Contents
"Spiritual Truth" by John Fitzgerald
"When People Hurt" by Keith Wagner
* * * * * * *
Spiritual Truth
by John Fitzgerald
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today." They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.
The first man touched his leg, "The elephant is a pillar," he said.
"Oh no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched his tail.
"It is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk.
"It is like a big hand fan," said the fourth man who touched the elephant's ear.
"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the elephant's belly.
"It is like a solid pipe," said the sixth man who touched the elephant's tusk.
The moral of this story is we all have a different perspective drawn from our experience. If we desire to communicate with another person it helps to under their particular viewpoint. St. Paul understood this basic fact when writing our scripture lesson.
The Apostle wrote: "To the Jews I became like a Jew. . .To those not having the law I became like one not having the law. . . To the weak I became weak. . . I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some."
One of the major problems we face in our world is religious zealotry. People are zealous for their religious faith but have no appreciation for anyone who begs to differ. The outcome is this type of thinking leads to violence and destructive behavior. Nations living in the Western Hemisphere are currently wrestling with Radical Islam which advocates destruction of folks who dare to violate their version of spiritual truth. Of course, this kind of behavior is not new. Christians have been guilty of intolerance as witnessed in the Crusades and Inquisitions.
What is different from previous generations is the ability for a small group to wreck great havoc. Terrorists now have the capacity for inflicting death upon masses of people through nuclear weapons. With this lethal dimension added to the mix it makes it even more pressing to address problems of unbending religious belief.
The place to begin is noting that our faith as Christians does not mean we give up our personal understanding of spiritual truth. St. Paul certainly in no way gave any ground in preaching the Gospel of Christ Jesus. On the contrary, Paul maintained that we accommodate another worldview only that Christ might be presented more clearly. Verse 19 states: "Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible." Or again in verse 23: "I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."
In Christ we have the hopes and promises intended for all of humanity. Jesus is Savior and Lord. This is our basic affirmation as followers of the Messiah. St. Paul would agree with all of this and more. Paul would maintain it our duty to present the Gospel in a sin-sick world.
However, we cannot run rough-shod over those who worship in a different manner than us. To view another human being as a heathen worthy of destruction is not an acceptable standard for Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and any great world religion.
The world has grown too small for any of us to have a faith which denies the life of someone who disagrees with us. As Christians we need to set an example of preaching the Gospel in a world filled with many understandings of spiritual truth.
A poem by Edwin Markham captures the spirit of our message:
He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him in!
John Fitzgerald lives in Leesburg, Ohio, with his wife Carolyn and has served as pastor at the Leesburg Friends Meeting for the past 27 years. Cornfield Cathedral (Fairway Press, 2013) is the second book authored by Pastor Fitzgerald. John has earned a Master's of Ministry Degree from the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.
* * * * *
When People Hurt
by Keith Wagner
Mark 1:29-39
I have always been troubled with evangelists and preachers who have healing services. They tell their listeners that there is someone in the audience with some incurable disease. A person comes to the platform and is miraculously healed. Many of these are fake and staged. I’m not saying that some folks aren’t genuinely healed, but I don’t believe the healing power of God is supposed to be a production or a show.
Simon’s mother-in-law had a fever and Jesus “took her by the hand, lifted her up, and the fever left her.” It is important to note that this healing took place in Simon’s private home. Jesus was with a small group of disciples. It was a spontaneous event without any media exposure. While it is true that Jesus healed people in public places, they weren’t scheduled. When Jesus did heal people, he frequently told them to say nothing about what happened. For me, healing is a result of intimacy, people caring for others without fanfare.
One time I was called to the hospital late at night. As I sat by the bedside of the woman who was dying, she reached for my hand. I grasped her hand and she struggled to sit up. A relative took her other hand and she sat up, wanting desperately to communicate. The woman had Alzheimer’s and much of what she said was irrational and confusing. Only rarely was she able to connect. I asked her if she wanted me to pray with her and she nodded. I got close to her, bowed my head and started to pray. But, before I could utter the first word the woman began reciting the Lord’s Prayer. She struggled with the words but with my help we completed the prayer together. Following the prayer, she seemed to relax and be less agitated. Six hours later the woman peacefully died.
Sometimes, God intervenes and miracles do happen and people are healed. But others times they are not. It has been my experience that what folks need when someone is hurting is a little reassurance. The story of the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law illustrates that people feel alone when they hurt and what they need is intimacy with others.
In Mark we have a series of stories where Jesus healed those who were sick. He also healed the man with the unclean spirit, a leper, the paralytic, the man with the withered hand and countless others who were brought to him to be cured of their demons and diseases. To heal them he used words, touch, forgiveness, compassion and grace. In today’s lesson “he took the woman by the hand and lifted her up.”
Each healing story in Mark is profoundly different from the others. There was no standard medical procedure or no prescription drug that cured those Jesus helped. In each case Jesus was made aware of someone who was sick and he attended to them all. By the end of this particular day in Capernaum Jesus was spent. There comes a point where healing the sick can be overwhelming.
We live in a hi-tech, fast pace, workaholic world where no one rests. We are constantly on the road, running errands, going places. We stuff ourselves with "fast food," overbook our lives with a myriad of things to do, and at the end of the day we wonder why we are totally exhausted. We live (and die) by the clock. We are controlled by the need to produce. Time is money. Time is how we keep in control of our lives and we resist quiet time by keeping the radios, televisions and computers on.
The very thought of being alone, praying, scares us to death. We haven’t learned that relaxation and meditation empower us to do even greater things. Consequently we are on a path to self-destruction, unable to help others, let alone help ourselves.
I’m no different than anyone else. When I am sick, I want God to heal me. About five years ago I developed a severe pain in my left heal. It was difficult to walk. My doctor told me that preachers and teachers who stand for prolonged periods of time often experience such problems. To compensate I did stretching exercises, took aspirin and wore a special jell pad in my shoe. But, it just never seemed to go away. My doctor wanted to know what kind of stress I was living under. "What stress?" I asked. "Everything is fine,” I said. But the pain persisted. It persisted until I finally listened to my doctor and accepted the fact that I did have some stress and needed to rest and rid my life of stress.
The healing stories in the gospel are here to illustrate that God is in our midst and the power of God is beyond our comprehension. That is further illustrated by the fact that Jesus frequently prayed and took time for private meditation. Most importantly, people were cured in response to the good news. Some were transformed. Some were relieved of their infirmities. Others had a change of attitude. Some followed and became disciples. Thankfully, all were lifted up.
Rev. Dr. Keith Wagner is the pastor of St. John's UCC in Troy, Ohio. He and his wife, Lin, live in Springfield, Ohio.
*****************************************
StoryShare, February 8, 2015, issue.
Copyright 2015 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., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"Spiritual Truth" by John Fitzgerald
"When People Hurt" by Keith Wagner
* * * * * * *
Spiritual Truth
by John Fitzgerald
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today." They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.
The first man touched his leg, "The elephant is a pillar," he said.
"Oh no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched his tail.
"It is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk.
"It is like a big hand fan," said the fourth man who touched the elephant's ear.
"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the elephant's belly.
"It is like a solid pipe," said the sixth man who touched the elephant's tusk.
The moral of this story is we all have a different perspective drawn from our experience. If we desire to communicate with another person it helps to under their particular viewpoint. St. Paul understood this basic fact when writing our scripture lesson.
The Apostle wrote: "To the Jews I became like a Jew. . .To those not having the law I became like one not having the law. . . To the weak I became weak. . . I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some."
One of the major problems we face in our world is religious zealotry. People are zealous for their religious faith but have no appreciation for anyone who begs to differ. The outcome is this type of thinking leads to violence and destructive behavior. Nations living in the Western Hemisphere are currently wrestling with Radical Islam which advocates destruction of folks who dare to violate their version of spiritual truth. Of course, this kind of behavior is not new. Christians have been guilty of intolerance as witnessed in the Crusades and Inquisitions.
What is different from previous generations is the ability for a small group to wreck great havoc. Terrorists now have the capacity for inflicting death upon masses of people through nuclear weapons. With this lethal dimension added to the mix it makes it even more pressing to address problems of unbending religious belief.
The place to begin is noting that our faith as Christians does not mean we give up our personal understanding of spiritual truth. St. Paul certainly in no way gave any ground in preaching the Gospel of Christ Jesus. On the contrary, Paul maintained that we accommodate another worldview only that Christ might be presented more clearly. Verse 19 states: "Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible." Or again in verse 23: "I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."
In Christ we have the hopes and promises intended for all of humanity. Jesus is Savior and Lord. This is our basic affirmation as followers of the Messiah. St. Paul would agree with all of this and more. Paul would maintain it our duty to present the Gospel in a sin-sick world.
However, we cannot run rough-shod over those who worship in a different manner than us. To view another human being as a heathen worthy of destruction is not an acceptable standard for Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and any great world religion.
The world has grown too small for any of us to have a faith which denies the life of someone who disagrees with us. As Christians we need to set an example of preaching the Gospel in a world filled with many understandings of spiritual truth.
A poem by Edwin Markham captures the spirit of our message:
He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him in!
John Fitzgerald lives in Leesburg, Ohio, with his wife Carolyn and has served as pastor at the Leesburg Friends Meeting for the past 27 years. Cornfield Cathedral (Fairway Press, 2013) is the second book authored by Pastor Fitzgerald. John has earned a Master's of Ministry Degree from the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.
* * * * *
When People Hurt
by Keith Wagner
Mark 1:29-39
I have always been troubled with evangelists and preachers who have healing services. They tell their listeners that there is someone in the audience with some incurable disease. A person comes to the platform and is miraculously healed. Many of these are fake and staged. I’m not saying that some folks aren’t genuinely healed, but I don’t believe the healing power of God is supposed to be a production or a show.
Simon’s mother-in-law had a fever and Jesus “took her by the hand, lifted her up, and the fever left her.” It is important to note that this healing took place in Simon’s private home. Jesus was with a small group of disciples. It was a spontaneous event without any media exposure. While it is true that Jesus healed people in public places, they weren’t scheduled. When Jesus did heal people, he frequently told them to say nothing about what happened. For me, healing is a result of intimacy, people caring for others without fanfare.
One time I was called to the hospital late at night. As I sat by the bedside of the woman who was dying, she reached for my hand. I grasped her hand and she struggled to sit up. A relative took her other hand and she sat up, wanting desperately to communicate. The woman had Alzheimer’s and much of what she said was irrational and confusing. Only rarely was she able to connect. I asked her if she wanted me to pray with her and she nodded. I got close to her, bowed my head and started to pray. But, before I could utter the first word the woman began reciting the Lord’s Prayer. She struggled with the words but with my help we completed the prayer together. Following the prayer, she seemed to relax and be less agitated. Six hours later the woman peacefully died.
Sometimes, God intervenes and miracles do happen and people are healed. But others times they are not. It has been my experience that what folks need when someone is hurting is a little reassurance. The story of the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law illustrates that people feel alone when they hurt and what they need is intimacy with others.
In Mark we have a series of stories where Jesus healed those who were sick. He also healed the man with the unclean spirit, a leper, the paralytic, the man with the withered hand and countless others who were brought to him to be cured of their demons and diseases. To heal them he used words, touch, forgiveness, compassion and grace. In today’s lesson “he took the woman by the hand and lifted her up.”
Each healing story in Mark is profoundly different from the others. There was no standard medical procedure or no prescription drug that cured those Jesus helped. In each case Jesus was made aware of someone who was sick and he attended to them all. By the end of this particular day in Capernaum Jesus was spent. There comes a point where healing the sick can be overwhelming.
We live in a hi-tech, fast pace, workaholic world where no one rests. We are constantly on the road, running errands, going places. We stuff ourselves with "fast food," overbook our lives with a myriad of things to do, and at the end of the day we wonder why we are totally exhausted. We live (and die) by the clock. We are controlled by the need to produce. Time is money. Time is how we keep in control of our lives and we resist quiet time by keeping the radios, televisions and computers on.
The very thought of being alone, praying, scares us to death. We haven’t learned that relaxation and meditation empower us to do even greater things. Consequently we are on a path to self-destruction, unable to help others, let alone help ourselves.
I’m no different than anyone else. When I am sick, I want God to heal me. About five years ago I developed a severe pain in my left heal. It was difficult to walk. My doctor told me that preachers and teachers who stand for prolonged periods of time often experience such problems. To compensate I did stretching exercises, took aspirin and wore a special jell pad in my shoe. But, it just never seemed to go away. My doctor wanted to know what kind of stress I was living under. "What stress?" I asked. "Everything is fine,” I said. But the pain persisted. It persisted until I finally listened to my doctor and accepted the fact that I did have some stress and needed to rest and rid my life of stress.
The healing stories in the gospel are here to illustrate that God is in our midst and the power of God is beyond our comprehension. That is further illustrated by the fact that Jesus frequently prayed and took time for private meditation. Most importantly, people were cured in response to the good news. Some were transformed. Some were relieved of their infirmities. Others had a change of attitude. Some followed and became disciples. Thankfully, all were lifted up.
Rev. Dr. Keith Wagner is the pastor of St. John's UCC in Troy, Ohio. He and his wife, Lin, live in Springfield, Ohio.
*****************************************
StoryShare, February 8, 2015, issue.
Copyright 2015 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., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
