Excuses

This past Sunday we spent a beautiful day worshiping in God's creation. The sounds of birds and children playing, the smells of cut grass and the food everyone brought, breathing in the crisp, clean air and feeling the sun and wind on our skin and in our hair. 

Isn't that what really matters in life: the present moment? Being fully aware of what's going on around you, taking it all in, and enjoying it? That's all we really have, is right now. The past is gone and the future is uncertain. Live in the moment and appreciate what God has given you. Take a moment to give thanks.

We heard a story from the Gospel of John, 5:1-11. It's about a pool of water that supposedly had healing qualities. Every so often the water would stir. When it did, the first person to get in the water would be healed. Hundreds of sick and ailing people were waiting there, wanting to be the first one in. Among them was a paralyzed man who had been there for 38 years. Jesus approached him and asked, "Do you want to get well?"

The man answered how he had been waiting there for 38 years and didn't have anybody to put him in the pool when the water stirred.

All Jesus asked was, "Do you want to get well?" Instead of answering "yes", the man came up with an excuse why he wasn't well.

We talked about excuses that we all make. This is not so much about an excuse to get out of something we don't want to do. This is about making excuses for getting well. Maybe we don't really want to get well?

Jesus said to the man, "Get up, take your bedroll and start walking." And the man got up and walked away.

Jesus doesn't want to hear our excuses. He wants our "yes." And even if we don't give it he will heal us anyway.

We can't heal people like Jesus did. But we can heal our society and our world. 

How do we do that, you ask?

Take your bedroll (your excuses, your fears, your resentment) - and start walking. Start walking the way that Jesus walked. A way of healing and love and courage.

By the way, this whole episode happened on the Sabbath, the day of rest. So when the healed man carried home his bedroll, people started chiding him: "You shouldn't be carrying that on the Sabbath!"

Instead of celebrating the fact that he had been healed they focused on law and order.

Jesus focused on healing. So much so that he put it above law and order. That's what got him in trouble.

I mentioned the fear of conflict as an excuse that many of us use for not getting involved. We don't want to offend anyone and we don't want to become the target of other's attacks. 

After reaching out to a local newspaper about their negative and biased description of a very positive and uplifting experience at the rally against hate in Worcester on August 13 and about the police's involvement I was personally attacked online in a hateful and cowardly way. (Not by the paper! By an individual who has made it his mission to publicly shame people he disagrees with.)

But that's not going to stop me. I'm not going to use my fear as an excuse any longer. 

These are scary times. 

I am German. First generation. I was raised in a culture that had seen happen what nobody deemed possible: That a nation of civilized and good people (a land of thinkers and poets, they call themselves!) would commit genocide in the most perverted way any human mind could imagine. 

I know you don't think this will ever happen in America. Neither did Germans before 1933.

Don't let the haters fool you or intimidate you. 

And don't think there isn't anything you can do.

The 40,000 people in Boston on Saturday, August 19, did something. They showed up, and the so-called "free speech" rally crumbled.

There is lots you can do.

Share this blog on social media sites and email it to your contacts. Go to the next rally or vigil. Maybe even organize one. Donate to organizations that stand up against hate and racism. Follow them on facebook. Call your representatives. Get involved in local politics. Start talking to people.

This is too dangerous to sit silently by for 38 years and then complain about everything that went wrong. People's lives are on the line. 

Get up, take your baggage and start walking.

And pray as you're walking:

"God, help us, help us, help us. Give us courage, wisdom, humility, an open mind, and all the love you have. Show us the way."