I Have Tried in my Way to be Free
Matthew 6:22-23
August 27, 2006
He was 12 the first time that he tried Crystal Meth. By the time he was 16 he dropped out of highschool. He was running fast away from home, away from school out into the adult world. Meth made everything easier. Highschool was such a joke, the kids and teachers so full of contempt and judgment, not to mention the trip his Mom was always laying on him. So off he went out into the world, no high school diploma, no family ties, just a habit. By the time he was 24 he had three kids and a forth on the way and a 12 year habit. His kids were wards of the state, he'd spent time in jail. Now the judge wanted him to get clean, get a job, get his kids back, change…How do you change 12 years of habitual practice...
The eye is the lamp of the body. If the eye is healthy your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
She was an only child of older parents. She was shy but smart. She was a rule follower and excelled in school. She got high marks all through school. Those earned her a scholarship to an ivy league school. She became a medical doctor for research purposes and works for a prestigious drug company trying to find a cure for a cancer that attacks men in their middle ages. But her parents are both gone. Her days are long and spent mostly alone working in her lab trying to solve the puzzle. Her meals are alone. And she fears what will happen when she finds the answer to the puzzle. What will she do then? Who will she be?
The eye is the lamp of the body. If the eye is healthy your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in your is darkness, how great is the darkness!
To say their family was a mess is grossly misleading. Drugs and violence filled their lives from before they were born. The children spent time floating around with so many others basically neglected and forgotten. Mom died young. Dad's in prison. The children left as young adults. Who is their role model? Who will grow them into adults? Who will heal their pain? How will they thrive?
The eye is the lamp of the body. If the eye is healthy your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
She was a trailblazer. She was the first woman to attend her graduate school. She followed that with becoming the first woman be president of her company. She followed that with being the first woman on the School Board in her town. Yet, in spite of these successes she felt slighted that she never got beyond the firsts. She resented these accomplishments as much as she couldn't stop herself from achieving them. She became consumed with the gender gap which distorted every interaction, thought, and memory she had.
The eye is the lamp of the body. If the eye is healthy your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
All of these people we know. All of these people are our neighbors. All of these people are us. Living our lives is difficult. It doesn't matter how you grow up, what you have or don't have we all come to the moments when we find ourselves alone, afraid and facing what seems like insurmountable obstacles. And, it is in those moments we truly find out what kind of commitment we have to our covenants with God. God has agreed to relate to us no matter where we are on life's journey. And, even in those dark moments, God and God's light are behind us. The darkness is no easy place. The Scripture rightfully says, how great is the darkness. But that darkness only comes from an unhealthy place. A place that is broken, wounded, severed from the healing, loving, light of God. The darkness can seem insurmountable, and that's what the darkness wants you to perceive. But in reality it's all just a distortion that the darkness creates. Today's good news is that as the people of the Jesus movement, we can proclaim it is time to name the darkness and how pervasive it is and can become allowing us to begin the long journey of healing ourselves and becoming whole. We are the people of the Jesus movement. And, today's message is for us. It's not for anyone who picks up Scripture it's written directly to us. We are the bearers of the light. We are the ones who must heal ourselves, that our whole bodies will be filled with light.
There is a Disciples of Christ church in Kansas City that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The entire building was designed to feel like the catacombs. You entered up a steep set of steps but the room felt small, it had a low ceiling and you were pushed into a very narrow passageway of circular stairs that lead to the cavernous sanctuary. Out of this sanctuary blew the steeple of light. An enormous set of 3 lights that worked together to turn back the night sky high up into the heavens. And, that's our work we hear today. When we are healthy, we see the world differently than when we are unhealthy. And when we are healthy our whole bodies fill up with light. We become that steeple of light, shining out into the darkness, helping all to feel drawn into the love, compassion, peace of neighbors in the kin-dom of God. We can see this light in one another and we can shine it into the darkness. But, when we are unhealthy, it is easy for the light to seem extinguished, for the darkness is so great. And, your eye, your eye becomes contaminated with the darkness, changing how the world looks.
As people of this Jesus movement we are called to be the light. We are called into the freedom of leaving the world's goals and accepting the goals of the Creator. Come to God and heal what's broken, fix what's unhealthy and see the world through God's eyes. And if the darkness is great. Acknowledge how great it is. Acknowledge and name how it is present in your perceptions and vision. And surround yourself with those who are more healthy and can see more of the light. For in our freedom to heal we can share that healing with others. We can help them see different perspectives than the great darkness.
It also works the other way. When you run into people who have become devoid of compassion. When you run into people who have nothing to say but darkness recognize their brokenness, their woundedness, their dis-ease. Name it. Allow it to be the great darkness. But, don't allow it to seduce you. Instead in the naming, be the light and challenge the darkness. Share how you see things. Share how it looks brighter to you. Share how it looks possible to you this living. Share how it changes you to be living and healing and full of light all at the same time. Share how you're willing to be open to healing and naming the light hidden under their bushel baskets. Our way is the path of Jesus as illumined by God. We are called to be compassionate, loving, peaceful neighbors to the human family. And being filled with compassion, love and peace; taking the time to be neighbors to all we meet allows us to be free in our being. Allows us to be free from all of the ways our world tries to harness us and strap us down, caging us in. We only need to be signs pointing towards God's kin-dom come. Let's spend this week trying, in our way, to begin to be free. Let us pray.