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the
community of faith as a hospital for the sick
I'm not sure why (though
I'm certain there is some psychological reason), but
people find people falling funny! People tripping
people, people falling down stairs, people tripping over
their own feet, it does not matter what the situation,
people find people falling funny. Think back to the last
person you saw trip, did you point and laugh? Did you
chuckle to yourself? Did you smirk? What was your first
reaction? Be honest, we all have a first reaction –
and none of us are perfect. Now, think about the
last time you tripped, what was the reaction of others?
Did they laugh? Did they find you falling funny? How did
you feel? You see, while we find other people falling
funny, we find our falling painful or embarrassing.
When it happens to us, falling is not very funny, it
hurts; it hurts on both a physical and emotional level
– it just hurts. We, as Followers of Christ,
need to be a people who pick people up when they fall,
and not people who point and laugh – we need to be
different. Helping people heal requires we help
people up.
"Jesus,
overhearing, shot back,
'Who needs a doctor: the healthy of the sick? Go and
figure out what the Scripture means: 'I'm after mercy,
not religion.' I am here to invite the outsiders, not
coddle insiders.'" Matthew
9:12 – (The Message, page 29)
I'm not sure who said
it, all we know is that it is a fact "the
church must be a hospital for the sick, and not a museum
for the saints." I like the metaphor
of "hospital" when it comes to the church;
because I like seeing Jesus as The Great Physician, and
the rest of us as "Emergency Room Support
Staff" helping people who are truly hurting. For me
personally, Jesus has brought healing – and continues
to bring healing – to my life.
When we see the
community of faith as a place for people to come who are
hurting and in pain we need to remember some very
important items:
It can be messy: It
is - the "Emotional Vomit" of people in need.
Sounds harsh, but there is no other way to truly explain
it and its "messiness." People who are sick,
truly sick, need a place where they can, in all safety
"toss their cookies" and get rid of all the
garbage that is inside them. When we see ourselves as an
ER and those God is sending us as people in need of our
help, we need to understand it is going to get messy,
sometimes very messy. Healing starts by allowing people
the freedom to be messy. Let's not be concerned with the
mess; let's be concerned with the healing.
It
requires constant
care: You
can see this as a "Rotation Schedule." It
takes more then one person to help people heal from the
world around them. We, as members of the ER, need to
spend time helping people heal. Small groups are a
wonderful way of giving this kind of care, by allowing
people to use their God given gifts to help others.
It requires
compassion and empathy:
Compassion requires us all to help each other through
healing times; empathy is remembering the pain we
suffer, and relating it to the pain of others. To be a
"healing place" one needs to be a place that
picks people up when they fall, and not a place where
people laugh at you when you fall. John Maxwell said it
best, "People don't care how much you know,
until they know how much you care."
It requires love:
It's time to "kiss the boo-boo." A hug; some
extra time; a phone call; a birthday card; a moment
together; a special thought; deep prayer. Love
is not a feeling; it is an action (Matthew
10:25-37). Jesus tells us to "Do this and you will
live" (10:28) not "feel that way and you will
live." Love is action on our part, we need to
honestly and truly love those we meet, and truly desire
for them to see God for all His glory through us.
It requires that we
understand we are not the Healer: No
matter how good we think we are, we are not the one who
heals; God is the one who heals. We are there to care
for and help people as God works His healing on them.
That means we are not trying to "church"
people, we are trying to bring people into a healing
relationship with Jesus Christ.
It requires 24/7:
Being ready to
help 24 hours a day, seven days a week; after all, ER's
are open 24/7 and we are "God's ER." Are we
ready? If we receive a phone call at 2:30 AM, on a
workday, from a person who needs to talk about a life
issue, are we ready to take the call – or will we ask
them to call back later? Or worse, will we just not give
out our phone number in fear that someone may call. 24/7
is hard, and can draw a great deal of emotions out of
us, but when we know we can all one each other –
honestly call on each other – life is easier to live.
Finally, it requires
support: When
things get messy, people get upset. The support that is
needed is primary to truly helping people heal. We need
to support each other, and be willing to help each other
"scrub-up" before and after the operation.
This requires all of us to be in prayer, deep prayer,
and their needs to be a "Support Team"
available for those who are feeling the "mess of
others" creep into their lives.
Today people are
hurting; people are in deep pain. We need to be a people
willing to get down, and get dirty to help people find
true healing in Christ. In James (Page 483 in The
Message) it says this, "So throw all spoiled virtue
and cancerous evil in the garbage." People are in
pain, filled with spoiled virtue and cancerous evil, and
we need to get down and help them find Christ in their
lives.
As people who are
concerned about the lost; as people concerned about
helping people find a meaningful relationship with Jesus
Christ; as people who desire strongly to help seekers
find a true and lasting relationship with a true and
lasting God, we need to be people willing to open our
hearts in love and grace. We need to be ready to open
our emotions to others, and get ready to pick people up
when that fall. Hurting people are all around us, at the
office, the softball game, the soccer game, next door,
down the road – you name the place and you will find
hurting people in need of God's healing touch. Education
does not stop the pain, money does not stop the pain,
age does not stop the pain, only God, in all His love,
grace and forgiveness, will stop the pain. We need to
use our lips for more then just service – we need to
speak the truth in love.
john o'keefe
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