The Rev'd Dr Murray Harvey
Reading: Mark 7:31-37
Enter touching place
In the film, The City of Angels*, angels are seen to be present to the people of Los Angeles in a number of ways.
The angels are present most of all at the boundaries – the boundaries of life and death. They give unseen encouragement; they heal unacknowledged hurts; they accompany the dying across the threshold to a new dimension of life.
The angels in the film are invisible to human eyes. There are some exceptions though. Those on the brink of death can see them. So can small children.
The part of the angels is played by human beings. In other words they look like you and me, except that they have a serenity and calmness that you and I don't normally have. Thus they are identifiable as being grounded somewhere else – they are not of this world but from another shore.
The film has a complex plot. My sermon tonight won't do it justice. I can recommend the film should you have the opportunity to see it.
On me the impact of the film was one of sadness. These angels, no matter how welcome their ministrations might have been, were, in the story, fulfilling a task that could have been fulfilled (or should have been fulfilled) by the loved ones of the people who were suffering.
· Encouraging
· Ministering to unacknowledged hurts
· Being present with the dying
The film explored a space, a void, a place where, because of our human limitations and fears, we are reticent to go. Maybe it's too hard, too painful, too risky, vulnerable or threatening.
The Churches Together in Britain and Ireland** theme we use today encourages us to hear and respond to the silent suffering of the deaf mute man. And through this to make us aware of what is also true for people suffering from HIV/AIDS such as those in Umlazi, South Africa.
The experience of the man in the Gospel has spoken to the people of Umlazi and they challenge us today to reflect on our response to this word.
My first experience of HIV AIDS was just over 20 years ago when I was a student at the University of Queensland, sitting in a public health lecture. We were having the virus and its means of transmission explained to us. Some of my fellow students went on to find out first hand about the disease through their medical and scientific careers. Little did any of us know that over the subsequent twenty years 20 million people would die of the condition, 40 million become infected, and 11 million children become orphaned as a result of it so far. It has become the worst epidemic ever known (according to UNAIDS).
People suffering from HIV AIDS and from other serious conditions often suffer just as much from the stigma of the disease as they do from the physical effects of the disease itself. The stigma is part of the dark place where the angels ministered. This dark place is a touchable void for them.
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus breaks this barrier. He overcomes the void – this dark place and meets people in their suffering.
“Jesus took the man aside in private, away from the crowd.” That is, Jesus enters the void, this lonely place with the man.
“He put his fingers in his ears and spat and touched his tongue.” He broke a taboo. Jesus touched him. In so doing he not only stood alongside the man in his suffering, he identified with him.
Hence the song chosen for tonight***:
To the lost Christ
shows his face
To the unloved he gives his embrace
To those who cry in
pain and disgrace
Christ makes, with his
friends, a touching place. ©WGRG The Iona Community
All this is relevant to those who suffer from HIV AIDS and those who minister to them. In relative terms very few people with HIV AIDS live in this area. Those who do suffer, I suppose, silently indeed.
There are plenty of ways in which can help Jesus minister in this void. To in fact confront the need for a void at all.
My father suffered from a terminal illness for three years before his death. This was obviously a difficult time for him and the family, but one of the worst aspects apart from seeing him fade away physically was to observe the fact that so many of his friends began to avoid calling in for a visit in the same way they used to before his illness.
We all know the temptation to avoid someone with a terminal illness, recent bereavement, broken marriage, a redundancy from work, parents who have lost a child. After all, what do we say? Maybe I'll say the wrong thing! Maybe I won't be able to find any words at all. Perhaps I'd be doing them a favour because they'd prefer to be left alone.
When we surrender to these thoughts we are contributing to a widening and a deepening of the void, the dark place, where Jesus and the angels minister because it's too hard for us to go.
To return to the gospel, we see that when the man was healed, his tongue was released, he was able to speak of what Jesus had done. His words were more than equalled by people's zealous proclamation of this wonderful thing.
May the healing that we have known in our own lives give us courage and inspiration to minister in the void of other peoples suffering.
Because of Jesus, it's not just the angels who can go there. We can enter that touching place too.
Lord open our ears, release our tongues. Lord, touch our hearts. Amen.
For confidential emotional support online
visit Samaritans: www.samaritans.org Samaritans
is a registered charity.
* City of Angels 1998 Warner Bros.
** For more information about the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity theme see the Churches Together website at http://www.ctbi.org.uk/
*** The tune of this
song is "Dream Angus" - it appears in: Complete Anglican Hymns
Old and New published by Kevin Mayhew; Love from Below published
by Wild Goose publications; Common Ground published by St Andrews
Press