Wednesdays in Lent we are exploring thefaith practice called FAITH5 – a nightly routine in which families gather to SHARE highs and lows, READ scripture, TALK about how scripture informs their lives, PRAY for one another, and BLESS each other.

"Sharing Highs and Lows" –
a Lenten message by Jesse Keljo

When Pastor Aaron let me know that I would be speaking about the sharing of highs and lows, my thoughts immediately went to my daughter’s current favorite movie: Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out. It is the story of an eleven year old girl named Riley who has moved with her family from Minnesota to San Francisco with the twist being that we experience most of this story through her personified emotions of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust (my daughter’s favorite). In particular, it focuses on the key (and often overlooked) role that Sadness plays in our lives. None of the emotions appreciate Sadness. They just want Riley to be happy, which is understandable but ultimately destructive. In the end, they must work together for Riley to be a well-adjusted person.

Sharing highs and lows together between parents and children is tremendously important. Children need to see that their parents go through ups and downs, and children need to practice looking for and articulating the good and bad things in their lives as well as a safe place to do it. However, the benefits are not relegated to children; adults need practice sharing our highs and lows too.

Our culture likes to pretend that we should always be happy. At the beginning of Inside Out, Riley’s Core Memories (the ones that make Riley unique and create her personality) are all happy ones as are many of her other memories.

The problem with this is life is a series of highs and lows of varying severity. Much of the time, we experience anthill highs and golf divot lows, but then come the occasional Everest highs and the Marianas Trench lows. How can we handle (or even enjoy) our highs well with no context for what lows can be and their place in our lives? More importantly, how can we possibly handle the inevitable tragedies that will come when deny their existence?

We often don’t help each other by immediately throwing a positive spin on life’s disappointments and difficulties. When my uncle, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, died suddenly and unexpectedly, I remember someone saying, “well, at least he doesn’t have to hear the voices anymore.” I will never forget how much that upset my mom and that she wanted to say to that person that he would much rather be alive, voices and all. My uncle loved his family and music and smiled and laughed a lot. I am sure he suffered too. And maybe there are situations where death is a blessing. However, we need to be careful here because one could start to think: you are either happy or maybe you’re just better off dead.

Life can resemble an earthquake where massive highs and lows can come on suddenly. Recognizing and sharing our day-to-day highs and lows (the anthills and golf divots) help us face the cataclysmic events that come up: by showing us the role God plays in all of this. Picture God’s Grace like a sine curve that carries us through our highs and lows. It lifts us up to our highs, and never lets us drown in our lows while still giving us the holy opportunity to grieve, to weep, to mourn. God is the axis, the constant thread, between the highs and lows – a thread we need to hold onto in our highs so we remember to rejoice with God and remember and praise the One who lifted us up, otherwise we run the risk of thinking we did it ourselves and grow self-satisfied. And it is a thread we need to hold onto in our lows so that we remember that God weeps and grieves beside us and has not and will never forsake us. Sharing highs and lows lets us tap into this river of grace flowing through our lives. Sharing highs and lows allows us to experience the cosmic poise of true Joy that is a culmination of all of the highs and lows we have experienced and processed so far.

Last summer I read Timothy Keller’s book, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. I didn’t want to read it, but I felt I had avoided thinking about pain and suffering much at all in my life and didn’t want to avoid it any longer. In this book, he shares a number of true stories of suffering and God’s presence through it, and one story in particular stood out to me.

A woman, a medical professional, finds out that her mother is dying so she goes to be with her in her last days. Her mother is suffering mightily, but the only words that leave her lips are God’s Word, Bible verses and passages she knew so well and believed in so deeply in her heart that they were all she could think of in her deepest suffering and pain. The woman thinks to herself, “I want this kind of faith. A faith where, when the worst is happening, my first words are God’s Word.”

Then there is the biblical story of Joseph. He was shielded from lows in his life and was being utterly spoiled and ruined by his father. Joseph was on his way to being an overly proud young man. His brothers sold him into slavery. Then his master throws him in jail after being accused of a crime he didn't commit. God is with Joseph through all this as a Constant, helping him through these trying times. Years and years pass. Then Joseph is entrusted with everything in Egypt, and, with God’s help, is able to save his family and keep God’s People from being wiped from the face of the earth. After the highs of the first part of his life followed by years of terrible lows, Joseph has the context he needs to see that God meant all the bad that happened to him for good. Again, Joseph had to experience lows over many years to be able to get any kind of context for them, and it may be the same for us. We need to hold that thread.

And then let’s return to the film Inside Out. In Inside Out, after trying to be happy for her parents’ sake after moving, Riley finally breaks down in tears and confesses how sad she is about leaving Minnesota and how much she misses it. Her parents get down with her and tell her what they miss about Minnesota and that they are not mad about how Riley feels about moving. Sadness helped Riley have this emotional breakthrough, and, after the parents wrap Riley in their arms for a hug, Sadness brings Joy over and a melded Joy/Sadness Core memory is created.

Sharing our highs and lows helps us create these melded experiences that, again, help us cultivate true Joy, a deep, cosmic kind of poise that is informed by joy and sadness coming together at the same time. We are often Riley, trying to be happy in all circumstances when God is like Riley’s parents, who will never be angry with us for bringing our sorrows to Him and who holds our very hearts and souls in His arms whether we are surrounded by loved ones or alone.

Sharing highs and lows is just the start. It’s step one. We need to bring in God’s Word for context, step two. We need to talk and process all of this, step three. We need to pray and bring it all before God and grow that relationship, step four. We need to bless each other and God as we go through life together, step five. But, to paraphrase Zig Ziglar, those who never take step one, will never take step two. I encourage you to take that first step or maybe even that leap if you are feeling skeptical.

Gather your family or trusted friends or coworkers together and each take a turn sharing the high and the low for the day. Be present and listen to one another, no interruptions and no judging. God is there through it all, and He is ready for you to find Him and hold on tight.

Mark 2:1-12

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at his home. So many gathered around that there was no room for them, even in front of the door, and he was reading the word to them. Then some people came, bringing with them a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. When they could not get the man near to Jesus, because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and, after having dug through it, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith he said to the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Now there were scribes there who were questioning in their hearts, “Why does this fellow speak in in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were asking these questions among themselves, so he said to them, “Why do you raise these questions in your hearts? What is easier, for me to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand, take up your mat, and walk?’

‘But, so that you know that the Son of God has power on earth to forgive sins – he said to the paralyzed man – stand, take up your mat and go to your home.’” And the man stood up and immediately went out before all of them. And they were all amazed and glorified God saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Who doesn’t love a good miracle story like this one? I think it’s great when Jesus shows off his super powers. It’s good news when someone gets healed. And I especially like it, here, when Jesus does it all with an added dose of snark and sarcasm. Did you catch that?

When the scribes are grumbling about whether Jesus, that carpenter’s kid from Nazareth, could possibly have the power to forgive sins? And Jesus says something like, “Really? That’s what you’re worried about here?” And he asks them, “What’s harder, do you suppose, to forgive sins or to make a paralyzed man stand up and walk?” It was a rhetorical question, of course. Jesus knows no one believed he had the power to cure paralysis any more than they thought his forgiveness was worth a lick. So when Jesus does one – sends that paralyzed guy packing…walking home, with his mat under his arm – everyone has to believe that he’s done the other, too; that his forgiveness is just as real, that it counts just as much as that miracle they all saw stand up and walk right out of the room.

And that’s all well and good. And most of the time, when we hear this story, we celebrate the miracle of Jesus’ healing and move on. But today in the context of our sermon series – as we keep wondering about what it looks like to be “SENT” in as many ways as God means to send us as believers into the world – I want to talk about this familiar story in a different way.

Today we’re talking about “Shared Life,” so what matters most about this story, this time around, has as much to do with the four friends who carried the mat bearing the paralyzed man to Jesus, as it does with the paralyzed man and his healing. That’s why this story – and the love, devotion, and faith of these four friends – paints a picture of what “Shared Life” might look like for the people of God.

See, while everyone else was gathered around listening to and learning from Jesus(not altogether wrong or bad or unfaithful ways to be, mind you), these four friends were living the word Jesus was talking about. They were raising the roof, quite literally. They were digging through the ceiling. They were on their hands and knees, getting down and dirty, doing whatever they could to help a brother out.

And no matter how you look at it, all of it is both the result of their Shared Life and it’s their Shared Life in action, too, right before the eyes of whoever was paying attention. These friends were on a mission, really. They had a sick friend who needed help. He had a need, so they had a need.

So, that’s how I want us to think about this idea of a “Shared Life,” too. In this Sentness book we’ve been talking about, they say you can identify “Shared Life” by the quality of the relationships between people, by the power of trust between people, by the wonder of generosity between people…all things those friends showed and shared when they got help for their friend in today’s Gospel. “Shared Life” means staying with… walking alongside… abiding… and it’s what we’re called to as believers in the world and as Partners in Mission in this place.

Shared Life means the way some of you responded to my announcement last week to help Ruth Jensen and Elna Keyt and Barth Gish with the same sort of compassion and presence as we’ve been able to so generously help Alta Ford these last few weeks. “Sharing Life” means bringing food, sharing conversations, running errands, spending time.

Shared Life means those of you who will join me Wednesday night to re-boot our Eucharistic Ministry program here by learning about sharing communion with people who can’t get to worship as often as they’d like. If sharing bread and wine and the promise of God’s grace and forgiveness isn’t “Shared Life,” I don’t know what is.

Shared Life means heading back to Haiti in June. There’s so much “Shared Life” on a trip like that, I can’t even tell you – with and among those who make the trip from our congregation and with and among our friends in Fondwa, who are always so obviously and pleasantly and genuinely glad to see us coming back year after year to work alongside them, to learn from them, and to share with them whatever faith and friendship we’re able to offer.

And Shared Life means our Mardi Gras party, too, believe it or not. You know I like a good party as much as the next guy, and that I don’t need much of an excuse to throw one. And I don’t mean to suck the fun and debauchery out of all that Mardi Gras can be. But the reason we host that party – and the reason we throw any of the other parties we host around here – is because we share life when we eat and drink and laugh and tell stories and love one another in those ways, too.

I saw some Shared Life last night, too, at the gym, when some of our 6th and 7th graders from Cross of Grace weren’t too cool to play and have fun with some of our elementary school kids on the basketball court. Sometimes it’s the little things that get your attention.

And Shared Life means baptizing Deena Anderson, like we’ll do tonight at 5 o’clock. Deena has been waiting for the right time to celebrate her baptism, even though she’s been around here for quite awhile. She’s been waiting for her friends and her neighbors, Tom and Bev Bancroft to be able to join her for the baptism, because they’ve been an important part of what brought her to Cross of Grace. They’ve “shared life” in some meaningful, holy, lovely ways and Deena’s baptism will be a sacred celebration of that for them all. (I wouldn’t say that Tom and Bev held her mat, or that Deena needed to be carried, necessarily. But they held her hand, maybe. And they’ve walked with and alongside her to this water, I think it’s fair to say.)

And that’s what Sharing Life looks like. It means loving one another, purely and simply, the way God has first loved us: by showing up, by loving well, by praying hard, by helping generously, by carrying someone and by letting ourselves be carried, too, if and when we need it.

What I think is most interesting about the guy who gets healed in the story is something that the authors of Sentness don’t address. What I think is interesting is what we’re told about the moment Jesus declares the paralyzed guy’s forgiveness. According to the Gospel, the four friends remove the roof, the four friends dig through the ceiling, and the four friends lower their friend down before Jesus. And we’re told that when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” When he saw their faith, the paralyzed man gets his miracle.

I like that because it reminds us that they’re all in it together – that we’re all in this together. My life and faith stands to impact your life and faith. Your life and faith stands to impact my life and faith. Our life and faith together – when we share it, generously and with gratitude, for the blessing and benefit of one another – can change things, for the better; it can change things for the world around us; and it can change things, by God’s grace, for the people with whom we share life as we know it.

Amen

FAITH5 - Sharing Highs and Lows

Sentness – Shared Life