The Sacred Echo
09/12/2010 - Bring Them to Me
In her bookThe Sacred Echo, on which this series is based, Margaret Feinberg tells this tragic story about a good friend of hers named Kyle.
She writes, "It was supposed to be routine surgery. A small excess bone fragment from an injury years earlier was lodged in Kyle's shoulder and needed to be removed. An overnight stay in the hospital was recommended but not required. He'd be home soon - the minor medical nuisance gone - except for one detail: the surgeon was having an off day, and his scalpel nicked the edge of a nerve. For Kyle, that one cut sliced his life into a million irreparable pieces.
"I saw it on his face when he was finally released from the hospital. He described the fiery challenge of painkillers which don't actually kill pain, they only take the edge off. The initial dosages were addictive, the withdrawals worse than the chronic pain they were designed to relieve.
"Once home from the hospital, Kyle began to wrestle with the reality of a surgery gone bad. How do you forgive the doctor? Yourself? An irreparable situation? He was told not to lift anything over a few pounds to minimize further damage. That meant countless of activities were off limits for Kyle, everything from helping his wife with housecleaning to carrying groceries to lifting up one of his two young sons to hug them. Despite the pain, most days Kyle carried a sunny disposition. Things would get better.
"They didn't. The battle with painkillers - the flimsy line between relief and addiction - was unrelenting. The needs of his spouse and children only compounded as they grew older. His wife was growing increasingly tired, their intimacy waning, the marriage slowly dissolving.
"Life threw my friend Kyle one of its ugliest curve balls and as much as I wanted to save the day, all I could do was pray. In the most solemn of requests, I asked God to heal, restore, and renew. I prayed for God to do something, anything, to make the pain stop. On several occasions, I even fasted for my friend, begging God to say 'enough,' to do the impossible. Please, oh God, please.
"That was three years ago. Last spring, I learned that Kyle tried to take his own life. The attempted suicide shook his family and his community but did nothing to alleviate the pain. As I pray for Kyle this day, I want to scream a bloody four-letter word in frustration, anger, and disappointment on his behalf. Instead, I find the meager resolve to offer up a four-letter prayer, 'Help.'"
Did you ever feel like? Did you ever feel like Kyle? Maybe you can relate to the pain that pushed Kyle to the point of attempting to take his own life. A few years ago one of my friends did. He was a guy who loved Jesus. We had done ministry together. He had his own business, a big house, a wonderful wife, and two young daughters. And I remember the shock I felt when I got the phone call that Jim was dead. I couldn't believe it! I didn't understand it then and to this day can only imagine the hidden emotional pain that drove him to do such a thing.
Maybe you can relate to Margaret and the praying and the fasting that she did for years for her friend Kyle, but instead of getting better his situation only got worse. What's up with that?
This morning we continue our series called The Sacred Echo: Exploring the Mystery of Prayer. A teaching series on prayer wouldn't be complete or honest if we didn't talk about the frustration and the anger and the disappointment that we feel when we pray for people and situations over and over and over again, but instead of getting better they just get worse.
And so like Kyle and Margaret we wonder, "Why God? I don't get it? I don't get you? Don't you hear? Don't you see? Don't you feel? Don't you know what's going on? Why don't you do something about it if you're so good and loving?"
We find plenty of examples in Scripture of God's people asking those very same questions. In fact, in Jewish tradition questioning is not just acceptable it's encouraged. Questioning is how learning takes place. Even today in Jewish synagogues Rabbis teach by asking tough questions some of which are downright scandalous. The Rabbi Jesus asked questions too. In fact, he often answered questions with a question.
That was all part of an ancient Jewish practice called midrash. The Hebrew word midrash means "to study or to search out." Midrash invites us to dive deeper into the Scriptures to explore more of God and his mysterious ways. The questioning, the seeking, the searching out, becomes the foundation for our own growth and discovery and a stronger, more authentic faith. If we don't question we don't learn and unanswered prayer, especially for friends like Kyle, certainly raise plenty of questions in our minds.
In Psalm 73:1-5, 13-14 Asaph writes,Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. 2But as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold. 3For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. 5They are free from common human burdens. They are not plagued by human ills ... 13Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. 14All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.
Thank God for Asaph! Here's a guy who looks around and goes on record for a few thousand years saying the things that we all struggle with to one degree or another. And that takes guts!
"I don't get it, God? I know you're good to Israel and those who are pure in heart, but it seems like you're even better to those who want nothing to do with you. They've got money. They've got stress free lives. They've got the best bodies in the gym. But me? I'm trying to keep my heart pure, follow you, walk this narrow road, but I feel like I get beat up every single day."
In other words, why do good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people? I don't get it, God? It's not fair! That's midrash, asking tough questions.
The prophet Jeremiah struggles with the same thing. He puts it this way in Jeremiah 12:1-2, You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?2You have planted them, and they have taken root. They grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.
Here's another guy that doesn't get it. Life seems so unfair to Jeremiah. "God I know you're always righteous, but we got to talk. I don't get your justice. I don't see it happening. Why do the wicked get away with murder when those who love you struggle so much?" That's midrash, those are the questions we need to be asking.
The prophet Habakkuk accuses God of being deaf in Habakkuk 1:2-4, How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? 3Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. There is strife and conflict abounds. 4Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
God, why do you put up with so much evil in this world? That's midrash. Can you relate to any of that? I can and I bet you can too.
We see the same things all the time. Life hasn't changed. It seems so unfair. So we question God. But when we question God we're in good company? The Scriptures are full of men and women, heroes of the faith, who lived flat out for God, even died for him, all the while lugging around the same unanswered questions that haunt you and me.
Its okay to question God. And prayer is the best place, the safest place to do that, the place where we can be totally honest to God. Don't be afraid. God can handle it. He can handle our questions and our doubts and our struggles. He's heard them all before. And when we voice them he's not going to think any less of us. Instead, he'll be glad that we feel free enough and safe enough to ask them.
That's how we grow and mature and develop a more authentic faith. Someone once said, "My understanding can wait. My obedience cannot." I agree. My understanding can wait, and it's going to have to with many of my questions, but my obedience cannot.
If you have a Bible turn with me to Mark 9:19-24. In this passage we find a boy who is possessed by a demon. And the boy's dad brings him to the disciples to be healed. But they can't drive out the demon. They're stymied and they're embarrassed and they're being criticized for their failure. So an argument breaks out.
And when Jesus arrives on the scene he says in verse 19, You unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to me." 20So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. 21Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?" "From childhood," he answered. 22"It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." 23"'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for the one who believes." 24Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" 25When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. "You deaf and mute spirit," he said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." 26The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead." 27But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. 28After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" 29He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer."
Now there's tons of stuff in this little story and we unpacked it in detail not too long ago when we went though the gospel of Mark. But what I want you to see today is that one simple phrase that Jesus says in verse 19. When the disciples are totally exasperated Jesus says,Bring him to me.
The disciples were at the end of their rope as we so often. This situation was way too big for them to fix. They were getting frustrated and angry and arguing amongst themselves. It wasn't pretty. So Jesus says, Bring the boy to me. And when they do the kid is dramatically healed and set free from his oppression.
That's the sacred echo I believe we need to hear when we don't understand what God is doing or not doing in our lives or in the lives of those we love and are praying for. Bring them to me. Bring the concerns to me. Bring the questions to me. Bring the struggles to me. Bring the fears to me. Bring the doubts to me. I love that phrase the father says, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief." Bring it all to me. To me. To me. To me.
Those are the words that can help us take the focus off our pain and shift it back on Jesus. He's the one that we need to turn to and rely on, the only one who is big enough and strong enough to carry us through. When Jesus is at the forefront of our heart and mind instead of our problems, then we're in a better place to pray, and to serve, and to give, and to be an instrument of healing and hope to others who are struggling.
That's why we gather as a community to worship week after week. It helps us to shift the focus from ourselves and all the things we don't understand and back to Jesus. That's why we try to get alone with Jesus during the week in prayer and in the Scriptures or spend time with Jesus in community with others at hub or small group so we can encourage each other when we're feeling beat up and beaten down.
Bring them to me. That's that sacred echo from God that can bring a hush to our souls even when the healing doesn't come and the problem isn't solved. In those moments when the heaviness and pain of living in a broken world become too much God echoes, "Bring them to me." Don't give up on prayer.
But sometimes the healing does come, like it did for the boy that was brought to Jesus. And sometimes our prayers are answered in ways that we could never even think or imagine, like this story about Bethany who as a young woman was diagnosed with breast cancer. Take a look at this four minute video clip that describes her story.
4:30 clip of Bethany's breast cancer story
"Well, if the cancer ever does come back," she says, "I still know that God is in control and I still know that there will be a purpose in that and I just have to trust him in the process."
Sometimes God heals and sometimes he doesn't, but in every case he says, "Bring them all to me."
After describing Kyle's tragic story, Margaret Feinberg concludes her chapter by saying, "I may never really know what causes someone's pain, but I can still be a source of healing. I can still love. I can still pray. And I can still listen for the sacred echoes, because during times of unexplainable loss and pain, the words of God are what get me through. In those moments when everything is unfamiliar and unclear, I find strength in the foundational Scriptures of my faith and cling to these sacred echoes I know to be true until the storm ends. In the process, I discover the depths of God's love, redemption, and hope that I would not know otherwise.
"I can't help but think of the vision John received while imprisoned on the island of Patmos described in Revelation 22:1-2, Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
"The healing promised here is not just physical, but carries a more holistic meaning of 'making whole.' Deep down, that's the pang of my heart, maybe the ache of all our hearts,God - make us whole. And maybe, just maybe, when I respond to the invitation, bring them to me, I become a little more whole myself. As I pray this day, I ask not just for healing, but for wholeness for Kyle and so many others - including myself - and I dream of the day when we'll splash and play and swim together in the crystal clear waters of the river of life." I can't wait. Can you?