Through The Heart Of God: Recycling Our Thinking, Our Habits, Our Very Souls!      

“Held in Prayer….Salted  With Fire!”

James 5: 13-20, Mark 9:38-50
September 27, 2009  Rev. Karen Hagen
We come to worship because we want to become more effective disciples of Christ.  Most of us would never say it that way.  We would probably say something like:  we come because we know there must be “more” to life than what we easily see…and we long to experience God (hoping the stories of Jesus will connect us to God).  We come because we long to bring the power of faith to our lives, for our own peace and joy and the betterment of our families and communities.  We want community…we long to be known and know others. So we come.  We want to be effective disciples.
But we often lose our effectiveness…our saltiness…our fire for such a life….as we leave this place and go back into our lives.  We stumble in our lives, because we have unresolved personal and spiritual issues we don’t see or refuse to see which trip us up.  Perhaps we think there is only one right way to do everything….hard to see that if you’re not against me, you are for me!
The gospel lesson draws our attention to the stumbling blocks we create or begrudgingly live with…stumbling blocks that are so much a part of our regular routine that they are as normal to us as our hands and feet and eyes.  …stumbling blocks that keep us from effectively living our lives, our faith.  James brings our attention to the power of prayer in community to address such blocks/sins…a relationship built upon prayer with and for each other—that cup of water offered along the way, the salt that heals.  You see, we cannot regain our saltines alone…we need support because the elimination of stumbling blocks can be very scarey and very painful.  And yet without this happening, no peace.  True?
We stumble.  Who will offer that cup of cold water?  …pray for and with us?  …and stay alongside?
She woke up to yet another day of seeking work.  …Another day to find the energy…somehow...to continue to do the work of looking for a job.  The struggle has become more than looking for a new job.  The struggle is for relief from self-doubt and outward judgment and the fear of impending financial doom.  These are the blocks which cause her to act in ways not like herself.  Who will offer a cup of cold water along the way?  (…pour water from the communion pitcher into the communion cup)
He came to church alone because there was no one at home who would come with him.  It’s hard to come alone.  It’s so hard to feel alone day after day even within the clamor of a family.  And as hard as it is to come, in some ways it’s even harder to go back home again….aware of what he doesn’t have there, what he needs to have there, aware of his own hopelessness that things could ever change.  Who will offer a cup of cold water along the way?  (…pour water from the communion pitcher into the communion cup)
Over and over again at school he has heard that his work isn’t good enough and his behavior just doesn’t measure up to expectations. And no matter how hard he tries, he never feels as if he pleases anyone…not his teacher, not his parents, not even himself.  It’s so unfair and it’s turning him off…to school, to his family…he’s even getting turned off to himself.  Self-doubt.  Who will offer a cup of cold water along the way?  (…pour water from the communion pitcher into the communion cup)
He/she comes home and compulsively goes from room to room straightening and tidying things up….even if they don’t need it.  He’s home for 15 minutes obsessively making sure everything is perfect before he can even say hi to his family.  And even then, nothing is ever quite perfect enough.  Subconsciously, if he’s busy enough, he won’t have time to think about how he feels about himself.  If his life looks perfect, won’t it feel perfect, too?  Who will offer a cup of cold water along the way? (…pour water from the communion pitcher into the communion cup)  Who will help her regain her saltiness?
These or similar scenarios, addictions, isolations are part of all of our lives.  We’re all human beings.
We long to be “fully functional”.  We want life to live like the Cosby family sitcom or look like a magazine.  Sometimes life throws us unfair curves.  Life happens.  People don’t see what it is they are doing to us.  We don’t see what we’re doing to ourselves!  And, we don’t know how to stop it. 
And so we endure, often without complaint as if everything is all right.  We endure until we are so broken we cannot go on!  …until a catastrophe happens that is so big, life won’t let us go on!  …until we get caught or caught up in situations so big, outside intervention comes!  And we may not like the intervention because it often initially feels like pouring salt in a wound…salt that has the power to heal.
You see, we get addicted to our life patterns.  Perhaps we were originally drawn to these very patterns because they seemed to bring self-confidence, even joy or ecstasy.  But we find what seemed to give us freedom at first, now enslaves.  It seemed to offer new life, but now it constricts our life.
          It may be an eating or drinking pattern. 
It may be sexual promiscuity. 
It may be how we choose to spend our time obsessively so we don’t have the time to accomplish a change. 
It may be choosing a relationship which becomes increasingly destructive to our feelings of self-worth.  But we are addicted to it…even to the pain of it.  It may be easier, more comfortable to be in pain, than to do anything about it. 
Thirsty, we have lost our saltiness, our fire for a just and full life.
Jesus says when you stumble cut off or tear out what it is that is causing you to stumble.  Harsh words to drive home a critical point.  Jesus says if your hand, foot, eye…your daily life pattern of choices…if it leads you into darkness and sin…turns you away from God’s life-giving desire for your well-being…then it is better to cut it off or you may find yourself wholly destroyed…in a living hell. 
These words do not sound like the Jesus who healed so many blind eyes and crippled limbs!  But Jesus is not talking about destroying ourselves, rather releasing ourselves from anybody or anything…any mind set…that has addictive dominion over us.  No pity parties needed or excuses accepted.  Nothing can separate you from the love of God…the life you long for…except you!
And he goes on to cheerlead saying we have the salt within us to do what it is we need to do.  Salt?  ..our faith, energy, fire….our relationship with God…..God within….it is all we ever really have and it is everything and no one can take that from us.  And if your salt, your faith, your resolve loses its saltiness, energy, confidence, tell someone!  Let them help you find your fire again.  Salt yourself…each other.  There can only be peace amongst us when we open to each other and support just and right relationships for all.  We are to maintain peacefully our own distinct character and service within the company of other salty folks.  It takes a community to fill a salt shaker….to raise an adult!
It’s not a safe world out there.  It is risky to do these things…but not as risky as not doing them.
ray.   Stay close to God and work with each other’s support to find your integrity each day.  Take the risk.
You have the power.  You were born salty!  You do not have to endure.  Boy! That’s a switch…hey? 
What are you enduring that is killing off life in you? 
What are the stumbling blocks to your happiness? 
What is it you allow to keep you from the love of God? 
Do you have the courage to do as Jesus would have you do?
It will be painful you know?  Well, you know it will be!  …like cutting off part of yourself.  But you do not bleed alone, will not bleed out! 
And you do not have to use willpower alone, good intentions alone, New Year’s resolutions alone.  You can turn to the power of prayer/faith… power that comes as you share with another believer your true reality and need….letting them serve you that cold cup of water in just listening.  If only you will let them! …if we will only serve each other. 
When we confess and pray our true needs with another, we find a power comes to us unknown to us before.  You see, you cannot live life on your own.  God made us to need each other.  And we are called to offer each other that cold cup of water, to be that salt, to bring each other back when we wander.
We need each other.  That’s why we say “Our father” and not my father/mother.  It’s why we come together regularly and stay as long on Sunday morning as we can…and plan to be with each other as often as we can.  It’s why we have ministry teams.  It’s why there is a prayer chain and we all have each other’s numbers.  It’s why we gather and live in groups and communities.  God made us to be with each other and for each other.  Walking, talking salty, water-offering prayer for each other!
Well…at Tippe…well…it’s pretty salty in here.  I know it seems sugary or syrupy at times…but that’s really salt freeing up joy…painful or awkward as it can be at times.
At Tippe, there have been and there always will be stumbling blocks…times when we use the corporate “we” or “our” not only as a way to bring people in but as a way to keep people out, to get our way, to resist change, to avoid our call to serve the cup of water to those who need it most…especially ourselves, a way to avoid salt in our wounds.
Yes, we know about how painful it is to see and then cut off hands and feet and eyes in order to be free of the past and serve in the present.  There is pain and we’re not ashamed of it...our life together is not always a pretty picture and it is not a secret.  It’s a perfect place to practice personal saltiness….the kind that heals.
God is calling us to more saltiness!  Offering us more cups of water. You have stumbling blocks personally and we have stumbling blocks corporately. 
What are the stumbling blocks for us now? 
Who will have the courage to look at our usual ways of thinking about the world and doing things as a church which betray our call to extend the fullness of life to others…usual ways of thinking and doing that are rotting us one hand, one foot at a time? 
Will we just endure and eventually fade….or will we do something?
Are you praying?  Who are you praying with?  Have you asked someone to pray for you?
Who is it that will offer a cup of cold water…to individuals…in and out of the church?  It’s you!
Within God’s grace and with God’s help…YOU WILL…offer that cup, be that salt and stay the course to see the fruits of your faithfulness!