One of the things we see Jesus doing a lot is teaching and healing. Very often, there is a healing and then a “come and join us”. Very often, there is a teaching and then a “come and join us”.
We have to go through a process of healing and learning first. Then, when we have learned and healed, we perhaps have something bigger to offer back. We have grown and changed.
But we have to be open to being healed. We have to be open to learning.
Perhaps we have to look within the experiences for opportunities to learn and opportunities to heal. We have to listen for Grace, which sometimes comes as a screaming wake up call and is hard to miss. Sometimes, it comes as a whisper that requires us to open our ears and eyes and hearts to hear.
It requires a pause and attention toward what matters.
Sometimes, we’re so busy and caught up in the loudness of life that we don’t see or hear what’s right in front of us. The still small voice that says…be healed, listen, learn. Sometimes, we put cotton in our ears and our hands over our eyes and turn away. The burning wake up call is scary. The whisper of the still small voice is scary. To change everything and learn and heal is scary…it then asks something of us. Sometimes, it’s easier to just disagree and turn away than it is to listen and learn.
Sometimes, it’s much easier to hide away than to be changed and healed. Healing, as we know, often asks something big and scary of us.
How many opportunities to learn and heal have we turned away from? Or not noticed because our ears and eyes were clogged? Or we were rushing through life and we didn’t hear that still small voice? Or maybe we did hear and we ran away even faster?
Jesus spent a lot of time teaching and healing. Healing isn’t just about the healing, it’s about being open to being healed. Teaching isn’t just about the teaching, it’s about being open to being taught. It’s being open to having our eyes and ears and hearts cleared to turn our focus to the things that matter most.
Peace. Joy. Forgiveness. Hope. Love. Compassion. Teaching. Healing. Goodness. Kindness. Mercy. Charity. Generosity.
Have we lost sight of the Grace that is the focus of our lives? That is always there to direct us if only we listen…if only we open our eyes?
Shhh….there’s a still small voice speaking just for you…Shhh…listen.
Close your eyes and see…
PAUSE
How does it feel to be healed?
How does it feel to be taught?
The goal is to discern how best to live in this world with a heart focused on Grace/God. Who are we meant to be? How are we meant to be? How might we do better?
If we could narrow down the teachings to one word…what would it be? There’s no right answer… what is the one word that speaks of the Work of God in this world for you? Yes, you.
How might you spread and share that in your time and place, here and now?
There are lots of rules we know to follow in this life. We know them. That’s knowledge.
There’s commandments, and laws, and observances.
There are Universal laws and moral codes true to us all.
There’s the rule to love thy neighbor as thy self.
There’s the rule to love thy enemies.
To truly love one another.
To love God.
To love.
Just. To. Love.
We, mostly know what we’re meant to do…what our “call” is…if you’re not sure, it’s to Love. If it’s not loving, it’s probably not Grace-full.
I’ve been studying Acts this week. Acts is what comes next after the Cross. It’s the beginning of the spread of the church of Christ. It’s in some ways, the what are we supposed to do now?
I don’t know about you, but I’m often caught up in: what am I supposed to do now?
I know the rules. I understand the rule of Love. I also, like most people, get discouraged by the state of the world and my own small world. It seems we’ve lost sight of the very basic rules that we all are supposed to know and share no matter what we believe.
It’s hard and we try so hard to be Good. (See last week).
Am I alone? I hope I’m not alone.
So, Acts, and what comes next? and what am I supposed to do now?.
In my Acts course we talked about a style of acting call improv. I think we all know it. You might remember “Who’s Line is it Anyway”. That’s improv. Yes, I am talking about the Book of Acts and, yes, also acting.
In improv acting, one of the core tenants when learning it is: Yes, and…
The yes in improvisational action is that we understand and agree with what the stage/scenario that’s set.
The and is what comes next. Yes, I accept this stage and story, and I’ll follow along with the stage and story set to play my part. Yes, and.
In improv, there’s no written lines to read and memorize…the actors are just trying to figure it all out and put on a good show without knowing what the other actors are going to do. They’re improvising with trial and error and guesswork from the basic rules of improv and the scenario set. (I love that my computer keeps autocorrecting Improv to Improve).
For us, the yes is to cleanse our ears, open our eyes, not turn away to open ourselves to being healed and being taught. Yes, we agree and we’ll follow.
For us, the yes is we agree and (mostly) understand. The and is that we choose to follow. We will do what is asked of us. Then, the tricky part is to do what is asked of us. There’s other people who see things differently, who follow a different scenario, who change the course. We can’t predict other people or life’s curve balls. What do we do in the unexpected or when it seems others aren’t behaving according to the “rules”? How do we respond? How do we do what’s asked of us? We improvise with trial and error and guesswork…
Maybe that’s life…we know the rules, we know what to do, but the scenarios aren’t so clear and easy. The other actors sometimes seem to have a different playbook. Of course, we stumble. Of course we mess up. We all out fail. Sometimes, we succeed.
We learn and we heal. We grow and we change. And if we keep our eyes focused on Grace and maybe that still small voice, we continue to go in the right direction. We get better each time we practice.
But…none of it is easy. All of it takes practice, but when we’re open to learning and healing and practicing, we do get better. Choose your what matters most anchor…(see above).
Keep succeeding, keep stumbling, keep messing up, keep failing. Be open to the learning and healing that comes with each success, each stumble, and each fail.
Keep your eyes open and your ears listening…and trust in the healing and learning.
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 