Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
When I was growing up, my family would often go to the beach for our annual vacation – perhaps to Florida, perhaps to the coast of North or South Carolina. I realize now that this family tradition has shaped me. I love going to the beach on vacation. I love gazing out over the vast expanse of water – I love listening to the surf – I love walking on the beach at night with the gentle breeze and the moonlight reflecting on the water. The beach is a place of relaxation for me. My childhood vacations have shaped me. In the confirmation hearings this past summer for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Sotomayor talked about being shaped as a lawyer and as a judge through her job as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. She explains, “When you work in a prosecutor’s office, you understand that the law is not legal theory, it’s facts. It’s what witnesses say and don’t say. It’s how you develop the—your position in the record. And then it’s taking those facts and making arguments based on the law as it exists. That’s what I took with me as a trial judge. It’s what I take with me as an appellate judge. It is respect that each case gets decided case by case, applying the law as it exists to the facts before you” (“Transcript: Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings, Day 2”, www.nytimes.com, July 14, 2009). In our work, in our leisure, we are shaped by our life’s experiences.
Today, our Gospel lesson offers a nuance in being shaped by our experiences. The Gospel lesson helps us to reflect on being shaped by our hurt, how we can live life out of our pain. Jesus was in the temple and he watched the rich people put large amounts of money into the treasury. And, then, he watched a poor widow put in two coins, amounting to a penny. He said to his disciples, “‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on’” (Mark 12:43-44). It is good to contribute out of our abundance, but there is something blessed about giving out of our poverty, out of our loss, out of our distress. Perhaps that is where our passion lies; perhaps that is where we have the most to offer.
Bill Wilson gave us a remarkable gift founded in his own loss and pain. He is the founder, along with Dr. Bob Smith, of Alcoholics Anonymous. Bill was abandoned as a child first by his father, and then by his mother. His high school sweetheart died during his junior year in high school. His life was marked by loss. After he joined the army, he turned to alcohol to reduce social anxiety. However, his drinking grew out of control and his life became a series of blackouts, binges and hospitalizations. At the age of 39, he hit rock bottom, and then he had a conversion experience. He begged God for help, and later described what happened next: “Suddenly my room blazed with an indescribably white light. I was seized with an ecstasy beyond description. Every joy I had known was pale by comparison. Then, seen in the mind’s eye, there was a mountain. I stood upon its summit where a great wind blew. A wind, not of air but of spirit. In great, clean strength it blew right through me. Then came the blazing thought, ‘you are a free man’” (Susan Cheever, My Name is Bill, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004, p. 118). Wilson reached out to Dr. Bob Smith, also an alcoholic, and they realized they could help each other – the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. We can heal and we can serve one another through our own experiences.
Susan G. Komen fought breast cancer with compassion. Throughout her treatments, she strived to help others battling breast cancer. Susan and her sister Nancy were best friends. Nancy talks about the last time she saw her sister before Susan died from a 3-year battle with breast cancer. Susan’s voice was just a whisper, the cancer had taken its toll, but still she was concerned about helping other sick women in the hospital. Nancy describes the months after her sister’s death as the saddest time in her life. She writes about her time of healing from this loss: “I spent a lot of time thinking about Suzy. There is no way to accurately describe the void her absence left in my life. I also spent a great deal of time questioning my faith and wondering why such a good person was taken from a family that needed her so desperately. I often wonder, as many people do when they’ve lost a loved one, what really happens to a soul when a person dies. Was Suzy watching me? Did she hear me when I called her name out loud? After much thought I came to the conclusion that I would never know until I died myself, but I sure didn’t want to die in order to find out. Just in case, I wanted to do something to let her know how special she would always be in my heart. I was haunted by our last conversation and lay awake sometimes all night wondering what I could do to help other women with breast cancer. Could one person really make a difference?” (http://ww5.komen.org). Nancy Komen worked through her loss and founded Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the global leader of the breast cancer movement which has invested more than $1 billion dollars in the fight against breast cancer.
We can heal and we can serve one another through our own experiences. Perhaps we have the most to offer through our own place of loss because we understand that particular place of loss. We can empathize – we know firsthand the hurt, the anger, the questions – we can offer a helping hand to the healing of others experiencing the same loss – and we have passion around an issue that we have been hurt by and survived. The opportunities to serve one another abound. We do not need to be founders of a national movement. Right here in New Trier Township, opportunities present themselves. The North Shore Senior Center in Northfield, an agency that offers programming and support services for older adults and their families serves 35,000 individuals in Chicago’s northern suburbs. The staff of 100 professionals is assisted by 700 volunteers. The mission of the Volunteer Center of New Trier Township here in Winnetka is to engage people in meaningful volunteer service. They work with 150 agencies in the metropolitan Chicago area and register more than 3,500 people annually who serve approximately 15,000 people in need. We can heal and then we can serve one another with insight and compassion.
Frederick Buechner, Presbyterian minister and theologian, writes: “Heaven knows terrible things happen to people in this world….But from deep within, whatever the hidden spring is that life wells up from, there wells up into our lives, even at their darkest and maybe especially then, a power to heal, to breathe new life into us. And in this regard, I think, every person is a mystic because everyone at one time or another experiences in the thick of joy or pain the power out of the depths of life to bless….What I think does matter, vastly, is that we open ourselves to receive it; that we address it and let ourselves be addressed by it; that we move in the direction that it seeks to move us, the direction of fuller communion with “God” and with one another” (The Magnificent Defeat, NewYork: The Seabury Press, 1966, p. 115) We should not rush the grieving process. In fact, when we are hurt, when we experience loss, we need to give ourselves over to the grieving process. But, we can heal. Do I think bad things happen for some greater good? No, but we do not need to be constrained by our hurt. We can heal, and then we can serve from a place of intimacy. Maybe a meal, maybe a walk, maybe just a kind word – we can love one another as Christ loves us. Amen.
