11th Sunday - We are the Body of Christ

In American Folklore, if we can call it that, the story of the tragedy of Kitty Genovese can hit hard. Kitty was young woman, who in 1964 was raped and murdered. She cried out for help, and people heard the cries, yet the story goes, nobody answered her pleas. She died in the street alone. The truth remains different.

Jesus witnesses a crime.

He sees people “troubled and abandoned” or a better translation is “harassed and helpless”. Our Gospel says he was moved with pity for them, but this fails to convey the fullness of what Jesus experienced. The original words said he felt this in his gut. He had a visceral, a strong experience, for these people. A people who have been maltreated, ignored, not shown the dignity they merit. It moves him to action.

Kitty was attacked, she did cry out. People did hear and people did respond. A man, her friend got another friend up and she went down and cradled Kitty in her arms. Other’s called the police to get help.

Jesus sees people who truly are hurt, not because of anything they have done, but because society failed them, because of failed leadership, because people forgot the love of God.

God had chosen Israel to be his messengers, to announce to all the world the goodness of God so that all the world will also come to God and experience the goodness and freedom that God gives. God called them to spread God’s name by the just and good treatment of all.

God reminded Israel of all that God had done for them; freedom from Slavery, guidance in the desert, support in food and water. Symbolic of what God offers to all of humanity. Israel and God enter into a covenant relationship; Israel remains loyal to God and shares God with the world and they continue to receive the goodness of God.  Israel’s history will be them going forward in this covenant and them breaking it. God calls them back into relationship, Israel responds, then falls away again.

The police were called for Kitty, they did not respond right away. They simply thought this a domestic abuse case, and let’s face it, in those days (and sadly even to this day) such abuse was not given much energy. Kitty died in the arms of a friend, in a community that did reach out, but she was failed by a system that would not care.

Jesus reforms Israel symbolically. The 12 disciples hearken to the12 tribes. They are sent out to help the people that Israel’s leadership was to have helped. They are given the power to heal, to drive out demons, to address those who are hurt, who are wounded.

Jesus Christ, the ultimate revelation of God’s love for all the world, God’s will to save the whole world.  Jesus who sees the hurt, the woundedness, the lack of caring initiates a change.  Jesus Christ, whose disciples, those who truly believe, continue this work, this mission. We the body of Christ must make real the love, the healing power of God. We must make real this, as persons, and as a corporate body. 

There are so many who cry out in hurt; people lost in life; maybe because of their own choices; but many because we as a society let them down. We have so many resources, so much wealth in our country, in the city, in the parish; and too often too many hold onto that wealth with a fervor.

Too many who want to exclude those who hurt because they look different, they act differently; speak a different origin language, they offend our sense of right and wrong.

We as Disciples of Jesus Christ, baptized into this Body; eat and drink of his body and blood; we must act differently, be different.  

Fr. Henri Nouwen wrote an amazing book, The Wounded Healer, back in 1972. The premise of the book is that we are all in need of healing, and that by us healing others, our own wounds are wrapped and healed.  

Jesus calls us to heal so that we will open ourselves to God’s grace and be healed too. Jesus does not call us simply to “work” for the sake of work; but in that our good works, we give Glory to God and we experience God in those works.  Talk with anyone who actively does God’s work, whether it is at the Dining Room on Valley Street; whether it is going into nursing homes to visit those unable to get out; whether it is being a part of prison ministry, being a part of Youth Ministry; whether it is simply greeting people at the door of this church…it changes us for the good.  Miracles are witnessed. People are transformed. The ministers are transformed. Good begets good. Healing takes place.

We have been invited into covenant with God; to be amazed at the good God has done for us, through Jesus Christ, and so be inspired to share that with all.  That covenant we remember each eucharist: a sacrament of God’s goodness to all.  A sacrament that calls us to mission; to heal, to drive out, to welcome; to love.