This past week I was on a retreat with my clergy of the Diocese. The retreat master told us the story of how as a kid, he and friend used to dig large holes and cover them up with sticks and leaves trap animals. Well, one day they made an exceptionally large hole, a pit that was nearly ten feet deep and very wide. The next day, he learned that Mr. Philips was in the hospital because he fell in this pit and broke some ribs, punctured his lung and could not get out of the pit.
Of course the kids get punished, but the image that the retreat master presented was that of the man in the pit. Helpless (this was long before cell phones), probably frightened and definitely in pain.
Now hang onto to that image. I want to focus on a phrase that appeared in the gospel. It’s said by John the Baptist who sees Jesus and identifies him as the “Lamb of God.” Now this sounds fine, even cute . . . for lambs are cute. But the meaning is much more than that. You see, lambs were sacrificed, killed as an offering to God. So in a sense when John names Jesus as the “Lamb of God” it’s as he is declaring, “Hey, this one is going to be killed.”
But the concept is that these Jesus who seems perfect (just as the sacrificed lamb was to be perfect) will know pain, will know wounds, will know what it’s like to feel afraid, abandoned, and alone.
So let’s go back to the man in the pit. Every one of us knows what it’s like to have fallen. To feel like we’ve stumbled into a pit. To have done something, or experienced something, or have had something done to us . . . where it feels like we’re in a hole and can’t get out. And the depth of faith is not to figure out a way out of the hole and thus to let God be impressed, or to get out of the mess and let God love us. The journey of faith is that when at the bottom of our failure (our laying down in the bottom of this hole) . . . to let God come into our pit, our hole, our brokenness.
Bad things will happen to any of us, actually all of us. And when a bad thing happens to you (or to someone you care about), You have three choices. To let that “thing” define you, let it destroy you or let it strengthen you.
You see, whatever the “thing” is . . . a mistake, an injury, a blunder, a condition, a wound . . . you can let it define you. Dramatically declaring “Oh woe is me, this is now how I am to be known for all time. This is how I shall now be labeled.” Wrong. Remember, that “thing” is only your life situation [extend my hands a few inches apart from each other] whereas your life is much more [extend my hands apart further]. Your life is ALWAYS much bigger than any one thing or event. Don’t let that “thing” define you or anyone else.
And of course, we can see whatever happened as the end. That we let it destroy us. All right you have cancer, that’s bad . . . but go on living. Yes, that accident was terrible now go and help make sure others don’t face the same conditions. Or as a woman once declared, “I will be disabled until the day I die, but I am not going to die another day because I’m disabled.” Isn’t that good? You could substitute any number of situations into that . . . being gay, being alcoholic, having a mental illness.
The third choice with whatever has happened to you . . . is to let it strengthen you. To let God come into your pit, your wound, your hole. And God may not miraculously bring you out, save you, or fix the situation. But God WILL stay with you, will not leave you. The God, through Jesus, who knows what it is to be rejected, wounded, spit upon, and crucified can come and hold you, hold your pain, hold the ache and whisper to you, “I know. I’m here. I will not leave you.”
And often we ask, “How could this be? For I am not worthy.” Correct. No one is worthy. We receive it because God is good, not because we are good.
So can you place where that phrase John uttered is used? It’s used every time we gather for Eucharist, right after the priest breaks the bread (a sign of Jesus being broken for us) and then we receive the Eucharist, a sign that God is with us no matter what.
“Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.” [Invite all to say]
“Lord I am not worthy to receive you, only say the word and my soul will be healed.”