What if church could lighten your load?

Jesus’s first sermon was a stunner.  He stood up in the middle of his hometown synagogue, surrounded by his Hebrew school teachers and siblings, friends of his parents and the children he played with in the market, and he read the scripture of the day from Isaiah:

God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free, to announce, "This is God's year to act!"

Then he paused and he looked at everyone in the room, one at a time.  He saw their faces, he knew their names.  He was present with them until they quieted down and started to listen.  Then he didn’t ramble on with scholarly interpretations, as some preachers are prone to do (*wink*).  He didn’t tell an inspiring story.  He let these simple, powerful words stand on their own: “You've just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place."

In other words: “This is what we are about: God has called me (and you) to be messengers of love, reconciliation, justice, and compassion through our words and our actions—not at some future date in some future paradise, but right here, right now.”  It was as simple as taking an action: a moment to intentionally slow down, to really see one another, to listen. 

At the risk of comparing Jesus to “Avatar,” when I first saw the film, something caught my attention.  In the alien world that the Earth explorers find in the movie, there is a people called the Navi.  They are connected in powerful ways: spiritually and physically.  The phrase that they would utter when they meet or say goodbye to one another is simply, “I see you.”  For me, there could be a lot of dimensions of that simple phrase: I recognize your presence here, I know what you are going through, I care about what you feel, I appreciate who you are, I am grateful for you, I share your spirit, and I want you to know you are not alone.  “I see you.” When the Marine from Earth is learning the ways of the Navi, he hears that simple phrase, and over time he begins to understand its importance. In seeing the Navi, in knowing them, he learns how to love them.  He is transformed through his simple act of listening.

Listening is a powerful thing.  When someone really listens to us, it helps us unburden our hearts.  It can be a selfless act of love.  It can set us free, give us hope, help us open ourselves to love, recognize our part in a larger community, ease our fears, and transform our lives. 

Rev. Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor writes, ”At its most basic level, the everyday practice of being with other people is the practice of loving the neighbor as the self.  More intricately, it is the practice of coming face to face with another human being, preferably someone different enough to qualify as a capital “O” Other - and at least entertaining the possibility that this is one of the faces of God (An Altar in the World).”

We are all called to listen to one another and to be transformed by one another.  In fact, our Stephen Ministry is a program designed to provide training to help people listen, care, and provide emotional and spiritual support to those who are facing a crisis or going through tough times (grief, loneliness, divorce, health issues, disability, job loss, etc).  The care they provide is confidential, free, and very helpful.  Not only does it help lighten someone else’s load, but the Stephen Ministers also find themselves blessed and transformed in the process.  They have heard God’s call, have seen God’s face in the people they serve, and have found a way to offer good news, insight, freedom, a lighter load, and love, right here and right now.

May we all hear that call in our lives and find our own ways to answer it: to reach up to God and reach out to one another in love. 

Grace and peace,

(I see you,)

Pastor Kris

If you are going through a transition in your life, and you would like support from a Stephen Minister, or if you think you hear God calling you to consider being trained to be a loving and listening presence in someone else’s life, contact our office to find out more about Stephen Ministry.