Healer
Healer
Healer
of ragged hopes
and tattered ideals;
Nurse
of faint faith
and fractured creeds;
Physician
of listless lives
and limping love;
At evening,
before the sun is set,
lay your hands on us.
 |
| carlysvoice.com |
When Carly was 2, doctors told her parents she would
never progress past the intellect of a 6 year old. All her milestones were
delayed, she flapped her hands, and she drooled. Friends wondered why Carly's parents
didn’t send her to a group home. Years of intensive therapy followed, but
Carly still couldn’t speak a word.
Then one day, at age 10, when Carly had a
tummy ache, she ran to the computer and typed “hurt. help.” Her therapists were
shocked; no one had taught her these words.
Months later, Carly typed this:
“I am
autistic but that is not who I am. Take time to know me, before you judge me. I
am cute, funny and like to have fun.”
Still unable to speak a word, since then, the
Toronto teen has appeared on Ellen, Larry King, 20/20, and W5 as an advocate
for others with autism who haven’t found their voice. This spring, Carly
graduated from high school - in the gifted program, and she’s been accepted to
U of T.
She types, “It
is hard to be autistic because no one understands me. People look at me and
assume I am dumb because I can’t talk or I act differently than them. I think
people get scared with things that look or seem different than them.”
The house guests in our Bible story (Mark 2:13-17) would probably have
understood Carly. They were judged for their occupation and lifestyle, their
appearance and their friends.
Our story begins with Jesus “Once again…beside the
lake.” The last time he was at the sea of Galilee, he was calling his first
four disciples, two pairs of brothers, Simon and Andrew, and James and John,
whom he found fishing. The four fishermen followed him into the town Capernaum,
where Jesus preached and cast out a demon in the synagogue, then went to Simon
and Andrew’s house and healed Simon’s mother-in-law, an act that precipitated
the entire town showing up at the doorstep, bringing their migraines and
rashes, their feverish infants and their deaf in-laws, and their demons.
Jesus sneaks off to pray the next morning, and
decides he needs to get to the next towns as “teacher,” before the news of his
medical treatments reaches there too and overshadows his message. So Jesus does
a Galilee-wide speaking tour. And things are going well until a man with
leprosy begs for healing, and refuses to keep his mouth shut. Now Jesus can’t
even enter the towns; he stays in “lonely” places outside, but even these are no
so lonely because people come to him from everywhere.
In our story, Jesus has returned to Capernaum, which
Mark calls “coming home.” Capernaum means “village of comfort,” and it was
Jesus’ home base for ministry. He’s just healed the paralytic man that four
friends let down through the roof to get past the crowds.
And now he’s back beside the lake, teaching, and the
crowd is following him again, hoping for a touch with as much fervor as preteen
girls as at Justin Bieber concert, but does Jesus turn around and say, “Hey,
groupie in the front, I pick you”? Nope, he calls someone who wasn’t even
looking for him, who hadn’t even shown up for Good News 101. I take this as hope
for those I care about who are stuck but aren’t seeking help; Jesus is looking
for them, and when he calls them to something great, they might just respond.
Jesus walks up to Levi at his toll booth, and says,
“Follow me,” and just like the four fishermen, without checking Jesus’ FAQ
page, without a word (at least any worth reporting), Levi arose and followed
him. Mark could’ve just said “Levi got up,” but he uses the same Greek word he
uses for Jesus’ resurrection to hint at the spiritual significance
of following Jesus. When Levi got up to follow Jesus, it was the start of a
resurrected life. When you got out of bed this morning, you didn’t just awake,
you arose!
This is part of a message I gave at Crossroads MB Church, Aug. 11. More to come in the next post.
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