THOUGHTS OF A MONK

“A Higher Power”

2005

It may seem odd to us today, but in Jesus’ day healers and miracle workers were a common thing. They were part of the cultural and social landscape. The unusual thing was the message not the miracle.  We can get caught up in the miracle being a story designed to convince people to become Christian. My miracle is better than their miracles -- sort of like claiming that Chevy is better than Ford.  Matthew’s Gospel lesson is taking something that was familiar to his readers and using it to make a point about Jesus and his message.  The message is about the power of God, about giving ourselves over to that higher power. It’s easy to confuse the story for the message.

One of those email stories that floats around the netherworld of the Internet is about the pastor and his kitten; have you heard this one? Maybe you already deleted it. Well, as the story goes, the pastor has a kitten that climbed up a tree in his backyard and then was afraid to come down. The pastor coaxed, offered warm milk, shook the food box, on and on, but it was no good. The kitty wouldn’t come down. He thought about going up the tree, but realized that it wasn’t sturdy enough to climb. So, being a bright pastor, he decided that if he tied a rope to the tree, and the other end to his car, he could back up and bend the tree down far enough that he could reach up and get the kitten. What a great idea! So that’s what he did, slowly backing up, sticking his head out of the window from time to time to watch his progress, and it was working—the tree got lower and lower, and he thought, “just a little more, and I’ll be able to reach…” And that’s what he was thinking when the rope broke. The tree went “boing!” and the kitten instantly flew off the tree into the air and out of sight.

The pastor felt terrible. He walked all over the neighborhood asking people everywhere if they’d seen a kitten; nobody had. When he realized that it was just out of his hands, all he could do was to offer a prayer, so he prayed, “Lord, I can only commit this kitten to your keeping.” And from there, he got back to work.

A few days later he was at the grocery store and he saw one of his church members. He looked into her shopping cart and he was amazed to see her there buying, of all things, cat food. What made it amazing was that everyone knew that this woman hated cats, so he asked her, “Why are you buying cat food when you hate cats so much?”

She said, “You won’t believe this.” And she told him that her daughter had been begging her for a cat. And she kept refusing. A few days before the kid had kept it up, begging more and more for a cat, and finally, the mother had just had it. So she said, “Look, if God gives you a cat, I’ll let you keep it. Then, Pastor, I’m telling you, I watched her go out to the front yard, and she got down on her knees right there and started to pray for a cat. And then, Pastor, you won’t believe this, but I saw it with my own eyes—a kitten came flying out of the sky, with its paws outspread, and it landed on the ground, right in front of her! Pastor, I will never again underestimate the power of God!” Aren’t we often with that lady, underestimating the power of God?

The principles behind the 12-step program connected with AA are in many ways a modern translation of the spiritual life. They bring to a practical level theological principles that can be difficult to understand. I have worked in offices with colleagues who were alcoholics and my grandfather was an alcoholic. I am sure others here have had some experience with family or friends with this illness. To learn more, I recently attended an AA meeting as an observer and I was struck especially by three of its principles. To truly participate in such a program you need to want to be there, you need to be honest and always speak the truth, and finally you need to recognize that to conquer this problem you need the help of a higher power.  Today’s scripture readings are all about these three things. The miracles and the healings are the vehicles used to convey the deeper truths.

So, to place our faith in God, to give ourselves over to that higher power, we need to:

• Admit that we live in a world of brokenness and have faith that God is there too: in that hospital, in that family argument, in that land of drought, when I feel abandoned, when I can’t make ends meets, when work overwhelms me, when I’ve lost my job, when I can no longer do what I once could do …
• Accept that God’s power and help may come in unexpected ways or forms: even flying out of the sky like that kitten.
• Acknowledge that the acts of grace that people do to us, and to others, are indeed the vehicles of God’s grace. Just like in AA. The power of that program is that people listen to each other’s stories and are present for them, just as Jesus listens to all those who come to him.
• Trust that our human destiny is to be with God eternally, that is now and forever.

Elisha in 2 Kings prefigures the gospel story and shows us how life is rescued from death, hope from hopelessness.  Paul, in his letter to the Romans, speaks about the power of God to preserve life through the power of his spirit by freeing us from the fatal power of sin and all those worldly concerns to which we are enslaved. Matthew shows us how Jesus works by the power of God to demonstrate the restoration of life. Thus, the message is that God has the power to sow life even in the midst of death. Our sicknesses, our brokenness, even death, cannot separate us from God’s power.

Christ is in our midst!