Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come.  Take my lips and speak with them, take our minds and think with them, take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you.  In Christ’s name, we ask it.  Amen.

Back in the days when I was a youth minister in Houston, just a year of two out of college, I had an experience that I will never forget.  It was a Thursday afternoon right at 5:00 PM and I was trying to get out of town following work.  I was headed to Austin to spend a couple of days with friends who were either on a first or second victory lap at UT or were one of the few lucky ones who found gainful employment in Austin following graduation.  Those of you from Houston can attest that traffic in the Galleria area of Houston at 5:00 PM on a Thursday afternoon is about as terrifying a nightmare as traffic in any city in America can produce. 

I was getting frustrated beyond imagination with the back up on the main roads so I decided to cut through a neighborhood to get to the freeway more quickly.  As I was going way to fast on a residential street, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.  After a moment of processing the image, I realized that it was a woman who was using a wire hanger to try and unlock her car door.  Considering the size of the house she was parked in front of and the uniform she was wearing, it was clear that she was either a housekeeper or a nurse who worked in the home and that she most likely locked her keys in the car and was probably lock out of the house, as well, with no one home. 

I had a feeling inside, almost like whisper within that perhaps I should stop and ask if she needed help.  I don’t know if I would be any better at popping the lock but I did have a cell phone that the woman could use to call for help.  But you know I was already really running late.  Considering the traffic, I just barely had a chance to make it to Austin for dinner with my friends and only then if I did not run into any other hold ups.  And, as I said, I am no lock picking expert.  And if she didn’t have a cell phone of her own, I am sure a neighbor would be happy to let her use their phone.  It would be best if I kept on going.  As I advanced from stop sign to stop sign the whisper inside me continued to suggest that perhaps it would be better to go back and help, but you know, I had people and plans waiting on me in Austin too, so I kept on driving.      

God whispers in your soul and speaks to your heart.  Sometimes we have time to listen and sometimes we don’t.  It’s really is our choice, each and every day: Listen to the whisper and respond, or ignore it.  The four friends of the paralyzed man in today’s gospel lesson heard the whisper and responded with drastic action.  They learned that a healer named Jesus was in the town of Capernaum, so they put their paralyzed friend on a mat and carried him to Jesus’ house.  When they arrived, however, they found that the house was packed, and the crowd was spilling out into the street.  There was simply no way that they could elbow their way inside, especially while carrying their friend.  So climbing to the roof of the house, they punched a hole through the roof and lowered the paralyzed man down on his mat.  When Jesus sees their faith, he proclaims to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  Then he says to the man, “Stand up, take your mat and go to your home.”  And he stood up, picked up his mat and walked out through the front door, amazing everyone in the house.

God whispered to the souls of those four friends and spoke to their hearts.  He inspired them to seek out Jesus, using whatever means necessary, and to trust him to heal their paralyzed friend.  When the foursome dug through the roof, Jesus looked up at their dirty fingernails and their dusty faces and saw faith and hopeful expectation shining through.  Would he see the same in us?  Would he?

Tragically, most of us are moving too fast and making too much noise to hear the gentle voice of God.  Our windows are rolled up, our CD players or I-pods are cranked, and our engines are roaring.  We spend the vast majority of our time utterly consumed by the cares and concerns of our own lives—both the problems and the possibilities.  So, we have little chance of hearing the whisper.  We don’t pay attention.  And then, often, when we do try to get involved with others, we still fall short because our connection with the needy and marginalized is tangential at best.  It is hard to truly be a positive force in the lives of people we do not really know.  We touch the lepers of our society, writes one author in an article in Christianity Today, “at arm’s length, without ever leaving the security of our own turf.  Loving our neighbors means something more.  It means being vulnerable.  It means entering into their pain.  When God in Jesus came to live among us, He shared our troubles and felt our hurts.  Do we feel the pain of [others]?”

Only when we become vulnerable enough to share other’s troubles and feel people’s hurts will be able to hear God’s whisper and take action that shows that we love our neighbors every bit as much as we love ourselves.  Love is not just a warm and wonderful feeling.  Love must be revealed in concrete actions if it is going to reflect our Christian faith.  For if “a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,” observes the letter of James, “and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”  Faith without works is dead, says James, and that’s why the foursome in Capernaum had to punch through the roof to get their paralyzed friend to the healer.  The men’s love for their friend inspired them to faithful action that resulted in a healing that was so desperately needed.  As the men looked down through the whole they had just created, Jesus saw in the dust on their faces and the dirt under their fingernails a hope and love that led to faithful action—and their reward was great.

So in what ways can we respond to God’s gentle call to faithful action?  Well a group from this community spent last Saturday morning delivering groceries with Meals on Wheels.  That’s faithful action.  Another group visits a nursing home each week to play games and love on those people who are starving for time and attention.  That’s also love in action.  A good number of people from this community volunteer to be tutors for underserved children each and every week. That’s faith in action, as well.  Another group of students in this community called a good friend’s parents to tell them that their daughter or son was struggling with Alcohol in order to get him or her help, something that is very hard to do.  Now that’s profound love in action.  I could go on and on.  So many of us are doing so much which is to be blessed and encouraged—but isn’t there even more that we can do?

The key is to get up, get moving, get lifting, get carrying, get climbing and get digging…whenever you hear the gentle voice of God calling you to do some work on behalf of others.  Sure, there may be some barriers that separate you from Jesus, and from the people around you that need your help.  But like the fearless foursome in Capernaum, where there is a will there is always a way.  And please…please remember that the people who need your help most might be closer to you than you expect.  Often those who most critically need us to reach out a helping hand are those we call friends and who are our family—not the strangers in need out in the larger community or on the streets. 

At each stop sign, as I made my way through the neighborhood and toward the freeway that would take me to Austin, I continued to feel something or someone speaking somewhere deep inside of me.  I felt an overwhelming sense of need to turn around and see if the woman I had sped past needed help.  I continued to ignore the voice and drive on until I arrived at the freeway.  As I made a left turn to get on the feeder road, I found myself making a u-turn instead and heading back in to the neighborhood.  As I back tracked, the anxiety and frustration I felt trying to just get out of town began to fade away.  I soon arrived at the woman who was sure enough still locked outside of her car.  I noticed the sweat on her brow.  In the cool ac of my car, I had forgotten how hot it was outside.  I rolled down my window and asked if she would like to use my phone.  She said yes and thanked me profusely.  She was locked out of the house, as well as the car, and had knocked on several neighbors’ doors with no luck.  Apparently they were not home from work yet.  The woman called her son who immediately set out to bring his mother a spare set of keys.  It really wasn’t such a huge service I had done, but we all know it’s the little things that matter most.  As I left the woman, she was resting in the shade and smiling and so was I.  You know I didn’t even notice the traffic as I made my way to Austin and my friends.

As the story of the four men in Capernaum makes evident, when you place the needs of the world in front of Jesus, amazing things can happen.  The paralyzed can be healed.  The hungry can be fed.  The oppressed can be freed. The poor can be helped. Peace can break out on the earth, justice can be done, and hope can replace even the most desolate forms of despair.  It all starts with hearing God’s gentle whisper to your heart and soul and responding…responding with faithful and loving action.  Amen.

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