[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] Reflection for Pentecost 8 (Trinity 7)

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From: Allison Dean <aaclinedean at gmail.com>
To: prcl-l <prcl-l at googlegroups.com>; propertalk.topic <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org>
Sent: Sat, Aug 3, 2019 6:11 am
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Reflection for Pentecost 8 (Trinity 7)

Greetings everyone.  A reflection re-worked from a lengthier one given in 2004 - possibly it will give hope to those who will be listening on hospital radio tomorrow morning.  Comments and suggestions for improvement, as always, gratefully received.Allison Cline-Dean,
Lead Chaplain, East Suffolk & North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
Based at Colchester Hospital, Colchester, Essex, UKWorkingas a long-term care chaplain back in Canada gave me the privilege to meet allkinds of people, young and old, rich and poor, alert and cognitively impaired.  What they all had in common is that they could nolonger live on their own.For somereason or other they needed to be in a long-term care facility.  I had residents aged 21 to some over 100 yearsold. Some were angry at being put in a long-term care facility, others acceptedit with grace.  All were looking for someonewho cared about who they were, what they did, what was happening to them, andwho would listen to their stories as they came to grips with life-changingevents. They explored doubts and fears, shared joys and sorrows,but most of all, they just wanted a hand to hold through it all (literally andfiguratively) and a listening ear. Our readings today speak of a God who is therewith us, if we are willing to open our hearts and minds to God's love andhealing graces. Paul andJesus emphasise that God is a generous God, a forgiving God, one who wants tobe at the centre of our hearts and minds.  The reading from Colossians and Jesus in Luke's Gospel, say the same thing: Leave behind the old life and focus onGod.  Paul, of all people, knew thatwasn't an easy thing to do.  He gave up arather comfortable life to become an apostle. He knew all the things he had done wrong and he knew that God hadchanged him and given him a new start in life.  It wasn't easy for Paul to give up his home, hisplace in the synagogue, his wealth, his pride in his learnings.  Instead Paul put up with roughing it on theroad and in prison, accepted floggings, and calloused his hands as a tentmaker sohe wouldn't be a burden to the community as he taught those who wanted to learnabout Jesus.  All this so he couldproclaim the Gospel.  Paul knew what itwas like to be redeemed, renewed, and re-created and this is what he urges usto do.   Sounds like a hardthing to do.  So let me tell you a storyabout a gentleman I'll call Fred. He was an angry gentleman.  He had been living on his own in an apartmentbut his doctor said he couldn't remain on his own owing to several healthfactors.  There weren't any bedsavailable in the long-term care facilities in his area so he applied for a bedin Sudbury, ON.  He had family here buthe wasn't close to them - he had been a loner for many years. When I first went tohis room to meet him and to introduce myself, we shot the breeze but he made itvery clear that he didn't want to talk religion.  So we didn't but I kept saying hello to himeach time I saw him in the hallway with his walker or in his wheelchair.  One day he stopped by my office which was justdown the hall from his room and asked to speak with me privately, so I closedthe door and we talked. He spoke about how he had been separated from hisfamily many years ago, how alienated he felt, how hard it was to be a loner andhow angry he was at being in the situation he was in.  It was a long discussion touching on manythings:  alcohol, the many jobs he hadheld due to lack of education, the difficult up-bringing he had had and thebeatings received, leaving home at the age of 14 and so on.  Then the kicker:  I've been a backslider for over 40 years.  Do you think God will take me back even thoughall I've done in 40 years is curse God?" I said to him:  "Yes - Godloves you.  All you have to do is say youare sorry and open your heart to God's love."  As I said that, he broke down in tears for closeto five minutes.  He couldn't believe thatGod still loved him.  Fred couldn'tbelieve that I wouldn't judge him as others had based on what he had just toldme.  "I know better than to curseGod - I was brought up to say my prayers but I turned my back on God.  Don't you hate me?"  I told him "No, I don't hate you."  He found it hard to believe that someone likeme would spend time with someone like him – a poor, uneducated person who couldcurse a blue streak and was angry with everyone. Over the next coupleof years, Fred and I had many talks.  Hestarted coming to a devotional group which consisted of mostly women and whilehe didn't like a lot of people, he came to love and respect the women in thisgroup just as they cared very much for him.  Being a proud man, he had difficulty acceptinghelp and gave the nurses a very rough time, often swearing at them and beingrude.  I would receive a call from thestaff, go to his room to have a chat, hear what was bugging him, what the fearwas, and then I would leave.  Turns out thateach time he and I had a talk, he would think about what he had done, and apologisevery sincerely to the person he had offended.  He never did get over his dislike of people whodrooled, were mentally challenged, or were living with dementia - he had a fearof becoming like one of them.  But he didstart meeting with his family members and they started visiting him on a regularbasis.
As Fred's health continued to deteriorate, he was unableto attend the Wednesday afternoon devotional group however he alwaysappreciated hearing what was happening and the ladies of the group visited himin his room.  Once I asked him why hetreated me and the ladies of the group with respect and never swore when he wasaround us. His response was that we treated him with respect, spoke to him differentlyfrom the other staff and residents around him, and listened to him as he tried tomake God the centre of his life.  Itwasn't an easy journey for him.  He stillswore but many times towards the end of his life as I walked to the door of hisroom and he didn't know I was there, I would hear him praying to God saying hewas sorry for whatever it was he had just done, praying for others and thenasking for relief from the severe pain he was in.  Fred told people about how his life hadchanged once he let God back in.  Fredknew that God was walking with him and was surrounded by God's love even asFred’s physical health became worse.  He diedin March 2004 on the day he knew I would be arriving back in Canada from after mywedding in the UK. Fred had let anger,malice, envy, falsehood, pride and other temptations rule his life for manyyears.  Yet in later life Fred did as Paulhas instructed us:  open our hearts andminds to Jesus and let God slowly work changes within us.  We don't need to pile up material things inthis world to make us happy.  Truehappiness comes from loving God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength andtrying to find ways to be the eyes, hands, mouth and feet of Christ here on earth.Fred and the ladies of the devotional group representedwhat we are called by God to do here on earth: walk with others, sit and listen, pray with them, and love them just asGod loves us.  Each of us is called toproclaim the Gospel not just in words but in actions.  Jesus proclaimed the Gospel in two ways:  firstly by healing the physical ailment (e.g.lameness, blindness, paralysis, etc.), then by speaking to the heart and soul.  He fed the physical hunger with loaves andfishes then fed the spiritual hunger with soul food.   Our challenge is to take another look at ourrelationship with God.  Are we willing tobe transformed and to reset our priorities. Each of us is invited to have a relationship with God, to say we aresorry for what we have done wrong and for those things which we ought to havedone but didn't do.  We are invited tolet Jesus into our hearts and lives so that we can be changed, renewed, andre-created each and every day as we walk with God.  Then we are asked to share God's love andpresence with others as we look for ways to be the voices for the voiceless,provide food for the hungry and find ways of bringing healing to the sick.  It may seem difficult and foolish to place Godat the centre of our lives but it gives us a different way of looking at peopleand the way we are with them.  Thanks be to God.-- 
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