Multiple Projects and Crises (Second Sunday after Pentecost)

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A couple of years ago, we were nearing the end of Lent, and I was in the midst of planning for Holy Week and getting multiple sermons ready.  Lent and Holy Week are major projects every year, and one evening I found myself thinking that things were going relatively smoothly and that I had things pretty well under control.

You should NEVER even think things like that, because that very evening as I got ready to head to bed, I noticed a big wet spot in the ceiling, and quickly realized I had a pinhole leak in cold water feed leading upstairs.  So, rather than go to bed, I turned off the water, and tried to figure out what I could do temporarily until I got a chance in the next few days to fix it properly.

Of course, the one thing I couldn’t do was put Lent on hold, or delay Holy Week!  Those things were still happening, but I also needed to deal with the crisis of the moment and whatever else I knew would surely come up, as it always does, as we approach big events like Holy Week.

And I get flashbacks to times like that whenever I read passages like today’s Gospel reading.  Jesus is walking along and sees Matthew, a tax collector, sitting at his tax booth, and decides to call him to follow him.  This is actually a major project.  Calling fishermen was not controversial, but immediately, Jesus gets into theological debates with Pharisees because he’s sitting and eating with a tax collector.  And tax collectors were unpopular not only because they collected taxes, but because they collected taxes on behalf of the Roman government, and so were looked upon as collaborators.

This debate about welcoming “tax collectors and sinners” is actually an ongoing project that Jesus isn’t done with in this brief encounter.  In fact, he can hardly even begin to focus on this project, because as he’s engaged with the Pharisees in the debate about eating with tax collectors, in walked a bunch of disciples of John the Baptist (in the verses that are left out of today’s reading), and they interrupt the debate to give Jesus a hard time for not fasting…!

Yet in the midst of this interruption, suddenly a distraught father shows up and tells Jesus about his daughter who’s just died.  He believes that Jesus can help in spite of this fact, and Jesus, recognizing the crisis, leaves the big project for now and heads off to deal with the crisis.

But in the midst of dealing with this crisis, a woman who had been sick for 12 years presents him with another crisis.  And so Jesus delays dealing with the first crisis to help someone with another crisis.

Really, this is not the ideal way you want to work!  Please give me one big project at a time.  Then let me deal with one crisis, and when I’ve got that under control, I can deal with the next one.

But that’s not the way the real world often works for me.  It’s not the way the real world often works for you, either.  And it wasn’t the way the real world worked for Jesus.

And actually, it probably wasn’t the way it worked for Matthew, the father or the woman with the hemorrhages, either.  In fact, Matthew was about to be audited by the Romans, and he was busy getting the books together when Jesus called him.  The father – the leader of the synagogue – was in the midst of mediating a major fight on the synagogue board when his daughter suddenly became ill.  And the woman with the hemorrhages had just had her bread oven crack open, and she was desperately trying to find masons to fix it when she heard Jesus was in town.

Actually, I don’t know if any of those things are true, but like us, I’m sure they had other projects and crises going on in their lives as well.  But the really good news in this story isn’t just that Jesus helped them all, but that Jesus met them in the midst of the way the real world works – in the midst of the multiple projects and crises that were going on their lives and even in Jesus’ life.

And so perhaps the real message of this part of Matthew’s Gospel isn’t just that Jesus helps people in need, but that Jesus’ help and presence often happen not in quiet, peaceful moments when everything’s neat and in order, but in the chaos of multiple projects and crises going on in our lives. And that help and presence may not come in miraculous ways, but it can often be:

• Felt through the ways God gives us strength, courage and hope to meet the moment; part of the reason we pray for each other isn’t necessarily because we hope for miracles, but because we’re asking God to give people strength, courage and hope to face the challenges and crises that they’re going through…

• Experienced in the presence of others God places in our lives to walk with us; most of us have known how much easier it is to live through the crises and difficult moments when somebody is walking with us, even if they can’t “do” anything to change the situation.  And that’s a reminder that often, when we walk with others in the midst of their multiple stressors, we can be the presence of Jesus in their lives…

• Found through actively seeking God’s help instead of giving in to despair or stress; because we’ve all been in situations where we’re overwhelmed, we try to be careful not to overwhelm others.  And sometimes, I can catch myself feeling like God’s got more important things to deal with than my problems, and so I’m tempted not to ask. Today’s Gospel reminds us that that’s not the right approach…!

Each year, I hope that summer will be a time of lighter projects and fewer crises in my life.  It doesn’t always work out that way.  And maybe this is the way it is for you, also.

But even and especially when you’ve got lots of projects and crises popping up in your life, remember stories like this Gospel reading.  And in so doing, be open to the ways that Jesus is walking with you to give you hope and strength to meet the moment.  Look for the people Jesus puts in your path to give you help and support.  And remember that Jesus is never too busy or too stressed to make time to for you.

Amen.