What Condition Is Your Condition In?

Lamentations 3: 22-33
MARK 5: 21-43

JUNE 30, 2024 – HEALING SUNDAY

The Lord is good to those who hope in Him, to the person who seeks Him.”

And so, friends today’s inquiry is a consideration of what condition our condition is in. Where is our life’s focus? How are we dealing with adversity and life’s challenges, or should I say … what are we focusing in on as we breathe in and breathe out in our waking hours. We have no control of our dreaming moments but from the very first opening of our eyes until we return back to our sleeping hours, we are responsible for the person we are.

If you have the wealth of music revolving around inside your head like I do … those words about our condition are reflective of the Kenny Rogers and the First Edition song from so many years ago. Kenny sings these words, “[1]I woke up this morning with the sundown shining in on me” and as I often do, on this fifth Sunday in June … a ‘healing Sunday’ in our church … I have found this song spinning in my head for the last several weeks as I thought about your need and my need for God’s constant healing power. To wake up knowing that the Son of God shining in on us.

Almost every day …. As I thought about today’s worship service there was that song … and actually Kenny’s unique tenor voice singing inside my head and not once did I think about the Kenny Rogers Chicken episode on Seinfeld. Ok … once or twice perhaps. I can easily hear Kenny singing “I tripped on a cloud and fell eight miles high … I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in” …. and then I thought about me.

Perhaps it is selfish to think about oneself … perhaps thinking about oneself has the potentiality to be therapeutic but if we ignore ourselves how can we sort out where we are headed in this life’s journey. Frankly, I believe that we have grown far too accustomed to entering the flow of life by allowing the waves to carry us rather than discovering the still waters where we can be restored. After all that’s what the world wants from us … ‘fit it’ and be part of the crowd but today as we share in these church moments … just what condition is your condition really in? The real you … the you whom you know personally and up close.

As I have been focusing in on self-care in relationship to our faith these last few weeks while also celebrating confirmation moments and baptisms here in this beautiful sanctuary it seems that I can’t pull away from humanity’s constant need to be beneficiaries of God’s healing power. Healing is what God does best through God’s love.

After all, … even though Jesus came to bring clarity to God’s expectations for humanity through the lessons Jesus taught it is the healing from the cross that we treasure most. He died as our sacrifice, but God didn’t let the cross take Jesus down. On Easter morning the tomb was empty, and the women of faith declared, “HE IS RISEN!” <<He is Risen Indeed>>

I have another song. R.E.M. has a powerful song that perhaps has been my personal reminder song of the last couple of months … well actually maybe for the last year. Michael Stipe sings, “[2]When your day is long and the night, the night is yours alone. When you’re sure you’ve had enough of this life … well hang on. Don’t let yourself go. ‘Cause everybody cries. Everybody hurts sometimes.”

And, when those nights are over … the sun is rising again. And especially on this healing Sunday … it is true that we each have our own personal needs and yes, we each have our own personal hurts … on this healing Sunday we need or at least I need to again reassess what my condition with God is. WE have to be courageous in our focus … resilient enough in our individual energy to admit that we need God in this life and some of us perhaps need God more than ever … if only we can push the world aside.

We need to be the ones who are waking up each morning to the Son of God. Allowing God’s reality to be shining in on us, accepting the warmth of God’s love. And yes, if we want to experience the peace that God offers to each human being … if we want to become more secure in our footing in our lives … well then there should be a constant and ongoing need to evaluate just what our God condition is. All of you who are able to hear me know where to find God… to rediscover Jesus… and to take on the Holy Spirit’s guidance because we are here in these moments together.

This specific church … St. Paul’s United Methodist Church of West Deptford I believe is a gift from God in the times we live in. All of you who are part of this church family are elements of that gift because you truly understand the importance of showcasing God’s love to every person no matter what they look like, what they sound like, where they come from, whom they love, or who they vote for. All too many places calling themselves churches have become battlegrounds for the world’s issues rather than sanctuaries to celebrate God’s love … but not this place … not you. This is a place to find God’s love … to become changed and resilient and to rebuild one’s faith.

I can’t remember the last time I turned to Lamentations for a Sunday morning Scripture reading but truthfully in my own devotions I often flip to this 25th book in the Bible to read how the prophet Jeremiah reflected on the dismal world that he was living in. Jeremiah is truly an interesting Biblical character and someone I would have loved to observe as he preached out on the street corners of Jerusalem. Scholars have often described Lamentations pretty much as being a place in our Bible where humanity calls out for God’s healing power.

Jeremiah teaches us how to pray when the storm clouds of life seem to be overwhelming us. Jeremiah knew that reality but he didn’t slip into the world’s quagmire like so many humans tend to do … he didn’t allow the suffering and angst that were his everyday reality to overwhelm him … yes, he complained and screamed but Jeremiah found the answer in God. We heard his words as Darrin began today’s Scripture reading, “Certainly the faithful love of the LORD hasn’t ended; certainly God’s compassion isn’t through! They are renewed every morning!

I woke up this morning with the sundown shining in on me” and Jeremiah continues with the words of that great hymn, “GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS! The Lord is my portion! Therefore, I will wait for Him.”

In the hymn we sing, “Great is they faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not … thy compassions they fail not.” Sort of brings us back to Lamentions … Certainly the faithful love of the LORD hasn’t ended; certainly, God’s compassion isn’t through! They are renewed every morning!

I have heard some folks and perhaps you have heard them too asking ‘Where is God?” As someone who rejected and denied God for a short period in my life, I can verify that God never goes away … it is merely we humans who push God aside as we strive for personal success and profit. Richard Rohr is an amazing theologian and one of these months I will do a sermon series focused on his writing …. Rohr stated “We cannot attain the presence of God because we’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s absent is our awareness.”

As we consider what condition our faith condition is in this morning, truly answering to ourselves what condition our overall faith condition is in … it is essential for us to accept this truth from Rohr …

In our life … in our journey … GOD IS ALWAYS PRESENT! Just take a deep breath here in church and look around you … you can sense God. Go down to the river and watch the water flow … you can sense God. This past Tuesday night I had dinner at a long-standing restaurant on the shore of Lake Erie where I ate with my family when I was a boy and afterwards, I stood on the shoreline looking out at one of those majestic Great Lakes and I sensed God. It is no wonder that the psalmist told us …. WE NEED TO RESTORE OUR SOULS beside the still waters … we need to become healed individuals whose personal condition is uplifted by our direct daily connection to and with God.

Today’s Gospel lessons offered us examples of Jesus’ healing power. The 12-year-old whom the crowd thought was dead stood up at Jesus’ call. But, to me the example we need to be reminded of was that woman … who had been suffering for years. She knew … she knew there was one answer, and the answer was Jesus. If she could just “touch his clothes” she thought, she would be healed. Her faith even exceeded Jesus’ awareness of her presence until she touched Him. Jesus said, “Your faith has healed you.”

When the gathered crowd told Jairus to leave Jesus alone … Jesus said, Do not be afraid … just keep trusting.”

So, friends, on this HEALING SUNDAY … are you willing to be renewed and restored? I urge you to check on what condition your condition is in and then to remember the words from today’s Scripture, “The Lord is good to those who hope in Him, to the person who seeks Him.” Search for God beside the still waters … allow your souls to be restored and blessed holding onto God’s love through Jesus Christ. Morning by morning new mercies you’ll see … sing with enthusiasm, “Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me.” AMEN

“The LORD is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He lets me rest in grassy meadows; he leads me to restful waters; he keeps me alive. He guides me in proper paths for the sake of his good name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger because you are with me. Your rod and your staff— they protect me.”

“But you, Israel my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, offspring of Abraham, whom I love, you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant; I chose you and didn’t reject you”: Don’t fear, because I am with you; don’t be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will surely help you; I will hold you with my righteous strong hand.”

“If any of you are suffering, they should pray. If any of you are happy, they should sing. If any of you are sick, they should call for the elders of the church, and the elders should pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. Prayer that comes from faith will heal the sick, for the Lord will restore them to health. And if they have sinned, they will be forgiven.”

[1] ‘What Condition My Condition Is In’ by Bettye LaVette and Mickey Newbury
[2] ‘Everybody Hurts’ – Night Garden Music Peter Lawrence Buck, Michael E. Mills, William Thomas Berry, and John Michael Stipe

© 2017- St. Paul's United Methodist Church, West Deptford, NJ