I Saw Her Standing There
ROMANS 12: 9-18
LUKE 1: 46-55
MAY 31, 2026
Today’s message might be a different one than you would expect … different for those of you who choose to worship with us online and different for those of you who are here today. It is the fifth Sunday of a month, which we here at St. Paul’s have declared as a ‘HEALING SUNDAY” and so I am going to spend some time talking about challenges … our challenges … challenges friends and family might be having … challenges strangers whom we dismiss, chastise and even mock might be having right at this moment.
Today’s message is one that I want you to put into your back pocket … it is a message reflective of who we are called to be. Yes, I know I repeat myself but then again Jesus knew the value in repetition because Jesus wanted His disciples to “get the essentials” of what God had assigned to Him … Jesus wanted those recording His life’s realities to quote Him properly. It would be interesting to know if Jesus knew it would be the words of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that the world would hold onto … in a book those of us who are worshipping today treasure rather than the Gospels of Thomas, Mary, James, and others. You brought that book with you to church today, right? The Bible … contents of which are the essential teachings of the Christian faith. This is my newest Bible, the NEW ENGLISH TRANSLATION version.
The word Bible comes from the Greek phrase ta biblia, which translates simply into “the books.” The Greeks evolved that phrase from Byblos, which was the name of an ancient Phoenician port city that was famous for trading and exporting papyrus, which was the material used to make scrolls upon which the books of the Bible were initially written upon. Around the fourth century early church leaders began using the Greek phrase ta biblia to refer to their collection of the Hebrew and Greek writings that would eventually become the Old and New Testament’s 66 books we are familiar with.
Those most repeated lessons of Jesus … the key themes of His ministry include:
We are to align our lives with God’s Kingdom. You know … THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE … on earth as it is in heaven.
LOVE GOD and LOVE ALL YOUR NEIGHBORS. Yes, I repeat these two as well because these are the “two greatest commandments upon which all other commandments and laws rest.”
Denying one’s self and becoming a disciple of Christ. You remember. Jesus saying “pick up your cross and follow me. Whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
WE are to be humble … to serve others and to do justice, which in a way was Jesus rephrasing what God told the prophet Micah in Micah 6:8.
Jesus taught and encouraged His followers to overcome anxiety. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Jesus healed those inflicted with psychological and mental health demons never pushing them out of His way but instead embracing them.
That last common Jesus theme is where I want us to focus today … hopefully a focus that might change some of you and protect others.
If you saw a pregnant teenage girl … what would be your first reaction. Your first opinion of a kid who soon will be giving birth to a baby. I ask you to honestly consider where your mind would go rather than merely giving the church answer … I ask this question … if you knew she was 17 and obviously pregnant … you know what I mean and you saw her standing there … walking into the church … what would you think?
Now, in our Gospel reading we heard the words of a woman reflecting back on what she was thinking as a pregnant teenage girl living in a society that would mock, chastise, and push away a non-married pregnant girl. Mary said, “With all my heart I glorify the Lord! In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my Savior! He has looked with favor on the low status of His servant. Everyone will consider me highly favored …”
Would they … would you … are you quick to judge others … how they look, how they act … if they are not exactly like you?
Many of you know that I have lived an interesting, diversified life. I have travelled many pathways, and I can see God using my experiences to bring me into this place of ministry today. I still have a lot of questions for God … 487 in fact. I have so many slip ups, stupid actions, and regrets in this journey but then again as Paul wrote and John Wesley concurred with … we are on a journey to perfection we are not there yet.
Back in my radio and TV days I will never forget a young woman who was standing inside the Atlantic County Office Building. I was walking to a meeting with county officials and she spotted me. She came up to me gushing with praise for my TV shows, which she said she watched regularly. Obviously when a stranger praises your work you feel good and her praise more than likely had my cheeks blushing turning red. I thanked her and went on with my workday. It was just one or two days later when I was in the Egg Harbor Social Security office … remember I was the Social Security Administration’s Public Affairs Specialist back then … as I was walking to the photocopier I spotted that same young woman being interviewed by a claims representative. I didn’t disturb the interview, but I was curious …
So, after she left, I went to the claims representative to ask what the interview was all about. I was told that this young woman … the young woman who was so thrilled to meet me in Atlantic City … a young woman none of you would think looked any different than any other young woman you might see standing at the Deptford Mall … at ShopRite … in your neighborhood … I was told that this young woman was suffering from a series of mental illnesses … she had attempted to take her own life … she couldn’t hold a job and was desperately seeking help. The claims representative had two questions for me … one, “Dave, do you know her?” and secondly, “Dave you know so many people in the mental health field … can someone help this young woman?”
I was dumbfounded … even though I knew better. If you saw her you might think that she could dance through the night … she looked so healthy and well. That’s the reality of mental health challenges … the impact of mental illness … the reality of this consuming and overwhelming disabling condition that rips and tears at humans until they are lost and desperate and often times end up on the street or worse.
If like me, you are watching the National Hockey League playoffs even though the Buffalo Sabres are no longer playing … you watched the games between the Montreal Canadians and the Carolina Hurricanes. At the Bell Centre in Montreal before each game a past player carries a torch into the arena to get the crowd energized and excited … four-time Stanley Cup champion and Montreal Canadian legend Claude Lemieux was selected last week to carry the torch for GAME THREE … Montreal’s return to their home arena … proudly he lifted the torch with a smile on his face … step by step … into the arena where the 20,000 fans shook the building and Lemieux smiled probably imagining he was back playing … proudly wearing his jersey … le bleu blanc rouge … one more time one with Les Habitants. And, three days later his son found Lemieux dead ..
HE HAD COMMITTED SUICIDE … the man the entire sports world watched on Monday wearing his jersey … carrying the torch … smiling … experiencing cheers from thousands and a moment of glory … had taken his life … THE END …
And, perhaps someone knew he was thinking about this … One in five humans suffer from some form of mental health challenge neighbors, friends, family member, US. This is MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH and so each of us needs to know a few things:
First, it is not shameful to have a mental health illness or challenge. One in five humans has one. None of us should ever use words that mock or put down or potentially make things worse for those dealing with these illnesses. YES someone can have a severe disability but look perfectly normal … that young woman standing there in the Atlantic County Office building she looked just fine, but she wasn’t … I even talked with her and didn’t pick up on any signs of challenge … she just told me things I wanted to hear.
SECOND … and most importantly … if any of you here today. Any of you watching this worship service today on this healing Sunday … if you know things aren’t quite right. If you are anxious, sad, confused, hearing voices that direct you in strange ways, or living your life in constant panic or fear … or worse … if you are thinking of ending your life … TALK TO SOMEONE … your life is of value … you are of value … If you feel all is lost CALL 988!!! NINE EIGHT EIGHT … is the CRISIS HOTLINE and HELP IS AVAILABLE … EVERY MOMENT of EVERY DAY … there is someone available to talk with you … DO NOT MAKE A DECISION because of how you feel in these moments … YOU ARE OF VALUE … there are people who care about you … there is a safe place you haven’t found yet but it’s there believe me.
Friends, you should not try to cure your friends or family members mental health challenges. You should never be dismissive saying things like “get over it!” “Grow up!” “I have experienced worse stuff then you!” Mental illness is an illness … some warning signs are:
*EXCESSIVE WORRYING
*FEELING EXCESSIVELY SAD, DOWN in the DUMPS, or LACKING ENERGY
* SIGNIFICANT CHANGES in SLEEPING or EATING HABITS
* CONFUSED THINKING or a REDUCED ABILITY TO CONCENTRATE
* EXTREME MOOD CHANGES UNCONTROLLABLE HIGHS or LOWS
* WITHDRAWAL FROM FRIENDS, FAMILY or USUAL SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
I had hoped to have a speaker available today more of an expert than myself but I know who you can contact … CALL 988 … CALL ME … SPEAK with ME … do not give up, do not let go, and do not dismiss the needs of someone you care about or love.
Paul wrote to the church in Rome, “Love should be shown without pretending. Hate EVIL and hold onto what is good. Love each other like members of your family. Contribute to the needs of God’s people and welcome strangers into your home. BLESS people who harass you – bless and don’t curse them. CONSIDER EVERYONE AS EQUAL and don’t think you are better than anyone else. ASSOCIATE with people who have no status.”
Those words of Paul have such meaning on this last day of MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH 2026 … church are you considering those with mental health challenges as your equals? Are you willing to associate with people who have no status like the mentally ill who are homeless on our streets? Will you be understanding if someone with a mental illness harasses you for money? Will you love like Jesus taught … will you hate EVIL especially the evil that shames and harms those with mental health challenges like the southern state legislature that this week voted to put the homeless to forced labor with no pay … in other words slavery because they are mentally ill.
Many of you know I have started writing a lot of poetry … already have one small book that was printed for family and friends and another book coming later this year. Poems help me … poems teach me … the Bible has many poems but the other night I read a poem from this book, TEN POEMS TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE by Roger Housden, that struck home since I was thinking about those with mental health challenges. It is called LOVE AFTER LOVE by Derek Walcott and I’d like to read it to you.
Love After Love
Derek Walcott
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
AMEN.