Finding Our Way Through the Dark

September 29th, 2024

James 5:13-15

An Excerpt from For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in its

Human Feet by Joy Harjo

Welcome again on this beautiful day, when there are probably many other

places you could be, on what it is in our liturgical calendar the nineteenth

Sunday after Pentecost or what is called ordinary time. It sounds kind of

boring, but it’s the long stretch between Pentecost and Advent and here we

are. I was thinking of the most perfect words in that Mary Oliver poem

called Invitation,

“it is a serious thing

just to be alive

on this fresh morning

in the broken world.

I beg of you,

do not walk by

without pausing

to attend to this

rather ridiculous performance.”

What a gift to have this serious thing of being alive together on this fresh

morning, so let us pause, let us pause to attend to and pay attention to

those deeper things.

If you are so moved, I invite you now to take some deeper breaths, letting

go of whatever it is that is weighing us down or worrying us or whatever

awaits us after this. Breathing in peace, breathing out stress. I invite you to

join me in a spirit of prayer as we are all held by these ancient words from

Psalm 19: God may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our

hearts be acceptable in your sight our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Perhaps by now many of you have heard the story, the lore, the tale found

in what is called the Golden Legend, one of the most widely circulated

books all throughout Europe when it was completed in the year 1266 and

all the way through the Middle Ages. It is a series of stories compiled by

Jacobus de Voragine and the book is one of the places the Mary

Magdalene story is found where she flees Palestine and goes to France.

As the legend goes, when the Christians started to be persecuted about

fourteen years after Jesus’ death, after Stephen had been killed and the

rest of the disciples were expelled from Judean territory, the disciples left

the area, to spread the word. Peter had entrusted Maximinus, one of the 72

disciples, with caring for Mary Magdalene and when the disciples went their

way, Maximinus, Mary Magdalene, her brother Lazarus, her sister Martha,

Martha’s maid, a man named Cedonius, all boarded a ship and set sail

without a captain. They sailed and sailed and sailed, eventually reaching

the southern shores of France and landed somewhere between Marseille

and St. Maries de La Mer, depending on whom you ask. They are said to

be the first to bring the story of Jesus and his teachings to the area and this

tradition is all over Provence.

Saint Maximinus of Aix was believed to have been the first bishop of Aix-

en-Provence in the First century, the town with his name, the town of St.

Maximin de la St. Baume. This is the town that has the Basilique Sainte

Marie Madeleine, a huge basilica dedicated to Mary Magdalene and a site

that also claims to have her tomb because it has it claims to hold her skull,

which is very odd. The priests had little fights over who had the best relic.

Having the skull is a pretty good relic! They had brought her skull up from

the crypt in honor of her feast day on July 22 nd .

Each day I was in town, I went to the Basilica. It is huge, but not fancy and

in some places it’s sort of falling apart, but it’s magnificent.

The little gift shop in the village of St. Maximin de la St. Baume across the

plaza from the basilica has all kinds of things related to Mary Magdalene

and just like at the other sites, there were healing ointments, scents and

sages. As I shared a few weeks ago baume in French means balm, an

ointment used for healing and Mary Magdalene is all about healing and

shown in many places holding a jar with ointment. The pilgrimage left me

wanting to explore this more deeply: A core part of our Christian tradition is

healing.

The piece of the letter that we heard from the Book of James is believed to

be written by Jesus’ brother James. We looked at another part of the letter

last week and once again it shows a group struggling to figure out how to

share life together. Perhaps since the Church was a new idea, they were

unsure how to respond when one of them messes up or when one of them

gets sick. When they agreed to no longer rely on what they knew before, in

that time they are used to being told that you don’t touch people who are

unclean. They are in a new world here. So James is trying to give them

some practical wisdom for how do this new concept, how to be the church.

As writer and preacher Barbara Brown Taylor wrote, “The wisdom of the

world has led them into all kinds of trouble…James gives them concrete

things to do: pray for one another, sing songs of praise, call for the elders,

anoint with oil” be honest with one another.

All of these include actions that are about repairing, restoring. And some of

them are even intimate, involving touch, like the act of anointing, skin

touching skin, a vulnerable ritual that brings people close together.

In our version of Christianity, we often shy away of rituals like anointing. It

seems as if modern life likely has many of us feeling anxious about touch,

good touch and healing. It is understandable, given how many religious

leaders have violated trust and have ruined lives with unhealthy touch.

Many of us are leery of touch because of painful histories in families or

schools or other spaces where people abused their power.

When I was growing up, we weren’t really allowed to refuse hugs, even

from creepy older men. You had to squish in when you liked it or not. I

notice that’s less common now. We try to ask before we hug.

Thanks goodness when we are living in a time where we speak of bodily

autonomy.

I believe we humans need healthy touch, that it can be healing. We need

proximity to others, sometimes we are even quite literally in need of a hand.

I think we are in need of those intimate ways that we help each other get

through. As we heard from the poet Joy Harjo, our spirit is called back from

the corners and creases of shame, judgment, and abuse in part when we

call upon the help of those who love us, These helpers take many forms:

animal, element, bird, angel, saint, stone, or ancestor, helping to gather the

tattered pieces…

Last week I introduced you to Bernard. After we met at the coffee machine

and at the monastery we agreed to meet up the next week. He wanted to

show me a map and tell me how unrealistically my plan was basically and

that I needed a different way to get where I was going.

We met at the basilica and stared at Mary’s skull for a while, he told me that

he wanted us to pray so we made our way to the area set aside to sit in

silence. We went over to the area and we sat together and silence and

prayed. Afterward, we went to a café and I got out pink moleskin notebook

to hear more from him. Bernard wanted to make sure I knew that Jesus

was a healer.

Bernard knows a lot about both of those things too. And as I shared he

would repeat again and again, “I know the truth!”

He said that the most important things are love, justice and the truth.

Bernard had a near death experience but his faith and strength and

commitment to healing got him through and now he is often the person

people call upon for their own recovery and healing. We spent a lot of time

in the car and some of it we listened to music or sat in silence and some of

it we tried to tell our stories across our language gaps.

I had lots of time to ponder.

Here’s what I am wondering? Has Christianity become reduced to a mere

philosophy? How did the church in some places become so focused on

offering just the right program or the perfect worship experience or curated

to what people want? I am wondering if this perpetuates America’s culture

of consumption, as if we are showing up to acquire a spiritual product that

meets our needs and then moving on when it doesn’t? I am wondering

whether the Spirit is calling us back to where we started. Back to what Mary

Magdalene modeled. To caring for one another as one of the most

important things. Anointing and healthy touch, showing up and not turning

away, being a light for one another, praying and singing, sharing food and

rides and phone calls and reminders that we are truly never alone.

Last Sunday’s NYT had a story with this headline: How to Plan for a Time

When You Are on Your Own, “No!” I screamed when I opened it. It went on

to explain how many of us should plan to retire with little support, relying on

professional help and rethinking our concept of home. No thank you.

What if one of the main purposes of us, of the church, of who we are right

now, especially in this country, is beginning to practice what many of us

know we need: concrete actions that offer a balm for one another, things

that help each other get through, healthy touch or a phone call, or hot soup

and hugs or borrowing tools and giving rides.

What if our call right now is simple: how do we help each other find our way

in the dark? Things will not always or may rarely go as planned, but

beloved of God, please don’t think we don’t do this on our own, no matter

what the NYT says, we are the church.

What if our way forward asks us to look back, to the early church and to

concrete acts of healing for one another?

As we worry about all of the needs in our hurting world, let us not miss how

we can be balm for one another here, so the next person, maybe even the

person sitting next to you right now, can find their way in the dark.

Communal Reflection

How could the church more easily offer itself as a balm or be a place of

healing for people who are hurting? How can we help more people find

their way in the dark?

Beloved of God, let us be a balm for one another. May it be so. Amen