2/22/2015
Sunday Note to the Congregation
To all the saints at Aldersgate Church: grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
I know, it’s a lame salutation for a letter. I mean who even uses the word ‘salutation’ anymore? Indulge me though. I figure if I’m going to be sick and laid up, then I might as well pretend I’m as important as St. Paul.
Dennis asked that I write you a note each week letting you know how I’m doing, how we’re doing and what’s going on with the treatment. He asked that I write the note primarily because whenever he starts talking about my cancer he starts to man-cry like Betty White and mumble gooey nonsense.
Jesus and the disciples in your scripture text today (Luke 8: 26-39) find themselves on the other side of the lake, in Gentile territory among the tombs- the Gospel’s way of doubly emphasizing what a strange, hostile, and foreboding place they now occupy. And that’s pretty much where we feel we’re at right now, in a foreign, threatening space, and like the disciples in the passage we’re none too excited Jesus has brought us here.
Actually, unlike the passage, I don’t think Jesus or God has brought us to this new place in our lives but, similar to it, I believe Jesus is with us on this other side of our lives as much as he was with the twelve. While the CAT scan showed no demons inside me, it’s been hard for us not to feel as though our problems are suddenly legion. Or, if legion overdoes it then the word ‘overwhelming’ certainly nails it as far as our feelings go.
I don’t want to dwell on the dark stuff. Most of you know already how hard this news has landed in the middle of our life. What I want to say is thank you. In the Gospel story today, we’re meant to see how the grace and power that hung the stars in the sky is embodied in Jesus and, later in the Gospel, we’re meant to see how that same power- the grace of God- is embodied by Jesus’ disciples, who go out two by two.
Connect the dots, people. Luke wants us to see how the grace of God made flesh in Jesus gets incarnated by people like you. Well, most of you. Definitely not….just kidding.
Seriously, already, like the demoniac in the story, I have much to tell of what God has done for us through the compassion and love you’ve shown to us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote just before his death that it’s easier to see Christ in your brother or sister than it is to see Christ in yourself. That’s certainly been the case for me these past two weeks. To be perfectly honest, God wouldn’t have been all that obvious to me of late were it not for you and the people who’ve cared for me. So thank you for showing me Christ at a time it would otherwise be difficult for us to spot him.
Most likely by the time you hear this note I will have started chemo. I’ve run a lot of miles and done many races but this is a marathon I don’t think I can do on my own so I hope you signed up for the long haul. On the bright side, at least we already know, thanks to the Fat Tuesday fundraiser a few years ago, that I look sexy bald. Keep your fingers-crossed on the beard.
Love,
Jason
PS: If any of you have a herd of pigs laying around that I could cast this blanking cancer into and be done with it, my # is …
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