Sermon Title: Where would we be without friends?
Sermon Text: Mark 2:1-5
The story is simple really. A man was paralyzed, probably from birth. His life was spent on a mat, about three long by six feet wide. He had to be fed, bathed, carried, clothed. He had little independence, if any.
No cures were available. He had no way to contribute to society that day. He went through life as a beggar, lying by the side of the road, waiting for people to drop coins beside him or to watch them pass by as they ignored his plight.
One might look at this story and think he had little to live for and you might be right. I doubt that he had a wife or children. Perhaps his parents were even gone by then. His sisters and brothers had busy lives, spouses, children, too busy to care for him. We don’t know, we just don’t know.
What we do know is that he had friends. Four of them. Four friends who had faith when he might not have had any. Four friends who were willing to risk being made fools of or risk imprisonment for the destruction of Jesus’ house. Remember the scripture says this is Jesus’ house they are in. Four friends who believed in him when he couldn’t believe in himself. Ultimately four friends who believed he was worth the trouble.
Would you take a moment and somewhere on your bulletin write the names of four friends who would do this for you? Take a moment. (Pause)
Now think of four friends for whom you would carry his or her mat, cut a hole in someone else’s roof and lower him/her into the presence of Jesus to be healed. (Pause)
Where would we be without those friends in our lives? Where would they be without your friendship?
Another time we will talk about the forgiveness of sins that Jesus’ offered that day but as we have talked about personal and hospitality evangelism, and being a neighbor, look at this story about five friends. This is a story that models the unlimited boundaries of friendship for us.
Amazing, isn’t it? Without his friends, he would spend the rest of his life on that mat. Without his friends, he would never meet Jesus. Without his friends, he would never get healed or be forgiven. But with a lot of help from his friends he got it all. He got to stand, become independent, maybe marry and have children, and go into life arms open wide, rejoicing and celebrating each day. Because he had good friends. Really good friends.
He was lucky. Remember the recent study that says 25% of
Americans say they have no one in whom they can confide. And since there are 299,290,210
people in the United States (www.census.gov), that means that almost 75 million
people admit they don’t have a close friend in whom they can confide.
The odds are pretty good that
some of you are in the 75 million. The
odds are pretty good that someone in your family or neighborhood is in the 75
million.
This says that for some, good friends are hard to find. But not impossible.
Many years ago in Renshaw, Nova Scotia, a young seminary student pastured a small church over the summer. Riding along on his bicycle he found himself in a sudden and furious thunderstorm. Ahead of him, he saw a little girl, barefoot and sloshing across a rickety wood bridge. Grabbing an umbrella from behind him, he put the little girl on the front of his bike, held the umbrella with one hand while steering with the other.
He took her to her house, the second house from the bottom of the hill and met her family. There he saw pictures of Frank Sanders, husband and father, and boxer in his earlier days.
“You might as well understand,” the wife told him, “that your congregation don’t want us. And we sure don’t want them. No, there’s no mistake. They all think my husband is no good and as long as I stick with Frank, they won’t help us so…”
Just then a violent blast of wind opened the door and Frank came in. “You that summer reverend?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m John Bonnell….”
Frank pointed with a backward thumb toward the stormy outdoors. John had to wave goodbye to the silent wife and children.
You can imagine that it was a shock for John to see Frank Sanders, scrubbed and shaved, sitting all by himself in the back pew that next Sunday morning.
Since being thrown out of the house, the reverend made some inquiries. Emily, his wife, worked as a laundress making the family income. Frank hunted and fished for food but a lot of his time was spent with an atheist whom everybody called Doctor Tom. This broken down professor kept Frank in whiskey and sent him on errands, fetching and delivering newspapers and mail to his reeking bachelor cabin on the other side of town. That Sunday everyone wondered why Frank was in church.
After the service Frank waited until the church was empty (although folks stood outside waiting for the fight that never came).
“Mr. Sanders,” Rev. Bonnell said.
“Don’t get any ideas, Reverend. I don’t believe in this pious balderdash. I came to help you bring in the crowds. They’ll come in droves, hoping for a knock-out – they want to see me plead to be saved from my sins. But you have to realize I’m never going to do any such thing.”
“Then why
are you here?
“Well, because you helped my
Mary get out of the rain. I didn’t know
that when I ordered you out of the house.
I’ve got to square myself.”
And every Sunday thereafter Frank Sanders was in church. Then he started bringing the family. And later, Rev. Bonnell learned he had taken a job at the planning mill and had been sober for a month.
Of course Doctor Tom wasn’t happy about this at all. He had lost his drinking buddy and promised to do anything he could to get Frank back in his camp. His parting words were “Ask Frank what he’ll be doing next Christmas Eve.”
You see, it was a tradition that the men would ride the
train to the county seat to buy Christmas presents for the kids and there was
always drinking on the train. The women
waited each Christmas Eve for their husbands to return home knowing that
bottles were being passed around for all to share.
So the rev. talked to Frank and Frank admitted he was worried too. “I don’t know if I can stick it out after you’ve gone back to school, Reverend. This is a lot tougher fight for me than you realize. What keeps me going is listening to you – you are like my trainer in the corner, my second; you keep up my nerve. Everyone needs somebody in their corner.”
“But Frank, you have Somebody in your corner. You can count on God too.”
He flashed John a blank look of doubt. “You can’t see him though,” he muttered. He ain’t got skin on and I won’t be able to see him next Christmas Eve.”
That was the crux of the fear. For the past five years Frank had gone into Earlton with money for Christmas presents and instead drunk himself into a stupor.
“That’s what Doctor Tom is counting on,” he said miserably.
“Frank, if you keep going steady right up to the morning of December 24, I’ll come back here and see you through Christmas Eve.”
“Reverend, that’s a deal.”
In early September he went back to school and the church closed for the winter. A letter from Emily Sanders told how Frank was doing well and wanted to build new pews for the church but couldn’t find the wood. Only Doctor Tom had enough wood and he wasn’t about to sell it to the church.
“So far,” Emily wrote, “Frank is doing well. He will doing anything for the church now.”
Then a strange thing happened. John got so caught up in school and the new woman in his life that, well, he forgot his promise to be back in Renshaw on Christmas Eve. He remembered only when he was going through his calendar. He frantically rearranged his plans and took off knowing he would arrive too late.
“Frank’s gone to the county seat with all the other men,” Emily told him when he arrived. “He took the money for the toys, but when you didn’t arrive on the morning train, the heart seemed to go right out of him.”
John wanted to drive to Earlton to bring Frank back but couldn’t find a car so they just waited. He and Emily stood beside each at the train station…waiting to see if Frank would undo all he had been able to achieve.
Doctor Tom was gleeful at the idea that Frank would fall off the wagon and join him back at the bachelor cabin. In fact he was so sure that he offered a bet. Doctor Tom was betting that Frank would be drunk when he arrived. Of that he had no doubt at all.
“How about it, Rev? Will you bet a buck?”
“ I don’t believe in gambling,” he told him.
“You mean you don’t believe in Frank Sanders, not even a buck’s worth!”
Was it righteous wrath or just plain temper? To this day Rev. Bonnell isn’t sure but as much as he detested gambling he took the bet. “If Frank Sanders comes home a sober man, you will give the hardwood stored in your back shed to the church to be made into pews. Otherwise, I pay you for the price of the wood.”
They agreed and shook hands. Then they stood there waiting for the train. (pause)
Farmers and breeders and orchard men got off the train but there was no sign of Frank. Doctor Tom was almost gleeful at the idea but John wouldn’t give up. “Has anyone seen Frank Sanders?”
“Sure,” the engineer said. “Saw him going in the Blue Nose Tavern before we pulled out.”
There was an audible sigh from the crowd and John almost cried until beyond the bridge a wagon pulled by two white horses came into view. There amidst the barrels and casks was Frank Sanders, sober and holding a doll, a drum, a ship and a toy cradle.
“Emily, don’t be scared. Ain’t had a drop. I thought it would be safer to come home on the Blue Tavern’s truck than risk the bottles on the train.”
Then he saw the Rev. “You did come. Well, thanks, but you were right. There was Somebody in my corner all the time – even among the beer kegs. Knowing that fixes everything.”
It was a good Christmas for the Sanders family. They had a sober dad and husband….and the church got new pews because of the love of two friends – one here on earth and the other looking over his shoulder. (Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul, p. 297 – “Somebody in the Corner” by John Sutherland Bonnell)
It is good to know that we each have such a friend
looking over our shoulders too. God
through Christ Jesus is around us always, offering the grace we need to get
through each day. But it is necessary to
have those friends with skin on to lift up our mats when we can’t lift our own.
I hope and pray that friendship makes a comeback in our world and that we can see the need for love that is intimate, Christ-centered and great. God tells us in Genesis that we need fellowship with other human beings, but unfortunately we don’t often seek it and instead we have a lot of people with no one to confide in and no one to help carry their mats.
This story, along with the story of the Good Samaritan, and others about the town of Capernaum show us about the healing offered by good friends and a loving God.
Accept that
grace today. Offer that grace
today. And be made whole and complete
through the love of God through Christ Jesus and a little help from our
friends.