“Wounded Healer” 10/30/2016 Rev. Matt Syrdal

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:5-6

Politics and Pumpkins Don’t mixPumpkin carving competition fundraiser - Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.Two high school sophomores - jack-o-lantern - Hillary Clinton in jail. It caused an outburst - social media. Same competition the year before, the very same students were hailed for their Donald Trump jack-o-lantern - named the “Trumpkin.” (thats funny.) Clinton creation prompted such an outpouring of rage on Facebook. A family kids exposed to the shame of political scapegoating.

We are wounded people aren’t we?Yet politicians and now pumpkins carry our projections?

Scapegoating has been practiced for millennia - a ritualized way to purge the sins of a tribe or people group. transmitting the sins of the people to the goat. The scapegoat was a way to propitiate collective sin.

We do it all the time without even being aware.

Today is not only All-Hallows Eve - Reformation SundayThe hymn writer of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” and grandfather of the Presbyterian Church, Martin Luther, famously nailed his 95 theses to the doors of All-Saints church on Halloween in 1517 - 500 years ago.

The castle church would be open on All Saint’s Day for people to view a large collection of relics of the saints. By venerating the relics, one could receive an INDULGENCE which would reduce time spent in purgatory (an insurance policy for the soul). That year Luther’s parishioners returned from purchasing indulgences, claiming they no longer needed to repent and change their lives in order to be forgiven of sin. His sermon against the sale of indulgences, has been called “the first best-seller ever written.” It started a wildfire which became the Reformation. Cheapens grace of God - keeps us from repentance.

We will do anything to hide the truth. Anything but turn and face it. DENIAL.

Our passage from Isaiah - the middle verse, in the middle chapter, of the middle book. This curious placement of our text is the Hebrew way of saying THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

“Upon him was the punishment that made us whole, by his wounds we are healed.”

Two truths: We are all wounded. Wounds are somehow the key to our healing.

The point is not pumpkins nor politicians - the point is pulp.The pulp is painful places inside all of us that we can’t usually see. Those ugly, embarrassing places we refuse to touch. The pulp is that messy slop we are ashamed to let others touch, let alone see. It is that place where we are most vulnerable and ashamed.

Shame - hide those parts, our lives become divided.

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“Wounded Healer” 10/30/2016 Rev. Matt Syrdal

It’s hard to be real when we are hiding something - affects our relationships, and our capacity for fulfilling and meaningful work. We lose the ability to be vulnerable, intimate, in our relationships and become plagued with loneliness.

Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25 is peculiar.“The King will say to those at his right hand… I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me… whatever you do to the least of these… you do it to me.”The King, the fullness of Christ in us, identifies with “the least” The King invites us to become healers, but the healing happens inwardly first.

“Nobody escapes being wounded. We are all wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The main question is not, ‘How can we hide our wounds?’ so we don’t have to be embarrassed, but ‘How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?’ When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers.” - Nouwen

“I was a stranger, and you welcomed me”We have the ability to be connected every minute of every day, yet we are more lonely than ever before. “The Christian way of life does not take away our loneliness; it protects and cherishes it as a precious gift. Sometimes it seems as if we do everything possible to avoid the painful confrontation with our basic human loneliness.”

My first two years of seminary - exciting time of growth, met new friends from all over, loved my classes, surfing! But most desperately lonely. There was a period of a couple months when

I struggled with anxiety and depression. It got so bad, I spent less and less time at my apartment, I couldn’t even be around my roommates or new friends. I felt like a stranger.I still remember going for walks at night around the neighborhood south of Old Town Pasadena. My loneliness had finally led me to my wound. I started seeing a therapist to help me navigate my grief, and going on these night walks when I needed to cry. My parent’s divorce when I was in highschool, feelings of betrayal by friends and family, anger, feelings of being unseen by my parents my whole life. A loss of my current identity. Deep stuff. And the strangest thing would happen on these walks (nobody called the cops :). By the end, I would feel completely and totally held, feel deeply seen by the Wounded Healer. As if my wounds were now his wounds. Over time, I realized that my wounding experiences, my grief, was part of a newly discovered story. His wounds would need to become mine.

The Japanese philosophy of “kintsugi” is a way of identifying with damaged or broken pottery. There is no attempt to hide the damage done to the vessel. The fractured places and repair are a part of the history and beauty, the unique meaning or destiny, of the object and are literally illuminated with gold.

I met a man named Steve for breakfast one day. A seminary friend introduced us. He shared his life experiences with me, I opened up about my struggles with anxiety, grief, and loneliness. He was incredibly honest about his own woundedness. Looking back, he had this ability to create space for me to find myself, and share myself. “when I was a stranger, you welcomed me.”

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“Wounded Healer” 10/30/2016 Rev. Matt Syrdal

We were both strangers. Through a simple act of hospitality - opening space - we welcomed the Healer into our midst. Our pain was deepened to a level where it could be shared. In sharing, we became guests.

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.” - Henri Nouwen

Jesus takes the broken, fractured, pieces of our communities, and puts them together in his own broken body the Church. Highlights our woundedness with gold!Hospitality is the welcome of the stranger, a sharing in the loneliness and brokenness. “share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand” Like Japanese artist the golden fractures of pottery - Turn brokenness into beauty.

If you doubt… turn toward the wound and the healer.in moments of lowly and deep vulnerability he shares his pain with us. He heals through touch - by being touched. In normal, small acts of intimacy he simply opens himself to be touched. The bleeding woman who touched the hem of his cloak. The woman who kissed his feet in tears and dried them with her hair. And finally, as if to say “I see you too,” he comes to the doubting Thomas in all of us. The one who has a hard time trusting others. The one who hides behind the wound of abandonment, set apart from the others. And the Wounded Healer reaches out

his pierced, bent hands saying in a broken voice, “Put your finger here!” “See my hands. See them!”“Look at your hands.” And then he grabs our arm tightly, firmly by the wrist. “Reach out your hand and put it into my side.” Warmth and shock shoot through you, as he pulls you into his body and plunges your whole hand into his wound… it is warm, almost hot. As if to say, “my hands, your hands. Your side, my side.” As if to say, “this is my body!” “Yours are my wounds!” “Do you understand?!”

[Prayer]

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