Nov 19th: Inspiring the Future, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.
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Rev. Dr. Steven Koski
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Inspiring the Future with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: All In A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Mark 2:3-5,7,11,12.
Rev. Dr. Steven Koski tells the story of friends who asked “what if we tore open the roof?” to lower their paralyzed friend to Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he healed the man. You are invited to ask “what if?” and tear open roofs, to bring others closer to hope, healing and love. This Sunday, you are invited to hear more about how asking “what if?” can change lives and communities for the better.
Transcript:
I was at a writer’s retreat and learn that to overcome writer’s block and propel a story forward. Writers ask, what if? You know what if the main character is told they have six months to live? What if they don’t follow the same old scripts or follow the same old rules? What if the main character chooses love over fear, courage or comfort? How would the story change? What if those two words can change everything? There were two brothers who asked what if? So, imagine you’re standing among the sand dunes on a really cold day in December and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903. I imagine your present a witness a pivotal moment in which humankind released itself from the shackles of what was assumed to be impossible. Wilbur and Orville Wright looked at each other, and asked an absolutely absurd question. What if we could fly. So imagine you there witnessing that day when Wilbur and Orville Wright took flight, and only lasted 12 seconds. But there it was the first flight of a man powered aircraft, they invented something totally new previously assumed to be impossible. For 12 seconds, they were lifted into the sky, and counted among the birds. You know, what I love about their biography is that they didn’t see themselves as inventors or, or geniuses the way history would record them. I mean, they were bicycle mechanics, working in their shop. And one brother said to the other, Wilbur, what if? And that one question led them to be the ones who defied gravity. I mean, gravity holding them to the earth, but also the gravity of conventional thinking that it couldn’t be done. And that’s probably the strongest force of all. It can’t be done. It’s never been done before. It’s impossible. It’s foolish. They defy the gravitational force. Of all those who failed before them. The gravitational forces of doubt and unbelief, the critical voices all around them laughing at their foolishness. Those two brothers looked at each other and asked, What if? And that one question changed everything. And today, we don’t think twice about strapping ourselves into a piece of metal to travel across the world. This is our stewardship season. When we asked you to invest in the mission of First Presbyterian for 2024. What if? What if we weren’t grounded by scarcity think, but dared to trust in God’s abundance? What if we didn’t focus on our limitations? But dare to imagine what is possible? What if we were all in living the spacious and radical love of Jesus? What if we were all in practicing and uncommon generosity? What might be possible? LAUREL Harris Presbyterian Church and Portland closed its doors a couple years ago. And some people asked what if? What if we gave the building and the land back to the Native American community that lives in that area? As an act of reparation for the past wrongs, as an act of healing and reconciliation and the presbytery of the Cascades. Our presbytery voted just a couple of weeks ago to do that very thing to give the church and the land back to a cooperative of indigenous communities. The Church will become a community center for the native people in that area. And tiny homes will be built on the land for Indigenous women and their children experiencing homelessness. A new story, a larger story, a story previously thought impossible, became possible. Because some people asked What if what if we were all in living the spacious and radical love of Jesus, that all might flourish. The story for the Native community in that area will be changed. But I believe it also makes space is for a new story for the church. And you know, that’s what stewardship is all about. Stewardship is about being stewards, caretakers of God’s dreams, God’s purposes of healing this broken world of ours, with love, we invest our resources, we invest our lives, so that new stories can be told. I want to share a story from the Gospel of Mark, about some friends who were all in. Jesus was in town preaching, teaching, healing, and a huge crowd gathered. Jesus retreated to a small house, the the house became so packed with people that, that the doorways were blocked and, and people surrounded the house trying to hear and trying the best they could to get close to Jesus, longing to be healed. And the story says, a paralyzed man was being carried by four friends. Who are these four friends? Who are these four friends wanting to bring this man to Jesus, now a paralyzed man and that culture would have been a social outcast, forced to live on the outskirts of town. And the theology of the day was that it that if you were sick, if you had a skin disease, like leprosy, you had mental health issues, or you were paralyzed, it was believed to be the result of your own sinfulness. And that God was punishing you. And you were kept at arm’s length, and forced to live on the margins. I mean, how many in our society today are kept at arm’s length. So who are these four friends, willing to go to the margins and risk their own respectability to bring this man to Jesus? Father, Greg Boyle says God doesn’t call us to the bargains to make a difference. God calls us to the margins, so that we will be different. What risks are you willing to take? For the sake of others? So the four men, four friends carrying the paralyzed man, they couldn’t get close to Jesus because the crowd was just too big. Now, what didn’t No one would have blamed them if they would have just given up, walked away, disappointed disheartened. One more reason to believe that you know, things will never change. But that’s not what happened. These four friends looked at each other, and asked an outrageous question. What if? What if we dug a hole in the roof and lowered him to Jesus? The story says, since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd. They made an opening in the roof above Jesus, by digging through it, and then lowered the mat. The man was lying on what I mean talk about being all in, they tore the roof open, and lowered their friend to Jesus. What roofs are we willing to tear open, to bring people closer to hope, to healing to love? What if it’s our own hearts that need to be opened in new ways? And Jesus responded in the most curious way. The story says, When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, Son, your sins are forgiven, Get up, take your mat, and go home. When Jesus saw their faith, when Jesus saw the faith of these four friends, that’s the first thing he saw. He saw their faith. He didn’t see broken tiles. He didn’t see annoying intruders breaking all the social and religious customs. Jesus saw their faith. I mean, what roofs are we willing to tear open where it might be set of us? Jesus saw our faith, you know, as we look to the future, in what ways will those, maybe those who have given up on the church who see the church as just not relevant to their lives? And what ways might they see our faith? How will the hungry and the homeless see our faith? And how will the lost and the lonely see our faith? How will those struggling with mental health issues see our faith? How will the immigrant refugee see our faith how our children and our grandchildren and see our faith. How will young people see our faith? What if we tore open some roofs? The story says when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, Son, Son, your sins are forgiven. Remember, the theology of the day believed the man’s paralysis was the result of his own sinfulness. Jesus says to the man deemed unworthy and forced to live on the outskirts of town, son. It’s actually the same word Jesus heard in the waters of the Jordan River. You are My beloved Son. That one word, that one word son, means he’s no longer cursed. He’s blessed. He’s no longer unworthy. He’s beloved, he’s no longer an outsider. He is welcomed. He belongs. How many people today longing to know that they are loved, worthy, welcomed, valued. Like those four friends, are we willing to risk everything, tear open some roofs, be all in helping people receive the healing and the love that they longed for. Jesus said, Son, your sins are forgiven. The religious leaders looked at each other said he can’t do that. He can’t just forgive there are rules to follow. There are rituals. No one can forgive sins, but God alone. And I imagined them also saying and who’s going to pay for the roof. Jesus rips open the roof of a rigid, restrictive theology and introduces a spacious theology. Jesus shucks everyone showing there are no rules. There are no rituals that have to be performed. To know God’s healing. To know God’s forgiveness, to know God’s unconditional love. The love you’re seeking is already yours. You no longer need to be paralyzed by fear and shame. What if we tore open the roofs of judgment, tore open the roofs of fear and people understood at their depths that they are loved unconditionally, that they are loved beyond their imagining. Jesus tells the man to get up, take his mat, go home. Perhaps the real healing is that this man is restored to relationship. He is restored to community he is restored to his true self as a beloved child of God. And it all started with four friends who loves so fiercely that they refuse to let anything get in the way. And they asked what if? What if we just tear open the roof? The story changes when we dare to ask, what if? And it says in the Gospel of Mark that everyone was amazed. And they praise God saying we have never seen anything like this. What if what if we were so all in in our commitment to living the spacious and radical love of Jesus that people saw our faith? And they said we have never seen anything like this. Maybe so
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