Have you ever noticed that people are messy?

I don’t mean straighten-your-collar messy or fix-you-hair messy but someone-just-threw-up-on-themselves messy. I had a brief conversation with a friend today and it reminded me of this. I say reminded because if you live near a dump long enough you lose the sense of the smell – so it is with people. We are messy but sometimes we forget until we meet someone who’s mess has spilled out on themselves.

Some of us are better at hiding their messes than others, white-washed tombs and all, but tombs every one nevertheless.

Our messes can drive us apart. This is no surprise. Still, I have been thinking about the Church (Big C body) and our various struggles with the messiness of lives . Some messes seem easier to manage than others…I would say the easiest messes to handle are the ones that are unseen…

When our messes puke out all over us and invariably on others, we and the Church often struggle.

The example that came up in conversation this afternoon was when the AIDS epidemic emerged. Many, including but not limited to the Church, struggled with how to respond. There were fears that a response other than condemnation of a particular lifestyle would seem to condone said lifestyle. There were fears that compassion would be misconstrued as approval. Ultimately the fear was that love might be misconstrued as…love.

So it took a long time as people withered, suffered and died before many of us stumbled upon a novel idea – when we are confronted by suffering perhaps all we need to do is comfort. Be there. To enter into the lives of the dying, embrace them, pray for them, and…love them without thought of what they believe our motives might be because ultimately other people’s thoughts are other people’s and we really have no authority over them but we do have authority over our own and how we act upon them.

I say this because I see a lot of messy, suffering people in our community (and other communities, and countries, and the world) that we may be struggling to draw close to. They have thrown up on themselves and our instinct is to stay away and keep the myth of clean. We fear perhaps that embracing might be perceived as approval when sometimes an embrace is simply an embrace.

John 9:1-7 says:

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

The question the disciples ask is archetypal – “Who’s fault is this man’s mess?” Our desire is to find cause in order to lay blame. The blind, lame, diseased, and obviously broken people in Christ’s time were the untouchables. Their affliction was their own fault or the fault of one close to them – translation – they deserve their pain, let them live in it.

Christ wanders into the midst of this thinking and in response simply says this is a God-given opportunity to love. To be light. To be my presence in the world.

Now before you get all freaked out at the possibility that God blinded a man so that God might then heal him, understand that each and every one of us is afflicted. Each of us is blind. Each of us is diseased in someway. Translation – every person we encounter is an opportunity to be Christ, to heal and ultimately to genuinely love. Not simply the easy ones to love with their messes well covered.

From the unparalleled Sermon on the Mount we hear our Lord speak directly to us and say:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighborand hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” – Matthew 5:43-48

This is about us…you and I friend – the Church.  🙂

Seek out the sick and dying as one in the palliative care ward at a hospital who gets out of their bed and wanders across the hall to their neighbour simply in order to hold their hand. Do not expect the untouchables to come to you, into your space, for they have been conditioned over the years to stay away and keep their disease to themselves.

No, we must enter the charnel houses where the skeletal remains of our dying brethren live and bring the purifying flames of peace, grace and compassion. We must enter the house of the dead, breathe in the pestilence and breathe out love. In this way there is light in dark places of the world and we lose sight of the mess on others and ourselves and begin to see the spark of the divine, the image of God.

This is sanctification. This is salvation. This is Christ.