"TRUST Sunday"
Shawn Mai
Sunday, April 18th 2004

Gospel: John 20: 19-31
Non-scriptural reading: Etty Hillesum in An Interrupted Life- There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there too. But more often stones and grit block the well, and God is buried beneath. Then He must be dug out again. I imagine that there are people who pray with their eyes turned heavenwards. They seek God outside themselves. And there are those who bow their head and bury it in their hands. I think that these seek God inside.

I have many responsibilities in my role as chaplain at Walker Methodist Health Center over on Bryant Avenue. Every few weeks I am a part of welcoming our new employee orientation group.

During their first afternoon at Walker one of the chaplains spends some time with them talking about spiritual care and its place in our delivery of care. That’s the mundane.

After these didactic moments I introduce a ritual to them that is part of beginnings at Walker. It is called the blessing of the hands and we read a litany together and then I take my myrrh oil around and bless their hands. We do this recognizing the unique gifts that each one of them brings to our life as a community. We think it is important to name the powerful gifts we bring with our hands and with our hearts.

But naming that holiness is not nearly as powerful as the act of the ritual.

As I’ve gone around that room countless times I’ve had the privelage of coming in contact with all kinds of hands...it is actually quite an earthy experience and it always leaves me with a bit of a lump in my throat. The lines, the scars, the rings, the nics, the nails...they all tell a story and no two hands are the same.

The echoes of Jewel’s reflection on HANDS....’these hands are small I know...these hands are God’s hands...” They have the power to change the world.

They are also tools of discovery for us.

It was his hands that Thomas used to discover the risen Lord. Just as a small child might reach out to know beauty in the touch of a tiny kitten’s fur, Thomas reached out to discover love. It was his hands that made connection for him with the divine.

He needed to touch Jesus-to place his fingers on the wounds and know for himself that this was indeed Jesus risen and present.

It was Jesus own words about how we experience him that leads us to recognize the power of our hands. To feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to welcome the stranger....all of these powerful acts that involve touching the Christ.

When we reach out with these hands to hammer a broken board to seal up a drafty house, hand a warm meal to a homebound senior down the street, or wrap a prayer shawl around the hurting body and or wounded spirit with a hug....we are reaching out and touching the living Christ.

TRUST..Toward Renewed Unity and Service Together...in 1970, St. Joan of Arc along with 7 other congregations in south Minneapolis recognized the power of joining hands and doing the work of the Gospel together. Over the last thirty years homes have been built, hungry people have been fed, the sick and lonely have been comforted, and the this neighborhood has been changed.

Listen what happens when collective hands come together. Through HandyWorks last year there were 422 clients that were served in over 10,000 hours of service. 45 people were employed and 431 volunteers completed the work.

The parish nurse program, which is near and dear to my heart utilized 40 volunteers and over 1,000 hours of service to make visits, phone clients, and hold blood pressure clinics. Through the program 425 flu shots were given at 11 congregationally based flu shot clinics. . Among the greatest malidies for older adults is depression, lonliness, and boredom. This program does a great job keeping older adults in the community connected in relationship through one on one contacts.

One woman that is served by the compassionate companions program that Walker has done with TRUST’s parish nurse program is literally a different woman because of her weekly contact with one of your members from St. Joan’s who visits her on Sunday afternoons. This woman’s husband died a year and a half ago. She moved here to be close to her son who is busy with work and family. Her previous support systems are far away. If it weren’t for her listening companion I would not see the smile I often see now. Every Sunday morning as she leaves church she reminds me that she’ll see Arlene that afternoon. This TRUST program has given her the gift of friendship which has melted a lot of bitterness that has plagued her since her loss.

Today the work of TRUST continues with the help of nearly twenty congregations. This parish has been key to TRUST’s success.

Each day as I make my way to the employee cafeteria at Walker I see so many of you picking up food for homebound seniors in the TRUST Meals on Wheels program. Even when its below zero and snow is flying, you are there along with the other TRUST network volunteers to feed those who hunger in body and spirit. St. Joan’s provides a large chunk of the team of volunteers that delivers an average of 85 meals a day, everyday including holidays.

But its not just about what we do for others in this process of reaching out, its what we do also for ourselves. As human beings we are seekers of the divine. As Pete read a bit ago from Etty, we all have that spirit work of cleaning out the gook. Some of that sometimes is the same kind of questioning that Thomas had, maybe it’s a difficult life experience that we lose ourselves in...those moments when we hold our heads in our hands in utter lostness.

In these very moments God seeks to hold us in expressions of love and, as Christ has shown us, among other ways this is accessible in our reaching out.

Look at your hands. Look at the palms of your hands. See the marks, the scars, and the lines of your hands. Turn your hands over and see the rings, see the character, the strength, the bones, and the flesh of your hands. These hands are powerful. They hold the power to literally bring life and healing to people. In this these hands are found footprints of the divine.

What we come to find out is that the quest for the divine usually finds us in the context of relationship. It seems that there really is some power in that ‘loving the neighbor.’ Toward Renewed Unity and Service Together....TRUST. You might also describe it as organized relationship in south Minneapolis.

One of the beautiful relationships through TRUST that came to me started with Pat McLoughlin, the TRUST parish nurse...who is one of this communities premiere networkers...she introduced me to Julie Madden. Oh what a blessing that has been! As we reveled in the gift of new friendship we quickly started connecting on ministry opportunities with St. Joan’s, TRUST, and Walker.

One of the pillars of our Walker community life is Sunday morning worship...as you might imagine it is difficult for many residents to get to worship. Julie hooked me up with Pete and a group of young people from St. Joan’s. Pete and the group came to Walker once, realized the importance of our first Sunday of the month sacramental offering and have volunteered for those sundays ever since.

Early on in their Sunday service project one of our Sunday morning communion servers was gone. As always Pete was ready to jump in wherever help was needed.. I cringed because it isn’t always the cleanest process to serve communion to a population of people who have some pretty serious fine motor skill challenges. That’s a nice way of saying...the job makes your hands get dirty.

But following the communion Pete came to me looking as though he had met the Christ face to face. His words and the emotion behind his words describing what it was for him to serve communion relayed his brush with the divine.

His words seemed to be an echo of Thomas’s proclaimation, “My Lord, and my God”!

May we rejoice today in the living Lord who makes himself known in such beautiful ways. As Peter Mayer reminds us, everything is Holy Now. May we continue to be led in our own communities to touch with compassion all that is holy and all that needs a touch of the divine. AMEN