I picked up my violin one evening last week. I bought it several years ago, remembering how I always wanted to learn to play. And so it was that not long ago I had a few days off and thought maybe I should try again….It didn’t go well.I find myself squinting at and enlarging the fingering diagrams in my ‘teach yourself Violin ’ book, complete with CD to accompany my so called sounds. I might get one note to sound halfway decent, but I seem to not have a hope of transitioning to another one smoothly. I need a teacher, or else that violin will find its way back into the corner where it will continue to gather dust.
And isn’t this always the case for anything that matters? Don’t we always need someone to first show us how it’s done?
Today we will hear three stories, Jesus calling the Matthew the tax caller, the healing of a dead daughter and the healing of the woman who was bleeding .All different and expressions of one thing .. Love
We too need a teacher.
- One who will walk alongside us first teaching us the basics of how to Love.
- Not one to show us how to hold our fingers, but how to extend our hearts.
- One to help us know …when it is time to be quiet and when to speak.
A teacher who can show us how to slow down and how best to speed up for the sake of the others, for the sake of love. Each Gospel story today unfolds into an image that expresses Love in Action; Jesus reaching out to tax collector who was hated in his community; the healing of a beloved child, in the midst of the wailing; and the woman who was persistent, who never gave up, who was a pest in the society, unclean and seemingly worthless
- When tender moments are witnessed,
- When acceptance happens in the midst of fear,
- When going beyond the boundaries of the norm are witnessed … news spreads quickly, that healing has occurred.
But we will need to practice and practice and practice, and through it all, we will be wise to hold before ourselves an image of what perfect love looks like, sounds like, acts like, lives like… and that is Jesus who invites to love courageously.
Revd Ruth Dillon