In nineteen ninety-four…

in the little Anglican Church in Yankalilla…

some bubbling appeared in the plaster of the sanctuary wall…

and people began to claim that it was an image of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.

A frame was placed around it…

and the area roped off…

in large part due to the numbers of pilgrims that began arriving.

And it garnered considerable media attention.

Two years later…

the Bishop blessed and dedicated the site…

and it became known as ‘Our Lady of Yankalilla’.

A retreat centre was built;

a religious community was formed to minister to pilgrims;

and numerous memorabilia were produced, along with a newsletter.

Over time, however, the bubbling in the plaster changed.

Some began to claim that it had transformed into the Pieta—

namely, Mary holding the body of the crucified Jesus.

Others thought they saw Mary with a rose.

The parish priest of the time…

suggested that it was turning into an image of Mary MacKillop.

There are few pilgrims now.

The memorabilia are no longer produced.

The religious community has folded.

The congregation of the church has continued to dwindle.

And they now share a priest with several other churches.

 

Of course, it would be easy to be cynical—

to suggest that it was simply an exercise in creative fund-raising and advertising.

But the scary thing is that some people actually believed—

or wanted to believe—

that it was a ‘miracle’.

But, frankly, why would God bother?

It makes no sense and achieves nothing.

It simply makes those involved seem utterly gullible and stupid…

which only reinforces, for many, the belief that Christianity is idiotic…

irrelevant…

and out of touch with reality.

And before you start protesting that, “that’s not what Christianity is about”…

just stop for a minute.

Because some of the things that many mainstream Christians believe and profess…

are also pretty dubious in the cold light of day.

Leaving aside notions that the world began in the way that Genesis describes, what about: 

the story of Noah’s ark;

or Sarah having a baby in her nineties;

or the Israelites wandering forty years in a desert…

which could have been traversed in about a month;

or that a young woman fell pregnant without having sex…

after having been visited by an angel.

To be honest, there are quite a number of things that I cannot believe or accept…

scientifically…

historically…

or even theologically.

There are things that trouble me or make me uncomfortable.

And I also find it difficult when people take scripture literally…

and especially when they pull odd bits out from here and there…

string them together…

ignoring their context—

both literary and social-historical context—

and then use that to justify anything they want…

be it slavery…

apartheid…

or the exclusion of gay and lesbian people;

claiming that that’s what the Bible teaches…

or that’s what Christians believe.

 

All of which brings us to this morning’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel.

Here, in a sense, the author reminds us about what really matters:

“Jesus went about…teaching…proclaiming the good news…and healing every illness and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless”.

When we get behind all of the myth and legend…

and all of the pontification by religious leaders—

and their obsession with people’s sex lives;

and their penchant for wanting to dictate social policy for everyone…

as if we lived in a theocracy—

if we get behind all of that… 

and we actually stop to consider what God is really like—

the God made known to us in Jesus—

then we see that, without fail, God is compassionate…

especially towards those who are struggling and oppressed.

Because that is what’s meant here.

To say that the crowds are “harassed and helpless” is to make a comment about their social condition.

After all, they were peasants—

people who barely produced enough for their families to survive…

and whose lot in life was made worse by crippling taxes and tolls…

and repaying loans to wealthy patrons…

as well as the tithes that they were forced to pay to maintain the Temple.

But the compassion of God doesn’t just stop there.

It’s also directed towards those who are sick and ill.

Now, as I have said before…

back then, in that world, people didn’t think scientifically or medically.

They didn’t understand about bacteria or cancer or chemical imbalances.

They didn’t know about disease or infection.

Rather, people were sick if they didn’t appear normal…

and if the community told them that they were sick.

So, illness, then, was all about community perception.

The same goes for demonic possession.

People were labelled as “possessed” when they didn’t behave as expected—

when they broke important norms and values.

So, to call someone “possessed” was to say that their behaviour was inappropriate.

It was to make a statement about their place in society:

that they weren’t normal…

and they didn’t fit.

As a result, they were marginalised, excluded, and shunned.

So, when we hear that Jesus healed, it means that he went about redefining perception;

challenging the way that people were seen and labelled.

He went about changing how they were treated:

declaring that those who were perceived to be abnormal, were valued;

that those who were excluded, did belong.

And that’s what God does.

Jesus demonstrated…

unequivocally…

that God’s essential nature is empathetic—

always welcoming, valuing, and affirming…

with compassion and love.

 

But this reading also reminds us that Jesus asked his followers to do likewise.

“Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every illness and every sickness”.

As the people of God, we too are called to continue Jesus’ ministry.

We are called…

indeed, we are sent…

to address fundamental human needs—

the need to be whole, welcomed, accepted, valued, and included.

And we’re called and sent to confront and oppose the forces of evil—

the forces that label and devalue, that exclude and destroy.

That’s what it means to be the people of God.

That’s what it means to be ‘church’.

It’s not about buildings, hymns, or having a nice worship experience.

It’s not about following a set of rules… 

or a list of do’s and don’ts.

Ultimately, it’s quite simple and incredibly hard.

Being people of God—

being ‘church’—

is about being a channel of God’s compassion:

healing brokenness…

welcoming the unwelcomed…

including the excluded…

confronting and opposing the forces of evil…

and turning death into life.

 

But you know, it’s easy to forget that—

sometimes I forget that—

amid the busyness of life…

and all of the competing claims on our time and energy.

And, to be honest, the nature of the church doesn’t help.

We’re good at holding meetings…

forming committees…

and talking.

But maybe, sometimes, we need to stop all of the talking—

stop all of the committees and meetings—

and start to remember;

remember what Jesus was really on about…

who we are called to be.…

and what we are called to do.

 

And you know if we actually did that…

then, maybe, people would have to sit up and take notice…

for all of the right reasons.