I'm going to take a break from Mark
today. I know that we just got back into his gospel after spending
seven weeks in Ephesians, but today is a special case.
As you know we are doing our part to
participate in the Washington County Goes Purple (WCGP) campaign. I
serve on the HARC Board where we look for positive ways to engage our
various faith communities in issues we think important. I did the
recovery walk a few weeks ago and tied a purple ribbon around a
parking meter (my back was giving me fits, so that's about all I
could handle). Some of you may have participated in the WCGP walk
held this past Saturday morning. We have made an outward and visible
sign of our support by using purple hangings this month. And today
we have brought in Vicki Sterling and Emily Keller to meet with both
teens and adults regarding this epidemic.
As I mentioned, I had originally
planned on preaching from Mark's gospel and how today's passage
obviously points us to the cross. But as I was perusing the readings
of the day, I noticed that the psalm is particularly relevant to us
right now.
The cords of death entangled me, the
grip of the grave took hold of me; I came to grief and sorrow.
Is there any other passage that so
succinctly describes the state of those besieged by opioid addiction?
These first verses of Psalm 116 could probably serve as the focal
point of addiction and the road to recovery.
We are entangled by the cords of death,
and are in the grip of the grave. We ourselves may not have an
addiction problem, but we may know someone who does, whether family
or friend. Both our community and larger society certainly have an
addiction problem. And where this crisis affects society and
community, it affects us here at St. John's.
The opioid epidemic was the topic of
the HARC gathering last week. There were three things I took away
from that discussion.
First was my own sense of hopelessness,
or helplessness. This crisis is so big and so overwhelming that
sometimes I don't even know where to start. How do we deal with a
crisis that has its roots in the medical/pharmaceutical industry
where doctors have been allowed to become legal drug pushers? How do
we deal with a crisis in which medical companies main focus is the
bottom line? How do we deal with a system that puts company profits
over the well-being of people. How do we deal with a system where
drug company CEO's defend raising prices anywhere from 400 to 5000
percent as being a “moral imperative to make money.” How do we
deal with a system that continually cuts aid to mental health and
rehab facilities?
I don't have the answers to those
questions. All I can do is look at it and say, “Where do we even
begin?”
Second was part of a response to those
concerns and that sense of hopelessness and/or helplessness I voiced
during the meeting by Rabbi Ari Plost. As I expressed where I was
personally with this situation others nodded in agreement. People
who spoke after me said, “Ditto,” or, “What he said.” Rabbi
Ari replied, “In my tradition we are reminded that God does not
call us to finish every task. But neither are we at liberty to
desist in working for what is right.”
He's right.
And I shouldn't let my feelings of
hopelessness/helplessness, or of being overwhelmed by the enormity of
it all, deter me from doing something. To borrow a metaphor, we are
faced with the vastness of a crisis that has washed thousands of
people up onto a desolate shore. It is now our job to throw them
back into living water. We may not save all the starfish, but we can
certainly save some.
Third, besides educating ourselves and
our children about this crisis, we need to be a place of support. As
the body of Christ, as the embodiment of God on earth, it is our job
to live into the words of the rest of this psalm.
Gracious is the Lord and righteous; our
God is full of compassion.
We must have compassion for those
afflicted by opioids.
The Lord watches over the innocent; I
was brought very low, and he helped me.
Not all addicts are innocent. But I
would be willing to bet that the vast majority of them didn't wake up
one day and say, “I think I'll go pop some pills and become an
addict.” People caught in the trap of addiction have been brought
very low. We need to find ways to help.
I hope that if we do these things –
recognize the problem, do something to alleviate it, and become a
place of support – we will indeed be a safe place where people can
see and experience God's love and respect of their human dignity.
And by doing these things, we just might hear people say, “For you
have rescued my life from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from
stumbling.”
Today we have Emily Keller and Vicki
Sterling with us to help us understand a little about the crisis.
Education is certainly one concrete thing we can do. Hopefully, with
this information, persistence, and a bit of hope, we will be able to
put more than a few people back into the waters of life.
Amen.
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