Cynicism and Hope

Senator Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) says that we need to help each other rather than relying on government, even when it comes to health care:

I agree with Senator Coburn that government is not the answer to all our problems and that we need to be far more generous to our neighbors.

But let’s think logistics here.

The woman in this video probably needs a lot of hands-on assistance from neighbors to care well for her husband and herself. She also needs financial assistance for the medical care that will allow him to eat and drink—and that his health insurance won’t pay for.

Let’s imagine that she has fantastically generous neighbors who organize a round-the-clock schedule of caregivers and begin raising funds so her husband can get the medical help he needs.

How long will he live without food and water while they wait for sufficient funds to come in to hire a private-duty nurse and buy the necessary medical equipment?

And what if those neighbors are simultaneously caring for many other people in their community who have traumatic injuries and life-threatening illnesses?

On Sunday my brother and I visited Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship, where Pastor Joel Miller delivered three mini-sermons on Ephesians 5:21—6:9, the challenging passage about submission. It so happened that his wife was scheduled to read the scripture passage to the congregation that morning; after reading it, she said wryly, “Let’s see what Joel does with this.”

I was impressed by what he did with it,* but my brother, who has a cognitive disability, was confused. He has a tough time with metaphors, and the part about the blind men and the elephant really threw him for a loop.

Still, he enjoyed the service and seemed to think well of the church. The people were very friendly. They laughed easily together. The printed bulletin detailed a surprising amount of activity for such a small congregation. Good reasons to return even if the sermons are hard for him to understand.

The experience got me to thinking about the people in my own congregation who are just beginning to learn English. They come Sunday after Sunday though they have difficulty understanding the sermons. There is so much more than the sermon that draws them there and keeps them there.

Doctrine is important; clear preaching is important. But they are not alone the measure of a church, and they cannot alone preach God’s word. Maybe one way to evaluate whether a congregation is fully communicating the gospel is to consider how the good news is heard and experienced by congregants who don’t understand all the words.

*Joel delivered three separate mini-sermons from three different interpretive perspectives, speaking each time as someone who holds that perspective. So as not to promote one perspective over the other, he had a member of the congregation pick the names of the mini-sermons out of a hat to determine the order in which he presented them. Surely the congregation knew where he stood, and it’s not likely that everyone agreed with him, but he created an atmosphere of respect that would allow for unity nonetheless.