February 20
Readings – IS 58:9B-14; LK 5:27-32
If I had to recommend one reading to focus on in Lent, it might just be Isaiah 58. This chapter is such a powerful manifesto which articulates the heart of our faith as spoken through the prophets. And this is the faith that Jesus read and studied and embodied in his ministry.
A broken, hurting world is not God’s desire. People made choices that made it this way, and many people continue to support it (intentionally and unintentionally). Yet is also true that so many people – in our current times and throughout history – have resisted it.
The great writer Arundhati Roy once said, “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” We can hear her breathing every time we become what Isaiah names “repairers of the breach.”
The world religion means to “bind back together”. Good religion always tries to bring back together that which has been separated. Repairers of the breach are those who seek opportunities to repair that which has been separated, broken, ruptured or harmed, and this is the work our faith invites us into.
Now this does not mean that we’ve got to broker a peace deal between warring parties in order to be repairers (as nice as that would be). Repairers of the breach mend the relationships in our lives. We show up in the places where separation and harm have happened. We hold space for difficult conversations that can make repair possible. we take actions that account for what has happened. We tend to our own wounds and what has become divided in our own lives. We see Jesus repairing the breach with Levi. today. And anytime there is a repair, we all benefit somehow.
In our country there are a lot of calls for “repair” right now. People want to move on and unify.
Yes repair is needed, but there’s a lot that will need to go into that. Levi is a good model for us today. He doesn’t seek surface level change. He goes all in and says an immediate and wholehearted, “Yes,” when Jesus invites him into the journey. He knows that if there is to be authentic repair – especially at a social level – he can’t go back to business as usual. Remember, Levi was a tax collector and was part of the Roman system that took people’s money – leaving them poor and indebted. Jesus calls him out of that system. And Levi follows.
We can start just about anywhere to repair what is broken in this world (and there is much), and sometimes it is hardest to start in our own lives and relationships. But no matter where we decide to start, the promise is the same – our strength will be renewed, ancient ruins will be rebuilt, our light will shine and we will be guided by God.
9 Comments
Sarah Brownell
I love that religion means “to bind back together”. It really resonates with my experiences and the beauty that can come from forgiveness and reconcillation. Also, I’m thinking of the Catholic Worker tenent of “building a new society in the shell of the old”–the idea that we need to build things and act in our daily activities based on the values we want to uphold, rather than in the form of the current systems which clearly doesn’t work for a lot of people.
Mike Boucher Author
thanks, Sarah, for bringing the Catholic Worker vision into the conversation and the idea of strengthening the values we uphold within these systems. You have modeled that for me over the years!
barbara a branzovich
“Every time there is a repair, we all benefit.” What a wonderful line! Mike, your insights and words have indeed inspired in this church many moves toward repair and binding back together. Thank you for your daily posts and for ever being a minister/interpreter of the Word.
Mike Boucher Author
thanks, Barbara!
Laura Allard
Love the message! And I would but add the importance of not defining what is in need of repair or how it is to be repaired as this limits the work God can do in and through our lives. In my experience, if we have already determined what the problem is and how it should be solved, we won’t recognize God’s answer when it comes because it will not be the solution to the problem we expected. We do not know what is for the highest good of all involved, but we can be instruments of One Who does know.
Mike Boucher Author
I agree, Laura. We all need to remain open to God’s work which always invites us deeper than we might have imagined.
Virginia Biggie
Thank you, Mike, for helping me to understand this scripture. Good Lenten resolution to be repairers of the many breaches in our lives.
Francene C McCarthy
Thank you once again for your eloquent words and insight. A friend of mine who had gone through AA many times once told me that it wasn’t until she truly met the spirit of God within her that she was healed. As Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” Jesus within was her healer.
Mike Boucher Author
amen!
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