Susan Henry-Crowe - "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?" (August 23, 1992)
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Transcript
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- | Hear now the words from Isaiah | 0:02 |
chapter 61 verses one through four. | 0:05 | |
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, | 0:15 | |
because the Lord has anointed me | 0:17 | |
to bring good tidings to the afflicted. | 0:19 | |
He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, | 0:22 | |
to proclaim liberty to the captives, | 0:25 | |
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, | 0:28 | |
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor | 0:31 | |
and the day of the vengeance of our God, | 0:34 | |
to comfort all who mourn, | 0:37 | |
to grant to those who mourn in Zion, | 0:40 | |
to give them a garland instead of ashes, | 0:43 | |
the oil of gladness instead of mourning, | 0:47 | |
the mantle of praises instead of a faint spirit, | 0:50 | |
that they may be called the oaks of righteousness, | 0:53 | |
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. | 0:56 | |
They shall build up the ancient ruins, | 1:00 | |
they shall raise up the former devastations, | 1:02 | |
they shall repair the ruined cities, | 1:06 | |
the devastations of many generations. | 1:09 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 1:12 | |
(congregation mumbles) | 1:15 | |
And hear now the words from the gospel of Matthew | 1:18 | |
chapter 11 verses two through six. | 1:22 | |
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds | 1:26 | |
of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples | 1:29 | |
and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come? | 1:32 | |
"Or shall we look for another?" | 1:36 | |
And Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John | 1:40 | |
"what you hear and see, the blind receive their sight, | 1:44 | |
"the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, | 1:49 | |
"and the dead are raised up | 1:54 | |
"and the poor have good news preached to them, | 1:55 | |
"and blessed is the one who takes no offense at me." | 1:59 | |
This is the word of the Lord. | 2:04 | |
- | Thanks be to God. | 2:07 |
- | Good morning. | 2:11 |
It is indeed a great honor and privilege | 2:15 | |
to be invited to preach here | 2:18 | |
in the midst of this wonderful congregation | 2:20 | |
at the end of what has been for me a very wonderful summer. | 2:22 | |
I'd like to thank Deborah for all of her hospitality | 2:27 | |
and the ways that she has extended herself | 2:30 | |
on your behalf to me. | 2:32 | |
And I also would just like to say a word of thanks | 2:35 | |
to Will in his absence. | 2:38 | |
Will and I go way back. | 2:41 | |
We both are from Greenville, South Carolina; | 2:42 | |
we both went to Buncombe Street United Methodist Church; | 2:45 | |
we both graduated from Greenville High School. | 2:49 | |
And I even know some stories about him (laughs), | 2:52 | |
but I'll not tell them today (chuckles). | 2:56 | |
But it is indeed an honor to be his colleague | 2:58 | |
and to be invited on this occasion. | 3:01 | |
For a few moments this morning, | 3:05 | |
I want to invite you to engage in the act | 3:06 | |
of putting back together some events | 3:09 | |
from about a quarter of a century ago. | 3:11 | |
By looking out, I can tell that many of you remember that. | 3:15 | |
But if you would, think back to the year of 1966 and '67. | 3:19 | |
For those of us who are in our 40s, | 3:26 | |
we were moving into our high school and early college years, | 3:29 | |
away at camp in our Presbyterian or Lutheran | 3:33 | |
or Methodist camp youth groups. | 3:36 | |
But most of all, we were motivated by our hormones | 3:39 | |
and we were trying to fall in and out of love. | 3:44 | |
Many of you will remember that we experimented | 3:48 | |
with what it means to grow up, | 3:51 | |
and in those years, sometimes we did it | 3:52 | |
in rather imaginative ways. | 3:56 | |
For those who are now in your 50s, | 4:00 | |
you were going to college or working and graduating | 4:02 | |
and worrying about whether or not you would be involved | 4:05 | |
in the war in Vietnam. | 4:11 | |
You were probably falling in love | 4:15 | |
for what you thought would be the last time in your life, | 4:17 | |
and perhaps beginning to articulate your hopes and dreams | 4:22 | |
about life and friends and footballs games | 4:25 | |
and marriage and, even occasionally, | 4:28 | |
probably allowed yourself to let your heart give rise | 4:34 | |
to follow those timeless questions | 4:40 | |
about the meaning of life and death. | 4:43 | |
For those who are now in your 60s and beyond, | 4:48 | |
you were well on your way in establishing your career, | 4:51 | |
or perhaps beginning another one, | 4:54 | |
being parents, and wanting to give your children | 4:57 | |
and the children of this world the best, | 5:01 | |
because you knew deep inside | 5:05 | |
that your children and your grandchildren would face | 5:07 | |
unimagined ethical and moral issues in a world | 5:12 | |
that was changing very rapidly. | 5:17 | |
And you were raising questions about the world | 5:21 | |
in which you were living, | 5:24 | |
and probably both insecure and excited | 5:26 | |
about the world that was to come. | 5:29 | |
And for all of us, there were those other experiences | 5:34 | |
and events and moments of which we have | 5:38 | |
some corporate memory. | 5:42 | |
It is the memory of the body | 5:45 | |
and we all remember the things that I will highlight today, | 5:49 | |
both individually and collectively. | 5:54 | |
When I say the date November the 22nd, 1963, | 5:59 | |
you all remember. | 6:05 | |
You remember where you were and what you were doing, | 6:07 | |
because, of course, that was the day | 6:11 | |
that President Kennedy had been assassinated. | 6:13 | |
And on that day, our worldview began to change, | 6:17 | |
because not only did we experience the loss | 6:23 | |
and the death of a President, | 6:26 | |
but because of that death | 6:29 | |
and the circumstances which surrounded it. | 6:31 | |
Some of our dreams that had been cultivated | 6:35 | |
by the idealism of that age, | 6:39 | |
and the post-World War II days, | 6:41 | |
our idealism was challenged. | 6:46 | |
Remember how we watched either with fascination or disdain, | 6:52 | |
depending on how old you were, the Beatles, | 6:59 | |
when Sunday night on the Ed Sullivan Show. | 7:03 | |
I remember it well, and how The Beatles shaped | 7:07 | |
both the rhythm and the expression | 7:11 | |
of our hearts and minds forever. | 7:14 | |
And remember in 1964 when Lyndon Baines Johnson, | 7:19 | |
in the midst of severe racial strife | 7:23 | |
signed the Civil Rights Act, | 7:26 | |
and we thought that the world would never be the same again. | 7:28 | |
And remember that rainy night in April of 1968 | 7:35 | |
when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. | 7:40 | |
And remember the summer of 1966 when Watts burned | 7:46 | |
for five days in one of the most fierce | 7:50 | |
racial riots of the decade. | 7:56 | |
And now 25 years ago this summer in 1967, | 8:00 | |
the Six Day War in Israel that has shaped | 8:06 | |
the history of the world since that time. | 8:09 | |
It was also that summer or that year | 8:13 | |
that Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court, | 8:16 | |
the first black in America's history | 8:19 | |
to ever sit on the Supreme Court. | 8:22 | |
And for those of you who are around my age, | 8:26 | |
you will remember a song written by Jimmy and David Ruffin, | 8:29 | |
recorded on Motown Records, | 8:36 | |
which was entitled, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?" | 8:40 | |
You know the words of that. | 8:46 | |
Even though we know the tune better | 8:47 | |
than we remember the words, | 8:49 | |
but the words of that song are: | 8:51 | |
"As I walk this land of broken dreams | 8:54 | |
"I have visions of many things, | 8:58 | |
"but happiness is just an illusion | 9:02 | |
"filled with sadness and confusion. | 9:04 | |
"What becomes of the brokenhearted | 9:08 | |
"who had love that's now departed? | 9:12 | |
"I know I've got to find some kind of peace of mind. | 9:15 | |
"The roots of love grow all around, | 9:21 | |
"but for me they come a-tumbling down. | 9:24 | |
"Every day heartache grows a little stronger, | 9:28 | |
"I can't stand this pain much longer. | 9:32 | |
"What becomes of the brokenhearted?" | 9:39 | |
The question I pose today is what indeed does become | 9:46 | |
of the brokenhearted? | 9:52 | |
What becomes of those who walk in the land of broken dreams | 9:55 | |
and a quarter of a century when so much has changed? | 10:00 | |
What becomes of those who had visions of many things? | 10:07 | |
What becomes of the brokenhearted | 10:13 | |
who had love that's now departed? | 10:16 | |
One of the most remarkable things | 10:20 | |
that has happened in the past month, I think, | 10:22 | |
has been the Democratic and Republican National Conventions | 10:27 | |
and even though I dislike very much the tone | 10:32 | |
of what has happened in many ways, | 10:36 | |
it seems to me that one of the questions | 10:39 | |
that has been raised, | 10:42 | |
not in the language of the people of faith, | 10:43 | |
or the language that we use today, | 10:47 | |
but when we begin to look at all that is happening | 10:51 | |
in this country, one of the questions is, | 10:54 | |
what has become of the brokenhearted | 10:57 | |
who had the dreams of idealism and justice | 11:01 | |
and all of those things that have not come to fruition | 11:04 | |
as we had hoped and imagined? | 11:09 | |
In all the years that have gone, | 11:14 | |
in the, held within the past quarter of a century, | 11:17 | |
life is full of joys, | 11:22 | |
it is full of experiences, of growth and learning, | 11:24 | |
and it is still full of deep disappointments, | 11:29 | |
and fears and broken hearts and shattered dreams | 11:33 | |
and all of the ambiguities and complexities of life. | 11:37 | |
And we live in a world | 11:43 | |
where hearts still get broken and shattered. | 11:44 | |
I am the mother of a teenage daughter, | 11:51 | |
and recently my daughter's good friend, | 11:53 | |
15 years of age, died in a tragic automobile accident. | 11:59 | |
And I sat in the midst of that congregation | 12:06 | |
on the day of her funeral, and I looked around | 12:09 | |
at all of the sad fathers and mothers, | 12:13 | |
and all of those mothers who were pregnant | 12:17 | |
at the same time that I was. | 12:19 | |
And I remember all the dreams that when I was pregnant | 12:23 | |
I held for my child and the world in which she would live. | 12:27 | |
And there, for a moment, faced all of the tragedies of life. | 12:32 | |
Many of us gathered here this day | 12:40 | |
have suffered the hurt and pain of separation and divorce | 12:44 | |
in these past 25 years. | 12:50 | |
And I do not have to remind us | 12:54 | |
of all of the events of this past year | 12:58 | |
where we have seen growing racial strife and bigotry | 13:01 | |
and fear and hatred in the world | 13:06 | |
and more importantly for a moment in this country, | 13:10 | |
when we thought it would not be that way again. | 13:16 | |
This country is in deep distress. | 13:24 | |
And we hoped and we believed after World War II, | 13:28 | |
it would not be that way again. | 13:31 | |
And the sins of exclusion abound on every side. | 13:36 | |
Jason was an eight-year-old child who had AIDS, | 13:43 | |
and it created a lot of anxiety and fear, | 13:49 | |
particularly among adults and the parents did not want | 13:53 | |
their children exposed to Jason | 13:58 | |
and the dread disease that he had. | 14:01 | |
And Jason had been sick, but he was to return to school, | 14:05 | |
and he returned to school. | 14:08 | |
And on the day that he returned, adults lined the sidewalks | 14:12 | |
of that walkway and entrance into the school, | 14:16 | |
carrying signs, "Jason, go home." | 14:19 | |
But at the end of that school day, | 14:26 | |
the third graders, the eight-year-olds, | 14:28 | |
walked Jason home, carrying a sign of their own | 14:31 | |
that they had made during the day, | 14:37 | |
and their sign read, | 14:41 | |
"Jason is a boy, not a disease." | 14:43 | |
And once again, this summer, we live | 14:52 | |
with the restless anxiety as we continue | 14:54 | |
to hear the horrors and be reminded | 14:57 | |
of the horrors of the Persian Gulf War, | 15:00 | |
and we remember far too well the shattered dreams | 15:03 | |
and the national tragedy of war. | 15:09 | |
And our hearts still get broken and our dreams are shattered | 15:14 | |
and life doesn't turn out like we want it to. | 15:17 | |
And what becomes of the brokenhearted? | 15:23 | |
There is an old rabbinic tale of Ibn Ezra | 15:28 | |
who on the eve of Yom Kippur prayed long and ardently | 15:33 | |
in the synagogue, much to the distress of his waiting rabbi. | 15:38 | |
Finally, the rabbi, out of his curiosity, | 15:43 | |
could stand it no longer, and he says to Ibn Ezra, | 15:46 | |
"Ibn Ezra, what is it that you say to the Master | 15:50 | |
"of the universe that takes you so long?" | 15:55 | |
Ibn Ezra says, "Rabbi, I'll tell you what I say | 16:00 | |
"to the Master of the universe. | 16:03 | |
"I say, 'O Lord of the universe, | 16:05 | |
'these are my sins and I confess them. | 16:09 | |
'I argued with my wife, | 16:14 | |
but who doesn't? | 16:17 | |
'I was angry with my children, | 16:20 | |
'but what parent isn't? | 16:23 | |
'I cheated a little in the shop | 16:27 | |
"but it was just a little and it was among friends. | 16:30 | |
'O Lord of the universe, these are my sins | 16:35 | |
'and they are very small. | 16:38 | |
'But now, consider your sins, O Master of the universe. | 16:41 | |
'You dry up the skies and our crops wither. | 16:48 | |
'You send too much rain and there is no food on our table | 16:56 | |
'for us to feed our children. | 17:03 | |
'The marriage bed is empty | 17:09 | |
'and there is no child in the womb. | 17:11 | |
'There are wars and our young die. | 17:16 | |
'These are your sins and they are very great. | 17:22 | |
'But I will make you a proposition. | 17:29 | |
'You forgive me my little sins, | 17:33 | |
'and I will forgive you your great ones.' | 17:36 | |
"Now rabbi, I ask you, | 17:42 | |
"was that asking too much?" | 17:45 | |
After thinking a long while, the rabbi answered, | 17:50 | |
"No, Ibn Ezra, it was not too much. | 17:53 | |
"But why, | 17:59 | |
"why did you drive so small a bargain? | 18:01 | |
"For sins like those, you could've asked him | 18:07 | |
"to send the Messiah, you could've asked him | 18:11 | |
"to redeem the world." | 18:16 | |
We long, | 18:23 | |
we long for the moment in time | 18:25 | |
when something will happen | 18:29 | |
that will ease the fear | 18:33 | |
and lessen the pain and heal the wounds | 18:36 | |
and bind up our broken hearts. | 18:40 | |
We yearn | 18:44 | |
for someone | 18:47 | |
or somebody | 18:49 | |
or some event | 18:52 | |
or some word | 18:54 | |
or some presence | 18:56 | |
that will bring comfort in the night, | 18:59 | |
that will help carry the pain of our burdened lives, | 19:03 | |
that will heal the racial strife in this land, | 19:08 | |
that will heal our broken hearts, | 19:14 | |
that will bridge all the exclusions | 19:18 | |
and hatreds of this world. | 19:22 | |
We know that the afflictions of humankind | 19:27 | |
are so incomprehensible that the brokenness | 19:30 | |
and sickness and pain and terror | 19:34 | |
that we have known and seen, | 19:37 | |
that for all of that, there must be | 19:39 | |
someone, | 19:43 | |
somebody, | 19:45 | |
some word, | 19:48 | |
some presence | 19:50 | |
that will heal us, | 19:52 | |
that will come | 19:54 | |
and save us. | 19:56 | |
John the Baptist was in prison. | 20:02 | |
And John sent two of the disciples | 20:07 | |
to go and search for that authentic one. | 20:09 | |
James and John go on that journey to find Jesus | 20:14 | |
with that deep and profound question | 20:19 | |
that they wanted to have responded to. | 20:23 | |
And they go to Jesus and they pose the question | 20:27 | |
that we read from the gospel today. | 20:31 | |
"Are you the one, | 20:34 | |
or must we wait for another?" | 20:37 | |
Are you the one? | 20:41 | |
And many of you know that the Greek word for one, | 20:45 | |
which is used in that text, | 20:49 | |
is also the same word for Savior, | 20:51 | |
and also the same word for the one who heals. | 20:55 | |
Are you the one | 21:00 | |
who comes to save us? | 21:03 | |
Are you the one | 21:06 | |
who comes to heal us? | 21:08 | |
Are you the one tho comes to forgive us? | 21:12 | |
Jesus responds in a most remarkable and graceful way. | 21:19 | |
And I read it to you, and here is what Jesus said. | 21:24 | |
He said, "Go and tell what you hear and see. | 21:28 | |
"Go and tell what you hear and see. | 21:34 | |
"The blind receive sight, lepers are cleansed, | 21:37 | |
deaf hear, | 21:42 | |
"the poor have good news preached to them, | 21:45 | |
"and the wounds of the brokenhearted are healed." | 21:49 | |
The whole story of salvation is the story | 21:56 | |
of the God who comes, | 22:00 | |
the God who comes to forgive us, | 22:03 | |
the one who comes to heal our broken hearts. | 22:07 | |
And Jesus says, "Go and tell what you have seen and heard." | 22:13 | |
You saw Watts burn for five days, | 22:19 | |
but you also saw schools integrated | 22:24 | |
and children learn all kinds of new things | 22:28 | |
and have new relationships. | 22:32 | |
Go and tell that you saw and remember | 22:36 | |
the rigidity of the Iron Curtain. | 22:40 | |
And you also saw that wall that divided | 22:44 | |
the East and the West come a-tumbling down. | 22:47 | |
Go and tell that you saw the shattered dreams | 22:53 | |
and promises when Martin Luther King was killed | 22:57 | |
on that rainy April night. | 23:00 | |
But you also go and tell that you saw Nelson Mandela walk | 23:04 | |
out of those prison walls. | 23:09 | |
Go and tell that you saw Jason | 23:13 | |
and children and adults ostracized because they had AIDS. | 23:16 | |
But you also go and tell that you saw people | 23:23 | |
and organizations and churches establish | 23:28 | |
new outreach ministries of healing. | 23:30 | |
Go and tell that you saw the broken heart | 23:35 | |
of that father the day his 17-year-old son left | 23:39 | |
and went to that far country like Los Angeles, | 23:43 | |
that far country to live his frightened and anxious | 23:47 | |
and rebellious life. | 23:52 | |
But you also go and tell | 23:55 | |
that you saw that young man come home, | 23:58 | |
and that ridiculous old man run out in the street | 24:01 | |
and say of that one, "This one is my son, | 24:07 | |
"he belongs to me. | 24:12 | |
"He was dead and now he is alive. | 24:15 | |
"He was lost and now he is found." | 24:20 | |
Are you the one who will come? | 24:27 | |
Are you the one who will come and save us? | 24:31 | |
Are you the one who will heal our broken hearts? | 24:37 | |
And Jesus said, "Go and tell." | 24:44 | |
Thanks be to God, | 24:50 | |
Amen. | 24:54 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 25:04 |
(congregation mumbles) | 25:06 | |
Let us pray. | 25:07 | |
Oh God of the Spirit that lives and moves among us. | 25:12 | |
We have heard of all that you are doing in the world. | 25:17 | |
We've heard that you have made the blind to see, | 25:22 | |
the lame to walk, the lepers to be cleansed, | 25:25 | |
the deaf to hear, the dead to rise, | 25:29 | |
and the poor to rejoice with good news. | 25:34 | |
Dare we believe what we have heard? | 25:38 | |
Are you the one? | 25:43 | |
Dare we trust you to work your miracles in our lives? | 25:46 | |
When we look at the suffering and destruction in our world, | 25:52 | |
it is sometimes easier for us to believe | 25:57 | |
in the power of darkness and death | 25:59 | |
than the power of resurrection and light. | 26:03 | |
When we focus on the disappointments, | 26:07 | |
broken dreams, and the pain in our own lives, | 26:10 | |
it is easy to forget that we do not suffer alone. | 26:15 | |
We have heard that there is no pain | 26:21 | |
that you have not already suffered on our behalf. | 26:23 | |
We have heard that you have been through the darkness | 26:27 | |
and have overcome it. | 26:31 | |
Lord, we believe, | 26:34 | |
help thou our unbelief. | 26:36 | |
For you know that we are the blind, the lame, | 26:40 | |
the leper, the death, the dead, and the poor. | 26:44 | |
We are the broken-hearted with broken hearts | 26:51 | |
and shattered dreams, and we stand in need | 26:55 | |
of your healing presence. | 26:59 | |
Come into our lives and bind up our brokenness. | 27:03 | |
Make us whole, so that we might be the people | 27:08 | |
you have called us to be. | 27:11 | |
For as surely as you sent Jesus Christ to be our Savior, | 27:14 | |
so you also send us to proclaim your deliverance | 27:19 | |
to all the world. | 27:23 | |
You have anointed us to bring good news to the oppressed, | 27:25 | |
to bind up the broken-hearted, | 27:29 | |
proclaim liberty to the captives, | 27:32 | |
and release to the prisoners. | 27:35 | |
There are so many in our world who are in need | 27:38 | |
of the good news that we have been given. | 27:41 | |
As you touch our lives in concrete ways, | 27:45 | |
help us also reach out to others | 27:50 | |
with concrete expressions of love and hope. | 27:52 | |
Let us offer the good news of food and medicine | 27:57 | |
to the millions of people starving in Somalia. | 28:00 | |
Let us offer acceptance and healing | 28:05 | |
to the lepers across the world | 28:08 | |
as we work to eradicate AIDS. | 28:10 | |
Let us strive for peace through racial justice | 28:14 | |
and understanding in Yugoslavia | 28:18 | |
and the inner cities of the United States. | 28:22 | |
Let us offer the hope of freedom and the right | 28:26 | |
to self-determination to political prisoners | 28:28 | |
in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and South Africa. | 28:32 | |
Let us provide the hope of dignity and self-determination | 28:37 | |
to the poor who are beaten down by life. | 28:42 | |
These and more stand in need of your healing power. | 28:46 | |
Work through us, we pray, to repair the ruined cities | 28:51 | |
and the devastation of generations, | 28:56 | |
to bring hope out of despair, and life out of death. | 29:00 | |
Strengthen us with your love as you send us forth in love. | 29:06 | |
In the name of the one who binds up | 29:12 | |
the broken-hearted we pray, amen. | 29:14 | |
As a reconciled and healed people, | 29:20 | |
let us offer signs of peace to one another. | 29:23 | |
Please stand. | 29:26 | |
(congregation chattering) | 29:33 | |
Let us offer our gifts to God. | 29:51 |
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