WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.769 Let us pray. Prepare our hearts, O God, to hear 00:00:05.769 --> 00:00:09.070 your word and to obey your will. Through Jesus 00:00:09.070 --> 00:00:13.419 Christ our Lord we pray. Amen. Our second reading 00:00:13.419 --> 00:00:16.280 is from Mark chapter 2. It is the story of those 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:19.820 crazy friends. Let us listen together for God's 00:00:19.820 --> 00:00:23.960 word to us. When he returned to Capernaum after 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:26.339 some days, it was reported that Jesus was at 00:00:26.339 --> 00:00:29.420 home. So many gathered around that there was 00:00:29.420 --> 00:00:31.699 no longer room for them. not even in front of 00:00:31.699 --> 00:00:33.520 the door, and he was speaking the word to them. 00:00:34.179 --> 00:00:36.439 Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed 00:00:36.439 --> 00:00:40.020 man, carried by four of them. And when they could 00:00:40.020 --> 00:00:41.859 not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:44.560 they removed the roof above him. And after having 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:46.500 dug through it, they let down the mat on which 00:00:46.500 --> 00:00:49.479 the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:52.560 he said to the paralytic, Child, your sins are 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:55.570 forgiven. Now some of the scribes were sitting 00:00:55.570 --> 00:00:57.590 there questioning in their hearts, why does this 00:00:57.590 --> 00:01:00.670 fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy. Who 00:01:00.670 --> 00:01:04.469 can forgive sins but God alone? At once Jesus 00:01:04.469 --> 00:01:06.849 perceived in his spirit that they were discussing 00:01:06.849 --> 00:01:09.250 these questions among themselves, and he said 00:01:09.250 --> 00:01:12.030 to them, why do you raise such questions in your 00:01:12.030 --> 00:01:15.409 hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 00:01:15.450 --> 00:01:18.670 your sins are forgiven, or to say, stand up and 00:01:18.670 --> 00:01:22.120 take your mat and walk? But so that you may know 00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:24.239 that the Son of Man has authority on earth to 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:27.939 forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say 00:01:27.939 --> 00:01:31.260 to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your 00:01:31.260 --> 00:01:34.019 home. And he stood up and immediately took the 00:01:34.019 --> 00:01:36.540 mat and went out before all of them, so that 00:01:36.540 --> 00:01:38.840 they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, 00:01:38.980 --> 00:01:42.760 We have never seen anything like this. This is 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:48.859 the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may 00:01:48.859 --> 00:01:53.769 remember in 2023, The Surgeon General at the 00:01:53.769 --> 00:01:57.129 time released a report to some fanfare in the 00:01:57.129 --> 00:02:01.010 media. This 81 -page report was entitled, Our 00:02:01.010 --> 00:02:05.750 Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation. In all 00:02:05.750 --> 00:02:08.229 of those 81 pages, it detailed many of the ways 00:02:08.229 --> 00:02:10.810 that the loneliness and isolation that we are 00:02:10.810 --> 00:02:13.949 experiencing in our society has ripple effects 00:02:13.949 --> 00:02:18.840 that even impact people's health. Around the 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:21.960 same time, both the UK and Japan appointed government 00:02:21.960 --> 00:02:27.229 ministers for loneliness. This idea of a loneliness 00:02:27.229 --> 00:02:30.069 epidemic is somewhat common, familiar. We've 00:02:30.069 --> 00:02:32.669 heard it before. We continue to hear it today. 00:02:33.270 --> 00:02:36.990 It may not entirely, however, capture what is 00:02:36.990 --> 00:02:40.699 happening in our society. There's a current trend 00:02:40.699 --> 00:02:42.759 on TikTok, which I don't know directly because 00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:44.800 I've never used TikTok, but I've heard about 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:48.210 it secondhand, I promise. These things called 00:02:48.210 --> 00:02:52.310 loneliness influencers, people who live alone 00:02:52.310 --> 00:02:56.810 and have no relationship with anyone, no committed 00:02:56.810 --> 00:02:59.430 relationship, they come home from work and they 00:02:59.430 --> 00:03:01.849 turn on their video camera and they record what 00:03:01.849 --> 00:03:06.090 a quiet life all by themselves is like. In a 00:03:06.090 --> 00:03:09.050 sense, glorifying loneliness or maybe helping 00:03:09.050 --> 00:03:11.770 others to be more comfortable with their loneliness 00:03:11.770 --> 00:03:14.849 and certainly making a little bit of money from 00:03:14.849 --> 00:03:18.229 it on the side. For many people, loneliness is 00:03:18.229 --> 00:03:21.009 a real problem. But actually, when you look at 00:03:21.009 --> 00:03:23.530 our society, many of the measures of loneliness 00:03:23.530 --> 00:03:26.789 are holding steady or even declining. But what 00:03:26.789 --> 00:03:30.770 we do see happening, rather, is an increasing 00:03:30.770 --> 00:03:36.110 preference for solitude, for aloneness, which 00:03:36.110 --> 00:03:40.590 is not quite the same thing as loneliness. The 00:03:40.590 --> 00:03:44.750 typical American buys three movie tickets in 00:03:44.750 --> 00:03:47.289 a year. And they were all to see the Odyssey 00:03:47.289 --> 00:03:51.349 this summer. They buy three movie tickets a year, 00:03:51.449 --> 00:03:56.090 but they watch 19 hours of television per week. 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:02.060 In 2023, so just a few years ago, 74 % of all 00:04:02.060 --> 00:04:05.699 restaurant traffic came from off -site customers, 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:10.639 takeout and delivery. Only that smaller quarter 00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:14.159 being those who are sitting around a table with 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:17.430 others in the restaurant. The share of U .S. 00:04:17.470 --> 00:04:20.290 adults having dinner or drinks with friends on 00:04:20.290 --> 00:04:22.889 any given night has declined in the past 20 years 00:04:22.889 --> 00:04:27.180 by more than 30%. And also in the last 20 years, 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:31.000 in -person socializing has declined by more than 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:38.350 20%. We are increasingly choosing solitude. Every 00:04:38.350 --> 00:04:40.509 now and then, my daughters prevail upon me to 00:04:40.509 --> 00:04:44.220 take them to Starbucks. When I go to Starbucks, 00:04:44.360 --> 00:04:46.100 which isn't often because I prefer the local 00:04:46.100 --> 00:04:48.339 coffee shop nearby, but when I go to Starbucks, 00:04:48.579 --> 00:04:51.480 I get black coffee because I'm not fussy and 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:54.100 I'm cheap and I don't want to wait in a long 00:04:54.100 --> 00:04:58.279 line. But my daughters, well, my daughters don't 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:00.920 get black coffee. I'll just say that. And so 00:05:00.920 --> 00:05:02.819 they go up to the counter and they order their 00:05:02.819 --> 00:05:04.879 drinks and I find a comfortable place to sit. 00:05:05.329 --> 00:05:08.310 And I sit and I watch, and as I sit, we wait 00:05:08.310 --> 00:05:10.829 maybe 10 minutes for these couple of drinks to 00:05:10.829 --> 00:05:13.149 be made, not because the baristas are slow. On 00:05:13.149 --> 00:05:15.410 the contrary, they're working their tails off 00:05:15.410 --> 00:05:18.389 behind the counter, but because car after car 00:05:18.389 --> 00:05:21.589 is moving through that drive -thru. And as I 00:05:21.589 --> 00:05:24.250 sit there, the baristas put drink after drink 00:05:24.250 --> 00:05:26.810 on the counter right in front of my waiting daughters, 00:05:26.889 --> 00:05:30.129 but they are not for them. Someone swings the 00:05:30.129 --> 00:05:32.389 door open and walks in and grabs their drink 00:05:32.389 --> 00:05:34.350 and walks right back out again. Another drink 00:05:34.350 --> 00:05:36.029 on the counter, another person walks through 00:05:36.029 --> 00:05:38.689 the door, grabs their drink, walks back out again. 00:05:39.470 --> 00:05:41.970 Eventually, my daughters get their drink. I look 00:05:41.970 --> 00:05:45.290 around at an almost empty cafe where no one else 00:05:45.290 --> 00:05:49.509 seems to be sitting around, and we leave. The 00:05:49.509 --> 00:05:52.990 baristas are working feverishly behind the counter. 00:05:53.459 --> 00:05:56.939 to maintain all of these orders and hardly interacting 00:05:56.939 --> 00:06:01.689 at all with those of us who are there. We're 00:06:01.689 --> 00:06:03.889 in the midst of a sermon series called Holy Habits 00:06:03.889 --> 00:06:06.009 right now where we are looking at spiritual disciplines 00:06:06.009 --> 00:06:08.430 and the ways that spiritual discipline might 00:06:08.430 --> 00:06:12.410 help strengthen us for the times that we live 00:06:12.410 --> 00:06:15.910 in. And one of the sources I went to when I started 00:06:15.910 --> 00:06:18.949 to plan this series was a book. written in 1978 00:06:18.949 --> 00:06:22.310 by the Quaker theologian Richard Foster. It's 00:06:22.310 --> 00:06:25.029 a famous text in the field of spiritual discipline, 00:06:25.170 --> 00:06:27.670 and it's called A Celebration of Discipline. 00:06:27.709 --> 00:06:30.149 And what I did was I looked at his table of contents 00:06:30.149 --> 00:06:33.329 to see what are the sorts of discipline that 00:06:33.329 --> 00:06:35.930 I should be thinking about. And on that list, 00:06:35.930 --> 00:06:39.649 among prayer and worship and fasting and others, 00:06:39.689 --> 00:06:44.300 on that list was solitude. Many of us are, in 00:06:44.300 --> 00:06:47.120 fact, in need of solitude, of finding a way to 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:50.319 train ourselves to be still and to be quiet. 00:06:50.740 --> 00:06:53.980 Blaise Pascal once said that the sole cause of 00:06:53.980 --> 00:06:57.720 man's unhappiness is that he does not know how 00:06:57.720 --> 00:07:01.560 to stay quietly in his room. And there is certainly 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:05.180 truth to that. But I also think that our world 00:07:05.180 --> 00:07:08.319 has changed a lot since Richard Foster wrote 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:11.930 that book in 1978. And what we see unfolding 00:07:11.930 --> 00:07:16.810 today is people gravitating en masse toward solitude 00:07:16.810 --> 00:07:20.149 in unprecedented ways, often with the assistance 00:07:20.149 --> 00:07:24.589 of technology. And the ripple effects of this 00:07:24.589 --> 00:07:28.519 throughout our society are profound. While for 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:31.800 some of us solitude may in fact be a worthy and 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:36.100 much -needed pursuit, today I think the emphasis 00:07:36.100 --> 00:07:39.829 needs to go the other way. And that we need to 00:07:39.829 --> 00:07:42.589 see community not just as a good thing, not just 00:07:42.589 --> 00:07:46.370 as a nice idea, but as a spiritual discipline. 00:07:47.269 --> 00:07:50.050 Something that we pursue, that we strive for, 00:07:50.089 --> 00:07:54.629 that we work at for the good of our souls. Because 00:07:54.629 --> 00:07:58.310 community does not just happen. Community is 00:07:58.310 --> 00:08:01.350 not automatic. And there are a lot of forces 00:08:01.350 --> 00:08:03.910 out there that are working against community 00:08:03.910 --> 00:08:07.230 today. For one thing, we have seen over the last 00:08:07.230 --> 00:08:11.170 40 or 50 years the decline in community associations, 00:08:11.569 --> 00:08:14.449 public organizations that people participate 00:08:14.449 --> 00:08:17.269 in with membership and so forth, go all the way 00:08:17.269 --> 00:08:19.769 back to the Lions and the Elks and all the way 00:08:19.769 --> 00:08:22.449 forward. So many groups that just don't exist 00:08:22.449 --> 00:08:25.370 anymore or are at least a shell of what they 00:08:25.370 --> 00:08:28.990 once were. And in his famous book in 2000, Robert 00:08:28.990 --> 00:08:34.059 Putnam wrote about this phenomenon. of our deteriorating 00:08:34.059 --> 00:08:36.120 social connections. And I've mentioned this before, 00:08:36.299 --> 00:08:38.519 but the book is called Bowling Alone, and it 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:41.639 has become somewhat famous in the world of sociology. 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:44.659 And he pulls that title from an anecdote that 00:08:44.659 --> 00:08:47.919 he discovered in the data, namely that more and 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:50.679 more people than ever in the late 90s were bowling. 00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:54.399 Meanwhile, bowling leagues were in steep decline. 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:58.289 People were choosing... Aloneness. And that was 00:08:58.289 --> 00:09:00.509 an example of the ways that those community connections 00:09:00.509 --> 00:09:03.129 were deteriorating. And for Putnam, the great 00:09:03.129 --> 00:09:05.929 villain at the time, late 90s, was the television. 00:09:06.470 --> 00:09:09.929 That strong force that pulled people into their 00:09:09.929 --> 00:09:13.570 homes and away from those outward -facing connections. 00:09:15.269 --> 00:09:19.230 Now today, we have much more sophisticated home 00:09:19.230 --> 00:09:23.360 entertainment. Today, we have much more portable, 00:09:23.620 --> 00:09:26.970 individual. entertainment, and we have much more 00:09:26.970 --> 00:09:30.309 engrossing distractions. These trends have only 00:09:30.309 --> 00:09:34.519 accelerated. Another thing that pulls us away 00:09:34.519 --> 00:09:37.320 from community is that we live in a divided, 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:41.240 polarized society. Now, it may not seem on the 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:44.379 face that polarization actually undermines community. 00:09:44.519 --> 00:09:47.340 All that means is that we are all sort of grouping 00:09:47.340 --> 00:09:49.980 together, right? A community of the like -minded 00:09:49.980 --> 00:09:55.200 is still community in a sense. But polarization 00:09:55.200 --> 00:09:58.399 and division, kind of like what we experience 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:02.480 in our society, has a tendency to breed a level 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:05.259 of hostility, or at the very least, a lack of 00:10:05.259 --> 00:10:08.200 empathy, a lack of understanding toward that 00:10:08.200 --> 00:10:10.980 very large portion of the population out there 00:10:10.980 --> 00:10:16.009 that is not on our team, so to speak. Also, we 00:10:16.009 --> 00:10:19.830 have so many technological conveniences that 00:10:19.830 --> 00:10:23.580 are isolating us. Instead of spending time walking 00:10:23.580 --> 00:10:26.919 through an actual store, we shop online and we 00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:29.120 have it delivered to our home. Or if we do go 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:31.279 into the store, we choose the automatic self 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:35.399 -checkout on our way out. Instead of asking a 00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:38.120 friend to give up an hour or so of their time 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:42.000 to give us a ride, we call an Uber and then we 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:45.309 don't even have to talk to the driver. Instead 00:10:45.309 --> 00:10:48.730 of standing in line in Starbucks with other actual 00:10:48.730 --> 00:10:52.210 human beings, we sit in our car while it idles 00:10:52.210 --> 00:10:54.950 and we scroll on our phone until it bings that 00:10:54.950 --> 00:10:57.529 our coffee is ready and we walk in and grab it 00:10:57.529 --> 00:11:00.029 and then we walk out again and have to say a 00:11:00.029 --> 00:11:04.519 word to no one. We have gained a lot of new conveniences 00:11:04.519 --> 00:11:07.659 in the smartphone era, but we don't often realize 00:11:07.659 --> 00:11:11.100 the things that we are losing at the same time. 00:11:12.200 --> 00:11:14.399 The media theorist Marshall McLuhan from the 00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:18.340 mid -1900s is famous for the adage that the medium 00:11:18.340 --> 00:11:21.620 is the message. But in writing about technology, 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:27.399 he also said this, every augmentation is an amputation. 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:31.419 And one thing that we seem to be losing today, 00:11:31.659 --> 00:11:35.600 or at least in danger of losing, is community. 00:11:37.009 --> 00:11:39.470 The story that Mark tells of the paralyzed man 00:11:39.470 --> 00:11:41.690 may be a familiar one to you. It certainly is 00:11:41.690 --> 00:11:44.350 memorable as far as the healing stories of Jesus 00:11:44.350 --> 00:11:46.769 go. There aren't too many other stories where 00:11:46.769 --> 00:11:50.190 people get lowered through roofs. Jesus is in 00:11:50.190 --> 00:11:52.250 a crowded place. There's no way to get at him, 00:11:52.269 --> 00:11:54.769 but these friends are determined, and so they 00:11:54.769 --> 00:11:56.850 climb up the house. They carry this man. They 00:11:56.850 --> 00:11:59.090 lower him down through a hole that they've dug 00:11:59.090 --> 00:12:01.450 in the roof, and Jesus heals him. But first, 00:12:01.470 --> 00:12:04.899 he forgives his sins, always looking for an opportunity 00:12:04.899 --> 00:12:08.149 to make a point. And to get the Pharisees' hackles 00:12:08.149 --> 00:12:11.429 up, Jesus offers forgiveness first. And then 00:12:11.429 --> 00:12:14.009 to show them that if forgiveness is hard, imagine 00:12:14.009 --> 00:12:16.470 how hard it would be to heal this man. And Jesus 00:12:16.470 --> 00:12:20.690 does both. So Jesus, of course, uses this as 00:12:20.690 --> 00:12:22.929 an opportunity to teach them about forgiveness 00:12:22.929 --> 00:12:26.529 and how God's forgiveness is present in him. 00:12:26.570 --> 00:12:28.490 But we're going to save that for another sermon 00:12:28.490 --> 00:12:32.929 another day. For us today, this is a story about 00:12:32.929 --> 00:12:38.659 community. The paralytic. is dependent upon his 00:12:38.659 --> 00:12:42.299 community. He cannot encounter Jesus without 00:12:42.299 --> 00:12:45.679 his community. He cannot find healing without 00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:49.549 his community. The most remarkable thing about 00:12:49.549 --> 00:12:52.330 this story is that the paralyzed man in this 00:12:52.330 --> 00:12:55.970 story might as well be a stunt double, a dummy. 00:12:56.269 --> 00:13:00.750 He has no action in the story. He's just lying 00:13:00.750 --> 00:13:03.649 there. We know nothing about him except his condition. 00:13:04.509 --> 00:13:08.269 We don't know if he wanted to see Jesus or if 00:13:08.269 --> 00:13:11.730 he was carried there against his will. We don't 00:13:11.730 --> 00:13:14.230 know if he believed that Jesus could heal him 00:13:14.230 --> 00:13:16.830 or if he was skeptical about it the whole time. 00:13:16.950 --> 00:13:19.769 We don't know if he consented. In fact, we can 00:13:19.769 --> 00:13:22.529 probably assume he did not consent to being hauled 00:13:22.529 --> 00:13:24.629 up to the top of this house and then lowered 00:13:24.629 --> 00:13:27.309 down through the roof. He was probably protesting 00:13:27.309 --> 00:13:31.720 the whole time, but we don't know. And the reason 00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:33.740 we don't know this is because the main actors 00:13:33.740 --> 00:13:37.559 in this story are his friends, his community. 00:13:38.250 --> 00:13:42.149 The community brings him to Jesus. The community 00:13:42.149 --> 00:13:46.289 overcomes protest and skepticism. The community 00:13:46.289 --> 00:13:51.250 demonstrates faith on his behalf. Did you hear 00:13:51.250 --> 00:13:54.909 what Jesus said? When Jesus saw their faith, 00:13:55.230 --> 00:13:58.590 he said to the paralytic, child, your sins are 00:13:58.590 --> 00:14:03.200 forgiven. The faith of the community is what 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:05.019 is effective here. The faith of the paralytic 00:14:05.019 --> 00:14:08.620 is completely irrelevant. Yes, it's the paralytic 00:14:08.620 --> 00:14:11.139 whose sins are forgiven, and yes, it's the paralytic 00:14:11.139 --> 00:14:13.779 who gets healed, whose suffering is relieved, 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:16.980 but it's all because of the faith of his community, 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:20.779 which gives new meaning in my mind to a term 00:14:20.779 --> 00:14:23.610 we often use to describe the church, community 00:14:23.610 --> 00:14:28.230 of faith. A community of faith is a community 00:14:28.230 --> 00:14:32.210 whose faith surrounds and supports those whose 00:14:32.210 --> 00:14:36.720 faith might waver. It's a community whose collective 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:40.600 effort and compassion cover over the many weaknesses 00:14:40.600 --> 00:14:44.080 and frailties of individuals like you and me. 00:14:45.059 --> 00:14:47.899 It's a community that carries its friends into 00:14:47.899 --> 00:14:50.720 the healing presence of Jesus where sins are 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:55.000 forgiven, where broken things are mended, where 00:14:55.120 --> 00:15:01.179 miracles In a small, relatively isolated community 00:15:01.179 --> 00:15:05.200 on Martha's Vineyard, about every tenth person 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:08.840 used to be born without the ability to hear. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:12.549 One in ten. Everyone in the community, hearing 00:15:12.549 --> 00:15:16.269 and non -hearing alike, spoke a unique sign language 00:15:16.269 --> 00:15:19.370 that they had brought over from England when 00:15:19.370 --> 00:15:21.549 they immigrated to Massachusetts in the late 00:15:21.549 --> 00:15:25.950 1600s. In the mid -20th century, because of increased 00:15:25.950 --> 00:15:31.269 travel and mobility, that genetic anomaly began 00:15:31.269 --> 00:15:33.429 to disappear. But before it did, a historian 00:15:33.429 --> 00:15:36.649 named Nora Grochi decided to study this community 00:15:36.649 --> 00:15:40.230 and this unique aspect of this community. She 00:15:40.230 --> 00:15:42.629 compared the experience of non -hearing people 00:15:42.629 --> 00:15:46.309 there to the hearing people. And what she found 00:15:46.309 --> 00:15:49.649 was that in that community, 80 % of non -hearing 00:15:49.649 --> 00:15:53.799 people graduated from high school. as did 80 00:15:53.799 --> 00:15:58.330 % of the hearing. She found that 90 % of the 00:15:58.330 --> 00:16:03.210 non -hearing got married compared to 92 % of 00:16:03.210 --> 00:16:06.389 the hearing. They had about equal numbers of 00:16:06.389 --> 00:16:10.389 children, their income levels were similar, and 00:16:10.389 --> 00:16:12.830 the variety and distribution of their occupations 00:16:12.830 --> 00:16:17.169 also was similar. And then Grochi did a parallel 00:16:17.169 --> 00:16:20.730 study on the mainland of Massachusetts. And at 00:16:20.730 --> 00:16:23.429 the time, the state of Massachusetts... prided 00:16:23.429 --> 00:16:26.629 itself in the services that it offered to students 00:16:26.629 --> 00:16:29.629 in need like those who do not have the ability 00:16:29.629 --> 00:16:33.820 to hear. And here's what she found. 50 % of the 00:16:33.820 --> 00:16:36.480 non -hearing graduated from high school compared 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:41.370 to 75 % of the hearing. Non -hearing people married 00:16:41.370 --> 00:16:44.850 half the time while hearing people married 90 00:16:44.850 --> 00:16:49.000 % of the time. 40 % of the non -hearing people 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:52.139 had children while 80 % of the hearing people 00:16:52.139 --> 00:16:55.580 did. Non -hearing people received about one -third 00:16:55.580 --> 00:16:58.759 of the income of hearing people, and their range 00:16:58.759 --> 00:17:03.139 of occupations was much more limited. Grochi 00:17:03.139 --> 00:17:06.779 wondered, how was it that on an island with no 00:17:06.779 --> 00:17:10.160 services, non -hearing people were as much like 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:12.500 the hearing people as you could possibly imagine? 00:17:13.019 --> 00:17:15.740 Yet 30 miles away, with the most advanced services 00:17:15.740 --> 00:17:18.900 available, non -hearing people lived much poorer 00:17:18.900 --> 00:17:24.130 lives. The one place in the United States where 00:17:24.130 --> 00:17:27.710 deafness was not a disability, was a place with 00:17:27.710 --> 00:17:31.089 no services for deaf people. In that community, 00:17:31.170 --> 00:17:34.549 all the people adapted by signing instead of 00:17:34.549 --> 00:17:37.750 handing the non -hearing people off to the professionals. 00:17:38.509 --> 00:17:43.670 That community was not just doing what was necessary 00:17:43.670 --> 00:17:46.930 to help or to serve one group. They were doing 00:17:46.930 --> 00:17:52.349 what was necessary to include everyone. There 00:17:52.349 --> 00:17:56.779 are some things. that we simply cannot do alone. 00:17:57.579 --> 00:18:00.920 Things that require the strength and cohesion 00:18:00.920 --> 00:18:05.619 and support of community. And there are things 00:18:05.619 --> 00:18:09.180 that become possible in community that we wouldn't 00:18:09.180 --> 00:18:14.089 even begin to imagine on our own. World Communion 00:18:14.089 --> 00:18:16.710 Sunday is a reminder of this on a global scale, 00:18:16.890 --> 00:18:20.009 that not only are we as individuals impoverished 00:18:20.009 --> 00:18:23.009 when we neglect to cultivate community, but that 00:18:23.009 --> 00:18:26.259 the church of Jesus Christ, is also impoverished 00:18:26.259 --> 00:18:29.839 when we neglect to honor, to celebrate, and to 00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:32.660 nurture the connections that we share with other 00:18:32.660 --> 00:18:35.680 Christians around our community, our nation, 00:18:35.819 --> 00:18:41.539 and the world. But the current is flowing powerfully 00:18:41.539 --> 00:18:45.240 in the other direction. It is pulling us toward 00:18:45.240 --> 00:18:50.470 isolation, toward solitude, toward the illusion 00:18:50.470 --> 00:18:54.769 of self -sufficiency. toward the idolatry of 00:18:54.769 --> 00:18:59.009 our own individuality. But the opportunities 00:18:59.009 --> 00:19:02.450 to cultivate community are all around us. They 00:19:02.450 --> 00:19:05.809 are here in weekly worship and fellowship. They 00:19:05.809 --> 00:19:09.009 are here at this table. They are in our neighborhoods 00:19:09.009 --> 00:19:11.509 and in the places that we frequent. They are 00:19:11.509 --> 00:19:14.670 even in our phones, which, believe it or not, 00:19:14.750 --> 00:19:22.490 can still be used to call people. Sometimes we 00:19:22.490 --> 00:19:27.230 have to lie down on the mat and allow ourselves 00:19:27.230 --> 00:19:32.990 to be carried to Jesus. And sometimes we have 00:19:32.990 --> 00:19:39.420 to grab a corner and help lift. Either way, we 00:19:39.450 --> 00:19:44.440 come to Jesus together. We are healed together. 00:19:44.599 --> 00:19:48.460 We are forgiven together and we grow together. 00:19:49.390 --> 00:19:59.299 Let us pray. God, strengthen us as a community 00:19:59.299 --> 00:20:03.950 of faith. a community whose faith is effective 00:20:03.950 --> 00:20:08.190 for those who are here who need healing, who 00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:12.539 need strength, who need forgiveness. Empower 00:20:12.539 --> 00:20:16.960 us to cultivate community in what ways we can 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:22.559 so that we might be stronger, healthier, happier, 00:20:22.680 --> 00:20:26.619 and better servants of our servant Lord, we pray 00:20:26.619 --> 00:20:28.720 in Jesus' name. Amen.