Mtr Kelli Joyce

Dear friends in Christ,

Sometimes I hear people making a distinction between being concerned with spiritual/theological matters and being concerned with physical/material matters. I’ve heard this from people on “both sides” of the question - some people say that social justice work is irrelevant to the Gospel, because what matters is saving souls. Others say that our beliefs about God, our prayer and worship, don’t really matter, as long as we’re loving our neighbors and helping those in need.

As you might be able to guess from how I’ve described these two positions, I don’t think either of them are right. God loves us based not on right beliefs and not on right actions but on grace. In the context of that relationship of grace, we are called both to know God rightly and to serve God rightly.

Today’s Gospel reading reflects Christ’s concern with both of these spheres. He begins by declaring to the paralyzed man that the record of all the wrongs he has ever done has just been erased. Some scholars standing nearby are distressed to hear this, because they believe that it’s not true. They believe it’s not possible for a human being to forgive sins - that is, to change the very nature of a person’s standing with God. Jesus knows their concern, and decides to show them that the limits of what they think is possible are not the ultimate standard. He does something else that should have been impossible for a human to do - he restores the function of the man’s limbs with his words.

God is in the business of making us whole, and of restoring broken relationships. God is not content to focus only on our bodies or only on our souls - it is all in need of loving care. And we, too, must care for those around us as whole human beings.

In peace,
Mtr. Kelli