Get Together
Luke 5:17-26

This has always been one of my favorite Bible stories. It was also the first one we used when I was learning how to do relational Bible studies in the `60s. As a child I had always imagined the scene with delight but now, with this method, I had permission and encouragement to use my imagination and enter the story myself! The process works. Even after as all these years as I "walked around "in this story I found new insights. An excellent way to get together in your small group is to use this relational approach and share your discoveries.

Read the story aloud in several translations. Imagine yourself there, as an observer, the cripple man or one of the friends. Try identifying with the Pharisees. See Jesus looking at the man and announcing to the whole crowd, "Your sins are forgiven!" Look at the friends peering down from the roof. Feel the hush as the man picks up his pallet and walks! Hear the shout of praise and the amazed chatter of the excited crowd. What else catches your attention?

Reflect again on the story and this time go deeper. How do you feel about the destruction of property and do you think the friends put the tiles back if that was all it took to make the hole? How did you feel about the man being lowered right into the middle of the group? I had to work with my own critical spirit and identify with the horror of the Pharisees. Did it seem to bother Jesus? Think about the connection with sin and sickness Jesus makes. What about the crippled man? Can you imagine yourself looking into the eyes of Jesus and feeling forgiven and free to walk? Now is the time to make your own connections with the story. Where are you crippled and in need of forgiveness? What is the expression on the face of Jesus as he looks at you?

But what has this got to do with "getting together"? Imagine again the friends and the man on the pallet looking for a way to Jesus. Was there laughter? Concern? Fear? There is much action in this brief story but no part of it could have taken place unless folk had "gotten together." Even if the "roof idea" was from one person, cooperation and creativity as well as moral support to do such an outrageous act was needed. Is this a model of what the Church needs be? Getting together to create new ways of doing things appropriate to the times and needs of the group? The early church made confession and assurance of forgiveness a communal thing. "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed" James 5:16.

Barbara Brown Taylor in her recent book, Speaking of Sin, gives this description of the church. 

The church exists so that God has a community in which to save people from meaninglessness, by reminding them who they are and what they are for. The church exists so that God has a place to point people toward a purpose as big as their capabilities, and help them identify all the ways they flee from that high call. The church exists so that people have a community in which they may confess their sin -- as well as a community that will support them to turn back again. The church exists so that people have a place where they may repent of their fear, their hardness of heart, their isolation and loss of vision and where -- having repented -- they may be restored to fullness of life.

Does this describe your community? Get together and brainstorm ways that you might create a climate for change. Together there might be some outrageous and risky ideas! There may be some amazing healings as folk experience forgiveness. What are you waiting for? What's your excuse? Get Together.

Suggested Reading:

• Speaking of Sin, The Lost Language of Salvation, by Barbara Brown Taylor, Cowley Publications, 2000.
• Why Christian? For Those on the Edge of Faith, by Douglas John Hall, Fortress Press, 1998.
• Bible Basics for the next generation, by Nancy Boyle, 1999 - a collection of Nancy Boyle's relational bible studies (1995-1999).

Nancy Boyle is a workshop leader, teacher and Christian Education Consultant living in Columbia SC.