"good Friends"

“Good Friends”

Mark 2:1-12

At the church I served in East Ridge, we had a member named Tootsie Watson.

Tootsie and her parents lived

in a deteriorating part of town.

And that is where Tootsie lived for her entire life—all 89 years of her life-- in the same house where she was born, in the same house where her parents died.

In the same house where she eventually died.

At age 4, she was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and the doctor told her parents that Tootsie wouldn't live past the age of 7.

As it turned out; Tootsi outlived everyone--her parents, sister, and 4 brothers--even her father--Joe who lived to be 101.

Tootsie was confined to a wheelchair her entire life.

She could not move her legs.

She could only barely move the wrist of one arm, and that’s it!

Nothing else.

She couldn't do life's basic necessities by herself.

A caretaker had to come and put her in bed, in a position that she would have to stay in until someone else would come the next morning and get her up and get her dressed and back into her wheelchair.

And, amazingly, Tootsie managed her own affairs--she lived independently, in her own home.

This is remarkable for someone who was basically paralyzed.

I was her pastor for 6 of the 9 years I was at East Ridge.

During that time, I met people who told me that Tootsie was a sort of "counselor" or "mentor" to them.

She would, on occasion, call me up and ask me to pray for someone or speak with someone whom she was helping through a tough time.

A lot of people looked "up" to Tootsie.

She was an inspiration.

She was a mighty witness for God.

She always kept a smile on her face.

She had an almost magical gleam in her eyes.

Everyone loved her.

Her favorite song was “What a Friend We have in Jesus.”

Members of the church used to pick Tootsie up in their cars, and bring her to worship and Sunday school.

Eventually they all pitched in and bought an expensive wheelchair accessible van so they could pick her up and bring her to church.

Members took turns, over the years, driving to Tootsie’s home early every Sunday morning, going into her home and rolling her wheelchair out and into the van.

It was a good workout…not an easy task.

Tootsie loved her church, and her church loved her.

Her church, and those who paid for and drove that wheel-chair accessible van were, in a very real sense, much like the men who carried the paralyzed man to Jesus in our Gospel story for this morning.

And it wasn’t easy for them, nor was it convenient.

Imagine what it would be like, not only to push through that crowd to get to the roof of the house, but then to “dig through it” and “lower the mat that the paralyzed man was lying on.”

These four men were—quite literally—willing to do whatever it takes to get this guy to Jesus!

It took a lot of compassion, empathy and faith.

These were some good, good friends.

And not only was what they were doing hard physically it was an extremely risky thing to do socially and religiously.

And that is because people with disabilities, in that day and age, weren’t a whole lot different than lepers, as far as being hustled off to the margins of society and religion.

The average person in Jesus’ day would have taken one look at the paralyzed man and said, “That guy is a sinner!”

It was just assumed that physical disabilities and other sicknesses were punishments from God for sinful behavior.

Remember in John’s Gospel when Jesus’ disciples asked Him, point-blank, whether a man born blind had sinned himself or whether his blindness was due to his parents’ sin?

Of course Jesus told them that sin had nothing to do with the man’s blindness.

That was a radical and brand new thing to say back then.

(pause)

This guy in our Gospel story is extremely blessed.

Jesus has been out and about healing lepers, driving out demons, and bringing the sick back to health.

And word is spreading fast.

And this guy has four friends who hear about it.

He has four friends who are willing to do whatever it takes to get him to this HEALER named Jesus—even if it means digging a hole in someone’s roof!

Even if it means making the religious authorities angry.

What a beautiful thing they did.

Are we willing to do anything it takes to bring people to Jesus?

When we decided we wanted to run a food pantry out of this building some amazing people from up on Signal Mountain heard about it and wanted to help.