• Don't know his name or how he died. If he was ill or in an accident.
• All we know is that he is dead. And as any mother would say, it was too soon.
• She's overwhelmed with grief.
• Now, this woman is also a widow so in the first century she'd not only lost her son, she'd also lost her future.
• A woman's connection to a man - a husband or son - was her pension plan. Her social security. With the death of her only son, this widow now faced an economic catastrophe.
• From now on she'd survive as the recipient of other people's charity.

Now Jesus is walking by with his disciples and he sees this crowd and commotion but he doesn't just walk by. No. Luke says he stops because be has compassion for her. Now to have compassion means literally to "suffer with" another. To feel what they are feeling as if you were experiencing it yourself.

In the Greek, this verb implies being moved in the inner parts of your body. The intestines. the gut. Ancients thought of the intestines as the seat of the emotions. Where your feelings came from and where you felt them in your body.

To have compassion for someone is to feel for them so deeply that your body actually moves.

Perhaps you can remember a time when something hit you so deeply that you felt it in your stomach. Maybe it was a wonderful moment. Like your wedding day or the birth of a child. Or maybe it was something terrible like when an illness was first diagnosed or when you got some really bad news.

- We feel our feelings in our body.

Jesus was so deeply moved by what he saw that his body moved literally and he did something no self respecting Jew would do.

• He reached out his hand and touched the coffin.
• For a Jew, this was illegal. He violated the laws of ritual purity which basically made him dirty and also anything he now touched. And he would now have to go through a whole series of elaborate rituals in order to get clean again.
• But he does it anyway and then boldly calls out to the dead man and says, Get UP! And he does.

This man's life has been resurrected. But not just his, the mother's life also has been restored. Again and again the gospels tell stories of Jesus deeply moved by human suffering. By people ostracized by their community. People in pain physically or mentally.

• Jesus sees the hell people are going through and the miracles are a witness to the fact that God did not intend it to be this way.
• And God's heart is moved by what God sees.

Luke is making the point that God is moved by what happens here on earth. When you loose a loved one. When you get that dreaded phone call. When you're betrayed. Trapped in addiction. Uncertain of how the bills are going to get paid.

God sees what happening in Haiti and that lout of every three people on this planet are living in severe poverty. Dying because they don't have clean water. Or enough food. Shelter. medicine. Opportunity.

• And God also sees those who are drowning in wealth, lacking a purpose to their living.

He sees and knows the human struggle, and the story for this morning bears witness to the reality that God not only sees it but is moved in the depths of his soul by what he sees.

A few weeks ago Jeff and I went to see the movie Avatar. This is a film that takes place on the imaginary planet of Pandora. And on Pandora, everyone lives together in this beautiful, connected sort of way -the people, the animals, the land. And they've got this deep respect for their earth and everything that lives.

So there's this really intense scene where all these ferocious animals are coming after this character. There about to kill him and there's no way he's going to survive.

• He's trying to fend them off and then suddenly out of nowhere. From out of the bushes jumps one of the natives.
• It's a woman and she's an amazing warrior.
• It's a really wild scene where she confidently takes on all these animals about a dozen of them. one by one fends them off and rescues the man.
• A woman saves the day.
• Now in the middle of this scene she says something really important.
• She's kneeling beside this beast who is just about to die and as it does so she looks into its eyes and says, "I see you."
• The other character, the guy, he's not from Pandora and he's just watching from a distance totally confused by this. He's just relieved to be alive and glad the danger is finally gone.
• But she has a different perspective. A bigger perspective. Even though these animals are wild and dangerous, she sees the life in them and mourns the fact that it's now over.
• Her words "I see you" are an acknowledgment that she sees with her soul and that she's been deeply moved by what has just happened. Throughout the film the phrase "I see you" is repeated numerous times and at the end 1found myself pondering this question for us.
• Is there someone who needs you to see them? Maybe it's someone who's right in front of you. Who you live with. Or maybe it's someone else. Who needs you to acknowledge their joy. Struggle. Pain. Hopes. Fears. Whatever it is. As if you were feeling it yourself. As if it were your own.

This is what Jesus did for this widow. He saw her pain and then responded with heaven's power breaking into her son's lifeless body.

Now the traditional understanding of heaven is that it's the realm where God dwells and where we go after we die. This is the promise of our salvation. And certainly the hope that anchors us throughout our lives.

But the Bible reveals a much broader definition of heaven.

• In ancient Israel, Jews did not long to be saved and go to heaven, taken away to some other place. They wanted salvation on earth. Salvation was to be free from their national enemies.
• Then at the time of Jesus, Jews longed for Israel to be reestablished to a position of power. The temple to be properly rebuilt. Their community reunited.
• Then in Revelation. In the final chapters of the Bible, there's a vision of a new heaven and the new earth and God is not rapturing his people to another realm. Leaving this world behind. No God and God's heavenly city come down from heaven to the earth. Heaven comes down.

Jesus of course had a lot to say about this. He called it the Kingdom of God and he talked about it all the time. Definitely his favorite subject. Luke saw Jesus and every miracle he did as a sign that the Kingdom was breaking in to this life.

Now it strikes me that the really good news of this story isn't just that Jesus had the power to resurrect the dead but that he had the desire to do so. That's the really good news. Isn't it? Jesus wanted to restore this man back to life. Back to his mother. He not only had the power, but he wanted to do so.

In our home we have a set of antique chairs. I don't know how old they are but my husband's mother had them even before we were married, so they've been around a really long time, even in our family.

• A few weeks ago, I came home and one of the legs of one of the chairs was broken.
• The guilty child shall remain nameless.
• But when I saw the chair my first thought was. The chair is really old. First thing we need to do is decide if we even want to still keep it. The fabric is this leather, 60's orange color which has probably been out of style for decades. They really don't match with our other furniture.
• But they are really comfortable and we like them, so my husband and I had a conversation about it. Weighed the pros and cons and in the end we decided to get the chair repaired.

We could have tossed the chair. Bought a new one. But instead we affirmed that for us this chair would continue to be useful and it was something we wanted to keep. As wild as they are, we love this set of chairs. So we got the broken one fixed and it's now in better condition than it was before.

I wonder, do you sometimes feel like a broken chair. Banged up by life, wondering how useful you are. Maybe you feel old. Passed your prime. Not sure what you can do, how much difference you can make.

If there is any question in your mind, be confident that God is restoring this creation not exchanging it for a new one. Jesus is the assurance that this earth and you and I are deeply loved. Each and every one.

• In the first chapters of the Bible, God creates and says what he has made is good.
• Then at the very end of the Bible, God descends to earth confirming that what he has made is still good! We live in this in between time but it's not just a waiting period. Jesus revealed to us that God is about this work of restoring. Rebuilding. Renewing what he's made. And he's using us to carry it out.

Why? Because this world. this life. You and me are still good.

Most Wednesday mornings I gather with many of you women for a time of some of reflection and prayer. And most recently we've just finished reading a book called Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell.

• And one of the stories we've reflected on is from Matthew's Gospel. Jesus is on the beach and he sees Simon Peter and his brother Andrew. These guys are fisherman working on their nets.
• Now what we learned is that most likely they were fisherman because they hadn't made the cut to be a rabbi. In the first century, all Jewish kids wanted to grow up and be a rabbi. This was the ultimate profession. They were respected. Admired.
• But it was really hard to become a rabbi. By the age of 10, almost all Jewish kids had memorized the first five books of the Bible Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Memorized. That was the general education.
• If you went on to the next step, the training became even more rigorous. There was an in depth study of the prophets, tradition, memorizing the rest of their Hebrew Scriptures.
• So at a certain time the rabbi's would look at their potential disciples and they would hand select them. Choosing the brightest of the brightest. The best of the best. Picking out the ones they thought could do it. The ones they though who could grow up to know what the rabbi knows. To do what the rabbi does. To become just like the rabbi.
• So during this selection time all the kids who didn't quite make the cut would be told, you know you've worked hard, you're a great kid, but you don't quite have what it takes to be a rabbi so go back to your fathers trade.

Which is where Jesus finds Simon Peter and Andrew. Their fishing because they hadn't made the cut to be a rabbi. So Jesus, who was a rabbi, calls out to them on the beach Come! Follow Me! And what do they do? They immediately drop everything and come running after him. Why? Because he thinks they can do it. Jesus skips over the best of the best and goes for the b-team. The not quite good enoughs. The ones who didn't know the Scripture well enough. Who didn't love God quite enough.

These were the ones Jesus chose to be his disciples. The ones he was going to invest in. To do what he did. To restore the world.

I hope you find this as refreshing as I do. Jesus is calling anybody and everybody to come along and join him. No perfect people allowed. It's just for those who want to be like him. Want to be with him. Want to be a part of what he's doing.

Jesus is restoring the world. Bringing heaven to earth. And we're a part of it!

We're the wounded healers as Henri Nouwen says. We're the ones who've been bruised by life. But we're also the ones Jesus invites to bring forth the windows of heaven: hope,joy, love, peace.

This is why our church supports ministries in Haiti and Turkey and Kenya. And why you fill up the Manna crate and why our church started the Westminster Free Clinic and why we provide space every Wednesday night at our shelter for anyone who needs a free meal. We're participating in the restoration of the world, witnessing to our faith in a God who sees this world for what it will become.

It's been said that our lives have the power to bring forth heaven or to bring forth hell That in every word, every thought, every decision. Every interaction with another human being we reveal whether or not we're about the destruction or the restoration of the world.

Jesus is calling us to live the prayer he taught us to pray. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.

And he thinks we can do it. You and me and this community and all the people of this world together, by the grace and power of God to love God, we're being transformed so we might transform the world.

May it be so!

Amen.