Did You Have a Homeowner's Policy on That Tent?

George Dunn started our Free Store conversation on Thursday morning by saying that Christianity is not about words but about healing power.  He said that it seemed strange that so much of Jesus mininstry involved healing people and yet we see so little of it in the church today.  And that the healing that does take place is so expensive that many people can't afford it.

For some reason our discussion took a bit of a raucous turn at this point.  It came up that our friends Danielle and Mickey had their tent vandalized during the night.  Someone asked them if they had a homeowner's policy on it, which didn't seem like an entirely appropriate question, but it made us all laugh.  So we had some fun with the idea of insuring tents for homeless people.

Somehow the conversation turned to redneck jokes.  Our friend Rick asked us what were the last words of a redneck to which he said, "Hey y'all watch this!"  Curtis asked us if we knew how to entertain a redneck and said, "with a beer and a bug zapper."  I told the group about putting duct tape on my son Jon's backpack so that he could still use it and he told me, "I'm a redneck now dad."  At this point our friend John said, "Welcome to comedy central this morning" which helped us to realize that we had strayed a great way from our subject.

So back to the conversation about healing power.  Someone suggested that healing takes place all the time.  Every time we recover from a common cold it is because of the amazing healing mechanisms of the human immune system.  George told us about synthetic organic chemistry that studies the healing power of plants in order to promote natural remedies for health problems.

Our new friend Robert told us about going to the emergency room and being charged $160 for a bandaid and ointment.  He was told that "it will heal itself."   I told the group about my daughter Val's trip to the emergency room for a broken finger.  After receiving the hospital bill I told them that the pain had migrated from her finger to my wallet.  These stories made us laugh but they also made us question why we are so willing to pay so much money on doctors and drugs when the real healing power is in the body itself.

At this point George brought up that Jesus performed many of his miracles on the Sabbath.  He said that Jesus did this to piss off (which is not in the original Greek but should be!) the religious establishment since that was their holy day of rest which they had come to elevate about the needs of people.  Curtis said they didn't like Jesus because they were jealous that he knew more about their religion than they did, the supposed experts in the law.

As we moved the conversation to a close we talked about how unconventional and unpredictable Jesus could be.  George said that Jesus showed us a different kind of leadership than the typical "Simon says" type of game that is played.  We learn as children that you have to do exactly as simon says or you are out and most leaders want us to play by those rules.  George told us that at an earlier point in his life he had the attitude, "kill a communist for christ and two on sunday" until he realized that Jesus said love your enemies.  He said that this seriously messed up his former values.  Our friend John said that "nobody said the word would be easy" which left us all with a lot to think about.