Walk On by Brian Barker

Mark 2:1-12
New International Version
Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man
2 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

​To begin, I would like to ease your minds just a bit. Thirteen pages at a size 14 font will take me 18-20 minutes to get through, and I only have 3 this morning.
A few extra minutes to introduce myself to you as they already know all they want to know in Deaver. My name is Brian Barker. I was born in Ft. Worth, Texas as the first of five children of a then Local Pastor who was completing his undergrad work at Texas Wesleyan College. My parents had only been married 9 months and 10 days when I was born, which had moved one of the church ladies to count off on her fingers to make sure I was not conceived out of wedlock. We went  on to live in Texas and Oklahoma before my father took a position with Church World Service and we moved to Topeka, Kansas. CWS soon transferred Dad to the Northern California-Nevada Conference and their office in Modesto, California, where my mother and sister still live and I lived until 2020. I also attended TWC, where I also met and married my ex-wife, I did not, however go into the ministry. I went in different directions in multiple ways.
Most of you know that I am retired, as I tend to shout that from the rooftops, but not all of you know what I am retired from. I worked in the mental health field from the time I was 18 until my retirement in 2020, first in group homes for pre-adolescents, then in psychiatric inpatient units and residential treatment programs for adults, later getting my MSW and license as a Clinical Social Worker and worked in settings where I provided group and individual therapy, being gently, and sometimes not so gently, nudged by God until he got me where he wanted me, behind bars. The last 20+ years of my career I worked either in or in liaison with, the County Jail, the Court, and the last 5 years in the state prison system. I felt very comfortable, and not at all frightened, in that environment and had easy rapport with most of the inmates. I asked one of my patients why that might be and he told me there were 2 reasons. “You talk to us like we are real people and we always know we’ll get real talk from you, I mean, we may not like what your answer is but we know it’s honest”.
 Probably my most rewarding time was in prison, where a lot of the people I saw either had parole dates that were years away, or they didn’t have a parole date at all. During my time there I had a caseload of between 30 and 40 of inmates who were considered in the highest level of need that were not hospitalized and required that they be seen no less than weekly. In addition we each also had to lead no less than 3 groups per week. One of the groups that I led was about Spiritual Practices in the world and we covered all I could find info on with the ones we spent the most time on being Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. The rules of the system, and the SW Code of Ethics, forbade the imposition of my beliefs on anyone, but, unofficially, I offered spiritual counseling where it was needed or requested. I tried to steer pts away if religion was not source of comfort or re-development in their lives. Not all of the believers I dealt with were Christian, I had several Muslims (a fair chunk of the black inmates) and some practicers of meditation and yoga which leaned toward  Hinduism and/or Buddhism.
There was one inmate in particular whose therapy led to the song I wrote that will end this talk/ He had initially started asking for help with his depression, specifically “not feeling so lousy and hopeless all the time.”  It was apparent in our talks that music was a very important part of his connection to the world, both personally and spiritually, so one of the parts of his treatment plan was for him to sing at least once a day. It wasn’t long before he was not only attending the protestant services but was leading the choir. One day as we were talking he told me that he feels like he’s not getting any help from God, not that he felt alone or deserted, he just couldn’t feel God helping him. I don’t often get a blinding flash of inspiration but I feel I heard directly from the Holy Spirit at that moment, and the story of the man on the mat from Mark in the Scripture I read at the beginning of the talk popped into my head. I asked him if he remembered it and he did, but what he remembered was more about the faith of the friends breaking through the roof. As we went through the passage, I pointed him more toward the interaction with Jesus. Jesus didn’t spend a lot of time building up the situation, he just told the man his sins were forgiven and to get up, take his mat, and go. I pointed out that Jesus didn’t
even put out His hand and help up this guy  who had never been able to walk, that He knew the man was healed and was now fully able to walk on his own. God had supplied the man with what he needed and trusted the man to use it. I know the Holy Spirit was speaking through me when I said this, because I’m just not that smart, but I remember telling him ‘Sometimes you just have to carry your mat.”
Before we moved to Powell we were in the Northern California/Nevada Conference and the last 3 years I served on the district’s Committee on Ordained Ministry, which meant I was one of two laity in a group of pastors. At one meeting I was responsible for the opening worship and I used this story. I was surprised at how much pushback I got from the pastors who said I was painting God as disinterested and uncaring. I meant the opposite, but I learned long ago that there are some arguments that it is best to walk away from: you don’t argue with a drunk, you don’t argue with someone in a MAGA hat, you don’t argue with your wife (though I admit I don’t always remember that one), and you don’t argue Bible with pastors.
The longer I think about this, the more I realize that the real issue is trust. God trusts us and expects us to trust Him.  I have to admit that my first reaction to hearing God trusts me is to have questions about how wise that is, but He does trust us all, and expects the same in return. There are several instances in the Old Testament of God saying He will bless the harvest, but he doesn’t plow, He doesn’t plant the seed, He doesn’t actually bring in the harvest. He trusts us to do that.
God gives us all that we need. He doesn’t necessarily give us what we want, but He gives us what we need. He never leaves us but He isn’t always going to do things for us that we can do ourselves. God is in control, but He doesn’t act as a puppet master. God loves us and expects us to love Him and everyone else, regardless of what they look like, how they vote, who they love, or even whether they are good to us. He trusts us to do what we need to do. He trusts us to carry our mat.
I wrote the refrain to this song that same day, though it took me a couple of years to write the verses and the music. I didn’t get this done in time to get the music to your pianist, and, truth be told, I still need to tweak the accompaniment a little, so I will give it a shot a cappella: 

WALK ON (?)
 
We all know the story of the man who couldn’t walk
His friends heard about Jesus but the way to Him was blocked
So they tore through the roof above
And lowered him with all their love
Jesus saw their faith and said,
 
{Refrain}
Stand up, take your mat and walk on
Your troubles and trials are now gone
The Lord has given you all
You need to answer your call, so
Stand up, take you mat and walk on.
 
We all have heard the story of the footprints in the sand
With two sets of tracks, save when we couldn’t stand
One track when He carried us
Two when we gave Him our trust
He’ll never leave us and says,   
 
{Refrain}
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