It was the shoes that finally gave it away.
For the most part, you could not tell that my family was poor. For the most part, we passed ourselves off as middle class Americans who enjoyed going to the movies and treating ourselves to meals at restaurants. But, we were not middle class.
During gym class, my gym teacher pointed down to my shoes and told me that I was not allowed to come back to gym class wearing those shoes.
You see, the soul had started to come off of the right shoe, and I fixed that problem with the miracle of all miracles: duct tape. I had put duct tape around the entire shoe, and I was good to go. Well, this fix was unacceptable to the teacher.
I went home and told my parents that I needed new shoes. They gave me the bad news that even though they both worked full-time jobs, buying new shoes would be impossible right at that moment.
The next day I came to gym class, and my teacher yelled for all to hear, “I thought I told you to come with better shoes. Go sit on the sidelines!”
I answered back, “I told my parents I needed new shoes, but they said we didn’t have any money.”
And, there it was, out in the open.
As the other kids began to mock me for being poor, I clearly remember the teacher’s face as she looked at the mocking kids, looked at me, looked again at the mocking kids, and then completely melted as she realized what she had done.
She had revealed the part of my life that was vulnerable, that was hidden, and exposed it for all to see. She had expected me to rise up, and was alarmed when I could not.
Sometimes, when you are down, you are simply down. That is it. And when that happens, we try to keep our vulnerabilities from being revealed.
We hold lots of secrets, lots of vulnerabilities, under the mask of “doing well” so as not to reveal our brokenness to others. There are other types of vulnerabilities other than being poor.
Grief is one that is often kept under wraps. Of course, it is fine to grieve out loud at the funeral of someone you loved, but people are less accommodating when grief wells up from out of nowhere in the middle of the grocery store. So, we bottle it up under the guise of “I’m doing fine,” even when we are not.
Then, there is little that is worse than being hated by others. Being hated by someone, and not being able to do anything about it, can tear your heart right out of its chest. This is the secret of all secrets. How many of you openly share the names of those who you know to hate you? No one. That is what I thought.
So, we take our vulnerabilities, wrap duct tape around them, and hope that no one looks down and notices. It usually works too. People do not want to wade around in the muck of your vulnerabilities with you, so they willfully keep their eyes up, so as not to notice.
They say things like, “Just work a little harder” or “Life always gets better” hoping to stuff your vulnerabilities back into the darkness for you. They want you to climb the mountain out of the muck, even if you cannot. Exposed vulnerabilities are a little too uncomfortable.
You want to know something interesting? In Luke Jesus does not teach his followers from the top of a mountain like in Matthew.
There is no mountain climbing in Luke to be done by those who desire a savior. Rather, Jesus starts on a mountain in prayer, and then comes down the mountain, onto a flat plain and meets his people there.
Jesus willingly comes down from the heights to teach his people, to touch the disgustingly sick, and to comfort those who are uncomfortably troubled.
He says things like, “Blessed are you who are poor,” “Blessed are you who are hungry now,” "Blessed are you who weep now,” and “Blessed are you when people hate you…” Jesus comes down to us, to join us in the most vulnerable parts of our lives in order to say, “You are not forgotten, you are blessed by God.”
These words are so important because the world is so willing to put you in your place and push your vulnerabilities onto the floor like they are yesterday’s garbage. But, they are not yesterday's garbage. You are not yesterday’s garbage, and Jesus comes down from the heights to meet in you at your lowest point and raise you up.
Woe to those who are high and would keep you low. Woe to those who would dismiss you and tell you to climb up. Woe to those who would hide you with their noses. Woe to them because you are not easily forgotten, you are a child of God.
You are forever joined to Christ, never to be lost no matter how low life takes you. Jesus comes down and finds you every single time and provides for you a blessing.
I will tell you one more thing: God still sends God’s saints do the same thing in Jesus' name.
Once, my classmates were talking in a mixed crowd of youth and adults about a class trip that they were going on. Notice that I said, "they." I was present during the conversation, but was not a part of the conversation because there was no way that my family was going to be able to afford for me to go.
I held my vulnerability silent throughout the conversation, and thought that no one had noticed. For the most part, no one had my vulnerability, except for one person. One saint of God (who I do not know to this day) noticed my silence…noticed my vulnerability. The next I day received a call from my church telling me that some money had been left in my name so that I could pay for the class trip. Someone with the eyes of Jesus had come down to the plain, saw me in my loneliness and my vulnerability, and gave a gift of love.
The act in the end was a little thing, but it meant a lot.
That being said, there are saints whom God sends down from the heights in order to do even bolder acts of love in the name of Jesus Christ such as, loving their enemies, doing good to those who hate them, blessing those who curse them, and praying for those who abuse them. Each of these acts of extraordinary love do change the world.
And so, we take time in the early part of November each year to honor those saints who continue to show God’s love and to give thanks to those saints who have shown God’s love to us before their deaths.
On All Saints Sunday, vulnerabilities do not need to be taped up.
On All Saints Sunday we need not fear our showing our vulnerabilities so that we might be fully embraced by God’s love and forgiveness.
On All Saints Sunday we are reminded that God never forgets us; his saints.
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