Look me in the eye!

Mark 1:40-45

This is a story that has a happy ending. I want you to understand that now because much of the story is not happy; in fact, not only is it sad but you may not like what happens to our hero along the way. At some points of the story you may not like our hero. You may despise him and he might leave feeling disgusted. Although the story is not about a real person, it is about a real situation; one that is all too familiar, if you look hard enough. What you must realise is that although our hero faces choices through the story; many of the paths he takes are not his fault. He takes them because he is not well. Much in the same way that you cannot help sneezing and coughing when you have a cold, he cannot help much of what he does. But as I say, whatever happens to him, you must remember that the story does have a happy ending.

We start with a very ordinary situation. Our hero’s name is Pete and he is married. Pete had a good job; a financial job in the city. It was hard work but it paid well and Pete was prepared to put in the hours because he and his wife wanted to start a family and he wanted to give them a good start. He worked long hours, which meant he often arrived home late, tired and stressed. It was a very stressful job. He often missed lunch and when he did go for lunch it was to the pub where he downed a couple of pints. He started to drink after work too, just to relax, you understand – to wind down after a stressful day.

Then things started to go badly at work, the company lost an important client and some of Pete’s colleagues lost their jobs. Pete had to work harder and the harder he worked the more stressed he was and the more he drank. At home he began to argue with his wife; much of the time about small things. She was worried about Pete and noticed how much he drank but when she approached him about it, it just caused another row.

Then one day he came home drunk after a particular bad day at work. He argued with her and then he hit her. He was sorry afterwards but the damage was done and she told him to go. He found a place to stay but the drink had a strong hold on him and eventually he lost his job, his friends and his home. He was on the streets, homeless. He tried to get a place in a hostel but they would not deal with drunks. He tried to get help from social services but they told him that he had done this to himself and refused to help him. He tried to get another job but without an address the job centre told him that he was unemployable.

It gets worse but I cannot bear to tell you the unpleasant details, except to say that after a few months on the street he was dirty, unshaven, smelt bad and his clothes were threadbare. He was tired and ill most of the time and looked twice as old as his 31 years. Nobody wanted to know him. He had to beg to get money and he spent it on cheap alcohol. Most people would hurry out of his way. Those who gave him money barely looked at him and that was the worst part of it – nobody would look him in the eye and acknowledge that he was a man and had feelings. Nobody would look at him at say, ‘Hallo Pete’.

That was until he met a physician. The doctor came from a good home where her father was a highly respected heart surgeon. She could have had a great career in medicine and a wealthy and privileged life but, because she had come to know and love the Lord, she chose instead to use her considerable skills helping the homeless and the poorest in the neighbourhood. Her name was Clare and when she met Pete her heart went out to him. She knew what was wrong, she knew that his drinking was a disease. the care centre she ran and, though it took a long time for Pete to recover, Clare made sure that he went to social services to get the help that they had denied him, that he went and found a place to live in hostel that had refused him accommodation and that the job centre, who had written him off, found him employment.

Clare made Pete promise not to tell anyone about her work because she knew that publicity brought in the press, who would interfere with her ability to carry out her work. But can you blame him from telling everyone he met about the good doctor who had changed his life?

Look me in the eye!

Heavenly Physician,

when I am at my most unlovely

and when I say,
'You can help me, if you want to,'

you do not turn away.

You look me in the eye
and tell me that I am cleansed

from all that makes unworthy.
Therefore, Lord
when I encounter those whom you love
but I find unlovely, helpless and hopeless,
help me follow your example,
to look them in the eye
and let them know they matter,
that they too are loved.
Amen.