James was his name. He was the head baseball coach at Concordia Lutheran College back at the old campus along I-35 and north of 32nd street here in Austin. He was a member of my church, St. John's UMC. It was a small baseball program; he might have had an assistant coach. To tell you how small it was, I once attended a game on campus. A foul ball was hit over the backstop, landing on a car, which set off its alarm. The folks in the stands looked at one another and said, "Ruth, I think it hit your car."
James was married to a beautiful woman. They had 3 little children. James asked for a luncheon meeting one day. We ate at a restaurant on Burnet Road. I will never forget how he shared with me, "There has been this twitching in my arms. I am trying to not worry about it. I am talking to the doctors." Here I insert a word from the Panhandle of Texas, dad gummit, it was ALS.
This terrible disease started to rob him of movement and capabilities. One year, James and his family were on the cover of the Sunday Parade magazine as the poster family for ALS. I was only his pastor for a couple of years before I had to move. I remember how James's shoulders started drooping, how he shrunk. He died of ALS.
I suspect you have a "James", someone you know who has had ALS. Let's share those names out loud or deep in hearts in prayer now in worship. We have 2 members of our congregation who have been diagnosed with ALS.
ALS is short for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It is commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease after the Yankee baseball player who had been an iron man, never missing a game or a grounder, till he was diagnosed with it. It is an awful disease. Today we are going to meet this disease with hope. Today we are going to participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Have you heard about it? It is not some marketing ploy. It is a grass roots movement that took off only in mid-July. You can see an example of a challenge from the youth group from Manchaca UMC to our youth here.
The challenge has been extremely successful. Last year from late July to late August, the ALS Association raised $2.6 million; this year over the same period, they raised $88.5 million! There have been 1.9 million new donors.
I looked it up on line, and there are rules! Ice water. Not ice only---ouch! Not just plain water--bland! But ice water. One of our youth was telling me about a video from a scientist who studies in this field. He said the shock of ice water with its accompanying tensing up of muscles and pain is similar to the feeling of ALS, if only for a fraction of a second.
It is supposed to be done not on a parking lot, but where the water can go back to the earth. Especially in this drought plagued area, we will do it on our back lawn here. In California, there were some vine growers, in their drought who substituted wine for water. We won't do that here!
You are supposed to respond to a challenge by getting soaked yourself or at least making a donation. I will be doing both. I am giving $100. You can give also by placing your donation in this bucket in the narthex after worship.
Here's some hope. I am astounded at the power of social media. This movement has gone "viral" as we say today. Facebook, Twitter, etc. have gotten the word out. It shows how connected we all are. In Christian terms, it shows how we are made for community, for doing this life together. I wish we could share our faith as easily as we shared this ice bucket challenge.
Some more hope comes from the word challenge. We seem to respond well to a challenge. I realize that as your pastor, I don't challenge you enough sometimes. "It's okay, that's alright, you're accepted," is what I say. Challenges call forth the best in us. Did you hear the challenges in the letter to the Romans? There were a bucketful of them: loving, forgiving, giving, serving, welcoming.
I want to leave you with a hopeful story. When I was pastor in Portland down on the Texas coast, I had a man who visited our church, who had ALS. He had lost the ability to speak. He had a little keyboard that he would type out responses on with a pencil. Once, just before I left Portland, I asked him, "How do you feel about having this disease? It's not fair? It's awful? Are you mad at God? Is there anything in scripture that describes what you are going through?" He tapped out his answer. I never would have expected it. He wrote, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name (Psalm 103:1). I was amazed at his faith. We will join him and all those we love with this disease to find a cure.
It is not a gimmick, what we do this day, in the ice bucket challenge. There is a person who writes liturgy who captures it well. Maren Tirabassi has written a poem, "Ice Bucket Challenge." Listen as I pour water into the baptismal font.
Of course, they’ve borrowed
our sacrament,
the one we let become warm
and small and personal and private
and cheap.
They got it right –
a big splash in front of everyone,
for the sake of those
living with ALS,
a wild, re-jordaned,
cold compassion, soaking --
holy defiant dove and all
to heal
lou gehrig’s disease.
Amen to the
celebrities and CEO’s,
the politicians and techies
and ordinary folks
who may not be our go-to saints
but teach us something
about our fonts,
and our old three-holy punch –
a bucketful of icy and shocking,
of public and embarrassing,
a bucketful
of siding with the healing
of someone else,
a bucketful of awkward
possible rejection,
wet and turning
to someone we love saying –
I challenge you to live baptized.
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