Best Hugs
Luke 11:1-13

July 29, 2007


I love hugs. I love hugs more than I love ice cream, and I love ice cream, a lot. When I was a child, my grandmother gave me at least one hug every day. The most memorable hugs that she gave me were the ones that took away my feelings of fear, pain or sadness. Those hugs, especially, made me feel very safe and loved.

In January of this year, I was able to attend the Emerging Spirit “Living the Welcome” workshop. One of the sessions I attended was about leadership. A short video, titled “Free Hugs,” was shown to our group. It was a true story about a young fellow, Juan Mann, who stood in the Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, Australia, holding a handcrafted sign offering “free hugs” to anyone who happened to pass by. Mann had come up with this idea after he found himself returning home to Sydney after living for a while in London. At the airport when he arrived, everyone seemed to be met by someone who hugged them, laughed with them, and made them feel special. But, there was no one there to meet Mr. Mann. He said that he had wanted someone to be there for him, someone to give him the feeling that he mattered – that he belonged. As a result, he made his sign. Holding up the hand-written cardboard message in one of the busiest pedestrian areas in Sydney, Mann was initially stared at (possibly even a bit suspiciously) and people passed him by. In the video he can be seen, speaking to the people as they pass by, trying to draw them to him. Most of them keep right on walking. But then, slowly, people began to stop for hugs. There were old and young, big and small, women and men. His hugs brought smiles to the people’s faces. Before you know it other people were holding up Juan’s sign, or their own handmade Free Hugs sign, and others were coming to hug them! There was even a group hug at one point.

Then the authorities put a ban on the free hugs free-for-all, as there were concerns about insurance – what if someone got injured? Well, Juan did not have the money needed to purchase insurance, so he started a petition so that the free hugs could continue. His cause was taken up by others who thought that hugging was a great idea, and 10,000 signatures were collected. And the Free Hugs Campaign continued and grew, becoming a charity which linked individuals needing help with those who wanted to help – anyway they could, person to person, without the middleman. Juan said, “It is truly one person making a difference in someone else’s life.” In an interview on the Youtube website Mr. Mann tells us that the Free Hugs Campaign has become a truly global effort, spreading from Sydney to Russia, China, Poland, and Spain and across the United States.

Juan Mann was determined to share his hugs with others and was not deterred in the least by those who passed him by. He was determined to share his hugs, because he believed that others needed hugs as much as he did. This campaign, which has since grown from the initial effort of one single solitary man, attests to the fact that one person can definitely make a difference in our world. This is God’s message to us, too. God knows us and knows what we need. More than we do ourselves. And God is asking us to take risks and be courageous and we can make a difference. I think that God’s message is for us to look deep into our hearts and find what really is important, what really matters, and know that God will give that to us. If we are persistent prayers, and realize that there are no perfect prayers, God will be with us and help us on our journey and with our struggles. Through our faith and our prayers to God, our lives will become enriched and full of an unimaginable joy.

In Luke 11: 1 – 13, Jesus’ disciples find him praying. After he is finished, the disciples ask him to teach them how to pray. Something to note is that this story is also seen in Matthew. In Luke, Jesus teaches the disciples a prayer which has in it some set phrases. Although the wording used in Matthew may be more original, the structure of the prayer is more original in Luke’s version. But, considering the two prayers, the prayer that we read in Matthew has more similarities to the Lord’s Prayer which we use today.

In an effort to illustrate the importance of prayer – persistent, possibly tenacious, prayer – Jesus uses a parable. A man, receiving unexpected company, has no food to give his guest. He goes to a neighbors and it is late at night. He stands at the friend’s door and cries out that he needs three loaves of bread. The friend on the other side of the door calls back, “don’t bother me, it’s late and my children are sleeping. I cannot help you.” Now, the way that Eugene H. Peterson addresses this in the Message, his contemporary interpretation of the Bible, is like this, “But, let me tell you, even if he won’t get up because he’s a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he’ll finally get up and get you whatever you need. Here’s what I’m saying: Ask and you’ll get: Seek and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open.”

Peterson says that we need to ask God for what we need. Let’s not play games or beat around the bush. Just think of a child. When a child asks for an egg, are you gong to play a game with her and give her a spider? Of course not! You would give the child what she needs. I like the way that Clarence Jordan, the author of “The Cotton Patch Version of Luke and Acts” sums it up – “Well, then, if you – sinful as you are – are capable of making good gifts to your children, how much more will the spiritual Father give the Holy Spirit to all who ask him?” It can be noted that, whereas Luke specifies “holy spirit” as the gift God will give us, Matthew simply says that God will give “good things” to one asking. Luke clarifies that God will not promise us whatever we desire in our prayers – that God is not a magician.

So with all this said, what we really must do is try to separate our wants from our needs. And that can be confusing. Because if we ask God for something that we believe we need, and God does not see things the same way, what will God give us instead? He will give us what he knows we really need – something that, perhaps, we may not even realize ourselves. It will not be pain or hurt or disappointment. It will be something given to us through his love and his grace - the gift of the Holy Spirit.

When we pray to God for forgiveness, for strength, for someone to love us and to help us through our struggles, God does answer us. That may be the greatest lesson God is trying to teach us. God gives us fully and completely his grace and his mercy. Can we see it? Can we understand that we are meant to minister to others? As Doug Bixby, in his article, “Grace and Graciousness,” which appeared recently in the Alban Weekly says, “If grace is good enough for God, should it not also be good enough for us? As Christians we claim to receive God’s grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. The time has come for us to show grace and mercy to one another.” One of the lines in the song accompanying the Free Hugs video, written by a group called The Sick Puppies, says “I’ll take you for who you are if you take me for everything.” That is God’s message to our Christian community. Faith and perseverance in prayer is only the beginning of what can be viewed as a continuum which defines the Christian life. God answers our prayers through his grace and we, as God’s children, are gracious to others both inside our church and outside in the greater world.

We all need to be open to God, to have faith in the mystery which is so much a part of our Father and believe that God will answer our prayers. We all need God’s love. We all need hugs. God’s love, like a warm embrace, is what will make us feel special – and we will want to share that feeling with others, so they will feel special, too. As Juan Mann showed us, one person can make a difference – all we need to do is persevere and have faith in our God. One person at a time, we can change the world. Amen.

Preached by Heather Rogers
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan