"May I Please Speak With Your Supervisor?"

Sermon for 30th Sunday, cycle B

by Most Rev. Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Presiding Bishop, United Catholic Church

How many times have you found yourselves fighting city hall, bucking up against an uncaring, inflexible bureaucracy, or getting the runaround from some low-level employee who tells you they’re sorry but, "That’s against the rules" or "We don’t do it that way" or "I don’t think that’s ever been done before." I’ll bet it’s happened to you many times. It sure has to me. Over the years, I’ve learned how to deal with situations like that. I just say, "May I please speak with your supervisor." And I don’t take "No" for an answer.

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. When Maggie and I were first married, Maggie (being a young officer’s wife) was easily intimidated. On one occasion, our oldest child was sick, so Maggie took him in to the base hospital on a Friday. The doctor raked her over the coals for bringing him in and wasting their time. "He’s just got a cold," the doctor told her. "You mothers are always bringing your kids in for every case of sniffles."

So Maggie took him home. Sunday at church, one of our choir members (who happened to be a nurse) noticed that Bobby was sick and asked Maggie why she didn’t take him to the doctor. "I did," she said, "and he just raked me over the coals and sent us home."

"Well, you take him back," the nurse told her. So we took him back to the hospital. A different doctor was on duty and, after examining Bobby, told us "This child has pneumonia. Why didn’t you bring him in sooner?"

Years later, when we had all seven of our children, Maggie again encountered the hospital bureaucracy, but this time she was better prepared. We lived out in the country several miles from the base. I was off flying somewhere, defending America from the Soviet threat or something, so Maggie was home alone with the seven children when one of them started running a high fever in the middle of a cold winter night.

Maggie called the hospital to ask how much aspirin to give him. (It was actually APCs, the military’s "All Purpose Capsule" and there were no dosage directions on the bottle.) The one who answered the phone told her, "I’m sorry, but we can’t give that information over the telephone. You’ll have to bring the child in."

So Maggie patiently explained that there were six other children at home that she’d have to bundle up and bring as well, and it was five below zero outside. No matter. "I’m sorry. We’re not allowed to give that information over the telephone. You’ll have to bring the child in."

Well, Maggie wasn’t about to give up, so she said the magic words, "May I please speak with your supervisor." "Well alright, but it won’t do you any good. We’re not allowed ..."

To make a long story short, Maggie talked to six different people before finally getting to a doctor who told her the same thing. Still Maggie persisted. "You want me to take a sick child out in five below zero weather in the middle of the night, not to mention six more?" Finally the doctor relented and told her how much APC to give him. Persistence, common sense, and a refusal to be intimidated had paid off.

On another occasion, when we were stationed outside London, England, Maggie ran into a problem at the American base hospital. A civilian contract doctor told her she wasn’t sick enough to bother with. This time she didn’t bother with all the intermediate steps. She went directly to the hospital commander. He saw that she got taken care of immediately. She got the medication she needed for what could have been a very serious situation.

I’ll bet every one of you has a story of when you were intimidated by authority and later regretted it. And each of you probably has many stories about when persistence and refusal to be intimidated served you well.

Bartimaeus, in today’s gospel story, is a great example of persistence and the refusal to be intimidated. He was only a blind beggar, the dregs of society. His condition didn’t get much pity. Most folks in those days believed he was blind because of sin (either his or his parents’). When he tried to call out to Jesus, he was told by people in the crowd to shut up and leave the Master alone. Now all these people were wealthier, healthier, more educated, and higher on the social ladder than Bartimaeus. Many of them were disciples of Jesus. In short, they outranked him. But he was undeterred. He kept calling out, all the louder. Finally, he got the attention of Jesus, who promptly healed him.

The moral of the story is, "Don’t be intimidated by intermediate levels of bureaucracy, people with a little authority trying to show how important they are. Never give up until you’ve gone right to the top. Whatever your situation, take your case to God."

Several years ago, when Notre Dame used to win football games, they won two in a row in a very strange manner. In both games, they were behind until the last play of the game, when a long pass was tipped and fell into the arms of a Notre Dame receiver in the end zone. Asked by the press to account for this extraordinary good fortune, the Notre Dame coach cited divine intervention.

"Nonsense," said one journalist, "God doesn’t care who wins a football game." "True," said the coach, "but his Mother does."

Now this is a funny story, but it is also instructive, for it points up some major fallacies in people’s belief systems. I guess there could be people in the world who believe that Mary is more powerful than God. I certainly don’t know any, and if they exist, they’re clearly wrong. So that only leaves one explanation. Some people believe Mary understands us better, cares about us more, and therefore will do for us things that God wouldn’t do for us if we went directly to him. This belief is false.

It is impossible for any creature to be as compassionate, understanding, loving, generous, giving, or merciful as God. Scripture is absolutely clear: Jesus and none other is our advocate with the Father. With his own lips, Jesus tells us that anything we ask in his name will be granted. Why then do people pray to the saints to intercede for them?

There is only one answer: they are intimidated by God. They are afraid to go to the highest authority to get their needs met. Jesus was, of course, aware of this problem. That’s why he emphasized the accessibility of God, comparing him to a loving father, having us call him Abba ("Daddy"), and showing us God through his own meekness, gentleness, compassion, and love of children.

Unfortunately, much of the good that Jesus did for our image of God has been undone by televangelists, fire-breathing preachers, Popes, excommunicating bishops, and various un-Christlike Christians.

It’s time for us to recover Jesus’ vision of God. Even in our human society, we find that those with the greatest authority are generally more responsive to our needs than the mid-level functionaries who have just enough authority to be dangerous. When you say "May I please speak to your superior" often enough, you eventually get to someone who understands the big picture, not just the rulebook. Well, if that is so, how much more is it true with God, who has the whole picture and who is the personification of infinite compassion, goodness, and love?

Don’t let the crowd intimidate you, telling you to shut up and leave the Master alone. Don’t be deterred by the religious bureaucrats telling you God can’t help you because what you are asking is against the rules. Persevere. Keep crying out to Jesus until he hears you and heals you and tells you "Your faith has saved you." Then receive his grace and blessing, and follow him up the road.

Let us pray.

Lord, we thank you for showing us how approachable you are. Help us have the courage never to be intimidated by those who would keep us away from you. Grant us the perseverence to keep calling out to you in our need, confident that you hear us and will answer with what we need when we need it. Don’t let us be discouraged when we confuse our needs and our greeds and you have to tell us, "No." Help us understand that in your infinite mercy and love, you will only answer our prayers with "No" when that is exactly what we need. And when you have healed us, Lord, help us respond in gratitude and then follow you up the road. Amen!

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