SUBURBAN DISPOSAL

Henrietta United Church of Christ

Rev. David Inglis May 7, 2006

Luke 4:16-21 CROP Walk Sunday

“Release to the Captives”

A remarkable story was printed on the front page story of the San Francisco Chronicle last December, and covered in this month’s Reader’s Digest. A fisherman saw a 50-ton female humpback whale struggling in the ocean not too far from the Golden Gate bridge. Through the cold, frothy water, he could see that she was tangled up in heavy lines that were attached to 100-pound crab traps on the ocean floor. He radioed an environmental group, and within a few hours, two volunteer divers, Jim Moskito and Jim Young, were stopping their inflatable outboard motor boat about 100 feet from the whale. .

When they got into the water and saw the situation, their hearts sank. About 20 lines connected to a dozen or so heavy crab traps were entangling her tail, pulling it straight down towards the bottom like an anchor. The ropes then wound upward around her flipper, and some of them went into her huge mouth like a gag, cutting into her flesh. She was using all her strength to keep her blowhole above the surface, but it was clear she was exhausted by the effort. Pieces of blubber were floating in the water from the ropes cutting into her. The divers wondered how long it would take for sharks to arrive.

One slap of her eight foot long flipper could kill a man. But they couldn’t bear to leave her. So they got their dive knives from the boat, slowly approached her, and, body to body with her, began cutting the half-inch ropes. The whale stopped moving completely. She watched them quietly and seemingly knowingly with her huge eyes.

Two more divers arrived, gently approached her, gripped her lower lip, and reached inside her huge mouth to tug loose the ropes that were gouging into her. She held her body still for them too. After well over an hour, they were down to the last few ropes. These were embedded so deeply into her tail that the head diver, Jim Moskito, saw no alternative but to take his knife and cut them loose. One pained swipe of her huge tail and he’d be a gonner. He was supposed to be driving his girlfriend to have dinner at his parents’ home. But he plunged the knife in and cut away until the last rope was free, “Whoo-hoo! She’s free!” The three other divers joined in the whooping and hollering as the whale went down, down under the water.

The next thing Jim Moskito knew, she was coming up from below and swimming straight at him. She stopped a foot from his chest and gave him a gentle nudge. Then she swam around them in what seemed like a circle of joy. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around. What else could she have been doing but thanking them? She swam with them for a good ten minutes.

One of the divers who cut the rope out of her mouth while her big eye was watching him says he’ll never be the same. Another diver said, “I spent 26 years in the military doing high-risk rescues. Nothing’s been more gratifying than this one. Nothing.”¹

Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus also said to his followers, “Follow me”-- That’s recorded 18 times in the gospels. I don’t think Jesus particularly had whales in mind when he said that. But I do think those divers were following Jesus out there in that rescue mission.

So let us follow Jesus today as we offer our feet and our money to the CROP Walk today and to the Celiac Walk next Saturday, so we can help free people who are held captive by poverty, hunger, chronic illness, and despair. Let us follow Jesus today as we befriend people who are lost and alone, and invite them into God’s embrace and into this spiritual home, where they can find freedom from aimlessness, loneliness and sin. Let us follow Jesus today as we carry his compassion to the people we know who are oppressed by illness, loss, or heartache in their lives, and offer them freedom from feeling godforsaken.

Four divers risked their lives to set free a whale. Jesus gave his life to set us and all humanity free from selfishness and sin. Let us offer our lives to confirm this holy work of setting God’s people free. Whatever we can do for the least of these, Jesus’ brothers and sisters, we do for Jesus.

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