Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 6, 2023
Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Here is a lamp shining in a dark place
Thrones were set up and the Ancient One took his throne.
At the hospital my blood pressure guy, David Zachary, said, “Who is your doctor?” I told him, “Dr. Pirwitz.” Zach stopped suddenly, looked hard at me and said, “Oh, Pirwitz is the sensai. He is the chief. He is the best. He will do you well!”
His clothing was bright as snow, and the hair on his head as white as wool.
Dr. Mark’s hair is white. He is tall and thin, and when he leans against the window sill he is as tall as the others in the room. He came in shortly. “Do you have any questions, Dave?” I had none. “We’ll get that stent in your artery and get you out of here this afternoon.”
“Won’t I need to stay the night?”
“Not likely, Dave. Not likely.”
His throne was flames of fire, with wheels of burning fire. A surging stream of fire flowed out from where he sat.
“We’ll be coming back to take you downstairs in a few minutes. I’m ready; you won’t be waiting on me.” And in a moment Roxie came to wheel my entire bed down the hall, into the elevator, down one flight to the icy surgery. She piled warm blankets on me and smiled. “Here we go,” she said.
I remembered my friend Nancy’s encouragement. “Go confidently and boldly, knowing that Jesus loves you dearly.” I was just lying there, but I thought of her words and relaxed. “Your doctors have great experience and expertise,” she said. And I knew she was right. I let myself go gently into their hands.
Andi drove me to the hospital
Hilda checked me in
Becca got me hospital clothes
David Zachary did my “vitals”
Eileen checked my EKG
Kelly K spent a long time with me, putting in IV, signing papers, talking about Studs Terkel
Dr. Pirwitz was my surgeon, along with
      An MD Fellow
      And MD helper in surgery
Roxie wheeled me into the surgery
Sandy, Medicine Woman in surgery – anesthesiologist)
Abbey, right beside me nurse in surgery
A third nurse in surgery, who read off numbers right behind my head
Winter, my main recovery nurse
Glenda, another recovery nurse
Mary, another recovery nurse
Tasha, who wheeled me out to Andi’s van in a fancy wheelchair
Andi, who drove me home
Margaret, who welcomed me home!
Into their hands I commit myself … almost never do I live through an eight hour day in which I meet fifteen new people, all of whom are professional healers, all of whom want to help ME, and who, when invited, share details of their lives with me.
Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him, and myriads upon myriads attended him.
Dr. Pirwitz and his helper took pictures and made some measurements. How wide and how long should this stent be? I was mildly sedated (“here comes your margarita,” Sandy the Medicine Woman told me), so I could listen to them. Halfway through Dr. Mark told me they were moving right along, getting the right stent for my own personal and particular left anterior descending (LAD) artery. “I feel like a construction site,” I said. He laughed. That’s about right, he said. I could feel them pushing and pulling and jiggling the catheter down by my groin, but nothing at all in my heart. Which amazed me.
As the visions during the night continued, I saw one like a Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven.
Occasionally I opened my eyes, but mostly I just kept them closed. The pictures in my mind were far more fruitful than the ceiling of the surgery. Eventually Dr. Mark returned to my end of the bed and told me they were finished. “Congratulations, Dave. Your artery was blocked and now it is flowing free.”
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord over all the earth. The heavens proclaim his justice, and all peoples see his glory. We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming our Lord Jesus Christ, but we have been eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Watching the last episode of season three of The Chosen last night, we witnessed several miracles – of the body, of the emotions, – in community and deep inside the soul. All of that felt familiar as I remembered the wonder of the presence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all around me on Friday, resting not just on me but on those around me. The prayers of the faithful are powerful and true.
We possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable. You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
(Daniel 7, Psalm 97, 2 Peter 1, Matthew 17)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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