Scaffolding

I always thought of scaffolding as merely a temporary system of ladders and platforms that allowed a painter to safely scale the heights like Michelangelo did to make a curated treasure of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, or like the good workers from Stirling Painting and Renovations did in maintaining the windows of our church building last month. But then I came upon a fascinating article that greatly expanded my notion of what other things a scaffold can be good for, like serving as a framework on which healing can happen.

As I understand it, biomedical engineers have developed a technique for 3-D printing structures which may be placed between the splintered ends of badly broken bones. The scaffold, made of a biodegradable polymer known as PLLA, gives new bone growth a lattice to cling to while it repairs itself. But in addition to providing stability, the PLLA scaffold is able to conduct a mild electrical current that stimulates and speeds up bone growth. And eventually, once the bone has knit itself back together, the scaffold dissolves and dissipates. Very cool.

I’ve also learned that scaffolding is a key component in coral reef restoration projects. As climate change has contributed to the collapse of oceanic coral ecosystems around the globe, saving those delicate reefs has become a specialty for marine biologists. They have learned how to carefully coax and cultivate coral to grow on metal scaffolds they sink and anchor to the sandy bottom of Caribbean shallows. And like with human bone growth, coral growth can also be stimulated and sped up with the application of mild electrical charges. Intriguing.

To see the definitive evidence of a fractured femur, there will have to be an x-ray. To see the evidence of a depleted atoll, there will have to be a scuba diver shooting footage with an underwater camera. But to see evidence that there is brokenness all around us, the naked eye will do just fine these days. But what else do we see? Do we see the dismantling of a framework that doesn’t serve all people justly? Do we see the need for healing? For a better framework? For a scaffold that can be infused with some kind of power to generate revved up mending? An accelerated cure?

Thinking about this, a Bible story has drifted into my mind. Do you remember the one about when Jesus went out among an enormous crowd? He was phenomenally busy that day, according to Luke’s recounting in Chapter 8 of his Gospel. In a sliver of a break between resolving the many issues of a possessed man and restoring a little girl who everyone believed to be dead, Jesus squeezed in another event, and not even on purpose. Approached by a woman exhausted and desperate after more than a decade dealing with non-stop bleeding, she got close enough to Jesus to touch his clothing. She didn’t even try to speak with him, perhaps not even wanting to bother him. But when she brushed up against him, the story goes, he sensed it. He whirled around, saying he knew that power had gone out of him. It seems to have been almost automatic, the way Jesus changed her life, the way he healed her with a bit of a zap and gave her a whole new scaffold upon which to build a repaired life.

It strikes me that in order to repair the wounds in our world, we are in need of a scaffold. We are in need of Jesus. But the scaffold cannot be manipulated to suggest that Jesus cares for some people more than others. Some people might be in need of more compassion from him at one time or another. In such need, someone might be bold enough to trust in his goodness and sneak a pinch of his power. Like in the story, if Jesus were smack dab in the middle of a demonstrative crowd this very day, he might wheel around and ask, “Who touched me?” But it wouldn’t because he felt the action was invasive or that the person was thieving and trying to get away with something. No. Jesus would want to know who needed him so seriously in order that he may fully encounter the one in deepest pain.

Like the biomedical engineers on the side of patients, like the marine biologists on the side of the environment, Jesus is on the side of all who need him to be. As we look around and make ourselves aware of how we can be on Jesus’ side, let us be purposeful about how that new scaffolding gets built, how the lattice gets covered over, and what beauty will result when all is healed and flourishing.

Pastor Chris

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Moravian Church Without Walls (MCWW)  will offer a virtual service open to all at  11:00 am ET on Sundays. On July 12, we join  Waconia Moravian Church  in Waconia, Minn.

The webinar begins at 11:00 a.m.; click this link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/310492867   to join the service.

Virtual Fellowship will meet via Zoom at 10:15 a.m. Click on   https://zoom.us/j/91671628972 to connect.

Zoom Prayers will meet at 6:30 p.m. Click on https://zoom.us/j/91961743369 to join.