Scriptures:
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27, 2 Corinthians 8:7-15, Mark
5:21-43
Interrupted by Grace
I
have a confession to make: this sermon
didn’t get as much preparation time as it deserved. I had started preparing early in the week,
but things kept coming up – phone conversations with a contractor, an inquiry
from a group wanting to rent the building, needing to pick up food for the
cupboard, somebody calling with a question about the cemetery, requests for
assistance, on and on – one interruption after another. Some weeks are like that. We intend to get one thing, or one set of
things done, but people and circumstances pull us in different directions. Our work keeps getting interrupted.
In
this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus is having one of those days, a day of
interruptions. In our reading last week,
Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee and went into Gentile territory, where he cast
a demon out of a man and restored the man to his right mind. This week, he’s crossed the Sea of Galilee
again to go back to his home base. However, he just about gets both feet out of
the boat when he’s accosted by a local religious leader. The leader’s name is Jairus, his daughter is
gravely ill, and Jairus is desperate, beside himself, and comes to Jesus pleading
for help. We’re told that the man begged
Jesus repeatedly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come
and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” It’s striking that this religious leader was
willing to be seen bowing and begging before Jesus, as many religious leaders
in that day discredited Jesus. Likely
Jairus risked a lowering of prestige because of his willingness to be seen
coming to Jesus asking for help. But the
man was desperate. And so, whatever plans Jesus may have had, Jesus put his
plan on hold, and accompanied the man to his home.
Jesus
and Jairus did not walk alone; the large crowd that had been along the shore
when Jesus and his disciples set out for the other side of the lake, was
waiting for his return. As they Jesus and Jairus began to walk, the crowd
followed them. And in the crowd was one
desperately sick, and very determined, woman.
We’re told that she had suffered from what the King James Bible called
“an issue of blood” – our modern translation says “hemorrhages” – for twelve
years. Someone who had suffered internal
bleeding for that long would feel incredibly sick, incredibly tired, incredibly
drained of the strength and energy to do anything beyond waking up and going to
sleep. We’re told that she had suffered
much under many physicians, but their efforts made her health worse rather than
better…..so she was financially and economically drained as well. Remember also that, in that day, such
bleeding would have made this woman ritually unclean, so her disease brought
her not only illness, but isolation from community. But, as I said, this woman was determined –
at this point in her life, she likely figured she had absolutely nothing to
lose. Somehow she learned that Jesus was
nearby, and summoned the strength to drag herself out of bed, out of her home,
and into the jostling crowd, where every bump and bent elbow likely brought
bruising and pain. She made her way to
where Jesus was, saying to herself, “If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be
healed.” And so that’s just what she
did, and healing power went out from Jesus, and she was healed. And Jesus reacts oddly, saying “Who touched
my clothes”, and stopping the procession – likely causing Jairus to want to rip
his hair out. The woman just wanted to
receive healing anonymously and go on her way, but Jesus would have none of
that. The disciples tell Jesus that
everyone in the crowd is brushing against him.
But Jesus looked around, and the woman came forward and told him the
truth of what she’d done – and Jesus sends her on her way with a blessing.
Good
for the woman. Not so good for Jairus,
who sees people coming up to tell him that his daughter has died. Jairus is just about to give in to despair,
when Jesus tells him, “Do not fear, only believe.” (We’re actually given some foreshadowing of
what is to come in Jairus’ name, which means “He who will be
enlightened.”) He left everyone else
behind but Jairus and three disciples, Peter, James, and John. When they arrived at Jairus’ house, people were weeping and wailing loudly. When Jesus entered, he said to the mourners,
“Why are you kicking up all this fuss.
The child is not dead, but sleeping.”
And the mourners laughed at him….one thing we’re told is that in those
days, people hired mourners to lament for the death of a loved one, and perhaps
Jesus’ words threw these paid mourners, essentially hired actors, off
script. In any case, Jesus, the parents,
and the three disciples go to the woman, Jesus took her by the hand, said the
Aramaic words “Talitha cum”, which means “Little girl, get up”, and the girl
got up and began to walk – and Jesus reminds the parents to get her something
to eat. At the end of the story, almost
as an aside, Mark’s gospel tells us that the girl was twelve years old. In that culture, the girl was near the age of
marriage – for sure, don’t try that at home; those were different days. And so the healing of the girl meant new life
not only for her, but for the family she would presumably soon be starting.
Mark
gives us two healing stories, one sandwiched inside the other, both including
the number twelve – essentially, the woman with the hemorrhages had been sick
for the entire life of the little girl – and Jesus heals them both. Perhaps, in that oral culture, this was a
memory device to help the followers of Jesus remember these stories as the
accounts of Jesus were handed down by word of mouth before eventually being
written down.
Again,
today’s Gospel reading is a story of interruptions – Jesus being interrupted by
Jairus, and Jesus and Jairus being interrupted by the woman. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not
crazy about interruptions. When I’m
driving, I don’t like detours. When I’m
working, I don’t like interruptions. And
yet, we all know that interruptions are a part of life. And sometimes – not always, but sometimes –
interruptions are occasions for God’s grace to enter the picture, as in today’s
Gospel readings. Sometimes – not always,
but sometimes - it is God who is at work in the interruptions, if we have eyes
to see and ears to hear.
Even
when God is at work, not all can perceive it.
It takes a spirit attuned to the workings of God’s spirit, remembering
that the same name by which God identified Godself to Moses – “I am what I am”
– also means “I will be what I will be.”
God is not confined by our notions of tradition or decorum, but tells
us, “See, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not see it?” It also takes a generous spirit – a spirit
willing to divert from our driven notions of things that we just have to get
done, to open space in our lives for God to work in surprising ways. As I said, Jesus likely had other plans when
his boat landed back on his side of the Sea of Galilee, but he was generous to
make space for Jairus’ desperation, to bring healing to Jairus’ daughter. And both Jesus and Jairus found themselves
making space – Jairus probably very unwillingly – for the healing of the woman
with the hemorrhages. It is sometimes in
the interruptions, in unexpected phone calls and seemingly random encounters,
that God’s grace can touch our lives, if we let it.
I
mentioned the interruptions I encountered in my sermon preparation this
week. And actually, beyond the day to
day randomness that interrupted my thoughts, both the events of this past week
and of the week before have caused preachers to rip up their sermons and start
over, or at least heavily rewrite them….of course, my sermon last Sunday was
heavily influenced by the shootings in Charleston, and the grief from those shootings
still reverberates. And this week,
likely many sermons were influenced by the US Supreme Court ruling allowing
same-gender couples across the country to contract for marriage, on the same
basis as heterosexual couples – and I found myself wishing that I’d written my
sermon about the Old Testament passage in which the grieving David laments the
death of Jonathan, whose love surpassed the love of women…but the hymns were
picked, and the sermon mostly planned out.
The decision was announced only on Friday, and the dust is still
settling, so to speak – so while there’s lots I could say, I’ll keep my remarks
brief today – you’re welcome. Of course,
there are those who say that the sky is falling, as some threaten to move to
Canada in protest – which could be interesting, as same-gender marriage has
been legal there for about the past 10 years – out of the frying pan into the
fire. And speaking of fire, there’s one
vocal pastor, Rick Scarborough, who threatened to light himself on fire if such
a ruling came down – but seems to have backed off. To all of this panic, I offer the same words
with which I ended my sermon last week – “perfect love casts out fear.” The United Church of Christ has been a
longtime advocate for the rights of LGBT persons, and ten years ago General
Synod passed a resolution in favor of marriage equality – a resolution not
binding on individual UCC churches, which are all over the place on this and
other issues – but a milestone nonetheless.
This is scary stuff for many people – perhaps for some here today - but
not for our denomination.
On
the other end of the spectrum, there are some who believe that with the Supreme
Court ruling, LGBT persons have now been fully integrated into society, and can
ride off into the sunset happily ever after.
That’s not the case either. In
some parts of the country, sadly, LGBT persons continue to face discrimination
in employment and housing, and the Supreme Court’s ruling will have no
immediate effect on that. For those who
support the full inclusion of LGBT persons in society, Friday’s ruling is a
milestone, but there’s still a great deal of work to be done.
And
for most people, the impact will be….basically nothing. The ruling has no impact on heterosexual
marriages. Churches and pastors who
oppose the ruling will not be forced to preside at such ceremonies, just as the
Roman Catholic church and some other churches even before the ruling could,
with full protection of the law, refuse to preside at marriages of divorced
persons. For most of us, life will go on
as it ever has.
Perfect
love casts out fear. May God’s love
enable us to accept life’s interruptions as potential spaces through which God’s
grace can enter, and may God grant us generosity to welcome God’s intervention,
not only in our own lives, but those of our neighbors. Amen.
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