Kingmakers

Sunday, July 30th, 2006
Proper 12 B
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
John 6:1-15

1 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” 6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

15When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Last Sunday, as well as the one before that, we moved from worship in the morning service to a celebratory meal – either at Jim and Mary’s in honor of Helen and Edythe Schools, or right here – last Sunday, for our Sunday School picnic. As things have worked out, it will be no different today either. As you know, we kick off Vacation Bible School this evening with a taco bar picnic. If you don’t like Tacos, come anyway. We’ll also have hot dogs.

It’s interesting, don’t you think, the emphasis … the importance we place on food? Have you ever looked really closely at the pictures of meals or dishes that are being discussed in homemaking magazines? We get at least a couple of them, and the pictures of the food are incredible. There’s something about zooming in on a plate loaded with food and it being lit ‘just so’ that can REALLY make my mouth water. I want to go out and try at least two recipes per issue. But somehow they never end up looking quite like the picture. Hmmm. Wonder why? I’ve grown up with jokes being made in church about how much and how often Baptists eat, but I think if we ran a poll to see what church jokes those who’ve been raised in traditions other than Baptists heard growing up, we might discover that Baptists are not alone in focusing on meals. Specifically, communal meals.

If you joined us last Sunday evening for the Sunday School picnic, you might have heard me say something in my prayer about being grateful for those meals that we share here on earth that remind us of the feast we will one day celebrate when we are in God’s presence.

I was somewhat surprised to learn from Jaime this week that, in Italy, among Baptist Churches, it is a common practice to have lunch together as a congregation every Sunday. So the fact that we had a big family picnic these past two weeks probably did more to remind our Italian brothers and sisters of home than anything else.

Now I bet you are wondering what in the world this has to do with Jesus multiplying loaves and fishes and miraculously feeding 5000 people. Isn’t this passage about the compassion Jesus had for the poor? Perhaps this sermon should be about the persisting hunger in our world that could so easily be wiped out if we only had the political will.

1 in 10 US families cannot afford to buy the food they need for good nutrition on a regular basis. That’s 11 million children and 19 million adults. 841 million suffer serious malnutrition worldwide. The UN World Development program estimates that basic health and nutrition needs can be met for about $13 Billion. Feeding the hungry is an important part of following Christ, but doing justice is not the main theme of this passage.

Isn’t it about Christ’s mysterious, miraculous power that will help us overcome the problems we face in the world? Or it could be preached as an example of teaching the disciples the power of faith. This is a great opportunity to preach about the power of faith and the need to trust God with all of our problems, but faith is not the main theme of the passage.

I’m most interested in what happens after Jesus feeds 5000 people. They want to make him King. Now that is no small desire in a little outpost ruled by the powerful Roman Empire. We might think Jesus would be happy about this. After all, we admire people who can draw a big crowd and deliver the goods, but Jesus is apparently not flattered by all this. Jesus has uneasy thoughts here, probably because of a very important spiritual experience he had in the wilderness. Remember Satan’s temptation to turn the stone into bread? The temptation was not just appealing to the hunger Jesus felt in the wilderness. Many commentators on scripture point out that it was a temptation to have a primary focus on humanity’s material needs. Here’s the bigger potential problem. When mob makes you King the mob rules you. They want Jesus to be king because of what Jesus can do for them.

The question I ask myself is this: Has our consumer culture taught us to approach God as consumers rather than disciples? In other words, are we Christians because of what we can get out of it, rather than because we want to truly know this God who created us? It has become common to hear a Gospel of health, wealth, and prosperity in our country. We may have all seen some of the more … memorable, shall we say, televangelists ask the audience to place their purses or their wallets on their television set in order for them to be healed. That isn’t exactly what I’m talking about. We can hopefully pretty easily identify those who are blatantly trying to sell us something other than the Gospel that Jesus brought to the world, yet in more subtle ways we all slip into being a Christian to get our needs met. Sometimes we think we have struck a bargain with God. We are good, then our business will prosper, or we will have career success. We will never have health problems if we just obey the 10 commandments. It becomes just another way to try purchasing inner peace.

It’s easy to fall into trap of those who are trying to make Jesus the earthly King. The crowds question is “Jesus what will you do for us?” But the first question for us is “Jesus, who are you and why are you here? What is your mission? What will that mean for my life?” That’s the problem I have with celebrities and athletes who thank God for success and touchdowns. I saw a rap star who received an award for an album where he talks about slapping women around and he thanked God for all his achievements.

We all have needs on the surface. Some are basic, such as food, clothing and shelter. You may have noticed a couple of extra cars in our driveway over the last couple of weeks. We are providing one of those basic needs to a family who is waiting for the house that they are going to rent to be ready. Being able to do that – to share the house – has been a joy. It has given us a chance to really get to know Alejandra and Daniel and their son Christian, and their friend Juan Carlos, but in all honesty, it has also been a strain. We are very aware of the fact that there is another family living in the house. It has not been an imposition on their part; they have been incredibly gracious guests. The men are away at work the better part of each day, and on weekends they have been out looking for housing, and during the week Alejandra has kept herself busy by helping with chores around the house. So even though it will be a relief in a couple of weeks when they DO move out, I know we will also miss them terribly.

Some needs are more abstract, like self-worth, security, success. Jesus knows we have these needs. He knew 5000 people were hungry and he fed them. He knows we all come to worship with unmet needs. But the miracle Jesus performed wasn’t just about feeding people bread and making their hunger go away. It was a sign that points to something greater. Later he tells his disciples, I am the Bread of life. It’s hard to preach to hungry people. They need to be fed. But feeding people isn’t the end of justice. The next step is inviting them into a community, bringing them into full participation in the life of God.

(With thanks to the Rev. Todd Weir, Bloomingcactus, for putting what I was thinking into words already in “Not Just Bread”.)

What does that mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

You’ve heard me talk about what an amazing thing it is when we do the youth-sponsored community meal deliveries, and it is something that I hope we never stop.

Never. I mean that.

I may have mentioned this before, and I will say it again: the Church is the only organization that exists specifically to help people who are NOT a part of it. The fact that those who ARE a part of it GET helped is a side effect, but it is NOT the primary focus of the church. We are here to introduce people to the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore our focus must by definition be OUTWARD, not inward. We spent last week watching as the two youth groups – from Virginia Beach and Italy – held sports camps here and over at Bethany. Tonight and for the next 6 days we will be engaging in what has become a tradition that is well known both in Baptist circles here in the states and especially here on the Northern Neck – Vacation Bible School.

Why have we done these things, and why do we continue to do these things? Why do we go to the trouble and expense of working out the details, or dealing with the headaches, and the logistics, and the decorations, and the painting and coloring and organizing and recruiting and all the rest?

I TRUST it isn't for our own sake. But that it is for the sake of introducing children and adults from around our community to the person of Jesus Christ. That we're not doing this and pointing to ourselves and saying "look at US! See how wonderful we are! Come be like us!" - but that we are humbly pointing to the one who has called us and made us his own -- Jesus Christ.

Let's pray.

Marked with the Seal

Sunday, July 16th, 2006
Pentecost 6
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Ephesians 1:3-14

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

It really IS a beautiful passage, isn’t it?

The way the words are put together, the way they weave the action of God with the life of Christ, the way they emphasize and reemphasize the fact that everything that has happened for the blessing and edification of the church has been through and in Christ… it almost sounds like a hymn, doesn’t it? Some scholars would agree that Ephesians is not so much a letter as it is the manuscript of a sermon. Some of the earlier manuscripts of the letter are entirely lacking in the first two verses, where the letter writer identifies himself as Paul. Others leave out the address to the Ephesians, and simply start with the words “To the Saints who are also faithful” …

In any case, what we have here at the beginning of the letter to the churches, shall we say in and around Ephesus, is, a litany. This entire passage could actually be thought of as one long sentence, with many compound clauses, and the main clause being found at its beginning, in verse 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”. What we have is a blessing of God for having granted US a blessing. It’s a hymn of thanksgiving. Not only that, but it also tells the story of grace. And it keeps coming back again and again and again to the central figure in the defining act of Grace in creation – God’s presence in human history made known by God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ.

The writer is simply giving us a list, in a way, of what it is God has done for … not only US, not only those who are here today gathered at Jerusalem Baptist Church in Emmerton, Virginia, but to all those who call on him as Lord throughout the world, whether it is in Italy, or Thailand, or Warsaw, or Spain, wherever his name is praised.

Let’s look at some of the verses. First, right there in verse three: every spiritual blessing … I think it’s important to note that the writer didn’t say ‘every physical blessing’ … or even ‘every blessing’. Why do you think that is? It’s because the emphasis is on what is lasting, not what is temporal, what is transitory, what is passing. The idea being brought out is that what matters, what REALLY matters, that which lasts, is the spiritual. We are, now, very much physical beings. But we are not ONLY physical. We are also emotional and spiritual beings, and the writer was reminding the readers and hearers of this letter that what really truly matters in the long run is the spiritual realm. It is, after all, the only lasting realm to which we belong.

The Arminian in me would like to skip over the next verse, but there’s no way I can do that and get away with it, so let’s go back over it: “just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” You know the phrase that I struggled with? ‘before the foundation of the world” … I will freely admit that I have not studied Calvin’s theology as deeply as I probably need to, but in reading this verse into the context of the surrounding verses, it doesn’t seem to be the case that the writer is trying to necessarily make an argument for predestination so much as he is trying to present a picture of what God has done in Christ. The phrase may or may not be of critical importance in and of itself, but it seems the emphasis in this sentence, like those surrounding it, are on the phrases ‘in Christ’ and ‘in love’ – it’s more a telling of the ‘why’ rather than the ‘how’ – even though the ‘how’ remains as always, ‘through Christ’.

In the following verse, something similar happens – the emphasis is not so much on being destined as it is on being God’s adopted children THROUGH CHRIST. Even at the end of the thought, at the end of verse 6, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved, the fact of Christ’s mediation is again highlighted. There is no aspect of the Grace of God that is separated from Christ.

I don’t need to belabor the point. It was evident in the reading, and if you read over the passage again, you’ll notice the pattern. It is not an accidental repetition. The focus is on what God has done in Christ.

So it is our focus as well this morning: what God has done in Christ.

We were sitting around the table downstairs towards the end of the meal last night, Leslie and I, with Daniel and Alejandra and Jaime and Barbara, and Alejandra remarked on the fact that the crosses that Jaime and Barbara and several of the group were wearing were bare – none of them had the image of Christ crucified on them. She asked us why that was. The answer came very simply and clearly: because Christ did not remain on the cross. The cross reminds us OF the sacrifice, but it is important to us to leave it empty, because the story didn’t end on Friday at noon. The end of the story – if you can call it that – came on Sunday morning, in the resurrection. We live a resurrection faith. And in joining together to remember Christ’s sacrifice through sharing THIS communion, we are reminded of and strengthened in the communion we share with CHRIST, and we proclaim the central truth of the Gospel, that God in Christ made a way for all the world to be redeemed through him.

(communion)

24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. … 28 Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Is Grace Sufficient?

Sunday, July 9th, 2006
Pentecost 5
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
2 Corinthians 12:2-10

2 I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. 3And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— 4was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. 5On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. 6But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, 7even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. 8Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, 9but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Memory doesn’t tell me the exact date, or the exact characters in the pictures, but the comic strip goes something like this: two little boys are arguing about who is better, and when they run out of things to say about themselves, they begin to move out from themselves, beginning with that person each would regard as the most powerful person in their lives.

“MY Dad can do fifty push-ups in 30 seconds!”

“Oh, yeah? Well, MY Dad can do a HUNDRED push-ups in FORTY seconds!”

“Oh, YEAH?? Well MY dad can beat your dad any day!”

And it goes on from there. Generally in a downhill direction, until the claims being made are as ridiculous as the issue that began the argument. It ultimately draws in the fathers mentioned, and THEY in turn find themselves turning from decent, level-headed family men into snarling fist-clenching warriors ready to knock each other to the ground just to prove what their sons have been telling each other.

Where is it that that streak, that ‘You think that’s good? Watch THIS’ mentality came into being? It is certainly not a uniquely American phenomenon, since I can tell you from personal experience it is very much present in at least three other societies across the globe. From what I understand of sociological research, and myths, and stories, the impetus to outdo each other in order to feel better about ourselves is somehow genetically encoded in us as humans.

If you’ve ever read a book of children’s stories from around the world, it is a recurring theme in stories found throughout civilization.

Folks at the church in Corinth were engaged in spiritual one-upmanship. Paul was confronted with news of what the church had become just a few short months after leaving the city.

Paul knew the people he was writing to. He’d gotten to know them well enough that he knew what would make them sit up and listen. And so he pulls out his secret weapon.

He’s writing to a group of people who have stratified themselves, who have set for themselves layers of importance, of influence, of significance, based on what they call their spiritual gifts. They base their self-worth on the degree to which they are considered spiritual by their fellow congregants. So, they vie for position. “I speak in tongues”, “I speak in tongues AND prophecy”, “I speak in tongues, prophecy AND perform healings!” … and it goes on and on … the degree to which the folks at Corinth went to try to impress each other with their spirituality while completely ignoring the inherent injunction of the gospel against just what they were doing is only surprising in light of the fact that we still see the same thing happening today. They seemed to have lost interest in the Gospel at the point where Christ told his disciples ‘the first shall be last, and the last shall be first’.

It needs to be made clear that in what Paul is saying, it would have been understood by his readers that, even though he seems to disavow it, he is actually the person he is speaking of – boasting of – in these verses. Though the passage cited for this morning begins at verse two, let’s skip back just a couple of verses, to the end of chapter 11, through the first verse of the 12th chapter.

30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus (blessed be he forever!) knows that I do not lie. 32In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to seize me, 33but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.
(12)It is necessary to boast; nothing is to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.

What was going on with Paul??

Why is he boasting when he is at the same time saying ‘it doesn’t do any good to boast!’?

What was happening was that false teachers had moved in behind him at the church in Corinth and had convinced the people who had formed the church that the true measure of one’s status within the church was whether or not one had received certain … qualifications, in the form of visions and revelations, supernatural gifts, and unusual abilities.

What is startling about the passage – about Paul’s revelation of his own experience in the passage, is that nowhere else in scripture do we have any sort of correlating reference to what he’s talking about. It is only here in this passage of his letter to the Corinthians that we read of his being taken up to the third heaven, and given a revelation from God that he is to tell no one about.

This would have been a watershed event in ANYONE’S life, let alone Paul’s. It happened fourteen years prior to the time that he was writing the letter, and Paul has already written to he Thessalonians, the Galatians, this is his third letter to the Corinthians, and yet, it’s the first time he’s pulled out these particular big guns in trying to convince someone of his argument.

The false teachers were telling of revelations and visions in order to establish the authority with which they claimed to be speaking. The Corinthians, being immature in their understanding of the faith, took them at their word, and became so deviated that they lost all sense of perspective between right and wrong.

Paul realized what was happening, and in a way, he fought fire with fire, all the while declaring that the form of argument in and of itself was invalid in the face of the Gospel. What Paul keeps coming back to is this.

It’s not about power. It’s about weakness.

Most specifically, it’s about GOD’S power and OUR weakness.

Paul never brought up the vision he speaks of here in Corinthians because it was not the medium by which Christ had called him to take the gospel to the world. The world already has plenty of prophets proclaiming special knowledge is the only way to enlightenment. That only the few who posses this knowledge – the initiates – those on the IN-side – would be the ones to understand and receive the … power. In the middle of the second century, those people were called Gnostics – and their creed, Gnosticism. Their claim was that knowledge, special, revealed knowledge, passed from one insider to the next, was what ‘made’ you one of the elect, one of the chosen, one of the select few. It was understood that in saying that, there would, of course be far more left out, far more lost and … unteachable … who would remain forever in the dark, on the outside, because they didn’t understand the “truth.”

Paul’s point about the Gospel was that it was the opposite of that. The Gospel was not exclusive, was not unknowable, was not unattainable by the majority of people. The Gospel was for EVERYONE, God’s revelation of God’s self in the person of Jesus Christ was so that ALL might come to know God through him. And Christ’s sacrifice was what broke down any barriers we might try to put between us and God.

Including the question of Grace. I understand, I think, why it is so hard for us to accept Grace, to relax into it, to breathe it in and breathe it out, to make it so much a part of our lives that it becomes our nature. We are not exposed to many instances of Grace in our lives here on earth until we are exposed to the Grace of God in Christ. We go through life understanding that to receive something, you have to either pay for it or earn it. There are no other ways to receive something. Birthday and Christmas gifts might be the only exception, but they are exceptions that prove the rule, but even THEN, We hear songs of “he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake.”

How can we get into the idea that Grace is sufficient when from our childhood we’re always expected to DO something – or NOT do something in exchange for receiving reward or avoiding punishment?

My friend Nick Foster is a great storyteller, and he tells the story of his best friend, Mike, and Mike tells about the first time he experienced grace.

He was a boy of about eight. As boys go, he was into stuff. This particular day, he’d gotten it into his head that the thing to do was to jump on his bed. You understand, of course, that he’s well aware of the rule against bed-jumping that had been laid down by his parents. But he did it anyway. And he enjoyed it. He took his first jump. He went up a ways, and came down on the mattress, and bounced, and he went up further, and was barely able to stay upright, but did, and he flailed his arms to keep his balance, and he came back down on the bed … and he bounced and he went almost all the way up to the ceiling – and he seemed to hang in the air forever – and then he came down and BAM! The frame of the bed broke, spilling him onto the floor and bringing his father running up the stairs.

When his father got to the door of his room, he just stood there and looked at Mike. After a minute, he went over and picked up a piece of paper from Mike’s desk and a pencil, and asked him to sit down on the now crooked bed, and write down what punishment he thought would be appropriate for what he’d just done. His father then stepped out of the room and left Mike alone with his thoughts.

1. No TV for a month … (scratch, scratch) … a WEEK.
2. No allowance for three weeks.
3. No playing in the backyard after school for two months (it was winter, anyway)
4. Take out the garbage for a month … without being asked.
5. Do the dishes and clean the kitchen

You get the idea. He went further down the list, coming up with some more harsh, some less harsh punishments, but all in all, things that he knew would seriously affect his ability to have fun for a long time to come.

After a few minutes, Mike’s father walked back into the room and sat down on the bed next to him. Mike handed him the sheet, and his father reviewed the list of punishments he’d come up with. Mike started to get a little nervous, because he didn’t know if his father was going to choose just one, or several, or all of them. He braced for the worst.

Then his father did the craziest thing. He took the paper and tore it in half, then in quarters, then in eighths, then into tiny bits and pieces, and dropped them in the trashcan next to the bed. He reached over, and put his arm around Mike and hugged him and said “I love you son. Don’t do it again.”

And that was the end of it. And that was the first time Mike got a glimpse of what God’s Grace was like.

What does that mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

Do we live out the fact that we are all a part of this family, God’s family, purely by the grace of God, and not by virtue of being someone in our community? When we join in worship, are we worshipping in truth or wondering who is seeing us here, and who is not? Does the person sitting next to us make us uncomfortable? Do we come to be seen or to actually, truly, take a deep and honest look at ourselves to find what it is God is saying to us on this particular day?

The letter to the Corinthians is a letter of instruction, and it is also a letter of warning. Will we stand on our own power, or will we stand in our weakness on the power of God?

Let’s pray.

Only Believe

Sunday, July 2nd, 2006
Pentecost 4
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Mark 5:21-43

21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. 22 Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23 and begged him repeatedly, “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.” 24 So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25 Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. 26 She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” 29 Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 He looked all around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
35 While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37 He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38 When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” 42And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43 He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

The stories are two of the more familiar ones of the gospels: the woman with the issue of blood, and the healing of Jairus’ daughter. As with so many other vignettes we find throughout the Gospels, each story has its own ‘name’ or title, as it were, to identify it. For simplicity’s sake, it makes it easier to refer to the events in shorthand, and the details fill themselves in, if you are familiar with the stories.

If, however, you are NOT familiar with the events and the stories and the background of each scene, you would more than likely become disoriented, at best, disengaged at worst. So in the interest of bringing everyone onto the same page, here’s the situation: if you remember from Leslie’s study in the Gospel of Mark some time ago, this is actually an example of one of those ‘Markan Sandwiches’ – a story within a story – in other words, one story bracketed by another – the exact term is ‘chiasm’ – that we find throughout the Gospel of Mark. The first – the ‘outside’ one, is the story of Jairus’ daughter.

Jairus is identified as one of the leaders of the synagogue – the term used to describe him as a ‘leader’ gives the sense that the position he held was more of an administrative one, rather than one of the positions that would more readily be associated with the spiritual aspect of synagogue worship, maybe something like a minister of administration in some of our larger churches found around the country today. In any case, his position is established and his need is underlined – he is coming on behalf of his daughter, who is gravely ill – to the point of death.

The scene unfolds as follows: Jesus has crossed BACK over the Sea of Galilee with his disciples, and almost immediately a crowd formed around him. After all, word is spreading like wildfire that ‘the doctor is in’ – people are likely rushing to the area from miles and miles away in the hopes of hearing what he has to say, or watch him perform one of his miracles, or … be healed …

And it seems to be THAT thought that the writer of the Gospel decides to follow, after setting the scene with Jairus coming to Jesus and asking him to come with him to his daughter’s bedside, to ‘lay … hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’

Rather than get Jesus through the crowd and on to Jairus’ house and his daughter, the writer of the Gospel PUTS Jesus in the middle of the crowd, with people pressing in on every side, and describes a woman who has, for as long as Jairus’ daughter has lived until now, been suffering from a persistent hemorrhage, she’s been to as many doctors as she could find, or perhaps, PAY, and none of them were able to help her. She is, at this point in her life, destitute. The reason for this is simple. You’ve heard the modern term ‘uninsurable’ in reference to someone who has a chronic condition that has required significant medical effort to treat, if not eradicate, and at some point the person has lost their medical coverage, if indeed they had any to begin with. The policy is that, once the condition is discovered by another company, that company – along with any other company that watches it’s income vs outgo – will refuse to insure the person because it simply does not make sense to take on a client whom you know from the beginning will cost your company more to take on and cover medical expenses for than the company will be able to earn from premiums paid by the customer.

The term that would probably apply more closely to this woman’s condition would be ‘unredeemable’. You see, according to Jewish Law, a woman is ritually unclean during her menstrual cycle. The uncleanness is contagious – if someone were to touch her while she was bleeding, they would likewise become ritually unclean, and would be required to go through another round of ritual baths and cleansings in order to regain their ‘redeemability’. You see, though to varying degrees uncomfortable, to be considered unclean – temporarily – is bearable. If you know that in another week or so you will again be able to reengage in the daily routine of the society you live in. You can put up with a lot. People put up with a LOT of discomfort if they KNOW it is only a temporary situation. Imagine if you will, this woman, who has been suffering what for other women is a monthly recurrence of a few days’ duration FOR TWELVE SOLID YEARS? To be frank, I cannot. I can speak about it, and describe it and put words together that might tug at your heart, but I have no way of knowing – really, REALLY knowing – what it must have been like for this woman.

To be the object of rejection, to be shunned, and ostracized, to be marginalized consistently for twelve long, tortuous years, seems unimaginable to most of us – MOST of us. Knowing human nature, though, I have a suspicion that somewhere among us, on some level, one or more of us in this room this morning can completely identify with this woman. Identify more fully than we are even able to admit to ourselves.

What is it in your life that has pushed you to the edge of society? Is it income? Education, or lack thereof? Family background? Is it perhaps where you were born? Or WHOM you were born TO? Is it some other aspect of your life? Choices made that were perhaps hard for others to understand and/or accept? Or was it something deeper, something over which you had no control whatsoever, which seemingly forced you into the place you are today, away from the center, away from the worship, from the very life of the family and community that raised you?

The story of Jairus’ daughter triggers a series of responses – “poor child – look, see how much the father loves his daughter, I should learn to be so loving … so bold as to walk up to a complete stranger and ask him to come heal my daughter …”

But wait, just what and who are we talking about in the story? In the daughter, are we talking about a little girl, or are we talking about a nation, a humanity, that was near death, if not in the very act of dying, when Jesus stepped in and revived her with a holding of the hand and a simple word of life?

In the bleeding woman, are we talking about an individual or, again, speaking of a people who at some point in their history knew and communed with and followed God, but somewhere along the way got separated, got confused, got sidetracked in the business of taking care of regular, daily, monthly or yearly rituals?

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton? Are we in danger of being considered, like Jairus’ daughter, dead by all those who know us, and have watched us grow over the years? Are we going to be referred to as “the church that used to be at the corner of Mulberry and Route 3”, and never have an impact again in a society that has moved on from what has always been a part of what ‘BEING CHURCH’ MEANT at Jerusalem?

Are we going to be viewed as an aberration, a throwback to times that have not been for a long, long, LONG time?

How ready would we be to step out and touch the hem of Jesus’ robe – just a tassle – if we only believed that it would TRULY make a difference in our lives, and not JUST our lives, but the lives of those who live so near us physically, but from whom we are worlds away at the end of the service each Sunday or Wednesday night?

So our question again becomes what are we willing to risk … or perhaps, like the woman with the issue of blood, we realize that at this point we don’t have anything to lose, if we really look at the situation?

The message of the Gospel is simple. Jesus will heal, Jesus will make whole, and Jesus will reconcile – us with God, if we only accept his touch.

Let’s pray.