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Pentecost 5 Proper 8B  June 27, 2021

Posted on June 27, 2021 by Beth Crane

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43

In our opening reading this Sunday, King Saul and his son Jonathan have died in battle. David offers a poetic and powerful lament for these two men. As we know, King Saul had had an illness that tormented him. The only thing that comforted the king was David playing on his lyre, sometimes called a harp. 

As his illness progressed, King Saul became convinced that David was his enemy. The king got to the point where he wanted to kill David, so David left the palace and went into hiding. Jonathan continued to be a loyal friend to David. He stayed in touch with David and warned him when Saul was looking for him to kill him. 

In this lament, David is grieving over his best friend and his greatest enemy. Yet he pays tribute to both Jonathan and Saul. “How the mighty have fallen,” he says. He celebrates the courage of Saul and Jonathan and says that they were “Beloved and lovely…swifter than eagles and stronger than lions.”

David was far from perfect, but, at a time of great sadness, he was able to pay tribute to both Saul and Jonathan, people with whom he had extremely complicated relationships. Perhaps the most important theme of this passage is the tragedy of war.

In our second reading for today, Paul is encouraging the congregation in Corinth to follow through on their promise to raise funds to help the poor people in the Church in Jerusalem. The Corinthians have many gifts and much wealth, and Paul encourages them to share their material gifts with the people of Jerusalem. The members of the church in Corinth were Gentiles, and those in Jerusalem were Jewish. Paul is calling them and us to reach out beyond barriers of race and class to help our brothers and sisters.

In our gospel for today, Mark does one of his sandwich stories. He starts out by  telling us about Jairus and his daughter and then interrupts the story right in the middle to tell another story.

Jesus and his closest followers get into a  boat and cross to the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee. A huge crowd gathers. One of the leaders of the synagogue, Jairus, comes up to Jesus. We can be sure that Jairus knows that the authorities in Jerusalem are keeping a close eye on Jesus and trying to find a reason to put him in prison or worse.

When your child is ill, you do anything you need to do to save that child. Jairus puts his own life in danger. He falls to his knees and begs Jesus to come and heal his daughter. He has heard about Jesus, and he has complete faith that our Lord can heal his child. Jesus goes with him.

We remember that there is a huge crowd pressing in on Jesus. They want to get close to him. There is a woman in this crowd. On the social status scale, she is as far from Jairus as anyone can get. She is a woman, and in that society, women are considered as chattel, property. A complimentary way to think of a woman in that culture is that she is the equivalent of a prize cow. She is an object, a possession. In addition to that, she has had a hemorrhage for twelve years. This makes her ritually unclean according to the law. She is supposed to stay away from people. Rabbis, and Jesus is a rabbi. are not supposed to be anywhere near a woman, especially a woman who is unclean. Like Jairus, this woman, who is not named, is desperate. She has spent all the money she had going to doctors and they have done nothing to help her.  She is feeing even worse. She has heard about Jesus, and she believes in him with all her heart. She comes up behind him in the press of the crowd and touches his cloak, She completely believes that touch will heal her. The hemorrhage stops in that instant. Relief flows into her.

But Jesus has felt power going out of him. He asks, “Who touched my clothes?” The woman is filled with fear.  She could try to run away. She could attempt to disappear into the crowd. But she does not. She feels the love flowing from Jesus, a love that changes her life then and there. She is still afraid, but she kneels before him, as Jairus did, and tells him the whole truth. And what does Jesus do? Punish her? Yell at her? No. He says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease.”

Now, some people come and tell Jairus that his daughter has died. Jairus’ heart sinks. But Jesus tells him, “Do not fear, only believe.” Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, his closest disciples, and they go with Jairus to his house. Jesus goes into the house and finds a group of people weeping and wailing. He puts them outside. He creates a place of quiet and healing. Then he takes the child’s parents and they go into her room. He takes the girl by the hand and says, “Little girl, get up!” And she gets up and walks around. And then he tells them to give her something to eat. Jesus is always practical, always down to earth. This girl is alive! She needs nourishment.

Jairus and the unnamed woman are on opposite ends of the social scale. Our Lord treats them with the same infinite level of love and respect for their dignity. He knows how they feel. They are both at the end of their tethers. They are willing to risk anything. He gives them his complete focus and energy. He is there for them. He knows their anguish and desperation. He senses the depth of their faith. A woman is healed from something that made her unclean, unacceptable. A twelve year old girl has another chance at life. Our Lord can take us by the hand and give us a new lease on life. God can heal us of things that separate us from others. God can lead us from death to life.

The ministry of healing is a powerful thing, In many and different ways, all of you are involved in ministries of healing, whether it be caring for animals, feeding others, listening to others and sharing God’s love, making prayer shawls, so many ways of sharing God’s healing with others. May our loving and healing God continue to bless you in these ministries.

“Do not fear, only believe,” our Lord tells us. Loving and gracious and healing God, strengthen our faith. In Jesus Name, Amen.

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Pentecost 5 Proper 8B June 28, 2015

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Beth Crane

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 8: 7-15
Mark 5: 21-43

In our opening reading, King Saul and his son, Jonathan, have died in a battle against the Philistines. King Saul was the first king of Israel, and he brought Israel from a confederation of tribes into the beginnings of a nation-state. David had become one of Saul’s greatest warriors, but, as King Saul became more and more ill, he began to plot to take David’s life.

Jonathan and David were very close friends, but, as King Saul’s illness because worse and he felt David was his enemy, it became more and more difficult for Jonathan to continue to be David’s friend because Saul might think that Jonathan was taking David’s side against Saul. By the usual right of succession, Jonathan, as Saul’s son, would have been the heir, but, as we know, God had sent Samuel to anoint the next king, and that king was David.

In spite of all the complications in this situation, Jonathan and David remained loyal to each other, but Jonathan also stayed loyal to his father, Saul. Now, we see the tragic end to this saga as both Jonathan and Saul die in battle.

Though Saul has been trying to have David killed, David honors Saul and Jonathan in this hymn. In spite of Saul’s plots to kill him, and in spite of all his own faults, David is able step back and honor the first King of Israel and his son Jonathan.

In our epistle for today, Paul is asking the Corinthians to be generous in their participation in a fund drive Paul is conducting for the Christians in Jerusalem.

In our gospel, Jesus sails back to the busier side, the Western side of the Sea of Galilee. This is also the Jewish side of the sea. He reaches the shore, and there is again a great crowd gathered around him. Jairus, a leader of the synagogue, a prominent man honored in the community because of his position, comes to Jesus in desperation.

He falls at Jesus’ feet, a position of deep reverence. and tells Jesus that his little daughter is at the point of death. Immediately, Jesus goes with him. The crowd is surging around Jesus.

Now someone at the other end of the social spectrum, a woman who has been suffering from bleeding for twelve years, approaches Jesus. Because she is shedding blood, this woman is considered unclean. She has spent all her money on doctors and she has only gotten worse. This woman has deep faith in Jesus. If she simply touches his robe, she will be healed.

Jesus is considered a rabbi, and she should not be near him, says the law. She should be staying away from people because she is unclean. But she is desperate. Maybe she intuitively senses something else about Jesus. Yes, he can heal her, but, perhaps more importantly, he has come into the world to transcend these barriers of clean and unclean, acceptable and unacceptable, in and out.

She comes up behind him. She knows she is not supposed to be there. She reaches out. As soon as she touches his robe, she knows she is healed. But she probably has not realized that Jesus would know that some energy had gone out of him when she touched his robe. Jesus turns around and asks, “Who touched me?”

It is almost impossible for us to understand how humiliating it was for someone in that culture who was considered unclean. They had to stay by themselves, They were supposed to warn people if they had to walk in the street around people. It was terrible. And here this woman had gone right into the middle of the crowd and touched Jesus’ robe.

Now Jesus has detected that something has happened. What is she going to do? It would have been understandable if she had run as fast as she could or tried to slink quietly away without being detected. But something happens when we get close to Jesus. We know that he loves us. He gives us courage. And perhaps we even begin to realize that all the divisive rules that are based on class and gender and color and all those ways we humans have of dividing ourselves and classifying ourselves as good, bad, and indifferent—well, those things simply do not matter to God. As Archbishop Tutu says, God has a big family, and God loves all of us.

Maybe this woman knows that on some level. At any rate, she shows steely courage. She is terrified and trembling, but, like Jairus, she falls at Jesus’ feet in humble reverence and tells Jesus the whole truth. And Jesus says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.” Of course, she already knows she has been healed.

Without skipping a beat, Jesus goes on to the home of Jairus. Some people have come to tell Jairus that his daughter is dead and he shouldn’t bother Jesus any further, but notice that Jesus is never bothered by our needs. He is always ready to respond with love and healing. Jesus tells Jairus and us, “Do not fear, only believe.” Faith is such a powerful thing. Then he takes his closest followers, Peter and James and John into the girl’s room, puts the people weeping and wailing people outside, and then reaches out to this  girl, “Little girl get up!” She gets up, and the ever-practical Jesus asks them to get her something to eat.

Jesus heals the daughter of a prominent man, and he heals a woman who is an outcast. He loves each of them infinitely. No matter what our social status, we are part of his family. I know that all of us have been praying for the people of Mother Emanuel Church and for the healing of racism. The love that has been pouring out from Mother Emanuel and for Mother Emanuel is spilling out into Charleston and South Carolina and our nation and the world. Thanks be to God for that love, which breaks down barriers and heals all of us and makes us whole.  Amen.

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