Sunday, June 28, 2009

4th Sunday after Pentecost - June 28, 2009

4th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 8 B - 28 June, 2009
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15, Mark 5:21-43
Marie Butterbaugh

It’s a beautiful, cloudless spring day in Austin, Texas. The thermometer surges to one hundred degrees. It’s hot. Like many people I seek shelter inside where it’s cooler and settle in to check out the evening news only to find things that are deeply distressing. A television commercial that turns an innocent children’s cartoon into a gyrating free for all. Square “hot pants” on beautiful young girls. A carpenter’s square dispatched by “the king of burgers” to see if things measure up to his standards. Sponge Bob Square pants apparently gone mad!

News reports blare on. Commentators argue about the state of our nation and the world reminding us of the sad fact that our economy is in a mess. General Motors filing bankruptcy, billions of dollars are being allotted for war, potential conflict with North Korea and uncertain elections in Iran. You and I live in a world that often makes no sense.

While many think HIV/Aids is under control it isn’t. It has only moved on to rear its ugly head in a segment of our population that is unnoticed or uncared for, a population too afraid to seek the much needed medical attention required to keep the disease at bay. Not cured just at bay. They are held captive by fear, segregation and simple lack of information. This makes no sense!

Austin’s homeless population grows. People are living at or below poverty level. Blessed are the poor? Somehow I wonder if the man or woman who is struggling to feed and clothe a family on a subsistent income feels blessed. Their children go to bed hungry and more often than not receive a substandard education, making the cycle of poverty even harder to break. This makes no sense!

Make no mistake about it. We live in a hurting and broken world. We live in a world that is desperately in need of the liberating love and healing touch of our Lord. You and I live in a world where alienation, oppression, degradation and loneliness run rampant. God’s created order is not as intended. Something is terribly wrong!

Jesus knows what it’s like to live in such a world, a world gone wrong. He lives in a country under Roman occupation. He is scoffed at, rejected by the religious leaders of his day, is persecuted and dies. Jesus understands the need for healing in body, mind and spirit.

The Gospel writer Mark bears witness to this fact in today’s gospel reading. He offers us what many scholars call a Markan sandwich. Mark often breaks up one story by inserting a second, seemingly unrelated, story into the middle of it.

In today’s literary 'sandwich,' Mark serves the reader two miracle stories, stories of faith and healing. Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, seeks out Jesus, asking Him to heal his daughter. As they make their way through the crowd, Mark interrupts this story to note today’s first miraculous healing. It is here that Jesus encounters the woman with a “hemorrhage, a flow of blood”

It’s so hot and dusty. It’s stifling. Making her way through the crowd, her longing to be healed, her determination to see this man Jesus never wavers. She must – must get close to Jesus. Her desperation is palatable. She has invested all the monies she has in doctors, who offer her no relief, she is despondent. She can once again taste the many bitter herbs and elixirs prescribed by numerous physicians over these past twelve years. In frustration she watches as the crowd passes her by.

“These upright self righteous people!” Look at them!” “They consider me impure, unclean. Why Joseph over there, he stole that nice widow Elizabeth’s house right out from under her. Jeremiah the Levite would not lift a finger to help poor Stephen. He’s been blind from birth. He sits by that same gate day after day begging for alms. I used to visit his parents, used to mind you. All Stephen wants is to be well. He’s begging for a new life!

Me, huh! Why I can’t even come to worship the God of Israel in His Temple. I am unclean. I can’t do the one thing that might seemingly elevate my status as a woman. I can’t bear children.

“This Jesus, He healed the paralytic. I heard that four of this man’s friends actually lowered him down through the roof a house, just to see Jesus. Then there’s the man with the withered hand. He is whole now. Cured! Why, Jesus even cast out the demons from old Cyrus. He was living horrible life chained up in that cemetery in the Gerasenes. Now He’s back home enjoying a happy life with his family. If Jesus can heal these people, if Jesus can still the stormy seas, maybe, maybe even I can be healed. I’ve just got to get through this crowd to Him. I need Jesus’ healing touch.”

With hope and faith she presses onward through the throng. She believes that touching Jesus will heal her. "I must - must touch Jesus even if it’s just the hem of His garment. But… my touch might render Him impure. Yes, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take. Jesus calls me 'Daughter.' I am no longer nameless. With eyes of compassion He looks at me “Daughter go in peace, your faith has healed you. I who was one dead to the community, an outcast now live!"

Her faith manifested in her seeking Jesus, her touching Him has healed her. Her active faith brings restoration and new life.

Perhaps you can identify with this woman, this child of God, in need of healing. Perhaps you can recall times when you have felt alone, alienated, sick in body, sick in spirit? I believe that most people can. I certainly can.

I remember a time during my journey or odyssey toward, ordination when I felt alone, outcast, isolated and deeply wounded, just like the woman in today’s gospel. It is the custom of my home parish to have a Wednesday morning Eucharist and healing service and it was my custom to attend. One Wednesday morning, some twelve years ago, I came desperately seeking healing and consolation. The look of kindness mixed with firm determination on my rector’s face as I heard and prayed those anointing and prayers stays with me.

I experienced the miraculous healing power of our Lord as deep down in my heart the Holy Spirit spoke words of comfort, support and healing. “Daughter go in peace, your faith has healed you.” Just like that nameless woman, so many centuries ago, I received the healing touch of our Lord. The twelve years that followed, became a time of growth, strength and a deeper abiding faith.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, there is good news in today’s gospel message Good News! Jesus’ healing power is available to each of us. Jesus stands with us in the midst of our struggles. Our faith, our following, is an openness which makes it possible for God to work in us. Biblical scholar Stanley Olsen writes “Mark does not mean that that [our] faith will always get us a miracle for ourselves. Even though we desperately need one, that may not be what God will work in us. But faith is [the] broad confidence in God which opens us to God's working, whatever form that takes….

Mark does not want to imply that proper faith will suddenly and in every case reverse those problems[our problems]. But, [this] miracle story certainly shows that such earthly problems are the concern of God and an area where God may work, and it suggests that faith is important there.

In faith you and I can reach out to touch and be touched by our Lord. As we come to the altar and receive the Eucharist, His body and blood, you and I receive that healing touch. As you and I leave this place, you and I can go forth into the world to become instruments of healing in a hurting and broken world. We can rest assured in the promise that we are not alone in our struggles. We are not left to face the chaotic state of our broken world or our lives alone. Christ healing touch empowers us, upholds us and enfolds us in the midst of the chaos of our lives. We can extend our hands in love to those around us. With God’s help and by His grace you and I can make a difference.

Listen closely and hear Jesus speak these words to your heart. My daughter, my son your faith heals you, now go, extend that healing to others.

Thanks be to God.

© 2009, Marie Butterbaugh

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