FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST – 02 July 2006
St. Paul Lutheran Church, ABQ NM – The Rev. P. L. Holman
Lamentations 3:22-33; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43
“Precious one, get up”
One Sunday morning the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the narthex of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names with small American flags mounted on either side of it. The seven year old had been standing there for quite some time, so the pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, “Good morning Alex.” “Good morning sir,” he replied, still focused on the plaque. Then he asked, “Sir, what is this?” The pastor said,. “Well, son, it is a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service.” Soberly they just stood together staring at the large plaque. Finally, little Alex’s voice, barely audible, and trembling with fear, asked, “Which service, the 8 and the 10:30?”
On this day when celebrations of Independence Day surround us with special sales and special events, it is good to remember the purpose of this day. Over 200 years ago a people dared to seek freedom, the founding fathers and the women who supported them dared to venture beyond their shores, thrust forward by the course of human events to establish a new land where people could experience more fully the freedoms they held dear. For generations other people have followed that path. Some day I will have time to read more about that time in our history. What I do know is that those men and women did not venture forth naively – they knew that such freedom would not come without cost to them, to the people of the lands they sought to inhabit, to the generations that would follow. But it was a freedom they felt called to seek, guided by the vision of equality for all, of justice for all. That is at the heart of this nation’s best self – of what this country was, is and can become.
The Jesus path is a path of freedom for all not tied to country or constitution but tied to the cross. God’s love for the world manifest in Jesus set forth a way of freedom and justice and truth that comes not without cost. Jesus knew that – his living and dying showed that. Then and now, following Jesus has always meant being put in conflict sometimes with family or community, often in conflict with culture or “the way things have always been done,” for the greater purpose of life.
The apostle Paul certainly experienced that. A Jewish man steeped in the tradition and teachings of his culture and faith, he was an ardent persecutor of the early Christians. Then one day he saw the light, literally and figuratively, and encouraged by Ananias and other people of faith who dared to reach out and welcome him, Paul became one of the most prolific missionaries and witnesses to the faith in his time. Many of the letters in the New Testament are either written by him or attributed to him through the pen of others. In the bit of the written conversation Paul had with the church in Corinth, we hear how he encouraged them to move beyond their conflicts among themselves and resume the work of reaching out to the poorer churches in Macedonia that the work of Christ might continue. Don’t harp on what is lacking, on what you can’t do, he tells them. Set aside scarcity thinking – Jesus came that you might have life, and you have it abundantly. Do what you can. It’s the Jesus way -- get going now.
In these summertime weeks we have continued the Thursday morning Bible study looking at the lessons from Paul’s letter to the early church, listening for guidance for our time and work. It seems, observed one class member, that for the church “change” is more normal than normality. This is most certainly true. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Believe that, trust that, and know that stability as the place to cling when all around you is whirling in chaos, growing into the new thing God is always doing in our midst. Paul says, in calling the early church to reach out beyond it’s own comfort zone, find a fair balance between your abundance and their need. Jesus’ cross reminds us that will always be a precarious balance…
The word of hope in the gospel this day is a word tied to physical healing. A woman approaches Jesus – breaking the barrier of custom in her desperation to find balance once again in her life. She has been sick for twelve years. Her bleeding set her apart from all she held dear – it made her unclean, according to the law, isolating her from all she held dear. She had heard about Jesus and believed that simply touching him – making him unclean, according to the law – she would be made whole. The wonderful power of God’s way is that, as Mark tells it, not only was she made well by reaching out in faith, Jesus blesses her and continues on the journey she interrupted and heals another. Faith heals through reaching out and doing what can be done not being constrained by what we think can’t be done.
Now about the healing of that little girl: it’s a wonderful miracle story that touches the hearts of all who’ve ever suffered through a life-threatening illness with children. The great love of a father who desperately seeks healing for his daughter, in a culture that values the male, is an amazing thing in itself. Then he is forced to wait through the interruption as Jesus deals with the woman who touched him only to hear that during the delay his daughter has died. Jesus’ reply to the man’s broken heart is not unlike that of all the angels who’ve ever brought a word of good news to a despairing frightened chaos-choked people: “Do not fear, only believe.” And as the journey unfolds, and Jesus comes to the little girl in her bed, it is with a word and a touch that she is lifted up: Talitha, cum -- Little girl, arise. Literally, “Little lamb, precious one, get up.”
Jesus calls us as the church today to move from scarcity thinking to abundant living, for our own sake and for the sake of the world beyond our comfort zones. Who are the precious ones that need our hands, our words of encouragement, our financial support to find healing and life today? Who are the precious ones that come to the Storehouse looking for healing – how are you there? Who are the precious ones aching in the aftermath of the untimely death of a peer – how are you there? How are we as a congregation called to be there for them?
In the most recent issue of THE LUTHERAN Andrea Oslikova writes about her experience as a global mission volunteer teaching English to 15-20 years olds in a Lutheran school in Slovakia: “…[I]t gives me a way to live my faith. My students are curious about my life…I use Bible passages in our writing exercises…and give students freedom to discuss their faith openly.” It is not easy work, she says, yet one day when she was struggling with God to understand why she was there, students in two different classes that day said to her, “Mrs. Teacher, what would we do without you?”
Miracles do happen – life changing, freedom giving, hope-filled blessings do happen when we dare enough to reach beyond ourselves. We don’t know what happened in the years after these wonderful healings occurred. Likely, though, both the woman and the girl encountered other crises of health and life-challenge along the way. Certainly they met at some point the final life crisis – death. Yet they had this hope – a sure trust in the God whose will for life gave them life, like a light shining in a very dismal place, hope borne of the experience in relationship with another who cared enough to turn to them and say, “Precious one, get up.”