Readings: Psalm 130, 2 Samuel 1:1 & 17-27, 2 Corinthians 8:7-15, Mark: 5:21-43
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, June 28 2021
This morning our bible reading gave us an account of two acts of healing that Jesus performed. Firstly, that of the daughter of Jairus. Secondly of a woman who had a hemorrhage. The two accounts have several things in common.
Consider firstly this. That both these people were outsiders.
They were not the sorts of people who normally thronged around preachers. Jairus was a part of the ruling minority that considered the likes of Jesus to be dangerous. Scripture describes him as a “synagogue official.” The unnamed woman, because of the nature of her illness, was not the sort to get out and about much. Her illness made her unclean in the eyes of Jewish law. Any person she came into physical contact with would also be considered unclean by the law. They were outsiders.
There was a song some years ago that said, “I’m in with the In-Crowd, I go where the In-Crowd goes.” One of the things I have never figured out in life is exactly who the “In Crowd” are. In fact, if some of the people who suspect they are 'in' the 'in crowd' are anything to go by, then I’m certainly sure I don’t want to be in with them, whatever that may mean.
When it comes to the love of God, we are outsiders whom God wants to be insiders. We all fall short of being the sort of people we could or should be. We are all misfits. Sometimes we may be foolish enough to believe otherwise. Numerous religious and political groups will invite us to be a part of their thing and suggest to us that everybody else’s thing is the wrong thing. But the testimony of scripture is clear. We are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God.
So, remember this. Jesus healed these two outsiders. They were not outsiders in His eyes. Neither are we. He invites us, not to become part of the “In crowd” but to be part of a fellowship that meets around a common table. He invites us to be in His love. He invites us to be part of a community in which there are as many 'diverse' people as there are people.
The love of God invites outsiders to come inside. To taste and see that the Lord is good.
Notice secondly about this unclean woman and synagogue official, that though in the eyes of the world they were outsiders, in the eyes of God, they were insiders by virtue of being people of faith.
Faith is such a hard a thing to define. What makes it harder is that sometimes we seem to have it and sometimes we don’t.
I am not a person who has tremendous confidence in air travel. The smaller the plane, the more angst-y I become. I remember being on a flight from Atlanta, GA to Charleston, WV, that was one of those tiny commuter planes with noisy propellers and engines that seem to splutter.
The pilot did not actually increase my confidence. He kept coming on the loudspeakers saying things like, “Duh, this your ..er.. pilot… erm. There might be some bad weather ahead. I guess… erm.. we’ll go round it some way. Erm.. Don’t know what time we’ll be getting in tonight… but hey, I think we got a lot of fuel on board!”
Of course, everything went fine. There were no problems. Statistically I knew I was safer in a plane than crossing the road, but.. well faith.. it’s a strange thing. Sometimes we seem to have it. Sometimes it eludes us.
In our bible passage, the woman and Jairus the synagogue official have it. Big time. “If I just touch His garments,” says the woman. Jairus says about his daughter “Lay your hands on her so that she will get well and live.” If they have any doubts in their minds about the ability of Jesus to heal, their words certainly don’t express them. They have complete confidence in Jesus.
That sort of confident faith is elsewhere described in Scripture as a gift of the Holy Spirit. An experience that God grants to us through God’s grace. Faith is not something that we can artificially manufacture or achieve through the power of positive thinking. It’s a gift to be received.
But there are things we can do to be in a better position to be more receptive. We can be regular in our worship and personal walk with Christ. We can nourish our lives through scripture and prayer. We can be more trusting in God and less trusting in our selves. These things do not guarantee instant abundant faith experiences, but they do pave the way to recognizing a gift when God is offering it to us.
How much faith is necessary? Jesus said a little less than a mustard seed is quite sufficient! Just a grain. That will do it. Just a whisper worth that tells you God loves you despite everything!
The love of God invites outsiders to come inside.
The love of God invites us to come with the faith we have, and trust God for the rest!
Finally, notice this about these two people of faith. They didn’t care what anybody else thought about them.
So many people worry endlessly about what others think of them whilst considering so little how their lives may look in God’s eyes. Jairus had reached a point where he could not give two hoots what his influential friends made of him. His little daughter was sick. He believed Jesus could change things. So, he went to Jesus.
The woman with the hemorrhage did not care that the law branded her unclean. She didn’t care that she’d seen this doctor and that physician, and they’d all declared her condition incurable. She did not care about the social customs and niceties that every society inherits. She needed a touch from Jesus to be made well. Forget everything else. She went for it.
Sometimes, like the two in our story, we must reach rock bottom before we stop wondering what other people think of us and start reaching out to God. But that does not have to be so.
If we can simply recapture the idea that God loves us, simply because we are God's children and precious in God's sight, that God sent Jesus into our world not to condemn the world, but that the world might through Him be saved, then we understand how outsiders become insiders. We recognize that it is the work of the Holy Spirit, a work of grace that accepts us, not what we can do or what others think of us.
Somebody asked me the other day, why they should bother attending a worship service, when there are so many other things they could do on a Sunday.
For me, it's like this. Every time we come to a worship service, we are putting ourselves in a place that where God's healing and freedom and joy can break through into our hurting and needy lives. That what we can discover through worship is something this world cannot even put into words. It is through opening our hearts in worship that Jesus invites to experience His touch.
It is through opening our hearts to God in worship that we discover, like Jairus and the woman in our scripture reading, that we are outsiders that God wants to make insiders.
It is through opening our hearts to God in worship that we discover that however anybody else perceives us, God sees us as children in need of spiritual nurture and grace.
It is as we open our hearts to God in worship, not with the faith we would like to possess but with the little faith we do have, that we become aware that if it we only have as much faith as a mustard seeds worth ...that is absolutely enough.
It is as we open our hearts to God in worship, we remember that what others think of us does not matter as much as how God sees us. And we discover God is the only One who truly sees us, who knows the real needs of our lives, and only God, through the Holy Spirit, can meet us at the deepest point of our need. Such was the experience of Jairus, whose daughter found healing, and of a unknown woman, known to God by name, but for us just another example of how God's love, can take what is broken and create something new.
Whatever our need this day... be it for healing, for direction, for hope, for comfort, for peace... may we lift that need to God, trusting that God alone can fulfill God's Word and seeking for God's healing love to be a reality in our own lives.
For to God's name be all honor, glory and praise. Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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