Online Sermons
The Fourth Sunday in Pentecost : June 28, Melody Rockwell
[Ed. Note: This sermon was given at St. Mark's Anamosa and Anamosa State Prison]
Welcome to our website. You are here: The Word --> Online SermonsThis morning’s gospel, the good news from Mark, is a healing story within a healing story. We hear of the powerful leader of the synagogue, Jairus, who asks for and receives healing for his little daughter. But, in between Jairus’ earnest request and the moment Jesus says Talitha cum to his daughter, there is another healing that occurs. Listen. Today, I will tell you the woman’s story… ‘in her own words.’
Hello… my name is Sarah. I am Hebrew by birth and I was raised by loving parents, who taught me in the way of the laws and the prophets. I was married at fifteen to a very hardworking man. My husband and I moved away from the only city I knew to this beautiful place here close to the sea. My husband grew prosperous through trade and we lived very well, but for reasons known only to God, I was unable to bear him any children. He died when I was 30, and I’ve carried on without him for these last 17 years.
We were respected by all persons and were faithful to our prayers. But, so much has changed that it seems as if it wasn’t me who had lived that life. It’s as if it was just a dream, a figment of my imagination. To look at me now, you’d swear that I was cursed by God. My husband is dead, I have no children and I have an incurable hemorrhage, which by law declares me “unclean.”
For 12 years, I have spent all my energy and resources trying to find a cure, and yet, here I am worse off than before. When every good doctor was unable to secure my health, I fell prey to crooks. They took advantage of my hope, but can anyone blame me? What does anyone truly have but life? And when I felt death’s approach, I sought the help of anyone willing to restore me. I fell asleep last night in tears for I felt myself truly without hope… for death desired my life and I was unable to fight this enemy anymore. So, I prayed to the only one who could save me, Yahweh. I prayed for his mercy. If Yahweh would have me, I was ready to die.
I awoke early this morning to the noise of a very large crowd. I remembered my last thoughts from the night before and would have remained in my bed if not for the commotion outside my window. I quickly dressed and ran outside to investigate what was causing the gathering excitement. A merchant told me that a man from Nazareth had arrived in our small town and that he was known as a miracle worker, because of all the people he had healed. I heard others say that he was Elijah and others said he was the long-awaited messiah of Israel. Some scoffed him and accused him of being a two-bit magician, a false prophet. But, I tell you that our town was blessed that day.
I was told that this man and the whole crowd were on the way to Jairus’ house to save his daughter from death. No doctor had been able to help her. And, now she was dying -- like me, I thought. My head was spinning as my heart reclaimed its hope. I feverishly found a high place where I could look down upon this man. At last, I could finally see him amidst the crowd. Immediately upon seeing him, I knew he could heal me. I knew this to be true. Don’t ask me how I knew it, but with my whole being, I believed in this man.
I rushed down into the enormous mass of humanity not knowing what I was going to say. It was then that I thought, If I could only touch the hem of his cloak, I would be healed. It seemed to be an eternity… though in actuality, it must have only been a few seconds of thinking… I must touch him… I must touch him… I must… And, then it happened. My body exploded with vitality and I knew I was healed.
My joy turned to fear when he quickly turned around and demanded to know who it was that touched him. As he surveyed the crowd, I felt his burning gaze looking into my soul. I knew then that he already knew the answer to his question. I felt as if I had stolen something from him… as if I had taken advantage of this good man. For without his consent… I, an unclean woman, had touched this man of God.
I was tempted to run or to deny touching him, but I couldn’t lie to this man, not this man. A fleeting thought haunted me… Will I be stoned to death, now that I have been healed? Ashamed and fearful, I fell at his feet and told him all that I had done and been through.
He called me daughter, and said that my faith had saved me, to go in peace and be cured of my affliction. In tears, I felt the weight of my sorrows leave me and I know he truly loved me. I have come to know this man as Jesus, the Son of God, my Lord and Savior. I will never forget the day he called me daughter.
I believe this story, written by Phil N, an inmate (one of your brothers here) at the Anamosa State Prison, beautifully captures the powerful healing that is possible for all of us through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Phil movingly wrote the story from the woman’s point of view, but he clearly relates the healing power he had personally experienced through Jesus, being truly accepted as a beloved child of God.
For me, this story has always held an amazing intensity of presence. In the midst of a jostling crowd, Jesus was aware of the woman’s touch on the hem of his robe, of the healing energy going from him. He took the time to seek her out, not to condemn her or accuse her, not to address her impersonally as, ‘woman,’ but to embrace her with loving acceptance as a part of God’s family, a daughter whose faith had made her well. Instead of calling her “unclean,” Jesus names her “daughter,” a daughter every bit as precious as Jairus’ beloved little girl. Instead of admonishing her outrageous trespass, Jesus praises her faith. Instead of justifiable anger, Jesus bids her to go in peace. This is the Jesus of healing that is present to us in our belief, in our faith… and in all our failings, we can turn to the steadfast love of God with expectant hope.
Jesus stopped! on his way to a wealthy man’s dying daughter. He stopped for a vulnerable, impoverished woman. He took time for her. He didn’t just say, well, she’s healed, let’s keep moving, I’ve an important man’s daughter to attend to. No, he stopped and took time to relate to this woman, to affirm her faith, to affirm her. Jesus has his priorities straight… in God’s caring for those who are on the margins of society. He uses his power to break through religious and social barriers to be with people… where they are inside themselves… where they are spiritually.
How often do we take the time in our own lives, when we are upset over big and little troubles, or rushing to get some shopping done or to complete a project? How often do we take the time to stop, to reach out our hand to someone who does not fit in with the group we hang out with, or is just a pestering nuisance?
Over the last two weeks, I have taken time to study, pray and live with the scriptures for today’s readings running through my mind. I like to ‘incubate’ my sermons before I start writing them down. Through a number of unforeseen circumstances, I was left with a small window of time yesterday morning to begin to pull my sermon together. I knew I would be away from home for a diocesan deacons meeting with the Bishop in Iowa City during the day and an ordination of a young woman to the priesthood in Keokuk that evening. I’d be getting home too late and too tired to make sense of a sermon.Some of you know about my daughter Liz, who was impacted by a pesticide when she was an infant. She is nearly 40 years old now, but still struggles with retardation, anxiety and depression. My husband Dan and I try to have Liz spend at least one overnight with us each weekend, and last Friday night, Liz spent the night.
I got up extra early to work on the sermon. I needed to leave by 9 a.m. Liz arose early as well. As I worked at my computer, trying to pull words and thoughts into place, Liz began coming in every three or four minutes to give me a hug, ask me a question, ask me to help her with something, tell me about something that had happened at her work… My daughter, I thought. Here I was steeped in the loving, healing generosity of Jesus in the scripture, in Jesus taking time, calling a woman daughter… So, I took time for my daughter yesterday. I thank God for helping me stop in my sermon tracks, making it glaringly evident that I needed to be… really be with Liz.
The question for all of us is: who or what claims our attention. How do we determine the worthiness of those people and things? Those who are most deserving of our attention may be the least visible ones, or they may be the ones most irritatingly in our face. Jesus provides the model of love for the unlikely.
In the story of Jairus’ daughter, there is the appealing image of Jesus taking her by the hand, raising her to health, to wholeness. I believe that when we allow Jesus to take our hand, when we walk with him, we walk in hope, in a healing pilgrimage with Christ. To do this, we need to have the characteristics that both Jairus and the woman showed so valiantly. Isn’t it wonderful how the scriptures instruct us in the joyous ways of God! How then shall we journey with Jesus?
My hope for each of us is to have an audacity of faith, just as the woman did as she deliberately reached out and claimed Jesus’ healing power. May we all turn to Christ in the knowledge of his healing power for our lives.
My hope is that we have unshakable confidence in Jesus’ authority in our lives. Both Jairus and the woman believed absolutely in Jesus’ spiritual power. May we trust Jesus as the spiritual authority in our lives. May we recognize the true source of all spiritual gifts and be willing, in fact, be eager (as Paul exhorts us today in 2 Corinthians) to be generous in return, as generous as Jesus is for us. Paul asks us to consider the enormous generosity, the self-emptying gift of Jesus on the cross, to believe how empowered, how ‘rich’ we all are because of this.
My hope is that we have the humility of Jairus’ who threw himself at Jesus’ feet. Here is a synagogue leader publicly humbling himself before a man considered by many of his colleagues in the synagogue to be a demagogue, a troublemaker. And the woman, too, risking public humiliation or worse, gives us a sense of how we might entrust our lives to Christ… wholly, humbly, thankfully.
And finally, my hope is that we will continue to enter into joyous trust in the God who provides for all our needs. Replacing our fears with trust in Christ… replacing all our fears with trust in Christ is the most challenging and most rewarding transformation of all. We are called to be agents of God’s transformation. Reach out, place your hand in that of your brother Christ. Reach out your hand to your brothers and sisters in Christ. Clasp those hands in the love of God, and rise up and live. Amen.