A Passing Touch
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Summer evenings at the ballpark are a favorite way for many to celebrate the "national pastime" -- and promotional gimmicks of all sorts, from Bat Day to appearances by the likes of Max Patkin or the San Diego Chicken, have also long been a staple as teams seek creative ways to boost attendance. But a new twist on the traditional ballpark promotion is sweeping the country -- religious-themed "Faith Nights," which, according to a recent New York Times article, have appeared in minor-league stadiums everywhere from the Deep South to Spokane, Washington to Bridgewater, New Jersey. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Carlos Wilton looks at this phenomenon, and considers if these events signal a new outcropping of faith in everyday life -- or if it's just another marketing ploy based on vague notions of diluted spirituality. In addition, team member Carter Shelley offers some thoughts on the passion in this Sunday's lectionary texts, and on the contrast between the passion of faithful Christians and the tepid faith practiced in some of our congregations. As usual, related illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon complete the week's material.
A Passing Touch
by Carlos Wilton
Mark 5:21-43
THE WORLD
His cloak. It's the only part of him she can bring herself to touch. She is unclean, she tells herself -- and the impress of her hand renders anyone she touches unclean. Yet this man just might be able to heal her. It's worth the risk. The lightest of touches will do it...
The woman in Mark 5:21-43 who lightly and surreptitiously touches Jesus' cloak is healed. She probably doesn't expect him to stop in his tracks -- interrupting an important errand -- and ask who touched him. She doesn't suspect he'll even notice her, outcast that she is. Yet notice her he does. Jesus heals her... redeems her... transforms her.
A great many people today revere Jesus and look to him for help and healing -- even if they never darken the door of one of his churches. Someone in the management of minor league baseball has picked up on this, as ballparks have begun to host "Faith Nights," giving away Bibles and trinkets like bobblehead dolls depicting biblical characters. This season, such religious promotions are expected to hit the major leagues as well.
Is this a genuine expression of religious faith -- or is it just another example of good old American generic watered-down spirituality? Is it a genuine attempt to reach the unchurched -- or is it a crass marketing technique, shrewdly calculated to sell tickets to the "I'm spiritual but not religious" crowd?
Should "Faith Nights" in ballparks make us church folk uneasy? Or should we welcome these events, as an ingenious but unorthodox outreach?
It's just another example of the ways some folks just want to reach out and quietly touch his cloak...
THE WORD
Henri Nouwen once observed how he used to resent interruptions because they kept him from his ministry. But then he realized the interruptions were his ministry, and began to look on them in a whole new way.
Something similar could be said of Jesus, as the woman with the flow of blood interrupts his urgent errand to the home of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue. Were Jesus solely interested in advancing his own cause, there could be no more powerful ally than Jairus. The fact that Jairus "falls at his feet" in a public setting indicates how desperate he is to see his daughter healed. (To prostrate oneself before another in that culture indicates social inferiority.) Yet Jesus stops this errand of life-and-death urgency -- one which, incidentally, could significantly "advance his career" -- to aid this unnamed woman who occupies one of the lowest rungs on the social ladder.
The woman is ritually unclean, and has been for twelve years. According to Jewish law, a woman is considered unclean during her monthly period, until the time, after the flow has stopped, when she has undergone a mikvah, or ritual bath (Leviticus 15:25). Because this woman's menstrual flow never ceases, she is continually unclean, for all practical purposes: an outcast from society.
She has not always been that way. Bruce Malina and Richard Rohrbaugh, in their Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels (Fortress, 2003, p. 167), deduce that she was once a woman of relatively high social standing -- as indicated by the fact that she has spent all her money on physicians. (Only the financially well-off in that culture would have sought out the services of paid physicians.) Furthermore, she is likely a widow -- as indicated by the fact that she has discretionary oversight over her own spending.
What's more, this woman renders any man she touches ritually unclean. It is forbidden, in ancient Jewish society, for a woman to touch a man other than a member of her immediate family. (The same is true, even today, among Orthodox Jews -- even a simple man-to-woman handshake is forbidden.) Yet this woman is also ceremonially unclean. Were Jesus to stop and touch her, he himself would have to pause for a much longer period of time to undergo his own purification ritual before he could resume his errand to Jairus' house (Leviticus 15:27).
The woman's surreptitious approach to Jesus is based on magical thinking ("If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well" -- v. 28). In stopping to converse with her, and speaking to her of faith ("your faith has made you well" -- v. 34), Jesus implicitly rejects magical thinking, directing the woman's -- and the crowd's -- attention to matters of faith. Jesus' pronouncement "go in peace" (eirene in Greek, but based on the Hebrew shalom) indicates that her healing transcends mere physical symptoms. Not only is her body healed, but also her spirit.
CRAFTING THE MESSAGE
"I'm spiritual, but not religious." How often have we in ministry heard that disclaimer? Sociologists of religion have documented a huge segment of the population who are interested in matters of faith -- sometimes intensely so -- but only as spectators. (Christianity Today reported 2003 poll figures of 33 percent of the American population who call themselves "spiritual but not religious": http://www.ctlibrary.com/8984 ) Such people have a warm spot in their hearts for matters of religious faith, but shun any commitment to a community of religious practice.
Such people would, perhaps, be the sort to seek out signs of faith in a minor league ballpark. A June 2 story in the New York Times ("Sports, Songs, and Salvation on Faith Night at the Ballpark" by Warren St. John) chronicles the rise of a new promotion at sporting events: "Faith Nights."
At a recent football game in Alabama, "before kickoff, a Christian band called Audio Adrenaline entertained the crowd. Promoters gave away thousands of Bibles and bobblehead dolls depicting biblical characters like Daniel, Noah, and Moses. And when the home team, the Birmingham Steeldogs, took the field, they wore specially made jerseys with the book and number of Bible verses printed on the back."
Third Coast Sports, a Nashville sports-promotions firm, has scheduled seventy "Faith Nights" this year in 44 cities. Their technique seems to be working -- at least as far as ticket sales are concerned. The Times reports that ticket sales at Faith Nights organized by the Nashville Sounds minor league baseball team are 59 percent higher than on a typical night. This is accounted for in large part by group-sales promotions to local churches.
"Take me out to the ball game,
take me out with my church,
give me a Bible or maybe a tract,
I don't care if I never get back..."
At a May 25 Faith Night in Bridgewater, New Jersey, at a baseball game between the Somerset Patriots and the Camden Riversharks, a Christian radio station broadcast from outside the stadium and a contemporary Christian band called 9 Feet Tall played. A local youth pastor threw out the first pitch, after giving a short sermon about the benefits of committing one's life to Jesus. Patrick McVerry, general manager of the Patriots, told the Times writer he tries to balance the desires of "Faith Night" patrons with those who have simply come to see a ball game. He stops short, he says, of cutting off beer sales during any part of the evening: "We don't want to go over the top."
There's something vaguely disturbing about the "Faith Night" trend. On the one hand, it appears benign; but on the other, it sounds a bit like a sell-out (and I'm not referring to sold-out tickets). Are we not in danger of making Christianity a spectator sport?
The woman who reaches out from the crowd to brush her hand against Jesus' cloak is hoping to remain an anonymous spectator. But he doesn't let her. He stops the urgent progress of himself and his entourage to find out who it is who has touched him. Jesus appears heedless of the ceremonial consequences of this casual contact with an unclean woman. It is contact with her heart he most desires.
Oftentimes, the first approach people make to the Lord is at the time of some desperate personal need. Demonstrating magical thinking similar to that of this afflicted woman, they utter desperate prayers for some concrete form of healing, or help of another kind. They just want to touch his cloak in passing, that's all. Yet, if it truly is Jesus they encounter, he will not allow the relationship to end there, with such fleeting contact. Always, the Lord invites us into deeper relationship.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Carter Shelley
Native Enthusiasm vs. Tepid Christianity
Over a century ago, Mark Twain wrote a travel book called Innocents Abroad. In it, Twain recorded his own experiences and those of other Americans traveling in Europe and other parts of the known world. From further back than Mark Twain's travel book published in 1867, we Americans have been known for our zeal and enthusiasm as tourists. Ask any Brit or European, and they will tell you that Americans are known for their great enthusiasm, eagerness to learn, and curiosity about other places and cultures. They will also say that we are known for our annoying assumption that everything is always bigger and better in the United States than anywhere else in the world. Americans are known for our larger-than-life approach to travel and new experiences. We talk louder, dress louder, state our honest opinions without artifice, are brash, sometimes boorish, and often naive, but it's almost impossible for an American to visit Edinburgh, London, Paris, Rome, or Vienna and not be instantly identified as "American."
And as any kid over the age of 12 and under the age of 19 can tell you, it is not cool to be enthusiastic. Only bright-eyed children, country bumpkins, and Americans abroad let their enthusiasm show.
"Marge! Come stand right here so I can get your picture with the gendarme and the Eiffel Tower!"
"George, this is art! This is good art! This art's by Michelangelo and Leonardo DaVinci. They are famous! They knew the Pope. It's the Vatican for God's sake! George, get a picture!"
Traveling with English friends in 1972, I had to promise them I would not make myself conspicuous by talking too loud or taking any photographs. Instead, I was relegated to purchasing one postcard per monument and talking only in a whisper.
With a 1,600-year head start on recorded history, the Brits and Europeans wear an air of sophistication and "been there, done that" that causes them to recoil at public expressions of passion and enthusiasm. In contrast, we Americans continue to forge ahead without artifice or self-consciousness, which often means we remain curious, candid in our responses to new experiences, honest, and able to be surprised and excited by new experiences and new places.
This long introduction about "native enthusiasm" has been inspired by the lectionary texts for this week. The tepid Christianity that many borderline Christians possess has no place in scripture or in the Church. On this Sunday prior to the 4th of July, I am writing about our native enthusiasm because it is our capacity to be surprised, excited, enthusiastic, and engaged with the world that I consider one of our more appealing national traits. Moreover, it is our ability to care deeply, passionately about things that ties us to the voices at work in today's lectionary passages. Anyone reading the sermons of Jonathan Edwards, Billy Sunday, Aimee Semple McPherson, or William Sloane Coffin knows passion and conviction are powerful servants of the Word of God, and are as American as apple pie and hot dogs.
In looking at this Sunday's lectionary texts, I am struck with the depth of emotion each one contains. Whether it's David expressing the traditional mourning of vanquished former heroes and beloved friends, the Psalmist crying to God from the depths of personal despair, Paul urging the Christians to embody their faith with every fiber of their being, or two desperate people willing to risk personal dignity, reputation, and accepted norms of conduct to get Jesus' help, each passage is overflowing with passion. There's nothing tepid about the honesty and naked pain expressed in these texts. In fact, neither you nor I can hear these texts without being deeply moved.
People who possess passion and enthusiasm are appealing and engaging. Who wants to serve a tepid God or a tepid Savior? In fact, we know from the prayer of the Pharisees and the sinner that God welcomes honest emotion and repentance far more than the bland, ritualized prayers of self-satisfied Christians. One cannot read these texts without being pulled into the feelings and experience of the narrator or lives of the people presented. With David and the Psalmist, we feel pain and grief. With the two miracle stories presented in Mark, we are told about two very different individuals who each desperately seek Jesus' help.
Jairus is the leader of the local synagogue. We can't help but assume that such a role belongs to a man who is faithful in his observance of the Law and serves as a model of faith to other men in the community. Yet this man, whose relationship with God is probably better than most, risks his dignity and perhaps even the confidence of the local community with his emotional appeal to Jesus to save his sick daughter.
Few things bring forth more passion and desperation than the potential loss of a child in a car wreck or to some dreadful disease. The deepest grief is felt and the hardest battles are fought on behalf of our children. So Jairus' focus is not upon himself, his importance, or how his action will look to others; Jairus' passion is aimed at the one man he believes can save his daughter.
Jairus doesn't just approach Jesus; Jairus "fell at Jesus' feet and begged him repeatedly, 'My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.' " A man of dignity and stature in the community ignores his own importance in his urgent need for help from Jesus. Though this isn't stated, perhaps it is because Jairus is a pious man, a man with a sound relationship with God, that Jairus sees the God in Jesus, and knows Jesus can make his daughter well.
Jesus' response to Jairus is instantaneous. As soon as the plea is made, Jesus "went with him."
Meanwhile, a most unfortunate woman, "who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years," has reached the end of her tether. For twelve years she has tried every means at her disposal to find a cure: "She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse." Having used up all of her resources, physical and financial, Jesus is the woman's last hope. Her need for his help equals that of Jairus. Her faith in Jesus, like that of Jairus, is unswerving: "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well."
If Jairus risks his reputation and dignity by his emotional appeal, the woman, whose sickness has made her an outcast among men [sic] may risk some greater penalty for defiling a righteous Jew. Both have much to lose, but more to gain if Jesus can help them. Neither individual offers a sophisticated, cool facade as they approach Jesus. Both realize Jesus can help. Both risk possible rejection and rebuke due to their neediness. Both approach in humility and fear, believing that Jesus can, if he will, restore their broken lives.
When approached, Jesus does not say, "Call my office manager and see if you have the right medical insurance, then have her make you an appointment for October."
Jesus' response to both individuals shows that Jesus instantly grasps the immediacy of their need: "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease."
When Jesus overhears the informers tell father Jairus that his daughter has died, Jesus inserts himself into the conversation and asserts that the time for weeping has not arrived: "Do not fear, only believe."
You know how it ends -- "Little girl, get up!" and the 12-year-old child is raised to life. The woman with the 12-year flow of blood is healed. Jesus is not a tepid Messiah.
Passion and enthusiasm are contagious. We can't be around someone who gets really excited about life, about new experiences, etc. without being charmed and engaged by them. In these biblical passages, it is not only the civilians who are passionate in their appeals. The enthusiasm is mutual. David does not grieve his loss in a vacuum. He cries to his God, whom David knows hears his grief, feels his loss, and cares about his pain. The same holds true for the Psalmist in Psalm 30 and for the two individuals who seek Jesus out for a miracle. Nothing better expresses the will of God, the power of God, the passion of God than the incarnation and Jesus' accompanying ability to consistently and enthusiastically confound worldly expectations through his teaching, miracles, and resurrection.
Christianity is not a religion for the tepid. The tepid Christian identifies himself or herself as a Christian, but almost never attends church. The tepid Christian enthusiastically celebrates Christmas and gets misty-eyed when listening to "Silent Night," but doesn't practice the discipline of weekly worship attendance, tithing, studying the Bible, praying regularly, or coming together with others for fellowship and service.
Christianity is not a religion for the tepid -- God's Son died to save us. Christianity is not for the timid -- instead it should be characterized by boldness, brashness, risk, a readiness for one's life to change, a readiness for adventures, for travel, for this year not to look like the last. "For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has" (2 Corinthians 8:12).
Passion! Enthusiasm! David had it. The Psalmist had it. Jairus and the woman had it. Paul had it. Do you?
ILLUSTRATIONS
One enthusiasm that people worldwide express with religious zeal is a passion for soccer. Because it is not our national sport, Americans are not as emotionally involved or interested in the World Cup as are the people of many other countries. Soccer fans are some of the most enthusiastic, emotional, dedicated fans there are. But unlike professional soccer, American football, basketball, baseball, or horse racing, Christianity is not a spectator sport (as Paul suggests in 2 Corinthians). Paul doesn't use the language of games and competition, but the analogy still applies. You can't be a passionate Christian, an enthusiastic Christian, and remain seated in the stands watching the action take place. You have to get down and dirty; you have to care about the end result; you have to stay fit and in training; you have to show enthusiasm, loyalty, energy, resourcefulness, active zeal. Paul writes of "utmost eagerness" and of excelling "in this generous undertaking." Athletes do not stay fit by staying home eating Cheetos on the couch while watching others play the game. The analogy also applies to Christians. We cannot remain spiritually or emotionally fit for God's service without the discipline, the enthusiasm, the drive, and the gratitude to stay in the Church and the game.
***
Less than 10% of England's population identify themselves as church-going Christians. Years ago an English friend of mine came to visit. On Sunday, I took him to my home church. As we entered the parking lot and had to drive around a bit to locate a vacant space, my friend said to me, "All these people can't possibly be sincere!" Let's just say, I hope we are.
***
Jesus is the name that keeps us attentive to the God-defined, God-revealed life. The amorphous limpness so often associated with spirituality is given skeleton, sinews, definition, shape, and energy by the name Jesus. Jesus is the name of a person who lived at a datable time in an actual land that has mountains we can still climb, wildflowers we can photograph, cities in which we can still buy dates and pomegranates, and water which we can drink and in which we can be baptized.
Jesus is the central and defining figure in the spiritual life. His life is, precisely, revelation. He brings out into the open what we could never have figured out for ourselves, never guessed in a million years. He is God among us: God speaking, acting, healing, and helping. Salvation is the big word into which all these words fit. The name Jesus means God saves -- God present and at work saving in our language and in our history....
Jesus prevents us from thinking that life is a matter of ideas to ponder or concepts to discuss. Jesus saves us from wasting our lives in the pursuit of cheap thrills and trivializing diversions. Jesus enables us to take seriously who we are and where we are without being seduced by the intimidating lies and illusions that fill the air and trying to be someone else or somewhere else. Jesus keeps our feet on the ground, attentive to children, in conversation with ordinary people, sharing meals with friends and strangers, listening to the wind, observing the wildflowers, touching the sick and wounded, praying simply and unselfconsciously. Jesus insists that we deal with God right here and now, in the place we find ourselves and with the people we are with. Jesus is God here and now....
If we are to keep an accurate understanding and practice of the Christian life, the two terms, spirituality and Jesus, need one another. There are a lot of people today who want a spirituality without Jesus. But spirituality without Jesus degenerates into a sloppy subjectivism, tempting us to invent a way of life customized to accommodate aspiration, inspiration, and "meaning" without the inconvenience of morals or personal sacrifice. A commitment to Jesus keeps spirituality in touch with God. And a concern for spirituality keeps Jesus in touch with us.
-- Eugene Peterson, "Missing ingredient: Why spirituality needs Jesus," in The Christian Century, March 22, 2003
***
How I would like to engrave this great idea
on each one's heart:
Christianity is not a collection of truths to be believed,
of laws to be obeyed,
of prohibitions.
That makes it very distasteful.
Christianity is a person,
one who loved us so much,
one who calls for our love.
Christianity is Christ.
-- Oscar Romero, November 6, 1977
***
It is precisely when every earthly hope has been explored and found wanting, when every possibility of help from earthly sources has been sought and is not forthcoming, when every recourse this world offers, moral as well as material, has been drawn on and expended with no effect, when in the shivering cold every log has been thrown on the fire, and in the gathering darkness every glimmer of light has finally flickered out -- it is then that Christ's hand reaches out, sure and firm, that Christ's words bring their inexpressible comfort, that his light shines brightest, abolishing the darkness for ever.
-- Malcolm Muggeridge, A Twentieth-Century Pilgrimage
***
E. Stanley Jones tells of a missionary who got lost in the African jungle. When he happened upon a native hut, he asked if the man who lived there could guide him out. The native agreed to do so. "All right," said the missionary, "show me the way."
The native said just one word: "Walk." Together they walked for more than an hour, hacking their way through the thick undergrowth with machetes.
When they finally stopped for a rest, the missionary had grown worried. "Are you quite sure this is the way? Where is the path?"
"Bwana," replied his companion, "in this place there is no path. I am the path."
***
Tony Campolo tells the story of a young woman who came to God in her brokenness and found new hope.
Nancy is confined to a wheelchair, but does not let that stop her from reaching out in ministry. Each week, in the personals section of her local newspaper, she runs an ad that reads: "If you are lonely or have a problem, call me. I am in a wheelchair and I seldom get out. We can share our problems with each other. I'd love to talk." People respond to her ad -- more than thirty lonely and discouraged people each week.
Upon meeting her, Campolo asked how she ended up in a wheelchair. He was amazed to hear her reveal that, in a suicide attempt, she had jumped from the balcony of her apartment. She didn't die, but was paralyzed from the waist down instead. Recuperating in the hospital, she experienced Jesus coming to her. He told her, "You have had a healthy body and a crippled soul. From this day on you will have a crippled body, but you will have a healthy soul."
Nancy told Campolo, "I gave my life to Jesus that night in that hospital room, and I knew that if I kept a healthy soul, it would mean that I would have to help other people. And so I do."
***
In his classic book Love, Medicine, and Miracles: Lessons Learned About Self-Healing from a Surgeon's Experience with Exceptional Patients (Harper Perennial, 1986), Bernie Siegel tells of a study of Korean War military survivors that was conducted by a psychologist, Al Siebert:
"He has found that one of their most prominent characteristics is a complexity of character, a union of many opposites that he has termed biphasic traits. They are both serious and playful, tough and gentle, logical and intuitive, hard-working and lazy, shy and aggressive, introspective and outgoing, and so forth. They are paradoxical people who don't fit into the usual psychological categories. This makes them more flexible than most people, with a variety of resources to draw on" (p. 161).
Siegel continues:
"As patients, those who have or are developing survival traits are self-reliant and seek solutions rather than lapsing into depression. They interpret problems as redirections, not failures. They are the ones who read or meditate in the waiting room instead of staring forlornly into space" (pp. 162-163).
As ministers, many of us have found this to be true. As we visit patients in hospitals and pray with them, we see some who take hold of their treatment and proceed with a positive, can-do attitude. Others just give up the ghost.
It's the survivors who survive. That sounds like a truism, but that's the way it is. What Jesus does, in healing others, is move them into the ranks of these determined survivors.
***
Jairus' servants show up, and try to wave Jesus off. Never mind. It's too late.
But Jesus kept on walking, with this brave woman fresh in His mind, and when He got to this little dead girl, He reached out and took her hand, and He called her by a very unusual name.
He didn't call this little girl "Daughter."
He called her "Talitha."
It was Aramaic, and it was used to signify "little girl," but the literal translation is fascinating.
It is a Hebrew word, with a feminine ending.
Take the word "Talitha," and remove the feminine ending... the "a" at the end.
What do you have? Talith.
Many Jewish scholars think Jesus was saying:
"Little girl under my prayer shawl...
Placed under my covering...
Entrusted into my prayer care...
get up!"
And now you understand why, from that time on, "wherever he went -- into villages, towns, or countryside -- they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed" (Mark 6:56).
They discovered a new thing about Jesus that day. He was willing to reach out in prayer for anyone!
When we have loved ones so far past helping that they cannot reach out to Him, He comes at the prayers of another... comes when WE pray, and gently takes their hands and says, "You are under my prayer covering, and so you cannot stay dead. It is time to get up."
-- Pastor Steve Jones, First Missionary Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana
***
"Get up, my child!"
This is no time for sleeping.
Lighter than Lazarus,
this raising; his touch
an affirmation of womanhood
amid the misted familiar.
Flute players re-tune
to celebrate the coming
of her bleeding, and the chance
between waxing and waning
of moons, for new life.
Mother and father watch,
unable to do anything
but offer wholesome food
for the journey. The threshold is hers
to cross alone; her knowing
is outside theirs
in the shadow of the unsaid.
-- Joy Mead, "Jairus' Daughter," in Praying for the Dawn: A Resource Book for the Ministry of Healing (Wild Goose, 2000)
***
She has travelled all her life,
dragging leg irons of disease
to reach here.
This very spot.
In her aching belly
need has grown to desperation.
It drives her through her terror
and the gawking crowd.
He has travelled all his life
to reach here.
This very spot.
His shoulders ache with the weariness of others,
his brow lacerated by their twisted expectations.
Now her fingers tremble as they stretch
And brush the mud-splattered hem of his robe.
She finds a touching place.
You and I
Have travelled our separate ways here.
This very spot.
We stumble and trip over
our failure and success.
Driven by our need and compassion
we stretch out tentative fingers
and find in each other
A touching place.
-- Jim Hughes, "A Touching Place," in Praying for the Dawn: A Resource Book for the Ministry of Healing (Wild Goose, 2000)
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call To Worship
Leader: Come among us, Healing God;
we wait for you:
People: we come, hungry for your Word to bless us.
Leader: Come among us, Compassionate Christ;
we hope in you:
People: we come, hungry to be filled with the Bread of Heaven.
Leader: Come among us, Restoring Spirit;
we wait and hope in you:
People: we come, eager to rest in your peace.
Prayer Of The Day
With you, God of Wholeness,
those who work the graveyard shift of life find the dawn of resurrection;
those who look for healing are led to the living waters.
Christ our Companion:
richer than Gates or Buffett,
you chose to become as poor as Mother Teresa,
to touch us with hope;
you set aside Glory's robe,
to wear the servant's towel,
so we might touch you and be made whole.
Spirit of Grace:
you encircle us with love which never ends;
you touch us with grace which mends all brokenness;
you pour out mercy which heals any wound we cause.
God in Community, Holy in One,
we lift the prayer Jesus has taught us, saying,
Our Father . . .
Call To Reconciliation
There is nothing, nothing, which can divide us -- in life and death -- from God.
So let us confess our worst faults and eager failings,
so we may be touched by the healing power of God.
(Unison) Prayer Of Confession
We want to touch the hem of your garment, O God.
Forgive us for being afraid to touch those who come to us for hope;
we want to love the whole world:
forgive us for ignoring our neighbor;
we long for peace:
forgive us for the pain we inflict on our families and friends;
we want to share with those we love and like:
forgive us for walking past those who need you most.
Forgive us, Loving God, for we do not excel in everything you call us to do.
Give us grace:
to touch those who frighten us;
to carry the Bread of Life to the hungry;
to offer the blessings of the kingdom to everyone we meet,
even as you have graced us in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
(silent prayers may be offered)
Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: Listen to the Good News!
Hope in God, for God's love has no ending;
God fills us with grace and hope, this day and forever.
People: God hears our voice, and listens to our prayers,
redeeming us from all our sins.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Great Prayer Of Thanksgiving
Leader: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Leader: Open your hearts to God.
People: We open our hearts to the God of healing and joy.
Leader: Lift your hearts to God.
People: We lift them to the One who brings us wholeness.
Hear our voices as we sing our joy to you, God of the listening Heart.
You reached out and touched chaos with your imaginative Spirit,
proclaiming goodness and wholeness as Creation burst forth.
Shaping us in your image,
you breathed life into us so we could be united with you.
But grasping the hem of sin,
we chose to be dragged through the mud of despair and death.
Your steadfast love would not forsake us,
singing to us in the prophets' voices.
When you could no longer wait for us to turn back to you,
you came to us in Jesus Christ, Companion of the broken.
So we lift our voices in praise,
joining with those in heaven and earth who forever praise your name:
Sanctus
Holy are you, Listener to our deepest longings,
and blessed is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
He emptied himself of Glory's riches,
so we could be filled with grace and hope;
he endured our suffering,
so we could be healed;
he was broken,
so we could be made whole;
he died,
so we would live with you forever.
As we remember his life for us,
we tell of that mystery we call faith:
Memorial Acclamation
Come among us, Source of healing,
your Spirit gracing the bread and the cup,
and nourishing your children gathered at your Table.
Mend our broken hearts,
so we may love all your children;
touch our wounded souls,
so we may embrace all those cast out by the world;
fill us with your gracious gifts,
so we may overflow in generosity to those in need.
Then, when that Day of Joy comes,
and we are all made new and we see completely,
we will fill your Heart with joy and praise,
singing to our God in Community, Holy in One. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The warmth of God's power
Object: a heating pad
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you know what this is? (let them answer) That's right -- it's a heating pad. Touch it right now and remember how it feels cool when it is not being used. (let each child touch the heating pad -- after they have touched it, turn on the switch as inconspicuously as possible)
Somewhere inside of the pad there is electric power and there is also a healing power. People use this pad when they have an ache or pain that needs heat. When they feel the power of the heat, they feel better. Soon they are able to get up and move around again.
Jesus had a special power inside of him. It was a power that came from God. In our lesson for today we hear about some people who were healed when Jesus used this power. First there was a very important man who asked Jesus to heal his daughter who was sick at home. Jesus agreed but on the way to the man's home a woman who had been sick for a long time approached Jesus hoping to be healed. She got as close to Jesus as she could and reached out and touched his clothes. Immediately she knew she was healed. But Jesus also felt some of his power leave him and he asked who had touched him. The woman apologized while telling Jesus what she had done. Jesus told her not to be sorry but instead to be glad because she was healed. She believed in Jesus and his power and that believing made it happen.
Let's touch the pad again. (pass it around again and let each child touch it) Can you feel the power coming from the pad? (let them answer) Now it is warm and can be part of a healing.
After healing the woman, Jesus went on to the home of the very important man. When he got there, the people told him that the little girl was dead. "No," Jesus said, "she is sleeping." The people laughed at him, for they knew she had died. But Jesus took his disciples and the family inside the house. There he approached the little girl's bed and told her to wake up, which she did immediately. It was more of the same kind of power. Even death can't stop the power of God.
A heating pad is not the power of Jesus, but it is a reminder of how the power inside of Jesus could do amazing things for people who were ill or even dead. Jesus was the great healer because of the power God gave him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 2, 2006, issue.
Copyright 2006 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
A Passing Touch
by Carlos Wilton
Mark 5:21-43
THE WORLD
His cloak. It's the only part of him she can bring herself to touch. She is unclean, she tells herself -- and the impress of her hand renders anyone she touches unclean. Yet this man just might be able to heal her. It's worth the risk. The lightest of touches will do it...
The woman in Mark 5:21-43 who lightly and surreptitiously touches Jesus' cloak is healed. She probably doesn't expect him to stop in his tracks -- interrupting an important errand -- and ask who touched him. She doesn't suspect he'll even notice her, outcast that she is. Yet notice her he does. Jesus heals her... redeems her... transforms her.
A great many people today revere Jesus and look to him for help and healing -- even if they never darken the door of one of his churches. Someone in the management of minor league baseball has picked up on this, as ballparks have begun to host "Faith Nights," giving away Bibles and trinkets like bobblehead dolls depicting biblical characters. This season, such religious promotions are expected to hit the major leagues as well.
Is this a genuine expression of religious faith -- or is it just another example of good old American generic watered-down spirituality? Is it a genuine attempt to reach the unchurched -- or is it a crass marketing technique, shrewdly calculated to sell tickets to the "I'm spiritual but not religious" crowd?
Should "Faith Nights" in ballparks make us church folk uneasy? Or should we welcome these events, as an ingenious but unorthodox outreach?
It's just another example of the ways some folks just want to reach out and quietly touch his cloak...
THE WORD
Henri Nouwen once observed how he used to resent interruptions because they kept him from his ministry. But then he realized the interruptions were his ministry, and began to look on them in a whole new way.
Something similar could be said of Jesus, as the woman with the flow of blood interrupts his urgent errand to the home of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue. Were Jesus solely interested in advancing his own cause, there could be no more powerful ally than Jairus. The fact that Jairus "falls at his feet" in a public setting indicates how desperate he is to see his daughter healed. (To prostrate oneself before another in that culture indicates social inferiority.) Yet Jesus stops this errand of life-and-death urgency -- one which, incidentally, could significantly "advance his career" -- to aid this unnamed woman who occupies one of the lowest rungs on the social ladder.
The woman is ritually unclean, and has been for twelve years. According to Jewish law, a woman is considered unclean during her monthly period, until the time, after the flow has stopped, when she has undergone a mikvah, or ritual bath (Leviticus 15:25). Because this woman's menstrual flow never ceases, she is continually unclean, for all practical purposes: an outcast from society.
She has not always been that way. Bruce Malina and Richard Rohrbaugh, in their Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels (Fortress, 2003, p. 167), deduce that she was once a woman of relatively high social standing -- as indicated by the fact that she has spent all her money on physicians. (Only the financially well-off in that culture would have sought out the services of paid physicians.) Furthermore, she is likely a widow -- as indicated by the fact that she has discretionary oversight over her own spending.
What's more, this woman renders any man she touches ritually unclean. It is forbidden, in ancient Jewish society, for a woman to touch a man other than a member of her immediate family. (The same is true, even today, among Orthodox Jews -- even a simple man-to-woman handshake is forbidden.) Yet this woman is also ceremonially unclean. Were Jesus to stop and touch her, he himself would have to pause for a much longer period of time to undergo his own purification ritual before he could resume his errand to Jairus' house (Leviticus 15:27).
The woman's surreptitious approach to Jesus is based on magical thinking ("If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well" -- v. 28). In stopping to converse with her, and speaking to her of faith ("your faith has made you well" -- v. 34), Jesus implicitly rejects magical thinking, directing the woman's -- and the crowd's -- attention to matters of faith. Jesus' pronouncement "go in peace" (eirene in Greek, but based on the Hebrew shalom) indicates that her healing transcends mere physical symptoms. Not only is her body healed, but also her spirit.
CRAFTING THE MESSAGE
"I'm spiritual, but not religious." How often have we in ministry heard that disclaimer? Sociologists of religion have documented a huge segment of the population who are interested in matters of faith -- sometimes intensely so -- but only as spectators. (Christianity Today reported 2003 poll figures of 33 percent of the American population who call themselves "spiritual but not religious": http://www.ctlibrary.com/8984 ) Such people have a warm spot in their hearts for matters of religious faith, but shun any commitment to a community of religious practice.
Such people would, perhaps, be the sort to seek out signs of faith in a minor league ballpark. A June 2 story in the New York Times ("Sports, Songs, and Salvation on Faith Night at the Ballpark" by Warren St. John) chronicles the rise of a new promotion at sporting events: "Faith Nights."
At a recent football game in Alabama, "before kickoff, a Christian band called Audio Adrenaline entertained the crowd. Promoters gave away thousands of Bibles and bobblehead dolls depicting biblical characters like Daniel, Noah, and Moses. And when the home team, the Birmingham Steeldogs, took the field, they wore specially made jerseys with the book and number of Bible verses printed on the back."
Third Coast Sports, a Nashville sports-promotions firm, has scheduled seventy "Faith Nights" this year in 44 cities. Their technique seems to be working -- at least as far as ticket sales are concerned. The Times reports that ticket sales at Faith Nights organized by the Nashville Sounds minor league baseball team are 59 percent higher than on a typical night. This is accounted for in large part by group-sales promotions to local churches.
"Take me out to the ball game,
take me out with my church,
give me a Bible or maybe a tract,
I don't care if I never get back..."
At a May 25 Faith Night in Bridgewater, New Jersey, at a baseball game between the Somerset Patriots and the Camden Riversharks, a Christian radio station broadcast from outside the stadium and a contemporary Christian band called 9 Feet Tall played. A local youth pastor threw out the first pitch, after giving a short sermon about the benefits of committing one's life to Jesus. Patrick McVerry, general manager of the Patriots, told the Times writer he tries to balance the desires of "Faith Night" patrons with those who have simply come to see a ball game. He stops short, he says, of cutting off beer sales during any part of the evening: "We don't want to go over the top."
There's something vaguely disturbing about the "Faith Night" trend. On the one hand, it appears benign; but on the other, it sounds a bit like a sell-out (and I'm not referring to sold-out tickets). Are we not in danger of making Christianity a spectator sport?
The woman who reaches out from the crowd to brush her hand against Jesus' cloak is hoping to remain an anonymous spectator. But he doesn't let her. He stops the urgent progress of himself and his entourage to find out who it is who has touched him. Jesus appears heedless of the ceremonial consequences of this casual contact with an unclean woman. It is contact with her heart he most desires.
Oftentimes, the first approach people make to the Lord is at the time of some desperate personal need. Demonstrating magical thinking similar to that of this afflicted woman, they utter desperate prayers for some concrete form of healing, or help of another kind. They just want to touch his cloak in passing, that's all. Yet, if it truly is Jesus they encounter, he will not allow the relationship to end there, with such fleeting contact. Always, the Lord invites us into deeper relationship.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Carter Shelley
Native Enthusiasm vs. Tepid Christianity
Over a century ago, Mark Twain wrote a travel book called Innocents Abroad. In it, Twain recorded his own experiences and those of other Americans traveling in Europe and other parts of the known world. From further back than Mark Twain's travel book published in 1867, we Americans have been known for our zeal and enthusiasm as tourists. Ask any Brit or European, and they will tell you that Americans are known for their great enthusiasm, eagerness to learn, and curiosity about other places and cultures. They will also say that we are known for our annoying assumption that everything is always bigger and better in the United States than anywhere else in the world. Americans are known for our larger-than-life approach to travel and new experiences. We talk louder, dress louder, state our honest opinions without artifice, are brash, sometimes boorish, and often naive, but it's almost impossible for an American to visit Edinburgh, London, Paris, Rome, or Vienna and not be instantly identified as "American."
And as any kid over the age of 12 and under the age of 19 can tell you, it is not cool to be enthusiastic. Only bright-eyed children, country bumpkins, and Americans abroad let their enthusiasm show.
"Marge! Come stand right here so I can get your picture with the gendarme and the Eiffel Tower!"
"George, this is art! This is good art! This art's by Michelangelo and Leonardo DaVinci. They are famous! They knew the Pope. It's the Vatican for God's sake! George, get a picture!"
Traveling with English friends in 1972, I had to promise them I would not make myself conspicuous by talking too loud or taking any photographs. Instead, I was relegated to purchasing one postcard per monument and talking only in a whisper.
With a 1,600-year head start on recorded history, the Brits and Europeans wear an air of sophistication and "been there, done that" that causes them to recoil at public expressions of passion and enthusiasm. In contrast, we Americans continue to forge ahead without artifice or self-consciousness, which often means we remain curious, candid in our responses to new experiences, honest, and able to be surprised and excited by new experiences and new places.
This long introduction about "native enthusiasm" has been inspired by the lectionary texts for this week. The tepid Christianity that many borderline Christians possess has no place in scripture or in the Church. On this Sunday prior to the 4th of July, I am writing about our native enthusiasm because it is our capacity to be surprised, excited, enthusiastic, and engaged with the world that I consider one of our more appealing national traits. Moreover, it is our ability to care deeply, passionately about things that ties us to the voices at work in today's lectionary passages. Anyone reading the sermons of Jonathan Edwards, Billy Sunday, Aimee Semple McPherson, or William Sloane Coffin knows passion and conviction are powerful servants of the Word of God, and are as American as apple pie and hot dogs.
In looking at this Sunday's lectionary texts, I am struck with the depth of emotion each one contains. Whether it's David expressing the traditional mourning of vanquished former heroes and beloved friends, the Psalmist crying to God from the depths of personal despair, Paul urging the Christians to embody their faith with every fiber of their being, or two desperate people willing to risk personal dignity, reputation, and accepted norms of conduct to get Jesus' help, each passage is overflowing with passion. There's nothing tepid about the honesty and naked pain expressed in these texts. In fact, neither you nor I can hear these texts without being deeply moved.
People who possess passion and enthusiasm are appealing and engaging. Who wants to serve a tepid God or a tepid Savior? In fact, we know from the prayer of the Pharisees and the sinner that God welcomes honest emotion and repentance far more than the bland, ritualized prayers of self-satisfied Christians. One cannot read these texts without being pulled into the feelings and experience of the narrator or lives of the people presented. With David and the Psalmist, we feel pain and grief. With the two miracle stories presented in Mark, we are told about two very different individuals who each desperately seek Jesus' help.
Jairus is the leader of the local synagogue. We can't help but assume that such a role belongs to a man who is faithful in his observance of the Law and serves as a model of faith to other men in the community. Yet this man, whose relationship with God is probably better than most, risks his dignity and perhaps even the confidence of the local community with his emotional appeal to Jesus to save his sick daughter.
Few things bring forth more passion and desperation than the potential loss of a child in a car wreck or to some dreadful disease. The deepest grief is felt and the hardest battles are fought on behalf of our children. So Jairus' focus is not upon himself, his importance, or how his action will look to others; Jairus' passion is aimed at the one man he believes can save his daughter.
Jairus doesn't just approach Jesus; Jairus "fell at Jesus' feet and begged him repeatedly, 'My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.' " A man of dignity and stature in the community ignores his own importance in his urgent need for help from Jesus. Though this isn't stated, perhaps it is because Jairus is a pious man, a man with a sound relationship with God, that Jairus sees the God in Jesus, and knows Jesus can make his daughter well.
Jesus' response to Jairus is instantaneous. As soon as the plea is made, Jesus "went with him."
Meanwhile, a most unfortunate woman, "who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years," has reached the end of her tether. For twelve years she has tried every means at her disposal to find a cure: "She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse." Having used up all of her resources, physical and financial, Jesus is the woman's last hope. Her need for his help equals that of Jairus. Her faith in Jesus, like that of Jairus, is unswerving: "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well."
If Jairus risks his reputation and dignity by his emotional appeal, the woman, whose sickness has made her an outcast among men [sic] may risk some greater penalty for defiling a righteous Jew. Both have much to lose, but more to gain if Jesus can help them. Neither individual offers a sophisticated, cool facade as they approach Jesus. Both realize Jesus can help. Both risk possible rejection and rebuke due to their neediness. Both approach in humility and fear, believing that Jesus can, if he will, restore their broken lives.
When approached, Jesus does not say, "Call my office manager and see if you have the right medical insurance, then have her make you an appointment for October."
Jesus' response to both individuals shows that Jesus instantly grasps the immediacy of their need: "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease."
When Jesus overhears the informers tell father Jairus that his daughter has died, Jesus inserts himself into the conversation and asserts that the time for weeping has not arrived: "Do not fear, only believe."
You know how it ends -- "Little girl, get up!" and the 12-year-old child is raised to life. The woman with the 12-year flow of blood is healed. Jesus is not a tepid Messiah.
Passion and enthusiasm are contagious. We can't be around someone who gets really excited about life, about new experiences, etc. without being charmed and engaged by them. In these biblical passages, it is not only the civilians who are passionate in their appeals. The enthusiasm is mutual. David does not grieve his loss in a vacuum. He cries to his God, whom David knows hears his grief, feels his loss, and cares about his pain. The same holds true for the Psalmist in Psalm 30 and for the two individuals who seek Jesus out for a miracle. Nothing better expresses the will of God, the power of God, the passion of God than the incarnation and Jesus' accompanying ability to consistently and enthusiastically confound worldly expectations through his teaching, miracles, and resurrection.
Christianity is not a religion for the tepid. The tepid Christian identifies himself or herself as a Christian, but almost never attends church. The tepid Christian enthusiastically celebrates Christmas and gets misty-eyed when listening to "Silent Night," but doesn't practice the discipline of weekly worship attendance, tithing, studying the Bible, praying regularly, or coming together with others for fellowship and service.
Christianity is not a religion for the tepid -- God's Son died to save us. Christianity is not for the timid -- instead it should be characterized by boldness, brashness, risk, a readiness for one's life to change, a readiness for adventures, for travel, for this year not to look like the last. "For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has" (2 Corinthians 8:12).
Passion! Enthusiasm! David had it. The Psalmist had it. Jairus and the woman had it. Paul had it. Do you?
ILLUSTRATIONS
One enthusiasm that people worldwide express with religious zeal is a passion for soccer. Because it is not our national sport, Americans are not as emotionally involved or interested in the World Cup as are the people of many other countries. Soccer fans are some of the most enthusiastic, emotional, dedicated fans there are. But unlike professional soccer, American football, basketball, baseball, or horse racing, Christianity is not a spectator sport (as Paul suggests in 2 Corinthians). Paul doesn't use the language of games and competition, but the analogy still applies. You can't be a passionate Christian, an enthusiastic Christian, and remain seated in the stands watching the action take place. You have to get down and dirty; you have to care about the end result; you have to stay fit and in training; you have to show enthusiasm, loyalty, energy, resourcefulness, active zeal. Paul writes of "utmost eagerness" and of excelling "in this generous undertaking." Athletes do not stay fit by staying home eating Cheetos on the couch while watching others play the game. The analogy also applies to Christians. We cannot remain spiritually or emotionally fit for God's service without the discipline, the enthusiasm, the drive, and the gratitude to stay in the Church and the game.
***
Less than 10% of England's population identify themselves as church-going Christians. Years ago an English friend of mine came to visit. On Sunday, I took him to my home church. As we entered the parking lot and had to drive around a bit to locate a vacant space, my friend said to me, "All these people can't possibly be sincere!" Let's just say, I hope we are.
***
Jesus is the name that keeps us attentive to the God-defined, God-revealed life. The amorphous limpness so often associated with spirituality is given skeleton, sinews, definition, shape, and energy by the name Jesus. Jesus is the name of a person who lived at a datable time in an actual land that has mountains we can still climb, wildflowers we can photograph, cities in which we can still buy dates and pomegranates, and water which we can drink and in which we can be baptized.
Jesus is the central and defining figure in the spiritual life. His life is, precisely, revelation. He brings out into the open what we could never have figured out for ourselves, never guessed in a million years. He is God among us: God speaking, acting, healing, and helping. Salvation is the big word into which all these words fit. The name Jesus means God saves -- God present and at work saving in our language and in our history....
Jesus prevents us from thinking that life is a matter of ideas to ponder or concepts to discuss. Jesus saves us from wasting our lives in the pursuit of cheap thrills and trivializing diversions. Jesus enables us to take seriously who we are and where we are without being seduced by the intimidating lies and illusions that fill the air and trying to be someone else or somewhere else. Jesus keeps our feet on the ground, attentive to children, in conversation with ordinary people, sharing meals with friends and strangers, listening to the wind, observing the wildflowers, touching the sick and wounded, praying simply and unselfconsciously. Jesus insists that we deal with God right here and now, in the place we find ourselves and with the people we are with. Jesus is God here and now....
If we are to keep an accurate understanding and practice of the Christian life, the two terms, spirituality and Jesus, need one another. There are a lot of people today who want a spirituality without Jesus. But spirituality without Jesus degenerates into a sloppy subjectivism, tempting us to invent a way of life customized to accommodate aspiration, inspiration, and "meaning" without the inconvenience of morals or personal sacrifice. A commitment to Jesus keeps spirituality in touch with God. And a concern for spirituality keeps Jesus in touch with us.
-- Eugene Peterson, "Missing ingredient: Why spirituality needs Jesus," in The Christian Century, March 22, 2003
***
How I would like to engrave this great idea
on each one's heart:
Christianity is not a collection of truths to be believed,
of laws to be obeyed,
of prohibitions.
That makes it very distasteful.
Christianity is a person,
one who loved us so much,
one who calls for our love.
Christianity is Christ.
-- Oscar Romero, November 6, 1977
***
It is precisely when every earthly hope has been explored and found wanting, when every possibility of help from earthly sources has been sought and is not forthcoming, when every recourse this world offers, moral as well as material, has been drawn on and expended with no effect, when in the shivering cold every log has been thrown on the fire, and in the gathering darkness every glimmer of light has finally flickered out -- it is then that Christ's hand reaches out, sure and firm, that Christ's words bring their inexpressible comfort, that his light shines brightest, abolishing the darkness for ever.
-- Malcolm Muggeridge, A Twentieth-Century Pilgrimage
***
E. Stanley Jones tells of a missionary who got lost in the African jungle. When he happened upon a native hut, he asked if the man who lived there could guide him out. The native agreed to do so. "All right," said the missionary, "show me the way."
The native said just one word: "Walk." Together they walked for more than an hour, hacking their way through the thick undergrowth with machetes.
When they finally stopped for a rest, the missionary had grown worried. "Are you quite sure this is the way? Where is the path?"
"Bwana," replied his companion, "in this place there is no path. I am the path."
***
Tony Campolo tells the story of a young woman who came to God in her brokenness and found new hope.
Nancy is confined to a wheelchair, but does not let that stop her from reaching out in ministry. Each week, in the personals section of her local newspaper, she runs an ad that reads: "If you are lonely or have a problem, call me. I am in a wheelchair and I seldom get out. We can share our problems with each other. I'd love to talk." People respond to her ad -- more than thirty lonely and discouraged people each week.
Upon meeting her, Campolo asked how she ended up in a wheelchair. He was amazed to hear her reveal that, in a suicide attempt, she had jumped from the balcony of her apartment. She didn't die, but was paralyzed from the waist down instead. Recuperating in the hospital, she experienced Jesus coming to her. He told her, "You have had a healthy body and a crippled soul. From this day on you will have a crippled body, but you will have a healthy soul."
Nancy told Campolo, "I gave my life to Jesus that night in that hospital room, and I knew that if I kept a healthy soul, it would mean that I would have to help other people. And so I do."
***
In his classic book Love, Medicine, and Miracles: Lessons Learned About Self-Healing from a Surgeon's Experience with Exceptional Patients (Harper Perennial, 1986), Bernie Siegel tells of a study of Korean War military survivors that was conducted by a psychologist, Al Siebert:
"He has found that one of their most prominent characteristics is a complexity of character, a union of many opposites that he has termed biphasic traits. They are both serious and playful, tough and gentle, logical and intuitive, hard-working and lazy, shy and aggressive, introspective and outgoing, and so forth. They are paradoxical people who don't fit into the usual psychological categories. This makes them more flexible than most people, with a variety of resources to draw on" (p. 161).
Siegel continues:
"As patients, those who have or are developing survival traits are self-reliant and seek solutions rather than lapsing into depression. They interpret problems as redirections, not failures. They are the ones who read or meditate in the waiting room instead of staring forlornly into space" (pp. 162-163).
As ministers, many of us have found this to be true. As we visit patients in hospitals and pray with them, we see some who take hold of their treatment and proceed with a positive, can-do attitude. Others just give up the ghost.
It's the survivors who survive. That sounds like a truism, but that's the way it is. What Jesus does, in healing others, is move them into the ranks of these determined survivors.
***
Jairus' servants show up, and try to wave Jesus off. Never mind. It's too late.
But Jesus kept on walking, with this brave woman fresh in His mind, and when He got to this little dead girl, He reached out and took her hand, and He called her by a very unusual name.
He didn't call this little girl "Daughter."
He called her "Talitha."
It was Aramaic, and it was used to signify "little girl," but the literal translation is fascinating.
It is a Hebrew word, with a feminine ending.
Take the word "Talitha," and remove the feminine ending... the "a" at the end.
What do you have? Talith.
Many Jewish scholars think Jesus was saying:
"Little girl under my prayer shawl...
Placed under my covering...
Entrusted into my prayer care...
get up!"
And now you understand why, from that time on, "wherever he went -- into villages, towns, or countryside -- they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed" (Mark 6:56).
They discovered a new thing about Jesus that day. He was willing to reach out in prayer for anyone!
When we have loved ones so far past helping that they cannot reach out to Him, He comes at the prayers of another... comes when WE pray, and gently takes their hands and says, "You are under my prayer covering, and so you cannot stay dead. It is time to get up."
-- Pastor Steve Jones, First Missionary Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana
***
"Get up, my child!"
This is no time for sleeping.
Lighter than Lazarus,
this raising; his touch
an affirmation of womanhood
amid the misted familiar.
Flute players re-tune
to celebrate the coming
of her bleeding, and the chance
between waxing and waning
of moons, for new life.
Mother and father watch,
unable to do anything
but offer wholesome food
for the journey. The threshold is hers
to cross alone; her knowing
is outside theirs
in the shadow of the unsaid.
-- Joy Mead, "Jairus' Daughter," in Praying for the Dawn: A Resource Book for the Ministry of Healing (Wild Goose, 2000)
***
She has travelled all her life,
dragging leg irons of disease
to reach here.
This very spot.
In her aching belly
need has grown to desperation.
It drives her through her terror
and the gawking crowd.
He has travelled all his life
to reach here.
This very spot.
His shoulders ache with the weariness of others,
his brow lacerated by their twisted expectations.
Now her fingers tremble as they stretch
And brush the mud-splattered hem of his robe.
She finds a touching place.
You and I
Have travelled our separate ways here.
This very spot.
We stumble and trip over
our failure and success.
Driven by our need and compassion
we stretch out tentative fingers
and find in each other
A touching place.
-- Jim Hughes, "A Touching Place," in Praying for the Dawn: A Resource Book for the Ministry of Healing (Wild Goose, 2000)
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call To Worship
Leader: Come among us, Healing God;
we wait for you:
People: we come, hungry for your Word to bless us.
Leader: Come among us, Compassionate Christ;
we hope in you:
People: we come, hungry to be filled with the Bread of Heaven.
Leader: Come among us, Restoring Spirit;
we wait and hope in you:
People: we come, eager to rest in your peace.
Prayer Of The Day
With you, God of Wholeness,
those who work the graveyard shift of life find the dawn of resurrection;
those who look for healing are led to the living waters.
Christ our Companion:
richer than Gates or Buffett,
you chose to become as poor as Mother Teresa,
to touch us with hope;
you set aside Glory's robe,
to wear the servant's towel,
so we might touch you and be made whole.
Spirit of Grace:
you encircle us with love which never ends;
you touch us with grace which mends all brokenness;
you pour out mercy which heals any wound we cause.
God in Community, Holy in One,
we lift the prayer Jesus has taught us, saying,
Our Father . . .
Call To Reconciliation
There is nothing, nothing, which can divide us -- in life and death -- from God.
So let us confess our worst faults and eager failings,
so we may be touched by the healing power of God.
(Unison) Prayer Of Confession
We want to touch the hem of your garment, O God.
Forgive us for being afraid to touch those who come to us for hope;
we want to love the whole world:
forgive us for ignoring our neighbor;
we long for peace:
forgive us for the pain we inflict on our families and friends;
we want to share with those we love and like:
forgive us for walking past those who need you most.
Forgive us, Loving God, for we do not excel in everything you call us to do.
Give us grace:
to touch those who frighten us;
to carry the Bread of Life to the hungry;
to offer the blessings of the kingdom to everyone we meet,
even as you have graced us in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
(silent prayers may be offered)
Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: Listen to the Good News!
Hope in God, for God's love has no ending;
God fills us with grace and hope, this day and forever.
People: God hears our voice, and listens to our prayers,
redeeming us from all our sins.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Great Prayer Of Thanksgiving
Leader: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Leader: Open your hearts to God.
People: We open our hearts to the God of healing and joy.
Leader: Lift your hearts to God.
People: We lift them to the One who brings us wholeness.
Hear our voices as we sing our joy to you, God of the listening Heart.
You reached out and touched chaos with your imaginative Spirit,
proclaiming goodness and wholeness as Creation burst forth.
Shaping us in your image,
you breathed life into us so we could be united with you.
But grasping the hem of sin,
we chose to be dragged through the mud of despair and death.
Your steadfast love would not forsake us,
singing to us in the prophets' voices.
When you could no longer wait for us to turn back to you,
you came to us in Jesus Christ, Companion of the broken.
So we lift our voices in praise,
joining with those in heaven and earth who forever praise your name:
Sanctus
Holy are you, Listener to our deepest longings,
and blessed is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
He emptied himself of Glory's riches,
so we could be filled with grace and hope;
he endured our suffering,
so we could be healed;
he was broken,
so we could be made whole;
he died,
so we would live with you forever.
As we remember his life for us,
we tell of that mystery we call faith:
Memorial Acclamation
Come among us, Source of healing,
your Spirit gracing the bread and the cup,
and nourishing your children gathered at your Table.
Mend our broken hearts,
so we may love all your children;
touch our wounded souls,
so we may embrace all those cast out by the world;
fill us with your gracious gifts,
so we may overflow in generosity to those in need.
Then, when that Day of Joy comes,
and we are all made new and we see completely,
we will fill your Heart with joy and praise,
singing to our God in Community, Holy in One. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
The warmth of God's power
Object: a heating pad
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you know what this is? (let them answer) That's right -- it's a heating pad. Touch it right now and remember how it feels cool when it is not being used. (let each child touch the heating pad -- after they have touched it, turn on the switch as inconspicuously as possible)
Somewhere inside of the pad there is electric power and there is also a healing power. People use this pad when they have an ache or pain that needs heat. When they feel the power of the heat, they feel better. Soon they are able to get up and move around again.
Jesus had a special power inside of him. It was a power that came from God. In our lesson for today we hear about some people who were healed when Jesus used this power. First there was a very important man who asked Jesus to heal his daughter who was sick at home. Jesus agreed but on the way to the man's home a woman who had been sick for a long time approached Jesus hoping to be healed. She got as close to Jesus as she could and reached out and touched his clothes. Immediately she knew she was healed. But Jesus also felt some of his power leave him and he asked who had touched him. The woman apologized while telling Jesus what she had done. Jesus told her not to be sorry but instead to be glad because she was healed. She believed in Jesus and his power and that believing made it happen.
Let's touch the pad again. (pass it around again and let each child touch it) Can you feel the power coming from the pad? (let them answer) Now it is warm and can be part of a healing.
After healing the woman, Jesus went on to the home of the very important man. When he got there, the people told him that the little girl was dead. "No," Jesus said, "she is sleeping." The people laughed at him, for they knew she had died. But Jesus took his disciples and the family inside the house. There he approached the little girl's bed and told her to wake up, which she did immediately. It was more of the same kind of power. Even death can't stop the power of God.
A heating pad is not the power of Jesus, but it is a reminder of how the power inside of Jesus could do amazing things for people who were ill or even dead. Jesus was the great healer because of the power God gave him.
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The Immediate Word, July 2, 2006, issue.
Copyright 2006 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
