Storyshare

Contents
"The Joy of Giving" by Keith Wagner
"Closing The Past" by Keith Wagner
"I Am 'That Woman' " by Sandra Herrmann


* * * * * * *

The Joy of Giving
by Keith Wagner
2 Corinthians 8:7-15


Paul was giving the Church at Corinth a lesson in stewardship. But it was not only about giving money, it was about giving beyond their abundance since God had been gracious to them.
 
In one of my previous churches there was a woman whose name I can’t remember. Let’s call her Mrs. “M.” She was a widow lady and very elderly. She needed some yard work done, so our church youth group decided to give her some help. We arrived one morning with rakes, trimmers and wheelbarrows. The bushes had not been trimmed in years and the leaves were a foot deep. The grass was so deep we had to mow it twice. As we were working in the yard, Mrs. “M” appeared on the porch. She said, “Make sure you leave an area for the wildlife!” Her backyard was a refuge for furry creatures. She fed them and wanted to make sure they continued to have a home. She felt the same about the bushes. “Don’t trim them too closely,” she said, “The birds need a place to hide in bad weather.”

Mrs. “M” was very poor. She received subsistence from the government. Her furniture was dated and she had no automobile. She relied on friends to take her to worship on Sundays. After we had finished the yard work she invited us in for sloppy Joe’s, fruit salad and apple pie. The apple pie was out of this world. She had little to give but she gave from the heart, using all of her being to show her appreciation for the youths’ help. No doubt that lunch took a huge chunk out of her weekly grocery budget. She gave the best of every resource she had available. Mrs. “M” wanted to share here goodness because she was grateful. She gave her all because she felt blessed by God.

In addition to asking the Church to “give beyond their means,” Paul said to be “eager about what we have.”

You have probably never heard of Janet Carroll. She is a woman who was committed and had the willingness to go the extra mile. She had also taken some risks. She conceived an idea to bring to the public’s attention some exciting things happening around the country. She concentrated on people who shunned the spotlight and had a goal to make America a better place. She quit her job, borrowed $27,000 on her credit cards and became the writer/producer/director for the television program, Unsung Heroes. Her first program aired on December 23, 1991.

What is amazing about this woman is how she managed to pursue her dream with very little resources. She had no cash, she was a single mother, and she had no experience of producing a television program. She had to compete with corporations with big budgets and advanced technology. And yet, because of her determination and the willingness to take some risks she created a program that touched the lives of Americans for several years.

We all have talents. To keep them hidden is offensive to God. God wants us to use all that we have been given to make this a better world and to enhance the kingdom of God. When we hold back the world misses out on something good and unfortunately we miss out too, living lives that are void and hopeless.

One of my favorite actresses is Carol Burnett. Recently I happened to come across a bit of her autobiography. When Carol was at UCLA she was in a drama group that wasn’t having a great deal of success. One of her professors invited Carol and eight other students to his vacation home in San Diego. The group did a performance of Anne Get Your Gun, for his guests. Afterwards a complete stranger came up to her and said he had admired her performance.

He asked Carol what she intended to do with her life. She had aspirations of going to New York and beginning a career on stage. He asked what was stopping her. She told him she did not have the funds. The man then pledged to give her a thousand dollars to get her started. She was reluctant to take the money but he said that it was a loan. If she didn’t succeed she would have to pay him back. Carol then headed for New York and you know the rest of the story.

Carol attributes the start of her career in show business to her silent partner. Five years later she repaid the loan and pledged to never reveal his identity. She said she will always be grateful to her silent partner and what she learned from the experience was to be a silent partner to others.


* * *


Closing the Past
by Keith Wagner
2 Samuel 1:17-27

In my 35 years of ministry I have counseled hundreds of people who had not been able to bring closure to some specific event in their lives. Perhaps they experienced something very traumatic. Perhaps they have never been able to rationalize the tragic death of someone they loved. Or perhaps they have not been able to resolve a personal failure, defeat or mistake. Without coming to a resolve people live with guilt or shame which often results in isolation or depression.

Prior to his anointing as the new King, David laments the loss of Saul and Jonathan. He needed to help his people to grieve and to express his own grief. Their loss was unimaginable and sorrowful. But, if the nation was to continue under his leadership they would have to bring closure to those leaders they loved. Grief and mourning would help them to move forward.

I specifically remember the time a man came to me who was a veteran in the Korean War. He was captured and spent 6 months as a prisoner of war. As a soldier he was trained to make every possible effort to escape. He finally had that opportunity, but in the process of his escape he had to kill a Korean guard by stabbing him with a knife. He could not forget the expression on the man’s face when the knife was thrust into his back. This was another human being, probably a father of children, someone’s son. The man felt tremendous guilt about taking the life over another human being. However, he was a soldier and killing the guard ultimately led to his escape and eventual rescue by an American platoon.

I asked him if anyone had every said to him, “You are forgiven.” Although he had been to church hundreds of times, he had never heard that he was personally forgiven for what had transpired. For some reason he trusted me. I was his pastor, but I was also a veteran. I told him that God forgives him and that I forgive him also. He wept. We then prayed together and from that point on the man felt a sense of closure about the awful event in his past.

It has been my experience that the inability to let go holds us back. At some point we too have to bring closure to the past.

I will never forget the very first day I preached a sermon. I was very nervous. Until that day I had always been involved in the church in other ways. I was a Sunday school teacher, and a trustee. I sang in the choir but I was frequently asked to play the trumpet. Since I had experience as a soloist I often played in worship. On the morning of my first sermon I was in the bathroom getting ready. It was summer time and the window was open. In the distance I heard someone practicing their trumpet, most probably getting ready to play in church.

I remembered the many times that I played. But, I also realized the significance of preaching my very first sermon. A few weeks later I would begin my seminary studies and pastor a small country church. Hearing the trumpeter helped me to accept that fact that my mission in the life of the church was changing. I was able to accept the fact that that era of my life was over and a new one was beginning.

Rev. Dr. Keith Wagner is the pastor of St. John's UCC in Troy, Ohio. He has served churches in Southwest Ohio for over three decades. He is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and has an M.Div. from Methodist Theological School, Delaware, Ohio, and a D.Min. from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He has also been an adjunct professor at Edison Community College, Piqua, Ohio. He and his wife, Lin, live in Springfield, Ohio.


* * *


I Am "That Woman"
by Sandra Herrmann
Mark 5:21-43

Yes, yes. I am that woman. However, I’ll thank you not to refer to me that way. I have been “that woman” for way too much of my life. First I was “that woman” to my husband’s family ? his second wife, after his first died from a fever that had lasted three days. He picked me out himself rather than going to the marriage broker. They were scandalized. Had nothing good to say for me until I produced three sons ? and lived.

And then I was “that woman” whose husband continued to love her when he couldn’t touch her. After my third son, my monthly bleeding never wanted to stop. I would be all right for a few days, and then it would start again. It was as though I was hemorrhaging, the flow was so heavy. And as you well know, he couldn’t touch me when I was bleeding. Couldn’t sleep in the same bed, either. Couldn’t eat off of dishes I’d washed. The Pharisees said I shouldn’t even have washed his clothes, nor cooked his meals. Everything in our house was unclean because of my bleeding that never stopped.

To my husband Simon, it was no big deal. He was a road builder for the Romans, so his life was pretty much non-kosher. He worked with Gentiles, ate at the same table with them. Well, what point is there in alienating your fellow workers over food? The lunch was part of his pay. At first, he’d buy smoked fish on his way to work, tuck it in with the olives, figs and bread, and take out his own food when they all stopped to eat. But he could see that the other guys looked at him funny. He decided that getting along with his co-workers was more important than what he ate. So whatever they put on the table, he would eat and ask God’s forgiveness. Some days, he even brought home the foods we could all eat, like fresh grapes. That’s luxury for you!

But our families and our neighbors all gossiped. I knew they did, because when I would go to the well to draw water, they’d all step aside. God forbid they might brush against me and be polluted!!

My mother-in-law was always asking me about my health. She was so afraid that I would make our children unclean. She would offer me some herb or other that she had heard could stop bleeding, and she was always asking what I did about the smell. Lovely woman, Martha.

Even my own mother, though she meant well, kept asking me had I tried this doctor, or that travelling magician. She was hoping that someone, somewhere had a way to stop this problem for me. Twelve years of this, and all of the women around me were still pestering me. I thought I would lose my mind as well as my health.

This problem had worn me out. Not only did I have three healthy boys to keep under control, and a husband and home to care for, but I used to spin wool to make some extra money. All of that was seeping away, because I was tired all the time. And all the extra cleaning of my clothing and the house didn’t help. I was at my wit’s end when my friend Marian ? one of the few women I knew who would actually come into my home, and even help me! ? came and told me about this travelling Rabbi named Jesus.

“He’s from Nazareth, so he’s not like those Pharisees, preaching about how we have to keep every point of the Holy Law in order to have God hear our prayers. He knows what it’s like to be despised, you can tell from the way he talks. A lot of the Pharisees don’t like him at all. He has a tax collector as a pupil, and several fishermen, too. I saw him heal Timothy. You remember him, he was running along the tops of the houses with his friends when he slipped on a roof edge and fell to the street, wound up paralyzed? Well, some of his friends opened up the roof of the house he was staying in and lowered him down in a sling, right in front of Jesus.”

I couldn’t believe anyone had that kind of gall! “What did this Jesus say about that?” I asked.

Marian grinned. “He laughed. He looked up at the fellows who had brought him and opened up the roof, and he laughed! The homeowner was none too happy, but the crowd laughed, too. Jesus looked at Timothy, held out his hand, and said, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’”

I gasped. “Well, he has a lot of nerve. Who does Jesus think he is, God?”

“That’s what the Pharisees said, too. But Jesus took Timothy’s hand and said, ‘Just so you know that I have the right to forgive sins ? give me your hand, son. Your sins are forgiven. Get up and walk.’ And just like that, Timothy got up ? a little slowly, he’d been unable to walk for three years, after all ? and rolled up the sling and walked away!”

I thought about that a lot. I wondered who this Jesus really was. After all, it’s one thing to heal a fever and another to restore a person’s legs. I resolved that if I ever had the chance to see this man I would ask him if he could heal me, make my bleeding stop. After all, I had nothing to lose. We’d already spent every penny we had to see doctors who proved they had no idea how to heal me.

So when Marian came running in my door that day, shouting that Jesus was right here in Sennabris, and heading toward the synagogue, I washed my hands and threw on a veil and started down the street. I could see a big crowd down the way from our house.

“Marian, is that crowd where Jesus is?” She nodded, and urged me to hurry. I tried, but as I said, my condition has drained me of any strength or ability to hurry. Happily for me, he was being slowed by the number of people around him. I pushed my way into the crowd. For once, my condition worked for me. No one wanted to touch me, so several people moved out of my way. I could see that there was no way I could ever talk to him, so I decided I would just touch his cloak. After all, if he could make Timothy walk again, he must have power I could draw on without bothering him.

I reached out and just caught the tassel on his prayer shawl before someone jostled me away. Instantly, I knew I was healed. I could feel my strength growing, and the pain I’d had low down in my back for all these years was gone, just like that. I straightened up and looked around me. It had been so long since I’d been able to look people in the eye! I breathed a prayer of thanks.

But Jesus stopped dead in his tracks. “Who touched me?” he asked, looking around behind him. I froze in place. Was he going to punish me? I knew I had no right, as a woman, to touch a man other than my husband and sons. But I needed to touch him. I had to be healed. I looked at Jesus, and I could see he knew it was me. I came forward and threw myself on his feet. What else could I do? I explained how much I needed to be healed, and begged him to forgive me. I was terrified. And then someone said that he’d been on his way to heal the daughter of the synagogue leader, who was nearly dead. I thought to myself, “Oh, God, if I have interfered with her healing, no one in this town will ever talk to me again.” I was shaking all over when he touched me and helped me back to my feet.

“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed.” I was so relieved, I nearly fainted. But just when I was drawing a breath to thank him, some people came from the synagogue leader’s house saying that his daughter was dead. I wished then that I had passed out. I wished I could crawl into a hole like a lizard and hide myself. I had delayed him. Forever, I would be known as “that woman who delayed Jesus before he could heal Jasmine.”

Jesus just shook his head. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. He wouldn’t let anyone go on with him to Levi’s house, so I stayed with the crowd while we all waited to find out how this story ended. It turned out that he told them all that she was only sleeping, not dead. Well, they all mocked him. We all know what death looks like, and it doesn’t look like sleep.

None of us knew exactly what he did, because he made everyone get out of the house while he went to Jasmine’s bed, but in a few minutes the parents were back outside, paying the mourners and sending them home ? the little girl was alive, and not just alive, she was eating!!

So I was saved from being “that woman who kept Jesus from getting to Jasmine in time.” But I’m still “that woman” ? that woman who was healed while Jesus was on his way to raise Jasmine from her death bed.

I am tired of being “that woman.” My name is Judith, and I am healed.

Sandra Herrmann is pastor of Memorial United Methodist Church in Greenfield, Wisconsin. In 1980, she was in the first class ordained by Bishop Marjorie Matthews (the first female United Methodist bishop). Herrmann is the author of Ambassadors of Hope (CSS); her articles and sermons have also appeared in Emphasis and The Circuit Rider, and her poetry has been published in Alive Now and So's Your Old Lady. She has trained lay speakers and led workshops and Bible studies throughout Wisconsin, Iowa, and Indiana. Sandra's favorite pastime is reading with her two dogs piled on her.

*****************************************


StoryShare, June 28, 2015, issue.

Copyright 2015 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.

All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. 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., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.