Jesus heals: 5th after pentecost

The holy gospel according to Mark (5:21-43)

²¹When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side,

       a great crowd gathered around him;

              and he was by the sea.

       ²²Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came

              and, when he saw Jesus, fell at his feet

              ²³and 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.”

²⁴So Jesus went with him.

And a large crowd followed him

        and pressed in on him.

       ²⁵Now there was a woman

              who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years.

              ²⁶She had endured much under many physicians,

                     and had spent all that she had;

                            and she was no better,

                                   but rather grew worse.

              ²⁷She had heard about Jesus,

                     and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,

                            ²⁸for she said,

                                   “If I but touch his clothes,

                                          I will be made well.”

                            ²⁹Immediately her hemorrhage stopped;

                                   and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

                            ³⁰Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him,

                                   Jesus turned about in the crowd and said,

                                          “Who touched my clothes?”

                                   ³¹And his disciples said to him,

                                          “You see the crowd pressing in on you;

                                                 how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’”

                                   ³²Jesus looked all around to see who had done it.

                                          ³³But the woman,

                                                 knowing what had happened to her,

                                                        came in fear and trembling,

                                                        fell down before him,

                                                        and told him the whole truth.

                                   ³⁴He said to her,

                                          “Daughter, your faith has made you well;

                                                 go in peace,

                                                 and be healed of your disease.”

³⁵While he was still speaking,

       some people came from the leader’s house to say,

              “Your daughter is dead.

                     Why trouble the teacher any further?”

       ³⁶But overhearing what they said,

              Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue,

                     “Do not fear,

                            only believe.”

              ³⁷Jesus allowed no one to follow him

                     except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.

              ³⁸When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue,

                     Jesus saw a commotion,

                            people weeping and wailing loudly.

                     ³⁹When he had entered, he said to them,

                            “Why do you make a commotion and weep?

                                   The child is not dead but sleeping.”

                     ⁴⁰And they laughed at him.

              Then he put them all outside,

                     and took the child’s father and mother

                     and those who were with him,

                            and went in where the child was.

                     ⁴¹Jesus took her by the hand and said to her,

                            “Talitha cum,”

                                   which means, “Little girl, get up!”

                            ⁴²And immediately the girl got up

                                   and began to walk about

                                          (she was twelve years of age).

                                                 At this they were overcome with amazement.

                     ⁴³Jesus strictly ordered them that no one should know this,

                            and told them to give her something to eat.

The gospel of the Lord.

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When I was living and going to school in Buenos Aires, Argentina during college, one of my favorite times of the week was when I would ride on the packed buses during rush hour on my way to my internship.  I loved being crowded in with so many others for those rides.

I loved it because one of the most comforting things in life for me is touch.  Physical contact with others—physical affirmation of life and reality.  In a country where I often felt alone and out of place, physical contact put me squarely in place—I was physically present with others.  It wasn’t just that squeezing in with others on a crowded rush hour bus was a delight—it was pretty smelly in the heat and as a young woman I also ran the risk of being the recipient of bad touch.

The gift of being squeezed in was precisely when I was feeling cast out—like I didn’t belong.  Not because I was trying not to belong, but simply because of who I was as a young, estadounidensa (United Statesian), whose first language was not Spanish.  I didn’t fit in and yet in our humanness—our physicality—I fit.

Today’s gospel reminds me a lot of my time in Argentina—of the crowded bus rides, of feeling out of place, and of a certain desperation for Jesus’ healing touch.

Today Jairus, a leader in the synagogue, comes to Jesus and even he is moved to touch as he falls at Jesus’ feet, begging for Jesus’ healing touch for his daughter.  He comes to Jesus and Jesus, who is for the healing and wholeness of all people and all of creation, joins Jairus and they head off.

But as they set out, this out of place, lowly woman—one who has no man to make a request for her and who literally touches his cloak and then when coming clean falls down before Jesus.  This lowly woman interrupts the trip to Jairus’ house.  Jesus stops.  He creates space for this woman who has no place.

In their shared contact, Jesus restores this woman to wholeness and to community that she has not had for 12 years.

This week many of us have rejoiced with the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down marriage bans in the remaining states, a decision in favor of marriage equality.  We have also rejoiced with the decision to uphold protections against racial discrimination with respect to housing, protection of our health care system, and a step against mandatory minimums and toward reform for the criminal justice system.  It is as if we are with the woman as the touch of Jesus’ cloak heals not us, necessarily, but some of the discrimination faced in this country.  For so many long years we have been bleeding and now we are beginning to heal.

There is certainly more work to be done: homelessness, bullying, and death among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people, especially people of color, mass incarceration, more affordability in health care, and other subtle forms of racism still need to be addressed, but we are one step closer.  Jesus assures us that our faith has made us well.

And then comes heartbreak.  On top of the stress and immediacy of heading off to Jairus’ house and the interruption by this woman, news comes of the fate of Jairus’ daughter. 

At our healing, Jairus’ daughter is declared dead.  Friday morning ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, Bishop Herman Yoos of the South Carolina Synod, Judith Roberts the director for ELCA Racial Justice Ministries, and Rev. Albert Starr the director for ELCA Ethnic Specific and Multicultural Ministries, President Obama, and countless others gathered to pay their respects, say their goodbyes, and celebrate a well-lived life cut short.  The Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney was laid to rest in Marion County, South Carolina.

In addition to that, on Tuesday, June 23^rd, God’s Power Church of Christ, a predominately black church, in Macon, Georgia was deliberately set on fire.  Wednesday, June 24^th Briar Creek Baptist Church, a predominately black church, in Charlotte, North Carolina was deliberately set on fire.  Friday, June 26^th Glover Grove Missionary Baptist Church, a predominately black church, in Warrenville, South Carolina was engulfed in flames—the cause is still being investigated.   

These predominately Black churches are burning and though no one died in any of these fires, we, with society say, “Your daughter is dead.”  Our daughter is dead.  Our siblings, the body of Christ in these places is dead.  There is only enough healing, only enough justice, for some of us, not for all of us and we’ve used it on this woman, we’ve used it on marriage equality.

But that is not how Jesus works!  This is not a zero-sum game with only so much justice, only so much healing, to go around.  So Jesus’ response is not “too late” but instead, “Do not fear, only believe.”

As we gather here, we crowd around and press in on each other, pressing in on Jesus.  We gather and can feel Jesus’ spirit—his presence with us.  Maybe we sense the healing we need and we are the ones who touch his cloak.  We are all in need of healing and our society is in need of deep healing.  If only we could separate it all out and make an orderly line.  Then we’d all have a chance and get the healing we needed one at a time.  But we are convinced that there is only so much Jesus, only so much healing to go around.  It must be now!  So we gather and we crowd in, brushing against each other, pushing up against Jesus, against others, and even against this woman who is receiving healing.

And that’s the key.  Jesus comes for our physicality.  God becomes incarnate, takes on our humanness, our fleshy nature, because God so desperately wants to be with us.  That is the God who comes to us in Jesus.  Not a God interested in orderly lines, but a God who draws crowds, whose touch brings healing, who assures us that death is not the final word and that we are not alone.

Jesus doesn’t ask us to keep the events going on in the world separate—to process only one at a time.  To deal with Mother Emanuel AME Church last week, the Supreme Court marriage decision this week, and then maybe next week get to the burning churches, the housing discrimination, and when will we even get to what is going on in our own faith community in our own lives??

But as with today’s Gospel, Jesus creates space for the many emotions and events that occur each day, overlapping and mixing in with each other.  So Jesus frees us to rejoice with Supreme Court decisions even as we mourn with Mother Emanuel AME Church and the congregations whose church buildings are covered in smoke and ash.  Jesus frees us to feel the heaviness of the approaching end of our time together as Christ the King and to commit ourselves to work for racial justice so that all of our siblings in Christ will be treated with the human dignity they deserve. 

Like the rush hour buses in Argentina, we are packed full with so many different emotions as we ride through life, and what a gift to be able to feel so much and so deeply.  What a gift for these emotions to squeeze in with each other, to bump against each other rather than trying to overtake each other.

Last week we wrestled together with the racism that has rocked our country and our consciences.  This last week three predominantly black churches were attacked—burned down in North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina.  Our work as the body of Christ is not done, even as we end our ministry as Christ the King.  Our work may not be done within our lifetimes, but it also is not dependent on us.  If it were, we’d be in big trouble. 

Our relationships, our reality in life together, our physicality come from God’s presence with us.  Jesus’ incarnation, physically coming to us lays the foundation and the steps on our path toward God’s ultimate reign here on earth.  Our presence with each other, making space even when we don’t fit anywhere else—being able to have honest conversations about things as difficult as racism, privilege, and oppression matters.

These relationships matter.  These conversations matter.  The joy of God’s love matters.  The gift of sharing it with others matters.  Jesus’ presence with and for us matters.  Touch and physicality matter.  Yes, all lives matter, and now especially, #BlackLivesMatter.  And Jesus’ healing touch matters most of all.  That is what gathers us together, what creates a space for us when we have no other place. 

Jesus comes to us and Jesus leads us on.  In the face of news that our daughter is dead, that churches are burning and people are dying and our congregation is closing, Jesus says “Do not fear, only believe.”  Jesus leads us on to healing, to wholeness, to justice.  Jesus takes us into Jairus’ house.  Jesus gathers us around this little girl’s bed and brings new life from her!  Jesus stops the bleeding for the woman on the road and brings life to this little girl. 

If we had given up after the woman was healed, or not even begun the journey, we would not know Jesus’ healing power.  But we did and Jesus keeps leading us down the road.  Jesus keeps showing us his way of love and justice.  Jesus heals us and the world, feeding us with himself—the Bread of Life, new chances and new life every week.

Thanks be to God.