St Margaret’s Draycott 28th June 2015
2 Corinthians 8.7-15 & Mark 5.21-43
I’m a runner, nothing too
serious, about 20 miles a week, the occasional 10k and the odd half marathon.
If Mark’s Gospel was a
race it would be a 10k. A 10k is enough
of a challenge in terms of distance. (In old money that is 6.2 miles) Yet it
moves along at a cracking pace.
Mark’s Gospel also moves
along at a fair pace with an economy of words. It is considered to be the
earliest of the Gospels and written for a Gentile readership. Although
initially people would have heard it read rather than reading it themselves.
Last week we are all at
sea and it is worth noting that when we think about people hearing this Gospel,
when they heard boats mentioned they would know something important was going
to happen.
In our reading today we
have our feet firmly on dry land but near to the lake shore.
We have skipped the
reading of the demoniac being healed (pigs and evil spirits being cast back
into the sea) and moved back across the water where a large crowd soon gather.
We then have a Markan
sandwich – two stories interwoven and each informing the other.
Remember that for Mark he
wants to show Jesus’ authority and his compassion.
‘When
he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and
helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’ Matt 9.36
This is such a rich story
and I only wish we had the time to explore all of it's various nuances and the
lesson we can learn. However time restricts, but please do explore this passage
further at home and perhaps in home groups this week.
So, I would like to draw your
attention to just a few things and for your consideration as you seek to live
out your vocation here as the People of God in this place.
Let’s begin by getting hold
of the most amazing fact that this story is about a woman and a female
child. In ancient culture and in Jewish
culture of this time they were non-people. Their value came through their
parents or through a husband.
True there are some
notable exceptions throughout history and indeed in the Scriptures, Deborah
during the period of the Judges perhaps being the most notable on the Old
Testament.
So Jesus is engaging with
woman. Let’s stick first of all with this woman who had been hemorrhaging for
the same length of time the little girl who was dying had been alive – twelve
years.
A crowd, a woman cut off from her community, cut off from worshiping God – her hemorrhaging would have made her ritually unclean – she hears about Jesus. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. I only need to get close enough to touch the hem of his cloak – that will be enough. She has faith, maybe only as little as a mustard seed faith, but it is enough for her to reach out to Jesus for healing and salvation, which are but one word in the Greek. She manages to touch Jesus’ cloak and knows in an instant that healing has come, she is now restored.
She can now slip away and show herself to the Priest and be
restored back into the community, back into being able to worship God.
However on this occasion
Jesus feels a power going from him, he knows someone has reached out towards
him in faith and hope.
There is the pressing
matter of a very anxious Synagogue Ruler who had come in equally desperation
and knelt at Jesus feet and begged for help.
All of that was again unprecedented – Synagogue Rulers did not make a
habit of falling at the feet of an itinerant Rabbi. But desperate times calls
for desperate measures.
Leaving Jairus twisting
his cloak in his hands and hopping from one foot to another Jesus seeks out the
woman who had touched him. From a heart of belief she had reached out for
healing and salvation and now, as Paul will go on to write in Romans, she was
called to confess with her mouth.
‘If
you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’ Romans 10.9
Let me ask you this, what
room do you leave for people with mustard seed faith to touch the hem of Jesus?
In one church I ministered
in we made a point of leaving some of the back pews empty not only for
latecomers but also for visitors. This enabled them to slip in the back quietly
and without being fused over. Of course we took care if
it was right to talk to them later, but we allowed them the space to watch and
observe God’s people at worship.
Let me also ask this
question – do you expect people to come and join you on a Sunday morning who do
not ordinarily do so? If we have no level of expectancy that there may visitors among us then we can very soon slip into a way of doing that suits us,
pleasing ourselves rather than placing ourselves before God and welcoming the
stranger among us. We don’t need to
announce anything or explain things, people know what we do. I can’t tell you
the number of times I have heard that said or known it to be implicit in the
way Worship is conducted.
Then while I am asking
questions here is another one as we think about this woman and Jesus asking her
to confess with her mouth. Just what opportunity do you give for those who
believe in their hearts to also confess with their lips?
Recently at the First
Eucharist of Becky Richards at my home Church, St John’s Littleworth, we didn’t have a
sermon, but three testimonies of how God had been a source of strength and
help.
On Tuesday I sat with members of the Church Army Community and we heard
stories of how God had done some amazing things in people lives. We need to
hear these stories, we need to encourage other, we need to know that if you
touch but the hem of Jesus’ robe in faith you will receive health and healing
and salvation.
Let’s get back to Jairus
whom we have left anxiously watching this interruption take place.
Jesus’ is on a roll now
and so having identified the woman, having called her daughter, having shown
such compassion and love and having recognized her faith he now ask her to
confess, to speak out.
Woman didn’t speak out in
front of men in public in this culture and context – it was yet another taboo
Jesus’ is about to drive a chariot and horses through.
Jairus would have heard
her story and would have felt such a body blow. Because she was unclean and she
had touched Jesus he was now also unclean. And God did not work through people
who were unclean. Jesus could do nothing now to save his daughter.
Just as Jairus is
processing this and anxiety beginning to turn to despair he receives news that
his daughter has died.
Jesus overhears this and
turns to Jairus and says, ‘do not fear, only believe,’ perhaps as he did so he
pointed to the healed woman slipping back into the crowd.
They arrive at the house
and Jesus takes with him his inner circle, Peter, James and John. Note here that there is nothing wrong in
having close confidants, only when they begin to think they are more important
does the trouble arise.
They are chosen by Jesus.
John 15.16 ... "You did not choose
Me but I chose you, and appointed you
that you would go and bear
fruit, and that your fruit would last...
The official mourners are
there with offering lamentations. Although being a Synagogue Ruler he would have many
friends and people who would have come to commiserate.
Then we have one of only
three places when we have the language of Aramaic. Probably spoken by Jesus
because it was a language the girl would know and would bring comfort. It was
something that impressed itself upon the minds of those gathered there, especially
Peter, accepting that Mark’s Gospel is largely Peter’s account.
Talitha Cum – Little Girl,
get up. This isn’t resurrection into new life that will come later. This is
restoration and rising from the dead into a physical life.
As we have run alongside Mark
in his Gospel we have witnessed Jesus calm a storm, heal a demoniac and now we
see him raise the dead.
Jesus is demonstrating his
authority over nature, over demons and over death.
Jesus is Lord of life and
the author of creation.
However the story
continues – so come back next week for further installments!
Jesus authority will be
challenged, he will hear the sad news of the execution of John the Baptist and
then we read of the Feeding of the 5,000.
As Jairus’ daughter is
restored back to life he says to her parents, ‘give her something to eat.’
As Jesus gathers with his
disciple before a crowd of thousands whom the disciples want dismissed so that
they can go and get some food, Jesus says to his disciples, ‘You give them
something to eat.’
And he says to you and he
says to me when we see people, who are deemed unclean, when we meet people dead
in their sins, when we see people lost and leaderless, ‘you give them something
to eat.
Then
Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go
hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John
6.35
Let me close by drawing
your attention to Jesus words accompanying his instruction to feed the girl.
‘He
gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this.’
This is known as the
Messiah Secrecy Motif, found mainly in Mark. The broad understanding is
that Jesus didn’t want to preempt his unfolding ministry and maybe even start
riots. There was to come a time when this would change. It begins with Peter’s
confession in chapter 8, although Jesus swears them to secrecy on the Mount of
Transfiguration, until the resurrection.
Guess what folks – the
resurrection has happened and we are no longer sworn to secrecy but are
actively encouraged to tell everyone all about the marvelous things God has
done in our lives and what we have witnessed Him doing in the lives of others.
But maybe, just maybe, you
are here this morning with a mustard seed faith. Or maybe you have yet to hear
the voice of Jesus calling you to get up.
Well today you have an
opportunity not only touch the hem of Jesus’ robe but to stand in front of Him
and know yourself to be clothed in a new, fresh robe of righteousness that has
your name and the name of Jesus the Saviour engraved upon it.
Jesus wants you take off
your filthy rags of sin and corruption and be clothed with the garments of
heaven.
And for those who are
already clothed in a robe of righteousness you have an opportunity to receive
new power so that you will find boldness in openly declaring Jesus as Lord of
all
I now invite you all to bow
your heads and close your eyes as I offer the prayer of Sir Francis Drake…
Disturb us, Lord, when We are too well
pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
AMEN
More Farming Community Network stuff this month including a
NFU Regional Meeting with a Farm Walk and a BBQ. 
(Interesting for a
vegetarian!) 
