Lectionary 12B (Pr 8)
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Lakeland, FL
June 27, 2021
Lamentations 3:22-33
Psalm 30
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43
Grace to you and peace from God and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
There’s a TV commercial I’ve seen lately. A deep and resonate voice says, “This past year has been like a long long Norwegian winter. And the spring is breaking forth.” It rather feels like that to me too as I look back over the past 16 months. While we haven’t shivered from the cold, we have spent more time by ourselves. Our regular routines and daily lives were changed so significantly. Think about what you missed the most – was it your favorite restaurant for a meal out? Was it browsing the aisle on a shopping trip? Perhaps travel to favorite places to see favorite people. All of that I’m sure. And as I watch reunions on tv or listen to folks as they gather together again, one of the things that was certainly missed but perhaps not expressly articulated was the warm embrace of a loved one, the touch of human skin, the closeness of two friends catching up on the details of their week. Even here in worship our practices changed.
The importance of touch can scarcely be overstated. Think about it – it is the first sense to be developed and it is at the heart of the bond between parent and child. When a child is hurt, they run to the arms of their parent. When we as adults are sad, we huddle into the embrace of a friend – or maybe even a stranger. Think of the distraught parent hearing life-shattering news about their child from a police officer – the first thing they may do is reach out to that person. Or when a doctor brings unfortunate news to a waiting family, that parent may throw themselves into the doctor’s arms. Touch. Innately and intrinsically human.
In today’s Gospel reading, we learn of two people in deep need. But before we delve into that, let’s get the chronological sequencing here – Jesus had been in his hometown and was beloved by many but also challenged by the religious leaders because what he taught and the authority with which he taught it was threatening to them and their positions. After teaching in parables, he urged the disciples to get in their boat and go to the other side – to the land of the Gerasenes, Gentiles, the unclean according to strict Jewish law. On their way, they nearly drown in a storm on the Sea of Galilee. Then Jesus performs an exorcism – no small feat. And then they sailed again.
As they landed at their destination, the crowds thronged about him – I think it may have been a bit like the Strawberry Festival on the last Saturday. And then Jairus, one of the rulers of the synagogue, came to Jesus because his young daughter was deathly ill. Remember just a short time before this the rulers of the synagogue had some disruptive and confrontative words with Jesus. Think of the desperation then that one of those rulers now must have felt as he came to this same one. And Jesus went with Jairus to go to his daughter’s bedside. Think of Jairus, his worry, his need, his despair.
And as they are walking along in the Strawberry Festival-like throng, there is a woman who is so sick and has been for 12 years. And her sickness was such that she was ritually unclean, avoided by all in the community – no touching, broke because she had given all her money to physicians and nothing had worked and in fact, she was worse. Now, some images show her almost crawling along at Jesus’ feet but I rather doubt it. I think she stood up as well as she could and elbowed her way to Jesus with all the strength she could muster. Wouldn’t you? And she was healed – and it was then that she fell to her knees and told Jesus the whole truth. And he looked at her – because she counted. And he called her “Daughter,” she who had been shunned for years.
And on he went to the home of Jairus even though they had received word that it was too late, that the little girl had died. That did not deter Jesus. On he went to the bedside with the girl’s mother and father. He took her by the hand and told her to get up. She did and began to walk around and Jesus told those present to get her something to eat.
Now, these healings are miraculous and we rejoice in them. But that isn’t what I want us to notice about this reading.
I want you to notice the many physical touches and physical feeling words there are. Hear these phrases:
· Jairus asked Jesus – come, lay your hands on her
· The crowd thronged around him
· The woman touched Jesus’ garment
· She felt in her body that she had been made well
· Jesus felt that power had gone out of him
· Who touched me, he asked.
· The crowd was pressing in on him.
· Jesus took the little girl by the hand.
Touch. Basic to our existence. Touch. Life-giving healing touch.
Touch. Flesh. Skin.
All of this is possible here because Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us. All of the divinity of God wrapped up in the body of a baby who grew into manhood bearing the very kingdom of God in his words and teachings and in his touches. We do not go off on a quest to find God. God found us. We do not decide to give our life to Jesus. Jesus gave his life for us. We do not seek to enter into higher planes or levels of awareness. Jesus came to us. To seek us out in our brokenness, our loneliness, our despair, our ordinariness.
And he does this first in the waters of our baptisms by which we are drawn into his warm embrace and the embrace of the entire communion of saints, the Body of Christ, the Church. And God continues to reach out to us every time we remember our baptisms. God continues to reach out to us through each other in caring word and compassionate touch. God comes to us as we receive Jesus’ very body and blood in the Holy Sacrament. God comes to us in the balm of offered prayer. And in the mercies that are new every morning. Great indeed is God’s faithfulness.
One of the saints of the Church is Teresa of Avila. She lived in Spain in the early 1500’s and was part of the effort to reform and correct the abuses she found in the Roman Catholic Church. She became a nun and this prayer is attributed to her:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Yes, my friends, we touch one another with the touch of Jesus and we are touched by each other with the touch of Jesus.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
