"hello, My Name Is Lonely" Series

“All the Lonely People”

Mark 5:25-34

My wife and I had a discussion last Saturday at lunch about our mutual dislike for COVID. Can I get an AMEN? We agreed that COVID has changed everything.

• Places we go

• Whether we eat out or not

• Do we travel?

• Do we wear a mask? If so, when?

• When will everyone come back to church?

• We discussed the fact that people are very out of touch now, perhaps more than ever before.

So, as a result, one of the most pressing problems we have in America, today, is that of loneliness. In this series we have said hello to regret, anxiety, depression, guilt and debt. And today we say hello to loneliness. The Beatles wrote a song titled Eleanor Rigby where Paul sings these words: “I look at all the lonely people The problem is when we say hello to loneliness there is often no reply. It doesn’t take very long in the recording of scripture to get to this concept of loneliness. The Bible tells us God created the heavens and the earth and that then on the 6th day he made man. In chapter two God notices man and says, “It is not good for man to be alone.” So He created a helper suitable for him. Now we would hope that would solve the problem of loneliness but it doesn’t and for me it reminds me that being alone and loneliness are not the same. Many people prefer to be alone and a significant number of people feel lonely even when they are in a crowd of people.

In the gospel of Luke we find an interesting story. Let’s look at it together. Now, look, at her situation. The first thing to recognize in this story is that there are many factors in life that contribute to loneliness. For this woman, there are many. Her loneliness was profound. For numerous reasons:

• Her health. Mark states that she has been subject to bleeding for 12 years. Surely, as a result of excessive blessing she would suffer from physical exhaustion and most likely a great deal of pain.

• Her social activity would be limited. Leviticus tells us she would be pronounced as unclean and therefore, anyone who touched her would also be unclean. So, as a result, she was not able to go out in public and no one would be able to visit her.

• She would be deemed as an outcast. Through the years we have seen a number of individuals who have been ostracized due to their health. For those suffering with AIDS, society was told not to be around them. If they were using a swimming pool, for instance, it wasn’t considered to be safe to go into the water with them or to drink out of the same glass as them. Frankly, don’t touch them and don’t allow them to touch you. Even during COVID, we have been told especially, at the beginning, don’t get closer than 6 feet from others.

Here’s the thing….

A physical disconnection from others will most certainly bring about loneliness.

This disconnection is now showing up in the workplace; many are now working from home; there is a disconnect at the supermarket; we wear a mask as we go down the aisle, if we go; many are now picking up their groceries rather than entering the store. And all of this has affected the church as well. In at least two very profound ways….

1. The Pew Research center and Barna Research verify that only 33% of those who were actively attending church pre COVID are still attending. 1 out of 3. 72% of those who were actively attending are now (only) watching online.

2. Those who do attend feel less connected due to distancing issues. Church fellowships have become a thing of the past. Sharing a meal together at church is certainly not as common.

• For the woman in this story, her finances affected her lifestyle. There was no health insurance in that day so everything was paid out of pocket, Mark comments on this situation and bluntly tells us in v. 26 she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she had gotten worse.

She was likely not the first person to experience this and certainly would not be the last. Limited finances will affect our ability to get out and make connections. But here is the good news. After all of this, THEN she heard about Jesus. So, what had she heard? Mark, we believe was the first gospel recorded and we see that in her lifetime she had likely heard of:

• Jesus driving out an evil spirit