Hope For Troubled Times

3rd Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 8

Mark 5: 21-43

"HOPE for Troubled Times?"

21 ¶ And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him; and he was beside the sea.

22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and seeing him, he fell at his feet,

23 and besought him, saying, "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."

24 And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.

25 And there was a woman who had had a flow of blood for twelve years,

26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.

27 She had heard the reports about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.

28 For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well."

29 And immediately the hemorrhage ceased; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the crowd, and said, "Who touched my garments?"

31 And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ’Who touched me?’"

32 And he looked around to see who had done it.

33 But the woman, knowing what had been done to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.

34 And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."

35 ¶ While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?"

36 But ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe."

37 And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James.

38 When they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, he saw a tumult, and people weeping and wailing loudly.

39 And when he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a tumult and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping."

40 And they laughed at him. But 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.

41 Taking her by the hand he said to her, "Talitha cumi"; which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise."

42 And immediately the girl got up and walked (she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement.

43 And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat

Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, who is the Christ. Amen

"One of the finest of the Buddha’s parables given to us in Sir Edwin Arnold’s Light of Asia, tells of a mother who had lost her child. Carrying its dead body in her bosom, she came to the Buddha and said: "Lord and Master, do you know any medicine that will be good for my child?"

"Yes’" he said, "bring me a mustard seed from some house where no son or husband or parent or slave has died."

From house to house she went, but never a single one could she find where death had not entered at some time or other. She returned disconsolate to the Buddha, and this was his answer: ’’He whom thou loved slept, Dead on thy bosom yesterday; today Thou know’st the whole wide world weeps with your woe; The grief which all hearts share grows less for one."

Isn’t that true? Everyone has encountered trouble in one form or another. Trouble is everywhere, grief, sorrow, pain, heartache, sickness, loneliness, we could go on and on. As one human being aches, all human beings experience something of that ache. When one hurts’ all hurt.

Especially do we see that when death strikes. It seems the whole community is affected by the death of one of its members. There is a hush, a heaviness in the air as the sting of death is experienced. People speak is hushed tones, food is brought to the house where death has been felt. People hug, cry, try to console one another with words, or just the action of being there.

When our nephew died in a traffic accident his spring at the age of 23, it seemed like everyone in his world came to the funeral home. They sat, they stared. Boys his age, just stared bewildered at the sight of death. There was just a hush in the air though hundreds of people came there was hardly any noise in the funeral home. Death brought a quiet heaviness to everyone present.