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.
We live in a troubled world, a world which has felt the brokenness of sin, the separation from the loving hand of God;
In this troubled world filled with sin and brokenness we tend to look to someone or something to place the blame, or place our anger upon for the troubles which surround us.
Dr. William Sloan Coffin of New York’s Riverside Church said this in the April 20,1984 Lutheran Standard after the death of his son, Alex."The night after Alex died, I was sitting in the living room of my sister’s house outside of Boston, when a middle-aged lady came in, shook her head when she saw me and said,"I just don’t understand the will of God."
Instantly, I was up and in hot pursuit, swarming all over her. "I’ll say you don’t, lady!!" I said. (I knew the anger would do me good, and the instruction to her was long overdue. )
I continued,"Do you think it was the will of God that Alex never fixed that lousy windshield wiper of his, that he was probably driving too fast in such a storm, that he probably had had a couple of ’frosties’ too many? Do you think it is God’s will that there are no street lights along that stretch of road, and no guard rails separating the road and Boston Harbor?"
Dr. Coffin continues in the article:"Nothing so infuriates me as the incapacity of seemingly intelligent people to get it through their heads that God doesn’t go around this world with his fingers on triggers, his fist around knives, his hands on steering wheels. God is against all unnatural deaths. And Christ spent an inordinate amount of time delivering people from paralysis, insanity, leprosy and muteness. As Alex’s younger brother put it simply, standing at the head of the casket:"You blew it buddy. You blew it."
Dr. Coffin continues:"The one thing that should never be said when someone dies is,"It is the will of God." Never do we know enough to say that. My consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God’s was the first of all our hearts to break."
The late Pastor Valbracht had this to say about troubles in one of his books:" We come to an intelligent understanding of trouble only as we understand the purposes of God. Could He make us as finite creatures with bodies and brains without physical and mental. suffering? Bodies like ours are subject to wear and tear with the passing years. It’s impossible to conceive of physical life as we have it, from birth to death, without suffering. Had God made us as disembodied spirits to inhabit the earth, He could have eliminated suffering. But according to His purposes, He has given us babies to love and caress , families in which to live physically, husbands and wives to comfort and too love. Given bodies that work and minds that think, trouble are inevitable."
If then troubles are a natural part of life? If they are the consequences of God’s creative will, what then do we say or do with troubles? Do we become fatalist, living each day wondering if it be the last? Do we accept our lot in life without a whimper? Do we become so harden against the troubles of life, that we fail to enjoy the beauty, the wonder, the majesty of life around us,and the wander of our own unique life? Do we become cynics, questioning everything in life, and believing only a few of the answers?
A tale says troubles are like being plunged into boiling water.
If you are an egg your trouble will make you had boiled and unresponsive. If you are a potato, you will emerge soft and pliable resilient and adaptable."
Our gospel lesson this morning, I think shows us very clearly a man who was more like a potato, as he faced the sickness and death of his child.
Jarius was faced with the trouble of sickness. He had tried everything,doctors hod come and gone. The priests had come, but their prayers were unanswered. Jarius was in a desperate situation.
Then he thought about Jesus. No doubt he had heard Jesus preach in his own synagogue. No doubt he had heard of the many miracles Jesus performed like healing Simon Peter’s no/her-in-low, or the man who had been lowered through the ceiling and healed on his bed. No doubt he had even heard about the miracle of Jesus calming the sea the night before.
So, Jarius thought, maybe this preacher can help me. Maybe I can swallow my pride, and try this one more thing. His hopelessness probably was turning to confidence, to faith,to trust in Jesus as he made his way to find Jesus.
Jarius was pliable enough, resilient enough and adaptable enough to seek out this wandering preacher, this son of a carpenter, this religious fanatic, this Jesus of Nazareth, this one who claimed to be from God, even God’s Son.
Jarius had faith enough to turn to Jesus in his encounter with trouble. He had faith enough to place the well-being of his girl into Jesus’ hands.
Christ became Jarius’ hope. And Christ did deliver.
Even when the messenger came to say that the girl had died Jesus said "Do not fear, only believe." Jesus gave Jarius hope. Even when the mourners laughed at Jesus, Jesus still gave hope to Jarius .He asked everyone to step outside, then Jesus took the hand of the girl and said, "Little girl, I say to you arise.’’
And immediately, the girl rose from her bed. The hope, the trust, that had been placed in Jesus was well founded.. He did deliver the girl. He did deliver this family from this moment of trouble.
So with us as we face the troubles of life. It is to Christ we must turn. It is to Christ the one who can deliver, the one who con ease our burden, who can shoulder our sorrow, who can walk with us through the valley.
It is to this Christ we must turn.
Like Jarius, we must be pliable enough, resilient enough and adaptable enough to trust Jesus with our troubles. In that trust and faith, Jesus will be present. He might deliver us, through the power of His Holy Spirit’, we might be delivered. There are countless of stories of people who have had miraculous cures from disease, people who have gotten better with no physical reason. People have had tumors shrink, pain go away, tissues which were unhealthy became healthy.
Christ does deliver. He can if it be His will. But at the same time, we need to ask for the courage and strength from His presence to face the troubles in our lives. There may not be deliverance. There may be the strength the courage, the power to live, to walk the road of life with that certain trouble walking along with us.
Now, most of us think about physical troubles, sickness, that sort of thing in which we ask for deliverance, or the courage to live with it, but there are many more kinds of trouble in life.
Troubles in relationships, troubles with not accomplishing what we dreamed for ourselves, troubles with being rejected by others, troubles in a marriage, troubles with alcohol and drugs, troubles with a child and the list could go on and on. And in many cases these kinds of troubles have no instant cure, but they go’ on and on. Some are cured so-to-speak with time, others are lived with. Some leave a mark on a life that will never be erased.
Christ can and does give us strength to go on living, in the full promise of His love and mercy. These day-in-and-day-out battles we all experience with trouble of what ever cause can and should be consecrated to God, lifted up to him in prayer, handed over to him for His care
"An girl who was handicapped was told that she could never escape from her prison of pain and weakness. "Oh, well’ she replied,’there’s a lot of living to be found within your limitations if you don’t wear yourself out fighting them "
I would like to maintain that the strength to live within the limits of your troubles comes from Christ. Yes, there is a lot of living you and I can and should do as we face the troubled times of life and that living comes from Christ’s power in our lives.
A closing poem says this about troubles:
A poem by an unknown author says: "
Do not look forward to what might happen tomorrow
The some Everlasting Father
Who cares for us today
Will take care of you tomorrow and every day.
Either He will shield you from suffering,
or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it
Be at Peace then, and put aside all anxious thought and imaginations."
Be at Peace then.
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale June 23, 2003
