JESUS THE HEALER

Communion Service
Readings: Psalm 130, 2 Samuel 1:1 & 17-27, 2 Corinthians 8:7-15, Mark: 5:21-43
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, July 1st 2012

A printable PDF can be found here

As we come to the communion table this morning I offer a few thoughts upon our bible reading, an account of two healings that Jesus performed; firstly that of Jairus’s daughter, secondly of a woman who had a hemorrhage. The two accounts have a number of things in common.

Consider firstly this. That both these people were outsiders.

They were not the sorts of people who normally thronged around preachers.  Jairus was a part of the ruling minority that considered the likes of Jesus to be dangerous. Scripture describes him as a “synagogue official”. The unnamed woman, because of the nature of her illness, was not the sort to get out and about much.  Her illness made her unclean in the eyes of Jewish law.  Any person she came into physical contact with would also be considered unclean by the law. They were outsiders.

There was a song some years ago that said, “I’m in with the In-Crowd, I go where the In-Crowd goes”. One of the things I’ve never figured out in life is exactly who the “In Crowd” are.  In fact if some of the people who suspect they are 'in' the 'in crowd' are anything to go by, then I’m certainly sure I don’t want to be in with them, what ever that may mean.

When it comes to the love of God, we are outsiders whom God wants to be insiders.   We all fall short of being the sort of people we could or should be.  We’re all misfits. Sometimes we may be foolish enough to believe other wise. Numerous religious and political groups will invite us to be a part of their thing, and suggest to us that every body else’s thing is the wrong thing. But the testimony of scripture is clear. We are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God.

So remember this. Jesus healed these two outsiders. They were not outsiders in His eyes. Neither are we.  He invites us, not to become part of the “In crowd” but to be part of a fellowship that meets around a common table. He invites us to be in His love. He invites us to a table around which there are as many 'diverse' people as there are people.

The love of God invites outsiders to come inside. To taste and see that the Lord is good.

Notice secondly about this unclean woman and synagogue official, that though in the eyes of the world they were outsiders, in the eyes of God, they were insiders by virtue of being people of faith.

Faith is such a hard a thing to define. What makes it harder is that sometimes we seem to have it and some times we don’t.  

I’m not a person who has tremendous confidence in air travel. The smaller the plane, the more angst-y I become. I remember being on a flight from Atlanta, GA to Charleston, WV, that was one of those tiny commuter planes with noisy propellers and engines that seem to splutter. The pilot didn’t actually increase my confidence.  He kept coming on the loudspeakers saying things like, “Duh, this your ..er.. pilot… erm. There might be some bad weather ahead.  I guess… erm.. we’ll go round it some way. Erm.. Don’t know what time we’ll be getting in tonight… but hey, we got a whole lot of fuel on board!”

Of course everything went fine. There were no problems. Statistically I knew I was safer in a plane than crossing the road, but.. well faith.. it’s a strange thing. Some times we seem to have it. Some times it eludes us.

In our bible passage, the woman and Jairus the synagogue official have it.  Big time. “If I just touch His garments,” says the woman. Jairus says about his daughter“Lay your hands on her so that she will get well and live”. If they have any doubts in their minds about the ability of Jesus to heal, their words certainly don’t express them.  They have complete confidence in Jesus.

That sort of confident faith is elsewhere described in Scripture as a gift of the Holy Spirit.  An experience that God grants to us through God’s grace. Faith is not something that we can artificially manufacture or achieve through the power of positive thinking. It’s a gift to be received.

But there are things we can do to be in a better position to be more receptive. We can be regular in our worship and personal walk with Christ.  We can nourish our lives through scripture and prayer. We can be more trusting in God and less trusting in our selves.  These things don’t guarantee instant abundant faith experiences, but they do pave the way to recognizing a gift when God is offering it to us.

So I invite you to come to this table laid with bread and wine in faith.  Not the faith that you don’t have, but the faith that you do have.  How much faith is necessary? Jesus said a little less than a mustard seed is quite sufficient! Just a grain. That’ll do it.  Just a whisper worth that tells you God loves you in spite of everything!

The love of God invites outsiders to come inside.
The love of God invites us to come with the faith we have, and trust God for the rest!

Finally, notice this about these two people of faith. They didn’t care what anybody else thought about them.

So many people worry endlessly about what others think of them whilst considering so little how their lives may look in God’s eyes.  Jairus had reached a point where he couldn’t give two hoots what his influential friends made of him.  His little daughter was sick.  He believed Jesus could change things. So he went to Jesus.

The woman with the hemorrhage didn’t care that the law branded her unclean.  She didn’t care that she’d seen this doctor and that physician and they’d all declared her condition incurable.  She didn’t care about the social customs and niceties that every society inherits.  She needed a touch from Jesus to be made well. Forget everything else. She went for it.

Sometimes, like the two in our story, we have to reach rock bottom before we stop wondering what other people think of us and start reaching out to God. But that does not have to be so.

If we can simply recapture the idea that God loves us, simply because we are God's children and precious in God's sight, that God sent Jesus into our world not to condemn the world, but that the world might through Him be saved, then we understand how outsiders become insiders. We recognize that it's the work of the Holy Spirit, a work of grace that accepts us, not what we can do or what others think of us.

Today we have an opportunity to come to this table laden with symbols of God’s unconditional love towards. Here is a place that speaks of healing and freedom and joy this world cannot even put into words.  It is here that Jesus invites to experience His touch as we share together in bread and wine.

Let us to come to this table with the awareness, that like Jairus and the woman in our scripture reading, we are outsiders that God wants to make insiders.

 Let us come with the knowledge that however anybody else perceives us, God sees us as children in need of spiritual nurture.

Let us come to this table, not with the faith we would like to posses but with the  little faith we do have, aware that if it were only as much as a mustard seed that is sufficient.

Let us come to this table, not in any need for approval from others, not even caring what others may think.  This is a time for us to set our hearts right with God. To ask what God requires of us.  To commit our lives to Christ that we may know His touch upon us and within us. To rededicate ourselves to living in community with others, and to serving wholeheartedly wherever God calls us to invest our time, talents and treasures.

And to God's name be all honor, glory and praise. Amen.