Desperate, Vulnerable Faith

Have you ever been desperate?

One evening Ian and I were looking after two girls for our friends. We were at their place and it was time for the girls to go to bed. And one disappeared…

She would have been about 7 years old.

We looked everywhere.

I was imagining having to tell our friends that their eldest daughter had disappeared into thin air.

I was getting desperate.

Ian said she was hiding.

Me, I was about to ring the police!

Ian was right, she was hiding …

Some of you will have convict ancestors, many of them were desperate, for food or warm clothing, they stole and ended up on the other side of the world.

In our Bible reading today we hear of two people who were desperate.

Jairus, one of the religious leaders, is desperate, and scared. His 12-year-old daughter is ill, very ill, and he is desperate for Jesus to come.

And the woman who has been bleeding for 12 years is desperate, she has spent all she had looking for a cure.

There is so much we could talk about in this reading.

A little background to this reading:

The girl is 12 years old and the woman has been bleeding for 12 years – is there a link?

The girl has lived for 12 years, she has a father who has status in the community, a man to look out for her and to seek help for her. Jairus is a synagogue leader, and is named, something that rarely happens in Mark’s gospel.

The woman has been bleeding for 12 years, as such she should be in isolation. Bleeding means she is ritually unclean, or impure. She has spent all her money and has been exploited.[i] Leviticus 15: 25 – 30, basically says when a woman is bleeding, she is unclean, on the eight day after bleeding ceases, she makes an offering and is no longer unclean. While she is unclean anything she touches or sits on is unclean. A person who touches her or is touched by her, must wash but remains unclean for the rest of the day.

She is poor and segregated.

And she has no man to seek her healing.

Something important to note is that being unclean does not means you are sinful.

Sin leads to being unclean, but not everything that makes you unclean is sinful. [ii]

In this passage we hear of two people in desperate need, one has a chronic illness, one is in crisis and close to death, they are different ages, different social standings….

Two very different women, yet united in their need…and in their restoration to life, health, and community.[iii]

This story reminds us of the way life is full of nuance and texture. When we are unwell, there is often emotional, psychological, economic and social dimensions to an illness as well as the physical aspects of the illness.

Think of the people with coronavirus at present, they are physically unwell, but the emotional aspect of will I survive, have I infected anyone else, and then the forced isolation to prevent infection spreading. The family of the person who is unwell often also suffers emotionally, socially psychologically and financially.

Jesus is aware of the whole person, not only the illness.

This story also invites us to think about vulnerability[iv]. Who and when do we risk being totally ourselves? Both Jairus and the woman were vulnerable with Jesus. The woman tried to sneak a touch of Jesus’ robe, she was desperate, she knew Jesus could heal her, but she did not want a fuss. I mean she should not have been out in public with all those people around. Then when Jesus addresses her, she tells him everything.

Jairus was desperate and did not care who knew his daughter was gravely ill. But he was a Jewish leader, would asking Jesus for help give legitimacy to this person who was saying he was God, blasphemy in the eyes of many.

Gospel Reflection

(based on Mark 5:21-43)

They risked it all to come to him:

Jairus,
risked his pride,
kneeling to a carpenter,
begging for his daughter’s life,

The woman with the blood risked
shame and disgrace
heaped upon her
by the crowd.

O Christ,
we are just like Jairus.
And we bleed like the woman.
We want to touch you
with the faith
you give
us.

Heal us.

— written by Anne Osdieck, and posted on The Sunday Website of St. Louis University.  http://liturgy.slu.edu/

Are we willing to be vulnerable with Jesus, to tell him everything?

This story also has me wondering, what do we do when we are desperate?

Desperate for health or family or touch or food or a job or a reason for living

How do we respond to chronic illness, or an accident that leaves us with limitations?

My guess is that we respond in a range of ways, including:

fear

worry

anger

shame

seeking out the best resources

denial

hiding

wishing it will go away

wondering what comes next

asking who I tell

how can I hide this illness, situation …?

can I afford this

and on and on the list goes.

What happens when we are desperate?

And how do we relate to people who are desperate?

Jesus called the woman Daughter and said your faith has made you well. Nothing is said about the faith of the girl.

Jesus, as we have seen from the beginning of the story, doesn’t just proclaim God’s rule and activity, he embodies it… He has come to do battle with all that would rob the children of God of the life and goodness God intends, and that includes death.[v]

But we know people still die, children die, life is not the hopeful, grace filled, peaceable kingdom we see described in the Gospels. Not everyone gets healed or comes back to life.

This story tells how Jesus overcomes the power of death and points to a new relationship where our uncleanliness does not lead to him becoming unclean.

Jesus has power that is not based on status or wealth or armies.

Jesus uses the power he has to bring renewal in desperate situations to vulnerable people.

How do we embody the way of Jesus;

        responding to vulnerability
        being with the desperate

        living with faith that is stronger than fear.

       

---

[i] Myers, Ched; Binding the Strong Man, p291

[ii] Luther Seminary Love to tell the story podcast

[iii]  http://www.davidlose.net/2012/06/mark-5-35-43/

[iv] https://www.davidlose.net/2018/06/pentecost-6-b-on-vulnerability-need-and-hope/

[v] https://www.davidlose.net/2018/06/pentecost-6-b-on-vulnerability-need-and-hope/

demons and blessings

Mark 5: 1-20

Some background that might give some insights into this reading.

Jesus has crossed the lake. He is now in mainly Gentile area.

Jewish people would hear this passage and know the man was ritually unclean, he is living amongst tombs and near pigs.

There is also the connection with Roman occupation.

Legion, the name of the demons – note: the man is not named, but the demons that inhabit him are.

Legion, the name of the demons, is also the name given to a Roman regiment of six thousand soldiers[i]

There are other military allusions in the story.

·         ‘a herd of pigs’, the term for a herd is also the term, in Greek, for a band of new recruits.

·         later Jesus ‘dismisses’ the pigs, also a military term and

·         the pigs ‘charging’ into the lake, is the same word as used for charging into battle.

For people hearing this when Mark was collecting stories and writing them down, the connection to Roman rule would have been clear.[ii]

I wonder if one of the demons for the people of Israel was Roman occupation and rule.

When Jesus drives the demons out, they inhabit some pigs. Pigs were not food for Jewish people, so probably there to feed the roman soldiers. So, the Jews hearing this story would have cheered, but the owners of the pigs, and those they were to feed would not have been so happy.[iii]

Mark notes that the man could not be bound or subdued. People had tried chaining him up, but he always managed to break the shackles. Some Bible translations read: as he could not be controlled.

I wonder who tries to control us?

Who does our culture try and shackle and subdue and control?

The story is a healing story with a backdrop of occupation, control, and defilement set in an area of Israel with a large gentile population.

…………..

How does this passage speak into our lives?

One thing that stood out for me when I first read this story is that the man is not named. He a man with an impure spirit who he would cry out and cut himself with stones. [Mark 5]

I wonder how people name you or talk about you?

The bossy one

loud,

quiet,

difficult

or maybe the deaf man,

the blind woman,

the child who can’t sit still

I have heard people referred to as the wheelchair lady or the skateboard kid.

These ways of naming people, including ourselves, are rarely helpful.

Just as the humanity of the man Jesus healed had been denied, we deny our own

and others humanity

when we see a single factor rather than the fullness of a person’s life and character.

The way we name people by one characteristic gives a one-dimensional view of the person, and implies that all people who

Are in wheelchairs

Or blind

Or from a particular racial group

Or all the same.

What have you been called?

was it or is it helpful?

………….

However we understand the demons that possessed him, this man was different. We may no longer talk about demon possession, but something was happening in the life of this man for him to be living outside his community. The community Jesus tells him to return to, so he likely knew people in that place, and the family or friends or others may have been bringing him food and visiting him while he was living in this bizarre sounding situation.

The people see him transformed, the people present are afraid – who can drive out demons; and the people the man returns to are amazed.  

When have you been amazed at the work of Jesus in your life?

Have you been afraid of Jesus working in your life?

The man was cutting himself, today we would call this self-harming. Why might people do this?

I wonder how much we harm ourselves; not only physical cutting, but risky behaviour or like me too much yummy food and not enough exercise. What about all the times we haven’t fully followed doctors’ orders for medication etc.

In what ways do we hurt ourselves?

In what ways do we hurt other people?

In this story, as with many of the healing stores, Jesus sees beyond what others see in this man,

Jesus sees beyond the self-harm and the living in the graveyard

Jesus sees beyond whatever behaviours led him to be living this way.

Jesus sees him as more than being demon possessed.

Jesus sees the person.

I wonder what demons we live with

Demons that keep us chained

Demons like fear, hate, and greed

Demons like racism, sexism, and homophobia

Demons like anxiety, depression and addictions

Demons that prevent us from living fully as the people God made us to be.

Just as Jesus saw beyond the naming of the man as impure, uncontrollable and self-harming; Jesus sees beyond the names we call ourselves or take on from others.

I know there have been times in my life when

I have wondered about my usefulness
I have wondered if my family and friends would be better off without me

There have been times when I wondered why God would call me to be

a lay preacher,  
a Presbytery secretary

a Minister of the Word

there have been times when I have been named by others, and myself, as

useless and

stupid and

clumsy and

slow.

But God has not named me those things.

God names me, and you

as beloved

as beautiful

as precious child

as blessed and

as a blessing

today what do you want to be released from?

listen for the name God has for you... 

---

[i] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4229

[ii] Binding the Strong Man, Ched Myers, p 191

[iii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4229

Challenging, Forgiving, Following

This chapter of Mark’s gospel is busy: forgiving, healing, eating with a tax collector. But also going against some of the tradition of religion. What stood out to me when I read this passage was the back and forth between Jesus and the teachers of the Law of Moses, Pharisees and some people.

Episode 2: a man who cannot walk, is carried upstairs to the roof of the house where Jesus is teaching by his friends, they lower him through the roof to get to Jesus, and Jesus tells him his sins are forgiven.

Challenge number 1 – only God can forgive sins;
basically who do you think you are??!!

And then the man can walk

And people are astonished

I guess we could say Jesus 1; religious leaders nil

Episode 2: Jesus calls Levi, a tax collector,
later Jesus and the disciples eat at Levi’s house. The Pharisees are shocked that Jesus is eating with a tax collector, someone who is working for the Roman occupiers – this makes him an outcast

A sinner

unclean.

And Jesus replies that healthy people don’t need a doctor.

He came to call sinners

Episode 3: question about fasting

Episode 4: question about eating on the Sabbath

As in other parts of the gospels it seems the religious leaders were out to trap Jesus, to show him up as a charlatan, an imposter.

Because for the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, Jesus was an imposter.

The religious leaders were tasked with the job of keeping the faith,
of making sure people stayed true to the faith handed down over the centuries and
not getting caught up in fads
or led astray some a charismatic teacher.

As you see from the interactions recorded by the gospel writers, at least some took their job very seriously.

Jesus challenged the establishment religion.

He challenged the purity code in chapter 1 when he touched the leper

He challenged the debt code when he forgave the sins of the paralysed man.

He challenged the holiness code when he ate with a tax collector

And he challenged the understanding of Sabbath by engaging in civil disobedience. [i]

Jesus challenged the way religion was lived.

I wonder if the end of chapter 2 gives us a way to understand these confrontations, and the way Jesus appears to speak against the law.

“People were not made for the good of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for the good of people.”

What if instead of saying you are not allowed to work on the sabbath, it was you are allowed to rest, you don’t have to work. Your body and brain and spirit need time to be, not only time to work.

What if the law to rest on the Sabbath is not an embargo on helping someone, but encouragement to see yourself and others as more than an economic unit?

To see yourself and others as people.

I wonder what this might look like in general.

What if religion
is to help us relate to God,
to be aware of God  

To know the stories so we see points of connections with our own lives

What if religion is here to help us,

 not punish us.

Some people write about this chapter as breaking boundaries, and Jesus does break some boundaries, relating to purity and holiness and who can forgive and the place of the Sabbath, and as he travels and teaches, he breaks some more boundaries and taboos.

What might this all means for us?

we no longer keep Sabbath in the way the first century Pharisees directed. We cook and wash up and shop and eat out and drive and …..

in all the back and forth challenging of Jesus and his responses, Jesus never tells the religious leaders that they are wrong in the detail of the law

they are wrong in prioritising the law over people.

And in the midst of all these challenges Jesus says to Levi, come follow me, and he does.

In chapter 1 Mark described the calling of Simon, Andrew, James and john; he said come follow me, and they left their nets and followed.

Levi is in place ready to collect taxes and Jesus says: come follow me, and Levi leaves and follows Jesus.

The calling, or rather the response, of the disciples always surprises me.

Are they so bored with their lives that anything is an excuse for a break?

Are they expecting great wealth or status?

There is nothing to suggest that Jesus was offering wealth, status or better living conditions than what they had.

Jesus calls us to follow, to live as disciples

Not bound by the law, but freed by the law

Will you follow

into the unknown?

---

[i] Binding the Strong Man, Ched Myers, pp 152-161

What is The Good News

We start at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark.

Mark starts with: This is the good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

No shepherds or angels or travellers from the east; no baby, no Mary or Joseph, no childhood. In the first ten verses, we meet John the Baptist, Jesus is baptised; he goes into the wilderness, there are angels who look after him.

Verse 14 Jesus starts teaching and in verse 16 he starts calling disciples.

All this in the first half of chapter 1.

So, what is this good news???

….

Mark starts with John in the desert, dressed in camel hair and eating grasshoppers; telling people to repent and be baptised.

Repentance isn’t only feeling sorry for something we have done or not done. It is a change in the way we view life and the world
and our place in the world.

It is correcting our course,

changing direction,

not only in our personal life, but as a society.[i]

Repentance means living into a different reality.

Mark notes that the people responding to John’s call to repentance and baptism were from Judea and Jerusalem. This was an island of wealth in a sea of poverty; Jerusalem was a centre of power.

I wonder what changed in these people’s lives.

Did they reflect on how the status quo advantaged them and disadvantaged the poor? [ii]

I wonder what would happen to our economic system if we lived by the golden rule: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you;” Matthew 7:12 (NRSVA)

…..

The section we heard today includes the Baptism of Jesus.

And a voice saying: “You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you.”

And then Jesus was made go into the desert by Satan.

What gives – where is the good news?

Mark does not list the temptations, or the replies of Jesus recorded by Matthew and Luke. Mark takes 2 verses; Jesus went into the wilderness and was tested; angels looked after him.

Jesus went into Galilee, calling disciples; who immediately stop what they are doing and follow Jesus.

Really?!

Imagine, you are working in your garden,

or walking along the beach,

and Jesus comes along and says: come with me.

do you stop and follow?

Do you go back and lock the door?

pack a travel kit?

Pick up your mobile phone?

Post an update on Facebook? – heading out with Jesus, don’t know where.

I wonder what this kind of following, leaving everything and following Jesus look like today?

…

Summarising the reading:

1.   At Baptism, Jesus is identified as the Son of God

2.   Then came testing

3.   Then mission

Our identity is found in our relationship with God; or maybe more accurately: our true identity is found in our relationship with God.

“God will always treat us as a beloved child, yet whether we act like a beloved child of God – and receive the joy of acting like one – depends greatly on whether we try to follow Jesus and live into the gift of that identity.”[iii]

I find that isn’t always as easy or simple as it sounds.

“to try to live and treat others as Jesus did,

embracing the values of inclusiveness,

love,

forgiveness,

and healing

that he radiated in word and deed.”[iv]

“The time has come!

God’s kingdom will soon be here.

Turn back to God

and believe the good news!”

So, what is this good news???

for you?

for me?

for those who have lost their home

for firefighters

for domestic violence victims

for people in prison

What is the good news about Jesus Christ???

For me, the good news is that the kingdom of God is being fulfilled;

the good news is forgiveness, grace and mercy;

and also call and mission and ministry.

The good news is everyone is included,

and none are excluded.

The good news is God loves you

sees you

feels your pain

experiences your joy

and trusts you to join in the work of the kingdom.

“The time has come!

God’s kingdom will soon be here.

Turn back to God

and believe the good news!”

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[i] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4225

[ii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4225

[iii] https://www.davidlose.net/2015/01/epiphany-3-b-following-jesus-today/

[iv] https://www.davidlose.net/2015/01/epiphany-3-b-following-jesus-today/

Risking or Resisting the Reign of God

Sometimes the story of the birth of Jesus seems so perfect,

angels, dreams and visions,

more angels,

the sign of the star,

yet more dreams and

angels in dreams.

But the reading from Matthew is not all sweetness and light.

Just like life really.

We are living through a hot dangerous fire season. Fires have been burning in NSW since September.[i] There are still fires burning on the north coast, but the fire danger has been slowly moving southwards. We see people taking huge risks to save people and property.

One thing I noticed with this reading is the number of responses people had to the birth of Jesus:

Magi were curious

Herod was worried

Magi were thrilled and excited

Magi warned, in a dream

Joseph warned, in a dream

Herod was angry, furious, murderous

And that is just in Matthew’s gospel.

While the news of a child being born is often greeted with joy, sometimes ….

Sometimes:

·                     people are threatened

·                     an older sibling feels overshadowed

·                     parents worry about how to cope

·                     sometimes the birth of a child starts a chain reaction.

Matthew is pointing to Jesus as the new Moses, he is saved at birth when other male children were killed.

He goes on to save his people.

I wonder what our part in the story is.

Who do you resonate with?

Maybe

·         Mary and Joseph fleeing for your life or

·         the Magi seeking and searching or

·         the soldiers following orders or

·         the parents crying for their children or

·         Herod

I suspect none of us want to consider ourselves to be like Herod. We don’t have that level of authority that we could command and army to kill if we wanted to.

We don’t think of ourselves as evil.

Here is some of what Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote after being in a Soviet Gulag

“The line separating good and evil

passes not through states,

nor between classes,

nor between political parties either –

but right through every human heart –

and through all human hearts.

This line shifts.

Inside us, it oscillates with the years.

And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil,

one small bridgehead of good is retained.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn” in Gulag Archipelago[ii]

I suggest that within hearts overwhelmed by good, one small bridgehead of evil remains.

I wonder:

·         In what ways do we resist the reign of God amongst us?

·         In what ways do we participate in structural evil?

·         What policies of government and business do we benefit from that disadvantages others?

The Magi went back home by another road.

When we meet Jesus, are we compelled to live differently?

Just as we heard in the video from the Moderator[iii], God took a big risk coming in Jesus. Life is risky.

I know sometimes it seems like there is a lot of talk about safety processes and risk assessment in the church; and I know some people find that frustrating.

Life is inherently risky. We do what we can to alleviate risk, but the unexpected can still happen. Like when I stepped out the back door one day, as I do most days, and my ankle twisted and broke.

It is important that we have buildings that are well maintained and fit for use by a variety of people. Life is risky, so we do what we can to moderate those risks. Just as we have total fire bans on days of high fire danger.

But there is another type of risk,

risk that says I will become human

risk that says i will follow a star,

or a dream,

or the message of an angel.

Risk that says yes to God

yes to being the odd one out

yes to allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through you.

are you willing to risk looking in the manger?

to risk going home a different way.

are you willing to risk living the way of God?

the way of peace, love, joy and hope?

Do you resist or risk the reign of God in your life and in the world?

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[i] https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-summer-from-hell-how-the-fire-season-has-unfolded-20200103-p53onh.html

[ii] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/450864-the-line-separating-good-and-evil-passes-not-through-states

[iii] https://vimeo.com/378954594

Incarnation

John 1:1-5, 10-14 

Christmas

A celebration of birth and life

just like a birthday, we don’t only celebrate the baby we were, but the person we have become

so, we celebrate the birth of Jesus

and the life that brought life for all.

Each year we remember the story of

·         a young woman visited by an angel,

·         a concerned fiancé

·         a birth in less than ideal conditions

·         the angles that announce good news to shepherds who then hurry to see the Christ child

·         we hear of a star that shines so brightly that starwatchers know someone special has been born

·         we hear of the Magi, travellers from the east who follow the star

we also remember what Jesus meant to us and the world

·         life

·         hope

·         peace

·         grace

·         forgiveness

Jesus

·         who taught

·         made whole

·         set free

·         ate with the unworthy

·         touched the leper

each year we celebrate as we

·         sing carols

·         give gifts

·         share love

we celebrate incarnation

God becoming human

God choosing to live among us

·         to move into our neighbourhood

·         to make a home among us

·         to pitch a tent with ours.

As you celebrate Christmas

As you remember and retell the story of the birth of Jesus

I encourage you to pause and think what it means for you

What it means for you that Jesus left whatever heaven is and came to live amongst us.

What does it mean for you that - “God thought we were worth coming to earth for.”[i]

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[i] https://revgalblogpals.org/2017/12/22/11th-hour-preacher-party-the-incarnation/