Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Sunday, June 7, 2009

St. David’s Episcopal Church, DeWitt NY

The Rev. James C. Bresnahan, Interim Rector

“Healing”

 

Mark 5:21-43

21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat^* to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. ²²Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet ²³and begged him repeatedly, ‘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.’ ²⁴So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. ²⁵Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years. ²⁶She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. ²⁷She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ ²⁹Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. ³⁰Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ ³¹And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’ ³²He looked all round to see who had done it. ³³But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. ³⁴He 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, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ ³⁶But overhearing^* what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ ³⁷He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. ³⁸When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹When he had entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.’ ⁴⁰And they laughed at him. Then 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. ⁴¹He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ ⁴²And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. ⁴³He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

 

One of the many things that has impressed me about St. David’s is how you have become a home for outside groups needing a hospitable place to gather: The Refugee Resettlement Advisory Board of Interfaith Works; the Jewish congregation, Bet Havarim; diocesan meetings and other church-related groups; artists in our community and those who come to view their works; and special one-time gatherings, like the funeral service this Tuesday of Father William Lange, beloved priest to the deaf community throughout most of his life. You have been gracious in making your space a hospitable and welcoming space for all.

 

Beyond those groups I named, many others have found a home here to work at healing - spiritual and emotional healing in twelve step groups or through other forms of support. Some strive for healing from the devastating abuse of alcohol in the home or alcohol in the body; some seek healing from other addictions or compulsions; others work at healing of the trauma caused by terrible and wrenching losses. They come here and find a safe place for healing to occur.

 

We rejoice that the walls about us and the new roof above us provide not only a place for our prayer and praise but a safe place for others who may or may not name Jesus as their healer but nevertheless find a home within a church for their healing.

 

The New Testament Gospels present Jesus in many ways:  Rabbi, Shepherd, Wisdom Teacher, Wonder-worker.  But consistently, he is seen as Healer – healer of hearts broken by loss and grief, like synagogue leader Jairus in today’s Gospel reading; healer of souls living with regret, like Zacchaeus in the Gospels who had defrauded people; healer of tormented minds, like those crazed demoniacs whom Jesus met on his journeys; healer of spirits demoralized by failure, like Peter who denied his Lord; and healer of bodies burdened by illness and disease, like the woman also in today’s Gospel reading who bleeds and bleeds and bleeds.

 

All these found in and with Jesus a way, a path, a hope for their healing.

 

We should not take it as a matter of course, however, that everyone wants to be healed or even that everyone is aware of one’s need to be healed. People can be blind to their own ill-health. They may assume that their everyday state, with all its fixations, drivenness, worries, and jealousies, is a normal state and healthy state. We can be oblivious to how there is a better place for us to be, a place of wholeness.

 

Yet the truth remains, how we and everyone carry the burdens of the past - emotionally, spiritually, physically.  Whose spirit is not weighed down by grievances, regrets, anger surpressed, and sorrow?  Whose memories and emotions born of circumstances and events years before do not still have hold - hold of us individually and hold of us corporately, as a body, as a family, as a church?

 

Last year, St. David’s celebrated a half-century of its history.  This year we entered into the second half of a century, but still very much affected by events of those first fifty years – a leader who brought shame upon the parish, a time afterwards of insecurity and walking on egg-shells, and more recently a time of self-doubt and near despair. Along the way we lost our health, we made decisions that were not healthy, and we failed to move toward health.

 

I believe we have made progress the past six months and more.  But feeling better is not the same as being well. There is more work to be done with regard to coming to terms with our past, and there is critical thinking to be done about our future and vision for it.

 

And with regard to that we need everyone’s help. Beginning soon we will be gathering in small groups to talk about how we have been shaped by our past, the kind of people we have become, the focus of our time and efforts, the sense of our identity.  We will also be talking about the kind of people we want to be, what we believe God is calling us to, what it means to be a healthy community, what we would look like and be like if we walked the way of Christ

 

I don’t know where that conversation will lead us, and where God’s Spirit will take us. But I am convinced that the most important questions we can ever ask ourselves are about who we are, who we may become, and what it means to be healthy in God.

 

At the beginning of this sermon I talked about the outside groups using our church to promote healing – from the effects of alcohol, from loss, from compulsions, and more.

 

We are the inside group using this place for healing.  Our purpose is no different from that of many others – our own healing, our own wellness in God - through the power of forgiveness and reconciliation, the power of looking within and looking without, the power of Scripture to speak to the heart and reveal to the mind, the power of the Eucharist to form us into community, the power of prayer and questioning discernment, and the power of love to overcome fear and separation. 

 

Some Christians ask, “Have you been saved? -  as if healing were once and over with.  But our tradition understands that healing is a life-long journey of the heart, mind, and spirit, not a goal we have reached, but a path that begins with Baptism and leads us again and again from death to life, from despair to hope, and from self-absorption to love.

 

We are on that journey and pray for God to lead us into better health throughout our days.