Mark 5: 21-43 The Healing of the Women as well as the Raising of the Child.
Motto for day: Accept, Heal and Send
This
passage is one of my favorites in the Bible. It also lends it self to
great use in both sermons, church school and of course alternative
worship ideas. Why not eat sandwiches or bring one to show how a
sandwich just isn't as good without all the stuff in the middle. This
passage could be a pretty great and amazing example of Jesus' ability to
rise someone from the dead and in itself a wonderful miracle passage.
But instead it isn't just about one miracle it is about two. So why is
that?
Here we have Jesus' healing a young girl of only
12 years and also a women who has suffered 12 years of bleeding. Here
we have Jesus going to the house of someone who is desperately trying to
save his child and perhaps not as truly strong in their belief in Jesus
along side a women with so much faith in Jesus that she need only touch
his clothes. Here we have a women so desperate to belong, to fit in
and to be healed for her life and all she has is gone and a young girl
who still has her life to live. If Jesus had not stopped to help this
women, the girls story may have ended differently - for perhaps there
would not have been the miracle that it was. Perhaps Jesus would have
made it "on time" to heal her instead of needing to raise her.
Although
we can go in many ways in this passage: one thing is for sure - Jesus
power is great! For the church a good discussion on this passage is HOW
does the church with great faith need to stop in our own tracks and see
the world around us? How does the church need to heal before we can go
out and truly be in peace? How does the church seem like the little
girl dying waiting for Jesus to heal? Are we at a point when we indeed
need to die before the church can once again flourish?
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Here comes the Hippo!
And he was a righteous man!
These words are found throughout the Bible and today bring about a picture of someone who is upright and an example for all of us. Yet in our Bible those righteous men were not always such. Many of them were far from what we would classify as "righteous" perhaps because they are all human. The story of King David and Bethsheba is found in 2 Samuel 11:1-15 is no different.
I can't help but think of the example of my husband, yes a pastor, speaking to a women who wouldn't attend church anymore because "too many hypocrites" attended church. And although she was right - there were several horrible Christians in that church, my husband's response - not pastoral at all - hit the nail on the head: "well there is always room for one more!"
Church isn't a place for saints. In fact one of my favorite church signs is "Sinners Anonymous, Sunday Mornings, We will save you a seat" For we are all sinners. No matter how hard we try to be better our lives are full of temptation and our days are full of things that are done in opposition to God's will for we are after all human.
Church isn't about a bunch of saints coming together and it certainly isn't the place that should be giving out judgment. It also doesn't deserve the large amount of judgement from the community when something goes wrong.
David went out and basically raped a women, who was unclean because of her period, got her pregnant and then tried to trick the husband in coming home and having sex with his wife so that he would not be "found out." When the husband did the right and righteous thing, David had him killed. For sure not what any of us would consider righteous and in fact if this type of scandal occurred in a church today you better believe that the 24 hour news would be eating this type of sensation up and screaming all about this horrible thing the church did.
It is easy to look inside the church and see all the "wrong" that is done. It is easy to be involved in a church and fall into the trap of "better then thou" But what takes courage and strength is to stand in the midst of the disorder and fix it. To try and spread God's message and to instead of continuing the cycle of judgment - for it doesn't matter who judges first, to instead spread the love of Christ we are asked to.
I encourage each of us to see the GOOD that the church is doing. That there are churches like the PCUSA which are changing their systems to be open and affirming to all people giving equal rights. That there are small churches with members numbering under 100 who are serving their communities faithfully and offering people refuge, food and the love of God. That there are large churches that despite the fighting that might seem to happen too much in the church parking lot gossip - God is working within and through them to do more good. That although David may have messed up, he was still righteous. That we too can be righteous in all we do. And our churches can still be doing good. Let us find the glimmer of love and justice in all our churches!
These words are found throughout the Bible and today bring about a picture of someone who is upright and an example for all of us. Yet in our Bible those righteous men were not always such. Many of them were far from what we would classify as "righteous" perhaps because they are all human. The story of King David and Bethsheba is found in 2 Samuel 11:1-15 is no different.
I can't help but think of the example of my husband, yes a pastor, speaking to a women who wouldn't attend church anymore because "too many hypocrites" attended church. And although she was right - there were several horrible Christians in that church, my husband's response - not pastoral at all - hit the nail on the head: "well there is always room for one more!"
Church isn't a place for saints. In fact one of my favorite church signs is "Sinners Anonymous, Sunday Mornings, We will save you a seat" For we are all sinners. No matter how hard we try to be better our lives are full of temptation and our days are full of things that are done in opposition to God's will for we are after all human.
Church isn't about a bunch of saints coming together and it certainly isn't the place that should be giving out judgment. It also doesn't deserve the large amount of judgement from the community when something goes wrong.
David went out and basically raped a women, who was unclean because of her period, got her pregnant and then tried to trick the husband in coming home and having sex with his wife so that he would not be "found out." When the husband did the right and righteous thing, David had him killed. For sure not what any of us would consider righteous and in fact if this type of scandal occurred in a church today you better believe that the 24 hour news would be eating this type of sensation up and screaming all about this horrible thing the church did.
It is easy to look inside the church and see all the "wrong" that is done. It is easy to be involved in a church and fall into the trap of "better then thou" But what takes courage and strength is to stand in the midst of the disorder and fix it. To try and spread God's message and to instead of continuing the cycle of judgment - for it doesn't matter who judges first, to instead spread the love of Christ we are asked to.
I encourage each of us to see the GOOD that the church is doing. That there are churches like the PCUSA which are changing their systems to be open and affirming to all people giving equal rights. That there are small churches with members numbering under 100 who are serving their communities faithfully and offering people refuge, food and the love of God. That there are large churches that despite the fighting that might seem to happen too much in the church parking lot gossip - God is working within and through them to do more good. That although David may have messed up, he was still righteous. That we too can be righteous in all we do. And our churches can still be doing good. Let us find the glimmer of love and justice in all our churches!
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