13th Sunday in Ordinary Time - THIS Woman!

Stepping Away From the Crowd  NOTES FOR SERMON GIVEN AT ZION UCC, HENDERSON KY

When I saw what the lectionary laid before us for today

I was most grateful

It is so rich

And so revelatory

And so full of wisdom, and challenge and comfort.

I like to check-in with where we are in the story

..where are we in Mark?

How is it unfolding, where is the story going?

Jesus has begun talking about this KINGDOM

He’s using parables about Sowers and the Seeds…

And Jesus begins his teaching and healing in HOMES

In fact the first thing he does is break open this notion of family

“who are my mother and my brothers and my sisters”

Then he goes to the sea as the crowds grow

He teaches from a boat

From the Jewish side of the sea

Then the journey takes them to the other side

In a storm no less

They head to the gentile side

To the territory of the Gerasenes

Where they meet a colorful figure…

The demoniac… who, when cured and in his right mind

Is sent as a missionary to his own people

This movement of Jesus…what he does

Is a kind of acting out of this kingdom vision

of what this KINGDOM he’s been talking about  

actually looks like

Its bigger than my household, my family or my clan…

Its bigger than Judaism

It includes gentiles who become evangelizers

It includes those who once lived in caves, out of their minds.

And now in our reading today

We are back on the Jewish side of the lake

Where once again the crowds are gathered

And Jesus is going to bring in the women and the unclean and the children

The healing of the woman and the raising of the young girl

Bring them into the community of faith

Fully included they are members of this Kingdom vision

This kingdom is Big…

And this kingdom is not about distinctions.

That can be a tough sell

It was then and it still is!

We have a character rich story today

We have this Jairus fellow

One thing we can say about Jairus

is that he isn’t typical of high ranking synagogue leaders

Something Mark is very deliberate to tell us

Each synagogue had one elected leader and Jairus was it.

They don’t throw themselves at anybody’s feet

They don’t beseech or plead

Rather we might expect a high ranking synagogue official

To be off standing to the side, disapprovingly, with arms crossed

Worrying about transgression

Against the Sabbath…Or the purity codes

            …which are being violated right and left in this passage

One wonders?

Why and how did he break ranks?

How did he come to prostrate himself before Jesus?

He was desperate…his daughter is near death…I would be too.

But nonetheless, his gesture acknowledges Jesus’ authority

Mark has noted this very deliberately about Jesus

“all are amazed as he teaches with such authority”

But Jarius is a bit too fascinated

…a bit too much like the crowds

…it is all a little one-sided for Jarius,

…its all on Jesus…Jesus the wonder worker

…Jesus the miraculous healer

Nonetheless, Jesus loves Jairus

Jesus is ready to follow Jarius…but along the way…

there is THIS woman

Now this literary technique is elegantly called the Marcan Sandwich

There is the outer story…The Jairus Story

And the inner story, about THIS WOMAN

The outer story is the bread…very important

But it’s the inner story that contains the richest and deepest goodies

(the meat, cheese, banana peppers, mayo…)

And Mark is making a point…

he wants the stories to illuminate each other and to offer contrast.

THIS WOMAN

Unlike Jairus…

She doesn’t have a name…indicative of her status maybe.

Who is she?

Unfortunately, in the tradition she has become known as

A chapter title…not something that the Greek text contains

…Our need for order I suppose

She has become the chapter title

“The Woman with a Hemorrhage”

THIS woman is reduced to her affliction…

her relentless bleeding IS her name.

But in fact the text says it quite differently.

The text introduces her by a string of descriptors

Meant to be read as a unit…the textual scholars say

And that makes all the difference!

Reading it this way we have:

And a woman in a flow of blood for 12 years

And having suffered much by many physicians

And having spent all that she had

And not being any better for it

But having gone from bad to worse

And she also heard about Jesus

And went into this pressing throng of people to grab his garment

That is her name!

She is so much more than an affliction!!! 

She is tenacity and guts and courage and stamina!  (SHE IS A BAD-ASS)

Her life has been bleeding away,

but NOT because she hasn’t given it her all!

And then there is the crowd.  

Mentioned 7 times...It is very dramatic. 

The greek implies a great crowd, squeezing and pushing and tightly wound

These people want to get a piece of Jesus. 

Rubbing up against each other

like those on the hunt for a celebrity’s  autograph.

Lots of folks are “touching” Jesus

So when Jesus says “who touched me?”

We can relate to the disciples’ smart-mouth response

“well, Jesus…there have only been a hundred or so…

which one…really?”

But when Jesus asks “who touched me?”

He means something very different

...She only touched the hem

It makes me think about what we mean when we say

that something or someone has touched us…or moved us…or changed us

I think what we mean is that something spiritually and profoundly significant has occurred.  An encounter has occured. 

A 1 + 1 = greater than 2 encounter.

This woman touches Jesus in a profoundly different way.

And Jesus (and Mark) want us to learn from her.

Somehow she has gained a radically open disposition

to receive for an-other.

This interior openness

This honest, un-selfconscious vulnerability is the meat of the matter.

This is what Jairus needs to learn.

Both Jesus and the Woman know that IT has happened.

She knew at once that she was healed

He knew at once that power had left him

But that is not enough

Jesus calls her out

He calls her out of the crowd and she tells “the whole truth”

What was this whole truth?

It appears to be a confession

YES, I admit it!

I disregarded every law

that says for me to stay put--stay apart--stay separated

Must have been frightening  beyond what we can understand

Bloodflow made her perennially unclean

And in a world ordered by distinctions

Sacred-profane

Clean-unclean

Honored-shamed

Jew-Gentile

Man-woman

THIS IS A VERY BIG DEAL

Her cover was the crowd

Jesus blew her cover

He blew her cover so that he could unravel its power

“No no no” Jesus says.  “Woman, let me tell you the whole truth

the whole truth is

you have never been an unclean woman with uncontrolled bleeding.  

That is not your name!

You have always been a beloved daughter who is suffering”

The healing that comes from her daring faith allows her new freedom 

to live as a daughter of God, in peace, 

and in the company of her community,

Where she can touch and be touched

She is re-included.

Back to Jairus

It seems too late.

Jesus stopped for the no-name woman

And now the “daughter” is dead.

But Jesus calls Jairus to “step out” as well

There is another crowd…this time mourners and wailers

Oftentimes professionals

They are drunk on the power of death

To be like the woman, to learn from the woman

Jairus must believe even in the face of death

and its attraction, manifested in the wailing crowd.

Step away from that crowd

See something new

“the child is not dead, but sleeping”

Jesus takes her hand

He raises her up---

He raises her with all the implications of that word

Jesus stops the life blood that was flowing out of the hemorrhaging woman.

He re-starts the life blood flowing again in this small daughter.

Stepping out of crowds to encounter something new

To encounter healing and wholeness and relationship with an-other

That might be the lesson here

Crowds, crowd thinking, group think

They can be places to hide.

Having an inner disposition that is open to encounter

Coaxes us out of our crowds, our hiding places, our ruts

The older I get

The more I long for such real encounters

Sometimes I find myself comfortable at home

With my dog

And my crossword puzzle

Not wanting to go anywhere

I suppose its “my crowd”

And then I realize, or my husband reminds me,

that there is something we have to do

An obligation

I just don’t want to go

But I go

And truly, more often than not

I’m glad I went

But what is it that makes me glad?

I was thinking that all it really takes is even a slight encounter

Not chit chat about the weather,

not even spirited conversation about the news or politics

But an encounter

When I find myself wrapped up with an-other in such a way

That each of us goes away a bit changed…even if just by a little bit

It is an experience of being the giver and the receiver at the same time

It doesn’t always happen

I have to bring with me at least a little of what THAT woman had

…that inner disposition that is open and inviting

7 or 8 years ago

in my community

we decided to celebrate healing/anointing of the sick

at Sunday worship

We thought maybe 3..5 people would stand and move to the center aisle at the invitation to be anointed.

But it didn’t happen that way

15-20 rose and found there way out of their pews to stand and be prayed over

This was new…Unexpected even.

They stepped out

they risked.

And what followed was an encounter

A healing God working through the power and faith of ordinary people

Oil traced on foreheads

People connected by hands upon hands…touching

it was an encounter

who gave and who received?

Who was graced by whom?

I wonder,

How can we ever encounter God the way THAT woman did

If somehow we haven’t learned it among ourselves?

Jairus stepped out of his mindset

And encountered divine healing

The woman steps out of the crowd

Jesus doesn’t stop to heal her

She goes after him

Taking a risk

While in the crowd she was covered in blood

When she leaves it; the bleeding stops

Maybe in some way

Faith means

Stepping out of the crowd

The pews

Our hiding places

Our ruts

And stepping into an encounter

Where grace abounds

Where we are honest and naked and vulnerable with an-other

Where 1 + 1 is always greater than 2.

Thanks be to God.

(sources:  John Shea, The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels, Eating with the Bridegroom, Mark Year B, 161-168; Eugene LaVerdiere, The Beginning of the Gospel, Introducing the Gospel According to Mark, 132-141; Leftbehindandlovingit@blogspot.com, The Myth of Scarcity, June 23, 2015 and Begging Believers and Scorning Skeptics, June 26, 2012.)