Scripture:
Mark 5:21-34

In my family we have a running joke when we ski together. We say, "It's not how you ski, it's how you look."

When I drove down my old street and I saw the tens of thousands of dollars being used to turn a regular window into a bay window, or a regular door into a door with moon-shaped glass around it, it reminded me of how we try to dress up our lives in much the same way. It also reminded me of how good we are at dressing up, in Birmingham.

Henry David Thoreau stated we do indeed lead lives of quiet desperation.

I wonder if the beveled glass and new woodwork keep out the loneliness and pain any better than regular glass and old wood? I wonder if the leveling of houses does anything for leveling past sins, secrets and brokenness? Does a new house on an old lot mean new life, or new beginnings, or new hope?

The Statue of Liberty pleads: "Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the restless refuge of your teeming shore. I lift my lamp beside the golden door." Our area has resources to make ourselves look less "tired, hungry and poor." We look like we breathe free. We have upward mobility. But what goes on inside the people who look so beautiful on the outside? What goes on in the houses that look so beautiful inside and out?

Jesus, in his infinite wisdom, must have known about the words of the Statue of Liberty when he took time for the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. He must have been able to see the golden lamp and the hope he could bring to people like the bleeding woman.

Today in America we can fill our lives with more than ever before, and yet people seem more isolated than ever. We have more people in the health care profession than ever before, yet we have more illness than ever before as well.

In our area, the standard of living is higher than ever, yet the problems of drinking, drugs, divorce and mental illness are as high or higher than the national average. Perhaps you've come this morning "well-entertained," but living insignificantly. Perhaps you look good, and appear to have it all together, but perform for yourself and for God poorly, living in quiet desperation.

People, we may be the envy of 95% of the rest of America, but how are we living? Are we living significantly? You and I can't fool God. Who are you serving? You may be blending in with the crowd, but God knows who you are.

An unknown woman joined the crowd following Jesus. She suffered bleeding for 12 years. Her condition excluded her from normal social relations because, according to Jewish Law, she was unclean. Her condition defined her life. She suffered greatly at the hands of various doctors. The treatments were awful. She had spent all she had in a desperate attempt to get well. Nothing worked. She was getting worse. She was desperate.

Until recently, I thought being desperate was a bad thing. The world sees desperation as a weak place to be. We need a heart that is desperate. We Christians need to remember that it is a good place to be. When you are desperate, you do whatever it takes to get to Jesus, and get the touch of Jesus. Even if we could just touch his cloak, he could heal us. Our desperateness for Jesus comes only when we come to the end of ourselves. For some of us who like to have it all together, it is a rare occurrence.

When will we learn?! We will try anything and everything, like this woman did, before we run out of options and turn to God. She tried every doctor and spent all her money. Her life was defined by this one illness. She had no other options, no other hope. What area of your life is defining you right now? In what area of your life have you come to the end of yourself? Handling an addiction? Communicating with your spouse? Guiding your children? Giving yourself over to your work schedule? Competing with the Joneses? Are you desperate? That may be just where God can help you the most. Are you desperate enough to buck the crowd and get close to Jesus and allow his healing touch to change you? You and I need a heart that is desperate.

We usually go through life under our own power because we can handle so much of it. We build security into our lives and our circumstances. My faith used to be in how God had blessed my life and given me so much. I used to think I could never preach, because God had never miraculously healed me or my child. I was just a suburban kid who got what he wanted and had it pretty easy. How could God use that? That attitude paralyzed me from experiencing God that much more. I realize now that my faith cannot be in my circumstances.

The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk ends his writings with a word of praise because of his faith in God.

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fall,
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold,
And there be no cattle in the stalls, (that's what I call a bad day!)
Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord is my strength,
And God has made my feet sure-footed like a deer's,
And makes me walk on high places. (Hab. 3:17-19)

Basically, even when your life is awful, even when there is no evidence of God's blessings, you are to exalt and magnify God. Your faith can't be about your circumstances, it needs to be in Christ alone. You and I need a heart that is desperate.

Not only do we need a heart that is desperate, we need a heart that is daring. To experience God and God's purpose for our lives, we need to risk. The woman who was bleeding risked a lot to get to Jesus. She faced the scorn of the crowd and the rejection of her community. Had she not risked, she would never have been healed and never would have experienced Christ and his power. Church, can we have a daring heart to stand up against some of the wrongs in our community? Can we be daring enough to not be worried about others' agendas? Do we have the courage to speak out?

In the movie Big, Tom Hanks plays a kid trapped in an adult body. He winds up in the executive board meetings of a toy manufacturer, trying to figure out what is going on. He raises his hand, stops the meeting dead in its tracks, and says: "I don't get it." He dared to ask the question, and he turned the company around! Sometimes I want to say, "I don't get it. Where is Jesus in all this?" Is my goal in youth ministry to have a place for kids to go on Sunday nights or is it to have a ministry of helping people through the crowd to encounter Jesus? We need to remember what it is we are called to do as Christians, and be a little daring about it. We need to have daring hearts with courage to speak out in truth and love, even if we are bucking the crowd.

In addition to a heart that is desperate and daring, you and I need a heart that is free. Jesus' Spirit went into the woman who had that faith to just touch his garment and be healed. Jesus knew the power had gone out of him. He turned around and looked for the woman in the crowd. The woman came and fell down before him, trembling and fearful, and told him the whole truth. She was free to be honest. After encountering Jesus, she could be real. Jesus' response is warm and caring. He calls her "daughter" (its only recorded use by Jesus), showing her a new relationship has begun with him. Jesus says it is her faith, not the hem of his garment, that healed her, in that it caused her to seek healing from Jesus. Faith, confident trust, derives its value not from the one what has it, but from the object in which it rests. Unlike the Humanists who say faith itself is what is important, sort of the "it doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you believe something" idea, Jesus says it is the subject in which the faith exists. Either God is God, Jesus is who he said he is, or not. There is no magic in faith itself.

Only Jesus sets a heart free. Jesus said to the woman, "Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." Literally, be healthy. This assured her that her healing was permanent and complete. She had been a living-dead person for twelve years. Her incurable illness and social and religious isolation allowed her a desperate and daring heart which was now free. She was restored to wholeness. The same power of Jesus is available to you and me by the Holy Spirit. When our heart is touched by Jesus, our heart is set free. We are free to live. I recently heard a saying for my life as a Christian which I have sticky-noted to my computer. It says: "Now serving an audience of one." By following Christ, we are free to serve, free to be who God created us to be. Free to reach out to a desperate and dying world. Do you see how ready the world is to respond to the life-giving restoration message of the Gospel?

It is my fear that the people of Birmingham will live full but meaningless lives, missing God's call to go to work for God's Kingdom and missing the blessing of experiencing God personally. Jesus calls us to a life of significant self-giving for his sake. He is ready to heal, to help, and to restore to wholeness. Have you responded to the opportunity to receive his touch? Have you helped lead another of the tired, poor, and hungry to him (no matter what they look like on the outside)? Let's get started now.