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I would
like to start this morning by telling you a story about Tim.
Tim was a young man in my first church appointment. He was
seventeen years old. Tim came to the parsonage one day and
knocked on my door. He asked if I could come out to his car
and pray for his friend, Liz. I followed Tim out to the car
where Liz was, and when I got there the car was empty. As
I was just about ready to ask where she was, Tim reached inside
the passenger window and pulled out Liz.
Liz was
an iguana. Sure enough, Liz had been in some sort of accident.
Half her leg had been cut off and in its place was black,
dry blood and puss oozing from the end of the leg where it
had been decapitated. In Tim's hand, next to Liz, was the
piece of leg that had been cut off.
Trying
to keep a straight face while looking at this pathetic, ugly
lizard with its decapitated leg next to him, I listened as
Tim went on to explain what had happened. Liz was Tim's newly
acquired friend. Tim took Liz wherever he went. As it would
ride around in the car with Tim, Liz would sometimes crawl
under the seats.
That day,
unfortunately, Tim had forgotten Liz was in the car and pushed
his power seat button to adjust the seat and ran over Liz's
leg, cutting it off. He went on to say that he had taken Liz
to the vet and there was nothing that could be done to put
the leg back on. Liz would most probably die. But, he said,
the vet gave him the number of a place in Detroit that makes
prosthetics for animals. He told me he had called them and
that they would put his name on a waiting list. Then, handing
the lizard to me, he asked if I would pray that Liz live long
enough for the prosthetic to come.
Now, let
me tell you, pastors are called upon to pray for a lot of
things, but taking that iguana, as ugly as it was, in my hands
was the last thing I wanted to do. And besides, praying for
a prosthetic that would cost more than the iguana itself for
a young man who really couldn't afford the iguana in the first
place, was not my idea of good ministry. But, nevertheless,
I held the iguana in my hands and prayed with Tim.
In today's
gospel reading, Jesus is found in ministry to three people
that, like the iguana, are not ones we would find quick to
embrace. Three Untouchables. The first of these is Matthew,
a tax collector ... a sly, slippery kind of guy. He is one
whose loyalty to the Roman government causes him to turn against
and hurt his own people. Matthew is one whose loyalty to his
work gets in the way of his loyalty to the church.
The second
Untouchable is a woman; a woman who has been bleeding for
twelve years. Not only is she considered unclean religiously,
but she is also considered contagious. It was thought that
for a woman to be bleeding with no cure, some kind of power
or evil must dwell within her.
Finally,
the third Untouchable is the daughter of the synagogue's ruler.
By the time Jesus gets to the house there has been a gathering
of mourners because she has already been proclaimed dead.
For several days, so Mark's gospel says, she has a body that
stinks; not to mention the fact that the custom of their day
was that if a dead body was touched by humans before it had
been prepared for burial, the person touching the body would
also be considered unclean, spiritually.
Three
Untouchables. Not only would we be less than quick to embrace
these people today, but neither were the people of Jesus'
day. When Jesus goes to the house of Matthew, when Jesus turns
to the woman who is bleeding and touches her, and when Jesus
reaches out and calls the young girl who is dead, his ministry
is met with rebuke by the Pharisees; the church leaders.
It is
interesting, though, to know Jesus' response to the Pharisees'
rebuke. In his response, Jesus makes a couple of statements
that are very important in tying these three stories together.
The first statement Jesus makes is, " A physician comes
to heal those who are sick." This is a statement of irony,
for Jesus has come to heal and to call the Jews. The Pharisees
are among those people that Jesus has come to heal. It sets
up these three stories as stories of healing but it also sets
up Jesus' call and Jesus' ministry as one of healing. The
second thing it does is help us see that there are not just
three Untouchables in the story. There is a fourth group of
Untouchables ... the Pharisees.
Jesus'
second statement is, "I come and I desire mercy, not
sacrifice." Now, let me interject something at this point.
We are quick to define the Pharisees as "them" ...
the ruthless, the faithless, the hypocritical Jewish leaders.
But before we dismiss them too quickly as "them",
let us stop to consider who they really were and what they
were doing in this passage.
The Pharisees
were simply doing their job. Their protest to Jesus was completely
in line with their religious upbringing, their training, and
their vocation. For it was their responsibility to call people
on their inappropriate behavior; behavior that would be seen
as opposition to religious beliefs and their teaching in the
church. It was important for them to call people on this in
order to keep religious faith alive in a society and a culture
that was threatening the church's extinction. It was their
job to discern against evil forces that would draw their people
away from God. It was their job to make sure that converts
to the faith adhered to the laws and the rituals that would
continue to ensure a strong church, strong families, and strong
moral values in favor of God's blessing.
Stop to
think about the Pharisees and ourselves. Is there not a need
in our church today to actively seek out ways to keep it strong
and alive? Is this calling to accountability not needed in
our day as much as it was in Jesus' time?
But perhaps
there is room for differences in considering how we're to
keep the church and individual faith alive in the face of
the counter culture. I think that this is what Jesus challenges
us with in this passage. For, despite the fact that the Pharisees
are merely doing their job in calling Jesus on his behavior,
it would also appear that the Pharisees, in their preoccupation
with following all the right rules and rituals, are the ones
in the story who are left untouchable ... they, perhaps, are
the true Untouchables in need of healing in today's story.
Most often,
when I read a Bible story, I find it helpful to try to identify
with one or more of the characters in the story. I invite
you to consider the four groups of Untouchables this morning.
Perhaps, some of us identify with Matthew ... others with
the woman suffering from the flow of blood ... and still,
some of us can identify with losing a child who is dying.
We might even identify with the Pharisee and their need of
healing as their religion has become empty ritual.
But there's
one more character that I'd invite us not to overlook; that
being Jesus. As a church and as disciples we are called to
imitate Jesus. For a few moments let us consider what Jesus
has to teach us about imitating his techniques of healing
in these three stories and singing the Untouchables back to
life and wholeness.
In the
Steeple Notes, I made a reference to an article about modern
medicine and the fact that is has begun to give attention
to nonconventional treatments of illness. Such things as intercessory
prayer, meditation, acupuncture, Reiki, and other mind-body
healing techniques. In recent years the success of all of
these is being documented and researched. But what is helpful
to remember is that medicine and physicians as we know them
today are not what they were in Jesus' day. In fact, in Jesus'
day, medicine was closer to a mix of all of these techniques,
and more. A physician in those times may have engaged in any
one of those techniques. But, in studying the text, it occurs
to me that looking at them altogether helps us to create a
clearer picture of how we are called to imitate Jesus in singing
the Untouchables back to life ... back to wholeness.
What do
the stories say to us? If we consider them together, what
they reinforce for me, is that it is God who does the healing.
It is not any one of the techniques or the persons who administered
the techniques who does the healing. It is God who makes the
call on how, and when, and where the healing will occur.
In these
passages Jesus serves as the instrument through which God's
mercy and healing occurs. Jesus serves as a sort of mid-wife.
He is the one who provides an environment that is conducive
to the birthing of new life, hope, and wholeness. And, in
the process he teaches us, as a church and as disciples of
Christ, the importance of such an environment. In the process
of creating this environment, we serve as instruments through
which God's healing can occur.
So, I
invite us to ask, what is this environment which Jesus provides?
Quite simply, I think it is one of Sabbath and of Sanctuary.
What do I mean by that? Let's take Sabbath. What do we know
about Sabbath? It is for us, Sunday ... right? The day of
rest. The day when we set our work apart, out distractions
aside, and for a brief period of time, we refocus our lives
by emptying ourselves and being receptive to God's presence.
This is
demonstrated in the story when Jesus goes into Matthew's house
and reclines at the table with him ... when he stops and turns
and recognizes he has been touched ... when a ruler kneels
down at his feet. He is refocusing, re-centering; calling
upon Sabbath. Later in that same story, Jesus goes to the
ruler's house and the people laugh at him and say that it
is too late. Jesus takes the people out of the house and enters
into the quiet ... sits with the girl, and calls her name.
Jesus demonstrates Sabbath in all of these stories.
He also
demonstrates Sanctuary. What is Sanctuary? You're sitting
in a sanctuary. It is the room in which we gather when we
come on Sunday morning. But, more than that, throughout church
history sanctuary has often been referred to as that place
which is safe and apart from the outside world. We talk about
bird sanctuaries as places where endangered species of birds
as well as other species gather together as one for food and
safety.
Sanctuary
is a place ... a place of acceptance no matter who you are
and what you've done. Jesus provides Sanctuary to Matthew,
to the woman, and to the girl by reaching out and touching
them when no one else would touch them, when no one else would
recognize them, when no one else would love them. Jesus reaches
out and offers them a safe space. As a church and as disciples
of Christ, we are called to create the same kind of environment.
I invite you to think of the different techniques I have mentioned
in Steeple Notes and others that you have learned, and ask
yourself; where is the provision of Sabbath and Sanctuary
in those techniques that allows for God's healing grace to
happen?
But for
now, I'd like to illustrate it with an example that, I think,
is important in our worship. That example is the "passing
of the peace." Some of you love it. Some of you hate
it, and others of you tolerate it. I suspect that is has as
much to do with our own personality styles and our own philosophy
of what worship is as anything else.
If I were
to ask you what worship is, some of you would answer that
it is a community affair in which we love each other in the
name of Christ. Others of you would say it is an individual
affair in which we have our faith, and our relationship, and
our prayers between God and ourselves. The truth is that it's
a little of both. We could debate it until we're blue in the
face, but let me share why I think the "passing of the
peace" is an instrument to God's healing.
How is
it sanctuary? Because it asks us to reach out and greet those
around us. In doing so, we extend love, acceptance, and compassion
to anyone who walks through our doors. It is a safe and welcoming
space. We never know on Sunday morning what person we'll greet
with a warm smile, hand, or hug that has been suffering in
their own lives by a lack of acceptance and care from others.
We never know when we extend a hand to someone what kind of
change we open in a person's heart to receive God's healing
and God's grace.
The "passing
of the peace" also offers Sabbath. When we turn to one
another and say "Peace be with you," we are saying
a prayer. It is a prayer taken from Paul's greeting to the
Christians in the early church. Peace means "Shalom."
It is also the word for wholeness. When we turn to one another
and extend a hand and look into a person's eyes and say, "Peace
be with you," for a brief moment we are setting all other
concerns aside and focusing on that person and upon God's
grace in their lives. We are saying, "God's peace, God's
healing, be with you."
I began
the sermon with a story of Tim. I'd like to conclude with
the rest of the story to help draw together what I have been
saying.
I told
you about the one Untouchable in the story; the iguana. There
was a second and third Untouchable in the story. The second
Untouchable was Tim. Prior to this experience, Tim had been
in a lot of trouble. In fact, just a few days earlier, Tim
had been kicked out of school for the remainder of the year,
and would have to repeat the grade again next year. Tim was
the kind of kid that whenever I was trying to plan a youth
program would show up in the middle of it to distract the
youth and cause trouble. He would always turn the program
into chaos.
I was
the third Untouchable in the story. Not only did I not want
to pray and touch that iguana, but I was at a point in my
own ministry where I had serious doubts about the power of
prayer itself. My parish was full of parishioners who, despite
the church's prayers, had lives of turmoil and pain as they
suffered physical and sexual abuse, poverty, illness, and
a recent suicide.
Several
days after I prayed with Tim and his iguana, the iguana died
... before a prosthetic could be found. I half expected this
would be the end of Tim's curiosity about the church, prayer,
and about God. But I was wrong. A few weeks later Tim came
knocking on my door again, and said to me,
Can
you please help? My sister is in jail. She attacked her
boyfriend who was beating her, and stabbed him with a knife.
They took her son away and put him in foster care and he's
so scared because they won't let me come to see him. Will
you go visit him? I want him to know that God is with him
and everything will be OK.
Did my
techniques of praying heal the iguana? No. Did the ministry
offered through prayer provide for Tim and for myself Sabbath
and Sanctuary, and thus, an environment conducive to healing?
You bet it did!
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