MARK 5:42-34 LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
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adbttnes it takes an interruption pemepsieeiapemememn to put things back into

perspective, A year Or SO ago we were watching a football! game on televislon on Monday

ee FOR STRAWS BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

JOHN M,. BUCHANAN

night. \ And at a particularly tense moment a dog ran out on the field - and there in full

view of the 50,000 people In the stands, and the millions morg watching on television, did

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what dogs are inclined to do Seared tae cust oe eats toe
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And then, to make matters worse,ran from end zone to end zone eluding the, best efforts
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f the 3 o catch him. > healthy thi + i thi b
of the players to catch him \ the ealthy thing about that was that it put things back

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into perspective \ Now | Ggarly, love football, but, integrity occassionally forces me to
admit that we take it_altogether tos sortously\ It really is jusihawgame,~ and its purpose

is entertainment: [and tor a lot of pecple that little dog, barging _into the solemn, serfous
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and tense battlefield served to put things back in perspective:\back where they belong.
A minister friend of mine one time was waxing eloquent from the pulpit, driving home

a particularly serious bit of theology, when a three year old girl ~ an e€capee from the

Nursery ~ came bursting through the door behind him - ran across the chancel screaming
for her mommy - on_up_the center aisle until familiar arms reached out to rescue her.
When things settled down the preacher went on. But the interruption really had put things
in perspective.
It is that kind of refreshing experience that happens in our text this norning | Lats
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a strange, and in many ways - embarrasing, story.\ It's about an old woman whose name
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isn't even on the program:\ woman who emerges anonymously from the crowd and fades away
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again to be heard from no more.
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The main event has to do with Jesus and a man names Jarius, an important ruler of the
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Synagog whose young daughter was critically 111. \ie had followed Jesus and when he found
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him fell at his feet and begged him to come and make her wo! |.\ Jesus agreed to go ~ and the

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crowd ~ which was already there, Increased in size and certainly in excitement.\ And it
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is precisely at this rather dramatic moment that the interruption occurs \ Later, the story

of Jarius and his daughter will continue. \But for now there is an unlikely and slightly
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embarrasing interruption. \A woman came up behind him and grabbed his robe.
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The first problem is with her illness:\it wasn't exactly fashionable She had been
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GRASPING FOR STRAWS -2-

hemorrhaging for twelve years, and the condition had gotten vorse.\ 14 was a humiltating,
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debilitating social condition as weil as a physical iLiness\ Wes should not be bothered

with that kInd of thing any more «And yot | regulary encounter people In the hospital!

too_ashamed of their operation or sickness cven to call it by name.
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In any case this woman had a social as well as a physical problem.\ To make matters
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worse, her culture had defined it as a religious condition} In the law, this condition

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was defined as "unelvangss" \ Leviticus 5:2 - whitch every good Jew had read further
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defines uncloaness as contagious: |"...1F anyone touches an unclean thing - or If he touches
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human uncleaness...he shall be quilty.| What that means is that this woman would have
been treated like a leper: \|for 12 years a total and complete social cutcast .| No one wanted
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to be near ner norm. human relationships were cut of the question’\ the very best people
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didn't even want to see hor,
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And if it’s possible to imagine fueling worse yet we must \ Becouse The same law
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that branded her as an outcast forced her to bear - alone ~ the responsibility for her

condition, \Fhere is in the Bible a relationship between sin and physical Ii|ness.\it's

a thorny problem \And without discussing tt in detail we can conclude that one of the
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results was that sick people were very likely quilty povpte. \ this woman In particujar,
with her conditicn ~ for 12 years an outcast - had ta feel pretty rotten and pretty
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desparate,

But with all of that, The worst thing about her is her tregloay.\ she breaks every
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rule fn The book \ she givas no indication that she knew who Jesus was \\ she doesn't cal |
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him by any of the theclogically or socially acceptable titles like Lord, Master, Teacher.
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she didn't come asking about the meaning of existence A she didn't come out of existential
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boredom.\She didn’t want to be a disciple, follower - she didn't even want to look him

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in the ece.\ st ted very simply, she had heard the rumor that some carpenter from Nazareth

was going around healing peopte.\ And out of her desparate twelve years she was willing to
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try anything.) So she sneaked up behind him, hidden in the crowd, and when he wasn't
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looking reached out and grabbed his robe,

Now there Is an interesting twist at this point that can be missed unless we read
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very carefully.|7The idea worked. \she was cured and she knew it.\ Jesus knew It too. And
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it's worst the cruelest of hoaxes,
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| chose to bellve that the story is there for a purpose | that the author telescoped

it Into another story precisely in order to make hls point. \ chase to beileve that
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God's word Is in this story for us wohear. \Let's pursue {t a bit.

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At the center of Christian faith, Christian religion, Christian Discipleship, Christian

Community is a Lord who Is a personal savior\a Lord who deals with Individuals - individ-
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ual lives\a Lord who saves - that is to say, who heals,restores, changes the lives of
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Individual people.

That's not news for a large percentage of Christian people.\the evangelicals have
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always maintained the centrailty of Jesus Christ as a personal savior \ But, unfortunate] y

evangelical Christianity - particularly in the Unlted States -has stopped with personal

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salvation\ Criist has been persenal savior ~ but hardly a Lord who had much te do with
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society as a yhote.\ Some evangelicals have found i+ possible to call Jesus Christ their

savior In the context_of a Ku Klux Klan ratty: \to maintain unjurfunfair, inhuman

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social structures without experfencing any conflict at ali \ every year at this time 1 try

to do my bit In United Fund soliciting. \Ang while it Is probably unfair ['m just agitated

enough to state my conclusion that the more evangelical and fundamentalist the person, the
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less likely he Is to be concerged about human need = real human need - in the wortd,

Ang so we've reacted - out of a deep commitment to a Christ who cared about things
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like justice and hunger \ And | suppose ~ we've over-reacted at times.\ or at least we've
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allowed people to interpret our Gospel totsliy In terms of social righteousness.\ We've

altowed other grouss a monopoly on the name “Jesus Christ” and i'm tired of It.\ i'm tired
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of our attempts to write statemenisof purpose that discugs enabling people to grow and
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become: \that define in glowin terms the cultivation cf a nurturing, loving Christian
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conmunity, [that talk about ministry fa the world and leave out the only thing realty

necessary = the Lordship of Jesus Christ - who is, in fact, a personal savior.

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Now, | want vry badly te be understood .\ believe that Christian faith that does

not cause us to weep at injustice, that fails to bring us to our knees in confession when
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our government bombs the wrong village by mistake ~ is not Christian falth.\ ! belfeve that
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Christianity that can ignore racism - that refuses to feel compassion for the poor - that
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GRASPING FOR STRAWS -5-

divorces itself from {ife and hides behind the cloak of personal piety is phony.
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[tis Just that without a personal Lord, we really have nothing \ The hopeful |Iiberal ism
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that assumes that society can be made right if pecple just g@t enough education and “food
and decent housing Is bankrupt.\ Ane the same philosophy that defines the church solely in

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terms of an agent for social change fs equalfy bankrupt. ,.. ,

salvation - without a savior is a dry thesis that ultimately is pretty boring | And a church
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that forgets a Lord who confronted individuals will soon become equally boring. | Balance
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is the word.\ A batance that begins with an Individual's encounter with Jesus Christ and
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then flows into a life of discipleship\\ Thet encounter ~ that deeply personal dialogue
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between a person and Jesus Christ Is where i+ begins:\i+ is what we are about.
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Christianity Is personal as well as corporate.\ Christ is Lord of the World: Lord of

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the, Church: \sne Lora of individual men and women \ His own life focused on Individuals
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like the woman in the story.\ SO we ought fo to be moved to reflect on our mission as a church
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and as individuals\ Who are the counterparts to that desparate, lonely woren? \ who_o out
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ere is crying to be known and loved and cared tor eople jn a @ - poo

people caught in a judicial system that reserves its bast justice for those who can afford

reputable attorney

\ to be poor and black and in jail is to be alone ina special wy\
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And so in the name of Jesus Christ who was notorious in singling out these kinds of people

for individual attention our Church gets Involved \ And you are invited to partictpate In
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the Offering for Love and Justice,

Who Is lonely and alienated and afraid and ashamed - like the woman in the story?
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Visit a home for the aged some tine. [See how our very best intentions end up robbing
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people of their_Individuality by calling them honey" instead of using their names See

how they sit in utter aloneness wafting for the Doctor who is too busy to call; walting
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for anybody to say they matter.
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Jesus gave people new life by taking them serlously as individuals \and in his name -

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for his sake - that saving ministry Is ours. \sesus walked right into the grubby lives

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of people no one else was even noticing. \he gianit tle any strings to his saving love:\
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he didn't Insist that they obey the rules or fearn the right words \ He identified with
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them wherever they wore \ Fx witderness Is too desolate for carist*fis the way one man

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GRASPING FOR STRAWS ~6-

puts iv.
Now ordinarily ~ the theology of Christ's presence is usual |
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to go cut into the world and serve hin\ eur this time - for once ~ let's get oursetves

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into the picture.\ Let's see ourselves In that nameless woman who came to him out of
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desparate need.
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Let's see our needs in har condition:}our anxleties about our marriages, our families,
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our jobs, our futures let's #e our sometimes quiet desparation as part of the story: fond

let's be open to the Good News that it Is precisely at the point of our need that Jesus
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Christ is available. | A lot of people probably touched him in that jostling crowd. | The

one that got his attention - the one that was set free and told to go in peace - was the

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Gone woman who needed him - who wasn'+ afraid to admit it | and who had the childish audacity

or courage - or faith - to reach out and arab his robe,
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Thats the only thing required:| we have to take the same risk she aid we have to
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become vuinerable by making that difficult admission that"! am in need - | hurt - I'm
lonely - l'm afraid - |'m ashamed. ’_|

The promisesthat many of us have never gotten around to trying - Is thatheis

there ~ available - ready to help and heal.

= One unlikely woman tried ft.\ She reached out and grabbed his robe | And he said

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| "Your faith has made you volt.\.60 in posce Aen]

Father, we've been taught all our lives to be self-sufficient: to need nothing. And so
we stand in the crowd as a savier walks by. Give us the courage to reach out and grab

his robe, AMEN