TO BE WHOLE AGAIN

Mark 5:27,28
September 22, 1985, 11:00 a.m.
John M. Buchanan

Fourth Presbyterian Church

Alexis de Tocqueville was one of the earliest and most astute observers of the
American character, Scholars are amazed at the accuracy of what he saw and
anticipated in our emerging national identity. Among the most interesting
observations he made about Americans one hundred and fifty years ago was this:
they are, he wrote, "locked in the solitude of thier own hearts." It has been
exaggerated of course but the self-reliant, independent individual is an American
hero of mythic proportions. Someone once noted that the prototype American was
really Benjamin Franklin but that he will never make it to mythic proportions
because he was too gregarious. We prefer our heros kneeling in the snow at
Valley Forge, alone; or pacing the lonely halls of the White House, agonizing
over the war within the Union, cut off from others, but sufficient,

That almost primal American celebration of individualism has served us well.
From Washington at Valley Forge, to Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, to
Alan Shepard, John Glenn and Pete Rose, we have chosen strong self-reliance as
our favorite model. In simpler times Gary Gooper gathered it up for us; quiet,
self-contained, capable. In these latter days, however, the mythic characteri-
zation has become a caricature, with a not-very-attractive twist. Individual
self-reliance now includes total, almost pathological disregard for other life,
A recent survey to determine who the heroes are to whom young people look dis-
covered that an unfeeling penchant for depersonalized violence has replaced
simple independence...in the 1985 favorites -- Clint Eastwood and Sylvester
Stallone's character, Rambo.

At a more pedestrian level, however, de Tocqueville's observation about our
being "locked in the solitude of our own hearts" is now turning up in what
comtemporary analysts of our culture see as epidemic loneliness. A feature

in the New York Times Magazine some time ago described a poignant new American
dilemma. We are observably lonely.

We know all too well by now that ties of family and community which have held
people together since the beginning of civilization are rapidly disintegrating.
Twenty-Five percent of the people in America live alone. Most Americans do not
live where they were borm. Many of those who live alone, away from the place
where they were born, choose to live that way. Many are the first women in

their families to elect an alternative to marriage, homemaking and childrearing.
Many who live alone are divorced. The American divorce rate has never been higher
and is the highest in the world. Ome out of five American children currently
lives with a single parent and the ratio will narrow quickly.

Those are not intended as value judgements, They are the objective data of recent
and radical social change. And one of the clear results is widespread lonliness.
How are we dealing with it? Notvery creatively, apparently. It has been suggested
hat some random violence results from personal isolation and alienation, and
sometimes is a simple bid for attention. Lonely people smile back at the tele-
vision newsperson, we are told; others watch the Soaps for human companionship;
Singles bars provide a place where one will find other human beings to assuage

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loneliness; massage parlors produce human contact for a price; dial-a-porn
provides the verbal fantasy of intimacy; and more people than you and I might
imagine dial "Time" and "Temperature" over and over again in order to hear a
friendly human voice,

Business understands the power of the dynamic. The Times article pointed out

that "The promise of companionship sells everything from banking services,
("You Have a Friend at Chase Manhattan'), to condominiums, ('You Can't Be a

Stranger Long.'}" The telephone company took direct aim, of course, with
"Reach Out and Touch Someone” —- preferably in another state, during prime
time. ; ,

Even the new, high-tech language of the 80's, is inclined to be distant and
depersonalized. The author concluded: - "We speak of "networking' and 'inter-
facing’ but underneath we're really lookin. for people we can depend on, people
who will laugh at our jokes and listen to our nightmares. We don't really want

to interface with our networks. We want to cuddle our grandmothers and take

walks with our lovers. Above all, we want someone to talk to," (Alone: Yearning
for Companionship in America, N.Y.T. Magazine, 8/15/82).

Loneliness -- "pain turned inward" Someone called it -- the result of soctal
change and mobility; no respecter of age, sex nor station in life, It is a
contemporary phenomenon, but it also describes a woman who appears briefly but
compellingly in the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to Mark. Her hour on
the Biblical stage is so abreviated we never learn her name. Her story is most
touching, but in essence she is an interruption,

. The main narrative has to do with a man by the name of Jarius whose daughter is
terribly ill. Jarius has found Jesus, has told Jesus that his daughter is dying,
‘has pled with Jesus to come: Just at this dramatic moment, when we are leaning
forward in our seats to hear what Jesus will say and to see whether he will set
aside the day's agenda to take care of the little girl -- just at the critical
moment here comes a woman, a filthy outcast, shoving her way through the crowd
and grabbing his robe. Her timing could not. have been worse -- or better.

Who was she?

She had what Mark calls, with consistant clinical detail, a 'flow of blood’.
Modern: medicine would regulate it, cure it. But inher day it was mysterious,
ominous, frightening, regarded with general disgust. For twelve years she had
borne. this embarrassing, humiliating curse. I have enjoyed suggesting to my
physician friends that some things have not changed much, according to Mark's
description of her dilemma..."she had suffered much under many physicians, and
had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse." But what
those words really describe is ‘total isolation -- loneliness,

Listen to how a woman writer describes it, .Madelein L'Engle has her say:

"I was tired from hurting,
Exhausted, revolted by my body,
Unfit for any man.

I wanted to rest,

To sleep without pain or filthiness or torment.
I really don't know why

I thought he could help me

When all the doctors

With all their knowledge

Had left me still drained

And bereft of all that makes

A woman's life worth living."

(The Irrational Season, P125)

Madelein L'Engle helps us see what is really going on in this brief incident.

In addition to her physical condition, which she didn't understand, and which
presented her with monumental personal, public and aesthetic problems, the

woman was regarded as unclean, impure, by Jewish law. She was virtually taboo.
She was barred from any kind of religious ceremony. Normal human relationships
were simply out of the question. People did not want.to be near her, were afraid,
in fact, of.contact with her, In her culture, belonging to a family and through
a family to the people, the nation gave a person identity. This woman. was. cut
off from both.. For all practical purposes she was a non-person.

The religious problem is that Levitical Law, which every Jew knew, held that

her condition was contageous. The law reads -- "if anyone touches an unclean
thing -- or if he touches human uncleanliness he shall be guilty." There's the
problem. Contact with uncleaniness renders a person not only unclean but guilty.
The tradition was that the woman was somehow responsible for her condition. She
not only felt awful, her religion made her feel worse, The idea is not far from
the pop theological formula Job's friends tried on. him, namely that. one's physi-
cal ailments are a result of sin. This woman's culture, her people, her religion,
told her she was unclean, guilty, unacceptable, unfit for human contact every
single day for twelve years... She was, that is to say, utterly alone, and lonely
in a way. words cannot begin adequately to convey. It is no wonder that. she
avoided confronting Jesus face to face. It is no wonder that she acted so fool-
ishly, crawling up behind him. and grasping at his. robe, in some primitive gesture
of hopeless desperation. It is no wonder that she didn't make an appointment,
describe her symptoms and ask for a prescription. .

When: you and I think about this story, ° we are troubled, stymied by the seientific
improbabilities.. The claim here seems like superstition, encouraging the kind of
healing one encounters on television every Sunday, and in miracle cures available
in back street clinics somewhere-south of the border. "Stay with the physicians"
we tell. this woman. and rightly. so. Gynecology, not theology, is where-this pro-

blem willbe resolved. ;

Except this-is a problem in theology, psycology, sociology. That's the point.
This. story is about a woman whose illness was more than psychological, and it

is testimony to the miracle of God's Kingdom on earth --- in which people reach
across. the barriers which isolate and. exclude, a kingdom in which all the taboos
are. gone, a kingdom in which: people live whole, full, vital lives.

What is happening in this incident is that Jesus’ is dramatically ignoring a
traditional, time-honored religious and cultural taboo. Again, let's listen to

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a woman theologian on the topic. . Rosemary .Radford Reuther writes: "Jewish
law regarded a woman with a .flow of. blood as.unclean and polluting anyone who
she touched. Jesus" reaction to the woman shows his deliberate discarding of
this taboo, while the woman's own terror at being discovered in touching his
garment reveals her awareness at.violating the taboo." (New Woman/New Earth, P64).

Jesus xeached across the.wide gap between-this woman and the human race and drew
her back in. The power that went.out of him, power she felt, isnone other than
the power that went out of him, power she felt, is noreother than the power of
-God;-the power of creation, the power that creates life out of nothing, here

. drawing a woman back into the human family, here giving the gift of wholeness
again.

““Madeleinb' Engle differentiates between curing and healing. Curing is science;

_ healing is art, religion, ‘gift, she reminds us... Dr. James Lynch,.-at the Univer-
‘sity of Maryland Medical School, has written a book under the intriguing title:
The’ Broken Heart: Medical’ Consequences of Loneliness in‘ which he concludes that
“the rise of 1 neliness may be one of the most serious sources of disease in the
20th century.” It has been noted that the touch of a nurse's hand can sometimes
slow.a racing pulse: that the simple hospital routine of pulse-taking ‘often

calms arrhythmic heart beats.

The Rev. Benjamin Weir, Presbyterian Missionary in Lebanon, who was’ released
last. week after. 16 months as a political hostage, gave strong and moving testi-

mony in-a press conference Thursday morning’ to the power of God to: sustain his

“people ‘when they are alone. Ben Weir talked about the strength received when
‘hostages were allowed to be together occasionally, to read the Bible and pray
and talk with one another, and he talked about the power of God which he exper-
Asneed: because he knew he was being prayed for and’ loved...

“What this incident is about is the power of God ‘to restore wholeness. The real
miracle and the-real meaning here is that-a human. being was healed, made whole
again because love reached across the taboos of culture and religion and touched
— and. welcomed a lonely woman back into the’ human family.

There is, it seems to me, a clear word from the Lord here about the special love
of Christ for those society has excluded. I don't think it is possible to read
‘this text and not hear the mandate to the church of Jesus Christ to stand with
- those who have been shut out, to advocate their cause, to draw them in. That

word is not always a welcome one. The tendency is to-exclude, in the human
practice of religion, to narrow the borders, to constrict the door of entry,

still to condemn those who ‘are different by nature or ‘by choice, as unclean,
unfit, taboo.

The word, there is a reminder, as we deal with some of the toughest human issues
“on society! s “agenda, that the ‘people ‘who ‘shut this: woman out ‘did/so out of zeal
for religion and for moral purity. They knew she was unclean and guilty. Jesus
broke through that. The story is an uncomfortable reminder that sometimes it
takes the power of God's Kingdom to overcome religious: zeal and fanatical moral

purity.

There is a good word here about wholeness: a reminder that God dees not intend
for us to live restricted lives. Human life lived fully is the object of the

Christian enterprise. Christ came that human life might be loved fully:.

that we might have fullness, wholeness in our living. That is a necessary
reminder because frequently religious zeal turns. restrictive and in. the name

of faithfulness human life is hemmed in, denied, constricted. Jesuit Henri
Nouwen wrote, in a monastery prayer: "0 Lord, you did not chose the lukewarm,
the neutral, or the middle-of-the-road type. You called very outspoken people,
able to experience ecstacy as well as depression. I thank you Lord for this
comforting understanding. Let me have the courage to live fully even when it
is risky, vibrantly even when it leads to pain, and spontaneously even when

it leads to mistakes." (A Cry for Mercy, P.139)..

"The glory of God", the early church theologian Iranaeus said in the 2nd century,
"is a human being fully alive." That is the object of the healing Jesus. did.

It was a cure for her malady, but even more important it healed her whole person,
it restored her to her full humanity, her wholeness. That is God's will for you

and for me as well.

We live in a time which requires particular strength... As a church we believe
ourselves called to be God's obedient people in a world that is not: always
pleased with that. .faithfulness.. We Presbyterians particularly define and
evaluate ourselves as a church on the basis of service. rendered and witness
made in the world. . The text reminds us that Jesus was on. the side of the excluded,
the poor, the sick, the oppressed. It reminds us that there are a lot of people :
in our society Like that woman. It is a reminder that there are between 6,900
and 12,000 homeless women on the city streets of Chicago every night. They are
special to Jesus Christ.

But the text is not only a reminder to us of our responsibility in Christ, it

is for us, At the same time the Gospel of Christ is a prod to our conscience,

it is balm for our spirit. It is about justice and it is also about our whole-
ness, our salvation. In Christ we are called to feed his sheep and we are called
as well to acknowledge that we are among the sheep who are hungry and for whom

ie is food and meat and drink.

Salvation is the new life, the rebirth that comes from knowing that one is loved
by God. Interestingly, the psychologists tell us that wholeness, health, depends
on self-esteem, self-acceptance, which ordinarily comes from knowing oneself
esteemed and accepted by others.

That's why isolation and loneliness is so very*painful. The late Revel Howe
said it beautifully: "the deepest want of all is the desire to be at one with
someone, to have someone who can be at one with us, and through whom we can find
at-oneness with ail."

(Man's Need and God's Action, P.9).

So we conclude with the directness and simplicity of this brief story, this
interruption in the larger narrative. The story is for us. Deep inside there

is occasional loneliness, isolation, alienation. It strikes at odd times: in

the quiet of late evening, in the middle of a sleepless night, in intense physical ©
pain, inane cocktail party conversation, in disappointment with others or with
oneself, in the frustration of not being able to tell another how deeply we

love, and of course, in our being surprised by our own finiteness, our sense

that one day we will be alone.

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The story is good news because there were ne conditions attached to her healing,

apparently, She probably could not have passed a very simple theological exan-
ination. He didn't require her to take vows of moral purity. We don't even
“know: that she followed him. What we know is that when no one else would touch

_ her, he did. When all else had failed, when in desperation she pushed through

“a crowd and reached out for his robe, love reached across the divide and made
“her whole again, aca oe ee

-°The story is for us and itis about us. And it is about a Lord who loves us

first, who comes to the place we are, and who waits only for’ our acknowledgement

_of need, of loneliness, of incompleteness, some insistant clutching at his robe

“inorder to heal us, It is about a God who loves us so much that in the
complexity of life itself; he stretches out. a hand to take ours and to make us

~- Whole again’. . . Amen,

God of mercy, break through our carefully constructed defenses, our busyness,
our self-sufficiency, our cultivated ability to stand alone. Break through

and give us the courage to acknowledge our need. Then give us. strength to reach
out, in faith, to you. Heal us, God of love. Make us whole, Through Jesus
Christ our Lord . . , Amen.