Trusting in Resurrection
Mark 5:21-43
Our Gospel reading offers us two rich stories of healing and trust. A man of high social status comes to Jesus and falls at his feet. This alone is shocking to the crowd. Jairus names Jesus Teacher a title of great honour particularly coming from a leader of the local synagogue. The man’s daughter is near death and at 12 years old generally would not be consider that important. Her death wouldn’t have been a terribly unusual event for children at the time. He begs Jesus to come to save his daughter. Repeatedly pleads with him. How desperate does one have to be before turning to an itinerant preacher for help? On the way back with Jesus, the man’s servants come and tell him his daughter has died. Here is the moment of complete despair. Does he look to Jesus with defeat and see hope? Jesus tells him to trust. “Do not be afraid, only believe.” They go to the Jairus house and Jesus heals the girl. The last item of the story is Jesus telling them to give her something to eat. This is a sign of restoration to the family.
The second story of a woman is also a trust story. Like the young girl the woman no social status. She was once a wealthy widow but all her wealth has been used in trying to find a cure to her menstrual bleeding. By definition of the purity rules she is unclean and touching a man, particularly touching a holy man, is a serious social offence. Yet she weaves through the crowd reasoning if only she could touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloak she could be healed. She reaches out, through the crowd and touches. She is healed. Here is when it gets very interesting, Jesus stops and asked “who touched me.” The disciples thinks he is crazy to ask. He is in a crowd. But Jesus felt the “power” leaving him; the energy leaving him. When she admits to her action he doesn’t condemn her but calls her daughter. The family term is not lightly used. Jesus is acknowledging her right as part of his new family to the gifts and resources of the family. When he declares that she is healed it is more about the healing of her social status. She belongs again. She came in trust and belief and was made whole.
Both stories are about trust and belief and both include a restoration of relationship and status. Both are resurrection stories. I wonder for this woman was the call of resurrection to the little girl within her. Little girl rise up. Such a simple command. The simplicity and the action with the little girl echos the first healing in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus comes to Simon and Andrew’s house and heals Simon’s mother in Law. He took her by the hand and lifted her up. Rise up Little girl. Rise up from your position of the being least. Rise up when others cry defeat outside your door. Rise up when the crowd blocks your approach to hope. Rise up little one, trust and believe.
Once the United Church was the wealthy powerful one of our culture. We once were the wealthy woman but then the bleeding started. There was a retired minister in my last church who was ordained in 1966 the first year the membership of the United church declined. He would joke about taking the blame for the start of the bleeding. The UCC has had a few attempts as stopping the decline. Ventures in Mission in the eighties was a big deal. A number of new congregations were planted. At 25 years old we joined one and watched it grow quickly through the decade. A one point there were 100 children registered in Sunday school. But it was just a blip on the graph of the downward trend. The Wonder Cafe in the 2000 was another one. Great fun but I am not sure it changed much. Sure there are outliers of success and growth but we are closing and amalgamating congregations all the time. The bleeding continues. Recently the General Council developed a strategic plan, which included creating 100 new communities of faith our region has staff mandated to help this happen. The plan also includes reducing the church’s green house gases by 80% by 2030. Will this stop the bleeding, the decline or the fear of death? It is encouraging because is a detailed and well thought out plan.
We need to trust in God for the future of the church. About 10 years back I was visiting a friend in a hospice. He was another retired minister. Harry was a down to earth guy who was always genuine and loved the church. My visit was just days before he died, as I was preparing to say goodbye he took my hand with sudden strength and said: “Take care of the Church.” Yikes not a small task. Not something I can take on, not on my own. But then I am not on my own. And neither are you nor this congregation. We walk in the crowd with Jesus towards resurrection and sometimes the healing and wholeness happens in the midst of the chaos of the moment. We are called as a denomination, and as a local Community of Faith to trust in the Holy One, to step through our fear and believe in resurrection.
Do you know the starfish story? After a big storm a man was walking on a long beach. There were thousands of star fish swept up onto the beach by the storm. They were drying out in the hot sun. Ahead he could see someone walking but with each step the person leaned down and picked something up. When the man caught to the person he noticed that they were picking up starfish and throwing them back into the water. The man said: “what are you doing? There are thousands of starfish on the beach you aren’t going to make much difference.” The person leaned down and threw another purple starfish into the water and said: “made a difference to that one.”
Once the United Church was Jairus. As a leading institution in the culture we had influence and power. But at some point that began to change. In the 1990s when I attended seminary it was drilled into my psyche that Christendom was done. We no longer lived in a society where we could assume the place of the church. I remember the end of reading the Lord’s prayer and Bible in our public school. I was in Grade 11 at the time. We went from everyone was assumed to belong to a church to 10 people in the Christian club at high school. From over flowing Sunday Schools to a worry about paying the heating bill. From everyone knowing the Christian story to a young women asking a jeweller for a cross but not the one with the little man on it. Sure we still have the Christmas season with decorations, gifts, food and parties but does the general unchurched even notice that Christ is in the name of the season. Jairus had to surrender his power and fall before Jesus. All his honour and influence meant nothing before the reality of loss and death. All the honour and influence of United Church is in the past, our place in Christendom is meaningless, it means nothing in the reality of loss. Like Jairus we need to fall before the Holy one and beg for healing. We need to hear the message of hope not from a place of power but as the little one. Rise up little girl. Rise up little church.
Trusting in God for the future of our beloved community of faith can be scary. And trusting and believing in the resurrection of the United Church is hard. And trusting in either doesn’t mean we do nothing. After all both the woman and Jairus take action. They go to Jesus for help. The General Council has their detailed strategic plan which includes a new vision: Deep Spirituality, Daring Justice and Bold Discipleship. I urge you to go on the nation church website and read more about the plans and hopes. Implementation on a plan is always the issue but things are happening. When Harry asked me to take care of the Church he wasn’t asking me to do it alone. I can do my part, and meanwhile others do their part and somehow if we rely on the power of the Spirit the whole is blessed. Sure it is scary to face the future and the uncertainty but in faith and hope we step forward, trusting not even or not just in a great strategic plan, but in God’s loving presence in our world, in our congregation, in our lives. We not alone we live in God’s world, who has created and is creating. Thanks be to God. Rise up little one there is resurrection in our future. Amen.
