"Fear and Trembling”

Will you pray with me….

As we begin this morning, a bit of history of the gospels. Mark is believed to be the first written gospel, built on by the other three, Matthew, Luke and John. At 16 chapters, Mark is shorter than the others by a significant margin. In what may be a point of interest …Luke has 19,400 words in the Greek text, followed by Matthew at 18,200 and John at 15,400. Mark in his brevity is 11,200 words. Theologian Garry Willis offers that “we once thought the Gospels were the biography of Jesus followed by creed. We now know that the reverse is true. The Christology of Jesus, his Divinity, is the point of Mark’s Gospel.”  The other gospel writers added more of the biography of Jesus because they came later than Mark and knew Jesus so much better.. Willis claims that the story of Jesus’ life was added…after his resurrection, which proved to all the followers, believers and doubters that he was the Messiah.

Given this day in Jesus’ life as described by Mark in today’s scripture, He would have to be more than human to make it all work. Let’s look back for a moment. In the previous verses in Mark, specifically, Mark 5:10-20, Jesus is on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, in the community of the Geresenes. Unlike the Jewish community Jesus visits in today’s scripture, they are Gentiles. Here Jesus begins His day dealing with a demon from the tombs. When the demon saw Jesus he ran to Him even though he feared Jesus was there to torment him as had others. The man’s name was Legion, “for we are many,” says the demon. Jesus releases the man’s demon and fills the 2000 swine grazing on the hillside with the demonic presence. The swine rush to the sea and all drown. The people are angry and afraid. They ask Jesus to leave at once. The cleansed man asks to go with Jesus….but Jesus says no. Go home to your family and friends and tell them of the mercy of the Lord. Everyone he told was amazed. And this was just the start of Jesus’ day!

Some of us can relate to Jesus’ busy day, described in Mark.  Some of us are either true multi-tuskers or wannabes. Lots of transactions are not too much in today’s world, although most of us aren’t releasing demons. Drive the kids to school, go to work, go to the gym, go grocery shopping. Home to make supper, baths, homework….does your heart race here, does your head hurt? In contrast, If we can place ourselves back in the first century, it’s quite remarkable what Jesus does in a day.

Following the cleansing of the demonic man and the death of 2000 swine, Jesus goes ahead to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd had already gathered in anticipation of His arrival. You might have thought he’d call it a day, but not Jesus.  Jesus is the living God, the Messiah in their midst. Some of the crowd knew this for sure with little proof. They went on faith alone. Even the mightiest of the Jewish leaders were drawn to Jesus.

Jairus was the leader of the synagogue. His daughter is ill, and he fears she is dying. He falls at Jesus’ feet, begging Him to come to his aid, and cure his daughter. Jairus abandons his protocol by even talking to Jesus. Don’t we all, when we’re desperate?

Jesus has been run out of town by the Gentiles across the sea, but word of the miracle may have made its way to Jairus. As Jesus listens to Jairus plea, further commotion arises. And now, Mark, the clever gospel writer, inserts yet another story to show the impact of Jesus’ Presence. Unbeknownst to Jesus, another petitioner approaches Him as He considers what action to take with Jairus’ daughter. Here begins the story-within-a-story that is the heart of our discussion this morning.

As the crowd is closing in to see Jesus, He feels someone touch him. It was a woman beset by 12 years of hemorrhaging.  Her condition was considered to be pure filth and she was not allowed anywhere; worship or the baths, or anywhere she might offend the healthy folks in the town. She came up behind Jesus and touched his cloak…she said…”If I can but touch His cloak I will be healed.” She went on Faith….she had no proof. How absurd of her to assume she could have the healing power of Jesus. But her audacity pays off. She stops hemorrhaging and falls at Jesus’ feet in “fear and trembling.”

What makes these parallel stories even more meaningful is that both subjects are women, who were far less than powerful in the social structure of the day.  Jesus ignores the fact that these women are ritually unclean and triumphs over disease and death. Historical reference also adds that both victims are bound in the significant Jewish historical reference to the number 12. Jairus daughter is 12 years old, and the woman has been ill for 12 years. Both are daughters, in a community where sons have priority. There are 12 tribes in Israel history and there are 12 disciples.

Every parent who has ever had a seriously ill child can certainly identify with Jairus, cant we? And any one of us who has been seriously ill ourselves can identify with the woman.  How can we reassure our children that they will be fine in the hospital when we are fearful? How can we reassure ourselves?  Healing often takes a different path than we might imagine. Betsy and I have an extended family member who is 18 and just finished her first year at Bridgewater Sate College. As a young girl, she overcame a near-fatal brain tumor. Just this past week she was operated on for malignant tumors in her colon. As we spoke at a recent family gathering I asked her about the upcoming operation. She dropped her head, rubbed her eyes and said…”John, all anyone is talking about is my surgery. I don’t want to be just that. I want to get better and then finish my archeological research project immediately. I’ll be ok John; I just want to get back to school and the things I love. I’ll take your prayers.” She has faith that her healing will come following her surgery. All early indications are that she is right. We can’t promise too much up front, as we know much of our faith and healing comes after the fact and in ways we did not anticipate.

Back to the scripture. From the experience of the healing, the text takes us to another deeper spiritual question: What does it mean to be healed? Is it more than just overcoming your illness?

In today’s gospel, one woman is healed, and the other is restored to life. Obviously these are stories with happy endings. Yes, Jesus is the source of healing through faith. Granted, both these women will eventually die naturally. But the message of faith in the healing power of Jesus is clear. We cannot mistake the resuscitation of the young women for ultimate resurrection. But we can imagine that from this day forward, both women will rely on faith in Jesus. Even in the worst of times, healing doesn’t necessarily mean getting physically better. But the power is transformative in other ways.

I mentioned to you previously a woman I prayed for every day as Chaplain at Brigham and Women’s hospital two summers ago. A young woman. brutalized and burned by her ex-husband was in an induced coma all summer due to the pain from her burns and other injuries. As the chaplain for the Burn and Trauma unit at the Brigham, I stood by her bed, prayed for her, and sang to her virtually every day. There was a feeling in her family that it might be better if she didn’t make it at all, rather than be alive in her condition. She did make it, after 48 surgeries, skin grafts and a variety of other medical challenges. I saw her at The Spaulding Rehab after she was released from the Brigham after nearly four months. She was blind, deaf and could barely speak due to her skin grafts. All she cared about was her two daughters. She asked for nothing more than to be able to see them grow into women. Just last Sunday there was a cover story about Carmen and her daughters on the front page of the Boston Globe. Two years after her hospitalization. The article was entitled…”The courage to live…..and to see.”          ‘Here is what Carmen has to teach about healing.

After a series of corneal transplants her vision as nearly zero in July 2008. The doctors at Mass Eye and Ear were deeply saddened they couldn’t restore Carmen at least some vision. Then on May 7 this year, a miracle happened. Carmen was sitting in her chair and yawned deeply…somehow the force of the yawn migrated tears to her eyes and the cornea. She could see…she looked around the room. It wasn’t perfect, but she knew that she could see. Carmen saw the table, the bookshelves came into focus. As her 14 yr old daughter Hannah came home from track practice, Carmen said….”I can see you.” A face she hadn’t seen in two years, and feared she would never see again was right before her eyes. Eventually Carmen went to a mirror to look at herself. She used the word “disfigured.” Carmen said, “My blindness was a blessing because I am not sure I could have dealt with it then like I am now.”

Carmen can even read with a magnifying machine, and she can pay her bills and clean her kitchen. She’ll consider more plastic surgery to free her scar tissue binding. “I look the way I look, she says. I will not let this run my life. I am going to work through it. I’ll be ok.”

So what are we to do, those of us who do not have such monumental hurdles and extraordinary journeys as my friend Carmen. What are we to do about our prayers for healing that seem to go unanswered? We wonder if God is listening.  All of us are not as fortunate as the two women in the scripture. We try to believe in, and hope for, a miracle. But, dramatic healing does not always take place in response to our prayers for us and for our loved ones. Here is where we experience healing as spiritual peace and some level of acceptance even in the face of disappointment when we don’t heal physically. Here is where we feel the continuous love and Presence of God in our toughest times. Sometimes it’s all we have to go on.

Jesus arrives to raise the young woman from the dead when all feel there is no hope; it’s too late to do anything. The same was so for the raising of Lazarus in the Gospel of John. We know now, some 2000 years later that Jesus’ power is timeless and boundless. In addition to the chronology of the gospels, we learn about the Love of God through Jesus Christ. Our option and call is to determine what happens in us as we live in the gospels. I suspect that is why faith learning is a lifetime process. Think about your own journey along the way. Was yours a straight line, always turning up? Mark’s point is that Jesus is the Life and Resurrection. If you believe in Him, you have hope for healing. The two women’s lives are changed forever. It’s hard to imagine they would just go back to a regular schedule. Like Carmen and Erin, our healing is about more than just our physical bodies and our lifeline. There might always be something to deal with; it is more about how we see the challenge.

In Marks’ Gospel, Jesus triumphs over disease before it takes command. He triumphs over death, after death takes its victim. Jesus triumphs over death in his own worst hour. Like the woman in the crowd, we do well when we are audacious about our belief and trust in God through the healing powers of Jesus.

We will be in Fear and Trembling as we feel the power of His touch. Like this healed woman, like Carmen, we pray that our eyes may be opened to see the risen Jesus in our midst. As Kierkegaard says simply and beautifully…”what an absurd proposition to believe that in God, all things are possible.” The greatness of God’s love does not compete with the improbable, the unexpected, or the unforeseen.

So for us, those who remain followers of Jesus Christ, we experience Jesus as the healer, the one who abides with us in acceptance, intimacy and touch. Our faith in Jesus can help us heal, make us whole and give us peace. While we will not live forever, we will be alive in the spirit to face all that we can handle.

Jesus taught us that we are shaped by our relationships to others…in Paul’s’ words…there are many parts to the body…, , but there is but one body…neither gentile nor Jew… Jesus made this clear this day on two shores of Galilee. He bypassed all cultural boundaries to touch and heal the women. Our relationships in life, our church, and other relationships are not just busy add ons. We bloom, blossom in relationships where our authentic nature emerges to transform us and others.

Henri Nouwen offers a beautiful perspective on how we proceed in life, when what we need the most is courage. Nouwen said “Courage is often connected to taking risks.” Jumping the Grand Canyon on a motor bike, or crossing the ocean in a rowboat is a conscious risk of one’s life. An ironman Triathlon is another ultimate physical test requiring courage. But, says Nouwen, “Spiritual Courage is something else. It follows the deepest desires of our hearts, sometimes at the risk of losing fame and popularity. It asks of us the willingness to lose our temporal lives in order to gain eternal life.” Or maybe spiritual courage is best seen when we are daring enough, audacious enough to ask God to heal us when we are hopeless. Healing is the gift received by God’s Grace and presence. The very thought of such courage can leave us, like the women in today’s scripture “in fear and trembling.”

Closing Prayer

Jesus, you are our companion in both life and death, your love is steadfast and never ends. Touch us with your healing grace that, restored to wholeness, we may live out our calling as your resurrection people.   AME