Faith Is What Happens On Our Way TO Somewhere Else

Sermon-Year B-Proper 8-4thPentecost June 28, 2009
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
When I was 15, I got sick with a mysterious illness. I spent a year not feeling well, and finally wound up having surgery. But it meant that I missed a good sized chunk of high school. Also, I was pretty shy. So when we went back for my 40th class reunion last week in Kansas City, I didn’t feel like I knew very many people from “the old days”. We went to t wo reunion events , and both times I felt pretty disconnected from my class. Some pictures were posted online after the reunion, I am not making this up, and Debby and I were shown seated at a table with this caption underneath the picture: “Debby Hagan”. Period. No mention of the guy with her. Thank God she was there.
But besides the reunion, we had a chance to spend time with cousins and friends that I hadn’t seen in many many years. We stopped along the way and I was reconnected with a lot of people that were from a long time ago. It was a very good vacation, but not because of the reunion. But I’ll get back to that. This is my point today, Faith is what happens on our way to somewhere else, to do something important.
If you remember from last week, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee in a terrible wind, into the land of the Gentiles. He and his disciples went through the storms and faced a crisis of faith before they could get to the people who were foreigners to them.
This week they have come back to the Jewish side of the lake. But the same problems persist. People are in trouble, people are sick, people are struggling- unable to find God. People keep getting in the way of the gospel.
Jesus gets out of the boat and is immediately beset by a father with a sick daughter. This father, Jairus, (whose name means, "he who will be awakened or he is enlightened") is desperate. He does not come to Jesus in faith-he comes in anguish. Have you ever had someone who is near you who is near death. YOU WILL TRY ANYTHING, ANYONE if they have a chance to help. This is Jairus. My daughter is dying, HELP HER. And so Jesus starts towards the ruler’s house. Then, the story takes a detour. Jesus gets distracted, The crowds around Jesus are growing, and yet suddenly he feels someone touch his robe. A woman has been hemorrhaging for years, suffering. And now a second person is in trouble. Jesus is on his way to help one person, and now someone else has reached out to him. How old is the little girl? The woman who touches Jesus, how long has she been bleeding? Both are women, both associated with the number 12, both “contagious” in Jewish law. The woman had been using physicians for many years, the little girl’s father was the leader of the synagogue. In other words, people of authority and power had tried and failed to help. Both the woman and the little girl, are anonymous-we never know their names. Jesus simply calls the woman, “daughter, and Jairus’ daughter he calls, 8 0little girl”. So many things tie these two females together in this story. Jesus heals the woman who had been bleeding, and then hurries to the child. When he arrives at the house, he is told that the young woman is dead-perhaps if he hadn’t been held up on the way, been “distracted” , things might have been different. But he goes in, takes her by the hand, and bids her to rise. And she is revived. “According to theologian Barbara Brown Taylor, Jesus then preaches the "shortest sermon of his career: 'Do not fear,' he says to the grief-besotted man, 'only believe.'" Do not fear; only believe. Taylor says this sermon was not just for Jairus' benefit, and not just for the early church Mark addressed, but for "all of us who suffer from the human condition, who are up against things we cannot control." "Healing Powers," Kate Huey, Weekly Seeds, i.UCC.org, 2009. Faith is what happens on our way to somewhere else, to do something important.
All the stories in this section of Mark are about the Kingdom of God, and they revolve around the things that separate us or drive us from that kingdom. Today’s stories are about fear. So were last week’s. And the week before that. This part of Mark’s gospel recounts stories about the things that get in the way of our faith, that undermine us, and divert us while we’re on the way to someplace else, preparing to do something important. John Lennon had a famous quote once, “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” That line jumped out at me more than once over the last couple of weeks.
On the way to our reunion, we stopped one night to see a cousin and his wife that we hadn’t seen in years. We had a great time, and in many ways it was like we had never been apart. The next night we drove 150 miles farther and again stopped to see a different cousin and his wife that we hadn’t connected with, we guessed, since the last family funeral many years earlier. Again, we had a lot of fun. After a few days we went and stayed with an old buddy of mine and his wife. At one time he and I had been very close, but then I had let the friendship lapse. We picked up where we had left off over 25 years ago. Again, it was wonderful. But none of these had to do with my school reunion. I was on my way somewhere else, and these things just happened.
Jesus is on his way to preach the good news to his own people. But a little girl is sick and he is detoured. And on his way to see her, a woman in distress reaches out to him. And his visit to the little girl is delayed. We hear this over and over, while Jesus is on his way to do something important, life gets in the way and it always feels like the gospel is diverted. Except it’s not. “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”
Today’s gospel is called sandwiching, a story within a story. We hear of a story, it’s interrupted, and we hear of a second story. And Mark does this to make a point. It can get a little frustrating. But it always turns out that the goal is achieved “in spite” of the deflections. In other words, the gospel happens. The good news is preached, the kingdom is moved closer. After awhile it20starts to dawn on us that the gospel doesn’t happen regardless of the distractions-maybe the gospel IS the distractions.
I have found this to be so true in my life that whenever I have something really big coming up, like say, a 40th high school reunion, I start looking for the diversions, the distractions-and watching for them. You know we’re always on our way to something important, and something else gets in the way? Maybe that thing that gets in the way was the lesson the whole time. I went for a reunion with classmates, and instead was reunited in a wonderful way with friends and family. And because I was pondering this gospel, I knew something like this would probably happen. Faith is what happens on our way to somewhere else, to do something important.
Listen for how often Jesus teaches that the opposite of faith isn’t doubt, but fear. Fear gets in our heads when we believe that what we want and what is happening, are two different things. Like our health or the health of someone we love. Or a reunion. Or being separated from those we love. Or losing someone. We become afraid that life is spinning out of control. And our faith and trust in God is undermined. We start out on a road of faith, and life gets in the way. And we become afraid. We might not reach our goal, we may lose the thing, the person, whose important.
Life is a sandwich. We have a purpose, and other things get in the way. If we listen, and watch closely enough, I think, we learn that it’s the things that get in the way that turn ou t to be our real purpose, our real goal. I went to a reunion and wound up being reconnected with old friends. Jesus was on his way to preach the gospel, and wound up preaching the gospel. A child dies, and two people get healed. We are working on something that is crucial, maybe even something holy, and life gets in the way. Faith is what happens on our way to somewhere else, to do something important.


Mark 5:21-43
21When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. 22Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.”
24So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. 26She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” 29Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” 31And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32He looked all around to see who had done it. 33But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
35While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” 36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” 37He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” 42And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.