A Healing Touch?
Homily By The
Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s
Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA, 28 June 2015
Proper
8 Year
B: 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27; Psalm 130; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43
What
do driving a truck,
taking communion to shut-ins
& these 3 sport
balls have to do with today's scriptures?
We
hear commotion in our Gospel as people crowd close to Jesus while the
woman with the 12-year-old health problem reaches out for healing. We
hear commotion as people crowd Jairus' house to mourn the death of
his 12-year-old. What a contrast that noisy crowd is to the quiet
dignity David expresses in his dirge, lamenting the deaths of Saul &
Jonathan in
our lesson from Samuel.
That's how David handles his grief.
A
friend of mine finds great comfort for grief by visiting a loved
one's grave. Another finds comfort wearing her mother's favorite
ring. We all grieve. How we handle it differs.
We hear one difference
in the country song Lee
Brice sings:
“I drive your truck” is
based on an interview with a father whose son died saving a comrade
in Afghanistan.1
“Momma
asked me this morning, if I'd been by your grave
But
that flag and stone ain't where I feel you anyway
I
drive your truck...I burn up every back road in this town... Till all
the pain's a cloud of dust...
Yeah, sometimes I drive your truck”
That's
a physical way to get in touch with pain, to seek healing. We see two
different healings in our Gospel. Healing & new life come to the
two individuals in our Gospel. Their health situations are different.
God's healing touch reaches them differently.
God meets us where we
are.
Look
at these sports balls: baseball, golf, tennis. Touch them & feel
the difference in each. Each is designed for a distinct purpose.
Each
of us has a distinct purpose, a particular gift
that is important for
other people, important to
Jesus' healing work in the world.
Notice
what Jesus tells the woman who touches his clothes: “Your faith
has healed you.” Jesus calls her “Daughter” & tells her to
go in Peace/Shalom/wholeness. Notice what he says to the parents when
he raises the dead child: “Give her something to eat.”
We
come to this holy table to eat. Sometimes we come sick, dying, or
“dead” & in need of resurrection. The nourishment we receive
here is beyond our understanding. We know it is important to share
this bounty with our shut-ins.
A
long-time friend serves as a Lay Eucharistic Visitor in another city.
Monday she
was the shut-in after surgery to remove her diseased kidney. What
would you be doing Sunday afternoon before surgery?
She handled her usual rounds, taking Communion to shut-ins. It
is her gift of healing.
God
heals us, God feeds us in many ways.
Like
these 3 sports balls with special attributes, each of us has a
particular touch, a gift to serve God's beloved daughters & sons.
We have work to do for God.
Our
work is a matter of balance in our lives,
as Paul tells us in Corinthians:
We
are to serve according to what we have, not what we don't have.
A
golf ball just won't work on the tennis court.
What
we have are gifts God gives us to use, gift for healing work. Our
work, our lives, our health issues differ. We are all susceptible to
illness, if only the ubiquitous common cold.
In
his book, The
God Delusion
[pp.192-193],
scientist & author Richard Dawkins, who is an atheist, sees
the common cold virus as a way to explain our human tendency to
believe in God. I see the common cold virus as a metaphor for our
biggest health issue: sin.
If
we don't need Jesus' healing touch for physical health, we know we
certainly need it for spiritual health. We have only to hear or see
headline news to know this. The
headlines can make us sick.
Horrific
murders, including
those by murderers who kill in the name of religion,
scream loudly over good news.
Overshadowed
by horrific news is the news of the June 25th
rescue of plane crash survivors: a mother & her baby found alive
after 4 days lost in a dangerous, remote jungle of Colombia.
Think
what it felt like to them when strong, helping hands touched them &
carried them to safety. The healing grace of good news is
vital for our balanced news diet.
Jesus
shows us balance in the clamoring needs
of the noisy crowds around him. He
balances the urgent & the important. It is important to take time
in prayer to listen to God.
The
word of God came to me: “Shut
up & listen!” I never expected God
to tell me that! I'd wrestled daily in prayer to discern what God
wanted: “What do I do, Lord? I've thought of
this, that, the other, talked with So&So & WhatsHisName,
&Such&Such,” droning until I caught my breath &
God had a split second to “say”: “Shut
up & listen!”
I
had forgotten that holy encounter until a friend shared with me her
recent experience in meditation when God “said”: “Shut
up & listen!”
Our
noisy prayers are like today's clamoring crowds.
Sometimes
the best gift is to sit in silence with someone.
Sometimes it's just
time to hush.
Bibliography
Cardona,
Libardo. “Mother, baby rescued 4 days after Colombia plane crash”
Accessed: 25 June 2015.
http://news.yahoo.com/mother-baby-rescued-4-days-colombia-plane-crash-124250774.html;
Dawkins,
Richard. The
God Delusion.
New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 2006.
Harper’s
Bible Commentary.
General Ed.: James. L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row
Publishers, 1988.
Holy
Bible with the Apocrypha.
New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press.
1989.
“I
Drive Your Truck”. Song Writers: Jimmy Yeary,
Connie Harrington, Jessi Alexander. Singer: Lee Brice Accessed: 25
June 2015.
http://www.metrolyrics.com/i-drive-your-truck-lyrics-lee-brice.html
Jewish
Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation.
New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Lee
Brice - I Drive Your Truck Lyrics | MetroLyrics. Accessed: 25 June
2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Drive_Your_Truck.
The
New American Bible for Catholics.
South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1986.
The
New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha.
Expanded Ed. Revised Stantard Version. Eds: Herbert G. May. Bruce M.
Metzger. New York: Oxford University Press. 1977.
Whitley,
Katerina K. “Living without fear”. Accessed: 23 June 2015.
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2012/06/10/5-pentecost-proper-8-b-july-1-2012/
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