The Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

26 August 2018 at Saint Peter the Apostle, St. Willian & Elizabeth Seton Churches in Naples, FL

Joshua 24, 1-2 & 15-18 + Psalm 34 + Ephesians 5, 21-32 + John 6, 60-69

Now with our final Sunday in John’s sixth chapter, a crisis arises. Given what has been said earlier, it should not come as a surprise to discover that being a disciple of Jesus is more than casually looking for him and eating what he gives. Remember that this is how this crowd came together. They saw a miracle with loaves and fish and they have come looking for Jesus the next day so that they could be fed bread again. Discipleship with Jesus is not casually looking for him and enjoying some physical blessings. It is not about being close and faithful when you want something or feel grateful. It is also about staying close when things go crazy and we don’t understand the how and why of what happens at bad times or times of trial or disappointment. For these people, it is okay when he fed them and healed them. But it was not okay when he told them what to do. Jesus expects faith, obedience, and trust in him in the face of difficulty. He is the only answer for our lives. When the things of this world mean more to us than Jesus, these Gospel verses are about us.  When anything else is more important than being here around this altar, Jesus has something to say to us.

The Gospel and Discipleship with Jesus demands a change in lifestyle and it is uncomfortable. Once those followers realized that following Jesus was going to be more than social networking among friends they began to think twice. Once they acknowledge Jesus as the Holy One of God who has the words of everlasting life there is a truth that must either be ignored or accepted. For many it is easier to ignore it and stay in their comfort zone. Once we meet Jesus face to face, we either have to live as he has taught us or get out. There are no other options.

This is what makes it so difficult to live the Gospel in this world. We cannot accept violence of any kind. We stand for the protection of all life from conception to natural death.  Execution is not a natural death. We are compelled to work on behalf of the poor and vulnerable. We are expected to welcome strangers. We live lives of mercy and forgiveness, and inclusively welcome everyone regardless of who they are and what they believe. We subordinate ourselves to God and do everything we can to live our lives on God’s terms not our own. We protect this earth, all its creatures, and creation itself as faithful stewards, and we cannot deny that out planet has suffered at our hands. We are called to be humble and walk with justice, promote peace, be poor in spirit and maintain a pure heart.

Regardless of our political views on any of these things, the Gospel view remains unshaken and unquestionable, and that’s a tall order that causes to some walk away and they still do. We may be tempted to walk with them from time to time, or we might try compromising the Gospel by suggesting that Jesus “didn’t really mean that.” The Gospel is always the truth, and it cannot be watered down. Once we embrace that truth, we can say with Peter, “Where else can we go?” The Holy One of God speaks in this place now in this liturgy.

If we know there is no other place to go, and no one else speaks the truth, we look again at our personal lives and ask how closely they reflect the values and ideals of God’s Kingdom. We prioritize our lives so that we give due time and attention to those things that truly matter. We can change destructive and distorted patterns of thinking and begin to see all people as unique and valued children of God. When we do, we will silence those who deaminize others to justify taking their children or turning away those who have nothing to give us. And, just as we make time for exercise and for friends, we can develop a strong life of prayer that keeps us centered and focused and spiritually healthy nurturing in our relationship with God. So, the question he asks then he is still asking: “Are with me or are you just going to go your own way.”

The Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

19 August 2018 at Saint Peter the Apostle and St. Willian Churches in Naples, FL

Proverbs 9, 1-6 + Psalm 34 + Ephesians 5, 15-20 + John 6, 51-58

We all look at food differently. For some, food is about taste. Who cares if it’s full of sugar or salt? If it tastes good, it is good. If it’s fried, it’s even better. Bring it on! We’ll work it off tomorrow or after the game if we can get ourselves out of the recliner. There are others who read labels, and they think about food in terms of organic and health promoting. For them it is all about ingredients. For some, food is their best friend, and they are always after “comfort food.” While some think of food as an enemy when you can’t get into most of the things in your closet. Food can be a manifestation of love when a grandmother happily prepares cookies for her grandchildren, and brothers and sisters crowded in a kitchen all helping prepare a Thanksgiving family feast with laughter and joy.

For the past several weeks, we have heard a lot about food in John’s Gospel. Jesus calls himself the Bread of Life and speaks somewhat disturbingly about consuming his flesh and blood. To the scandal and discomfort of those who were listening as he first spoke, he was comparing himself to the Manna in the desert which was to them a constant sign of God’s care and provident presence. They also did not fail to notice, with the talk of eating flesh and drinking blood, an image of the Lamb sacrificed at Passover. They caught the full impact of these implications that he was saying that union with him was the way to eternal life. Small minded critics in the crowd focused on the literal idea of drinking blood which appalled them while really serious critics understood exactly what Jesus was saying and protested the audacity of his claim to be speaking for God.

But, Jesus was speaking the language of the heart and soul, not the language of chemistry or physics. When he presents himself as bread, or as flesh and blood for the eating, the invitation is to receive and take him in such a way that his very life becomes our own. One group of his listeners objected that this idea was bringing God too close, and they objected wanting to keep God “in the temple” or “behind the veil.” The God Jesus revealed to them was just too near and maybe too close. Then there were others who recognized the responsibility of what Jesus was proposing. Worship and keeping the rules was suddenly hot enough. They were going to have to live in the love of God doing the works of God.

Jesus was claiming to be the meeting point between the Father and humanity, and he still is. Taking him in, eating is the way to eternal life that must cause such a transformation that anyone who accepts him will become his branches and share his life as truly as he shared the life of the Father. So, it’s still about food. It’s about food that is shared in love. It is about food that restores health, strengthens the body and the soul, and food that must be shared in service, in love, and with joy. The invitation to eat is an invitation to become.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

15 August 2018 at Saint Peter the Apostle and St. Willian Churches in Naples, FL

Revelation 11, 19 – 12, 6, 10 + Psalm 45 + 1 Corinthians 15, 20-27 + Luke 1, 39-56

All of those images from the Book of Revelation about golden clothing and wild battles with Satan can be left to another time for a serious study of this complicated style of writing. Having not entertained the thinking of some in Corinth that the resurrection of Jesus did not really involve his body, we can excuse ourselves from Paul’s tirade today. Let’s just settle down with this simple reading from Luke’s first chapter. What is so beautiful and charming about this Gospel passage is that it is so very ordinary, unspectacular and not particularly controversial as the reading from Paul or the Book of Revelation.

We are often led to remember and admire the spectacular events of our lives ignoring the importance of the ordinary day-t0-day things, but I think the wisdom of the church on this feast would suggest that this is not wise. I think of this in terms of Blessed Stanley Rother, that Oklahoma priest who was martyred in Guatemala. Everyone who knows anything about him remembers that day at the end of July when he was shot to death in the rectory. That violent day almost overshadows all the other ordinary days of his life when he got in the morning, celebrated Mass, cared for the people, comforted the suffering, and protected the vulnerable. There is a similar risk here with this feast. We should not ignore the simple ordinary things that in the end make a person great, noble, or holy. The Assumption of Mary is the consequence of an ordinary life lived by a mother and a faithful servant of God. For Mary and for us, it will be the ordinary days that determine who we are.

In the Gospel today, Mary hears that Elizabeth is pregnant, she leaves behind her own concerns and affairs and asks, “What does my cousin Elizabeth need?” When a visit seems appropriate, Mary acts. She goes in haste to the hill country to visit her cousin. Other than the risks involved and the inconvenience, it’s no big deal. Yet, what we see here is the pattern of ordinary days: asking and acting. What does someone need followed by an action responding to that need. As simple as this pattern is, the result is often more than we might imagine. Following the pattern of pregnant Mary, we not only bring ourselves to others. We also carry Christ who is in us to everyone we service.

The glory of Mary assumed bodily into heaven is simply a preview or foretaste of our glory. Her risen body is with the risen body of Christ in a new creation. So, it shall be for us who have lived every blessed and ordinary day asking and acting.

The Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

12 August 2018 at St Peter the Apostle and St William Parishes in Naples, FL

1 Kings 19, 4-8 + Psalm 32 + Ephesians 4, 30 to 5,2 + John 6, 41-51

Something happens with this text today that is important. Until now the people engaged with Jesus have been called: the crowd. Now the identity of the crowd is given. The crowd is “the Jews.” This sixth chapter of John’s Gospel is loaded with images of the Exodus in the Old Testament. There is the report of Jesus walking on the water to the other side of the Sea which brings up the image of Moses leading the people of Israel through the Red Sea. Then there was last week talk of Manna in the desert that God provided through Moses. Now today there are people murmuring just like the Israelites murmured at Moses resisting his leadership. They murmur now because they think they know where Jesus comes from. When he says: “Stop murmuring among yourselves” he means “Be quiet and listen.” They can’t see who is right in front of them because they think they know the truth about the origins of Jesus. Their knowledge stands in the way of the truth. They are not listening! The consequence is unbelief, and the only way out is to be drawn into faith by the Father, and that is the focus of this text.

As always, there are clues in the original text. The word used by John when he speaks of the action of the Father drawing people is the same word used to describe fishing nets being hauled into the boat. We must be dragged into faith by God: there is no other way to come is what Jesus is saying here. This is a troubling idea, because it leaves us to wonder what happens to those who murmur, to those who seem not to have been drawn to Jesus, and what about us, a people who are sometimes so shallow or inconsistent in our faith? It raises some questions that are not easily answered because there is no answer to the work of God except the promise and the hope that God does draw people to faith.

Jesus is not making it easy on that crowd. He does not make it easy on us either. The more they resist, the harder he makes it. When they do not accept Jesus as the Bread of Life come from the Father, he starts talking about eating flesh which is not only difficult but offensive to the crowd. He has no interest in making it easy. The fact here is that we must follow Jesus on his terms even if it seems difficult or offensive. Following Jesus on his terms is what it means to be a disciple. Bread from heaven is no free lunch but thinking that it was is what brought the crowds chasing after him to begin with. Bread from Heaven will cost Jesus his life and feeding on this bread will bring us as well to the cross.

When we begin to listen to this through the context of the Passover which is about to happen and the Eucharist we are about to celebrate, we are drawn to this altar which is more than just a table set for a feast. It is also the altar of a sacrifice. The food we find at this altar is not a free meal. To take this Bread of Life we take a share in the sacrifice, the suffering, the obedience, and the service of the one whose flesh we consume. It is costly. It is tough. But it is the only way to life, as the Father continues to draw us deeper into the mystery and wonder of his love.

The Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

5 August 2018 at Saint Andrew Parish in Moore, OK

Exodus 16, 2-4 & 12-15 + Psalm 78 + Ephesians 4, 17 & 22-24 + John 6, 24-35

The first question in today’s verses has a double meaning, and the obvious or simple answer is not necessarily the best. The problem comes from the English translation of John’s original text. “When did you get here?” is the English translation, but the verb that John uses for “get” is the same verb used to say “come to be” or “begotten.” So, you see, there is another level to explore here. It is likely that John really wants to explore the reason for the Incarnation. Why is Jesus here among us on earth? With that question asked at the beginning of these verses, the rest of what Jesus says has much greater importance.

The crowd wants a sign because it is entertaining. They didn’t have Cable or Internet for fun. So, when a wonder-worker comes along, they are going to get up and get moving. They also want free food without working to earn it. It does not cast them in a particularly flattering light. That crowd ought to disturb us and invite us to take a good look at ourselves. They are chasing around all over the place looking for Jesus, but not to give something. They want to get something. Never mind that Jesus might want something from them: their faith. There is a deliberate attempt in John’s writing today to connect this event to that meeting of Jesus at a well with a Samaritan woman. Jesus wants something there and he wants something now from us. At that well, he wants that woman’s faith even though they are talking about drinks of water. Here, just as before, Jesus wants faith as now he talks about bread.

As we proclaim this Gospel in this assembly, Jesus looks at those who are here because they want something, and John raises a challenge to those whose prayer is always looking for a sign or begging for something. He raises a challenge also to those who go wandering around from place to place, church to church because they want to be entertained, or who complain that they didn’t get anything out of it. It fails to cross their minds that Jesus may want something they can give, faith. Perhaps it is time for us to give some sign, just as it was time for the woman at the well to give a sign and run back to bring the townspeople to Jesus because she believed. Perhaps it is time for us to give some witness to the one who is bread on this altar.

Faith and fidelity require a lot of work. There is nothing free or easy about faith. Repentance is hard to maintain. Breaking the habits of sinfulness and achieving real virtue and true holiness is the work of a lifetime. We have to grow out of the idea that Jesus came among us to get us a job, or solve some problem, heal some sickness or make us happy and more comfortable. He says today that he came to accomplish the works of God, to give life to the world. Jesus reminds those people that the manna their ancestors received with Moses came from God, not from Moses. Gratitude to God is the only appropriate response. Not “Give me more.” For us it is no different. Everything we have is a gift from God, and faithful believers never forget that. Those clothes you wear, and that closet full at home is really a gift from God. The food we eat is a gift from God, and we must remember that. The very act of that remembrance is what Eucharist is all about: remembering what God has done for us and giving back to God what God has given us, His only Son.

Jesus came to give us life. That is what we must seek above all and first of all. People of faith know the difference between what is perishable and what lasts forever. All of us must work to figure the difference, to know the difference, and to believe in the one who says to us: “I am the bread of life.” When we do, we will lack nothing, seek nothing except that which gives us life.

The Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

29 July 2018 at Saint Andrew Catholic Church in Moore, OK

2 Kings 4, 443-44 + Psalm 145 + Ephesians 4, 1-6 + John 6, 1-15

There is someone in this Gospel today who says nothing. Because Jesus, Andrew and Philip do tall he talking, it is easy to ignore his presence. There is young boy in these verses who very is important and he is worth some reflection and wonder. Without him, there would be no story. Without him there would be no wonderful sign worked to draw people to faith. He has no name which in Gospel literature is always important.  Having no name makes it possible for us to stand in his place.

There is no way of knowing how or why Andrew noticed the boy, but perhaps five loaves of bread over and above two fish might be hard to hide. Even the appetite of a growing young boy would probably not need five loaves. He clearly had more than he needed that afternoon. John records no conversation between the boy and Jesus. All we know is that he surrendered what he had to Jesus and something extraordinary happened.

Even before five thousand were fed, and before twelve baskets of left overs were collected, there is something that leaves us to wonder about what happens when someone who has enough or even more than enough sees a need and responds to the request of Jesus to surrender it all. It brings to my mind another young man who came running up to Jesus asking what he must do to be saved. When Jesus asks him to sell what he has and give it to the poor, he walks away sad. I’ve always thought that what was lacking in that young man was imagination. He simply could not imagine living without all his stuff. In contrast to that young man stands this boy face to face with Jesus willing to surrender everything he has knowing that there were five thousand hungry people behind him. I doubt that he could ever have imagined what was about to happen, but that did not keep him from handing over all that he had.

Without a word said, that boy speaks to us today. He speaks to a people who have more than enough, more than they need. In a world that is hungry and thirsty, homeless and lonely, that young boy shows us how to create abundance. In that unrecorded conversation with Jesus, I suspect that Jesus never said: “Keep some for yourself.” I think Jesus asked for it all. With childlike faith, that boy trusted and gave without a worry about going hungry himself. He could have stood on the sidelines watching, or like those other disciples said: “It isn’t enough”, but he didn’t.

We are reminded today about how life flourishes when virtues are practiced. In a world of both over-consumption on the part of some, and suffering and hunger on the part of many, we are reminded about living simply and virtuously, and what can happen when we know we have enough and turn over to Christ everything we have. As this chapter will continue for the next several weeks, we will discover that Jesus never came to feed us on bread, but to satisfy our hungers with his Body and Blood.

The Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

22 July 2018 at Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Jeremiah 23, 1-6 + Psalm 23 + Ephesians 2, 13-18 + Mark 6, 30-34

This is the only time in Mark’s Gospel that disciples are called “apostles.” It only appears in Matthew’s Gospel once, six times in Luke, and never in John. I think it is important to understand this fact because we tend to think of “apostles” in terms of those twelve who may have some special place or calling, which then allows us to be excused too easily from taking up our duties as disciples of Jesus.

The Gospel of Mark is really a School of Discipleship. It is a catechesis, a formation program for anyone who would be a disciple of this Rabbi, Jesus. Notice today that he teaches the people and that they have come to hear him teach. They have already expressed their amazement at his teaching in a Synagogue. They express their amazement because he teaches with authority, which means he is authentic backing up what he teaches with deeds and behavior. He teaches them care for one another, and then he heals. He teaches them to feed the hungry, and in this Gospel, he is just about to do that. He teaches them about forgiveness, and he forgives Peter and even those who nail him to a cross. He wants them to hear the Word of God, so he opens the ears of the deaf. He wants them to see the glory of God, so he restores sight to the blind. He wants us to have life, so he raises up a dead girl, the only son of a mother, and he calls Lazarus out of a tomb. All so that we might be one, might live in unity, and live in peace.

Every one of us in this place has heard the call to be a disciple, a student of this teacher. It is why we are here and not somewhere else at this hour. In terms of history and time, the teacher has gone after teaching us everything that was revealed to him by his Father. Day after day, we understand the feelings of Jesus when he looked at the people. It was way more than pity which is a soft way of translating the gut-wrenching word that Mark uses in the Gospel. It is the same feeling a parent would have at seeing their child in suffering.  Jesus makes the needs and wants, hurts and pain of these people his own.

Disciples of Jesus Christ look at our world and ask what deep and truly human hopes and hungers are being unconsciously expressed in the blind competition of sports fans, the addictions that plague every level of society, the supremacy movements and all the “isms” that divide us who live on this earth. Some political leaders benefit from discord and division, and some religious figures make a fortune suggesting that we should wait for everything to be resolved in heaven and then look upon all our riches as blessings without a word about the obligations that come with these riches.

Jesus taught those people, and he still teaches us. What he teaches is the Will of God, his Father. He teaches that the needs and wants, hurts and pain of all people are our own, and that when anyone is hungry are hurting we are all hungry and hurting. So, he teaches that God wills for us to all be one. He teaches that mercy and compassion is the only way people made in his image can respond to another. He teaches us to feed, to heal, to forgive. He does not teach us judgment or vengeance. Having taught us these things, he has sent us out to teach and preach. We do so first by what we do at home, in an office, at school. It is not necessary to teach or preach with words. In fact, until there are deeds and until there is action, the words are in vain and are empty. As the Lord waited for those twelve to return and report on what had happened, he still waits for us to complete his work on earth, and only after we have fulfilled his command should we find a place of rest. The question now is, how much longer does he have to wait?

The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

15 July 2018 at Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Amos 7, 12-15 + Psalm 85 + Ephesians 1, 3-14 + Mark 6, 7-13

After last week’s rejection of by those who’s unbelief left Jesus with nothing to do there, he has moved on to neighboring villages. The memory of that distressful and disappointing experience was surely still fresh in the mind of the Apostles. Given their behavior on other occasions, they no doubt expected quite a welcome for the home-town hero who was already so famous bringing glory to little Nazareth. Now they are being called in pairs for a serious and detailed instruction. Then they are sent out with power to do all that Jesus was doing and preach repentance. When I stop to think about it, I am always amazed over what is going on here. Jesus had a lot of confidence in that rag-tag group of twelve he has called away from fishing boats and tax tables, their families, and everything that is familiar and comfortable. There is no evidence at all that they are capable of doing what he asks, but he sends them, and they go. Next week we will find out how it goes. But for now, we are left to decide whether or not we are outside of this story looking in, or whether or not we too are being sent. It should be noticed that he sent them all, not some and not best and brightest. Every single one of them is sent. There is no one left out of the mission. It would seem to me that St. Mark is making a point here for his church and for us all.

In the end, this is what the whole experience of discipleship has been about. In some ways, I’ve always considered Mark’s Gospel to be a “school of discipleship”. The disciple learns and then does something with what they have been taught. For these disciples of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, it would seem that a kind of “internship” has begun, a trial run, to see what they can do with what they have learned. It is the same for all of us. At some point in our discipleship, we have to do something with what we have learned. At some point it’s time to stop going to Bible Study and get on with Bible living! While all learning is a life-long endeavor, there does come a time when you start doing something with what you’ve learned. It is always a great challenge for us to be active, not passive followers; to be not only receivers but also givers. Not barren or dead branches on the vine, but living and fruitful ones.

My friends, belief in God is very uncomfortable because it increases our responsibility. If there was no God, then there would be no point in being responsible because if there is no God, life is just random chaos and eternal night. If someone comes to us and asks for help, we should not turn them away with pious words saying: Have faith; take your troubles to God and God will help you.” Doing that acts as if there is no God, as if there was only one person in the world who could help this person, namely yourself. Reliance on the providence of God is essential, but it cannot be used as an excuse for doing nothing.

One winter day a man came upon a small boy sitting begging on a wind-swept city street. The boy was shivering from the cold and obviously in need of a good meal. On seeing him the man got very angry and said to God: “Lord, why don’t you do something about this boy?” And suddenly God replied: “I have already done something about him.” The man was surprised and said: “I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but whatever you did, doesn’t seem to be working.” “I agree with you.” God said. “By the way”, the man asked, “What did you do?” The reply from God came. “I made you.”

We are God’s instruments. That is our dignity and our responsibility. Notice carefully that in the instructions before we set out, we disciples are told to take nothing. All that we have to give is what we have received from Jesus Christ. These are qualities that cannot be contained in a sack or a belt. If Jesus sends us out in his name, he must know that we have what it takes to do what he asks. When we leave here in about thirty minutes, the mission begins. We do have what it takes, and it will be enough.

The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

8 July 2018 at St. Peter the Apostle & St. William Churches in Naples, FL

Ezekiel 2, 2-5 + Psalm 123 + 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10 + Mark 6, 1-6

We are beginning a new chapter of Mark’s Gospel today. In the past weeks with chapter five we have seen an enormous momentum building as Jesus travelled throughout Galilee and beyond. His presence has been marked by healings, exorcisms, and even as we heard last week, the raising of a dead child. Crowds of people have experienced liberation, healing, and the tender compassion of Jesus. Now in chapter six all of that comes to a sudden stop. What demons, sickness, and death could not stop disbelief does. This is a greater obstacle. It is not that the power of Jesus is limited, but the people are hindered from experiencing his power by their unbelief.

The problem being experienced there is not confined to that place and that time. For lack of a better term, I’ll call the problem “Limited Religious Imagination.” In other words, Jesus was not acting right. They could not imagine that God might be revealed in someone so familiar, in a neighbor, in someone from Nazareth. They expected God to be revealed in the way Moses or Abraham experienced God. More simply put, they could not imagine the truth or the reality of the Incarnation. The whole idea that God might come and be revealed in the flesh and blood of someone who is just an ordinary and familiar neighbor was too much for them. They could not imagine this. Jesus would not fit into their religious imagination.

Ultimately, those people of Nazareth were stuck with the idea of their ancestors who begged Moses to tell God not to come too near lest they die of fright. They would rather have a God who was frightening and dangerous. When God became Man in Jesus Christ, it was too much for them. They refused to believe that God could be revealed through ordinary people and events. It is easy to have faith in a God who is distant and silent, a God who sits behind a veil in the Temple or for us, a God who is locked in a Tabernacle. But, let that God cry out as his son is nailed to cross, and it’s too much. Let the Body and Blood of that God be consumed by a neighbor or an enemy, and the challenge of becomes too much. Our imaginations and our expectations about how, when, and where God will be revealed have to be wide open, wide enough to believe that God could be revealed in a lowly son of a carpenter from Nazareth or be revealed in the man who is nailing shingles on the roof next door who comes from some foreign place or the man mowing our grass!

Sadly, every now and then, I am asked by people what I think about Pope Francis, and sometimes those people express displeasure about his leadership, style, and the things he says and does. Why? Because he does not fit their mold, their model of what the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of St. Peter should act like. They remind me of the people of Nazareth. It’s not that they are bad, but they are going to miss something powerful and merciful because their imaginations are so limited.

My dear friends, there is another subtle part of the message in Mark’s Gospel that comes as a warning. The all-powerful God can be limited by human unbelief. We must learn from those people in Nazareth says St. Mark. The message of God’s nearness comes packaged in what looks very familiar. When that familiarity frightens or challenges us, calls into question the racism, ageism, or sexism of our age, we must take a look at and awaken our imagination because God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s voice may sound very familiar.

The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 July 2018

Wisdom 1, 13-15; 2, 23-24 + Psalm 30 + 2 Corinthians 8, 7, 9, 13-15 + Mark 5, 21-43

Two miracles stories and two women lead us to reflect upon the ministry of Jesus Christ, his mission, and his method. On the surface it looks like one of them is healed and the other brought back to life. That’s what it looks like, but what you see is not always what you get. Consistent with Mark’s style, there is commotion here. He seems to like that. There is always a rush and always a crowd. In the midst of that chaos there always stands one who is calm and peaceful. To get beyond the surface of these two incidents, it is helpful to understand that there is problem with English as this Gospel is translated. Two words in English come from one word in Greek and Latin: to save and to heal are the words that come out of the Latin word “Salus.” If you think of it this way, you can begin to get the idea: a salve like an ointment can bring healing, but when you see it in print and add to the spelling you get “salvation.” Once you get that point, you can go deeper into what is happening here. These are stories of salvation, not simply miracles of healing.

The consequence of sin that Jesus is always confronting is alienation or separation, and he comes face to face with that consequence in these verses. His presence and what he does restores relationships. The older woman is no longer ostracized from her husband and her community. Because of her bleeding, she would have been an outcast from everyone even her husband for fear of sharing her fate. The loneliness would have been worse than the bleeding. The little girl is restored to her parents, and even more so, by calling her “daughter”, Jesus is bringing her into the larger family of God’s loved ones.

The mission of Jesus is a mission of reconciliation, of healing what is broken apart, and the healing becomes even greater as it becomes salvation. These women are saved, and the wonder of it comes from the action: touch. That older woman touched him, and at that moment, be becomes unclean. He traded places with her. He brought her into his relationship with God, and now he will be the one who is cast out and the one who bleeds. Then, he touches that twelve-year-old who is dead. He trades places with her as well. Now he is the one who will die so that she can live.

You see, the mystery of salvation is being revealed here. We will be saved when we have been touched by Jesus Christ: touched by his love, touched by his grace, and touched by his word. What it takes is faith, prayer, and hope. We see this in that official, Jarius and in the woman. They both have hope, one has faith, and the other asks in prayer. The great hope for us comes through in a subtle way we might miss. God’s saving grace is available to everyone from important officials who have names to little old people who go nameless into eternity, but whose names are known by God alone. This is our hope today for we remain a people broken and in need of that divine touch. It will come to us in a few moments when we are touched by and reach out to touch the Body of Christ. In that action what is broken is healed, what is lost is found, and in Communion we are restored both to each other as a family and to God who longs to bring us home.