Hello Calvary eight-o-clockers! My name is Ed Horsley. Many of you know me but I’m sure many of you do not know me very well as I am usually a 10:30 person here at Calvary. I am happy to be with you this morning as we engage these Scriptures and their significance to our faith.
I grew up in Santa Barbara, with my early faith being found- ed and nurtured in the Baptist tradition. I loved Sunday school and the stories from the Bible and although my wrote memory did not lend myself to being one of the best at memorizing Bible Verses, I took them seriously and took God’s work in and through me seriously as well. I even remember after being baptized (as a believer) and getting to take communion for the first time. I heard our pastor reading the story of the Last Supper with Jesus and the disciples in the upper room the night before the crucifixion. I remember our pastor reading Jesus’ words, “Do this for the remembrance of me.” I felt as though these words were said directly to me as I ate the tiny pillow shaped communion bread and drank the grape juice. I also remember asking when we would have the opportunity to do this again because it meant so much to me. I was told that we only do this quarterly. I always felt that this was odd and at that time didn’t have any reason to think that other traditions did communion more often.
Thirty years later, here I am in the Episcopal tradition, where the sacramental nature of our service feels comfortable and I get to receive Eucharist weekly. This was not the only reason for my jump from the Evangelical world to that of the Episcopal Church, and I’m not going to go into all the reasons. I’m sure you appreciate that. I’m also sure that you appreciate that I will not offer you the half-hour sermons that I grew up with either!
I will talk about one of the differences between the tradition of my youth and the Episcopal Tradition, and that is the Book of Common Prayer and within it, the Lectionary. I love that there are readings for each Sunday and that these readings cycle so that we go through the different Gospels as well as go through much of the New and Old Testaments. I also enjoy looking at the reasoning for clustering the readings together for each specific day.
The exact reasoning is sometimes hard to determine, but this week we see several themes come out of the readings.
In second Samuel, we find David lamenting over the death of Saul, the first king of Israel, the one who was chosen to be king due to not only his good looks but as First Samuel says, “he stood head and shoulders above everyone else.” This is an interesting parallel as later in the story of Saul, he does not go out to fight Goliath the giant. But instead, young David does so. We all know the story of David and Goliath but lesser known is that David’s military exploits continue to the point that Saul becomes envious of David and even tries to kill David.
Here in Second Samuel we read of the grace of David who’s song is not of Saul’s negative attributes, but of Saul’s exploits as well as those of Saul’s son Jonathan who was a close friend of David.
In the overall narrative of the early kings of Israel, we can see that God seems to like to use people who are not the obvious choice. Saul was the big, tough character, and the one that we would bet on being the greatest, but the greatest king of Israel was David, the shepherd, the youngest of Jesse’s sons, but as the Lord said to Samuel, “mortals…look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Our Gospel reading from the book of Mark continues to shed light on Mark’s Christology and the authority that Jesus exercises as a king. Jesus is once again crowded with people who want to see and hear him, and in this periscope, Jesus is approached by two people who seek his help. Both of these people who come to Jesus have faith that Jesus has great authority and that he can heal. Both are at wit’s end and have no other alternative. Both are heard by Jesus and Jesus performed the healings that were needed. Let’s look at some of the differences.
Jairus was a great leader in the synagogue. This afforded him high authority and respect in the Jewish community. Jairus was well to do as evidenced by the people coming from his household to tell him of his daughter’s death. These may have been servants. Another sign of Jairus’ importance is found in all the “commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly” that Jesus encounters when going to Jairus’ home. Interestingly, in the first century, it was very common for a family member of a dead loved one to pay professional mourners to mourn the death loudly.
In stark contrast and in the midst of Jesus setting out to heal Jairus’ daughter, we read about the woman who had been hemorrhaging. For the past twelve years she had been bleeding. She had spent all her money on physicians in an attempt to fix the issue, but it only got worse. She was now penniless. This would be bad enough if it wasn’t for the fact that, due to her bleeding she had been ritually impure for the past twelve years. She was untouchable, powerless, and vulnerable. She didn’t even think that she deserved to speak to Jesus, but her faith was such that she believed that if she could simply touch Jesus’ cloak she would be healed.
So we have two people who had faith in Jesus’ healing abilities and saw Jesus’ authority but one was a respected, powerful, wealthy male, and the other was an outcast, unaccepted, poor female. They were opposites in regards to status and power. What does Jesus do? Despite being on a mission to help Jairus’s daughter, Jesus makes a point to ask who touched him, gives her an opportunity to publicly affirm her faith which she didn’t think the law would allow, and Jesus heals her. Notice that Jesus speaks to her, saying, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” Despite this woman being an outcast in society, she is seen by Jesus to be just as precious as Jairus’ daughter.
As Jesus is saying these words, the story goes back to Jairus as people came from Jairus’ household to tell them that Jairus’ daughter had died. I’m sure that part of Jairus was a bit annoyed that Jesus had taken the time to talk with the woman, but Jesus’ words of encouragement were, “Do not fear, only be- lieve.”
Jesus then goes to Jairus’ home and tells the household that she is not dead, but sleeping. This elicits laughter and Jesus tells most of them to go. With Jairus and his spouse, Jesus takes the girl’s hand and tells her to get up and she does. Mark’s point in this story is that Jesus is king and has authority over life itself, but just as importantly, Mark shows that Jesus has authority over the law. The law was clear that the woman was unclean, but Jesus was not angry about being touched, seeing the faith that was behind it. Jesus not only healed her, but sought out a relationship with the woman by talking to her. Jesus’ kingship is not one that is emotionally distant, but one that seeks relationship.
The point here is that in Jesus’s kingship, the needs of the marginalized and vulnerable are addressed before those of the celebrated and powerful. Jesus’ authority is stronger than any law that breaks relationship and Jesus’ love seeks those who are forgotten.
It is Paul’s knowledge of Jesus’ care for the marginalized and vulnerable that inspired this passage to fulfill a pledge the Corinthians had already made to help “the poor among the saints
in Jerusalem,” as Paul calls it in the book of Romans. The Corinthians were mostly gentiles and well to do, but asking for money is not easy. Paul does this with grace, commenting on what they should be proud of and pointing out that giving to those who are vulnerable is what we do as followers of Christ. “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”
In God’s economy, we take care of each other. John Calvin wrote that the equality that God encourages Christians to strive for is, “such an equality that nobody starves and nobody hordes his abundance at another’s expense.” Paul points out that the abundance of wealth that the Corinthian Christians have now, should be balanced fairly with those who are in need and that these tides might change and this fair balance might well go back in the other direction. Simply look at the story of Job to see that wealth and power can be fleeting. Nothing is forever and one’s economic status is not equated with moral failings. Jesus’ emphasis on the needs of the marginalized and vulnerable is continued in Paul’s request for an offering for those in need in the first century Church.
These three passages were grouped in our lectionary to show that God’s perspective is not what comes naturally to our eyes. God sees past outward appearance and past what divides us and sees God’s fingerprint within us all. We often don’t even see this within ourselves. In the book of Matthew, Jesus describes the kingdom of God as a Pearl of Great Price that a merchant would sell all in order to obtain. God sees our true nature, and seeks us out. God requires of us that we see others through this lens as well.
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