Sermon
1st July 2018
Year
B Pentecost 6 – Text Mark 5:21-43 – The Ministry of Interruptions
You
know the drill.
It’s
6pm – you’re busy starting dinner or perhaps you’ve just sat down to dinner and
the phone rings.
Should
I answer it or let it go through to the answering machine?
What
if it’s an emergency?
So
you get up – there’s a pause – a couple clicks – and a voice comes on asking
whether you’ve heard of the government solar rebate system.
Interruptions
are annoying and frustrating.
In
our bible reading today it seems that Jesus’ ministry was one long invitation
for interruption.
He
steps off the boat and immediately a crowd gathered around him.
Just
once can’t Jesus just go somewhere for himself without the crowds following
him?
And
to make matters worse, within the crowd gathering around him now comes a man
named Jairus, a synagogue leader, who begs Jesus to come with him to his house
because his daughter is unwell.
And
then as he goes to Jairus’s place to heal his daughter there is another
interruption – a woman who has been unwell for 12 years comes up and discreetly
touches Jesus to heal herself.
So
we have an interruption, within and interruption within an interruption.
Whereas
this might make us cranky and short tempered, it doesn’t do that to Jesus.
And
what we begin to understand from the way Jesus responds is that interruptions
are part of Christian ministry.
I
know sometimes as a Pastor you feel great when you look at the calendar ahead
and see that there are no evenings out.
When
the phone rings you can have this feeling of – I hope it’s not a baptism
request or a funeral request or a wedding request.
It
is very easy to see Ministry requests as interruptions.
But
we need to turn that around and see interruptions as Ministry opportunities.
We
all have those ministry opportunities that are easy to write off as
interruptions to our otherwise comfortable lives.
It
may be an interruption that gives us one of the greatest ministry opportunities
to show the love that Christ has for others.
We’ve
experienced the crying baby that interrupts our worship.
But
let us take an example from Jesus who didn’t turn around to look with scorn on
the woman who touched him.
He
turned around to affirm that despite what others might be thinking about her –
to him, and to God, she was a daughter of Abraham – one of the highest
accolades he could give.
After
so many people had cast her down, Jesus lifts her up, looks into her eyes and
says the words which make her healing complete.
With
the eyes of love on her, he said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go
in peace.”
“Daughter.”
Not an outcast.
Not
a woman alone in a society because of her bleeding.
A
bleeding that would have defined her as ritually unclean and disqualified her
from offering prayer and sacrifice at the temple.
She
was a beloved child of God.
Through
Jesus we see the very heart of God.
Others
may have judged her harshly, but God never forgot her, always loved her, and
wanted to welcome her home.
“Your
faith has made you well.”
“Go
in peace,”
Sickness
had defined her.
But
Jesus set her free to be a daughter of God.
Perhaps
we have an opportunity to have our worship interrupted and sit with the mum or
dad and be with them and assure them it’s okay.
Worship
is important and we can feel inconvenienced when our worship is interrupted but
Jesus is more concerned about the needs of our brothers and sisters rather than
ensuring worship is not interrupted.
Listen
again to what he says in Matthew 5:
“Therefore,
if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother
or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the
altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
How
easy it would have been to finish offering the gift and then go and be
reconciled.
It
might have taken just a couple minutes.
But
Jesus says there is no time to waste – go now – I can wait.
Or
what about the times when you’re walking along, minding your own business when
someone stops you and asks for some help – can you spare some change.
Or
we see them ahead and think this is a good time to cross the road like the
priest and Levite who crossed the road ignoring the plight of their brother in
the parable of the Good Samaritan.
It’s
easy to pretend not to make eye contact; it’s even easier to reach into your
pocket and do a relay baton change manoeuvre where you give them the change and
don’t even break stride.
But
look what Jesus does.
He
stops.
He
didn’t need to.
He
felt the power go out from him.
He
would have known that whoever touched him had been healed – physically.
But
Jesus knew there was more to life than physical healing – much more.
Jesus
does this so often with his healing.
He
doesn’t just cure physical sickness but restores people to their community.
She
wanted and needed the bleeding to stop, but what she needed more—and Jesus knew
it—was to be accepted once again.
To
have God look into her eyes and call her “daughter.”
So
often people are judged by society.
They
are named in various ways as outcasts and treated as less than human.
We
can easily give material handouts to the needy – but so can anyone in society.
We
don’t have a monopoly on welfare just because we are Christian.
But
we have something much more valuable that money can’t buy, as St Peter says -
For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life.
The
ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of
Christ.
That’s
what we have to offer.
What
the world sees as interruptions we need to see as ministry opportunities to
share the love of Christ.
What
the world sees as annoyance we need to see as ministry opportunities to extend
the unconditional love of God in a world that defines who or what can be loved
and who or what must be shunned.
Jesus
turned no one away – not lepers, not people living questionable lives, not the
sinful and unclean.
As
Jesus said – it is not the well who need a doctor but the unwell.
And
let us see interruptions not as random events but events carefully and specifically
orchestrated by God.
We
have an opportunity to give to those feeling shunned and outcast the
opportunity to reach out their hand, like the unnamed woman in our gospel, to
reach out and touch Jesus and feel his power go out from him.
The
power of redemption.
The
power of forgiveness as they receive the body and blood of Christ and hear that
God loved them so much that he sent his one and only Son so they may not perish
but receive eternal life.
She
goes from an unnamed woman to Daughter of Abraham because of Jesus’ care and
compassion.
It
is so easy to miss those who are crying out for help.
The
disciples missed it when Jesus asked “who touched me”.
To
the disciples the woman blended in with everyone else –
His
disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say,
‘Who touched me?’
Jesus
knew because he saw, not with his eyes, but with his heart.
The
disciples couldn’t see her because to them she was just another person.
How
many have we walked past – how many opportunities have we missed?
And
they are not just those out in the public but they are also among us here.
Are
there brothers and sisters of Christ among us who we have missed seeing their
hurt.
Have
we looked and been critical because they have lapsed and don’t contribute
rather than looking with our hearts and asking how can we help.
Let
us not see things as an inconvenience like Jairus’s household who saw no need
to bother Jesus because his daughter had died - “Your daughter is dead. Why
trouble the teacher any further?
Nothing
is trouble to Jesus.
Nothing
is inconvenient to Jesus.
Nothing
is an interruption to Jesus.
Everything
is an opportunity to share the love and grace of God, so let us ask God to give
us the heart as well as eyes of Jesus so we can see the hurting sons and
daughters of Abraham among us.