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St. Andrew's Church
An Anglican Church • Grimsby, Ontario, Canada
Preached by
Stuart Pike
Rector
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Proper 13 B - Jesus' Healing Touch.
St. Andrew's Church, Grimsby
Sunday, July 2nd, 2006
Gospel: Mark 5: 21-43
The very first and the most important sense of the five senses is touch. When an infant cries, the first thing which we can do to soothe, is to touch - to hold - to pick the baby up and rock him or her.
Touch is an critical part of our social communication. Nothing expresses love and affection and acceptance like touching. We have social rules about touching. It is common to greet a person you respect by shaking their hand. Touching is so important to us that we even do it as an important part of our liturgy. After we have said our confession and just before the communion, we express that we are at peace with one another by "passing the peace" usually signified by shaking hands or hugging or even kissing. It means, "You belong: you are a part of this community, and we are at peace."
Larry Daniel, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Murray Kentucky, learnt about touching and acceptance the hard way in 1988 when one of his church member came down with full-blown aids. He had gone to the hospital to visit with the sick man and the nurse advised him to put on rubber gloves before entering the room. He did. The sick man was so happy to see his pastor and immediately extended his hands in welcome. But when the pastor extended his own hands all he saw was the latex gloves. Instantly the initial feeling of joy and comfort turned into that of embarrassment for both of them. The pastor apologised. In future trips to the hospital he wore no gloves. "I simply felt that I could not be Christ's representative in that situation," he later explained, "unless there was direct touch contact."
In Jesus' society, they regulated touching by making rules regarding who and what could or could not be touched. Many other cultures have done the same. It was believed that touching the wrong persons and things would defile the one doing the touching and render him or her unclean. According to the Jewish Law written in Leviticus (15: 21: 1-12) law, the woman with the haemorrhage was untouchable and any person who did touch her or anything that had come in contact with her was instantly rendered impure. Also, holy people, such as priests were forbidden to touch dead bodies or they would be defiled (Leviticus 21:1-12). Today's gospel is, therefore, not only about Jesus healing and raising from the dead, but it is about Jesus breaking the taboos of his culture in order to include these untouchable people back into the community.
I can imagine that the worst that the woman with the haemorrhage had to suffer was her exclusion from society. She could not worship with her community. And the worst of all, she could not be touched. For twelve years she had lived in utter shame. She had spent all that she had and she was only getting worse. She decides that there is nowhere else to go and so, probably not even understanding her impulse, she reaches out her hand and breaks all the rules by touching Jesus' garments.
Then something astonishing happens. The woman is healed, and even though many people have been pressing in on him, Jesus is aware that one of those people touched him in faith, and she was cured. Power went out from him, the Gospel says. He was on his way to powerfully touch and heal the daughter of an important man, and leader in the synagogue, but this woman touched him first, and his power went out and healed her. Jesus, when he hears the truth from the woman, simply says, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease." And it really appears to be so. Jesus didn't intend to heal her, it seems, it was her reaching out in faith which caused the healing to happen. Jesus pronounces her healed and completes the healing by including her back into community.
Then Jesus goes on and breaks the rules again by touching a dead girl, and bringing her back into community.
Exclusion in religion and in society, it seems, was a common occurrence in the time of Jesus. We can shake our heads and think of ourselves as being so much more enlightened than they were in those days; yet if we scratch beneath the surface, we will find that we as the Anglican Church have been good at excluding others as well. Sometimes we have been overtly exclusive. Sometimes we are exclusive by accident or through apathy or through ignorance or even by design.
Today you can be excluded to a greater or lesser degree in our Church for being crippled - when the local Church hasn't made easy enough access for you. We don't usually mean to exclude the handicapped, it's just that we haven't thought about it, or we haven't thought it important enough. That is exclusion through accident or apathy.
We can also exclude people by design. In big ways and little ways ranging from the lack of a smile or the set of the shoulders to open words of hostility you can be excluded if you lack education, or are too educated, if you are too poor or too rich; if you are a single mother or even sometimes simply because you're a woman. Being too evangelical or being charismatic, or being too liberal or conservative in your Church style can get you excluded. Being too young, or too noisy, even too enthusiastic or being gay are reasons that might get you excluded at Church.
The most amazing thing is that at the same time that the Anglican Church can be so exclusive of people, we will get together to discuss how it is that there are so few people in the pews!
How does Jesus react to those who are excluded by his religion in his day? Jesus consistently reaches out to all who come to him. Those who are suffering - the poor, the sick, the sinners - all who are excluded by his religion are invites them to come to him. Jesus, by his action, gives us the example of what we are to do. Jesus gives healing to the sick, and a restoration to relationship in society to the outcast - forgiveness to the sinner, and wholeness to all.
That is what Jesus is about, and to me, that is what our religion is about. We are to be the agents of Christ's work today - to do what Christ did.
I am happy to see that many Churches these days seem to be understanding this about our mission. Many Churches, including ours are beginning to understand that we are to be as radical as Jesus was, when it comes to welcoming all people in to be a part of this community.
May we have the courage to reach out and touch Jesus in our own need for healing. And may we, likewise, reach out and touch all who come, and welcome them into our midst. May we let them know by our touch that they are welcome and they belong. Amen.
