Talitha Cum

A sermon preached on June 28th, 2015.  On  Mark 6;  raising Jairus' daughter, healing the bleeding woman

This has been a week of social change.  SCOTUS rulings on gay marriage and health care; confederate flags, the symbol of persistent and unrepentant racism, removed from southern capitols and Dukes of Hazzard merchandise.  Even Walmart has banned the flag, thus offending the innocent and ignorant who proudly flew her from the back of pickup trucks or wore her on Tshirts, hats, and boxer shorts.  The flag is only a symbol and we daresn’t believe that racism will go away as quickly as it has. However, it may be a sign of remorse, long-overdue repentance that finally got through to us when an historic black church---a place that stood for peace and justice and prayer---was the scene of violent death.  Rev. Pinckney and the 8 other innocent brothers and sisters who died there at the hands of an angry white man somehow broke the spirit of overt racism.  I believe a new day is dawning, a day Dr. King dreamed about. A day when freedom could be for all men, women, and children-regardless of race or sexual orientation.  A day when oppressed minorities could be free to prosper in safety.  I believe we are witnessing hope rising. 

But it is not easy. One person’s greatest blessing is another person’s curse.   History tilts and some people lose their balance.  The pace of change can be dizzying and provoke anxiety and fear.  We may feel as if we are thrown into chaos with no mooring, no anchor to hold.  This is why faith is necessary in challenging times such as these.

The two girls in this story are inextricably bound together by the storyteller and by the one who touches their lives on the same day.

One, a 12-year old daughter sick on the brink of death. Her father, a synagogue leader comes to Jesus and begs him to come and heal her.  Jesus goes willingly.  On the way, a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years crawls up behind him and touches his cloak.  If she could only touch him, his power would heal her,  she hopes.  She bleeds. She’s not a hemophiliac with a paper cut.  She’s a bleeding woman.  She is infertile, unclean according to the law, and therefore cursed.  She has been cast out of the synagogue, labeled as broken.  She can’t be cured.  God has abandoned her.  She has no one.  No family. No friend.  No husband.  No child.  No resources.  She spent all her money on health care that did nothing for her.  She is at the end of her rope and the end of her hope.  Her last and only hope is Jesus of Nazareth, a man who can heal. 

She distracts Jesus, interrupting his hasty journey to his friend Jairus’ home.  Who touched me?  The disciples couldn’t care less.  Everyone touches Jesus.  Move on master.  There isn’t time.  But he stops.  And looks around.  Who touched me?  And there she is, on the ground.  Crying.  It was me.  I’m sorry, Lord. I needed you.  He takes her hand and lifts her up.  Daughter, your faith has healed you. He claims her when no one else would claim her.  He touches her when no one else would touch her.  He sees her and hears her when no one else would see and hear her.  Her lets her in, this one who had been left out to bleed to death.  After 12 years of suffering, she is free to live.  Thanks be to Jesus.

Too late.  Jesus is too late.  Death has come and taken the girl.  He cannot heal her now.  Do not fear, only believe.  He says.  He goes in and touches the girl.  Talitha cum.  Little Girl, Rise. Ad she sits up. Feed her, he says. Maybe she was only sleeping as he suggested.  Maybe she’s just hungry, underfed., malnourished.  Maybe she was a diabetic who needed a little sugar in her blood.  Jesus knows.  What we see and hear is mourning turned into joy.  Despair turned into elation.  Death reversed and life restored.

Women were inferior to men.  They had value, but they were inferior.  They were household servants and bearers of children, hopefully boys. A daughter was a burden, a blessing and a curse.  All daughters of Eve were cursed for their disobedience.  Misogyny and the abuse of women persists.  Women are still treated as inferior to men, though much has changed in the last 100 years.  Jesus acknowledges their value, their beloved status as daughters of God when it was culturally unnatural an unpopular to do so.   Jesus pours himself out as a servant to women.  Because Jesus is for those who are deprivileged, marked as cursed, abused, abandoned, and bleeding on the street.  Jesus’ actions are personal and systemic, as he selectively heals those at the bottom of the human pyramid lifting up the lowly, the weary ones, the poor and dispossessed. He is setting the world right-side up.  It’s just that those who stood in their feet are now standing on their heads.     

We are called to celebrate today. Jesus healed a woman and raised a girl to life. There is hope.  It’s not too late for this world to change. Discrimination and prejudice can die.  Love can overcome.   One daughter at a time. A little faith breaks the curse and opens the way to new and abundant life.  We see the new creation, the kingdom of God breaking in.  We are anchored to Jesus, the source of new life and freedom.  We are the church, called to enact his compassionate justice for our neighbors.  Let us do so with boldness and abandon.  For we will do nothing good that he has not already done.  He endorses and anoints and ordains us as his representatives, sent to heal and forgive and give life where there is suffering and death.  We can stop the bleeding and lift them up.  For we are children of GOD.  Amen.