Sermon 4th Sunday after Pentecost, Emmanuel, Mercer Island

I just got back last night from a few days of vacation,
time spent with family,
especially my two little grandsons who are such a delight in my life.
I consider myself very blest to have this family,
to share these significant primary relationships,
and for us all to be in a wonderful place at the moment.

But like just about every family, it hasn’t all been wonderful.
Our family has experienced its share of suffering, death, grief and heart ache
and that makes this present time so precious.

Yet it is in the time of darkness and trial
when the purpose and meaning in life is tested
that we find our spiritual grounding and discover faith.

The Gospel reading for today is about such a crisis moment
for a family suffering for 12 long years of brokenness and grief.
I am going to tell you something today about this story
that you probably haven’t heard before.
It may or may not be true,
but I think it is not only probable, but implicit in the passage.

First and foremost is the implicit connection
between the woman who was hemorrhaging for 12 years
and the 12 year-old girl.
Didn’t you ever wonder why the text made a point
of mentioning the 12 years?

In these necessarily brief and sparse ancient documents of the Gospels
every little word is there on purpose.

The woman, you see, is quite possibly the girl’s mother.
And the word for woman and wife are one and the same in Greek,
so this shifts the whole way in which we can look at this story.

This story appears in all three of the synoptic Gospels,
Matthew, Mark and Luke,
and the three accounts are very similar.
In fact, they concur on all the important points that support what I am saying,
that this woman was the child’s mother.
Again the Greek is clearer than the English translation
because of syntax as well as vocabulary.

That makes this a story about Jesus healing, reconciling and restoring a family.

And this has application for us even in this contemporary setting,
in which this woman’s post partum hemorrhaging
could have been readily handled medically today as opposed to then.

First to understand why the mother of the dying child
was sneaking up behind Jesus to touch him,
and why she was so afraid of detection,
why she was acting in this way,
recall the significance of blood in that time and culture.

There were a lot of laws around matters involving blood,
and they had to do with ritual purity.
Women who were menstruating were “excused” from social contact
so as not to make others ritually unclean,
since merely the touch of a woman during that time of the month
was considered as polluting all that she touched.

And her husband, Jairus, was a leader of the synagogue,
so this meant that he and his family had greater obligation
to uphold the customs of their religion and society.

They were in the public eye,
and therefore obligated to be scrupulous in their religious observance.

Quite possibly this flow of blood had originated
at the birth of their first, and – notice – only, child,
and so for 12 years the girl’s mother, Jairus’ wife
had had to be excluded not only from society and the synagogue,
but also from the marriage bed.
Here was a family that had been living with a severe disruption all these years,
and now their only child was dying.

But the woman’s faith is greatly encouraged by the Presence of Jesus,
and perhaps she reasons with herself
that if Jesus is coming to heal their daughter,
then she too has the opportunity to receive the overflow of that healing.
But how to get near enough to him…
She must have been both bold and stealthy,
veiling her face so as not to be recognized
in the close and jostling crowd,
since if she were detected, can you imagine what an outcry there would be
among all those who would be wondering
how many of them she had touched and made unclean
by pushing her way through the crowd to Jesus.

Yet Jesus knows that she has touched him and that she is healed,
and he calls attention to it.
In all three Gospels what Jesus says to her is key,
is the heart of this whole story.

First he addresses her as daughter, he calls her his daughter.
This is typical, traditional language for identifying the disciple.
The prophet, guru, sage, spiritual leader
names the disciple by calling them son or daughter.
Jesus is identifying her as his disciple, laying a claim on her.
She had responded out of faith in him,
and he recognized that and validated that.

A powerful spiritual connection has been made here.
This woman’s need was great.
For the entire life of her child she had been separated from society,
excluded not on the basis of moral consideration
but because of ritual impurity from no fault of her own.

And now the child was dying.
One might wonder that she had any faith at all,
that she hadn’t railed against a God who seemed deaf to her prayers,
a God whom she could blame for the unfairness of it all.

But her need was so enormous for her daughter, her family, herself
that she would do what she had to in order to reach Jesus.

So the need draws her to Jesus, calls her to Jesus.
This is often how the disciple gets called to the spiritual master.

We don’t often get the chance to see true spiritual masters at work
so as to see how this process of calling disciples works.
We mostly don’t see how it is
that each of us has been called into discipleship with Jesus either.

In most cases our need hasn’t been as great as hers.
It’s not as clear cut.

I have been fortunate enough to spend time around
one of the world’s true spiritual leaders currently living,
and I have been able to observe close up the significant spiritual power
that can draw people irresistibly.

That’s how I ended up in India.
Four years ago Amma – Mata Amritanandamayi – took me in her arms
and whispered “My daughter” in my ear,
and a monthly later I had airplane tickets to India my hand
and I was scratching my head wondering how all that had happened!

And Jesus, as the Gospels give witness about him, was in his earthly life
a most powerful spiritual guru,
and now in the Resurrection he is even more powerful.

But we often miss that because we are just too ignorant
in this western, post modern, highly secular culture
to know what to look for or how to name our spiritual experiences.

What I am leading up to is that I think that in this Gospel story
this huge spiritual Presence of Jesus is already drawing the woman
and she is able to make it through the thick crowd
because, in a sense, the way is opened for her.
The way is opened for her.
Such mercy and love from our Lord…

Then Jesus calls attention to her, affirming both her healing and her faith.
“Your faith has saved you.” “Your faith has healed you,”
The Greek word here is the same for saved and healed.
“Your faith has saved, has healed you,” Jesus says,
affirming both her healing and her faith,
and thus restoring her to her family and to the whole community.

This is very important to note.
This is the center point of the whole story.
This is crucial for what follows.

Because it is right then that the word comes that the girl has died.
And then Jesus continues to their home despite the news of death,
bringing both the father, and the mother now, into the home with him,
and only 3 of the 12, the ones closest to him – Peter, James and John.
Those without faith, all those standing outside the house wailing,
they stay out.
And then Jesus touches the dead body – another taboo;
(crossing another ritual boundary)
taking the child by the hand would also make him unclean,
and he raises her to life again.

And the family is completely restored and reconciled,
all flying in the face of what seemed to be proper religious mores
for one who is a synagogue leader.

And Jesus was taking all that uncleanness upon himself.

Then Jesus orders them that no one should know about this,
what with all the rules having been broken,
and because people will end up attaching to Jesus their own ideas
about the Messiah
and miss the point about faith and responding to the call of Jesus.

But most importantly this family was restored again,
brought back together.
The family was far more important than either
religious rules or culturally accepted norms,
and rules were broken for the sake of basic human relationships.
Thank God!

What might be the ways in which you and I as brothers and sisters in faith,
might bridge cultural norms and societal ideas
in order to bring healing, reconciliation, and restored relationships?

Even though we are not all of us here related by blood,
we can still call each other brother and sister.

We can think about this on a global level
with such concerns as what might come up at General Convention
coming up in July,
concerns about how we can all stay together in the Anglican Communion.

We can think about this on the local level
in terms of how we here in this congregation
follow our Lord in discipleship and faith, and relate to one another.

We can think about this in ways in which our own social norms
are broken for the sake of compassion to meet basic human needs.

Need comes in many ways.
Needs for the basic necessities of life – food, housing, medical care,
and also our basic human needs for love, relationship, family.

And we can see from this gospel story
that needs can actually work to our good to propel us toward God.
What needs brought us here today?

What might impel you to reach out your hand to touch Jesus?
to seek his love, mercy, healing, reconciliation, peace?

Would that we were as impelled as that woman in the Gospel
that we would push our way
through whatever is blocking the way to Jesus!
push our way through whatever in ourselves is blocking the way.

Here is the Good News:
The healing Presence of Jesus is just as much here
as it was in the streets of Jairus’ town.
You can, if you want, reach out your hand to touch the robe of Jesus.

Consider this: you can actually physically touch Jesus today,
this very morning.
His physical Presence is with us powerfully,
albeit hidden in bread and wine.

You could push your way through the crowd to the altar rail
and grab hold of the very Body of Jesus
and claim the faith that brings healing and reconciliation.

In his great love and mercy
there is reconciliation and restoration and healing
for the whole family of God.

The healing Presence of Jesus is just as much here
as it was in the streets of Jairus’ town.
You can, if you want, reach out and touch Jesus.

Pentecost Sermon, Emmanuel, Mercer Island

You may have wondered why it was
that we began the liturgy today with the Easter salutation:
Alleluia! Christ is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia!
And here it is Pentecost.

Do you realize that Pentecost is another Resurrection appearance?

Pentecost is the 50th day of Easter,
and the Risen Christ present in a new and powerful way,
Pentecost as an ultimate Resurrection event,
where resurrection becomes very personal.

Pentecost, as told in the story from Acts, chapter 2,
is at the center of the very meaning and existence of the Church.

Pentecost is the Risen Christ, invading and penetrating us
to the core of our being as Holy Spirit, as the Divine Presence.
Pentecost is the forcing of our eyes open to seeing
that God really does dwell in us.
And maybe we then might be able to see that we dwell in God.

This Pentecost event happened quite possibly in same room as the Last Supper
and where the disciples were gathered in fear after the crucifixion
when Jesus suddenly appeared with them behind locked doors.

Now 50 days later
and it’s 120 gathered instead of 12
and Jesus suddenly appears,
but in a new form:
Flames – on each, bright radiant energy.

The room was ablaze with the light of these flames
burning on the disciples
burning without the disciples being reduced to ashes.
Now, does this sound familiar?
Where have we heard about something like this before?

How about Exodus 3,
the story of the bush that was burning, but was not burned up.

As you may recall,
this extraordinary occurrence got the attention of Moses,
he went to investigate,
and ended up with his shoes off on holy ground,
encountering the Living God.

In the written language of Hebrew
the difference between the word for fire and the word for a man
is one tiny dot,
the difference between vƈa and v´a,
a human being on fire, but not burnt up…

…and Moses would return to this place of the brilliant light
in the bush that was not burned up,
bringing with him the Hebrew People
freed from slavery in Egypt
bringing them to that very spot where Moses had encountered God.
Where else would he bring them?

And on this mountain Moses would receive from the hand of God
the Law of the Covenant,
and when Moses came down from the Mountain
from time spent in face to face encounter with the revelation of God,
his face shone,
his face was aflame with brilliant light.
He was transfigured,
a human being on fire, but not burnt up.

Human beings on fire, but not burnt up
Pentecost – people on fire

The tongues of flame radiantly burning on each of them,
yet not burning them up,
become transfigured into tongues of languages.

And now, for that diverse crowd gathered in Jerusalem for the festival
the sound that is heard, that draws them,
is each one hearing in their own tongues, their own languages
words, not just sound.
The sound that attracts the crowd is the sound of intelligible words.

The fire of the Spirit, of the very Breath of God
is translated through the human person
as utterance, words, communication.
The languages expand the message, the revelation of God,
beyond ethnicity, way beyond any arbitrary human divisions.

The breath that the Resurrection Jesus breathed
on those huddled disciples on Easter Day
now comes with great force and transfigures them
in flaming tongues of light and language,
uncontainable by the room they were in.

In the story of the Day of Pentecost, after the people on the street exclaim,
“How is it that we each hear in our own languages?”
next we read that “they all were amazed and perplexed,
saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’”


And, of course, there are those who jump to conclusions and make assumptions.
So the theory is put forward that they are drunk,
filled with new wine, raw wine, not aged,
still bubbling away in the wineskins in the process of fermentation,
and that has made them raving mad!

So Peter and the other Apostles stand up and address the huge crowd:
“These people aren’t drunk, as you suppose,
since, after all, it’s just 9 in the morning, too early to get a toot on.
But this is exactly what you have heard read from the scriptures,
from the Prophets, from the Prophet Joel,
what it would be like
when God poured out the Holy Spirit freely on the people.
And all of what the Prophet Joel was saying
applies to what we have seen in Jesus of Nazareth,
all the signs and wonders and mighty works
that God did through him right here in your midst,
as you are well aware of.

Not only that, but when he was crucified and killed,
God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death,
because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
…this Jesus God raised up,
and of that we all are witnesses,
and so this is the Holy Spirit he promised to send us from the Father,
which has now been poured out upon us, as you can see and hear.”

So that 120 upon whom fell the fire of the Holy Spirit
were not drunk;
at least, they were not drunk with NEW wine.

Instead they WERE drunk, drunk with the new wine of the Holy Spirit,
drunk with that wedding wine Jesus had made in Cana,
the Holy Spirit bubbling away inside their skins
in the fermentation of transformation into the image of God.

Be drunk.
Be drunk with the new wine of the Spirit.
Be intoxicated with the love of Jesus,
our love for him responding to his love for us.
Let his love flow over you until you are swimming in it.
And drink from the ocean you are swimming in
and become drunk with it.

The Spirit, like wind and fire, is not tame,
but sweeps through whatever is in its path.
To enter the whirlwind
is to become drunk with the walls reeling about you.
Then in the madness of Spirit-drunkenness
the Love of God rearranges the mind and we are changed.
Our vision is changed.
We rub our eyes and look again.
Everything looks different.
What was dingy and grey and old and worn out looking
now radiates color, dances with energy in the field of vision.

Pentecost, it would seem, is very much a resurrection appearance,
a Resurrection appearance of a whole new sort.
The anointing of the disciples with the Holy Spirit,
is expressive of the Resurrection,
creating in these Spirit-infused people a new race of resurrection beings
reproducing in them, and us, if we’ll let it happen,
Jesus himself.
We can’t begin to know the full range of human capacity
available to us.

How can we become the immediate revelation
of the presence and self-expression of God?
It is through the Spirit of the Risen Lord, the Spirit of Resurrection Jesus.

And what the world needs is this fire burning in the People of God
for the sake of the world.


The fire that we know is the fire that consumes.
But the fire that does not consume
is something new to our experience,
something which is the product of the Resurrection,
something provided for us, not of our own efforts.

It comes from the Light of the world,
from the Source of all creation,
from the Word who was in the beginning with God.
The new articulation of the Word in languages of every race and nation
flows from the Resurrection Jesus into each open heart,
placing a flame on each individual for the sake of the world.

Now, what if your hair was literally on fire!
There would be a lot of hopping about and shrieking, I would expect.
That would attract a lot of attention.

And here we are walking around calmly conversing with one another
while our hair is on fire.

Did it ever occur to you what that might be like
to be aware of having the Holy Spirit in such fiery presence
what potential there would be,
how that might change your life, expand it, enlarge it?

Can we get close enough in our openness to the Holy Spirit
that we actually catch fire?

As Peter told the crowd on that Day of Pentecost
for all that turned to Jesus,
“you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off,
everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”

That is what you are charged to consider for yourself on this Day of Pentecost.

Can you see?
You are loved to such a degree
that God knew that the only way to help you
the only way to work reconciliation in you
the only way to restore Life
is to live in you.

And God with us, the Spirit as close and as intimate as our own breath,
comes right on in and will identify for us our deepest suffering
if we would allow it
and then works in us the healing process
bringing us always toward greater fullness of Life
bringing us even deeper into the Heart of God
that throbs with such love for us.

Let’s stop messing around and ask for power from the Source.

Now may God give us eyes to see
that we too may become,
are in the process of becoming
burning bushes ourselves,
burning bushes for others to catch notice of,
and turn aside in wonder to see,
and to catch fire themselves also. Amen.