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29 June, Pentecost 3

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27 Verses 17 and 18 form a title, a short foreword to the lament that follows from verse 19 on. The Book of Joshua is referred to also in Joshua 10:13 - translated The Book of the Upright it is thought to have been a book of songs sacred and secular that commemorated great events in the history of the nation. "There is no reason for doubting David's authorship [of this lament on the death of Saul and Jonathan]. According to tradition he was a particularly skilled musician, and that certainly means that he was able not only to play, but also to sing. [See 1 Sam 16:18, 23] We need add no praise to what has been called the most beautiful heroic lament of all time." (H W Hertzberg)

Psalm 130 One of the seven 'penitential psalms' (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143). The favourite Psalm of Luther. "The Psalm is a confession of a God-fearing man who was able to rise from the uttermost depth of anguish engendered by sin to the assurance of divine grace and forgiveness. According to verse 8 it can be assumed that the psalm was recited by the poet in the community's worship. The worshipper sees his personal assurance of forgiveness in connection with the presence of God (verse 4) and the general assurance of forgiveness given to his people (verse 7-8)" (Artur Weiser)

2 Corinthians 8:7-15 This passage needs to be set in its context. Chapters 8 and 9 belong together as a distinct section of this letter. Paul writes about "the fund which he was raising in all the Gentile-Christian communities on behalf of the poor belonging to the church at Jerusalem. . . It is probably that a large majority of the members and adherents of the Jerusalem Church would naturally spring from the poorer classes." (R H Strachan) Perhaps Paul also saw this collection as helpful in bridging the gap between the Gentile Churches and the Jewish-Christian community. This is a practical fund-raising project that Paul is promoting. But he is careful to ground it in the grace of God in Jesus Christ (verse 9)

Mark 5:21-43 Jairus was one of the rulers of the synagogue. "Each synagogue had its college of elders who supervised the synagogue worship. The nearest modern equivalent is a Presbyterian Kirk Session". (A M Hunter) The president "was the lay official responsible for the supervision of the synagogue building and the arrangements for the services, but the designation was sometimes used as an honorary title for distinguished members of the synagogue." (Cranfield). Whichever, it is clear that Jairus was a person of some note in the community.

The woman with the haemorrhage, on the other hand, would be a nobody. Her flow of blood would mean that she had been ceremonially unclean and a social outcast for twelve years. Hence her surreptitious and nervous approach to Jesus. Even when she knew she had been healed, she responded to Jesus' question trembling with fear, knowing that in touching Jesus she would have been understood to make him unclean too. She told him the whole truth. That could have been quite a lengthy conversation.

The contrast between this poor woman and the noble Jairus and his daughter is striking. Jesus treats both even-handedly. Jesus addresses the outcast woman as daughter (the only time any woman is so called by Jesus); the twelve-year old daughter of Jairus he calls, my child.

Preaching Have Faith

Your sermon might begin by briefly retelling the two stories, filling in some of the details - such as the status of Jairus and the reasons for the evident embarrassment for the woman. You might like to picture Jairus, anxious about his daughter while Jesus speaks with this obscure woman. I can see him standing first on one foot and then the other, a poor distracted father beside himself with anxiety at the long delay while his daughter's life slips away . . .

You could then contrast the two characters: Jairus, looked up to and respected, in the public eye, one of the upper crust, and likely to be well off. The woman, "unclean", ostracised, all around her the cruel superstition that often attaches to menstrual blood. She was as much a part of the lowest stratum of society as Jairus was of the top group - and she would be as poor as he was comfortably off.

For all these differences, the two of them were alike in this, that they were both near the end of their tether. Despair has no respect for wealth or fame, and can grip any human heart. The woman, sick in body and by now probably in mind too; Jairus distraught and ready to grasp anything that offered hope for his child.

There will be people among those who listen to you who have been brought to the depths of utter despair, when nothing made sense to them any more and the future offered nothing. You might say that such people will know that in the valley of human desolation pretensions fall away. You are simply a human being in great need.

There's something else that unites these two.
Daughter, your faith has healed you. (to the woman) Do not be afraid, simply have faith. (to Jairus) The word used for "have faith" does not imply that Jairus should start to have faith; it means "Go on having faith." "Don't let your faith dry up now that you've heard your daughter has died".

So these two stories, woven together, of two different people, tell how they each in their distress and despair came to Jesus with their faith. And through that faith they found life. Neither of them appears to have had anything wonderful by way of faith. Certainly not faith in the full Christ sense of commitment. "If I touch even his clothes I shall be healed," may be little more than a belief in hocus-pocus. Notice that it was only after the woman had poured out her heart to him that he told her to go in peace.

It would be easy to dismiss Jairus' faith as a matter of emergency religion - when all else fails, and the chips are down, call on help from beyond. . . the "faith" these two people had was a world away from what Paul meant when he used that word. But Jesus didn't dismiss their faith as worthless. This can be reassuring to those of us whose faith is often rickety, incomplete, and shallow. It demonstrates that receiving from Christ the gift of life doesn't depend on having mature, polished, gleaming and perfect faith.

Jesus said to another father who brought his child to be healed, "Everything is possible to one who believes." At once the boys' father replied, "I believe; help my unbelief." (Mark 9:23-24) Or, in the fine translation of the NEV, alas discarded by the REB: I have faith, help me where faith falls short.

By the grace of God, even the merest scrap of faith can grow, develop, mature . . .

A Prayer for Opening Worship

Holy God, we worship you.
When beauty lights up our life,
We remember that it comes from you.
When truth shines into our minds and hearts
We know that you are its source.
When love warms our heart
And directs what we do
We remember that you are love,
And love begins in you
When we see goodness and grace
In the lives of your people,
Then may your grace awaken life in us
So that our worship and our living
Honour you our eternal God.

A Prayer of Dedication

Creator God
We depend on you for life itself
And for everything that gives depth and colour
To our living,
And gives hope for the future.
We thank you for the people and the experiences
That have enriched life for us in recent days
And all through our life.

With our gratitude, we bring these gifts,
Money and food,
With the prayer that as the days pass
we will more truly love you
with heart and mind and soul and strength,
and more fully love our neighbour
as we love ourselves,
fulfilling the command of our Lord Jesus Christ.

An Intercession

So much to be thankful for!
Joy in our living,
Delight in our friends,
their company and their support.
The assurance of your goodness and mercy
with us all the days of our life.

In your presence we think of people
who find little delight in life,
with no one to call a friend,
longing for congenial company
and for strong support,
people who know nothing of you
Or your goodness and mercy.

We pray for people who look at life
with pessimistic eyes, unable to lift themselves beyond despondency
and despair.
People who look out at the world
and at people around them
only to criticise, to condemn,
alienating other people,
Cramping and souring their own nature

May we have serenity of spirit enough
to mirror for others
a little of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the life of this church community
may others be glad to find
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

And in the way we live day by day
enable us in all our dealings with people
to be gemuinely humble, actively compassionate,
gentle peacemakers
who bring with us wherever we go
the joy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Pentecost  | Pentecost 1 | Pentecost 2 | Pentecost 3  | Pentecost 4 | Pentecost 5  | Pentecost 6