Desperation and Her Daughters

Here's my sermon from July 1, 2012, our Canada Day.  It was greatly inspired by my experience at the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina.

“Desperation and Her Daughters”                    Mark 5: 21-43

by Rev. Dr. Christine Johnson

Desperation is the driver of this story.

Jairus is desperate about his daughter.

The unnamed woman is desperate about her condition.

Desperation will lead us to do anything.

Jairus falls down on the path, probably getting a mouth full of dirt in the process,

            and begs Jesus to come to his sick daughter.

The unnamed woman ventures forth in a crowd,

            knowing that by just being there she is making others “unclean.”

Then, she does something she’s not supposed to do.

She, a woman, reaches out and touches the garment of a man.

She steals his healing power, so to speak.

She is desperate enough to break all the rules.

Desperation is the driver of many of our stories.

We get desperate about our children,

            worried they won’t be able to make their own way,

            worried when they get sick.

Recently, a young woman from Barrhaven was so desperate to find a lung donor,

            she began a campaign to encourage everyone to become an organ donor,

            so that if life circumstances, an accident or other crisis, led to your untimely death,

            you can help another person to live.

Desperation drives many married couples to bad behaviour.

Men will sometimes hunt down their estranged spouses in order to hurt or kill them.

That’s why we have women’s shelters, the locations of which are not well known.

Women might do harm as well, or use the children as pawns in the settlement.

Or, both spouses, before any talk of separation, might seek out other sexual partners,

            in order to fulfil the deep desires that are raging within them.

When Jesus is confronted by the desperation of Jairus,

            he responds by following him.

But in the process of trying to get through a crowd of people,

            Jesus gets interrupted.

He feels that someone has touched him in a needy kind of way.

He stops to confront the person.

Now, in our Bible it reads,

            “He looked all around to see who had done it.”

In the original Greek,

            it should really read, “Jesus glared at the people around him.”

That prompts the woman to come to him in fear and trembling,

falling down before him, and telling him the whole truth.

A glance would not have engendered this response,

            but a glare would have.

That glare tells me that Jesus is probably a bit desperate too.

He’s desperate to get to Jairus’ daughter

            but other desperate people won’t leave him alone.

But Jesus does stop, and does listen, and ends up blessing the unknown woman.

But then, on to the next thing…

And when he comes to Jairus’ house,

            he’s told the daughter has died.

At that point, Jesus is probably ready to throw up his hands,

            desperation and exacerbation tempting him to give up.

But he doesn’t do that.

He finds a way to go from death to life,

            from desperation to hope,

            from Good Friday to Resurrection.

Jairus’ 12-year-old daughter is healed.

The unknown woman, who has been bleeding for as long as Jairus’ daughter has been alive,

that is, 12 years, is also healed.

The older women is given her life back

            and the younger woman is given a chance to live, and ultimately, create life.

That’s Jesus ministry: to heal so that others can also heal, so that life in its fullest can flourish.

What I’ve learned in my travels over the past two weeks,

            is that we are a desperate church in need of healing.

We want to help others, but the traditions and structures of our church often get in the way.

When desperate people interrupt our precious work,

            we glare at them and they become so frightened they run the other way.

We want to spend time writing policies and procedures

            when perhaps hosting a potluck lunch would have a bigger impact.

We want to have the worship experience that WE need,

            rather than allowing worship experiences that speak to broader needs.

We want young people to come to our churches

            so they can experience church like we used to do,

            rather than what the young people want or need.

Some churches say “no food or drink” in the sanctuary,

            meanwhile the table is supposed to be at the centre of our faith.

We want to talk theology and the intricacies of the Bible,

            when a lot of people just need a friendly voice to say “hi, how are you?”

We want to be an inclusive church,

            and we’re not unfriendly,

            but when new people come to our church and even have the courage to stay for coffee,

            we just ignore them.

What I learned about this desperate church could fill volumes.

Desperate churches chase after every newfangled strategy out there.

They buy books, have study groups, do demographic surveys, even hire a consultant.

But what desperate churches aren’t doing is listening to the

            very stories that have upheld us for centuries.

Desperate churches aren’t chasing down Jesus,

            and falling at his feet and saying repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.”

That’s what desperate churches need to do.

They need Jesus to lay his hands on them.

They need to be in the business of discerning God’s call for their ministries.

Churches should be about healing the world and letting the spirit speak.

Churches are not about policies and procedures and who can rent from us and who can’t.

They are not just about taking care of the building.

They are about using the building as a vehicle,

            a vehicle that can be used and if necessary, abused, so that we stand

at the intersection of justice, spirituality, and the arts.

That’s the motto of the Wild Goose Festival,

            a festival in North Carolina

 that is trying to undo a lot of the Christian crap we’ve inherited.

And I’ve come back a changed person.

What I learned at Wild Goose is that people are tired of mean Christians.

Mean Christians wag their finger instead of giving others a hand up.

Mean Christians would rather be right than be helpful.

Mean Christians fight against tax breaks for the poor, and work so the rich get richer.

Mean Christians don’t want to give proper health care to destitute refugees.

Mean Christians call people of other faiths names.

Mean Christians even call other Christians names.

I want to work to allow Jesus to heal the desperate people in this world.

I want to become a golden rule church.

I want the only rule of this church to be the golden rule,

            that is, we treat others the way we want to be treated.

I want this to be a church where belief in a certain way is not a requirement.

I want this to be a church where kind and loving action is the only rule.

I pray the era of the Jesus-centred, loving and open Christian is about to begin.

On Canada Day, it’s important for us to take back our faith,

            to proudly and unapologetically proclaim the goodness and grace of God.

This is what makes Canada just as amazing place.

We proclaim loving kindness and compassion as our way.

Desperation about the economy or the unemployment rate should not

            undermine these essential values.

Desperation drives all of us – sometimes to bad behaviour,

            and sometimes to asking for what we really really need.

Desperation and her daughters aren’t putting up with the old ways anymore.

They have their faces in the dirt begging Jesus to come and lay his hands on them

so they can all be made well, and live.

Maybe we’ll have the courage to do the same.