Leading by Listening with Compassion. A sermon for Sunday 30th June 2024
Leading by Listening with Compassion.
A sermon for Sunday 30th June 2024
There is a river running through it, in the same way a river borders this parish, a river often symbolises a life, from its birth at its source in the middle of Wales to the end of our mortal lives, where the symbolic river meets the sea, and begins a new life in the ocean, a few miles downstream.
From our birth, to the end, we journey, navigating as best we can,
through storms, droughts, new beginnings, growth and a multitude of events and emotions
to an end and beyond.
Our readings today, also have a theme running through them, as well as
other stories to tell.
The first clue is in the title of the book where we began, the book of
lamentations, written as Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in the sixth century
BC. Yet the passage we heard today is about steadfastness of God, which is New
every morning and Great is your faithfulness.
In spite of great loss, the people are reassured by God’s faithfulness
to them and in this they rejoice, amid their lament for the loss of their city
and home.
Sometimes it’s helpful to name the times in our lives when all we can do is lament, to express our grief or loss. Times of lament will occur in all our lives at some time or other, but accepting this is not easy.
Not just for the life of someone we love, which is reason enough to
lament, but for times when the loss we experience is for a situation, a job,
the hope of something new happening now gone, a relationship ending, a home we
had to leave, children leaving home or a multitude of other things.
The levels of loss we feel can sometimes feel out of proportion, how can my my grief for a lost pet be greater than for a person, no one can answer that question unless they are you, and however you feel is never wrong or to be judged by someone else. How we lament is up to us.
Pauls letter to the Corinthians ties into this, the whole letter is to
a community which has struggled with hardship, disputes and disagreements, and
here Paul is encouraging them to be generous, as they have received God’s
abundant blessings, they are called to be generous in return, perhaps knowing
that some are better off than others who really need help in their lament and struggles.
Then with our Gospel, Mark tells the stories of two daughters of
Israel. A twelve-year-old dying girl, her family preparing to grieve, and a
woman who has suffered bleeding for twelve years, resulting in her being an
unclean outcast, so that she could not enter the
Temple, the heart and soul of her religious community.
Contrast the girls father, a religious leader, accepted and welcomed in
every home, but desperate to save his daughter. Imagine the scene, a very
formal, respected man, begging Jesus on his knees to help, which Jesus agrees
to do.
But surrounded by crowds, he is delayed. By an unclean,
outcast woman, and lets remember, any unmarried woman is an outcast anyway in
those times, although never to Jesus.
By the time she approached Jesus, she had spent every
penny she owned, and “endured much under many physicians” to find relief, but
her bleeding had only worsened.
She was lonely and lamenting a life denied
to her.
Then in a desperate and stunning act of faith and civil
disobedience she defied the religious rules of her day to pursue an encounter
with Jesus. She knew she had no business
polluting the crowds with her presence.
 |
| Jesus healing the bleeding woman, Roman catacombs, 300–350 |
If the story ended there — with a stolen touch, an
unremarked healing, and an invisible but still potent transformation of the
woman’s life —it would miracle enough.
But Jesus insisted
that she come forward and tell her “whole
truth.” To undo the false narratives which had plagued her life.
Their interpretations, assumptions and prejudices had reduced her to a caricature. Shamed
into silence by bad religion.
Even if she needed all day to
tell her story, Jesus knew how desperately she needed someone to listen, to
understand, and to bless her “whole truth” in the presence of the larger
community.
This is what Jesus did.
He restored her to fellowship, to dignity, to humanity. “Daughter,” he said when she fell
silent at last. “Daughter, go in peace.”
This amazing encounter though, delayed Jesus, so that the little girl
has now died.
Yet he goes on, and in a much more formal way, restores the girl to
life, after bidding Jairus to have faith.
These stories go to heart of the human condition, we
have a desperate father pleading for the life of his dying little girl, and an
outcast woman desperate for healing, and in doing so, telling her shame-laced
truth to the only man in a crowd who will listen.
In Jairus’s story, Jesus demands that we not pronounce
death where he sees life.
In the bleeding woman’s story, he demands that legalism
give way to compassion every single time.
In each story, Jesus restores a lost child of God to
community and intimacy.
In each story, Jesus takes hold of what is
"impure" (the menstruating woman, the dead body) in order to practice
mercy.
In each story, a previously hopeless daughter “goes in
peace” because Jesus finds value where no one else will.
Are we listening?
Could there be a more fitting lection for our time and place?
As I speak, there are desperate people fleeing homes and
despite many dangers, travelling many miles in hope of a new life, sometimes in
small boats. Note that I name them as people, not “illegals,” “aliens,” or
“criminals.” Just people.
For the last few weeks, there has been news of desperate
parents longing for news of their son lost abroad.
We hear horror stories from Gaza and Israel, from
Ukraine and even in our own society, of people denied basic rights of healthcare
and safety because even in a wealthy democracy like ours, apparently, we can’t
afford to be compassionate to those most in need.
Ultimately, if our response to those around us in need doesn’t
look like love, if it doesn’t look like Jesus of Nazareth, it cannot be claimed
to be Christian.
Perhaps this is something to hold onto in the week ahead
as we go to the polls and try to decide who to vote for.
If our vote doesn’t come from compassion and love, is it
Christian?
What looks like love?
What looks like Jesus of Nazareth?
The one whose heart melts at the cry of a desperate father. The one who visits the sick child and takes
her limp hand in his. The one who risks
defilement to touch the bloody and the broken.
The one who insists on the whole truth, however
falteringly told. The one who listens
for as long as it takes. The one who
brings life to dead places. The one who
restores hope. The one who turns
mourning into dancing. The one who
renames the outcast, “Daughter,” and bids her go in peace.
https://journeywithjesus.net/essays/1821-when-daughters-go-in-peace
Readings
Lamentations 3:22-33
22 The steadfast love of
the Lord never ceases,*
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
‘therefore I will hope in him.’
25 The Lord is good to those who
wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for one to bear
the yoke in youth,
28 to sit alone in silence
when the Lord has imposed it,
29 to put one’s mouth to the dust
(there may yet be hope),
30 to give one’s cheek to the smiter,
and be filled with insults.
31 For the Lord will not
reject for ever.
32 Although he causes grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33 for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve anyone.
7Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in
speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want
you to excel also in this generous undertaking.
8 I do not say
this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the
earnestness of others. 9For you know the generous act of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so
that by his poverty you might become rich. 10And in this matter I am giving my advice: it
is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to
desire to do something— 11now finish doing it, so that your eagerness
may be matched by completing it according to your means. 12For if the
eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not
according to what one does not have. 13I do not mean that there should be relief for
others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between 14your present
abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in
order that there may be a fair balance. 15As it is written,
‘The one who had much did not have
too much,
and the one who had little did not have too little.’
Mark 5.21–43
21 When
Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered
round him; and he was by the lake. 22Then one of the leaders of the synagogue
named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23and begged
him 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.’ 24So he went
with him.
And a large crowd followed him and
pressed in on him. 25Now there was a woman who had been suffering
from haemorrhages for twelve years. 26She had endured much under many physicians,
and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27She had heard
about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28for she said,
‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ 29Immediately
her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her
disease. 30Immediately
aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and
said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ 31And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the
crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’ 32He looked all
round to see who had done it. 33But the woman, knowing what had happened to
her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole
truth. 34He said
to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of
your disease.’
35 While he
was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your
daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ 36But
overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not
fear, only believe.’ 37He allowed no one to follow him except Peter,
James, and John, the brother of James. 38When they came to the house of the leader of
the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39When he had
entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is
not dead but sleeping.’ 40And they laughed at him. Then he put them all
outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him,
and went in where the child was. 41He took her by the hand and said to her,
‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ 42And
immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of
age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43He strictly
ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something
to eat.
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