Dear All
I’m sorry I forgot to send this out on Sunday. No recording I’m afraid due to a technical error.I hope you are all well and enjoying the lovely weather.
St Andrew’s Milngavie 4th Sunday after Trinity 2021
Mark 5:21-end
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Lamentations 3:22-33
As our nation and the world emerge from this dreadful pandemic there is much talk of recovery and the need for healing. So many lives and livelihoods have been destroyed, compromised or put on hold. But the world has always required healing especially after major incidences of wars, disease and catastrophe. We think of the plague, the two world wars and so many earthquakes, tsunamis and famines. In our own lives we also seek healing after injury, sickness bereavement or any emotional trauma. It has been ever thus.
In the OT reading Jeremiah, in the book of Lamentations, anguishes over the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC. In this particular lament he reflects on the affliction the people have suffered, their need to return to the lord, and the wonderful compassion of the lord to those who return to him.
“ Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:21-23
Christian ministry has always involved healing even from the earliest times. Its always been an essential part of pastoral ministry usually in the form of prayer, blessing and the sacrament of anointing. But more recently it has been rediscovered in the form of a healing service with the laying on of hands.
We need to be careful how we interpret the word healing. It is not a medical word as such. Healing is something which happens from within, for example, when a wound heals.
Probably no doctor would claim to have healed anyone per se – the most a doctor would claim is to have prescribed a course of treatment which led to a patient being cured.
So, as we read that Jesus actually healed people, we need to consider what it was he was doing. On some occasions his ministry seems simply to be confined to curing people of their illness, for example leprosy or epilepsy. But on others he appears to have been confronting something more deep seated within them, as he sees beyond the presenting symptoms of the illness to personal, spiritual and emotional unease.
The gospel today brings us two examples of this. The crowds are pressing in around Jesus as he responds to Jaiarus’ plea to go and cure his daughter. In the midst of all the hustle and bustle of this, a woman who was suffering from chronic bleeding approaches him.
“If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well” she says. Mark 5:28
Immediately she was aware that “she was healed of her disease”. And equally Jesus aware that “the power had gone forth from him.”
So, he asks the crowd. “who touched me?” Mark 5:31 And the women came “in fear and trembling… and told him the whole truth”
The moment was completely transforming. She was healed not only physically but emotionally and spiritually within herself as well.
The healing of Jairus’ daughter carries much less medical detail about either the cause of the illness or what Jesus actually did. We only know that he took her by the hand and told her to get up. We have no clue as to whether this brought about an inner as well as an outer healing. The really significant change seems to have occurred among the bystanders. Their jeers and laughter when Jesus first appeared turned to amazement when the child got up and walked. Whatever happened to her it was those around her who were healed.
All of us know what it is like to be touched by serious illness at some point in our lives, either by our own or by that of a loved one. We know what it is like to sit and wait with someone, perhaps praying, pleading even with God for a miracle – a miracle which doesn’t always come.
But however difficult it may seem at these times, If we trust in the hope the resurrection brings to us Then death itself brings a healing.
In the miracle Jesus knew the moment when someone acted in faith. He knew the moment when someone really needed him, and the women knew she only had to touch his clothes, and all would be well. What does this say about Jesus’ relationship between her and him? And today between us and our Lord? Perhaps we can’t expect miraculous healing to happen in the same way as in Jesus’ earthly ministry. We can learn a lot from these healing miracles of Christ about faith trust and love. And the healing from within that this can bring.
The scripture today reminds me of the words from that great hymn, Immortal love in verse 3
“The healing of his seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain
We touch him in life’s throng and press
And we are whole again”
Amen