Dr. William A. Ritter
First United Methodist Church
Birmingham, Michigan
Scripture: Luke 8:40-48
November 2, 2003
Some years ago, I told you the story of Father Gene Monahan and the day he addressed a large gathering of his fellow priests, the better to address the changes that took place in the Roman Catholic Church in the wake of Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council. Approaching the platform, he was barefooted. He had on a pair of whitewashed trousers and a T-shirt. That’s all. Peering out at his colleagues, he said:
I am 54 years old. I have spent all of my professional life with my back turned to the congregation as I ministered at the altar. Now my church says: “Turn around and face the people.” I have spent an equal amount of time hiding among the incense pot and the candles, doing the work of our liturgy, and now the church says: “Come out and be with the people.” I have spent most of my adult life saying the mass in Latin, and now my church says: “Speak English, so you can be understood by the people.”
On and on he went, describing the changes that had shaken him to the very foundations of his calling. When he came to the end, he concluded with this: “As you can see by my apparel, I have been stripped of almost everything. All that I have left is God.”
But it was enough. For those who knew him testified that there was power in him. And strength to be drawn from him. By all who came near him. Bringing us to yet another story which I have never preached until now, that of the woman suffering from a twelve-year flow of blood. Who is she? Luke doesn’t say. Although a later Greek manuscript refers to her as Bernice, while a Latin manuscript calls her Veronica. So if you like either of those names, pick one. If not, pick your own.
Actually, given Luke’s chronology, this is really a story within a story. Jesus is on his way (dare we say hurrying?) to the side of a little girl who is dying. Who is given no name, either. Although her father, we are told, is named Jairus….a leader in the synagogue.
Who put these two stories together? Well, for our purposes this morning, Luke put them together. Perhaps because they happened together. Perhaps because one says Jesus can heal sickness, while the other says Jesus can even heal sickness that results in death. Perhaps because each story introduces the importance of faith in healing…. in other words, if you think he can, he can. Or perhaps what links these stories is something as simple as the number twelve. How old is the little girl who is dying? Twelve. And how many years has this poor woman suffered from an unrelenting flow of blood? Twelve.
Luke tells us that she has been treated by many physicians, but cured by none. Mark suggests that not only have these physicians taken all her money, but after seeing them, she is worse. But if Luke really was a physician (as suggested in Colossians 4:14), you can excuse him for softening Mark’s critique of the medical profession.
So why doesn’t this woman come right out with her request for healing? I mean, everybody else does. Some of them (the Syro-Phoenician woman comes to mind) are downright obnoxious about it. But this lady doesn’t even whisper her request. Instead, she sneaks up behind Jesus, does her garment-touching thing, and fully expects to slink away unnoticed.
But you know the answer to that as well as I do. During their time of bleeding, women were considered ritualistically unclean (Leviticus 15:19). And to touch such a woman (or be touched by such a woman) rendered you unclean. Unclean as in impure. Worse yet, unclean as in cut off from the family of faith. Notice that when she finally comes clean at the end of the story, Jesus calls her “daughter.” Not Bernice. Not Veronica. But daughter. Don’t you just love it? Why it’s nothing less than the original version of All in the Family.
How does the healing happen? Darned if I know. Luke says she touches the hem of his garment. That’s how it happens. Well, not exactly his hem. To be precise, we are talking about “the tassel of his hem.” Devout Jewish males wore robes with fringes on them. The fringes ended in four tufts of white thread, with a blue thread woven through them. They reminded the Jewish male that every time he dressed, he was a man of God and was committed to keeping the laws of God. In subsequent eras, whenever it became politically dangerous to be a Jew, the tassels were attached to one’s underwear. Today, however, devout Jewish males wear them on their “talith” (prayer shawl). So now you know.
But all Jesus knew was that somebody touched him. Which sounds like a stupid thing to say, given that we have already been told that crowds were jostling him. Of which Peter openly reminded him: “What do you mean, ‘someone touched you,’ Lord? Any one of a hundred people could have touched you. Some little kid could have touched you. A stray dog could have bumped you. A member of the choir could have crowded you.”
To which Jesus said: “All I know is that power has gone forth from me.” Ah, that’s it. There has been a power transfer.
He had it.
She sought it.
Faith passed it.
And there you have it in a nutshell. Nine words. Three sentences. Isn’t preaching easy?
Well, yes and no. The issue being, once you “get it,” what in the world do you do with it? Or, more to the point, what in this world do you do with it? Let’s be honest. When we talk about walking behind Jesus, we’re talking metaphorically, not literally. We can’t see him. Neither can we see his garment. Which poses difficulty when it comes to touching and transferring. Would that someone had preserved his garment. Or his tassel. Wouldn’t that be a treasure? Except, by this time, it would either be pressed under glass or locked in a vault. The only people with access to it would be those capable of scientifically studying it….effectively reducing faith and memory to physics and chemistry.
But is it possible that the garment survives in different dress….that it survives as the church? To which Christ’s authority is given. And into which Christ’s power is poured. I mean, is it possible that the garment is us….or at least the external fringe of the garment is us? Is it possible that power transfers….while not exclusively our province….occasionally happen through us? I mean, could it be that we are one of the great utilities of the world, namely “The Light and Power Company?”
Oh, I know what you are thinking. Because it’s what I’ve been thinking. You’re thinking that while my claim makes good theological sense, it comes off as just a tad arrogant. As in: “Plug in here and we’ll empower you.” And as long as we’re talking about arrogance, take another look at this year’s campaign theme: “This Is All You Really Need.” Isn’t that just a bit arrogant, too? As if the church were in the one-stop-shopping business. You need it. We’ve got it. No need to look elsewhere for it. Because there’s nowhere else you’re likely to find it.
Well, I suppose anybody who entered this building during the rummage sale might concede the one-stop-shopping argument. Because if you needed it, we probably did have it. Cheap. But you’re wise to me. You know that this verbiage is not about rummage. There are other things you need….the keyword being “really”….that we do have (quite apart from rummage). Now I could break you into small groups….give you several sheets of newsprint and a magic marker….appoint a group leader (the one with the most recent birthday or the last one to eat a cheese and pepperoni pizza)….and let you make lists of what you “really need” that this church supplies. But the fixed nature of our pews won’t permit it. And you probably wouldn’t stand for it. Because if you’ve been to as many of these things as I have, if you ever see another piece of newsprint again, it’ll be too soon.
So let’s stick with the text. Let’s assume that what’s at stake here is healing. And we are in the healing business. I get tired of pointing this out to you. For I wish you really knew how much healing goes on….how far and wide it goes on….and how long it’s gone on. As concerns track records of healing, we’re marathoners in a world of sprinters. But I am preaching to the choir.
There is independent corroboration of the role the church plays in healing. How do I know that? Because you keep clipping and sending it to me. That’s how I know that. I’m talking about all those articles suggesting a researchable correlation between prayer and recovery….between faith and recovery….between regular religious practice (especially communal religious practice, like we are doing here) and recovery. There are even researchable correlations between regular worship and the greater issue of who does or does not get sick in the first place.
I know it’s hard to isolate one factor (such as faith) in a scientific study. But we keep reading this stuff….not from preachers (who have a biased view), but from researchers (who don’t).
Then there are all those studies which suggest a positive correlation between religious practice and relational health. There are statistics suggesting that couples who pray together….if only in church….do stay together. Better yet, they are happier. They have better sex. And longer lives. I could quote the studies and the figures. But this is a sermon in a sanctuary, not a presentation in a symposium.
Perfect research? Far from it. Fascinating research? You better believe it. For it might be helpful if you did believe it. And who among us doesn’t need additional help?
There is a movie playing currently which is generating much conversation. Called Thirteen, it is every parent’s nightmare. Even if you haven’t seen it, you’ve likely read about it. Good girl goes bad. Wrong crowd. Wrong role models. Wrong choices. She goes from cutting her body (kids do that, you know) to cutting her ties. She cuts her ties with mom….with teachers….with friends….with goals….with everything we would applaud….in order to behave in ways we would never applaud.
Religious organizations are notably absent from the lives of everyone in the movie. Therefore, troubled teens like Tracy have few resources outside the immediate family. But according to the research from the National Study of Youth and Religion, religiously active teens are less likely (not unlikely, but less likely) to engage in risky and potentially self-harming behaviors. Leading the researcher, Lynn Schofield Clark, to conclude:
There is no guarantee that investments in youth ministry will necessarily change the fate of kids like Tracy. Nevertheless, communities are called to offer a faithful response to those in need. Some parents will breathe a sigh of relief as they leave the theater that what they see happening to Tracy is not happening to their kid. Better they should leave with the rallying cry: “This shouldn’t happen to any kid.”
My friends, let me say with more confidence than arrogance that I believe we are the hem of his garment. Not only is power felt here, but power is transferred here. And let me further suggest that our job….at least as I see it on my watch….is to sew a broader garment as well as a better garment. Because the crushing crowd of the needy and bleedy is similarly broad and broadening.
As a church, we have a wonderful history. No one in this room is old enough to remember when this church hasn’t done well. We have been well served and well serving….well led and well leading. We have been both big and broad. Today, our membership stands right around 3150. Smaller than it was in the late sixties, but bigger than any time since the early seventies. All told, a sizeable garment.
In recent years, our net membership gain has been approximately 700. Not great, but good. Putting it in perspective, consider this. Our Annual Conference (the geographic segment of our denomination to which we belong) numbers 472 churches, of which 22 churches have 700 or more members. In other words, in recent years we have grown a church which is larger than all but 22 congregations in our Conference.
But even more interesting than that is this. You have often heard me quote Lyle Schaller’s observation that any denomination or congregation will quietly accept an annual decline up to one and a half percent in any statistical category….members, attenders, givers….in return for an unspoken agreement to maintain the status quo. In other words, most churches will make their peace with falling numbers in return for a tacit agreement to make no changes. And one of the things I discovered, early in the nineties, was that between the late sixties and the early nineties, our church averaged an annual decline of one and a half percent.
Which, had we continued down that path, would peg our present membership….not at 3150….but at 2083. Which may not strike you as all that big a deal. A church of 2083 is still capable of offering strong preaching, great singing and abundant programming. But the difference between 2083 and 3150 is at least two fewer clergy….two fewer staffers for children….two fewer staffers with youth….no presence in Prague, Costa Rica or Chile….possibly no alternative worship service at 5:00….and most assuredly no new building.
So what, you say. We would still have been good….done good….felt good. Viewed from Maple, we would still be a most impressive garment….with a lush green fringe. But, had that been the case, how many people driving by might still be bleeding?
