YOUR FAITH HAS MADE YOU WELL
One of the things a lot of people in the church these days claim to be a primary need or desire for them is spiritual growth. Of course, there is perhaps no greater way to enhance spiritual growth than by being a part of a small group Bible study. After all, faith was never meant to be lived in isolation. Faith has always been intended to be lived in community. And, truth be told, there’s really no such thing as the term that’s become so popular today: “spiritual but not religious.” I’ll delve into that another time.
In this particular church we have what is called the ChristCare small group ministry. If you are truly interested in spiritual growth, you would be wise to seek to be a part of a ChristCare small group. It does require the setting aside of a couple of nights a month, but hey…anything really worth having takes a little effort on our part, wouldn’t you say? That’s my ChristCare commercial for the day.
My wife and I are part of a ChristCare small group. Our small group met just last Tuesday night. During the course of our evening’s conversation, one of our small group leaders – a retired teacher – said that when he was in the classroom, he always allowed for a moment of silence amongst the students before he gave a test. He was asked if he led the class in prayer. He said that he didn’t, but this moment of silence gave the students time to pray if they wanted to pray. I had to laugh and repeat an old adage I heard many years ago. I said, “Ah, as long as there are math tests, there will be prayer in school!”
As long as there are math tests, there will be prayer in school. What does that mean? That means that math is hard and we are wont to turn to a higher source when we face a difficult task. I can remember literally praying in seminary on more than one occasion, “Lord, if you really want me to be a minister, then you’re going to have to help me pass this Greek test!” We are wont to turn to a higher source when we face a difficult task. Tests are one thing. Health concerns are another. Have you ever faced a situation in your life where you or a loved one was diagnosed with cancer, or heart disease, or Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s? You feel absolutely helpless in such a situation. Why, it’s almost as if you’ve walked off a cliff and you’re waiting to fall, or to somehow be lifted up. We turn to God when we face the most dire circumstances in our lives, because – truth be told – we have nowhere else to turn.
Such was the case with Jairus in the passage we read from the gospel according to Mark. He was facing dire circumstances and he felt he had nowhere else to turn. Jairus was a leader in the synagogue. That meant that he was a rich and powerful man and that he held a position of great authority. Back in those days people attributed great personal wealth to the grace of God instead of to their own dogged determination, but that’s another sermon. Jairus had likely heard rumors of the power Jesus had to heal, but going to see Jesus was risky business for him. The leaders of the Jewish faith were none too keen on this “Jesus” who constantly seemed to be upsetting the apple cart…who constantly seemed to be upsetting their apple cart.
Yet Jairus had deep need. You see, Jairus had a little girl who was very sick. She was nearly at the point of death. Jairus loved his little girl. There is a special bond between fathers and daughters. Fathers love their sons, but they somehow see their sons as extensions of themselves. Fathers don’t see their little girls that way. Fathers see their little girls as precious and delicate flowers – as something they need to hold and protect and never let go. Ask any father who’s had to walk his little girl up the aisle at her wedding. We never want to let them go! There is a special bond between fathers and daughters. Jairus’ daughter was sick and Jairus was willing to move heaven and earth to make her well. Thus, Jairus went to Jesus despite any grumbling he might hear from his peers.
Jairus said to Jesus, “My little girl is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she might be made well and live.” Now we don’t know why she was sick or what dreaded disease she may have had. All we know is that Jairus was desperate and that he believed Jesus could make her well. Jesus was obviously moved by Jairus’ faith – and by his love for his daughter – so he agreed to go and see the girl.
As they made their way to Jairus’ house, a large crowd followed them and was pressing upon them from every side. That’s where our story takes a rather peculiar turn. As it says in verse 25, “Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; yet she was no better, but rather grew worse.” The focus in the story has shifted from Jairus and his daughter to a woman with a medical problem.
The woman in the story likely suffered from a condition that was fairly common in those days, but which was very hard to heal. The Jewish Talmud itself gave no fewer than eleven cures for this malady. Some of them were tonics or astringents. Some of them were sheer superstitions, like carrying the ashes of an ostrich egg in a linen rag in the summer and a cotton rag in the winter, or carrying a barley corn which had been found in the dung of a white female donkey. Can you imagine? No doubt this poor woman had tried all the remedies and superstitions and had found no relief. The trouble was that this condition not only affected her health, it also rendered her what they called “ritually unclean.” It would have shut her off from the worship of God and it would have ostracized her from her friends. This was a woman who was nothing short of desperate. Thus, she hatched a plan.
The woman reasoned that if she could make her way through the crowd and just touch the hem of Jesus’ robe, then she would be made well. It was a desperate act by a desperate woman, but it was the only hope she had. She saw Jesus making his way through the crowded city street. She likely wedged her way between many others and in one desperate lunge, managed to touch the fringe of his robe. And immediately upon touching that robe, she knew she had been healed.
But then something happened that she hadn’t expected. Jesus suddenly stopped and said, “Who touched me?” His disciples looked at him incredulously. “What are you talking about?” they said. “Look at the crowd. They’re pressing in from every side. How can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” But Jesus knew what had happened. The woman then approached him in trembling and in fear. She fell at his feet and confessed what she had done. Then Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease.” In other words, it wasn’t Jesus’ magic robe that healed her of her disease. It was her faith in the Son of God that had really done the trick. It was God who had healed her, not some tactic gleaned from a book or some far-fetched superstition.
The message here is clear. When all else fails, turn to God. That’s what this woman did and she found her healing. That’s what Jairus did, and we later discover that Jesus actually raised his daughter from the dead. And that’s what we do when we come face to face with a math test or even some dread disease. When all else fails, turn to God. Keep that though in mind as we move forward.
I’ve been reading an intriguing book of late entitled Vital Signs: The Promise of Mainstream Protestantism. It was written by Milton Coalter, John Mulder and Louis Weeks. I actually know those guys. Milton Coalter was the librarian at the Louisville Seminary when I was there. John Mulder was the President and Lou Weeks was the Dean of Students. The book, however, is a little depressing. It speaks at great length about the decline of the mainline church: denominations like Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist and Episcopalian to name a few. The authors talk about how family worship was once a priority in America, but is so no longer. They talk about how being a Christian was once a cultural expectation, but is so no longer. Coalter, Mulder and Weeks put it this way:
For adults, church attendance and membership are increasingly a matter of choice, rather than an expected or encouraged pattern of behavior. The church is one option among many for support or for the use of one’s time. Contemporary American culture provides little encouragement to make the church a priority.
I suspect that comes as little surprise to those who raised their children in the church and now see their adult children choosing other options on Sunday mornings. It breaks their hearts to see their grown children opt not to raise their own children in the church. That’s why we see grandparents bringing grandchildren to church more and more every day. That’s why we see membership and worship declines in the church more and more every day. Like I said earlier, people refer to themselves as spiritual but not religious. Of course, there is no such thing, but that seems to be beside the point. Ah, the church is but one option among many for support or for the use of one’s time. Contemporary American culture provides little encouragement to make the church a priority. I told you the book was depressing, didn’t I?
Yet the book’s title is Vital Signs: The Promise of Mainstream Protestantism. Well if that’s the title, then there have to be some vital signs of hope in the church, don’t you think? They do list a number of vital signs, but for the sake of time I’m only going to mention a few. One of the vital signs is that the situation in today’s society provides an opportunity for an “awakening.” An “awakening” is a time of religious renewal and revival. Perhaps the time is ripe for a new Great Awakening. The theory is that eventually people will say, “Enough is enough.”
Another vital sign is what they call the contribution of racial-ethnic minorities. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “America is never so segregated as it is at 11:00 on Sunday mornings.” That’s the truth. Maybe it’s time for that to change. Another vital sign is a renewed dependence upon the word of God in Scripture. Christians have always been known as “the people of the book.” Maybe it’s time we became that again. Coalter, Mulder and Weeks conclude, “In the midst of these changes, we are convinced that the Holy Spirit is creating something new in American mainstream Protestantism. A central task of the church at this time is to listen and respond to the leading of the Spirit, rather than becoming paralyzed and passive.”
Ladies and gentlemen, that is exactly what we are trying to do at the First Presbyterian Church of Meadville. We recently formed a Church Revitalization Task Force aimed at transforming the decline in our own church. At a recent congregational luncheon, we talked about our church being like a half a cup of water. The question is, “Is the cup half empty, or is the cup half full?” You see, if the cup is half full, we are grateful to God for all that we have. If the cup is half empty, we will forever feel as if we have somehow been shortchanged. We will constantly seek to have or to get more…and we’ll do nothing but complain until we get it. We concluded that our cup was half full, and we listed many of the strengths of our congregation. Among them were the following:
1. Worship,
2. Music,
3. Staff,
4. Stephen Ministry,
5. ChristCare small groups,
6. Congregational luncheons,
7. Youth programs, and
8. Relationships.
There were more items listed, but you get the gist of it. Our cup is indeed half full. We have a great deal to offer. From this discussion, it was suggested that we need to create a new climate in our church. As someone wisely put it, “In my opinion, you clean your house before you invite a bunch of new people over.” I think that’s very well put. Erma Bombeck would be proud! The question is: How, exactly, do we clean our house? How, exactly, do we create this new climate?
I think of the passage we read from the gospel according to Mark. A man named Jairus was faced with a situation that was beyond his capacity to resolve. A woman with a flow of blood was faced with a situation that was beyond her capacity to resolve, as well. What did they do? They turned to God. The solution to their situations was beyond their own capacity to resolve, so they turned to God. Perhaps that’s how we create a new climate in our church as well. We may not have all the answers now, but God knows what the answers are. God is the One who can heal us of our disease.
And that’s exactly what our Church Revitalization Task Force concluded last Wednesday night. How do we create a new climate? We need to turn that question over to God. We need to pray. We need to become a praying congregation. We need to become a people that loves its church so much that we are willing to trust its future to God. Thus I urge you as strongly as I can: Pray for your congregation. Pray that the Holy Spirit of God would move mightily in our midst. Then trust in God to provide the solution we need.
I believe it was Eugene Peterson who once said, “The most important thing a minister can do for a congregation is teach it to pray.” If everyone in this church could learn to pray to God for our congregation’s well-being, then I will have done my job. And Jesus will say to you as he said to the woman he healed, “Your faith has made you well.” Amen.
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