Who has not been touched by the events of this past week? Last Wednesday evening, June 17, 2012, we ended our Scripture discussion group as we usually do, with a prayer, asking the Lord to help make the words we read and discussed come alive in us as we “returned” to our lives and our routines. A gunman opened fire on a similar group of people as they ended their sessions in a church in South Carolina. Along with many, I watched the evening news just before bedtime, and was shaken. I wondered how many groups were meeting to discuss the Bible on that Wednesday night and wondered how many of the millions of people in the countless number of sessions that just ended, or was still ongoing in different zones throughout the country, related as I did. How could this be? How could this possibly occur where two or more were gathered in his house and in his name?
I wished that we were still together, meeting back in our church classroom, to hold and comfort each other and try to find God in this tragedy. Surely someone could have found meaning in all this. And while I know we’ve discussed on numerous occasions man’s free will and God’s covenant with man that permits us to exercise that will, somehow that was not enough for me at the time. My intellect grasped the words; my heart did not. Sleep, when it finally came was interrupted by strange dreams that, I knew had to be somehow connected. But how could I possibly complain about my discomfort at a time when I was not personally affected…or was I?
It took fewer than two days for the answer to come in the form of one of the most profound “sermons” that reached more people at one time than anyone could ever have imagined. There in Charlottesville, South Carolina, God revealed his love through the distraught voices of the families and friends as they forgave the killer and prayed for healing. Where did this compassion come from? No words by head of state or Church could possibly be as spiritually articulate as these “ordinary” people. In them and through them was God. And I knew at once that His love could not exist in the presence of hate. Yes, God spoke to me and to millions of astounded people throughout the world.
In Mark 5:21-43 we are reminded that only in admitting our vulnerability are we able to receive help, and only by owning those moments of desperation are we able to discover the courage to be and act as Jesus.. And as the world and our culture crumble around us, we're invited to enter a new world of acceptance and inter-dependence. And we can start to describe that world, even call it the kingdom of God.
The people of Jesus' day would be scandalized to know that Jesus interrupted his emergency call to help Jairus' daughter in order to talk with a poor, unclean woman. Like today, suffering and death seemed normal for the weak and the poor, while the wealthy and powerful thought they had the means to overcome it. Jesus takes time with the woman, and it seems that, because he hesitated, the little girl died. The passage shows Jesus as Lord of health and life, and it shows Christians that having faith in Jesus means we will step out of the crowd and trust him and what he stood for, including equal access to health care for rich and poor alike.
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