Risky Business

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

June 28, 2015

Risky Business

Mark 5:21-43

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat

to the other side,

a great crowd gathered around him;

and he was by the sea.  

Then one of the leaders of the synagogue

named Jairus came and when he saw him,

fell at his feet and 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.”

So [Jesus] went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him.

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;

and she was no better, but rather grew worse.

She had heard about Jesus,

and came up behind him in the crowd

and touched his cloak,

for she said, “If I but touch his clothes,

I will be made well.”

Immediately her hemorrhage stopped;

and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him,

Jesus turned about in the crowd and said,

“Who touched my clothes?”

And his disciples said to him,

“You see the crowd pressing in on you;

how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’”

[Jesus] looked all around to see who had done it.

But the woman, knowing what had happened to her,

came in fear and trembling,

fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.

He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well;

go in peace,

and be healed of your disease.”

****************************************

It is risky business, this life of faith.

It is risky to believe.

it is risky to believe in things

we may not fully understand,

believe in things we do not know,

believe in things we cannot know,

believe in things we cannot even see.

It is risky to have faith.

It is risky to trust;

It is risky to accept;

It is risky to follow.

We prefer certainty.

We want to know,

we want to see.

We want clarity,

understanding,

clear definition,

black and white,

no grays.

My early training was as a lawyer.

We were taught the importance of facts,

the importance of evidence.

Never, ever, ever assume.

Find out, …nail it down

so that no one can question or dispute.

But as children of God,

as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ,

we walk by faith, and not by sight,

as the apostle Paul reminds us.

(2 Corinthians 5:7)

And to walk in faith is to walk in trust;

to walk in faith is to walk in hope.

Read through the entire Bible –

as we hope to do as a congregation next year

when we make 2016 “The Year of the Bible” –

and it is only in the New Testament

letter to the Hebrews

that we’ll find an effort to try to define faith –

to try to define what the word means.

This is what we read:

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,

the conviction of things not seen.”

(Hebrews 11:1)

Our conviction isn’t in evidence,

it isn’t in something concrete;

It isn’t in the indisputable.

Our faith is in “things not seen”.

Our faith is in God,

our faith is in Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.

Our faith is in the gifts God gives us,

including the gift of grace,

and the gift of love.

This faith leads us then to have

“assurance of things hoped for.”

As men and women of faith we can and should

walk in hope,

live in hope.

This is just what propelled the woman in our lesson

to move through the crowd,

pushing her way through the throngs

to get to Jesus,

the voice in her head saying over and over,

“just touch his robe,

just reach out and touch his robe.

If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”

And so she pushed,

and so she reached;

and she took hold of Jesus’ robe,

the fold near the bottom,

the hem covered with dust

from the roads Jesus had walked.

She touched it -- and she was made well,

cured of what one physician after another,

with all their potions and all their incantations,

had been unable to do.

Her faith made her well,

for she had lived in hope.

Our text began with the story of Jairus,

a religious leader;

He was not one of the pompous Pharisees

at the Temple in Jerusalem;

he was simply a leader of the local synagogue

in one of the small towns around the Sea of Galilee.

His young daughter was ill, near death,

and Jairus too sought Jesus,

sought him out to help his daughter,

heal his daughter,

for Jairus walked in faith,

Jairus walked in hope.

The text tells us almost nothing about these two people.

For what little we learn about Jairus,

we know even less about the woman:

we don’t know her name,

or where she came from.

But they had faith in common,

they had hope on common.

Living a life of faith is so much more than

coming to church on Sunday.

A life of faith is lived in response to God,

a life lived attentive to our Lord’s teachings,

a life lived in response to the gifts of grace and love

given us freely by God through Christ.

It was faith that allowed those families in Charleston

to offer such heartfelt words of forgiveness

to an unrepentant, hate-filled killer.

We were all still struck,

even dumfounded by the words

we heard those families speak.

I suspect we were stunned for two reasons:

the circumstances, of course,

how hard it must have been for those families

to have said those words

when the pain of their losses

was still scalding their hearts.

                          

But also, how rare it is to hear

words of genuine, deep, heartfelt forgiveness.

It is so much more common to hear words of anger,

of rage;

to hear words seeking vengeance:

“he must pay”.

How hard it is to live by faith,

when our faith teaches us:

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves,

…for it is written,

‘Vengeance is mine,

I will repay, says the Lord.’

No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them;

if they are thirsty,

give them something to drink;”

(Romans 12:15-20)

To live by faith,

to live in faith is often to live at odds

with the norms we are taught by society,

by the world in which we live.

But then, our faith teaches us:

“Do not be conformed to this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your minds,

so that you may discern what is the will of God—

what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

(Romans 12:2)

That is what it means to live by faith:

to work to discern the will of God.

And to do so humbly,

without putting on a Christian’s favorite garment,

the hoodie of self-righteousness.

The garment of self-righteousness,

of smug certainty,

of a conviction that we know God’s will,

and others do not,

is a garment we Christians wear a little too easily.

We have throughout our history,

and as a result, our Christian history

has had many shameful moments.

We have ways to assess whether we are

living our faith faithfully,

Are we reflecting the fruits of the Spirit?

Paul gives us a neat, short, precise list

in the 5^th chapter of his letter to the Galatians.

If you cannot remember everything on Paul’s list,

the question to ask is,

are you living a grace-full, loving life,

reflecting the grace and love you’ve received

reflecting it back on others, all others.

As the apostle Paul would ask us,

Are we rejoicing with those who rejoice,

weeping with those who weep,

living in harmony with one another?

Are we living humbly,

never claiming to be wiser that we are,

nor repaying evil for evil?

Are we always taking thought for what is noble

in the sight of all?

(Romans 12:15-20)

James, the brother of our Lord

summed up succinctly what it means

to live a life of active faith grounded in grace

when he asked,

“What good is it,

if you say you have faith but do not have works?

If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,

and one of you says to them,

‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’,

and yet you do not supply their bodily needs,

what is the good of that?”

(James 2:15)

That’s not living a faithful life.

To live by faith is to live

compassionately and generously,

mercifully and with forgiveness.

To live by faith,

to live in faith is to live in hope,

to live by grace.

to live by love.

It isn’t easy, this life.

And there are risks.

But a life of faith is joyful life,

not at all constricting,

but freeing, liberating.

The Psalmist knew what it meant,

knew what it means to live in faith:

“O my God, in you I trust;

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;

teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me,

for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all day long.

[You are] my chosen portion and my cup;

you hold my lot.

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
…I keep the Lord always before me;

Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure.

[for] You show me the path of life.

In your presence there is fullness of joy;

in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.”

(from Psalms 16 & 25)

AMEN