Proper 8 :: Wisdom of Solomon 1: 13–25; 2: 23–24 / Psalm 130 / II Corinthians 8: 7–15 / Mark 5: 21–43
This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, PA, by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, June 27, 2021.
“THERE’S NOTHING WORSE THAN TRYING TO WORK WITH POOR TOOLS!”
(Homily texts: Wisdom of Solomon 1: 13–15; 2: 23–24 &
Mark 5: 21–43)
There’s
not much in the world that I find more aggravating or troubling than trying to
work with a poor-quality tool. You know, tools of the sort that when you hit
something with a hammer made of poor-quality metal, a piece of steel flies off
the head of the hammer, making it unusable for anything else except to put it
into the recycling pile. That sort of thing. Poor tools make the hard work of
getting something done all the more difficult, because not only the challenges
of the work at hand have to be dealt with, but the limitations (and failures)
of poor-quality or poorly-designed tools also have to be struggled with.
What
come to my mind when I consider this situation is the old Army adage which
says, “Life is short, go first class!” To which I would add, and use good
tools.
I
submit that this Sunday’s overall theme points us to the work that God is
about, and the work that God calls us to be about in His name. We are called to
engage alongside God in the work that He is about. We are, in God’s hands,
called to be good tools.
That
good work is the work of creating and recreating.
An
explanation is in order, I think.
Our
first reading this Sunday comes to us from the Wisdom of Solomon, one of the
books that are found in the Apocrypha. We don’t tend to spend much time in the
books in this part of the writings that have come down to us, for the Apocrypha
is that set of books that generally occupies the time between the Old and the
New Testaments.
Today’s
reading informs us that God is the God of life, the One whose creative powers
have brought all things to be that have been created. God’s intent, in our
Wisdom reading, is for life, not for death. The writer affirms what we already
know from the creation accounts in the book of Genesis. There, we read that as
God created this thing and then that thing, He declared that each thing He’d
created was “good”. And then, at the end of the creative process, God declares
that everything He has made is “very good.”[1]
So
we can affirm this principle from Genesis:
1. God created everything that is (including humankind); 2. God sustains
what He has created (including humankind); and 3. God loves all that He has
created (including humankind).
Now,
let’s turn our attention to our Gospel reading, appointed for today. There, we
see that Jesus has been summoned by the leader of the synagogue, Jairus, to
come and heal his daughter, who lies near death. On His way to visit the
daughter, Jesus is surrounded by a large crowd. A woman in the crowd comes up
behind Him, determined to be able to get close enough to touch His clothing.
She has suffered with a hemorrhage for twelve years. (What happens next is
quite interesting, though it is a bit aside from the main theme of our
consideration this morning: Jesus turns, knowing that someone had touched Him,
and He asks who it was. The woman comes forward, admitting what she’d done, and
Jesus commends her for her faith, which has been the instrumental aspect of her
complete healing.) Following this incident, Jesus continues His journey to
Jairus’ house. There, a large crowd has gathered, weeping and mourning over the
condition of the daughter. They tell him the girl is dead. He says she is only
sleeping,[2] but tells
them to have faith. Then He goes inside, where He tells her in Aramaic,
“Talitha cumi”,[3] which means “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”
The
girl rises, Jesus tells those in the house to give her something to eat.
The
two incidents, the woman who was suffering with the flow of blood, and Jairus’
daughter, are both in conditions that are far beyond human abilities to address
and heal. Notice that Mark tells us that the woman had done all she could do to
get relief from her condition with the physicians. Likewise, the mourners affirm
that the situation with Jairus’ daughter is beyond all humanly possible reason
for hope.
There
is a pattern to Jesus’ actions in bringing new life, new hope, to these
situations that are instructive for us if we are to be effective tools for God
to make use of to create and to recreate as we make our way through life. After
all, we who are believers affirm God’s love for that which He has created,
including the people He has deliberately created. Here, then, is the pattern in
Jesus’ actions:
·
Jesus works with individuals.
·
Jesus restores impaired relationships,
recreating new bonds of togetherness.
·
Jesus addresses the real world,
everyday, physical needs of people.
·
Jesus’ works from the outward and
visible needs of people, transforming their spiritual needs in the process.
Let’s
look at each one of these points, taken away some lessons for ourselves, in
order that we might be better tools in God’s hands:
Individuals: Notice that the Lord works with individuals.
In the healing accounts, it is usually a one-on-one encounter between the
person in need and the Lord. (This is not to ignore the Lord’s ability to deal
with large crowds, in such circumstances as the Sermon on the Mount or the
feeding of the five thousand people.) For ourselves, it’s often an individual,
one-on-one encounter with another human being where our ability to offer an
open ear, a listening heart, and a ready willingness to help that begins the
process of creating (or recreating) a relationship between that one we’re
dealing with and God.
Relationships: Notice that the woman who had been ill for
twelve years, and Jairus’ daughter, were both ritually unclean by virtue of
their circumstances. Neither one could worship in the temple in Jerusalem. If
someone came into contact with either of them, they, too, would become unclean.
But Jesus (as he usually does) sweeps aside these barriers which impede contact
and which impair relationships. We, too, must be willing to engage others we
meet, being willing to go outside our comfort zones if need be, to establish
our love for God in the things we say and do with another human being.
Dealing
with the visible and observable situation at hand: Effective witness to God’s love, residing in
our hearts, usually doesn’t begin with some theological pronouncement. Nor does
it do anyone much good to begin by probing into the depths of a person’s heart
of hearts. Better to do what Jesus does, and to deal with the outward and
visible signs of a person’s everyday condition. Begin there, and then allow the
other to offer what they are willing to offer. Look for signs of spiritual
hunger. Look for tangible ways to express the love that God has for us, and
which we desire to share with others. That helps, too.
Working
inward to the invisible and spiritual:
Just as Jesus deals with the hardships, the challenges, and the needs of
those He encountered, so are we to do the same, as we’ve just affirmed. But
Jesus doesn’t stop there. His intent is to transform lives, to re-establish a
relationship with God, to mend broken relationships between God and others. Our
intent must be, as well, to want to change the hearts of those we encounter, to
provide a visible pathway for God to make use of to enter into the heart of
another. It won’t do for us to simply want to do “good stuff” in God’s name,
and to leave it there. No, the intent must be to share the Good News (Gospel)
that God so loves the world that He gave His only Son, in order that all might
have eternal life.” (I am paraphrasing John 3:16.)
Working
from the outward and the visible inward to the inner and the invisible is,
essentially, sacramental work.[4] For
in the tangible, the touchable, the visible, we can begin the process of
assisting God in the creating (and recreating) process of bringing a person’s
heart and their entire life into a new, lively and intense love relationship
with God.
May
we be effective, good and usable tools in the Lord’s hands.
AMEN.
[1] The entire creative process is well worth reading, chapter one of the book of Genesis.
[2] Luke tells us, in a parallel account of this incident, that the girl was, indeed, dead. See Luke 8:55.
[3] Aramaic was the commonly spoken, everyday language in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Hebrew was a largely liturgical language, used in temple worship and in the synagogues.
[4] A Sacrament is defined as an “outward and visible sign of an inner and spiritual grace.”
