Christ Episcopal Church
July 1, 2012
8 Proper B
Friday afternoon, our 12 young Reading Campers practically danced into the Parish Hall to meet their parents after a day of pancakes and bacon, reading activities, songs about nouns and verbs, an indoor picnic and a trip to Young’s Dairy. Despite the heat, the children were pumped. They had fed the goats, gone down the slide, and eaten their weight in ice cream. The adults were also pumped, but in that way that we get pumped when we have given our all to a worthwhile project with great success, and have had all the energy sucked out of us. Reading Camp 2012 had been a great success. The children’s reading had improved in a measurable way as indicated by the testing we do on the first and last morning. More importantly, their confidence had improved and they had learned that reading can be fun. And, perhaps even most importantly, Reading Camp had been an oasis for at least some of the children in lives that are far from easy. On Friday, the children left happy, nourished and nurtured, and better readers. I believe that constitutes a success.
In the big picture, however, encouraging 12 reluctant readers is a drop in the bucket toward ending poverty in Springfield. Great effort is required on the part of many people to make Reading Camp happen. All in all, some where between 35 and 40 people had some part in making Reading Camp happen, and that does not even count all the people whose prayers helped keep us energized all week. Two grants, the Easter offering, and money from the Christ Church outreach budget provided the financial resources for Reading Camp, which is not an inexpensive undertaking. If I add up the incredible effort by many people and the financial cost of Reading Camp, and divide by 12, I am reminded of Jesus’ parable where the man sells all that he has to purchase the pearl of great value. The answer makes little financial sense, but the value of the result cannot be measured.
In the gospel reading this morning, we hear Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, ask Jesus to heal his daughter. Jesus needs to hurry, because the 12 year old girl is near death. We can feel both Jairus’ relief when Jesus agrees to go with him, and his sense of panic when Jesus stops to ask "Who touched my clothes?" By the time the woman who touched Jesus clothes fell down before Jesus and Jesus has listened to the woman tell her whole story, about her 12 years of illness, about her poverty having spent all her money on doctors who could not make her well, about her isolation from others because of her disease, Jairus’ daughter has died. Jairus was a powerful man, the ruler of the synagogue. The woman was ritually unclean and lived in poverty. Jesus stopped for the woman and he let Jairus’ daughter die. Jairus’ faith that Jesus could and would heal his daughter appears to have been in vain.
As we know, Jesus speaks to the father’s distress and says "Do not fear. Only believe." To the great commotion of people weeping and wailing out side the house, Jesus says "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but asleep." Jesus enters the house and says to the girl "Little girl, get up!" which she does.
Clearly, we have here two healing stories. But the two stories are bound together in interesting ways. Both are about females. Both involve the Biblical number 12-the woman bled for 12 years and the little girl was 12 years old. In both, Jesus called the person he healed by a name that indicates inclusion. He calls the woman "daughter" and the child "little girl." In both, Jesus connects faith and healing. To the woman, Jesus says "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease." To Jairus, Jesus says "Do not fear, only believe." These two stories are linked ways that make them two parts of one story, rather than two separate healing stories.
Taken together, this is a story about Jesus’ concern for all people, be they insiders or outcasts, powerful or powerless, clean or unclean. This is a story about the value of each individual in the Kingdom of God. Jesus will stop an urgent mission to the home of a powerful synagogue leader to encounter an unclean, poor woman and make her whole before he continues on his original mission. In the Kingdom of God, every individual is equally worthy of wholeness and healing and there is time for everyone.
At the end of the Prayers of the People, we will pray the collect for Independence Day. The 4th of July is about our freedom and independence as a nation, and liberty and justice for all people. We will pray "Lord God, Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will." Our prayer for Independence Day asks God to give us a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance as we work to respect the dignity of every human being. This is what Jesus did and what Jesus calls us to do.
Jesus transformed lives one at a time to usher in the Kingdom of God.. When we engage in Reading Camp and other outreach ministries, our work may well be only a drop in the bucket of poverty in our community. But every time we make a difference in the life of one person, no matter how small that person might be, we have done the work of the Kingdom of God. And if we wonder whether or not the seemingly small results are worth the rather large effort, Jesus says to us "Do not fear, only believe."
Amen.
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