The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany

5 Pentecost, June 21, 2009

The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

"If you, Lord, were to note what is done amiss, O Lord, who could stand?" (Psalm 130: 3) A question from Psalm 130 that we just read together.

I wonder how many truly believe the collect for purity we say every Sunday at the beginning of the Eucharist: "Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid." God knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves. We are very accomplished at hiding our hearts, even from ourselves. We try to hide our hearts from others, ourselves, and most of all, from God.

Have you, like me, every had a thought or thoughts cross your mind that frankly you would not want anyone to know about. If anyone knew you had such thoughts, you are sure they would think you are a terrible person. Nonetheless, you have these thoughts you want to keep hidden, and are grateful that no one can read your mind. Well, we are all in that boat! All of us Christians, in this boat, are in that boat. But when we face disaster, when we are rendered helpless, when we stand in the presence of the holy and our hearts are fully revealed, when fear overtakes us down to the depths of our very being, we will then turn to God or we move into deeper and greater denial and fear.

I was recently given an update about a parish member from a previous congregation I served. I was told he committed suicide. I remember him as a person who was deeply angry, blaming everyone for everything - everyone but himself. He kept his heart hidden and remained in the deepest denial about his own serious addictions. And if he saw his own heart, he certainly didn't trust God with it. He remained lost in his lack of faith and hope in God's redeeming love, mercy and power. "Out of the depths have I called to you, O Lord." (Psalm 130:1)

God seeks the depths of our hearts - the truth of our hearts! And we can trust God with the truth of our hearts because God is merciful and forgiving. Psalm 130 is a prayer of great faith in this understanding of God. "For there is forgiveness with you; therefore you shall be feared." But if there is forgiveness with God, why does the psalmist go on to say, "therefore you shall be feared?" Perhaps it is because, when we stand in the presence of the Holy God and realize our hearts are completely revealed, it can be very uncomfortable!

To truly experience God's mercy, forgiveness and love, and God's redeeming power, we have to go to Him, even if we go in fear and trembling. We have to call out of the depths of ourselves, sometimes with only a flicker of hope that God can and will save.

Jarius was the leader in his town. He was the ruler of the synagogue was one of the most important, wealthy, influential and respected members of the community. And it would have been politically wise for him to keep his distance from Jesus. Jesus tended to stir things up when he entered a town, and that could be very problematic politically. But disaster had struck his family. And so he forgot his fear of being seen on the wrong side of the political and religious controversies and he forgot his prestigious position, and he came in humility and great hope, begging Jesus for help.

"Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord." Jesus always responded to this kind of vulnerability, transparency and openness. He always responded to this kind of faith. So He went with Jarius, even with the threat that he very well might be contaminated by the impurity of a dead girl. Contact with a dead body was considered by Jewish law as one of the chief sources of impurity. But that kind of law never stopped Jesus from responding with compassion and love. That's one of the ways in which Jesus stirred things up wherever he went. Compassion and mercy took precedence for Him over law.

But now imagine how Jarius must have felt when Jesus stopped to deal with this other matter. A whole crowd had been following them to see what Jesus would do, and then he just stopped asking who had touched him. A lowly woman who had been sick for twelve years with a flow of blood that would not stop, had the temerity to touch Jesus' garment. Out of the depths of despair, and with a glimmer of hope, she took the chance of approaching Jesus and was instantly healed. Jesus felt power go out of him, so he stopped to see who in this crowd of people had touched him. The disciples told him, it is pointless to waste time looking for one person in all that crowd, but He refused to listen. He was determined to find the person. He was determined to seek the person who had obviously sought Him. "See and you will find, knock and the door will be opened." Jesus did find her. She managed the courage to come forward and admit that she had in fact been the one to be so presumptuous as to approach Him and touch Him.

Another Jewish law was that a bleeding woman was considered unclean and anyone she touched would be unclean. She did a very risky thing in touching Jesus. And to tell the truth can be a vey risky thing as well. But "in fear and trembling she fell down before him and told him the whole truth." Jesus responded with the greatest respect, love and compassion for her courage and her faith in trusting Him with the full truth of her situation. She revealed the depths of her heart and soul to him. When Jesus told the woman that it was her faith that made her well, it seems, in fact that it was Jesus' power that made her well. But, you see, faith is the channel through which Jesus' power works.

One can only imagine how Jarius felt seeing Jesus take this precious time with this lowly, unclean woman, this nobody, when his daughter was on the brink of death? It must have made him frantic. And can you imagine how he felt when people came and told him that there was no point in Jesus coming to his house because his daughter was dead? Yet Jesus told Jarius not to be afraid, but believe. Jarius must have been left with only a glimmer of hope as they proceeded on to his house. I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; in his word is my hope. (Psalm 130: 4)

When Jesus told the mourners who were there waiting at the house that the girl wasn't dead, they laughed! The opposite of hope and faith is skepticism and ridicule. Jesus allowed only Peter, James and John to go with him to Jarius' house and he put those who laughed out of the house. This is because Jesus' power is channeled through hope and faith. Jesus knew the hearts of those who had it. Naysayers, skeptics, those with a jaundice attitude carry and give forth a negative energy. We've all experienced this type of person. They are around as much today as they were in the time of this gospel story.

There are those who laugh or ridicule people who believe that "the life giving power of God can indeed break into and work through the ordinary details of this life."? This kind of negativity can absolutely threaten to kill the little seeds of hope, faith and regeneration. God understands the fear and doubt in our hearts. God sees every heart clearly. But God works miracles with the tiniest seeds of courage and hope He finds there, in our hearts. Remember, Jesus said we only need to have faith the size of a mustard seed; with that tiny amount of trust, God does wonders. The point of all these healing stories is to point to what Jesus came to do. Redemption and regeneration - new life is God's design and purpose for all creation. Jesus came to take on anything that would threaten that.

Jesus came "to confront evil at its very heart. He came to meet Death itself, which threatened God's whole beautiful creation, and defeat it in a way as unexpected as these two healings."? Jesus came to show us that we can trust God with the most seemingly unredeemable parts of our hearts and lives. Our challenge is to keep a glimmer of hope alive in our hearts that we can indeed trust this. Our Abba wants us to approach Him out of the depths of our souls, being willing to reveal the whole truth of our hearts, no matter how fearful it may be, and trust in His desire, mercy and power to redeem and regenerate it all.

I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; in his word is my hope. Amen.