Third Sunday after Trininty

2 Corinthians 8.7-15; Mark 5.21-43

As we make our way through the chapters of St. Mark's gospel in these Sundays after Trinity, we are looking at what it means for us to be followers of Jesus, for us to be his disciples, for us to be called Christians. From Advent to Pentecost we were looking at the great events of Jesus life and the impact he had on those around him and how they responded to all he said and did. And now we turn the searchlight, as it were, upon ourselves. We look at ourselves, with reference to Jesus and ask ourselves what it means for each of us to be a follower, a disciple, a Christian.

St. Mark's gospel opens with Jesus' proclamation of the Good News - 'Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.' The Kingdom of God is, for Jesus, the Good News he has come to bring, and he shows what the Kingdom means in his life and his teaching. He shows what it means for himself and for the people. And immediately we see him ministering many healings amongst the people. And throughout the gospels we see healings of body, mind and spirit both by the teaching and by the actions of Jesus. And as we read all of that, which in St. Mark's gospel happens very quickly indeed, one miracle after another, we might begin to ask ourselves why we don't see much of it today, why it all seems so improbable, why it's not something in our own experience.

Well, in actual fact, we do see healings, almost every day; but we put them down to medical science, to the pills and potions we are given by the doctor. And I think we mostly forget the miracle that is our own mind and body and spirit that actually does the healing, aided by the pills and potions. But more than that, it is commonly accepted these days that there is a link between a persons will, faith and belief and the ability to recover from illness; that much healing begins in the thoughts a person has about their ability to recover. And so our own state of mind and heart and soul is crucial in the healing process.

Now that's just at the level of the everyday, at the level of what goes on in the world around us. But it's not unconnected with what Jesus shows us in this gospel reading today and is reflected somewhat in the 2nd letter to the Corinthians, which is about how things happen in the Kingdom of God, or should I say how I believe things to happen. We've been shown two miracles of healing today which are wonderful things for Jairus's daughter and the woman. But the healings are not just the important things here. The lessons we learn from what surrounds them are more important for us, today, as we go about our business, trying to be followers of Jesus.

As you ask yourself why we don't see these healing miracles in the same way today, you might also, as you think about you and yours, why your prayers don't seem to be answered very powerfully either. And I think we have the answer here in what Jesus says to Jairus and the woman. And it's all to do with this thing we call faith, for we've heard in the gospels before what Jesus said about faith and it's seeming ability to overcome every obstacle, to move mountains. And how to have faith then, seems to be key. When you look at these two individuals closely, first of all you see that they take a great risk. Jairus was a leader of the synagogue, one who would be very wary of being seen to go to Jesus for help. He could have had a lot to lose if his colleagues had seen him. The woman, well, she was a woman who with the condition she had would have been regarded as ritually unclean and had to stay outside of what you might call polite society until she was better. But she'd been in that condition for 12 years so probably felt she hadn't much to lose anyway. In any case, they both took a huge risk. Nobody said that faith wasn't risky.

Now these stories are placed by St. Mark, one inside the other, for whatever reason, and they both have similar elements. When Jesus felt the power go out of him and asked who touched him, the woman, it's said, came to him 'in fear and trembling'. Likewise, when Jairus heard his daughter had died, Jesus said to him 'do not fear, only believe'. The woman had already been physically healed but it was after that, after she'd told Jesus it was her who touched him, had told him the truth, that he said to her 'go in peace and be healed of your disease.' So fear in the woman and in Jairus is a central element in the stories. And maybe that's because it's fear that is the opposite of faith. We usually see doubt as being the opposite of faith, but it isn't, it's fear. Faith cannot exist where there is fear, and fear has no place where there is faith. And that's because fear robs us of every opportunity to do anything at all about our condition. It's the one thing, the one emotion that stops us dead in our tracks and keeps us pinned down and paralysed.

So if we put these things together we can see how faith works. First of all it means taking a risk. It means betting all upon God, so to speak, putting all in the hands of God, all that we are, all that we have, and all that we do. We take the risk that God has the answer. The woman St. Mark says, told Jesus the truth and we have to as well for faith to work. We have to come before God, in truth, without trying to deceive ourselves or deny anything about ourselves or our condition. Then as we do that, we put our trust in God, we put away our fear and we have faith that God will answer our prayer. When we trust then we put away fear.

And it's really as simple as that; but oh so hard at the same time, because it cuts right across our natural, fallen inclination which is to try and have the answer and work out the answer for ourself. And if you've been with this up to this point now you might see that in actual fact what it means is that we are being asked, by faith, to give ourselves to God in this whole hearted way. And we all know and not just because we are told but because we have personal experience that you have to give before you can receive. Faith is giving yourself to God in your entirety that you might receive the fullness of his blessings. That's what these two people we've read about today, did and look what it meant for them. And if it can happen for them, it can happen for us.