Sunday Service At Hadleigh Methodist Church. - 27th June 2021.
Readings: Lamentations3:22-33;Psalm30;2Corinthians8:7-15;Mark5:21-43;
1).Notices Welcome
2).Call To Worship. Psalm 30:1-5-
A Song for the dedication of the Temple.
1 I will exalt you, Lord,
for you lifted me out of the depths
and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
2 Lord my God, I called to you for help,
and you healed me.
3 You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead;
you spared me from going down to the pit.
4 Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people;
praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning
3).Hymn:SofF115: I Exalt Thee
[Verse]
For Thou, O Lord, art high above all the earth
Thou art exalted far above all gods
For Thou, O Lord, art high above all the earth
Thou art exalted far above all gods
[Chorus]
And I exalt Thee, I exalt Thee
I exalt Thee, O Lord
And I exalt Thee, I exalt Thee
I exalt Thee, O Lord
[Verse]
For Thou, O Lord, art high above all the earth
Thou art exalted far above all gods
For Thou, O Lord, art high above all the earth
Thou art exalted far above all gods
[Chorus]
And I exalt Thee, I exalt Thee
I exalt Thee, O Lord
And I exalt Thee, I exalt Thee
I exalt Thee, O Lord
4). Prayers of Praise
Our Loving Lord God and Heavenly Father, we exalt you this morning and offer you all that we are and have in this act of wholehearted thanksgiving and praise. Lord of life, we thank you for this new day, for the fresh opportunity to wake, to live, and to serve you. We praise you for the freedom we have to worship you and for this lovely place, set aside as a sanctuary for all who come here to do just that. Holy God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we come together as your family, part of the body of Christ, here on earth, to praise you for your presence, your grace, your healing, and for incredible life-changing love. God, our creator, our redeemer and our comforter we adore you and we raise our hands in praise. Please move amongst us, by your Holy Spirit, that your searching gaze and cleansing fire would see and expose all that would marr and hinder our worship and service.
In penitence we humbly confess all that you have brought to our minds, thanking you that sins confessed are sins forgiven and lives and thoughts cleansed from all unrighteousness.
Thankyou for hearing our prayers. We ask them in the strong name of Jesus Christ our Saviour, Lord and friend. Amen
The Lords Prayer:
Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.
5). Lamentations 3:22-33. New International Version
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.
28 Let him sit alone in silence,
for the Lord has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace.
31 For no one is cast off
by the Lord forever.
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to anyone.
6) Gospel- Mark 5:21-43. New International Version
Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman
Jesus in Capernaum, Galilee.
21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Overhearing[a] what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Footnotes
a.Mark 5:36 Or Ignoring
7) SofF89:STF628:Faithful One So Unchanging
Faithful one, so unchanging
Ageless one, You're my rock of peace
Lord of all I depend on You
I call out to You
Again and again
I call out to You
Again and again
You are my rock in times of trouble
You lift me up when I fall down
All through the storm, Your love is
The anchor, My hope is in You alone
8).Sermon
I wonder how you and I are when it comes to exercising our faith? On the one side we may have the image of the super saint who seems to remain spiritually focussed and completely calm under all circumstances. That may include some of us this morning.
Then there may be others whose experience might be a little more variable; Who, whilst ok when praying for general things at a distance, like praying for world peace or for the well-being of the nation or for our local communities, then find it a lot more faith stretching when something specific crops up such as facing a new job interview, a family member who is ill, sudden redundancy, receiving bad news about the death of a friend or loved one, perhaps when they are asked to step out into a new church venture, or having to cope with the consequences of lockdown either personally, or as a church with all the bills still needing to be paid. Or maybe when either we, or someone we know has been given a terminal diagnosis or news of a long term health condition. When we are faced with extremes of need or circumstance, we may find that navigating our way through the crisis or situations stretches our faith to limits that we have never experienced before. My guess is that some of us will have walked this road already or even may be walking it now.
Today’s gospel reading is about two people who exercised faith in Jesus in a crisis. We may remember their stories from our Sunday School days as examples of vindicated super faith but in reality these events had their faith in Jesus stretched to the limit.
In the gospel reading then, we see two accounts of healing; Two desperate people- an ailing woman and a man with a dying daughter- both of whom were in need of Jesus’ healing powers. In both cases, though for different reasons, they were people who were either taken out of their comfort zones, or had them challenged for being too comfortable within their comfort zones.
As I read the text it occurred to me that whilst such comfort zones (the known well trodden paths) might seem to be safe spaces that help us to be at ease, they also may become silos in which we become trapped, complacent and unwilling to see what else God may have for us as possibilities to explore. Perhaps we all need an occasional faith stretching event to help us grow spiritually; to take us out of our comfort zone and to throw us fully into the arms of Jesus.
By way of a little background, this account is recorded not just in Mark 5:21-43, but also in Matthew 9:18-26 and Luke 8:40-56. It is about the resurrection of a man’s daughter and the healing of a woman who was bleeding. However, digging down a little into these events, it is also about a man who must have been really frustrated when it appeared that Jesus did not care or seem to give his situation the urgency he thought it warranted. It is also about a woman who was a cultural outcast and invisible to wider society finding herself the unexpected center of attention and then finally completely freed of her debilitating health condition!
These events occurred after Jesus and his disciples had left the region known as the Decopolis (or area of the 10 towns) and returned to Galilee (see earlier map). You may recall that earlier Jesus had escaped the crowds in Galilee by sailing to that region and it was whilst he was in decopolis that he expelled a legion of demons from a man and 2,000 pigs ran into the Sea of Galilee and were drowned. It was here also that the people asked him to leave, and so He did, sailing by boat, back across the lake, into Galilee . However, what he found there was that the crowds had quickly found Him. (Mark 5:21).
It seems that the crowd had been waiting for Him (Luke 8:40). No matter where Jesus went in Galilee there were crowds. And when they saw Him, the people surrounded Him, so Jesus lingered for a while on the seashore. It was whilst there, speaking to the people in the crowd that a synagogue official named Jairus found Him. As a synagogue official, he would have been very prominent in the community. He would have been a layman with responsibilities to direct the worship services in the synagogue. But when he saw Jesus, he did not act like a proud man. Instead, he humbled himself, not only kneeling and bowing before Jesus, but imploring and begging Jesus to come to his home and heal his daughter. He was desperate and he deeply loved his daughter who we are told was twelve years of age at the time and was his only child (Luke 8:42).
Here was an example of a man holding a high position, putting all of that to one side out of love and desperation for his beloved daughter who was at the point of death.
One can only imagine what the crowd was thinking as they watched one of their synagogue leaders kneeling and begging. If he was loved by the people, then they may also have felt great compassion for him.
Jesus listened to Jairus and responded. He got up from the ground, and started to follow the synagogue leader to his home with the crowd following too, (Matt 9:19, Mark 5:24), jostling and pressing in from all sides. It was amidst this pushing and moving throng that the unnamed woman moved forward, wrestling to find the courage to reach out to Jesus. Neither Jesus, the disciples, nor Jairus knew that this lady, who had suffered for twelve years with a hemorrhage, was about to interrupt their journey of mercy to heal Jairuss daughter. For Jairus, knowing that time was of the essence to his daughter's very survival, what was to follow must have caused him intense anguish and frustration. As the crowd slowed their progress, Jesus unexpectedly stopped and asked who had touched him as he sensed that power had left him in the healing of another person. But who were they and where were they?
We don’t know whether anyone in the crowd actually saw the woman touch Jesus' cloak and we don’t know very much about this lady other than that she suffered from this constant bleeding condition that she did not have the confidence to ask for help face to face! Very likely her condition forced her to live a solitary life, perpetually ceremonially unclean, and unable to participate in normal life. We are told that she was now materially poor, having given all of her money to physicians who could not heal her and who made promises that they could not keep. We are told that she suffered “much” from these “physicians” only to get worse and not better. This woman had been abused and robbed in the process.
As she approached Jesus, the crowd for its part, was so intent on looking at
Jesus, to see what he could do for them, that this lady passed unnoticed.
It raises a question doesn’t it. Are we also ever in danger of being so focussed on seeking the Lord to meet our needs, that we fail to notice the spiritual and material needs of others. This account is a timely reminder that we must see those who Jesus sees.
When she came forward, the lady fell down at Jesus’ feet and explained why she touched His cloak. While we are told what she said, it is clear from Jewish law that her particular touch had ceremonial consequences!
Whilst she or any woman had a flow of blood, they were not supposed to touch another person. (Leviticus 15:25-33). The Mosaic law said that a woman with a flow of blood was unclean while the flow continued. She was not allowed to attend the temple worship or participate in social life. No one could touch her, and she could not touch anyone. It was only after seven days after the flow of blood had stopped and after she offered a sacrifice of two pigeons, that she could return to normal life. This poor woman had been an outcast, or completely unclean, for twelve years! Yet, she had touched Jesus’ garment in violation of the law. Therefore, she had good reason to be fearful. She had violated the law, and according to Jewish custom made Jesus unclean. She must have been in great emotional anguish, fearing rejection. She might have been afraid that Jesus would undo the healing.
But Jesus did no such thing but instead said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.” Mark 5:34 (NASB)
In so doing, Jesus forgave her and finally told her that her faith had made her well and that she was free to leave. What must have been an agonising delay to Jairus was a source of new life for this lady.
All of this was good news for her but frustratingly bad for Jairus. His daughter close to death, and then this delay in bringing her help.
And then the unthinkable happened, the devastatingly bad news arrived in the form of a messenger from Jairus’s house, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?” Mark 5:35 (NASB)
Whilst Jairus had good reason to give up all hope at that point, Jesus in overhearing this report, responded, “
Do not be afraid any longer; only believe, and she will be made well.” Luke 8:50 (NASB)
Arriving at Jairus’s house, and leaving the gathered mourners outside laughing at the prospect of a dead person being healed, Jesus took the girls parents Peter, James and John and the brother of James into the girls bedroom.
Taking Jairus's daughter by the hand, Jesus said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” and immediately her spirit returned, and she got up and began to walk. All were quite understandably astounded. Mark 5:40b-4 (NASB)
Conclusion
What can be learnt from and applied from this experience of Jairus, his daughter, and the lady healed by touching Jesus cloak?
Jairus discovered an important truth. He discovered that God does not ignore our requests. He is not deaf. He does not sleep nor slumber. In fact, He knows all about your prayer and mine before we even ask. Yet, delays are part of God’s plan. Often we must wait for an answer.
And indeed, Yes, sometimes His answer is, “No!” To our prayers! Also, God will often care for others while He is caring for us. Sometimes He must alter circumstances to answer our prayers. Sometimes He waits for us to yield or to submit to Him. God will sometimes wait for us to stop making our demands. He will wait until we are willing to do whatever He wants. Sometimes He will wait until we have given up and everything seems dark and lost, just as Jairus experienced. Then He will respond when the only thing left is to trust in Him. Then you might hear the words, “Only believe!” He seeks our submission and dependence upon Himself.
The Woman with the flow of blood discovered that she was not invisible to Jesus. She had feared rejection but instead found affirmation and healing. She may have been ceremonially unclean to everyone else but this dear lady was not unacceptable to Jesus.
Jesus had few comfort zones and was no respecter of the sociocultural or religious barriers of his time. He broke taboos and conventions so that he could meet people who reached out to him across those social and cultural barriers and addressed their needs. And he still does.
If God choses to do something, it is going to happen. God’s timelines and deadlines do not fit onto a planner, and yet still they unfold at the right time, within time. The writer of Lamentations could hold onto this Hope, even as Jerusalem was destroyed. All the evidence might point to destruction, but because the writer believed in God’s constant involvement in every moment of life, he can affirm, “the Lord will not reject forever”.
When Jairus’ daughter dies, it looks like the end of hope, but then comes a new beginning.
Covid social distancing may have interrupted our journey of “church life and witness” and we may feel resentful about the past and fearful for the future. But, as we continue to follow Jesus, to see those that he sees, and in stopping to help along the way, no delay is wasted but is itself with our stretched faith applied, transformed, by God's touch and perfect timing, into remarkable blessings, new shoots of renewed life and new hope. Let’s walk on with Jesus together in our Church into the tomorrow that he has planned. Amen.
9)Prayers For Others
10).H&P30:STF 416: There's a wideness in Gods Mercy
There's a wideness in God's mercy
like the wideness of the sea;
there's a kindness in his justice,
which is more than liberty.
There is welcome for the sinner,
and more graces for the good;
there is mercy with the Savior;
there is healing in his blood.
There is no place where earth's sorrows
are more felt than in heaven;
there is no place where earth's failings
have such kind judgment given.
There is plentiful redemption
in the blood that has been shed;
there is joy for all the members
in the sorrows of the Head.
For the love of God is broader
than the measure of man's mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.
If our love were but more faithful,
we should take him at his word;
and our life would be thanksgiving
for the goodness of the Lord.
11). Benediction.
Psalm 30[a]
A psalm. A song. For the dedication of the temple.[b] Of David.
1 I will exalt you, Lord,
for you lifted me out of the depths
and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
2 Lord my God, I called to you for help,
and you healed me.
3 You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead;
you spared me from going down to the pit.
4 Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people;
praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.
6 When I felt secure, I said,
“I will never be shaken.”
7 Lord, when you favored me,
you made my royal mountain[c] stand firm;
but when you hid your face,
I was dismayed.
8 To you, Lord, I called;
to the Lord I cried for mercy:
9 “What is gained if I am silenced,
if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
10 Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me;
Lord, be my help.”
11 You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
Lord my God, I will praise you forever.
Footnotes
a.Psalm 30:1 In Hebrew texts 30:1-12 is numbered 30:2-13.
b.Psalm 30:1 Title: Or palace
c.Psalm 30:7 That is, Mount Zion
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
New International Version
7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you[a]—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
8 I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
10 And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. 11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. 12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.
13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, 15 as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”[b]
Footnotes
a.2 Corinthians 8:7 Some manuscripts and in your love for us
b.2 Corinthians 8:15 Exodus 16:18