This prayer is in our BCP on page 461 under Prayers for use by a Sick Person. It is one of my favorite prayers from our tradition. It is a prayer for when we are sick & in need of God’s spirit to guide us but I think it is a prayer for us every day too, asking God’s help to make us ready for whatever this day will bring forth.
The prayer helps me realize that my health rests in God’s hand and the Spirit of Jesus will help me on my journey in whatever may come my way.
Our First Reading from the Wisdom of Solomon reminds us that “God did not make death and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things so that they might exist; the generative forces of the world are wholesome…”
We are made to live, created in God’s own image. Death is the aberration. Wholeness is what God desires.
That is the default setting – wholeness & life. Keeping this in mind, let’s turn to the Gospel for today and the two healing stories, one imbedded in another.
Jairus a wealthy, well-connected religious leader comes to Jesus to have him heal his sick daughter. An extraordinary story of a named religious leader coming to Jesus for help! He must have been desperate. He had the means to help her but she was not getting better…he kneels before Jesus.
Their journey to his house is interrupted by an unnamed woman who is ill, impoverished, and looking for help.
That woman had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years, who endured much under many physicians, spent all that she had; and was no better, but worse. She was also ritually unclean, such bleeding would have separated her from others including her family. Poor, sick, on the margins…
She too must have been desperate for help. And she thought if she just touched Jesus…and after being discovered, she kneels before him. Jesus said to her after she touched his garment: "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." Wholeness and life.
An elderly woman, despondent over the recent death of her husband of 60 years, was moved into a nursing home. She didn't speak to any one; she never made any requests of the staff. All she would do is sit in an old rocking chair in the day room and rock.
The old woman didn't have many visitors, and the few family members who came stayed only after a few awkwardly quiet minutes.
But every couple of mornings, a young nurse would go into the day room. She didn't try to engage her in conversation or ask questions. She simply pulled up another rocking chair beside the woman and rocked with her. After a few minutes, the nurse would continue her rounds. Before leaving, she would touch the old woman on the arm, squeeze her hand, or offer her a tissue.
Many weeks later, the old woman finally spoke. She turned to the nurse and took the young woman's hand and smiled. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you for rocking with me." [Adapted from InspirationPeak.com]
The story of the sick woman in today's Gospel is told as an afterthought, wedged in between another healing story - indeed, her whole life is an afterthought. She counts for little in the social structure of her time; her problems and illness elicit neither concern nor care from those around her. Her hemorrhages, in fact, mark her as unclean, someone to be avoided.
But like the kindness of the nurse who does not let the widow's despondency mark her, the power of Jesus transcends the woman's isolation & brings healing. May we readily pull up our own rocking chairs to care for those who are estranged or forgotten because of grief or illness; may the power of Jesus' compassion and peace enable us to seek out the needy, the lost and despairing in our midst.
But Jesus wasn’t done yet, for Mark’s story continues with Jairus, one of the leaders of the synagogue, who is told his daughter is dead, but after hearing of his daughter’s death, Jesus said to him: "Do not fear, only believe." And Jesus raises his daughter up and she is healed.
Illness and death. They were then and still are two of the great scourges of life. So much so that we fear illness & death. Think of all the superstitions built up around each of these, don’t talk about them or they might just happen to you. Hogwash. The more we talk about them, the more we bring them out into the light, the less we have to fear. We need not be slaves to the twin fears of illness and death. Jesus in his ministry tore down their power and lifted up life, everyone’s life, and refused to let death replace life. Jesus brought love and comfort.
A true story, recounted in the weekly "Metropolitan Diary" column of The New York Times [March 2, 2009]:
In Dunkin' Donuts an old lady wearing a tattered watch cap started speaking to no one in particular.
"I can't sleep at night. I have pains in my chest all the time. My leg hurts and my children do not love me."
People waiting in line hid in their cell phones, looked away or stared straight ahead.
"I don't know what to do. I don't know where to turn. My husband died two years ago on the 27th."
Everyone pretended she wasn't there. The girls behind the counter took the next customers. The line inched forward.
At a side table, a beautiful young woman with matching purple scarf and hat looked at the old woman and said, simply, "Honey, please sit down with me and tell me your story."
It's possible, you see, for one person to save the world.
Life can be so much easier and peaceful when we have nothing to do with others - Don't get involved, walk away, mind your own business, are much safer approaches to life. But in today's Gospel, Jesus is not afraid to wade into the messiness of life in order to transform, heal and restore. In the two miracles we hear today, Jesus ignores custom and taboo in a way that modern readers may miss: In taking the dead girl by the hand, in allowing the sick woman to touch him, Jesus became ceremoniously unclean and not permitted to enter the synagogue or temple. But to respond compassionately to the plight of these families becomes more important, more sacred, than the "safety" of convention and tradition. We are made to live and be whole.
May we come to imitate that same compassion of the healing Christ, risking our own sense of safety and satisfaction in order to bring that love into the lives of others, so they too can feel more whole, more alive in the fullness of God’s beautiful creation. Amen.
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