October 28, 2007
The Un-named Woman, The Hokey Pokey,
20[Jesus] said to them, ‘…Truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
1 Corinthians 6:19
19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?
1 Corinthians 12:27
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
This passage from Mark is the scripture of the first sermon I ever preached, nearly a dozen years ago at the ERF Church in Vallon Pont-d'Arc. At the time a friend told me that it was a horror that I - and/or any man - should preach on this text.
The story is about an unnamed woman who is suffering from constant menstruation that has lasted for over 12 years and cost her all that she once owned in medical costs and fees. She comes to Jesus in the midst of a massive and faceless crowd for her final chance, hope and dream of healing. She pushes through the bodies and reaches out her hand, touching the fringe or fray of Jesus' garments and is instantly healed. She then tries to sneak away without being noticed. Yet Jesus won't let her go so easily. He calls out, asking who has been healed by the anonymous touch. Is he going to punish her? Scream at her? Embarrass her? Why would he do such a thing?
According to established Jewish Law her condition makes her unclean - both ceremonially, ritually, spiritually and physically. She cannot enter a synagogue to seek healing. She cannot enter her home. She cannot go to the market, or visit her friends. She must live outside of the camp, or town, in isolation [the title of the first painting in the slideshow] until she is healed and whole so that she won't contaminate the community she once belonged to with her unclean-ness.
Jesus calls out to her to recognize her, to name her "daughter", to restore her as a vital part of this community. It's more than just a story about healing. It's a story of healing, which lifts up that our faith, our bodies and our relationships/community are interconnected and interdependent. We so often seem to forget or deny that. We so often dissociated faith or spirituality from our bodies and what is physical. We regulate faith to one realm and the rest of life to another. Some would say that it's a problem of separating church and state, I'd say it's much bigger than that.
I led some signing at our daughter's preschool the other day with my guitar. The closing song was the "hokey pokey." What fun to see toddles so at ease with their bodies: jumping, falling, laughing and tumbling, touching each other and letting others touch them as they danced around. What happens to us to make us so ashamed of our bodies, so jealous of other bodies, so prudish about the forms in which we were created?
Sunday is Reformation Sunday, the Sunday each year during which we're invited to celebrate the reformation - and what it means for us to be reformed followers of Jesus today. An essential part of this reformed perspective of Christian faith is recognized that faith is embodied..that the Word of God became flesh, human flesh; that we are created in God's image in bodies; that we are called to live out and into our faith in a community - what the Apostle Paul calls "the body of Christ."
Spider Man is one of the movies in my world these past years, because I like it, and also because some friends say I look & act like Peter Parker. What strikes me about that whole comic myth is the theme that Peter is the everyday man, in fact more like the everyday nerd - skinny, scrawny, overlooked yet smart. When he becomes powerful his uncle whispers his last breath to him saying, "with great power comes great responsibility." I think that's what the scripture of Mark 5 is about. It's a bit corny but Peter through his trials, heartbreaks and tribulations learns to live into his faith: that he has a purpose.
Jesus knows his great power - he knows what great responsibility is. It's about building community, expanding the body, not excluding those who don't fit in, or look a certain way. It's about living by faith, acting from faith (like the un-named bleeding woman), and into faith like Peter Parker. That's what faith really is: following Jesus. It's not having all the answers. It's not being on the "inside" of the righteous club. It's not about knowledge, but about experience; not about isolation but about community; not about being a know-it-all but about participation. More and more I think we're called more to follow Jesus (doing what he taught, living as he lived) than to just believe in him. Maybe that's what he meant when he said that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed (that's really small- for us urbanites) we can move mountains.
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