We are touched by God.. November 14-15 2020 Carroll First UMC

 Our story from Luke today is a powerful story. One of the few that appear in all 3 synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). One reason it is so powerful is we can all connect with this woman… I think now more than ever. 

We have talked before about the cultural and legal situation for women in Jesus’ culture. They were property, first of their father and them of their husbands. 

Then, you add on top of that the Jewish view that human blood was unclean and made everything it touched unclean. Bleeding related medical conditions were especially a mark of uncleanness.

As a result, it was unfortunate to be a woman in the Jewish culture. It was a real problem to be a sick, Jewish woman. Worse still, however, being a sick and bleeding Jewish woman was an absolute tragedy.

This was the situation of the woman in today’s story.

She lived her life as an almost non-person who was shunned, isolated, and frankly feared. The only thing that can make it worse is the fact that she had been like this for 12 years. We know, therefore, that she had been separated from her husband, children if she had any, and extended family for 12 long years. She was completely rejected by the culture and the people around her. 

And finally, on top of the culture and individuals rejecting her, she did not have access to the temple. It was unthinkable that a person with a bleeding condition would enter the temple. So, her medical condition affected every single aspect of her life. 

Until recently I don’t know if most of us could understand her isolation and loneliness. In the last 9 months we have seen our culture and people turn in on themselves. 

A care center was never anyone’s preferred place to live, but now the isolation, loneliness and fear in nursing homes is at an all time high. One person I know was so happy they were going to be able to leave their room and have breakfast this week… and then something changed and that was taken away. Family visits through glass and over the phone, do not replace a hug from a grandchild, having their hand held by a son or daughter, or a day trip to a favorite restaurant.

Humans are built to be touched from birth to death. There are nerve endings, called C-tactile afferents. They exist to recognize any form of gentle touch. Skin to skin touch can release oxytocin and cortisol improving wellbeing and managing stress. It can calm heart rate and blood pressure and can signal the vagus nerve to slow down the rest of the nervous system.

People need touch.

Our medical workers have been so brave, facing every challenge face on. They have been surrogate family and the only witnesses to many of the covid deaths. Yet, if you have not been in the hospital, I doubt that we can imagine the emptiness of being touched only by rubber gloves, talking only through a shield, and feeling that everyone is afraid of you. A health care worker told me about visiting a family one day and forgetting their mask in the car. The family told them, “that’s OK please stay, the nurses have been great, but we haven’t seen any of their faces and it is so good to see a human face.”

It would be hard not even seeing faces when human contact is critical in treating illness including feelings of depression, anxiety, stress, low relationship satisfaction, and difficulty sleeping.

We have all experienced a decrease in human touch in so many ways. I was struck by these dividers that really encourage people to eat by themselves when eating together is one of our basic needs. 

Children who do not eat dinner with their parents at least twice a week are 40 percent more likely to be overweight, and twice as likely to be absent from school. Those who do eat as a family, have less trouble with drugs and alcohol, eat healthier, show better academic performance, and report being closer with their parents than those who eat together less often. 

Many people may not be able to put their finger on it, (so to speak) but they are touch deprived because of what we have so often called “these extraordinary circumstances.” We have been socially distanced, masked, and seen many of our normal venues for relationship closed. This has been a long 9 months. Now imagine this woman lacking that and even worse for 12 long years.

In the story the woman is left nameless in all 3 gospels. Instead she is identified by her condition. I would argue that this is one more way in which she is un-humanized. But Jesus has the answer for her. 

Jesus was on the way to heal (as it turns out to raise) the daughter of a well-known synagogue leader. You can imagine Jesus and the disciples all walking quickly knowing that time is of the essence. You can imagine his robe fluttering behind him in the breeze. 

This woman is determined to touch the hem of his robe believing that she can be made well. Luke tells us that there was quite a crowd of curious people and you can imagine how difficult it might have been to get to Jesus. But she made a plan and somehow she was indeed able to touch his garment.

You need to know that she took a huge risk. Being a woman and having bleeding trouble Jesus, and anyone else she touched (because the crowd pressed around Jesus and she couldn’t get to him without touching others casually.) were ritually unclean and would have to go through the cleansing ritual before they could return to worship. She touched him anyway.

Her bleeding stopped immediately. All the doctors, all the specialists, all the treatments in the world she tried in the last 12 years, and a touch from Jesus was the answer to her problem.

Jesus knew something had happened and he stopped dead in his tracks trying to figure out who it was. The disciples urged him to hurry on to heal the girl, but Jesus insisted that he know. Finally, I am sure, with great fear of repercussions, and being further ostracized, the woman meekly came forward. 

First, Jesus called her daughter. The woman who had been called unclean for so long… Jesus called her “daughter.” In naming her as a child of God the darkness that has surrounded her begins to lift. She (and hopefully others) began to see that she was more than her sickness. She is not named unclean… she is named a beloved child of God.

Then we discover that it was not the touch that healed her. It was that her insistence on touching Jesus was an act of deep faith in God and in Jesus as God’s son. “Daughter,” Jesus said, “your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

Second, Jesus says “your faith has healed you.” 

We must understand that even though faith might feel like something we do. It is actually a gift we are given. If faith was a choice or action on our part, then healing or salvation would depend on us making that choice or choosing the action. It cannot come from us. We are powerless. God is the source of healing and salvation. Therefore, her gift of faith opened her up, and even nudged her and pushed her over the edge to believe with all her heart that she would be healed. And when she reached out or opened up in faith, the hand of God brought her physical healing and social and emotional wholeness.

Wow. How about you?

I didn’t realize until I started studying, how much our lives right now in this “extraordinary time” are similar to this woman’s life.  Maybe that is one way we can capitalize on this pandemic. This has become a time of reckoning with our own weakness. The nation that put men on the moon and broke the code to our own DNA has been brought to its knees by a bug without a brain or arms and legs, so small that 1,000,000 of them would fit on the tip of my ballpoint pen. 

Yet, there is something in our feeble created beings that reaches out searching for the hand of God. It is hope that grows out of hopelessness, strength that grows out of abject powerlessness, faith that grows out of the solid rock of our mistrusting hearts. It is nothing short of a miracle that we are open to God’s touch. And even more of a miracle that God touches our lives, calls us beloved children, sons and daughters, and makes us whole. 

Maybe you have a story of how God has touched you and made you whole. I do. But this is a different day with another opportunity. Where is your brokenness today? Where do you feel wounded? Where do feel like you are hanging on by the skin of your teeth? What is causing you to lose joy faster than the woman lost blood? What is bringing you to your knees today? Is it broken relationships? Not being able to be with someone you love over the holidays? Deep loneliness? Raging fear? Depression or anxiety? Physical illness or delayed medical treatment? Grief over the way things aren’t any more? Where are your deepest wounds? 

Look up. Lookup for the hem of Jesus garment and know that hope is here. Know that healing is here. Know that the light is here to push away the darkness. 

Ask Jesus to touch you and heal your hurts. Ask Jesus to touch you and soothe your wounds. Ask Jesus to touch you and ease your pain. Ask Jesus to touch you and pull you close to him. Ask Jesus to touch you and walk with you through whatever trials you have. Ask Jesus to touch you and remind you that you are a beloved child of God. Because you are. Ask Jesus to touch you. 

The Third thing Jesus said to the woman is, “go in peace” Ask Jesus to touch you too can go in peace. 

 

WE ARE thankful (for the gospel) Luke 7:36-50 November 8 (7)

 November 8 (7)

WE ARE thankful (for the gospel)

Luke 7:36-50

They say houseguests are a double blessing. They are a blessing when they come, and they are a blessing when they leave. 

The woman was an uninvited guest. I feel pretty sure that Simon was hoping that she would bless him by leaving.  She was after all disrupting his dinner with Jesus.  And she was steeling the show. 

This dinner was supposed to be about Simon. Simon was going to catch Jesus in some embarrassing situation to discredit him… instead this uninvited woman embarrasses and discredits Simon. By the end of the night, I suspect Simon was pretty anxious for both the woman and Jesus to bless him by leaving. 

Luke tells about the night Simon invited Jesus to have a meal with him. Not being one to turn down free food, or a chance to teach a lesson to someone who was pretty sure of themselves, Jesus went to Simon’s house for supper.

Often these dinners were served to invited guests, but the room would be open to anyone who wanted to watch. Why would anyone want to watch a dinner?  Well, they couldn’t watch Big Brother or The Treasure of Oak Island or any other Unreality TV show. Because there weren’t any TV’s. So, people liked to see how the rich and powerful live. This was kind of like their version of reality TV. Or maybe they were hoping for something more exciting like professional wrestling as these two religious authorities sat down at the same table. 

So, Jesus is reclining at table… remember I talked about that 2 weeks ago. For banquets they laid on their left arm and ate with the right.  Their feet were extended behind them like the picture. 

While they were eating, a woman who is called a sinner came to watch. That was OK with Simon until she moved into the spotlight. Simon’s dinner didn’t seem like such a great deal when she brought in her beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive oil. The Bible doesn’t say what kind of oil it is, but if it was Nard, for instance it would have cost 300 denarii per pound.  A denarius was a day’s wage. So, it would have cost a year’s wages to buy nard. This woman was no slouch. She had nice stuff and had the money to buy the best for Jesus. 

 She entered the room and sat down at Jesus’ feet. Remember his feet were behind him.  She began to sob… the Greek word here is not quietly shedding tears… it is sobbing violently. Her shoulders shook, her weeping filled the room and Her tears fell on Jesus’ feet. The dinner came to a screeching halt when, not having a towel or even a Kleenex handy, she unpinned her hair. Now all eyes sere on the woman. 

In Jesus’ time, a woman’s hair was her crowning glory and to uncover and let it lose was a very intimate act.  The only women who went around with uncovered long hair in public were the prostitutes. Now, let me be clear, so as not to disparage her reputation as so many others have done. When she came in her hair was respectfully covered. There is no indication that she is a prostitute. There is no indication that she is Many Magdalene who is introduced later in the Gospel. There is no indication that she is the woman caught in adultery. We really do not know anything about her besides she was a woman of means and Simon’s judgment that she was a sinner.

Which raises a fair question.  How exactly did Simon know what kind of woman she was? If she was a prostitute, adulteress a fornicator the law said she should be stoned. Simon did not seek to stone her.  Did he have intimate, personal knowledge of her sins? I’m mot saying he does, but it is a question worth asking. How does Simon know what kind of woman this is?  I wonder if he had a secret.

While the woman us drying Jesus’ feet with her hair, we get a little insight into Simon’s thoughts. He thinks to himself, “there are 2 possibilities here… 

1. Jesus is not a prophet because he does not know who this is. (and Simon wins)

2. If he is a prophet and knows who she is, he doesn’t seem to care about her sins. (and Simon wins again.)

Either way, Jesus hears Simon’s thoughts… (maybe he is a prophet) and Jesus says, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

Jesus starts the story about the two men who owed money.  One owed abut 2 months wages. That’s a significant amount of money for anyone, but it is not an insurmountable debt. The other owes 2 YEARS worth of wages. That would be a problem for most folks.  But the truth is, it doesn’t matter if your payment is $50 or $50,000,000 If you can’t make the payment you can’t make the payment. 

So, the creditor in the story, who is obviously Jesus, cancels both debts. 

The question Jesus asks is, “Who is more grateful?” Jesus affirms Simon’s answer that the one who owed the bigger debt would be most grateful. 

Then Jesus goes on to compare Simon and the woman.  This is where Simon would love to see both Jesus and the woman bless him by leaving.  Now to be clear, it does not appear that Simon broke any laws. But he also did not put himself out to make Jesus feel more comfortable or more welcome.

The woman on the other hand has not stopped looking after his needs since she walked in the room even to the point of using her tears to wash his feet and hair to dry them.

But Jesus’ story is not about one man who had a debt and one who didn’t.  It is about two people who both owed a debt that neither of them could pay. 

Simon probably thought that the woman was a sinner and he was not….At least he was not much of a sinner... OK  he sinned a little…okay, maybe he had some things he needed to deal with but who is Jesus to point that out?

• But let me ask you this, if you lose your house are you more or less homeless if it was a million-dollar house or a $50,000 home? Of course not.

• Are you less lost if you’re an hour from home rather than six hours from home? Of course not.

• Are you any less of a sinner because you have been able to hide your sins compared to someone who’s sins are printed on the front page of the newspaper? Of course not. 

The truth to which Jesus is pointing is that we all owe a debt for our sins that we could not possibly pay.

Weather you are the worst sinner in the world, or your only sin might be the pride in thinking that you have never sinned, you Are in need of forgiveness.

Whether you are wracked with guilt every hour of every day, or if you are unaware of the harm you caused by an unintentional sin, you are in need of forgiveness.

You, and everyone you know have done things that have broken God’s law, or harmed yourself, others, or creation. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Me and everyone I know have done things that break God’s law, or harmed themselves, ourselves or others, or creation. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

All of us… everyone… each and every one of us is a sinner in need of forgiveness.

And we can’t do a thing about it.  The debt is so big we could never climb that mountain. 

But we don’t have to rely on our own ability.  We don’t have to rely on our own goodness.  Jesus provides forgiveness… freely…and abundantly for all who call upon him in faith.

 He said to the woman, “your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.”

Jesus says to each person, “Your sins are forgiven… go in peace.”

Thanks be to God that Jesus says to me, “Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.”

Hallelujah that Jesus says to you “your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.”

Would you pray with me?

 Just like the simple woman in today's story, we come. Many of us have given our guilt in our lives to you before. Others may be doing it for the first time today. Without you we are all broken, powerless, and doomed. We know that without you we cannot experience forgiveness of sin, receive new life in the spirit, or enjoy eternal life.

We confess all of our sins today. Some large; some small. Some recent; some long ago. Times when we broke your law on purpose or harmed someone intentionally. Other times when out of negligence or ignorance we have failed you and others. We lay all these sins before you today and ask for the freedom of your forgiveness and healing.

We humbly and gratefully ask for the power of your cross to destroy the grip that sin has on us. We ask for the power of your love to draws close to you. And we ask that the hope that everything we do will ultimately glorify you. In the precious and powerful name of Jesus we pray. Amen.