These illustrations are based on Mark 5: 21-43
Sermon Opener - The Healing of Jairus' Daughter and the Hemorrhaging Woman
A business executive became depressed. Things were not going well at work, and he was bringing his problems home with him every night. Every evening he would eat his dinner in silence, shutting out his wife and five-year-old daughter. Then he would go into the den and read the paper using the newspaper to wall his family out of his life.
After several nights of this, one evening his daughter took her little hand and pushed the newspaper down. She then jumped into her father’s lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him strongly. The father said abruptly, “Honey, you are hugging me to death!” “No, Daddy,” the little girl said, “I’m hugging you to life!”
This was the greatness of Jesus…
1. Love Has the Power to Heal.
2. Love Has the Power to Reconcile.
3. Love Has the Power to Redeem.
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Be Healed, Be Held - Mark 5:21-43
Every morning all humans do the same thing. We get up, take a shower, brush our teeth, and then decide what we are going to wear.
Generally in western culture it remains true that “Clothes make the man,” or in the name of a popular website, “Clothes make the girl.” Got a teenager? Then you know what I’m talking about. Then you know oh-so-purse-painfully how important it is to have the “right look.” To wear the “right duds” so you can be the “right dudes.” Even if you are not a “fashionista,” it is almost impossible not to be influenced by what the current culture says is “cool” (or “hot”). Who doesn’t want to “look good” and so “feel good” about themselves?
Every week the tabloids are filled with planted or paparazzi celebrity photos — either looking their best or revealing their worst. But whatever shape they are in, what those celebrities are sporting influences the fashion choices of thousands. Designers count on it. In fact they literally “bank” on it. If someone fabulous and famous wears something, it will sell. The “knock ‘em dead” designs on red carpet runways are immediately copied into much cheaper “knock-offs” so that those with a bit of disposable income can outfit themselves like royalty. Even countries without “royal families” have their “royalty.”
But while all of us — whether teenager or ladder climbing corporate bureaucrat — think that our clothes lend use power and prestige, the opposite was the case for Jesus in Galilee in the first century…
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Touch in Church
One of my cyberfriends came across this in a church newsletter called "Touch in Church:"
What is all this touching in church? It used to be a person could come to church and sit in the
pew and not be bothered by all this friendlinessand certainly not by touching.
I used to come to church and leave untouched. Now I have to be nervous about what's expected of me. I have to worry about responding to the personsitting next to me.
Oh, I wish it could be the way it used to be; I could just ask the person next to me:How are you?
And the person could answer:Oh, just fine, And we'd both go home...strangers who have known each other for twenty years.
But now the minister asks us to look at each other. I'm worried about that hurt look I saw in that woman's eyes.
Now I'm concerned, because when the minister asks us to greet one another, the man next to me held my hand so tightly I wondered if he had been touched in years.
Now I'm upset because the lady next to me criedand then apologized and said it was because I was so kindand that she needed a friend right now.
Now I have to get involved. Now I have to suffer when this community suffers. Now I have to be more than a person comingto observe a service.
That man last week told me I'd never know how much I'd touched his life.
All I did was smile and tell him I understoodwhat it was to be lonely.
Lord, I'm not big enough to touch and be touched! The stretching scares me.
What if I disappoint somebody? What if I'm too pushy? What if I cling too much? What if somebody ignores me?
"Pass the peace." "The peace of Christ be with you.""And also with you." And mean it. Lord, I can't resist meaning it! I'm touched by it, I'm enveloped by it! I find I do care about that person next to me! I find I AM involved! And I'm scared.
O Lord, be here beside me. You touch me, Lord,so that I can touch and be touched! So that I can care and be cared for! So that I can share my life with all those othersthat belong to you!
All this touching in church -- Lord, it's changing me!
What was it our audacious friend said so many centuries ago? "If I but touch...I will be healed."
David E. Leininger, ChristianGlobe Illustrations, www.eSermons.com
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12 Years
Twice in this story Jesus is touched by or himself touches someone ritually and ceremonially unclean but not only is Jesus not contaminated, the ones who had been contaminated to begin with are made holy and whole. Jesus has crossed the boundaries that had once defined the community, has rewritten the rules, and so has revealed a new day. Make no mistake: this story is all about the creation of a New Israel. Mark seeded this story with clues. How long had the woman been bleeding? Twelve years. How old was the little girl Jesus raised? Twelve years. No Jewish person reading this story could fail to see the repetition of the number twelve as a symbol of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Long about the same time that Jairus welcomed his little girl into the world, a women he didn't know began to hemorrhage. For twelve years this woman suffered. For twelve years this little girl grew and became ever-more-dear to her father. Both women were headed toward a rendezvous with Jesus on the very same day. Although their paths to Jesus were as different as could be, both of these daughters of Israel would point forward to the new community Jesus came to build.
Scott Hoezee, The Touch
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The Wounded Healers
With all its imperfections, sins, blemishes, and warts, the Church of Jesus Christ is the intended healer of the world’s wounds. Christians are called to be compassionate, wounded healers.
Perhaps, Henri Nouwen, the Roman Catholic theologian, has said this better than anyone else. The author of many books, Nouwen speaks of Christians as "wounded healers" who have compassion.
Compassion is not pity. Pity lets us stay at a distance. It is condescending.
Compassion is not sympathy. Sympathy is for superiors over inferiors.
Compassion is not charity. Charity is for the rich to continue in their status over the poor.
Compassion is born of God. It means entering into the other person’s problems. It means taking on the burdens of the other. It means standing in the other person’s shoes. It is the opposite of professionalism. It is the humanizing way to deal with people. "Just as bread without love can bring war instead of peace, professionalism without compassion will turn forgiveness into a gimmick."
Ron Lavin, Alone/Together, CSS Publishing Co., Inc.
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Qualification for the Gift of the Gospel
Jesus came to raise the dead. The only qualification for the gift of the Gospel is to be dead. You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be good. You don't have to be wise. You don't have to be wonderful. You don't have to be anything...you just have to be dead. That's it.
Robert Farrar Capon
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Priorities
What is at about human nature that makes us put off the most important things until a crisis looms? So often we coast in our relationships until they skid into a crisis. We think nothing of spending thousands on a car and blindly drive it by the homeless shelter everyday. We think nothing of a sixty-hour workweek but can’t find time for dinner as a family.
We live lives of loneliness and sorrow because those things that could build our friendships, family, and faith get our leftover time.
Then, one day it is too late, we have waited too long. We are like the Rabbi who did not run to Jesus until his daughter was “at the point of death [eschatos].”
Take a moment to examine your life today. What is at the “eschatos” — the point of death — in your life right now? What part of your spiritual or relational life is barely breathing? Find ways to make those areas (family, friendships and faith) a higher priority than career and income. Do something different this week. Before scheduling anything else, book time with God, schedule an appointment with those in your own family. Then, after prioritizing God and your family, then set up the rest of the week.
Jerry Goebel, Arise!
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Our Relationship with God
One of the reasons people tend to see faith as a religionaboutGod instead of a relationshipwithGod is the sense that they are not worthy of the attention of an Almighty God."My problems are too small for God to care about."or"With all the pain and suffering in this world, why would God care about me?"are a couple of ways people give expression to this sense of insignificance. The sense is the one expressed by our theme title today,"How can one so great care for one so small."
Have you ever felt that sense of insignificance? There have been times when I've gazed into the incredible expanse of a starlit sky and felt ever so small and insignificant. Even our planet is hardly a speck of dust in the vast cosmos.
And yet, the heart of the lesson for today says that God is attentive to the heartache and suffering of all persons, no matter how insignificant they may seem to the world around them.
Religion can get in the way of a relationship with God. Faith is not about rules, regulations and religion. It is about we human beings reaching out to a God who reaches out to us through Jesus Christ who reaches into the pain and anguish of our living. The good news for the people in our scripture lesson is that the barriers all fall away. For the woman, for Jairus and for the little girl - the greatness of God and the good news of Jesus Christ eliminate all obstacles to health and life.
And aren't you glad that Christ cares more about our wholeness and our living than he does about the niggling details of religious convention? When I am in anguish and wish for the presence of Christ, I do not need to worry that I am too great a sinner or that some folks would consider me to be unacceptable -- I know that Jesus cared for a woman who was a social reject and for a little girl that was not among the children of his followers.
John Jewell, Can One So Great Care for One So Small?
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The Grow in Clusters
Though I have never seen the Sequoia trees of California, known as Redwoods, I am told they are spectacular. Towering as much as 300 feet above the ground. Strangely, these towering trees have unusually shallow root systems that spider out just under the surface of the ground to catch as much of the surface moisture they can. And this is their vulnerability. Storms with heavy winds would almost always bring these giants crashing to the ground but this rarely happens because they grow in clusters and their intertwining roots provide support for one another against the storms.
When we are together, either as a family or a church, we provide this same support. Pain and suffering come to all of us. But, just like those giant Sequoia trees, we can be supported in those difficult times by the touch of one another's lives. The knowledge that we have someone; that we are not alone; that there is someone who is willing to touch us, hold us, keeps us from being destroyed.
Brett Blair, eSermons.com
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Jesus Brings Life
With whom do you most identify in today's gospel? There are plenty of characters here who are being stung by death. There is a woman whose whole life has been caught, dominated by a terrible, life-demanding illness. There is a distraught father. A little girl whose young life is being cut short. There are the baffled disciples, the crowd who doesn't know what to think of all this. Where are you?
And yet, intruding into the story is another face, the strong, live-giving face of Jesus. Mark says that Jesus was forever intruding into fixed, settled, hopeless situations and bringing life. Hear his strong voice speaking over the laments and dirges in today's gospel? Hear him as he calls to the little girl, "Get up!"
I think he may be calling to you. "Get up!" His voice is strong, commanding, vital. "Get up!" You have perhaps heard his comforting, soft voice before, stilling the waves of the storm, bringing peace to troubled waters. Now hear his other voice, that strong, shattering, enlivening voice. Evoking "fear and trembling" (verse 33) in all who heard it that day, it may do the same for us. Life is frightening, when it intrudes into the realm of death. Hear his voice now. I think it is a shout. There is so much death. We are asleep with death so it takes a loud voice to wake us.
The great tower of the Castle Church in Wittenberg overlooks the church where Luther preached and is today buried.
On the anniversary of the Reformation the Socialist government took it upon itself to paint, in large, tasteless letters, a quote for the first line of Luther's famous hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God, a bulwark never failing."
Believers in Wittenberg, for whom the words were more than an advertising slogan, whispered among themselves "The communists should have quoted from the first line of the second verse of the hymn, 'If we on our own strength confide, our striving would be loosing.'"
And it's true. Left to our own devices, we are caught, trapped, dead. Face facts. There's a lot of deadness out there and in here.
But Jesus does not leave us be. In this story, we don't have to wait to Easter for life to intrude and death to be defeated. Get up! he says. In the name of Jesus Christ, the victor over pain and death, enslavement and despair, Get up!
William Willimon, Get Up, Mark 5:21-43
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ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATION NOT IN OUR EMAIL
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All That Is Required
Kenneth Fearing, the poet, describes a particularly long and wearisome day in one woman's life. (William Dols,Just Because It Didn't Happen...,"I Say to You, 'Arise!'") Evening finally comes. The house is quiet at last. The children have been tucked into bed and are asleep. She sits in the family room with her husband and they lose themselves in the blur of the images on the television. They talk a little, but not enough. They try to make time pass with a drink. Then the eleven o'clock news is over, and she says she will go up to bed. She asks, "Are you coming soon?" He replies with, "In a minute." But as she heads toward the stairs, she hears him switch the channel to a late show and she knows that it will be another hour or so of watching, and she will drop off to sleep alone again. As she climbs the stairs in the dark, she does a silly thing that she did as a child when she was afraid. She counts the number of steps. And, then, not really wanting to and wishing that she had not, she asks herself:Did you sometime or somewhere have a different idea? She pauses for an instant. Should she go upstairs alone or return downstairs alone? And the reality of her soul's death causes her to wonder for the first time in her life:Is this what I was born to feel and to do and to be?
It is at these moments that the power of the gospel has opportunity to shine. Robert Capon has said, "Jesus came to raise the dead. The only qualification for the gift of the Gospel is to be dead. You do not have to be smart. You do not have to be good. You do not have to be wise. You do not have to be wonderful. You do not have to be anything...you just have to be dead. That's it."
Sarah Jackson Shelton, A Daughter’s Faith
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The Power of Believing
This story is told by Dr. Robert Schuller who I don’t quote very often. It is a story of a Ph. D. student in mathematics who was going to take his final test for his PhD. Unfortunately, the student arrived late for that test. Everybody else in the classroom had already started the test. On the blackboard were three math problems. The late student sat down immediately to do them. He worked feverously for an hour and a half but everybody else had finished the test and left. He felt to himself, “What an idiot I am, for I am the last one here taking the test. I must be MUCH slower than any other students in this class.” He had finished only two problems and he knew that he was going to flunk his math test. You can’t leave a third of the test unanswered and not flunk. He was very upset. He came up to the professor and said, “Professor, I didn’t finish the last problem. Would you please let me finish the third problem and bring it into you later tonight? Please, I’ll get the third problem done and bring it to you.” The professor said that was permissible. The math student turned in to his math professor the calculations for the two problems and went to work on that third problem. He worked all afternoon. He worked into the night. He worked until 11:00 that night and he finally finished the third math problem. He rushed it over the math professor’s office which, of course, was closed. He slipped the test of the third math problem underneath the door and went home exhausted. Early the next morning, his telephone rang and it was his professor who excitedly said to him, “Young man, you are a genius. You are brighter than bright. I have never seen anything like it.” The young man said, “What do you mean?” The professor responded, “The first two problems on the board were the test. The third problem was a mind teaser. I have never had a student EVER finish that problem. No student of mine has ever gotten that right. You have done something that no other student has ever done before.”
The student had come in late to the test and never heard that the third problem was impossible to solve. He never heard that it was a mind teaser, an impossible challenge.
The power of believing. If you believe that the pill can cure you, it can really help. If you believe that you can really solve a very difficult problem, chances are increased that you can solve it. There is a power to faith. We all know that. We all experience that in our daily lives. We read all kinds of signs that simply say, “Believe.” We know the power of belief.
Edward F. Markquart, Jesus and Maggie
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How Do You Measure Success?
Some years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote these powerful words. Listen…
“How do you measure success?
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better
whether by a healthy child,
a redeemed social condition,
or a job well done;
To know that even one life has
breathed because you lived…
that is to have succeeded.”
I like that very much. It’s a beautiful statement… but, somehow I want to add one more ingredient to the mix, namely... compassion! The spirit of compassion… the touch of compassion.
James W. Moore, Collected Sermons, www.eSermons.com
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Just Remembering Miracles Strengthens Faith
There is a marvelous miracle described in Willa Cather's book,Death Comes for the Archbishop. In the story, FatherJuniperoand his friend, Father Andrea, set out on a journey through a Mexican desert with bread and water for one day. On the second day, they are beginning to lose heart when, near sunset, they see in the distance three very tall cottonwood trees. They rush toward the trees and see a little house. An old Mexican comes out of the house, greets them kindly, and asks them to stay the night. Inside the little house the man's young wife is stirring porridge by the fire. Her young son isbesideher playing with a pet lamb. The family shares their supper with the priests,thengives them sheepskins to use for sleeping on the floor. The next morning when they awake, the family is gone, presumably caring for their sheep. Food was set out on the table. The priests eat and continue on their way.
When the brothers at the monastery hear FatherJunipero'sstory, they say they know of the place with the three tall cottonwoods, but insist there is no house there. So Father Junipero and Father Andrea take some of the brothers and travel back to the place. The three tall trees are there, shedding their cotton, but there is no house and no family. The two priests sink down on their knees and kiss the earth, for they know it was the Holy Family that had entertained them there. FatherJuniperorecalled how he had bent to bless the child after evening prayers. The little boy had lifted his hand and with a tiny finger had made the sign of the cross on Father Junipero'sforehead.
Stories like this can make believers out of skeptics. In the book, those who hear about Father Junipero'smiracle develop suchan affectionfor this story that it brings them pleasure for the rest of their days. That's what the story of a miracle does. It strengthens faith through the pleasure of just remembering it.
Kristin Borsgard Wee, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost (First Third): Do You Love Me? CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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There Is a Time to Touch
There are two kinds of touch, the first being physical touch. So often when Jesus wanted to transmit His power of love, he physically touched people--the man born blind and the children in Jerusalem being two examples. An embrace, a kiss, an arm on the shoulder, a pat on the back--all of these are ways of expressing a love which goes beyond words.
It is lamentable that we are so paranoid on this subject in America. We have grown touchy about touching. In other parts of the world they do not seem to have this hang-up. To me, the guideline that we can use for this is from the 3rd chapter of Ecclesiastes. You recall the familiar verses that read: There is a time to live and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which has been planted, a time for peace and a time for war, a time to touch and a time to refrain from touching. A sage person will appreciate the difference.
Brett Blair, Reach Out and Touch Someone, www.eSermons.com
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The Importance of Skin
Recently, when I renewed my driver's license, I was presented with the opportunity to renew the accompanying organ donor card. I decided to renew, but I subsequently asked a doctor what organs were likely to be harvested. He mentioned many that I was aware of through stories of successful transplants. Then he pointed out that there is a continuing need for the largest, oldest, most sensitive, most protective organ of the body. When I asked what that was, he replied, "Your skin." I never had thought of it as an organ, but he pointed out that this is the organ that puts us most in contact with the world. Through it we get messages of heat and cold, pain and pleasure, and even love and friendship. It keeps us in touch with ourselves, with others, and with our environment. Touch plays a big part in our well-being.
The passage of scripture before us contains two instances which have something to say about touch.
David G. Rogne, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost, CSS Publishing Company
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Even Great Hands Get Messy
In a Charlie Brown comic strip, Linus is eating a sandwich. He makes this observation: "Hands are fascinating things. I like hands! I think I have nice hands! My hands seem to have a lot of character. These are hands which may someday accomplish great things ....These are hands which may someday do marvelous works. They may build mighty bridges or heal the sick, or hit home-runs, or write soul-stirring novels! These are hands which may someday change the course of human destiny!" Looking at Linus' hands, Lucy says, "They've got jelly on them." But Linus is proud of his jelly-covered hands.
Charles R. Leary, Mission Ready!, CSS Publishing Company
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Trust Is the Heart of Faith
When I was in seminary, one of our professors was quite stiff in his bearing and rigid in his theology. One time when the students sang Christmas carols at his home, they discovered that he wore his clergy collar even with his pajamas and robe. I can imagine that seminary professor saying something like this to the nameless woman: "You just don't get it. Good theology centers not on what we can get from God, but on giving glory to God. Good theology is not a matter of using God for our own ends. Do you realize that you have made the glorious faith of our fathers into nothing more than magic? Do you really think that God will help you when you have such a childish approach to religion? Do you really think that you can sneak up on God from behind, get what you want, and depart without being noticed? Do your really think that Jesus will heal you because you touch his robe?"
Surprise! Jesus does just that. He never even takes time to correct the woman's mistaken theology. He does not give her a lecture on good theology. He just heals her. He even commends her faith (Mark 5:34). What is going on here? Trust. Faith includes good theology. God wants us to have the right ideas about him. He does not want bad theology which can only get us into trouble. All that notwithstanding, Jesus sees beyond bad theology to the heart of the woman. He sees trust. Trust is the heart of faith. Trust is why the woman with bad theology is held up in front of us like some kind of saint. The heart of our religion is trust.
Ron Lavin, The Advocate, CSS Publishing
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This Is Where I Found Christ
There is a beautiful old story about Zacchaeus, the tax collector. It tells how in later years, he rose early every morning and left his house. His wife, curious, followed him one morning. At the town well he filled a bucket? and he walked until he came to a sycamore tree. There, setting down the bucket, he began to clean away the stones, the branches, and the rubbish from around the base of the tree. Having done that, he poured water on the roots and stood there in silence, gently caressing the trunk with both of his hands. When his amazed wife came out of hiding and asked what he was doing, Zacchaeus replied simply, "This is where I found Christ."
I can just imagine that for the rest of their lives, that woman who touched the hem of Jesus' robe that day on the street and the daughter of Jairus who was raised up in that room in her home, continually brought people back to those sacred spots and said, "This is where I found Christ! This is where Christ loved me into life!"
Do you have a sacred spot like that? This is the Good News of our Christian faith, isn't it? Love has the power to heal, to reconcile, and to redeem.
James W. Moore, Lenten Series on Mark, www.eSermons.com
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The Fisher King
Have you heard the legend of the Fisher King? When the Fisher King was a boy, he was sent out to spend the night alone in the forest as a test of his courage to be king. During the night, he had a vision of the Holy Grail (the cup used by our Lord at the Last Supper). It was surrounded by great flames of fire. Immediately, he became excited by the prospect of wealth and glory that would be his by possessing such a great prize. Greedily, he reached into the flames to grab the Holy Grail, but the flames were too much and he was severely wounded.
As the years went by, the Fisher King became more despondent and alone… and his wound grew deeper. One day the Fisher King, feeling sad and depressed and in pain, went for a walk in the forest. He came upon a court jester. “Are you all right?” the jester asked. “Is there anything I can do for you? Anything at all?” “Well, I am very thirsty,” the Fisher King replied. The jester took an old dilapidated cup from his bag, filled it with water from a nearby stream, and gave it to the Fisher King. As the Fisher King drank, he suddenly felt his wound healing for the first time. And incredibly the old cup he was drinking from had turned into the Holy Grail. “What wonderful magic do you possess?” the Fisher King asked the jester. The jester just shrugged and said, “I know no magic. All I did was get a drink for a thirsty soul.”
This old legend underscores a great truth that is written large in the scriptures, namely this… Greed and selfishness bring pain and suffering, but love brings healing and life. We see it here in Mark 5 as Jesus reaches out to the hemorrhaging woman and the daughter of Jairus…love has the power to heal.
James W. Moore, www.eSermons.com
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When Strongholds Crumble
When nothing on which we can lean remains,
When strongholds crumble to dust,
When nothing is sure but that God still reigns,
Then that's the time we should trust!
Unknown
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Touch
The Menninger Institute in Topeka, Kansas once had a fascinating experiment. They identified a group of crib babies who did not cry. Let me explain. It seems that babies cry because they instinctively know that this is the way to get attention. Crying is their way of calling out. These babies, however, had been in abusive situations. Their parents let hem cry for hours on end and never responded. Do you know what happened? The babies eventually quit crying. It is almost as if they had learned that it was not worth trying.
So the Menninger Institute came in for an experiment. They got some people from retirement and from nursing homes, and every day these people held these babies and rocked them. The object was to get these babies to start crying again. And you know, it worked. Physical touch had made the difference.
As important as physical touch is there is another kind of touch that is even more important. It is spiritual touch. This is that special touch that influences and impacts the lives of people. The telephone company some years ago had a slogan that you may recall: "Reach out and touch someone." They were, of course, referring to a meaningful relationship.
Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com
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Never Ever Give Up!
One of the most beloved and colorful sports personalities of our time was a man named Jim Valvano-"Jimmy V," as sports fans around the country affectionately knew him. Valvano died on April 16, 1993, after a year- long battle with cancer. He was forty-seven years old. He will he remembered as a great basketball coach. His North Carolina State team won the national championship in 1983, upsetting that great Houston Cougar team that featured Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. Valvano also will he remembered as an outstanding TV analyst, an eloquent inspirational speaker, and a lovable, wisecracking humorist. But most of all, he will be remembered for the courageous way he faced a debilitating illness.
A few weeks before he died, Valvano was honored on national television, and to that vast viewing audience, he said this:
Today, I fight a different battle. You see, I have trouble walking and I have trouble standing for a long period of time. Cancer has taken away a lot of my physical abilities. Cancer is attacking and destroying my body. But what cancer cannot touch is my mind, my heart and my soul. I have faith in God and hope that things might get better for me. But even if they don't I promise you this. I will never ever give up. I will never ever quit. And if cancer gets me then I'll just try my best to go to heaven and I'll try my best to be the best coach they've ever seen up there. [Then, pointing to his 1983 Championship team, he said,] I learned a great lesson from these guys; they amazed me! They did things I wasn't sure they could do because they absolutely refused to give up! That was the theme of our championship season: "Never ever give up!" That's the lesson I learned from them and that's the message I leave with you: "Never give up. Never ever give up!"
James W. Moore, Attitude Is Your Paintbrush, Dimensions, 61-62.
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Fiery Furnace Faith
Faith for my deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means, whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my belief that God is love. There are some things only learned in a fiery furnace.
Oswald Chambers, Run Today's Race
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Word and Deed
In this day and age words are cheap. In our information-overloaded world, words have become like background noise. However, words and language are what make being human possible. Language creates culture, enables communication, and with culture, forms identity. Yet language has been cheapened by Western society that has prepackaged it, commercialized it, and pulped it into shallow propaganda. A shallow language has created a shallow culture.
Words become powerful when supported by action and demonstration. It's no good me saying I love you, but have no meaningful relationship with you. Sharing a meal with someone says more about friendship than words ever can. Love is expressed far more meaningfully by concrete acts of hospitality and presence than merely by verbal expression. Words and deeds need to go hand in hand. There needs to be continuity between them. If there is not, our language becomes propaganda; disconnected, insincere, verbal muzak.
Appropriate physical contact and demonstration of love (agape love) has something sacramental about it. Physical touch can go to spiritual depths where words cannot. Jesus of Nazareth understood that touch has a transforming and healing power. He understood this very well. Remember that he offered and accepted physical contact with those most alienated from, and disgraced by, respectable society. Remember there is inappropriate physical contact too, which does much spiritual damage. We need to be careful, prayerful and mature about the ministry of healing touch. People are desperate for meaningful, godly, healing contact that is sincere and matches the words we speak.
Let us be a Church that offers people the Good News of Jesus Christ in both Word and Deed!
Kim Thoday, Hewett Community Church of Christ, South Australia
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Throw Yourself into the Dance
Perhaps many people relate to God and religion the way I attended junior high school dances. I keenly wanted to dance, to let my skinny arms fly about and my body twist and dip; but if I took the risk of dancing, I feared the ridicule of my friends. So I would stand along the sidelines, arms rigidly crossed, close to the dance, but not able to enter it. I knew how to throw myself into a game of basketball or kick-the-can, but I didn't know how to throw myself into the dance and so looked on from the outside. If we enter the dance, we make ourselves vulnerable. If we enter the realm of God, we open ourselves to intimacy; close enough to be touched by a power greater than ourselves from deep within ourselves. For God is depth, and when we know the depth of life we touch the fringe of something holy.
Daniel D. Chambers, Touched
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That's the Only Song They Knew
When I was growing up, I watched a TV show called “Green Acres”-- about a New York lawyer, Oliver Wendell Douglas, and his wife leaving the big city behind to be farmers near Hooterville. Hooterville has a marching band made up of Sam Drucker, who runs the general store, and Uncle Joe, whose niece Kate runs the Shady Rest Hotel. I think Arnold Ziffel, the pig, might have been in that band. Yes, television was so good and intellectual in those days.
Oliver Wendell Douglas was named director. But no matter what song he directed, they played “There’s a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” — because that’s the only song they knew.
The doctors in Jesus’ day knew only one song, if you will: bloodletting. Regardless of the symptom, they tried bloodletting. This woman doesn’t need any more bloodletting. Her body is already doing that for her and to her. More doesn’t make her better.
David Conley, Fringe People
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The Theological Implications of Interruptions
Interruptions are always frustrating. I just get engrossed in reading the morning paper and my wife wants me to take out the garbage right away. I am out in the garage working on the car with my hands literally oozing with grease and I’m wanted on the phone. Interruptions are a part of life. Few of us would consider the possibility of God being interrupted, but this is precisely the case in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Mark. Jesus was on His way to heal a young girl on the verge of death, when He was interrupted by a woman who was also in desperate need of help. For those of us who have not thought very deeply on the theological implications of divine interruptions, this passage invites us to engage in such a novel and noble enterprise.
Bob Deffinbaugh, Where There’s Death, There’s Hope
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Protected from the Big and Small
In May 1995, a 34 year old construction worker by the name of Randy Reid, was doing some final welding on top of a nearly completed water tower in one of Chicago's suburbs. At one point, Randy unhooked his safety belt so he could reach for some pipes. But at that same moment, a metal beam slipped off a nearby crane, and bumped the scaffolding Randy was standing on. The scaffolding tipped, and Randy lost his balance. He fell 110 feet to the ground below. In landing, he just missed a pile of rocks and construction debris on the ground. Instead he landed face down on a pile of dirt. A fellow worker saw the whole accident and immediately called 911. When paramedics arrived, they couldn't believe their eyes. They found Randy completely conscious, moving, and complaining that he had a sore back.
Even though he went through such a horrendous fall, Randy still maintained his sense of humor. Because as paramedics carried him on a backboard to the ambulance, Randy asked one thing. He said, "Hey guys, be careful, will you? Don't drop me." When he arrived at the hospital and was examined by the doctors, and they discovered that the only injury he suffered was a bruised lung.
Friends, I think sometimes our faith resembles Randy. God protects us from harm in a 110-foot fall, but we're still nervous about three-foot heights. By that I mean, we have faith that God will save us from hell and death, but we're afraid that He won't be able to protect us from the smaller difficulties we are going to face this coming week.
Tom Rietveld, Your Faith in a Mirror
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Faith Which Imparts
Faith can only be for yourself, as in the case of the woman with the hemorrhage of blood, or faith can be for others, to impart blessing to them, as in the case of Jairus’ daughter. This is the kind of faith which imparts. It is the kind of faith which enables others to be what they can be in Jesus Christ.
Lloyd John Ogilvie, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California, tells the story of sitting on the platform with Billy Graham at a celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his crusades. Billy said to him, "I could not preach with power nor lead anyone to Christ if it were not for the positive prayers for the blessing of God by thousands of believing people." Just before Billy got up to preach Ogilvie said to him, "I’m praying for you, Billy!" Graham responded with a flash in his clear blue eyes, "I need that more than anything in all the world!"
J. David Hoke, Responses of Faith
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Do Not Touch - Did Not Work
Despite the "Do Not Touch" signs, a museum was having no success in keeping patrons from touching--and soiling--priceless furniture and art. But the problem evaporated overnight when a clever museum employee replaced the signs with ones that read: "Caution: Wash Hands After Touching!"
Today in the Word, March, 1990
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That Is The Way The World Is
Some people get well. Others do not. What can we say about that? Sometimes the words fail us. Early in my ministry, I received a phone call from a seminary classmate. It was late and he sounded distraught. Among his hospital rounds, my friend had begun to visit a young boy from his church. The child had leukemia. There was nothing anybody could do. This minister was faithful through all the rapid stages of the disease. They became friends. They played checkers together. They shared an occasional meal. When the end was near, they were alone in the hospital room, quietly sharing the evening. Suddenly the boy broke the silence. He said,
"Reverend, I think I know why God isn't able to make me better." "Why is that?" said my friend. The boy said, "Because I think he's busy helping everybody else." My friend said, "I left that room, got in the car, and drove around for a while. I didn't know what to say." What can we say? Some people get well; others do not.
The Gospel of Mark would probably say, "That is the way this world is."
William G. Carter, Water Won’t Quench the Fire, CSS Publishing Company.
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Sermon Ender
There is no way to do the work of Christ in this world without touching. I believe that God calls us to reach out and touch the lonely, the destitute, the widow, the orphan, the elderly, the sick and lame.
Why do I feel that way: Because he touched me, oh he touched me. And oh the joy that floods my soul. Something happened within me, he touched me and he made me whole.
Sermon Illustrations
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Healing on an Emotional Level
There is a book my wife and I read to each other, published in 1988, Love, Medicine and Miracles, by Bernie S. Siegel, M.D., a surgeon in New Haven, Connecticut, and teacher at Yale University. Dr. Siegel declares “miracles happen to exceptional patients every day.”
Listen how he defines an exceptional patient. “Do you want to live to be a hundred?” If you can answer that by an immediate visceral “Yes!” with no ifs, ands or buts, you are exceptional. That doesn’t mean that you expect to have all your pains relieved, your crooked bones made straight, and all your warts made smooth. It means you are willing to accept the risks and challenges to live life to the fullest where God has you right now. Dr. Siegel says that when he asks that question, fifteen to twenty percent from an average audience show their hands. However, he says, “it is a tragedy” that only five percent show their hands in a roomful of doctors. Dr. Siegel thinks all doctors should be required to attend healing services as a part of their training. They should not be allowed to prescribe medications or consider operations during those training sessions. He is convinced that doctors need to “learn that they can help by touching, praying, or simply sharing on an emotional level.”
Charles R. Leary, Mission Ready!, CSS Publishing Company
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Changing the Color-Tags
In the war years, triage (sorting out) referred to the policy by which medical assistance was given. It was up to the doctors to "color-tag" the wounded, placing them in one of three categories according to their condition. One color meant hopeless - nothing we can do will save them. Another tag meant they’d make it whether they get help or not. The third color-tag indicated a doubtful prognosis - a chance to live only if medical assistance is given. Since there were severely limited medical supplies . . . assistance was being given only to this last group.
Lou was badly blown apart, including one leg severely wounded. The doctor who examined him made the decision that Lou was a hopeless case and tagged him as such, leaving him to die. But a nurse noticed Lou was conscious and began to talk with him. They discovered they were both from Ohio. Getting to know Lou as a person, the nurse just couldn't let him die. She broke all the rules and changed his color-tag.
There followed a two-day trip in the back of a truck and months in a hospital. But Lou made it. He met a girl in the hospital who he later married. Even minus one leg he has led a full happy life, all because a nurse broke the rules of triage and changed a tag.
Maybe the task of the church is going around changing the tags. Maybe that's what Jesus meant to tell us when he healed the woman and helped Jairus. Jesus IS the Friend of the hopeless. He came to befriend and save the hopeless from despair. He gave His life on the cross and was raised from the dead for that very reason.
Billy D. Strayhorn, Friend of the Hopeless
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Get the Ball to Me
Whether you are a basketball fan or not, you are probably familiar with the name Larry Bird, the former basketball great of the Boston Celtics. During a retirement party for Larry Bird in Boston Garden, former Celtics Coach K.C. Jones told of diagramming a play on the sidelines, only to have Bird dismiss it, saying: "Get the ball to me and get everyone out of my way."
Jones responded: "I'm the coach, and I will call the plays." Then Jones turned to the other players and said: "Get the ball to Larry, and get out of his way."
That is basically our message for today. When those times of terror come - when it seems the light will never come and you have no where else to turn - give the ball to Jesus and get out of the way. You will discover, as did Jairus, that Christ will not let you down.
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.eSermons.com
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A Drying Well
“A drying well,” Madeleine L’Engle wrote, “A drying well will often lead the spirit to the river that flows from the throne of God.” When we realize, at some point in life (often when facing personal tragedy), that our own inner resources for dealing with trouble are running out, that our well is drying up -- if we are to survive, at that point, we must find the endless resources (“the river”) of God. Sometimes, that understanding of our own helplessness comes as we face an intractable addiction, or some other harmful habit, which try as we might over many years we’ve been unable to conquer (those long suicides which seem so common today). Or some incurable illness. Or our inability to make someone else be what we want him or her to be. There’s no more kidding ourselves, we can’t lick the problem on our own, our well is dry. We either find the river or we die. “A drying well will often lead the spirit to the river that flows from the throne of God.”
William R. Boyer, A Risk of Faith
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Where There’s Death, There’s Hope
One woman in the crowd is singled out by the gospel writers. She was a woman who had suffered from some kind of hemorrhage for twelve years. Her suffering was much more than physical, though that would have been enough. She suffered as much from her ‘cures’ as she did from her case of bleeding. From various sources we are informed as to the nature of some of these ‘cures.’
“Pliny’s Natural History reveals the generally low condition of medical science in the world at that time. Physicians were accustomed to prescribe doses of curious concoctions made from ashes of burnt wolf’s skull, stags’ horns, heads of mice, the eyes of crabs, owl’s brains, the livers of frogs and other like elements. For dysentery powdered horses’ teeth were administered, and a cold in the head was cured by kissing a mule’s nose.”
From Jewish writings, such as the Talmud, we learn of some of these ‘cures’:
“One remedy consisted of drinking a goblet of wine containing a powder compounded from rubber, alum and garden crocuses. Another treatment consisted of a dose of Persian onions cooked in wine administered with the summons, ‘Arise out of your flow of blood!’ Other physicians prescribed sudden shock, or the carrying of the ash of an ostrich’s egg in a certain cloth.”
To add insult to injury (literally) this woman was also subjected to tremendous social pressures. The nature of this woman’s illness fell under the stipulations of Leviticus 15, whereby she would have to be pronounced unclean. As such she had been an outcast for twelve years. She could not take part in any religious observances, nor could she have any public contact without defiling those whom she touched. Apparently, she was also forced to be separated from her husband.
Last of all, this pathetic woman has lost all of her financial resources. Mark tells us that she had spent all of her money on doctor bills, with no relief — indeed, with added affliction. And in those days, there was no such thing as a malpractice suit.
Robert L. Deffinbaugh, Where There's Death, There's Hope
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