Grace and peace to you this day in the name of our risen Lord and savior Jesus the Christ, Amen.

Transcription

1 Page 1 of 5 Grace and peace to you this day in the name of our risen Lord and savior Jesus the Christ, Amen. "Wonderful Merciful Savior" Lyrics video (Selah) Published on Mar 26, Artist: Selah The lyrics of this song center us on a message of compassion and faith for this Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost: You give us Healing and Grace our Hearts always hunger for You are the One that we Praise You are the One We Adore You give the healing and grace our Hearts always hunger for. Jesus Heals with a Compassionate Touch in our Gospel Reading today, Jesus is there in the midst of life it seems touching healing making a difference and getting into trouble for doing so - Healing on the Sabbath doing something that went against the Norm or Tradition or Jewish Law of the Day Jesus who was a Jew and Kept the rites and rituals of the Torah and other Jewish customs did something that was not to be done he worked performed a service of compassion on the Sabbath when he healed the woman the office was closed, come back another time. Amazing! Hear this story: A little girl was sent on an errand by her mother. She took much too long in coming back. When she finally did come home the little girl s mother demanded an explanation about why she took so long on the errand. The little girl explained that on her way she had met a little friend who was crying because she had broken her doll. Oh, said the mother, then you stopped to help her fix her doll? Oh, no, replied the little girl. I stopped to help her cry. Jesus shows compassion on a woman who had been bent over for 18 years, and healed her. This woman asked for nothing. She promised nothing. She had not tried to

2 Page 2 of 5 force his hand. He could have finished his teaching and gone home and no one would have even thought about this woman. But he stopped. He stopped and he called to her and touched her - touched her in a way she had never been touched before - he experienced her pain and freed her from her ailment and for that she rejoiced. It seems to be one of the main themes for Jesus pilgrimage on this earth. Often we forget how central compassion and healing really was for Jesus ministry but the stories of compassion and healing are everywhere in the gospels. Jesus not only proclaimed the Good News through words, but he lived out God s Grace. Jesus was passionate about compassion - did you know that "Compassion" comes from the word meaning "womb life giving, encompassing, embracing The healing ministry of Jesus was about embracing others with the arms of God s grace - with God s healing touch! M. Scott Peck, in his book; Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey Toward Spiritual Growth, writes about a conference he attended and one which he was one of the main speakers. One of the other speakers at the conference told the story of Jesus' being called to resuscitate the daughter of a wealthy Roman. As Jesus is going to the Roman's house, a woman who has been hemorrhaging for years reaches out from the crowd and touches his robe. He feels her touch and turns around and asks, "Who touched me?" The woman comes forward and begs him to cure her and he does, and he then continues on to the house of the Roman - whose daughter had since died. After telling the story, the audience of 600 mostly Christian professionals was asked whom they identified with. When the speaker asked who identified with the bleeding woman, about a hundred raised their hands. When he asked who identified

3 Page 3 of 5 with the anxious Roman father, more of the rest raised their hands. When he asked who identified with the curious crowd, most raised their hands. But when he asked who identified with Jesus, only six people raised their hands. Something is very wrong here, M. Scott Peck states; Of 600 more or less professional Christians, only one out of a hundred identified with Jesus. Maybe more people actually did but were afraid to raise their hands lest that they seem arrogant. But again, something is wrong with our concept of Christianity if it seems arrogant to identify with Jesus. That is exactly what we are supposed to do! We're supposed to identify with Jesus, act like Jesus, be like Jesus. That is what Christianity is supposed to be about the imitation of Christ. (p. 210) Jesus filled with compassion - touched the woman who had been bound up for 18 years and she was changed never to be the same again - through our baptisms we have been touched by the water and the word Again and Again every Day Did you remember your baptism this morning in the shower or the tub or the sink or the bird bath Martin Luther Reminds us to Walk Wet in these was so grace may abound and so might compassion. We have been touched and we are called to touch the lives of others with compassion and healing. But sometimes we don t really feel like we can identify with Jesus the Christ - Jesus the compassionate healer - In the Book; Mindfulness and Character Strengths, the author states: Compassion is to suffer with and to be with the person; it is a type of kindness strength that can be offered to loved ones. While listening, one might ask oneself, Where is the person coming from? What are they saying or trying to say? What is the essence or core message that they are expressing?

4 Page 4 of 5 Ryan M. Niemiec. Mindfulness and Character Strengths (Kindle Locations ). Hogrefe Publishing. Kindle Edition. Compassion is about Being Christ to one another not Doing Christ for someone else. Perhaps you saw the small child who was a victim in the bombings in Syria all covered in dust, dirt and blood who sat quietly on that orange seat in the ambulance seemingly stunned and in shock when I saw this child it was all I could do but reach through the TV and grab that child and hold it uncertain of gender, just wanting to make sure everything was safe and nothing would ever hurt it again. The picture of this child was a picture that made the war in Syria real and the conflict terrible. This picture yanked the compassion right out of me and made me evaluate what it means for me to be compassionate and how I show it and live it differently because of this child. I found out as you may have that this child is safe with his family, but what about the other innocent children caught up in adult conflicts, where is the compassion and humanity for them? This is tough stuff. Maybe, sometimes - just sometimes we react like this child did when he heard a story at Sunday School. A Sunday school teacher was telling her class the story of the Good Samaritan, in which a man was beaten, robbed and left for dead. She described the situation in vivid, colorful, bloody detail, so her students would catch the drama. Then she asked the class, If you saw a person lying on the roadside all wounded and bleeding, what would you do? The room became instantly quiet - then a thoughtful little boy broke the silence (Pause) and said: I think I d throw up. I understand that too! Jesus compassionate ministry was to those who were on the sides of the road those who are holding up signs for help in the middle of war zones, those on the

5 Page 5 of 5 fringe who are considered disenfranchised and odd (LGBTQ) those who seem to be immigrants - those who turn our stomachs and our gaze and just don t seem acceptable. Jesus reached out to those who no one else would reach out to - and healed them in ways that they never expected or even requested - like the woman in our gospel reading. The physical healing of the woman in our gospel seems to lead to a healing of her whole person - body - mind - spirit - her response was overwhelming exaltation. Her world was turned upside down - she would not be the same again. That is what Jesus ministry was and is all about - turning the world upside down and encountering people - healing people in ways that they might never expect. Jesus came to bring about change and healing in ways which were and are unexpected we heard that last week and we hear it again this week. He was breaking the rules just to buck the system but the saw a need and did something about about it we are called to do the same see a need and do something about it. The touch of Christ liberated the woman who was bound - through the cross of Christ we are liberated by the compassionate touch of our God - a God who embraces us - holds us - gives us new birth each day. Through the healing touch of Jesus, we are liberated - freed from everything that keeps us from living in and being compassionate. As we heard in the earlier song: We pray for Healing and Grace our Hearts always hunger for Christ works through us so that others might experience the touch of God s love. Amen