Proper 8B (OT 13)
Image: "Christ Raising Jairus' Daughter" wikimedia
436: June 27, 2021
2 Corinthians 8:7-15 with Susan Presley and Sarah Dierker
Psalm 130, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan (Psalmimmersion.com, @pomopsalmist, Patreon)
277: July 1, 2018
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27, Sarah Renfro (@RevRenfro, Facebook, M-Bodied.com)
Psalm 130, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan (Psalmimmersion.com, @pomopsalmist, Patreon)
121: June 28, 2015
Featured Musician: Dan Holmes, “The Loving Hands of God” by from album “Something that Matters” (danholmesmusic.com, Facebook)
Psalm 130, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan (Psalmimmersion.com, @pomopsalmist, Patreon)
Mark 5:21-43
Initial Thoughts
We skipped the story of the Gerasene Demoniac (unless you're episcopalian)
We are returning to Jewish lands after healing a Gentile and being driven out of the Gerasene
Be careful with healing stories
The woman is healed, but many faithful are not
Jairus’ daughter is raised but many children still die
“Mark wants readers to interpret these two distinctive accounts in light of each other. His "sandwich" technique (or, intercalation) is common in the larger narrative, especially in stories when women were involved (e.g. 3:20-25; 5:21-43; 6:7-44; 14:1-11).” (Emerson Powery, Working Preacher)
Bible Study
Jairus
Leader of a synagogue
Powerful
Most likely wealthy
Male
Recognizes and has faith in Jesus’ authority over life and death
Hemorrhaging Woman
Breaking Bad (Anywhere but America Version) by Christopher Keelty: https://www.christopherkeelty.com/breaking-bad-outside-us/
Hemorrhaging for 12 years - perpetually unclean (unable to even enter the synagogue)
“Jewish Law distinguished between a menstruating woman and a woman with an irregular, continuous flow of blood; Mark here refers to the latter. All cause ritual impurity...whether such ritual impurity-an issue not mentioned in the text-would have mattered to a local village, where access to the Temple is not an issue, is not clear.” Lawrence M. Wills, “Mark”, Jewish Annotated New Testament, p. 80
Poor - spent all she had
Suffering under care of physicians and her condition is worse
Because she had heard about Jesus…
Who has heard about Jesus because of you, your church, your actions, your social media...
Recognizes and has faith in Jesus ability to heal
Jairus and the woman are seeming opposites- but they both believe in Jesus
What does this say about God? God is not interested in wealth, power, cultural patriarchy or social order - God cares about binding up the broken
Jairus professes his faith outwardly and the woman silently- yet both receive healing.
The woman “steals” Jesus power - she takes it without his permission, but she is not rebuked because the healing power and authority of Jesus is of God
How might we respond to those in need with our gifts- if all we have is truly from God, then what is it to give someone hope and healing?
According to custom- the woman touching Jesus would have made him “unclean”, instead it makes her “clean”- the Power of God turns the powers of social custom on its head
Raising the little girl
Jesus shows up ,but not on our timetable - not when we expect
“Jesus’ reaction to [the news the girls has died] reminds us of a black gospel tune derived from “slave wisdom,” “God may not come when you call him, but he’ll be there right on time.” Emerson B. Powery, “Mark,” True to Our Native Land, p.132
Frederick Buechner’s reflection is quite poignant
Funerals allow for the ability to “get up” and move forward.
“Celebration of Life” is all well and good, but don’t forget to mourn.
“Celebrate the life by all means but face up to the death of that life. Weep all the tears you have in you to weep because whatever may happen next, if anything does, this has happened. Something precious and irreplaceable has come to an end and something in you has come to an end with it. Funerals put a period after the sentence's last word. They close a door. They let you get on with your life.”
Jesus reminds us that death is as permanent as sleep.
“But if death is the closing of one door, he seems to say, it is the opening of another one. Talitha cumi. He took the little girl's hand, and he told her to get up, and she did. The mother and father were there, Mark says. The neighbors, the friends. It is a scene to conjure with. ...The other use of funerals is to remind us of those two words. When the last hymn has been sung, the benediction given, and the immediate family escorted out a side door, they may be the best we have to make it possible to get up ourselves.”
A private healing- Jesus kicks out the scoffers- he is only interested in those who are willing to hope, believe and enter into relationship with him and one another
She is as old as the woman has been sick - 12 years
Fed - a sign that she is not a ghost but truly alive
“Food suggests a holistic mission that cares for all people-spiritual, physical, emotional, psychological, and political.” Emerson Powery, “Mark”, True to Our Native Land, p.132
Thoughts and Questions
Emerson Powery (Working Preacher) asks: “Jesus chooses not to leave people in the conditions in which he finds them. And he has the power to alter that condition. Do we? Can the Christian community alter the conditions of people's lives? Can it, too, bring healing into troubled circumstances? Must it not also cross boundaries -- whether they are related to ethnicity, gender, race, sexual orientation, politics or any other boundaries that divide our society -- and advocate life-giving meaning and change? May God grant us the courage to do so!”
How can we encourage people to profess their faith and live it out both verbally and silently?
How do we respond when we are approached and touched by the “unclean”? Do we see it as an invitation into relationship or as a theft of our personal space?
Discern who are the unclean in your community. Who are the ones who are too embarrassed, too wounded, or too afraid to ask for healing? How are you welcoming them?
Discern the message of God’s hope in this passage when faced with the reality that people suffering from years of disease are not cured and children die and are not raised. Name the complexity- don’t dismiss or explain it away, but discern how else healing might take place:
Michael Lindvall tells a story of a good friend with Parkinsons in the last days of his life saying "I have been healed, not of Parkinson's disease, but I have been healed of my fear of Parkinson's disease." Feasting on the Word – Year B, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season After Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16).
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Initial Thoughts
Mourning over Saul? The guy that wanted to kill him? Seems strange.
Bible Study
Previously on the Bible: David killed Goliath. Now all of the sudden Saul is dead and, who is this Jonathan?
18:1 “As soon as David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan’s life became bounded up with David’s life, and Jonathan cared about David as much as he cared about himself.”
18:8-9 “Saul burned with anger. This song annoyed him. ‘They’ve credited David with tens of thousands,’ he said ‘but only credit me for thousands.’ What’s next for him? the kingdom itself?’ So Saul kept a close eye on David from that point on.”
18:29 “When Saul knew for certain that the Lord was with David [after he had delivered to him 100 Philistine foreskins] and that his daughter Michal loved him, then Saul was even more afraid of David. Saul was David’s enemy for the rest of his life.”
Continued in-fighting between David and Saul. Sometimes together, sometimes not. David spares Saul twice. All the while there are Philistines to reckon with. Philistines overrun Israel’s army, kill three of Saul’s sons, including Jonathan. Surround and wound Saul, who then falls on his own sword to avoid imprisonment and torture.
David’s intro (insight from Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, The Prophets, p. 309)
Translates 2 Sam. 1:17-18 as “And David sang this lament for Saul and for Jonathan, and he said to teach hard things to the sons of Judah - look, it is written down in the Book of Jashar”)
NRSV - “Song of the Bow”, Alter explains “‘to teach the bow’ is a problematic reading because the lament scarcely provides instruction in the arts of war. Some critics delete ‘bow’ (qeshet), following the Septuagint. The present translation revocalizes qeshet as qeshot.’”
So this could be either “The Song of the Bow” or “The Song of Hard Things” which seems like a better understanding of the lament.
Book of Jasher - mentioned elsewhere, lost to antiquity. Literally means Book of the Upright
Why should we “teach hard things” to our children?
The song itself:
Look how the mighty warriors have fallen (repeated throughout the song)
The fact that they are mighty warriors is lost unless you tell more of the 1 Samuel story.
Don’t let Philistines gloat.
They may have been rivals, but their common enemy remained the Philistines.
Practical danger in allowing the Philistines to know, for they could mount a larger attack if they knew the king and his heirs were all dead.
Creation mourns
The place where they died would be a place of mourning.
Battlefield graves. Hallowed grounds like Gettysburg, sites of massacres like Wounded Knee.
Jonathan and Saul’s relationship is recalled, romanticized.
Grief over Saul includes v. 21 “the shield of Saul unburnished with oil”
Double meaning - rubbing a leather shield with oil increased its effectiveness. Pliable, slippery leather was helpful for a shield.
“Nut the Hebrew for ‘unburnished,’ beli messiah, is a pun - it means “unanointed” or “messiah-less,” a haunting intimation that the LORD's anointed is no more. Clearly, the image of the royal shield lying befouled in the dust is a powerful metonymy for Saul himself.” (Alter, p. 310)
There were times when they were enemies.
Jonathan had ceded his birthright to David (18:4) and went back and forth between supporting David and Saul.
They in fact, were not united in life, but they did die on the same battlefield as allies.
Professional mourners
Grief over Jonathan in particular
Relationship between Jonathan and David is much debated.Was their relationship a covenantal homosexual union? This article examines some of the textual evidence behind it. It makes a strong circumstantial case.
“Repeated, unconvincing attempts have been made to read a homoerotic implication into these worsd. The reported details of the David story suggest that his various attachments to women are motivated by pragmatic rather than emotional concerns - and in one instance, by lust. This disposition, however, tells us little about David’s sexual orientation. The bond between men in this warrior culture could easily be stronger than the bond between men and women.” (Alter, p. 311)
Even if not a sexual relationship, surely a friendship and a loving relationship.
Devotion Jonathan showed to David was against his own self-interest as a potential heir to Saul’s throne.
Look how the mighty warriors have fallen. Look how the weapons of war have been destroyed.
Repetition of ‘mighty warriors’ makes it start to feel sarcastic. There is a feeling of bitterness over the futility of war. “War, What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!”
“The strength of the refrain moves beyond a recognition of the tragedy of the deaths of Israel’s king and his son to a statement concerning the consummate sadness of war itself? (James Newsome, Texts for Preaching, Year B, p. 403)
Thoughts and Questions
Sunday after Father’s Day: How and why do we grieve over abusive parents? Often a child (even adult child) will grieve for a parent (or spouse) who was never supportive, never affectionate. There is grief, and often guilt, over the relationship that never really existed. There is a sense of lost opportunity, because often when we grieve over someone like this, we grieve over the ‘idea’ of the person more than the actual person. Often romanticize the dead, and forget the abusive/unloving times. Then the memories come, and there is guilt over thinking ill of the dead. This is all a complicated, messy, emotional experience. This is where we may find grace in David’s song. It is okay to grieve over one whom you wished you could have loved,
Relationship between Jonathan and David is clearly a deep, intimate one. Was it a homosexual relationship? Preaching this is a highly contextual choice. Some might take great comfort in seeing this relationship lifted up. Some would have great difficulty. In some contexts, letting the words speak for themselves might be the best approach: “I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan. You were so dear to me. Your love was more amazing to me than the love of women.”
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Initial Thoughts
Year Round Stewardship
Paul’s Stewardship pitch for “the poor among the saints at Jerusalem”
Bible Study
Grace - “generous act” generous undertaking”
Focus on the giver
Divine economy
God’s saving act of grace through Jesus Christ
Economic model for communities of faith
Dynamic of giving
Must be willing to give (v.10)
Must honor a promise and pledge (v.11)
Must be able to honor the pledge (v.12)
Don’t “give till it hurts” (v.13) , but give what you can out of your joyful abundance and gratitude
Not about obligation about giving out of joy
Not about need of those receiving but the joy of those giving
Balance - give out of blessing and gratitude for what you have received
Abundance - there is enough for all
Scarcity - there is never enough
Final quote from Exodus 16:18 talking about Manna from heaven
John Calvin writes, "such an equality that nobody starves and nobody hordes his abundance at another's expense." Calvin's Commentaries, ed. David W. Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 10:114.
Thoughts and Questions
Often overlooked, but great passage on stewardship boiled down the main points:
Give because you want to give- be joyful in your giving - the desire of willfully given gift is as important as the gift itself
Don’t worry about losing your wealth- Jesus lost his wealth for your sake
The idea is not to become poor so others can be rich, but that all would equally have enough - give as we hope to receive.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING AND GET IN TOUCH:
Thanks to our Psalms correspondent, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan (psalmimmersion.com,@pomopsalmist). Thank you to Scott Fletcher for our voice bumpers, Dick Dale and the Del Tones for our Theme music (“Misirlou”), Nicolai Heidlas (“Sunday Morning”,"Real Ride"and“Summertime”) and Bryan Odeen for our closing music.