Worship - Sermons - 7/2/06

Freedom from Suffering

Mark 5:21-34

William F. Schnell

July 2, 2006

The day after tomorrow our nation will celebrate its 230^th birthday.  Our congregation will be joining that celebration by bearing a large American flag in the community parade (assuming enough of our members show up at Heinen’s parking lot no later than 11:30am to carry it).  You will notice an American flag prominently displayed on the chancel this morning together with the Christian flag and an image of the American flag on the cover of our bulletins.  The members of our Chancel Choir are wearing the red, white and blue of the American flag.

People are not equally comfortable with the American flag in a house of worship.  For some the flag may be associated with a certain blind patriotism summed up in the saying, “Our country, right or wrong.”  Naval commander Stephen Decatur originated the phrase in a toast given at an April 1816 banquet in Norfolk, Virginia to celebrate his victory over the Barbary pirates.  Fifty-five years later Carl Schurz, German-born U.S. general and U.S. senator, took issue with the concept and corrected it saying, "Our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right."  British author, G. K. Chesterton would probably have agreed with Schurz, since he wrote in 1901, "'My country, right or wrong is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case.  It is like saying 'My mother, drunk or sober.'"

If the flag is not to invoke blind patriotism, what is it to invoke?  The front of our bulletin quotes from our nation’s pledge of allegiance: “One nation under God.”  The fifty stars do not represent fifty nation-states but rather a union of states comprising one nation under God.  The wise decision to separate church and state so that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” in no way diminishes the consistently strong influence of religion in our nation’s history from the beginning. 

God is not only found in our pledge of allegiance but upon every coin and bill in our pockets today.  The Pilgrims braved the dangerous journey to this land first and foremost to secure their religious freedom.  They were Separatists from the Church of England and upon settling in Plymouth they established their own congregationally governed churches—churches not governed by a bishop or king, but by the local congregation.  As an aside, it was New England Congregationalists that established this congregation nearly 200 years ago.  Its original name was “The Congregational Church in Aurora.”

The patriotic songs we sing today are really hymns of praise to God.  Listen carefully to the words we sang at the opening of our service this morning: “Our father’s God, to Thee, Author of liberty, to Thee we sing.”  Our closing song is a prayer to God: “God bless America, land that I love.  Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above.”  I hear no blind patriotism in those prayers of praise.  I hear a prayerful plea for God’s guiding light in our present as in our past.

The presence of the American flag in church reminds us of our obligation not to hide God’s guiding light that we receive in worship under a bushel, but to let that light shine in our civic responsibilities beyond the church’s walls as new members pledge when they unite in membership with this congregation.  There are other times when we display the flags of the other nations of the world on our altar (specifically on World Communion Sunday) to remind us that we are but one nation among many, and that we are no better or worse than any of God’s other children around the world.

Having said that, most nations of the world stand out in their own particular fashion at any given time.  Switzerland is historically a neutral nation when it comes to international relations.  Singapore prospered for years under a founding benevolent dictator.  Israel is religiously significant for three of the world’s enduring religions.  America stands out for the marked degree of freedom that our citizens have historically enjoyed.  American is “The Land of Freedom.”

As the song proclaimed a few moments ago, we believe that God is the “author of liberty.”  We believe that human liberty has a strong biblical foundation in both testaments of Scripture.  From God’s liberation of his people from their bondage in Egypt during the Exodus to his liberation of his people from their Exile in Babylon; from Jesus claim that if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36) to Paul’s statement: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1); the Bible lifts up the ideal of human freedom in many ways.

We never fully live up to that ideal, even here in the Land of Freedom, but we press on toward that ideal.  There was once a time when American women did not have the right to vote, for example.  There was also a time when human slavery was permitted.  Those times are gone because Americans have pressed on toward the goal of maximizing human freedom for all of its citizens.  But other challenges to human freedom remain with which each generation must struggle, including our own.

There are also perennial struggles with freedom, struggles that continue from generation to generation and struggles that are never fully resolved.  I would like for us to consider one of those today.  The title of our message is “Freedom from Suffering.”  Suffering is part of the human condition.  Everyone knows what it is like to suffer many things.  But nobody likes to suffer.  Is there anyway to become free from suffering?  There is according to our text.  Let us search there for an answer.

When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake (Verse 21).  You will recall from last Sunday’s sermon that the beginning of Jesus’ ministry was very much a nautical affair localized around the Sea of Galilee.  Because of the increasing crowds pressing in upon him that wished to benefit from his power to heal and cast out demons, boats were used as platforms from which to preach to the people upon the shore.  They were also used as conveyances to transport him to solitary places for rest.

In our text Jesus has just been transported, most likely to Capernaum.  Nancy and I have been to Capernaum and seen the partially restored ruins of a magnificent synagogue from the time of Jesus.  We read that an administrative leader of that synagogue approaches Jesus to heal his daughter who is too sick at home to be transported anywhere, and in fact is dying.  As Jesus goes with the synagogue leader to his home, something happens along the way.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him.  And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.  She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse (Verses 24-26).  Here is a woman who has suffered a great deal.  Here is a woman who knows about suffering, and not just about physical suffering. 

She has suffered with a physical affliction for twelve years, which is bad enough.  And perhaps because of complications from the treatment of those days, or because of the progressive nature of her chronic disease, her health has only gotten worse.  In any event, this woman has also suffered from financial devastation because of multiple failed attempts to find a cure.  By the time Jesus comes around she has spent all she had. 

But even that indignity does not reveal the full extent of her suffering.  In biblical days a women who bled beyond her normal monthly menstrual cycle was considered ceremonially unclean.  What this meant was that anyone who touched her was rendered ceremonially unclean as well.  The ancient law distinguished between normal flow and abnormalities causing a discharge possibly due to disease.  The net effect of the quarantine imposed would be to prevent contagion and to give the woman a real rest from housework, marital relations, and family care.

Pity the poor woman of our text who has been so afflicted for twelve years.  Either she has known social isolation the whole time, like lepers in a colony who were required to call out “unclean” lest passersby contracted the disease from them, or she has learned to hide her condition and suffer in silence.  I suspect the latter may be the case because in our text she is circulating in a crowd of people, albeit many sick people like herself, but also because of something that comes later.

In either event, When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed” (Verses 27-28).  It was commonly believed that God’s healing power worked through his chosen healers and even extended to the clothing they wore and handled.  As it is written about St. Paul, God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them (Acts 19:11-12). 

And so it happened for the woman in our text.  Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering (Verse 29).  Freed from her suffering.  Freedom from suffering came to this woman because she reached out in faith to Jesus.  Jesus responds to those who reach out to him.  At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him.  He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” (Verse 30.  The disciples ask, “Are you nuts?  Who could tell in this crowd pressing around us? 

Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth (Verse 33).  Why was she trembling with fear?  First of all, because now the terrible secret she had harbored for twelve years was revealed and, second, because she, and unclean woman, had defiled Jesus with her touch.  Surely he would be furious about that.  But Jesus was not bothered by those kinds of things.  Quite the contrary.

Jesus wanted to know who had benefited from the divine healing power that had gone out from him to make a point.  He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace and be freed from your suffering” (Verse 34).  Freed from your suffering.  Again, freedom from suffering came to this woman because she reached out in faith to Jesus.  By the way, this is the only place in all of Scripture where Jesus refers to a woman as “daughter.”  There is a special relationship with Jesus that is forged when people reach out to him in faith—a powerful relationship, a healing relationship and a liberating relationship.

I am sure that there are some of us here today who could use a little liberating from the exploiters that enslave us, a little personal Independence Day from the powers that dominate our lives, a little freedom from the myriad things—some of our choosing and some not of our choosing--that make us suffer.  Sometimes when I go into a hospital room or sit with a person in mental anguish, I wish I could snap my fingers and make everything well.  I suppose if I could, there would be so many people pressing in upon me for some of that wonder-working power that I would rue the day I ever asked for it.

But I do not have that kind of power in the snap of my fingers or the clothes on my back.  Still, I have seen people in unimaginably desperate circumstances reach out in faith to Jesus and discover a peace that transcends all human understanding—a peace that transcends a diagnosis of a terminal illness; that transcends chronic pain; that transcends incarceration; that transcends the loss of a child; that transcends addictions, compulsions and the lingering effects of a traumatic childhood; that transcends all the things common to suffering people.

I have seen all of this.  Sometimes I have been associated with the healing and wholeness that ensues.  But it is the faith of the person—the faithful reaching out to Jesus—that brings the healing.  I know this because if I was truly a healer, I could heal myself.  As it is, I fail to reach the ideal.  I continue to suffer because of my lack of faith, just like you do.  But let us, like America, press on toward the ideal.  Let us like the woman in our text, press on to reach out in faith to Jesus.  Let us say, with an all-too-imperfect St. Paul, I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me (Philippians 3:12)--a peace that transcends all human understanding and “Freedom from Suffering.”