Sunday Homily - July 1st, 2018 - Touching the Cloak of Jesus

Woman Touches Jesus in the Crowd

I.

Have you ever met someone

who has the faith

to reach out

and touch the cloak of Jesus?

Well, I have to confess

I wasn’t planning on meeting anyone like that.

But, last week when I was in Little Rock

(with the luck that I have)

I ran over some debris on I-40

and got a flat tire.

So, there I was in the waiting room of the Firestone Auto Repair.

And, let’s be honest:

No one wants to go to the auto shop,

Much less me,

who wasn’t planning to be there

in the first place.

But God has a funny way

of putting you right where you need to be

even without everything going to plan.

Chrissy is her name (name has been changed to protect privacy).

She is a short, Black lady who lives in Little Rock,

She’s a single mother with a handsome 11 y.o.

   son,

and she loves her HGTV,

which happened to be the channel

that was showing in the auto shop.

She and I struck up a conversation,

and whether it was the fact that she loved to talk

or the fact that I was wearing my collar,

our conversation turned to Faith.

And her story that she shared was one of incredible hardship.

Her mother had a heritable kidney disease,

that had been passed on to Chrissy,

which meant that both Chrissy

and her mom,

were on dialysis

at the same time.

Chrissy’s 11 y.o. son, Austin (name changed), is on the Autism

spectrum.

And from what she described,

he has a knack for building things.

Loves his Legos.

My kind of guy.

But Austin didn’t even learn how to speak,

until he was 9.

Chrissy, even though she is on dialysis,

works full time for a daycare.

She described her 2 y.o. class

as if it was the most fun thing

in the entire world.

And yet, Chrissy said that she is on the waitlist

for a new kidney that is healthy.

And the Doctors told her

she might not get it

until next year.

But the most important

thing that Chrissy said

was something

that I wouldn’t have the strength to say.

She said this:

“Boy, I don’t know how I get up in the morning.

I don’t know how I can do the things I do.

I don’t have no strength,

so I’m pretty sure

God keeps me goin’.

I ain’t got time to be sorry for myself,

All the time I got is a gift.

So, I better hurry up

and go be a blessing while I got time.”

And to think,

I wouldn’t have even known she existed

I wouldn’t have known her name

unless I had that darn flat tire.

II.

Have you ever met someone

who has the faith

to reach out

and touch the cloak of Jesus?

You know,

we meet someone like Chrissy today in the Gospel.

In the middle of our story about Jairus,

the Jewish synagogue leader who came in faith to Jesus

so that his daughter may be healed,

we have another miracle healing

that happens in between.

An unnamed woman.

A woman who has had a complex set of problems,

that may not be immediately apparent

to our modern understanding.

The easiest on we can understand is the medical problem.

Basically, she has a certain condition

that caused her to continuously be on her period.

This is what scholars believe

that the language “flow of blood”

means in this context.

(c.f. Craig Keener, New Testament Commentary,

Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece 27th Edition,

and Oxford Commentary on the Bible)

But, what may not be immediately apparent

is the social and ceremonial issues

that this condition had caused.

Abiding under the Law of Moses,

she would have been in a state

of perpetual ceremonial uncleanness.

And if you want the more specific details

you can look at Leviticus 15.

But, the point is this:

For 12 years,

She might not have even been permitted

to go to Synagogue:

to go to Church.

She might not have even been permitted

to touch anyone

without some serious stigma

or serious social implications

for doing so.

Doctors couldn’t do anything for her.

The Scripture even says

she suffered under the medical procedures

and had spent all she had.

And yet,

She is one of the only people

in all of the Gospels

who Jesus points out

as having that Saving Faith.

One of the only people!

We don’t even know her name.

But we do know her Faith:

“If I but touch Jesus’s cloak,

If I just touch his clothes,

I will be healed.”

She’s the one person in today’s Scripture,

who was not permitted to touch anyone.

And yet, she is also the only person

who actually touches Jesus.

Because, if you remember, that’s what is kinda weird

about what Jesus says initially.

He has this huge crowd surrounding him,

and he turns to the disciples and says,

“Hey, who touched me?”

The disciples, just like you and me,

are like,

“Jesus, do you see the crowd

How can you even ask that?”

But the Woman,

the one person who was not permitted to touch anyone,

was the one person who actually touches Jesus.

And Jesus says to her,

“Daughter,

your faith has made you well.

Go in peace

and be healed of your disease.”

III.

Touching Jesus.

Reaching out in faith and saying,

“If I just touch him,

I will be healed”

is the stance that we as Episcopalians

take every Sunday.

Because we believe that we actually receive

that same Presence,

that same Virtue,

that same power,

when we receive the Blessed Sacrament in the Eucharist.

(see Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Tertia Pars

Question 76 - "On the Real Presence")

The Eucharist is where we come into physical contact,

with Christ our Savior

in the surest manner which He promised:

“This is my Body;

This is my Blood.”

Because in this Great Sacrament,

this Holy Mystery,

we seek weekly,

that connection to the Great Physician

of Body and Soul.

Will you reach out in Faith

to receive that healing grace communicated to you?

If you come searching for a beginning in the life of Christianity,

will you reach out in faith for Baptism into Christ?

If you have been a long-time member of Jesus’s Church,

will you reach out in Faith

for Christ’s continued healing to be poured

into your life?

Because, by God’s providence,

that grace is here.

And Faith in unity with Grace

causes our beloved Savior to say,

“My Daughter,

my Son.

Go in peace

and be healed.”

The Name of the + Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.