First Presbyterian Church Albuquerque New Mexico

06/28/2009

"Begging Questions/Crossing Lines" - A Sermon by The Rev. Paul Debenport

Crossing Lines / Begging Questions A Sermon Preached by The Rev. Paul Debenport June 28, 2009 + + + In last week’s lectionary Gospel lesson, Jesus stilled the terrifying storm while crossing to the other side—crossing the line to more hostile territory. Hear God’s Word as the story continues from selected verses in Mark 5: 1—29: They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. …When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For he had said to him “Come out of the man, you unclean Spirit!” Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” He begged Jesus earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there on the hillside, a great herd of swine was feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd… rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea. The swineherders ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind; … and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” So Jesus went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians… and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Immediately her hemorrhage stopped…. and she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” … But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith had made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (Jesus then went on to heal Jairus’ daughter.) The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. This passage begs difficult questions about being healed and not being healed, which I’ve preached before and may again. But not today. Today I’m struck both by all the lines being crossed and by all the begging going on here. The word beg (parakaleo) is used five times in today’s passage and is implied two more times. The demoniac begs Jesus not to send his demons too far away [as we do with our demons we’re afraid to part with]. The demons beg to be sent into the swine, and then the swine owners beg him to leave, since Jesus’ form of health care was threatening their profits. Then the healed Legion begs to go with Jesus. Later, Jairus’ begs Jesus to heal his daughter, and still later the healed woman prostrates herself, a begging posture, seeking Jesus’ forgiveness for her outrageous crossing of the social and religious lines. There’s a whole lot of begging going on here, a whole lot of risks being taken for health’s sake, a whole lot of rigid lines being crossed. It’s the intensity of their pursuit of Jesus that strikes me in this passage this time. Their need is great and they know it, and they won’t bow to anyone or anything else. Their faith will not let anything stand in its way. They won’t take no for an answer. By law the demoniac isolate himself from human contact. The religious leader Jairus had a reputation and a position to uphold. It would be better not to be seen with Jesus. But with no shame he stands before the crowd and begs Jesus until he gets his way. The woman with the flow of blood is also mandated to avoid all human contact. She has no business grasping Jesus’ cloak, yet she does, and is physically healed where she stands. And then when she had to admit her transgression, she is spiritually healed by Jesus’ refusal to condemn her as church law required, but praised her persistent, boundary line-crossing faith. All these people are line-crossers, and so is Jesus. He’s willing to bend the rules and so are they. He goes against convention for the sake of the kingdom; he flouts the purity code and brushes aside the “us”-and-“them” distinctions of gender and class and ethnicity. As do all the mostly nameless women and men and even children who come begging for his help and who won’t take no for an answer. + + + Where are these seekers today? Where are those beggars who won’t take no for an answer, who cross lines to get close to Jesus, and won’t let anything stand in their way? Not even church law or the rest of us followers in the crowd around him? Has everyone who needs to find Jesus already found him?—found the healing Jesus, the boundary line crossing Jesus, the compassionate, forgiving Jesus who will even break the rules to heal and save the suffering? Some have visited churches that bear his name and have decided that the boundary line crossing Jesus is not there. Some have found witnesses to a harsher, you-must-color-within-the lines-or else Jesus. Maybe the Jesus they hear of is too tough, too judgmental, too into shame and guilt and fear, too toxic to heal their hurts. Or maybe it’s the opposite. Maybe their experiences of church are too tame, too conventional, too cold to embrace anyone outside the lines with enough warmth to heal their bleeding souls. Maybe their experience of church is like having a thrifty relative save a box that once had chocolates in it and then giving it to you at Christmas with half a dozen white handkerchiefs in it. Not that handkerchiefs are bad. They’re useful and proper and remind you of your great-aunt Velma. But what you were really hoping for—yearning for, craving!—was chocolate, rich and satisfying, generous and extravagant enough to melt any hardened heart.1. No one’s going to break a sweat elbowing his or her way into a church for white handkerchiefs. It’s not a tame Jesus that people are seeking, any more than it’s a vindictive Jesus. Seekers like we read about here want the loving, but undomesticated Savior Jesus—the One of God who loves fiercely, who looks us in the eye, and speaks to us of God’s uncompromising love that’s willing to cross all boundaries, who startles us with more forgiveness than we know we deserve, and who challenges us to extend the same boundary line crossing love to others. They need the Jesus who commands us to love enemies, serve the poor and outcasts, and see ourselves in the stranger. Seekers like these in scripture—who are all around us and even in us—want the Jesus who makes them cry in church—not out of sadness or shame or guilt, but because after long years of trying everything else, they’ve brushed up against him and felt something inside begin to heal, and felt love reawakening when they thought it was gone for good. What do we inside the church have to push through in order to find our way back to that Jesus? What boundaries do we have to trespass and set aside so that people who come into contact with us can sense his irresistible pull on their lives, calling them to wholeness, to useful discipleship, calling them to community? + + + Now most Presbyterians and Presbyterian Churches are not witnesses to a fiery, judgmental Jesus. We tend to err to the other extreme: too tame, too bland, too comfortable to risk crossing-the-line love. So let’s beg these questions: Who in your neighborhood, your work place, your school, your/our church has been suffering for years with a bleeding soul and no one notices or reaches out, or invites them into their lives, their church, their hearts? Into our lives, our church, our hearts? Who’s losing their child like Jairus or their sanity like Legion and desperately needs our witness to hold them close, touch their hearts with Christ’s tenacious love? Or maybe it is us needing to reach out to him so he can get in. He’s waiting and longing for us to throw off all constraints. And most importantly, he’s hoping we’ll refuse to take no for an answer. Amen.