Radical Wholeness

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Mark 5: 21-43

Roger Lynn

June 7, 2020

(the audio for this sermon is unavailable this week)
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It’s been going on for so long that it is easy to start believing it is simply human nature - in-groups and out-groups – those considered acceptable and those who are not. Sometimes the distinctions are clear and officially recognized. In India it was the caste system. For the Hebrew people it was a system which focused on being ritually clean or unclean. Sometimes the distinctions are more subtle and shadowy. In high schools around the country there are people who are cool, or hip, or whatever the current term might be. And there are people who are not, such as those who don’t know the current word for cool. But whether clear and official or subtle and unofficial, the results are the same. We divide people into us and them. We put up barriers of separation. We cut ourselves off from each other. And in the process everyone is diminished. Not just those who are left feeling superior. Not just those who are left feeling inferior. Everyone. The whole human experience is diminished. We are diminished in big ways that show in things like war and ethnic cleansing and racial violence. We are diminished in small ways that show in things like loss of human resources and cultural diversity and potential friendships. And the more we do it, the more we are diminished, because deep down in the core of our being it is not who we are – it is not what it means to be human. It is learned behavior, and we seem really good at learning it, but that which is learned can also be unlearned.

Then along comes Jesus, doing what Jesus does best – turning the world upside down. One of the dominant recurring themes throughout Mark’s Gospel is one of insider/outsider role reversal. This plays out in two ways. First, it is frequently the outsiders who recognize who Jesus is and the Good News he represents, while the insiders often fail to see the truth even when it is staring them in the face. Second, Jesus frequently makes a deliberate point of including the outsiders, even when such inclusion flies in the face of accepted social convention. This inclusion is not merely incidental. It represents a central core value for Jesus – the insider/outsider distinctions, which seem so pervasive and so true, are false constructions and lead us towards death rather than towards life. Perhaps no where is this more clearly illustrated than in the section of the Gospel we have before us this morning. The Gospel writer carefully assembled a set of stories which, when taken together, make it abundantly clear just how important this is for Jesus. To get the full impact, it is actually necessary to back up and include the story which immediately precedes the text we read this morning. It is clear that Mark intends it to be linked with the stories which follow because he provides a direct link in verse 21. “When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side...” (Mark 5:21) These are not separate, random tales. Mark wants us to read them together. So, first we have the tale of Jesus on “the other side” of the lake, where he encounters the ultimate “outsider.” First, the people who live on “the other side” are not Jewish – strike one. Then, they raise pigs – strike two. And finally, he encounters a man who is possessed by evil spirits – strike three. If he were playing by the rules and following cultural expectations, Jesus wouldn’t even be in that place, to say nothing of actually interacting with this man. Such an encounter would have rendered Jesus “unclean” as well. 

Then the story shifts. We are back in “safe” territory, having crossed back over the lake. But we are most certainly not finished dealing with outcasts. Indeed, the two stories we heard read just a few moments ago, one embedded within the other, are presented as they are just so we can’t possibly miss the fact that they are connected. While on his way to heal a young girl, we find Jesus being touched by a woman with a bleeding disorder. Bleeding would have automatically made her ritually unclean and thus a social outcast. Touching Jesus would have made him unclean as well. But rather than being angry or repulsed by such an encounter, Jesus affirms her faith and sends her on her way healed. We then resume the original story, except now the young girl isn’t sick – she’s dead. If touching someone who is bleeding makes you unclean, you can imagine what touching someone who is dead does to you. But again, it doesn’t stop Jesus. He goes into the house, lifts her up off the bed and tells her parents to feed her.

The theme of “wholeness out of brokenness” runs through these stories at so many levels it’s really a wonder the words manage to stay on the page. Jesus absolutely will not let divisions and barriers and notions of who’s in and who’s out keep him from sharing the good news that God simply does not recognize such things. Over and over again Jesus goes out of his way to rub elbows with those whom society has declared to be outcasts. With the way he lived every moment of his life he invites us to recognize that “us and them” is not the only way in which to view the world. As much as it sometimes seems that it is just human nature to think in such terms and act on the basis of such thinking, Jesus demonstrates that there is an alternative. And the way to make it happen is simply to start making it happen – start acting differently. Of course it isn’t easy – if it were easy everyone would already be doing it. Of course it isn’t safe – if it were safe it wouldn’t scare us so much. Jesus was eventually killed for living his life this way. But the only way for the brokenness of the world to be healed is for us to begin living our way into the kind of life we claim to believe – where there are no divisions between us and them, and love forms the foundation of a global community. 

Today we don’t use terms like clean and unclean. Touching someone who is bleeding won’t make us ritually unfit. But the lines between “insiders and outsiders” are just as clearing drawn. We have been watching them on display this past week played out in graphic, heart-wrenching, sobering detail. We define the lines of distinction in terms of race, or ethnicity, or economic status, or educational achievement, or theology, or sexual orientation, or politics. Sometimes some of us manage to move beyond some of these lines. But we live in a culture that still thinks in such terms, and the pressures to conform to such thinking are powerful. Following Jesus down the path towards radical wholeness will not be easy and it will not always even be safe. But it is important, it is urgent, and it is how we are called to live. 

Ann Weems once wrote a poem which offers a vision of what such living might look like.

The church of Jesus Christ

is where a child of God brings a balloon

is where old women come to dance

is where young men see visions and old men dream dreams

The church of Jesus Christ

is where lepers come to be touched

is where the blind see and the deaf hear

is where the lame run and the dying live

The church of Jesus Christ

is where daisies bloom out of barren land

is where children lead and wise men follow

is where mountains are moved and walls come tumbling down

The church of Jesus Christ

is where loaves of bread are stacked in the sanctuary 

to feed the hungry

is where coats are taken off and put on the backs of the naked

is where shackles are discarded

& kings & shepherds sit down to life together

The church of Jesus Christ

is where barefoot children run giggling in procession

is where the minister is ministered unto

is where the anthem is the laughter of the congregation 

& the offering plates are full of people

The church of Jesus Christ

is where people go when they skin their knees or their hearts

is where frogs become princes 

& Cinderella dances beyond midnight

is where judges don’t judge 

& each child of God is beautiful & precious

The church of Jesus Christ

is where night is day

is where trumpets & drums & tambourines 

declare God’s goodness

is where lost lambs are found

The church of Jesus Christ

is where people write thank-you notes to God

is where work is a holiday

is where seeds are scattered & miracles are grown

The church of Jesus Christ

is where home is

is where heaven is

is where a picnic is communion 

& people break bread together on their knees

The church of Jesus Christ

is where we live responsively toward God’s coming.

Even on Monday morning the world will hear

An abundance of alleluias!

(“Where is the Church?” from Reaching for Rainbows, by Ann Weems ©1980)

Let us begin to follow Jesus into that kind of radical wholeness. Who knows – something amazing might happen.