God’s healing is coming, and therefore we have hope.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 13 B
Texts: Lamentations 3:(21)22-33; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Jeremiah found hope.
In the middle of his grief over the destruction of Jerusalem, lamentation after lamentation, verse after verse filled with sorrow over the exile of the people to Babylon, suddenly this ray of light shines through tears: “This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of God-Who-Is never ceases, God’s mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.”
As we lament the pain and suffering of our world, can we find hope in God’s love like Jeremiah? For thousands of years, the suffering and pain people were aware of was close by, people you knew and lived with and could even help. Now we not only hold our own personal sufferings and grief, but day after day after day we’re constantly made aware of the pain of people we’ll never meet, from every corner of the world. This awareness is so recent in human history, we’re not at all evolved to handle that. But still, the news, the pictures, the grief, keep coming.
But can we, too, see a ray of God’s hope?
It seems to shine from our Gospel today.
There’s a beautiful pair of stories of Jesus, God-with-us, healing a woman sick for twelve years, raising a twelve-year-old girl from death. God’s hope and light shines through these stories.
But what about the others? How many other children in villages around the Sea of Galilee died that year whose parents never found this joy? How many women and men suffered from long-term disease that year (just think of cancer), and didn’t find Jesus in a crowd and touch his cloak? God’s mercy seems limited.
And that’s before we ask about the children of Gaza and Israel. About Ukrainian and Sudanese children. And adults. Caught up in the evil of war and violence and being killed day after day. Is there hope for God’s healing mercy in these stories that gives hope for today’s children and vulnerable people?
Our faith tradition commonly doesn’t lean into these stories of healing.
At least when it comes to our own expectations. Lutherans have always been a little leery of expecting God’s healing of our own disease, let alone healing all that ails this world. We’re not raised to expect miracles either on an individual or a global scale as some Christians are. It is enough, we seem to say, that we name these things before God in prayer. But we’re usually not expecting to be blessed like these parents or this woman.
But what if the hope we’re seeking comes from learning to pray with trust?
This father didn’t know if Jesus would heal his daughter, but he asked. He pleaded repeatedly that Jesus come and do something. This woman reached out and touched Jesus’ cloak, thinking it would be enough. They risked expecting God to heal in Jesus.
So what if we set aside our rationality a little when we prayed and simply, whole-heartedly, expected God to bring healing to those who need it? God still might not heal that person or situation as we ask. Fine. But maybe it would give us more hope to remember that sometimes God does. What if we could learn not to expect disappointment?
And what if we believed God’s Word that God deeply grieves for the children of this world, for those vulnerable to others’ evil and violence and oppression? What if we prayed for God’s healing in the Middle East, in Africa, in Ukraine, and actually expected God might move leaders to end war? Jeremiah didn’t have any evidence that this pain and suffering was nearing an end. But he clung to a hope that God was a God of love and healing.
Holding that hope, we can also learn about other ways God heals.
We have witnesses across the ages who asked for God’s healing, whether individual or collective, who didn’t receive exactly what they prayed for. For every fall of the Berlin wall and ending of apartheid in peace, there are so many wars that end only when one side has died so much they can’t go on. For every miraculous healing there are thousands who succumb to their diseases.
But people who learned to trust in God witness to a deeper healing in the face of adversity, a peace in their hearts even if their world is collapsing around them or their body failing. A sense that their lives, and the lives of their community and beyond, are in God’s love no matter the circumstances.
That’s a healing we can also pray for and trust we will receive. And find hope.
There’s one more thing.
The people of Corinth didn’t have the internet. They had no idea about the suffering of the Christians in Jerusalem. They had no idea that their Macedonian neighbors had given well beyond what they could afford for Paul to bring back to Jerusalem to aid in that suffering.
But Paul – as we heard today – made them aware of all this, just as we’re now aware of suffering far away. And Paul invited them to be a part of God’s healing.
This is also where we find hope. We are part of God’s healing mercy for the world. For our loved ones. For our neighbors. Now that you know, like the Corinthians, what others are doing to help, you can find a way to be of help. Now that you know, like the Corinthians, that others are in need, you can offer yourself to be a part of their hope.
Because this only works for God when we all share this ministry together. Macedonians, Corinthians, you, me. God needs more than one or two, God needs all to join together to be a part of God’s healing mercy in the world.
In the midst of lamenting the pain in the world, Jeremiah calls this to our minds.
And now you can call it to your mind, and therefore have hope: “the steadfast love of the Triune God never ceases, God’s mercies never end, they are new every morning.
It is good, Jeremiah says, that one should wait patiently for the salvation of God. Because that salvation will come to you. And it is good, Paul says, that one should also be a part of that healing of God. Because you are critical to it. And this is how God’s mercies are renewed every morning.
So this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen