August 25, 2024 ~ 14th Sunday After Pentecost
Rev. Beckie Sweet
Some of you are familiar with the Mission of Peace. The Mission of Peace is a yearly journey of discovery and peace to nations in our global community sponsored by the Northeastern Jurisdictional Council on Youth Ministries of the United Methodist Church. Each year, every Annual Conference in the jurisdiction (of which there are nine) may select up to four high school youth to share in this experience. Since its inception in 1984, on each Mission of Peace, participants experience a different world culture, worship in churches, meet youth in churches and civic organizations and share with people who have a similar longing for peace and understanding. It is primarily a people-to-people experience in which the youth learn from their hosts how they live as disciples of Jesus Christ in their country. It is a journey of discovering God’s Shalom. Each youth who journeys on Mission of Peace must raise the money to support their trip and is expected to share about their experience at least five times upon returning.
My daughter, Marthalyn, went on the 2013-14 Mission of Peace trip to Cuba. Together we worked for six months raising about $5,000 for her journey ~ not an easy task for a busy high school senior. She left the day after Christmas, and had to fly to Toronto first, before embarking for Cuba, as travel was still restricted to the Communist island nation. Personally, I trusted the adult leaders with whom Marthalyn was travelling, and anticipated a safe and meaningful journey for Marthalyn. I could not anticipate, however, how much of an impact this trip would have on Marthalyn’s life: her spirit and faith, her sense of purpose, and her identity within a global context.
As Marthalyn reported in her post Mission of Peace presentations to churches and organizations that had offered some financial support, Marthalyn became very close friends with the youth and adults who traveled with her. She met many youth in Cuba, a few of which joined with our US team on their journeys. She attended very lively worship services, did field work on a farm, harvested coffee beans on a plantation, enhanced her Spanish speaking skills, and saw the vast variety of geography and topography contained within a relatively small region. But the part of the trip that had the most profound impact on Marthalyn and a couple of her travelling partners, was the day that they were assigned to work in the Cuban equivalent of Meals on Wheels. They were given a map, carts loaded with meals, and a list of responsibilities. They were to deliver a meal to each elderly person, perform what we would call a welfare check, and have a brief conversation with each resident.
Marthalyn’s evaluation of the first two visits were that these single elders were not just poor, they were “dirt poor.” Marthalyn noted the lack of furnishings in the shacks in which these folks lived. There was an obvious lack of basic health care including dental, vision, and hearing. And in most of the situations, it was shared that this meal was that person’s only meal for the day. In those first two visits, and every subsequent visit, when the girls mentioned that they were part of a United Methodist church group, the resident would ask the girls to pray for them and with them. A circle prayer would commence, with each person offering a part of the prayer. Marthalyn mentioned how humbling this experience was, as each time, the resident would also pray for each of the girls, and their future service for Christ. These folks, who hardly had anything, were so grateful for the little they had, and prayed for the future well-being and discipleship of people they were meeting for the first time. Marthalyn’s identity as a Child of God was transformed with joy.
As the group worshiped one last time prior to their departure from Cuba, they, too, joined in with the unabashed joy of the Cuban worshipers. They now understood the reason for that style of worship, for their gratitude for God’s transforming love was bubbling over.
WE tend to imagine “new life in Christ” being eternal life in heaven, beginning sometime in the future, after death, where everything will be all right and good. But restricting “new life” to what happens AFTER we die does not allow us to embrace the new life that God is creating for us here and now.
Our scripture text for today is from Mark’s 5th chapter. This is one of three healing and restoration stories contained within this chapter. First Jesus restores a demon-possessed man, and then heals the woman who had suffered from hemorrhaging for twelve years. Even before Jesus encountered that woman who was healed when she reached out to touch Jesus’ clothes, a man named Jairus had approached Jesus. Jairus was a synagogue leader who was distraught over the condition of his daughter. He fell at Jesus’ feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, “My daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” Jairus was risking life and livelihood by approaching Jesus, and in essence professing his faith in Jesus in order to save his daughter. Our compassionate Jesus then went with Jairus.
While on the way, the woman with the hemorrhaging encountered Jesus and those who traveled along with him. And it was just after Jesus proclaimed to the woman, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” that news of the girl’s death was delivered to Jairus and Jesus. Just a few moments ago, you heard the rest of the story, and how Jesus encouraged Jairus not to be afraid and to believe, before Jesus raised the girl to life and health. When Jairus received the worst possible news, news that would have crushed many of us, he still seemed to believe that Jesus could and would do something for him.
Now, friends, we know that we do not all receive new life through a miraculous healing, although some do. Sometimes we receive new life through praying with those on the fringes of life and health. We receive new life in all sorts of different ways. And the absence of miracles does not reflect an absence of faith. Sometimes our faith allows and helps us to see new life in places where we would least expect it.
In Jesus’ time, there was a very different understanding about sickness and sin, in which it was believed that sickness was related to having sinned. Therefore, those who were sick, were assumed to be blatant sinners, which would cause the community to ostracize them, fracturing community bonds. Jesus’ healing miracles are about restoring not only physical but also spiritual health, and thereby welcoming people back into a right relationship with one another and with the community, particularly the community of faith. When Jesus restores the girl back to life, he is offering her connection, community, and belonging again.
How can we both have the faith and be open to receiving similar gifts of life from Jesus? How do we celebrate when we do? Marthalyn discovered those answers in Cuba on the Mission of Peace. The restoration Jesus offers is for all people – that in Christ we are taken out of our sleeping state and offered the opportunity to be able to live and thrive. Jesus did not raise people to new life so they could continue on in the same old way. Jesus raised people to new life so they could THRIVE, so they could CELEBRATE, and so they could LIVE TRANSFORMED. That’s what faith and life in Christ is all about!
So, to recap and summarize this month’s “Celebrate” series, we remember that the gift of new life we receive in Jesus is one in which DIVERSITY is celebrated, rather than being a cause for division. The gift of new life we receive in Jesus is a life of UNITY, born not from uniformity but through growing together in faith. The gift of new life we receive in Jesus allows us all to inherit, along with Abraham and the people of Israel, the promise of the BLESSINGS that God is working in the world. Bring to your mind what new life in Christ means to you so that you may share that story with others as a means of CELEBRATION! Amen.