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What follows is the sermon I preached at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Sunday, July 1. I had the honored to serve as the guest preacher by invitation of my friend and colleague, Pastor Ingrid Arneson Rasmussen. If you don't like sermons that wade into the waters of politics, you can hit eject now.
Alas, you have been warned.
For the Gospel Acclamation, I asked the assembly to sing the first two stanzas of the hauntingly gorgeous Korean hymn, "Come Now, O Prince of Peace," composed by Geon-yong Lee. We sang it in English, but here is the Korean version with the English translation provided: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3PES4b-0Qo. The text speaks of being reconciled as a people, as one body in God's love. This for me is the gospel-call in our world that seems so broken.
So, here is what I mostly said as the script and the proclaimed word often vary.
Gospel Acclamation sung by the assembly:
Come, now, O Prince of peace, make us one body.
Come, O Lord Jesus, reconcile your people.
Come, now, O God of love, make us one body.
Come, O Lord Jesus, reconcile your people.
Come, now, O God of love, make us one body, indeed!
For the reading of the gospel text, I invite you to sit and settle into your bodies. Hear this bodily text from the Gospel of Mark (5:21-43).
"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 had spent all that she had;
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 felt in her body that 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?”
And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you;
how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
He looked all around to see who had done it.
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 has made you well; go in peace,
and be healed of your disease.” While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say,
“Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?”
But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue,
“Do not fear, only believe.” He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.
When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep?
The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him.
Then he put them all outside,
and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him,
and went in where the child was.
He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,”
which means, “Little girl, get up!”
And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about
(she was twelve years of age).
At this they were overcome with amazement.
He strictly ordered them that no one should know this,
and told them to give her something to eat.”
Word of God; word of life. Thanks be to God.
In the mainline Protestant, North American context in which I was formed, I got the impression that one thing above all others was honored – the intellect. That is, I was raised in a pretty heady church where the practice of faith was, in my experience, an endeavor explored by the mind. A heady kind of faith isn’t bad. In fact, I consider the stuff that goes on up here as vital to my ongoing discipleship in Christian faith. But, the faith localized in my head needs to connect with my heart…and not just my heart, but my whole body. I have come to believe that a faith in God that does not connect with our bodies is, at its best, a disembodied faith, and at its worst, a dead faith. And I’m telling you, this story in Mark 5 with take the faith out of the head and firmly plant it throughout the whole body. Jesus has a way of doing that…
And you can’t blame him, can you? He is, after all, the embodiment of God! Jesus is the incarnation of the Holy One, in flesh and blood. And not just the flesh and blood of the gray matter up here (in the head), but Jesus is the full-bodied incarnation of all it! Jesus is the very claim by God that bodies matter, the whole body matters to God! Faith gifted by this fleshy God means that healing, forgiveness, redemption, salvation, and resurrection are all situated in the body! Head and heart, fingers and feet, limbs and lungs and lymph nodes, blood vessels and bones—the whole messy and fragile and precious thing that is the body! God in Christ Jesus claims the whole body as God’s very own.
In Mark 5, we can’t hide from the body, our bodies! Not with a story that speaks about vaginal bleeding and the bodily death of a child. This is the nitty gritty of life, the truth of our broken bodies, susceptible disease and decay, on full display in this passage. For Jesus shows up amid blood and suffering, death and tears, offering his power of healing and grace in a bodily way—through touch. He speaks, to be sure, and his words certainly carry this divine power. But his words are accompanied by a physical sign, a bodily connection. In other words, this incarnate Word communicates God’s power and mercy through word and flesh. The Word makes its home in the body!
Both Jairus, the synagogue leader, and the unnamed hemorrhaging woman, had heard about Jesus! They had heard about Jesus and his power. They both come to Jesus seeking not words or an intellectualized experience of faith; no, they come seeking physical touch, an experience of an embodied faith! When Jairus falls at Jesus’ feet, he says, “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.” Come, and touch her body, so death can be stopped! And with hemorrhaging woman—who suffered in her body and endured only more blood and pain under many physicians—believed that physical contact Jesus would bring her relief after 12 long years: “If I but touch him…touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Both had heard about Jesus, and his embodied power!
This passage has gotten me out of the head and into the body. This text is helping me see faith and healing and salvation and new life in Christ as fully situated in the body. That God cares wholly about bodies…all bodies…your body and mine. And too casually, too callously bodies are cast aside. Bodies are objectified and other-ized in our world. And we do bodily harm to one another as a result of not honoring the body, not honoring the truth that God in Christ Jesus claims every body as God’s own precious body. The result is:
Brown bodies are separated from one another at our border, by our government, by us, under the banner of “zero-tolerance.” And young bodies—baby bodies even!—are torn from bodies of their parents doing irreparable harm.
Girl bodies are trafficked in the sex trade in our Twin Cities.
Black male bodies, out of bias and fear, are shot in our streets by those called to protect. I work at Luther Seminary, and just a few blocks away, Philando Castile was shot and killed 2 years ago this next week. And these tragedies go on…
Transgender bodies are misunderstood and mistreated and, at times, brutalized.
Hijab-wearing bodies are stigmatized and verbally accosted while many of their spiritual kin are now body-banned from traveling into our country.
Poor bodies are denied health care and resources and opportunities for wholeness.
Women bodies are harassed and assaulted in the work place.
And old bodies are silenced and silo-ed in our culture that values young bodies over the aged.
I’ll say it again: too casually and too callously bodies are cast aside, objectified and other-ized, as we live in systems of sin that dishonor, discriminate against, dehumanized, and destroy bodies. This reality is enough to shut down our bodies and give in to despair.
But I have heard about Jesus! Have you heard about Jesus?
I have heard about Jesus who, taking on flesh and blood as the Incarnate Word, reveals a God who claims bodies as God’s very own—beloved and precious.
I have heard about Jesus who takes his own body to cross barriers and boundaries and borders of separation to bring bodies together in unity and peace!
Have you heard about this Jesus? I have about Jesus who honored the bodies of the outcast, the leper, and the stigmatized, and spoke words of acceptance and grace for all bodies!
I have heard about Jesus who, when touched by a hemorrhaging woman, heals through the power of the divine. And she knows it…she feels it in her body!
I have heard about Jesus who takes the hand of a dead girl, saying, “Little girl, get up!” and moments later she is walking and eating! Alive.
I have heard about Jesus. Have you? I have heard about Jesus who allows the little children to come onto him so that he may touch them, bless them, and welcome them as God’s own!
I have heard about Jesus, God in the flesh, who stoops to wash the feet of his disciples as an enactment of heavenly welcome.
I have heard about Jesus, who in bread and wine, offers to all his very body and blood, empowering us with nothing less than God’s forgiveness and new life in our bodies.
I have heard about Jesus, whose body was nailed to a cross, revealing the depth of the God’s presence with us in our pain and suffering. And I have heard about Jesus, who rose up from the tomb three days later, his body resurrected as the promise of God’s everlasting claim on our bodies!
I have heard about Jesus who shows us that all bodies – every body – is beautiful and beloved. And in his love, we are made one body together!
I have heard about this bodily Jesus who calls us to an embodied faith that dismantles the systems of sin that dishonor and destroy bodies. For Jesus is having none of that! In Jesus, bodies are redeemed. We are redeemed! And we are called to share this embodied faith with the world. So, what have you heard about Jesus? Up here (head)…and in here (heart)…and throughout your whole about? Take your embodied faith into the world that needs this Jesus, and share this message with every single body!