Pentecost 5 – 28 June 2015 - Year B

Pent 5 – B – 28 June 2015

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for our meditation is written in the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 39-42

They arrived at Jairus’ house, where Jesus saw the confusion and heard all the loud crying and wailing. He went in and said to them, "Why all this confusion? Why are you crying? The child is not dead - she is only sleeping!" They started making fun of him, so he put them all out, took the child's father and mother and his three disciples, and went into the room where the child was lying. He took her by the hand and said to her, ("Talitha, Cumi ") which means, "Little girl, I tell you to get up!" She got up at once and started walking around. (She was twelve years old.)

Let us pray: Father, guide the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts, that in your Word of truth we may always find the comfort and reassurance that your abundant love and grace will keep us in a living relationship with you into eternity. In Jesus name we pray. Amen

There is an old Eastern legend about a Hindu woman whose only child had died. Her grief and sorrow overwhelmed her and she could do nothing but mourn the loss of her only child. She went to a holy man to ask for her child back. The holy man told her to go and obtain a handful of rice from a house into which death had not come. If she could obtain just one handful of rice in this way, he promised that her child would be returned to her. She set off going from house to house, asking the question "Is all your family here around the table - father, mother, children - none missing?" But always the answer came back that there were empty chairs around each table where family members had once sat. As she continued on, her grief and sorrow softened as she found the cold finger of death had touched every family and that she was not the only one to grieve the loss of a loved one, death is universal.

I hardly need to say this with the daily heart rending news of growing tragedy and violence here in Australia – carnage on the roads, drug overdoses, fatal attacks young lives extinguished through wanton brutality. I hardly need to mention how those parents and brothers and sisters feel as they hear the news that the life of a young person from their family had suddenly come to an end. I think that most parents believe that they will leave this life before their children, and it comes as a shock when this doesn’t happen.

We have gathered at funerals on a number of occasions over the years to say farewell to friends family. A number of people commented that all they seem to be doing lately is attending funerals. We have been stung by sadness that death brings.

In the reading from Mark’s Gospel today, we hear of a 12 year old girl, just officially beginning her adult life, with all the hopes of a young woman - Being the wife of a loving husband, and a mother of her own children - suddenly stricken with some kind of incurable and fatal disease. Her father, Jairus, is faced with the loss of his beloved little daughter. What can he do to defend her against the sting of death? What can he do to prevent the ache in his heart, as well as that of his wife, that comes with the death of someone so loved?

You know, this Gospel account in Mark is one we can identify with in today’s society. You see Jairus is an important man in this area; He is in charge of the synagogue, the man with the final say, and to make it more interesting he is a significant member of the “Anti-Jesus movement’ – this has really got the attention of the media, and they are right in there getting a scoop on the main players.

Firstly, there are the little girl’s parents, Jairus and his wife, who would go to any length to see their little girl well again – and for Jairus that means putting aside all he stands for and eating humble pie.
There is a little girl whose life it appears, had been cut short.
There are the baffled disciples.
There is the inquisitive crowd in Jairus’ front yard. There is always a deep felt sorrow when someone young dies and the deepest feelings for the grieving family. Some of the largest gatherings are at the funerals of young people taken early in life. This occasion was no exception.                               

Then on the inside of the house are the professional mourners and flute players – they are working in earnest to earn their money. – If it were to happen today there would be choppers with cameras overhead, and the news headlines would be flashing on the TV screens “Jairus’ daughter dies” – I mean lets face it when your dead your dead. – All of a sudden ‘Breaking News’ – Jesus has turned up and has made a statement “This girl is not dead, she’s only sleeping!” – What an insensitive and laughable statement.

But wait, Jairus is not laughing – You see what they don’t know is that Jesus has already stirred the hope in his heart – they told Jairus earlier that His daughter was dead – but Jesus ignored them and reassured Jairus with the words as written in verse 36 “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

Then Jesus, in amongst all this sadness, the aching hearts, the loud crying and wailing, the tear soaked hankies, speaks  firmly and strongly – "Talitha Cumi" – "Little girl, I tell you to get up!" – Immediately the girl stood up and walked around.

Is the reality of this Gospel account starting to fade for you? Maybe you have begged God to help the sick and dying person as Jairus begged Jesus, and there was no miraculous healing - Maybe you have felt the hopelessness and despair of loosing the one you so dearly loved, and wondered just where God was at the time. If this is the case, then friends I personally do not have any words of explanation, I can only relay to you the words of Paul as written in Romans 14: 8 – 9 “⁸If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.  ⁹For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.”

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus relates to us His words in Verse 36 “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” – He brings to us the relief and inner peace that comes from knowing that death does not have the last say, that as far as Jesus is concerned our departed loved one is only asleep. All who believe and trust in Jesus will wake to a bight new morning in heaven, just as we wake to a new day every morning, only this time the new day will be something so good and perfect we will be hardly able to believe our eyes.

Just as Jesus took the little girl’s hand and said, "Talitha Cumi" and she opened her eyes and she stood up, so to will He say to us when we close our eyes in human death, "Old woman, young man, little child, newly born infant, all who have left life on this earth, "I tell you to get up – arise to your first day in my heavenly mansion."

For most people, death can be the most terrible thing that we have to face. It is an enemy. It isn’t part of God’s original plan that we have to face death. That came about because of sin and is the punishment God promised Adam and Eve and all who follow in their sinful footsteps. But Jesus came to put an end to punishment and death as we are surely reminded in John 3: 16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  With His living Word Jesus continually assures us that we have forgiveness for our death-dealing-sinfulness and promised us a place in eternity. John 5: 24 “²⁴"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” – John 11: 25 “Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies”

These and many more are the words that encourage us as we say farewell to loved family members and friends; these are the words that helps us to face our own death; these are the words that uphold us when death intrudes into our lives, and threatens to wreck our happiness and fill our life with grief. We know that Jesus is waiting to take us by the hand and say to us, "I tell you to get up"

A family on holidays was driving along in their car, windows rolled down, enjoying the warm summer breeze of the sunny day, when a bee darts in the window and poses a great threat to a little girl who highly allergic to bee stings. If she is stung, she could die within an hour. "Daddy, daddy," she squeals in terror, "It’s a bee! It's going to sting me!"

The father quickly pulls the car over to a stop, and reaches out and traps the bee against the front windscreen and traps it in his hand. Holding it in his closed hand, the father waits for the inevitable sting. The bee stings the father's hand and in pain, the father lets go of the bee.

The bee is loose in the car again. The little girl again panics, "Daddy, it's going to sting me!" The father gently says, "No darling, it can’t sting you anymore. Look at my hand." The bee's stinger is there in his hand.

Paul talked about the sting of death being removed in 1 Corinthians 15:55. He rejoices in the fact that the power of death to destroy us has been broken. "Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting?"

Like the father in that story, Jesus says to us, "Look at my hands." There we see the mark of the nails - the sting of death and the sting of sin. On our behalf, Jesus took all the pain that death and Satan could inflict on him. He reduced death to a bee that has lost its stinger. That's the victory that Jesus won for us!

At some time every one of us will be confronted with the grief and pain that death brings into our life. It is normal to be upset, angry, sad and to feel empty inside. Even if we were able to have the most perfect faith and trust in God we would still feel the anguish that comes with death. We shouldn’t feel bad about it. But what we can feel good about is the joy that is also ours because we know that the sting of death has been removed and that Jesus will say to those we love and to us, "I tell you, get up".

This is a good story to finish with. A woman was diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given three months to live. As she was getting her things in order, she contacted her priest and asked him to come to her house to discuss some of her final wishes. She told him which songs she wanted sung at her funeral service, what Scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in.

As the priest prepared to leave, the woman suddenly remembered something else. "There’s one more thing," she said excitedly.

"What’s that?" said the priest.

"This is important?" the woman said. "I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand."

The woman explained. "In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners, when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably say, "Keep your fork." It was my favourite part of the meal because I knew something better was coming – like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie.

"So when people see me in that casket with a fork in my hand and they ask, "What’s with the fork?" I want you to tell them I said: "Keep your fork. The best is yet to come.” Amen.

The grace and peace of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Merv James