Proper 8, Pentecost 6, Ordinary Time 13
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VII, Cycle B
Seasonal Theme
We learn of the Christian faith and how we are to follow Jesus as his disciples.
Theme For The Day
The compassion of Jesus for those of high office and those lost in the crowd.
Old Testament Lesson
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
A Poem Of Grieving
David becomes the king over Judah and then all Israel. He becomes the true theocratic king and under his leadership the country did well defeating their enemies and prospering. We'll be reading from this book the next seven Sundays.
David's mourning publicly over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan is preserved for us in verses 19-27. This was made into a poem and titled "The Song of the Bow." Notice it opens and closes with the thought, "How the mighty have fallen." The loyalty of Jonathan to his father Saul is praised. But it was Jonathan who David especially grieved over and yet celebrated his long friendship (see v. 26).
New Testament Lesson
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
The Genuineness Of Love
This is one of Paul's financial stewardship letters. He is appealing to the congregation to excel in this offering as they have excelled in other ways. He sites God's self-giving as a motivation for their Christian generosity. He claims it is Jesus' coming to earth and becoming a human bringing heaven's riches to us, which should provide our motivation for sacrificial giving. Paul claims the readiness to give as proof of genuine love ... and without any reservations. The idea in verse 14 is intriguing. "Their abundance may be for your need, in order that there might be a fair balance." This fair balance is illustrated with the experience of Israel with the manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16:18).
The Gospel
Mark 5:21-43
Jairus' Daughter And A Hemorrhaging Woman
The following comments follow closely the material found in The Interpreter's One Volume Commentary on the Bible. This is two miracle stories with one contained inside the other. It is also recorded in Matthew 9:18-26 and Luke 8:40-56. The story is told to demonstrate the power of Jesus over life and death. Faith is a big part of both miracles; but in the case of the daughter, it was the faith of her father, Jairus. In the case of the woman with a hemorrhage, it was her own faith. In both cases, no doubt the role of faith was to allow God's power to work. I doubt very much it had a proportional effect on the healing. In verse 39, those of us who see this healing of misdiagnosis take the words literally. However, sleeping was a common word to designate death. "Taking by the hand" in verse 41 is the same as when Jesus healed Simon Peter's mother-in-law recorded in Mark 1:31. Verse 43 is consistent with Mark's repeated comment to the reader that Jesus did not seek publicity.
The twelve-year-old daughter of Jairus was just now old enough to be considered a woman according to Jewish custom. She was at the beginning of her womanhood, which makes it doubly tragic.
The woman with the hemorrhage had in her Talmud no less than eleven curses for this malady. Most were sheer superstitions. And this particular problem made the woman continuously unclean, which closed her out of all fellowship with friends and worship of God (Leviticus 15:25-27). In both cases, Jesus was their last resort.
Preaching Possibilities
There are a couple of ways the Old Testament Lesson could connect and provide an introduction to the Gospel healings. Like David's thoughts about Saul and how the mighty have fallen, so this leader of the Synagogue now has to give up his prestige and approach Jesus. And as David grieves the loss of Saul, so Jairus grieves his daughter's death. It's a stretch and I will not go there. The Old Testament will stand alone in a topical sermon about death and grieving. "The Song of the Bow" can be introduced with good background on David and his relationship to Saul and especially Jonathan whom he so loved. Then proceed to talk about "when we mourn," we can be sure of these things:
A. Grieving is an integral part of living and no matter how faithful we are we must go through it.
B. God knows our pain of loss and is ready to comfort.
C. We do not grieve alone -- others of God's family are with us.
D. Jesus is with the one we grieve and is with us. It is the same one who would heal the daughter of Jairus and the same one who would stop in a crowd and help a wretched woman who had suffered for years.
The New Testament Reading is a good base for a sermon on financial stewardship. This is material we Americans need desperately to hear in our culture, which is rampant with wealth addiction.
Paul on financial stewardship:
A. The genuineness of a Christian's love is tested in his or her generosity in sharing money (v. 8).
B. We give our money for others because of what Jesus has given for us (his life) (v. 9).
C. If we strongly want to share and help others we need to fulfill that eagerness to do with actual sharing (v. 12).
D. We need to keep a balance between our abundance and others' needs (vv. 13-14).
In relationship to C and D above, I hope you will stress the fact that we Christians who live in this culture have a bigger need to give our money away than the church has to have it. See below section on "Possible Metaphors And Stories" for a couple of stories that can be used.
So today we have three readings which are pregnant with homiletic possibilities. Each one is full of potential for preaching God's word for our people.
Possible Outline Of Sermon Moves
In Cycle A, I recommended for this Gospel reading that you put the story into contemporary context. I also want to refer you to my development of this text in my CSS publication: The Miracles Of Jesus And Their Flip Side. Here, for Cycle B, is an entirely different approach. Let's try a first-person monologue sermon having the woman with the hemorrhage tell the story.
A. Have the woman tell how awful it had been for her for many years because of her hemorrhaging.
B. Then she tells of all the remedies she had tried until she had no resources left and was destitute.
C. Now have her tell of hearing about a "miracle worker" coming to her town -- and seeing Jairus approach him and deciding if he would go with Jairus, perhaps he would help her.
D. Have her describe her hope to just touch his robe in order to have the healing and the effort to do so ... then admitting to Jesus what she had done.
E. Now comes an emotional description of her healing and the difference in her life since.
F. Then have her describe following this Jesus to Jairus' house and what she saw there.
G. Now the "so what?" of the dialogue. Have her tell what she advised Jairus should be the response to what Jesus had done for them. That would be individually and as a congregation over which he was president.
H. Conclude by having this woman say something like: "And Pastor (your name), if I could talk to your congregation, I would encourage them, because of what I have told them today, to do the following": (Make three or four suggestions that fit your context and ministry like: we should notice the individuals lost in the crowd in our community who need Jesus' attention and help them on his behalf.)
Prayer For The Day
Jesus, you help the proud and people of high office as well as those lost in the crowd. Help us to be the instruments through which you continue to extend your love and compassion. And open our hearts to the needs of others with a willingness to be very generous. Like Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage, we, too, are thankful for all the ways you see us and our needs and have reached out to help. In Christ's name. Amen.
Possible Metaphors And Stories
The newspaper article simply stated, "Orphan found jewelry, becomes rich this week." A sixteen-year-old orphan found a vinyl bag by the railroad tracks near his home in Hollywood, Florida, and thought it contained costume jewelry. Now he has found out the 116 pieces are worth about $400,000 to $600,000. The boy's lawyer said Eric has dropped out of school partly because of the publicity over the find. Our lives do have underestimated treasures yet to be discovered. Also, riches can destroy our best of motivations.
Chim Pitch of Cambodia and Stella Min of Myanmar (Burma) both tell of the same practice by Christians in their countries: When they go to cook their rice, they always take the first handful of grain and put it in a special container, which is set aside to be brought to the church each Sunday. This rice is then used to feed the poor and for the victims of the annual flooding in their countries.
Death flutes wailed a morbid tune for Jairus' daughter;
At life's end our graceful God provides for us and loved ones,
By touch old woman's hemorrhage dried from compassion,
Even when ridiculed, health and wellness is our ministry.
-- JLS
The big fire at Thousand Oaks, California, was started by a homeless man trying to keep warm. Many million dollar homes burned to the ground. Perhaps they failed to take in the man. We pay a price whenever we ignore the poor and homeless. Eventually it comes back to our own lives and homes.
In our Hong Kong chapel service we were asked to pray for a recent graduate of this seminary, Fong, Ching Ye, who had fallen and broken a leg. After the service the seminary chaplain explained to me that her congregation would suspect she is not spiritual enough or this would not have happened to her. How easy it is to let superstition take the place of faith.
We learn of the Christian faith and how we are to follow Jesus as his disciples.
Theme For The Day
The compassion of Jesus for those of high office and those lost in the crowd.
Old Testament Lesson
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
A Poem Of Grieving
David becomes the king over Judah and then all Israel. He becomes the true theocratic king and under his leadership the country did well defeating their enemies and prospering. We'll be reading from this book the next seven Sundays.
David's mourning publicly over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan is preserved for us in verses 19-27. This was made into a poem and titled "The Song of the Bow." Notice it opens and closes with the thought, "How the mighty have fallen." The loyalty of Jonathan to his father Saul is praised. But it was Jonathan who David especially grieved over and yet celebrated his long friendship (see v. 26).
New Testament Lesson
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
The Genuineness Of Love
This is one of Paul's financial stewardship letters. He is appealing to the congregation to excel in this offering as they have excelled in other ways. He sites God's self-giving as a motivation for their Christian generosity. He claims it is Jesus' coming to earth and becoming a human bringing heaven's riches to us, which should provide our motivation for sacrificial giving. Paul claims the readiness to give as proof of genuine love ... and without any reservations. The idea in verse 14 is intriguing. "Their abundance may be for your need, in order that there might be a fair balance." This fair balance is illustrated with the experience of Israel with the manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16:18).
The Gospel
Mark 5:21-43
Jairus' Daughter And A Hemorrhaging Woman
The following comments follow closely the material found in The Interpreter's One Volume Commentary on the Bible. This is two miracle stories with one contained inside the other. It is also recorded in Matthew 9:18-26 and Luke 8:40-56. The story is told to demonstrate the power of Jesus over life and death. Faith is a big part of both miracles; but in the case of the daughter, it was the faith of her father, Jairus. In the case of the woman with a hemorrhage, it was her own faith. In both cases, no doubt the role of faith was to allow God's power to work. I doubt very much it had a proportional effect on the healing. In verse 39, those of us who see this healing of misdiagnosis take the words literally. However, sleeping was a common word to designate death. "Taking by the hand" in verse 41 is the same as when Jesus healed Simon Peter's mother-in-law recorded in Mark 1:31. Verse 43 is consistent with Mark's repeated comment to the reader that Jesus did not seek publicity.
The twelve-year-old daughter of Jairus was just now old enough to be considered a woman according to Jewish custom. She was at the beginning of her womanhood, which makes it doubly tragic.
The woman with the hemorrhage had in her Talmud no less than eleven curses for this malady. Most were sheer superstitions. And this particular problem made the woman continuously unclean, which closed her out of all fellowship with friends and worship of God (Leviticus 15:25-27). In both cases, Jesus was their last resort.
Preaching Possibilities
There are a couple of ways the Old Testament Lesson could connect and provide an introduction to the Gospel healings. Like David's thoughts about Saul and how the mighty have fallen, so this leader of the Synagogue now has to give up his prestige and approach Jesus. And as David grieves the loss of Saul, so Jairus grieves his daughter's death. It's a stretch and I will not go there. The Old Testament will stand alone in a topical sermon about death and grieving. "The Song of the Bow" can be introduced with good background on David and his relationship to Saul and especially Jonathan whom he so loved. Then proceed to talk about "when we mourn," we can be sure of these things:
A. Grieving is an integral part of living and no matter how faithful we are we must go through it.
B. God knows our pain of loss and is ready to comfort.
C. We do not grieve alone -- others of God's family are with us.
D. Jesus is with the one we grieve and is with us. It is the same one who would heal the daughter of Jairus and the same one who would stop in a crowd and help a wretched woman who had suffered for years.
The New Testament Reading is a good base for a sermon on financial stewardship. This is material we Americans need desperately to hear in our culture, which is rampant with wealth addiction.
Paul on financial stewardship:
A. The genuineness of a Christian's love is tested in his or her generosity in sharing money (v. 8).
B. We give our money for others because of what Jesus has given for us (his life) (v. 9).
C. If we strongly want to share and help others we need to fulfill that eagerness to do with actual sharing (v. 12).
D. We need to keep a balance between our abundance and others' needs (vv. 13-14).
In relationship to C and D above, I hope you will stress the fact that we Christians who live in this culture have a bigger need to give our money away than the church has to have it. See below section on "Possible Metaphors And Stories" for a couple of stories that can be used.
So today we have three readings which are pregnant with homiletic possibilities. Each one is full of potential for preaching God's word for our people.
Possible Outline Of Sermon Moves
In Cycle A, I recommended for this Gospel reading that you put the story into contemporary context. I also want to refer you to my development of this text in my CSS publication: The Miracles Of Jesus And Their Flip Side. Here, for Cycle B, is an entirely different approach. Let's try a first-person monologue sermon having the woman with the hemorrhage tell the story.
A. Have the woman tell how awful it had been for her for many years because of her hemorrhaging.
B. Then she tells of all the remedies she had tried until she had no resources left and was destitute.
C. Now have her tell of hearing about a "miracle worker" coming to her town -- and seeing Jairus approach him and deciding if he would go with Jairus, perhaps he would help her.
D. Have her describe her hope to just touch his robe in order to have the healing and the effort to do so ... then admitting to Jesus what she had done.
E. Now comes an emotional description of her healing and the difference in her life since.
F. Then have her describe following this Jesus to Jairus' house and what she saw there.
G. Now the "so what?" of the dialogue. Have her tell what she advised Jairus should be the response to what Jesus had done for them. That would be individually and as a congregation over which he was president.
H. Conclude by having this woman say something like: "And Pastor (your name), if I could talk to your congregation, I would encourage them, because of what I have told them today, to do the following": (Make three or four suggestions that fit your context and ministry like: we should notice the individuals lost in the crowd in our community who need Jesus' attention and help them on his behalf.)
Prayer For The Day
Jesus, you help the proud and people of high office as well as those lost in the crowd. Help us to be the instruments through which you continue to extend your love and compassion. And open our hearts to the needs of others with a willingness to be very generous. Like Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage, we, too, are thankful for all the ways you see us and our needs and have reached out to help. In Christ's name. Amen.
Possible Metaphors And Stories
The newspaper article simply stated, "Orphan found jewelry, becomes rich this week." A sixteen-year-old orphan found a vinyl bag by the railroad tracks near his home in Hollywood, Florida, and thought it contained costume jewelry. Now he has found out the 116 pieces are worth about $400,000 to $600,000. The boy's lawyer said Eric has dropped out of school partly because of the publicity over the find. Our lives do have underestimated treasures yet to be discovered. Also, riches can destroy our best of motivations.
Chim Pitch of Cambodia and Stella Min of Myanmar (Burma) both tell of the same practice by Christians in their countries: When they go to cook their rice, they always take the first handful of grain and put it in a special container, which is set aside to be brought to the church each Sunday. This rice is then used to feed the poor and for the victims of the annual flooding in their countries.
Death flutes wailed a morbid tune for Jairus' daughter;
At life's end our graceful God provides for us and loved ones,
By touch old woman's hemorrhage dried from compassion,
Even when ridiculed, health and wellness is our ministry.
-- JLS
The big fire at Thousand Oaks, California, was started by a homeless man trying to keep warm. Many million dollar homes burned to the ground. Perhaps they failed to take in the man. We pay a price whenever we ignore the poor and homeless. Eventually it comes back to our own lives and homes.
In our Hong Kong chapel service we were asked to pray for a recent graduate of this seminary, Fong, Ching Ye, who had fallen and broken a leg. After the service the seminary chaplain explained to me that her congregation would suspect she is not spiritual enough or this would not have happened to her. How easy it is to let superstition take the place of faith.
