Brown's Daily Word 6-9-08

Good Morning,
We are in the midst of our first Pre-summer heat wave here in New York. It is similar to summer days in Orissa , India. It will be in mid 90's here today. The Lord blessed us with a wonderful weekend of great fellowship and worship. Our man's banquet was a time a great sharing in a sumptuous banquet and in participating a time worship, and in the proclamation of the word of the Lord by Bishop Simpson.
The reading from the Gospel for yesterday focused on Jesus' hand at work in the lives of many. A woman was healed of a 12 year-long illness. A child was raised from death. A synagogue leader experienced Christ face to face. There were so many miracles for one journey, but more than these outward took place, unseen to the eye but visible to the heart. Here, on the road to Jairus' house, we confront, once again, the matters of riches and poverty. We delve into the ever-troubling issue of suffering. Why do we suffer? Where is God in the midst of our trials? Jesus has the answers ready, if we will only listen. We explore, on this journey, the eternal truth of God's right time, in comparison with our faulty human conception of time. Jesus shows us God's right time in perfect action. All of these matters meet us on the road to Jairus' house, and demand our attention, our comprehension, our work.
Jairus, a synagogue leader, was a figure in society who carried some weight. As a leader, he was well-known, and well off. His opinion counted. Onlookers probably thought it only proper that Jesus would take time to attend to Jairus' daughter – after all, he was a religious leader. He deserved Jesus' help. On His journey to see the sick daughter, however, another figure entered the scene and stalled the trip for awhile. A woman, hemorrhaging for twelve years, also sought Jesus' help, though she was not confident enough to ask for it directly. The woman, unlike Jairus, completely lacked status. First, as a woman, she did not have the ability to command attention as Jairus could. Second, her disease made her ritually unclean, a state of being in Jewish code that made it unlawful for others to touch her. By touching Jesus, she risked violating the law herself and making Jesus unclean also. Third, where Jairus was well off, the woman, we are told, had spent her whole livelihood in search of a cure. She had nothing at all to recommend her to Jesus, no reason to believe he would care about her story. On our journey, we come upon the issues surrounding riches and poverty. Jesus treated the woman's suffering and pain in the same way he treated Jairus' pain, despite their contrasting financial states. No doubt Jairus was in a hurry to get aid to his dying daughter, but Jesus stopped the procession to care for the needs of the woman – needs Jesus deemed equally important. To Jesus it did not matter that one person was wealthy and the other one poor. The only thing Jesus attended to was the need that he can provide for, the life he could act to change.
How would we act in Jesus' situation? What would we do if we had to choose between stopping for the poor woman, or pressing on toward the home of the wealthy man? The gospel text itself shows us two responses of contrasting views. Peter, Jesus' closest disciple, urged Jesus to press ahead when Jesus asked who touched him. He says, "Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you". Peter's attention was on the goal of getting to Jairus' house, but he neglected the importance of the journey. Jairus, on the other hand, (amazingly) made no complaints. One might expect that Jairus would complain or hurry Jesus, considering the state of his daughter. Imagine if your loved one were ill and in need, but the ambulance stopped on the way to your house to quibble over a fender-bender. You might get anxious, nervous, or even angry. For Jairus the circumstance was magnified by the fact that the woman turns out to be an unclean woman. What a disgrace to Jairus, to be put off by such a person! Yet Jairus made no complaint. He waited patiently, not even arguing with Jesus when a messenger brought word that the daughter had died. Surely Jairus must have considered that if Jesus had neglected the poor woman, his daughter would still be living. He expressed no such sentiments, however, and followed Jesus trustingly.
A 12 year old is on the verge of death. A woman hemorrhages for 12 years. Parents watch anxiously over their only child. Is this fair? In this one passage we find deep and profound suffering. Where is God in this picture? Suffering is one of those questions we all face at one point or another in our lives. None of us can escape suffering. Perhaps we have lost a parent, a sibling, a spouse, a child. Perhaps we have suffered disease, or looked on as another battled an illness. Some starve. Some face war in their homeland. Some have homes destroyed from disaster. In one way, or many ways, we have all faced suffering in some form. Why? Why do we suffer? Does God care about our pain? As faithful Christians, we know that answer to be yes, even though it is hard to understand.
Jairus, his wife, his daughter, and the sick woman were all suffering, until they let their faith guide their actions to God. No doubt Jairus was hesitant about seeking help from a man who gave trouble to synagogue leaders. No doubt the woman feared acting against the law to trouble the great teacher. However, despite fears, they acted in faith, and their faith was rewarded by an end of their suffering. Jesus stopped on his journey to care for someone in need. In our hectic goal-oriented world, it is hard to think about stopping, pausing to attend to something other than our final destination. Jesus did not give it a second thought. The woman, we must remember, was healed without Jesus speaking a word or slowing his pace. But when he realized what had occurred, he still paused to attend to the woman, face to face. He heard her story. He looked into her eyes. He shared and relieved her suffering. Can we do the same? Karl Shelly,wrote, "The good news is that we as a people of faith are on the road to Jairus' house. The challenge, however, is whether we will be touched by people we pass along the way who are suffering". We have the challenge. Will we accept?
In the passage, we also confront the issue of time. In Christian theology, human time is called chronos, regular time. We are a culture, a world, obsessed with time. We are always in a hurry, seeking "fast food" and instant cures. Yet, we want to slow time in other areas of our lives. "Age-defying" makeup promises to remove outward signs of our growing older. Sometimes time moving forward is our enemy too. Either way, we are not happy with time. It goes by too quickly or takes too long.
God's time is different than our time. God has a perfect time, which, in theology, we call kairos. Kairos means the appointed time, the correct time, the "right" time. Interestingly, the word's roots are in no way related to the roots of chronos. Kairos is an understanding of time totally unrelated to human understanding of time. Think of God's time, God's kairos, at work . A woman is ill for twelve years, a long time by our standards to endure an illness. But on this day, she happened to be where Jesus was, and happened to cross paths with him. If she had been anywhere else in the world, she would not have been healed. God's kairos is at work – and the woman was healed at just the right time. Think of Jairus' daughter. At first, one is tempted to think Jesus was late. He spent too much time with the woman, and the little girl died. The child was twelve years old, only a short time for our standards of long life. But, despite our doubts, despite the laughter when Jesus claimed the girl was only sleeping, despite the wailing for the loss of life, Jesus acted to save the girl in God's right time. Instead of merely healing a sick girl, Jesus exhibited God's ability to work even through death to bring life, by allowing Jesus to raise the girl from the dead. What a powerful message that was, and it was one that Jesus would make even more clear through his own death and resurrection later on. The Lord acted in His right time, to bring a better message to the world.
We grow impatient from waiting for what we want to happen now, and we grow anxious when the days pass by too fast. But we must remember, our Lord works in His time, and the best things happen when we let Lord do His work.
On the road to Jairus' house, we have a lot to discover about who we are, and who the teacher and healer is with whom we travel. Are we ready to notice the suffering around us, on the sides of the road ? Are we ready to open ourselves to God' right time? We have a journey to take, side by side with our Lord and Master, on the road to Jairus' house.
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uNDVvQKOYw