Introduction
The hope of healing is what keeps many people going when faced with serious illness. Whilst there is some sense of this sentiment attached to all our lectionary passages this week, it is most profoundly expressed through the characters living out their hope in Mark 5.21-43. A desperate hope for healing drives a lonely, penniless woman and a girl’s distraught family to go beyond the normal rules and traditions of their society, invoking the help of someone who was gaining a reputation as a teacher, healer and rule breaker.
In the news this week
Hope of healing for many people at risk from cancer is likely to rise this week, if traditional procedures are side-stepped. Health watchdog NICE (National Institute of Health and Care Excellence) believes that possibly 5000 lives in England could be saved each year, if GPs follow new guidelines for earlier cancer diagnosis.
Eurozone leaders continue to meet this week to help heal Greece’s ailing economy. Whilst some people worry that the Greek condition is terminal, with an increasing risk of defaulting on its debts, others have optimism for healing and hope for recovery.
Why are children in care in England and Wales five times more likely to get caught up in the criminal justice system, than other children? A new enquiry, led by Lord Lamming, aims to look at the causes and hopes for a cure.
Be healed by taking your trousers off. This is not an issue Jesus had to face, due to the looser fitting clothing fashions of his day, but doctors are warning that skin-tight jeans can, in certain circumstances, seriously damage our muscles and nerves.
Reflection
Most people have hoped for healing at some point in their lives, whether it be healing from a common cold or from a seriously life-threatening illness. Sometimes these hopes will have been for ourselves, and sometimes they will have been for others. Today’s Gospel story contains both types of hope, and both stories involve breaking rules and boundaries through the strength of their convictions. Jairus begins with a request for the rarely invoked practice, according to the traditions of his day, of the laying on of hands. A huge amount of faith and belief in Jesus must have accompanied that request from someone in Jairus’ position. He and his family continued to stand by their beliefs, even in the face of the barriers brought on by death. The woman who reached out to touch Jesus, had been held back by twelve years of ritual impurity, social restriction and exclusion. In Jesus she finds the hope to believe that she might be healed and move on.
In the light of these two women’s stories, the hope sought in our top three news stories this week might seem more tangible. Many of us will have been touched in some way by cancer, either directly or through a friend or family member. Lamentations 3.22-33 echoes Mark.5.36, and the beliefs of Jairus and family. Lamentations 3.31-33 especially reminds us that God’s love is greater than the hardships he might seem to have piled on us at certain times in our lives. We might gratefully remember those times when we feel able to offer up the kind of thanksgiving that the psalmist sings of in Psalm 30 – a song Jairus’ would have been familiar with, and may even have offered himself following the recovery of his daughter. Here is someone who has been to the brink of life, and back again.
This week we are also reminded of the need to hope for healing within our communities. Whether it be in terms of the Greek economy and its place within the whole of the European community, or hope for those children who grow up within the social care system of our own nation, we have a shared responsibility to believe in something better. Lord Lamming says, ‘The state not only has a duty to be a parent, but has a moral responsibility to be a really good parent’. In 2 Corinthians 8.15 we reminded of the need for a balanced society in sharing that responsibility. Following Jesus’ teaching and example should enable us to care for others not simply out of a sense of duty, but through acts of generous and God-like loving. ‘O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me’ (Psalm 30.2). So might we pray, that all can have their hope healed and their faith made new by God.
And what of the damage skinny jeans can do to your health? Well maybe we ought to follow Jesus example when it comes to fashion tips too!
Prayer
This prayer could be adapted for the opening or closing of worship.
Great God,
we gather together because of our faith in you.
Where we find hurting, bring healing.
When we are fearful, bring courage.
When we become vulnerable, bring help.
And in all life may we know your steadfast love.
This is our hope,
now and always.
Amen.
Themes for intercessory prayer this week might include:
- those diagnosed with cancer, or awaiting diagnosis
- the families and friends of those struggling with serious illness
- European community leaders in their meetings this week
- the Greek government and people
- vulnerable children growing up in the social care system within the UK
- for a just and equal sharing of the earth’s resources
Prayer response
Leader: Hope healer,
All: Bring faith, bring courage, bring love,
Questions
Concepts of what life is like for children growing up in care, away from a family of their own, have not only changed a lot over the years, but we can also have very negative ideas as to what is involved. Consider the work of the big children’s charities, such as NSPCC or Barnardo’s, and how their work has changed since their founding, to what they do now. Misunderstandings as to the work of local councils in terms children in care are common – the real world is very different from that of Tracy Beaker, although sometimes our misconceptions are somewhere to start. This may be a delicate subject for some people, so be sensitive.
- What are your experiences or understandings of the child care systems in the UK?
- Take a look at some of the articles in this week’s news on this subject. Consider why it is that children in care in England and Wales are five times more likely to get caught up in the criminal justice system, than other children? (Try not to get judgmental or nostalgic).
- What do you think of the sentiments behind the new enquiry, lead by Lord Lamming, which aims to look at the causes and hopes for a cure?
- Looking at Mark 5.21-24 and vv.35-43, alongside 2 Corinthians 8.7-15. What do these passages reveal to us about what we need to do for young people in our communities today? Where is there a role for our churches?
Action
This week’s Bible passages might challenge us to reflect how we care pastorally for one another within our congregations and communities. Reflect on how you deal with serious illness or difficulties that life may have thrown your way. Or, spend time talking and praying with someone you know who has endured great hardship, and yet whose faith has provided hope – even if healing did not come to them in the way they might have wished for.
Young People
This week doctors are warning that overly tight skinny jeans can seriously damage our circulation, muscles and nerves.
- What pains are we willing to go through for the sake of fashion? e.g. high-heels, tattoos, sun-tans.
- Why might these not be good for us?
- What do the emotive stories of the two women in Mark 5.21-43 teach us about valuing our own good health and well-being?
Tim Lowe is a minister of the United Reformed Church, serving churches in the north west of Coventry, and is particularly interested in varied visual art forms as expressions of faith.
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