Proper 8 B "Flash Mob " for the GRI June 30, 2024

 I don’t like that many of the women in the Gospels aren’t given a proper name, so for this sermon, the “woman with the hemorrhage will be named Ruth

Ruth was at the end of her rope. She was on the outside looking in. People saw her and YELLED…..UNCLEAN or TRAITOR or HUSSY or other words not suitable for a family gathering.

People saw Ruth’s lowered head and defeated composure and smugly thought, “well she deserves it, after all look at what she did….or her parents did….or her parents did….or her ancestors did.”

People looked upon Ruth and thought—-“thank goodness that’s not me.”

In this story, Ruth is the epitome of the outsider, the other, and we are the insiders, the chosen.

And yet….who is it that Jesus notices, who is it that Jesus praises, who is it that Jesus credits for her own healing? Ruth.

Was she healed because Jesus deemed her worthy?
No.
Was she healed because Jesus’s cloak held special powers?
No.
Was she healed because God decided she had suffered enough?
I highly doubt it.
Ruth was healed, according to Jesus, because of her faith.
Her. Faith.

She believed that if she could get to Jesus she would be healed. She did get to him but the destination wasn’t the cure.
The drive to get there was.
And what fueled that drive? Her faith.

My friends, ours is a noisy world, full of distractions. You listen to someone like me standing before you each week trying to give you the fuel to go out these doors and into this hurting world to make a difference; to give hope to those with hurting hearts and souls, to bring the proud, arrogant, dismissive and abusive up short. To lift the lowly, to preach and live peace. It’s not easy work—the preaching nor the living. It is easier to shrug our shoulders and say—I believe in God, I have faith, that’s good enough.
But is it?
Let’s look at our Gospel again.
Both Jairus and Ruth the woman with the hemorrhage had faith, they both believed that Jesus could heal. But their faith in Jesus wasn't enough. We are told they both—-at great sacrifice to themselves—-publicly reached out to Jesus, publicly proclaiming their faith in him.
We Episcopalians may be known as the “Frozen Chosen,” but that’s not how we are to live our faith. We’re to live our faith outwardly and openly, not afraid to speak our truth. How willing are we to live our faith boldly, to risk who we are and what we have for this faith? To live our faith as Ruth and Jairus did in our Gospel as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mathew Shepherd, the Philadelphia 11, the Stonewall people, and many more did and do? Out loud. Publicly. Profoundly. Noticeably.
[This past week was the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Some people find the triennial convention a waste of money and time, but it is where, every three years, we gather to hammer out how we will live our faith. We’re Episcopalians and we believe in speaking openly and honestly. We believe in disagreeing, we believe in feeling passionately and compromising faithfully. The arc toward God’s dream for us is a bumpy ride. But if we stick with it, inch by inch, step by step we move ahead. In Austin Texas, in 2018 I stood in front of the convention and testified about having all marriage rites available to all people who want to be married in the Episcopal Church. That means the Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage as found in the hardback version of the Book of Common Prayer as well as “I will Bless You and You will be a Blessing” marriage liturgy originally designed ONLY for same-sex couples. I stated that my wife Pete and I were married using a liturgy NOT available to all people in the church, that we were forbidden from using the liturgy in our prayer book, but that, 4 1/2 years later, when I buried my wife, we used the same liturgy we all use when we die. Was she unequal when we married, but somehow equal in death? 6 years after that testimony, our General Convention approved all marriage liturgies for all people. The arc of history and justice is long, slow, and bumpy, but when we live our faith loud and in public, like the woman with the bleeding and Jairus the official and a lowly priest from Western New York we live our faith in a way that makes Jesus smile and God breathes sighs of delight.]
Spend time with this reading from the Gospel this week. Consider yourself Jairus or Ruth. Instead of asking what Jesus would do, perhaps it is time to ask if we can do what both Jairus and Ruth did.
And then do it.
Let us pray:
Gracious and Loving God, our faith resides in you, but our faith is only activated when we live it, speak it, and model it. Embolden us to activate our faith in you in all that we do, wherever we go, and however long we need to do it. For if we but touch the hem of your garment, if we just allow your ever-loving hands to lay upon us, we will be made well. And, because we know you love it when we pray, we now say, Amen.