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Boulder City
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Pastor John's message will be posted each Sunday afternoon.
May 11, 2008 - Special Mother's Day service
Led by Lay Speaker Mary Caldwell.
The message will be: "My Family"
May 4, 2008 - "The Miracle Within A Miracle"
Psalm 112 and Luke 8:40-56
Can we picture the Chanter in a synagogue as he sings the words of the Psalmist? “Praise the Lord! Happy are those who fear the Lord…the generation of the upright will be blessed…their righteousness endures forever. They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with those who deal generously and lend, who conduct their affairs with justice.”
“The righteous will never be moved…they are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord. Their hearts are steady…they will not be afraid…they have distributed freely, they have given to the poor; their righteousness endures forever; their horn is exalted in honor.” (Psalms 112)
I cannot get into the heads of the people alive when this Psalm was written. I wonder if they felt it was about them. They might have said “Will these words ever apply to me?” Or was this Psalm pie-in-the sky?
Like them, we know we are sinful. You and I know this Psalm is from the Old Testament and we are New Testament people but sometimes we wonder can words like these apply to us? Lord, we call out ‘where are we in our walk with you that these seem so far away?’
Are we thinking that? Those words, they must be for someone else. Yes, God has blessed us. We have eternal life. That is our miracle. Now must we grind out the rest of our lives on earth? What is God showing us this morning about miracles? About a miracle within a miracle.”
“Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. Then Jesus asked, "Who touched me?" (Jesus knows when he is touched) When all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you." But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me." When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace."(Luke 8:40-56)
As was so often the case, the crowd followed Jesus. They wanted to hear his truth. They wanted to be there when the religious leaders challenged him so they could witness his response. But for many it may have been the miracles. These were big miracles. What would Jesus do next? And now a religious leader, from the synagogue, has come. His daughter is ill. He believes Jesus can help her. Oh, this will be grand. It involves important people. It is about a religious leader. We read in Luke’s gospel that “As Jesus went, the crowds pressed in on him.”
“Now, there was a woman…” Boy, I can relate to her. It is as if we feel we are just part of a crowd: as if we are inconsequential. In our walks of faith all of us feel like that. We might be asking ourselves is Jesus aware of my hurts: is he aware of the hemorrhaging in my life? The writer Luke could have been talking about us.
This morning it is not, “now there was a woman” but rather, this morning, it is ‘now, there I am’: ‘now, there we are.’
Oh how we wish we knew more about this woman. How did it really happen? Was the crowd going by and she joined it? Had she made up her mind to find him where ever he was that day? Had she prayed that morning and now here is the one who heals? Did she hesitate? Did she hurry? What made her think that she could be healed after twelve years?
Jesus’ attention was focused on a little sick girl. The crowd followed him. She followed too. She followed the master, the teacher, the Rabbi, this man of grace and gentleness.
As a woman, a person without any real social standing (no power at all), how do you think the crowd, the world around her, treated her? I don’t think they made a way for her. I don’t think anyone offered her a hand. And if anyone in the crowd knew she was hemorrhaging they would have jerked back to avoid being made unclean.
Her world may not have been much different than the world we find ourselves in. I am not saying we are bleeding or even that right now all of us have a physical need; let alone for twelve years. But we do hurt and the pressures around us say don’t bother the master. Or the pressures around us say we are not worthy of a miracle. Or those really, really, religious people say not you: by all means not you. Or the doubters say you will only be embarrassed.
Our story, my story, your story, the woman’s story, is about grace. This is about a miracle within a miracle: a sacred moment in this woman’s life. If touching Jesus can stop the flow of blood what can touching Jesus do for you? If touching Jesus can stop the flow of blood what can touching him do for you and for me to stop the hurts and hemorrhaging in our spirits? She experienced a miracle within the miracle of Jesus raising the little girl from the dead
Why can’t we experience a miracle within the miracle of our salvation? We have experienced the miracle of being born again: “once we were dead but now we are alive.” Can’t we reach out even though everything around us says no? Everything around us says Jesus is too busy (you know, on his way to heal a child: to do something really important).
She had been twelve years sick: all the doctors. For us has it been all the self-help books, all the professionals, all our personal efforts? Twelve years. How long is that since 1996? So many years have passed. What are your hemorrhages?
We hear God is a miracle working God. We know the great miracle of Christ Jesus. Many of us follow him, God incarnate, God on earth because of the miracle of our own salvation. We follow him because he loves us. He intersected our lives and we were changed.
But our lives go on. We still wrestle with sin, and brokenness, and our failing bodies. Are we so damaged that there can’t be more miracles in our lives?
Can there still be sacred moments when we know we have touched our Lord. God is encouraging us to live as if our conscious acts can be times of miracles: times of his grace. God had Luke record this event 2,000 years ago for us to see that there are miracles within the miracle.
The woman determined to touch Jesus. She determined to touch him: we must determine to touch him.
Throughout our lives there are sacred moments when God demonstrates his grace towards us: when we know he is present. They can come during prayer and worship, while reading scripture, when we are in fellowship with others in the body of Christ, while we fast, when we are generous, and when we are agents of reconciliation. These are times of miracles. They are sacred moments the Lord’s presence is so very, very real.
We can determine to reach out. These sacred moments are when you know you have touched the Lord. They are when you know that because of what you did or said someone else has touched the Lord.
Sacred moments, times of reaching out, can be ours if we make them part of our daily lives. The woman, she pushed, she reached to touch the Lord, and her example is well taken. We must reach. Our reach must exceed everyone and everything around us that says “No way”. We must reach out!
When we pray we open our hearts to God. Jesus, always our spiritual model, invested time daily with God in prayer. It was through prayer that his relationship with God existed. He was always in touch with God. Remember God is always there and longs to be part of our daily lives: even the parts that are not the best.
“Lord, teach us to pray.” Jesus made prayer so personal. He made the extraordinary, ordinary for us so we would be encouraged to pray.
The example is the Lord’s Prayer. God is to be honored. We have a role in God’s kingdom, here now on earth. We have daily needs. As we are forgiven let us learn to forgive. I sin and I need help to avoid sin, to avoid evil. This is the prayer of an honest man or woman talking to God who already knows their hearts. (Lu 11:1-4)
We can pray for another person. When we reach out to touch the Lord on their behalf, miracles happen. Lives are changed. Relationships are healed. Forgiveness is real. There is a miracle within a miracle.
“In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:4-9) I need the miracle of healing my troubled spirit, my grieving heart, my anxiety. I need peace that passes understanding. I need to reach out. We are saved but we need the miracle of God’s peace; now: A miracle within a miracle.
While we read the Bible sacred moments happen: miracles occur. Jesus tells us “if we continue in his word we are truly his disciples and we will know the truth, and the truth will make us free." (John 8:31-32) Will we reach out for this? I want it. What a miracle to know the truth; to be free.
When we are together we reach out and touch others. When we allow ourselves to be instruments of grace the Lord can bless them and heal them a miracle within a miracle.
Both the Old and New Testaments teach fasting. Fasting is not doing things of earth to allow time for us to reach out and touch things of God. Fasting is refraining from activities that hinder our relationship with God. We can fast from television, from complaining, or from anything in our crowded life that keeps us from God.
Generosity involves far more than money. Jesus invested time and energy in serving and helping others. He willingly sacrificed all power and position in heaven in order to take the lowest position of service. “The point is this (we are told): the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”
Being generous with others takes courage and it may cost us. It is not just waiting and maybe there will be a time, an opportunity. No, to be generous is more. To be generous means we desire to reach out. Times of confession, forgiveness, healing, and reconciliation are sacred moments. These experiences, at times private, and at other times public, are means of grace that restore us to physical and spiritual health. But they are hard. If we are just waiting the opportunity may never come. These acts take courage and require reaching out.
They are very personal. We are talking about sin, broken relations, failure to forgive, hate, pride. Any or all of these may have existed a long time (12 years or more?). They bleed us emotionally and spiritually. Some are so destructive our internal organs bleed from ulcers or even cancers. We find ourselves hemorrhaging.
All of us need healing and wholeness of some sort: spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, or relational. God wants to make us whole. He wants us to reach out.
“Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:13-20)
The ministry of healing belongs to the church. It is a gift of God. God calls us to reach and here, in the miracle of this woman, God demonstrates the importance of reaching.
The greatest touch is reconciliation; reconciliation with our creator and reconciliation among people. Healing is the great gift of God in his son Jesus. Jesus did not say who touched me and then healed her. No, when she touched him immediately she was healed. There was a miracle within a miracle.
As a part of your faith, desire to reach out. As an act of faith, determine to reach out. What did he tell her? “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
Being a Christian is not future tense. It is now. This is my body broken for you Jesus said. It has already taken place. He said this is my blood poured out for forgiveness of sin. It has already taken place. We can reach out, and touch the Lord, and be healed.
Let Christ say “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
Let Christ say “Son, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”