June 28 - Pentecost + 4

I've been lax on posting my sermons so far this summer. My apologies!
I haven't been writing out my sermons in a "manuscript" form this summer. We are worshiping together on Wednesday nights, using the coming Sunday's readings. Because of the different setting & atmosphere, I have been experimenting with just preaching from notes - both on Wed. night and Sunday mornings. So, the sermons for the coming several weeks will not be like reading one of my usual sermons. The basic ideas are there, but you'll really have to connect the dots for yourselves in order to make sense of the transitions, and so on.

Also, it dawned on me today that if you aren't in church, you won't have just heard the reading the sermon is about. You may or may not have a Bible handy to look it up either, which would make this even more difficult to follow. So, you can click on the passage & it should take you to the passage, if I've done it right.

If you're reading this, let me know how these sermons in note form are working for you... Thanks!

Jesus Is Never Too Busy to Save
Mark 5:21-43
Pentecost +4 - June 24 & 28, 2009

Ghost Town – Bertram who wakes up from colonoscopy to realize he sees dead people
And apparently, he's the only one who can; they want his help
Crowd around him, pestering him night & day to take messages to the living


Scene from gospel like Ghost Town
People crowding around Jesus, knowing he's the only one who can help them, pressing to get close, telling them their stories
1 woman is like a ghost, who no one else can see anymore
12 years of hemorrhaging;
Medicine has failed; religion pushed her away; society ignores her
So used to being invisible she doesn't even dare to ask Jesus, just sneaks up on him in the crowd to touch his cloak

How often have we felt like that; invisible, alone, desperate, hope almost gone

Or maybe you feel more like Jairus
A man w/ status & position, but none of it can help his little girl
Comes to Jesus, falls at his feet, and begs for help
And when Jesus comes, he gets interrupted along the way
stops to help this nameless, insignificant woman

Ever felt like you were begging repeatedly for help, waiting for it to come, wondering what the delay is, feeling like time is running out?

Or maybe that in all the prayers God gets, God can't respond to yours right away?
God too busy? We are too insignificant?


Jesus is not Bertram!
For most of the movie, Bertram doesn't want anything to do with any of the ghosts who need his help
But we learn from this story that Jesus cares about each & every one of us
Never too busy
No one is invisible to him; no one's needs go unnoticed

Jesus stops to find out who the woman is; could've kept on moving; but takes the time to find her, hear her story and offer her healing, peace, new life!

And we learn that it's never too late with Jesus
There is always enough time; even when it seems time has run out & all hope is gone
Jesus says, “Do not fear, only believe”
Jesus heals Jairus' daughter; he touches her & raises her from the dead

Do not fear, only believe
believe in the one who will stop everything to find you
believe in the one for whom no situation is too desperate, for whom it is never too late
Believe in Jesus and come to him – receive the hope and healing only he can give.

Amen.