Sermon on Mark 5:21-43, 5th Sunday after Pentecost, "We Need Jesus"
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Much is familiar to us in the Gospel reading today. The experience of families who wrestle with the terminal illness and the death of a child. The experience of individuals with chronic disease, incurable by doctors, growing progressively worse while money runs out. The experience of suffering and death by those inside the church community, and the isolation and loneliness of those experiencing the same outside the church community. The wish to remain invisible in the crowd, or the urgency to get Jesus’ help quickly and without delay. They are all familiar emotions to those who struggle with the daily challenges of life, with faith and prayer to God. Even the experience of being mocked for believing that death is not final, holding out hope against all despair, that Jesus can deliver us even from death. Jesus, who is at the center of it all, does not behave as the people there that day expect or necessarily...