Fr. Chris Yaw, rector of St. David's Episcopal Church in Southfield, Michigan encourages us to never, never give up.
Never, Never, Give Up
My friend Jackie is a brilliant attorney.
She breezed through law school, got an important job at a white shoe law firm, and immediately carved out a reputation as a dependable, intelligent, and hard working lawyer.
But after she married and settled down, for some reason, a deep, dark, depression began to settle in.
She went to her doctor, received medication and began seeing a psychologist.
Initially, the tide was stemmed, but not completely, and her descent into the dark abyss continued.
Jackie had to leave her job.
More than once she checked herself into a psychiatric hospital.
But she continued to read up on her condition, making suggestions to her doctors about new treatments and new medications, and doing all she could do to get better.
But she kept suffering - at one point, in the throes of her despondency she became suicidal and utterly convinced that everything was lost, and that life was no longer worth living.
But she fought off those voices, she kept up her regimen of doctor visits and medication changes, and somehow, some way, by the grace of God - Jackie, who's a woman of deep faith, did not give up.
And then, all of a sudden, one day - the fog began to lift.
“I’m not completely sure what happened,” she told me, “but one good day turned into another. The bad days were getting better and the good days were as well.”
Today, if you met Jackie you would have no inkling she’d gone through this.
But if you press her, you would very soon be inspired by the depth of her faith - with her resolve - to never, never give up.
--------------
This is like what we see in today’s Gospel - with the woman with the issue of blood - and with Jairus, the father of the dead little girl. These are people whose story of resolve is meant to speak to you and me today.
If Jesus shows us anything in these two stories, it's that even someone who's been painfully sick for 12 years, even somebody who has died, has not gone past the pale of possibility when God is involved - they have not exhausted the power of God - to turn absolutely hopeless situations around - and to save the day for you and me.
------
It makes me wonder about the hopeless situations you and I are facing this morning.
What is it for you?
Will our jobs improve?
Will our marriages improve?
Will our health improve?
Will our nation survive?
Will we ever be truly happy?
The God we read about this morning has a particular slant - and suggests possibility not impossibility, viability not inviability, feasibility not infeasibility.
We serve a God who’s particularly bent on helping us.
It’s curious that the Gospels don’t contain any stories that portray Jesus as lacking compassion, mercy, care, or deep love for us - and especially for the suffering, marginalized, and distressed.
We don't hear stories like this:
‘One day Jesus came to a sick person and said: “I’m not healing you because you ate way too many desserts - and that diabetes you have is all your fault.”’
We don’t hear Jesus say: ‘I really would like to heal that broken arm, but that’s what you for being such a jerk to your wife.”'
We don’t hear Jesus say: ‘I’m not going to take away that arthritis until you learn to be nice to your kids. Can’t you see I’m teaching you a lesson here!?”’
No, we never hear Jesus talk to us the way we talk to ourselves.
God is kind, thoughtful, caring and gentle, - much more loving and understanding than we are to ourselves - and that we can possibly imagine.
God’s not out to work against us - but with us.
------
Sometimes I wonder about the form of organization at work in the Kingdom of God: What’s it look like? Who’s in charge? How does it operate?
We often get the sense that the Kingdom of God is a dictatorship, that God sets the agenda, sets the course of the world, and then rules with an iron fist.
Or that God runs things like a free market capitalist - letting the forces at play dictate the course of events, while God stands on the sidelines, watching and taking notes, but not doing anything.
Or that God has set up a partnership - that God is actively involved in the world - and in our lives.
The scriptures suggest that God has exalted us, promoted us, and allowed us to work with the Holy Spirit who was sent on our behalf - to act as partners.
Remember brothers and sisters - Jesus called us his friends.
Jesus anointed disciples to go do his work in his name - with him alongside in the form of the holy Spirit - and with the same anointing we received at our baptisms - which allows us to make certain decisions, determine certain courses, and actually have a say in how worldly affairs are conducted.
It's this last scenario - this partnership with God - that's at play here, as you and I see the active role that both Jairus and the woman with the issue of blood take to arrive at their respective results.
-------------
Take the woman with the issue of blood - having suffered for 12 years - having spent all her money on doctors with nothing to show for it:
And she’s not at home complaining about her condition -
She’s not cursing God for making her sick -
She’s not resigned to the fact that things will never get better.
No.
She’s out and about actively looking for God.
Not for one week, one month, or one year: but for 12 long years!
She’s hopeful.
She’s faithful.
And at the end of the day she’s healed.
What does that say to you and me?
How are we behaving with the bad hand we’ve been dealt - because nobody has a perfect hand.
I was listening to a rich man the other day -
He was complaining about his yacht.
It seems that he was late contacting the marina in St. Bart’s - and it’s only so big - and now he has no place to park his yacht for the winter.
Boy was he mad - and disappointed - and in a bad mood.
Now not finding a place to park your yacht for the winter might not be your specific dilemma - but it goes to remind us that we always have something to complain about, we always have something to get angry about, we always have a reason to give up.
But what we see in the witness of this suffering yet faithful woman is that she never, never, gave up.
-----
Or take Jairus.
He was suffering more than his daughter, which any parent out there understands quite intimately, as everyone of you would take a bullet for your kid.
And we don't see him resigned to the doctor's opinion that there's no hope.
We don't hear of him consulting the funeral director or ordering the headstone.
What we see is that Jairus, a leader of the temple, whose leadership was full of suspicion and derogatory opinions about Jesus, willing to go against the tide, and reach out to Jesus.
Sure he was desperate, but he was also determined, hopeful, and unwilling to ever, ever, give up.
-----
I have a friend who gained a lot of weight after college, the combination of bad eating and no exercise. He didn't do anything about it for years until one day, when he decided that he would.
He talks about the first time he strapped on his running shoes and went out for a run, which was actually more of a walking shuffle. And he talks about young kids on a playground that he passed who stopped and pointed at him, he knew what they were laughing at.
Then, four months later he talks about how proud he was to be able to pick up the pace, and actually begin to jog, when a group of junior high girls kept lapping him at the park, giggling under their breath. He knew what they were laughing at.
And then, four months later, when he was able to actually run, he talks about getting lapped at the senior center.
I heard him tell all those stories a few years after that - from the winner's circle after the Los Angeles Marathon, where he took first place in his age group.
His message runs parallel to what we've been hearing this morning, and that is no matter what challenge, what difficulty, what heartache you and I are facing this morning, let's not give up.
Like the woman with the issue of blood and that devoted parent Jairus: Let's not throw in the towel, give up hope, or entertain the possibility of failure.
You and I are in partnership with God, we know our Lord walks beside us, encouraging us with words of healing and hope. As we leave this place, how can we listen more openly to those words, and how can we echo those words to a hurting world around us?
Let us go forth, serving a God who never, never, gives up.
Amen.