Hanging By a Thread | Lamentations 3:22–33 | Mark 5:21–43 | The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
June 27, 2021 | 10:45 a.m.
The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Communion will be celebrated during this service. If you plan to visit with us, please read our communion statement.
READINGS
Lamentations 3:22–33
Psalm 30:1-12
Corinthians 8:1–9, 13–15
Mark 5:21–43
Message presented by Rev. Frank C. Ruffatto
+Points to ponder
- How can we help our fellow Christians who feel like they are ‘hanging by a thread’ or ‘at the end of their rope’?
- What does Jesus (in Mark’s reading) do with people who approach Him in faith?
- Can you think of a time that you, ‘hanging by a thread’ cried out to Christ with confidence He would answer?
+Sermon Transcript
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto each of you from God our Father and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: O God, Your never-failing love sets in order all things both in heaven and on earth: Put away from us all hurtful things, and give us those things which are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord; Amen.
Theodore Roosevelt is purported to have once said, “When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.” This sounds like the good old American, ‘you can do it’, ‘hang in there’ attitude, no time for worry, for fretting, for faltering. Yet, sayings like Roosevelt’s so often come at those exact times of our faltering our floundering, and our fretting. But to what end?
Similarly, we have the rare instance of a reading from Jeremiah’s book of Lamentations – and it is largely an encouragement as opposed to a lament. We hear Jeremiah proclaim: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
This is significant as Lamentations, as the name indicates, is full of grief and laments and woes. Yet our text for this morning has a strong message of hope and confidence in the LORD. In the overall context of Lamentations this text stands out as a breath of fresh air, or perhaps more accurately, words of relief after so much grim and gloomy lamenting!
Jeremiah is a well-known, even famous, “lamenter” in Holy Scripture. His prophetic book, Jeremiah, breaks into lament on a regular basis.
But here is the rub. Different from our American sensibilities that one who is struggling, doubting, fretting, is one who is lacking faith and needs to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps - it is important to remember that to “lament” does not demonstrate a lack of faith. In fact, the opposite is true.
To lament is an act of faith! One does not complain to the One they do not believe in. Truthfully, one does not complain to the One who has no power to change the course of things either. After all, what would be the point? For a Hebrew, lamenting is considered an act of faith. Our reading in Jeremiah follows a long litany of lament with beautiful words of grace. In Hebrew, the word used to express all of this is חֶסֶד (kheh-sed) “Grace; mercy; steadfast love; undeserved forgiveness; covenantal faithfulness,” all wrapped up in one word.
And here, I think of another prophet, Isaiah, who in chapter six of his work relates an encounter He has with the Lord. With the train of the Lord’s robe filling the temple, and the foundations shaking, and the angels crying, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts …’ Isaiah laments, “Woe is me, for I am unraveling because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Isaiah, in the presence of Christ and His absolute holiness, comes undone. Like a sweater that is pulled by a thread and completely comes apart. But the Lord provides for his lament too: “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Jeremiah and Isaiah, hanging by a thread are enveloped by the חֶסֶד (kheh-sed), the steadfast love of the LORD.
How often have you felt that you were at the end of your rope, hanging by a thread, becoming unraveled?
Parenting teens and preteens who in a world engulfed in a culture blown about by the latest whim, a culture which cannot tell the difference between a man and a woman, it is no wonder they find faith to be defined by the self if to be considered at all. Not to mention the kids coming home from college with a paper that says they know it all and we are to be relegated to the knick-knack shelf. Woe is me! I am unraveling. We lament as we yearn for our children to return to the Ark of the Church and to hold fast to the faith for which Christ died and rose again.
Hanging by a thread – maybe work has become one step forward, three steps back as the panic of the pandemic dissipates and the challenges of a tepid economy and a dearth of leadership has us at the end of our ropes – hanging by a thread.
And so, it is not only parents of teenagers or young adults, of course. It is the septuagenarian couple and their facing the need for long time care and constant care. It is the council of the small congregation who cannot find the members who slipped away during the pandemic.
It turns out most of us know the feeling. There is no way to catch a break. It is impossible to get ahead of the curve. You are hanging on by a thread.
And here, we are confronted with our Gospel lesson where we find three such people.
There is the little girl who stood at the end of her short life. Mark does not get into the details. He says nothing about the severity of her suffering or how long she has been sick. All we know is she is only twelve years old, and she is at the point of death. She is hanging on by a thread.
Then there is her dad. Like any parent whose child is sick, he is desperate to find someone who can help. Fighting his way through the great crowd, he finally reaches Jesus. With nothing but a lament and a cry for mercy, he falls at Jesus’ feet and begs him to heal her. He is hanging on by a thread.
Then, there is the woman beset by a condition of bleeding. Suffering has been her constant companion for as long as the little girl has been alive. She has been through twelve years of seeking doctors, twelve years of spending all she has, twelve years with nothing to show but more pain and empty pockets. She is hanging on by a thread.
All three were desperate. All three had great need. All three were hanging on by a thread.
It is not a secure position. Unless, of course, the thread on which you are hanging is connected to Jesus. That is how it was for the people in our text. Metaphorically for Jairus, and literally for the woman, the thread to which they reached out was wrapped around the Son of God.
Reasoning that even Jesus’ clothes could help her, the woman touched His threads and found healing. Believing Jesus had the power to heal his daughter, Jairus reached out to Jesus and fell at His feet. The little girl simply heard Him speak and was restored to life.
Each of them found the help they needed in Jesus. In doing so, they offer us tangible images of saving faith.
The nature of saving faith is it looks to (and listens to) Jesus for salvation. The woman was not healed by the act of touching Jesus’ garment because He was wearing a powerful relic. It was her faith which made the difference. As Jesus comforted her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.”
This same faith led Jairus to fight through the crowds and beg Jesus for help. In both cases, the person in need had heard about Jesus and looked to Him. Both believed He had the ability and the willingness to save, and both received what they sought. He healed the woman. He raised the little girl. He saw their faith and He acted to save.
I know that some of us still hang by a thread – we find ourselves at the end of our ropes – this can be a good thing if we have the right focus – if we live by faith.
Jeremiah reminds us: “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord… For the Lord will not cast off forever … He will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.”
Beloved, we live by faith as we gather together around Word and Sacrament counting on the promises of Jesus and His steadfast love for His people. We hang on those promises – even when it is only by a thread.
Beloved, He has promised healing – if not now, then when He returns. He has promised resurrection – as He raised Jairus’ daughter in our text and as He Himself rose on Easter morning.
Beloved, let the knot at the end of your rope, let the thread by which you hang be Jesus – continue to hold on to Him, cling to Him in faith and in confidence, cry out to Him for help and trust that in His life, death, and resurrection He has come for you; and when He returns, He returns for you. Until then we hang on that thread of faith in the One who loves us. Amen.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”