The gospel lesson that Patricia Farris read for us this morning from Mark is fairly lengthy. I know that long scripture readings are often prime times for checking out the stained glass windows or your neighbor’s outfit. Sometimes your mind wanders far away until you hear the phrase “the Word of God for the people of God,” at which time you quickly check your Order of Worship for what is coming up next. Trust me, I know, I’ve done it myself and sometimes I still do it today. So, if you are trying to remember exactly what was read, don’t worry. I am going to give you the Hollywood version of the story.

Scene I: Jesus is getting out of a boat on the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee. He finds himself surrounded by a huge crowd, because news of his miracles has circulated widely. Just as he is coming up the bank, the leader of the local synagogue, a man named Jairus, comes running up to Jesus and falls at his feet. Obviously distraught, Jairus begs Jesus to come immediately to his home where his little daughter is dying. “Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well,” he pleads. [Mark 5:23] So, Jesus begins to follow Jairus, along with this huge crowd of onlookers.

Scene II: As they are making their way to Jairus’ house, a woman is pushing her way through the crowd in an effort to get close to Jesus. We don’t know her name, but we can see by her appearance that she is sick and weak. She falls to her knees in the dirt. The crowd is surging all around her and she is at risk of getting trampled. Suddenly, she catches a glimpse of the miracle-worker she has heard so much about and reaches out to touch him. Immediately, Jesus stops, turns around, and asks, “Who touched my clothes” (Mark 5:30)? The disciples, totally exasperated by this question, say ‘How do we know? Look at this crowd!” But the woman, shaking with fear, falls down at Jesus feet, and confesses that it was she who touched his cloak. And Jesus says to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease”(Mark 5:34).

Scene III: After the delay caused by the healing of the woman, another group meets Jesus and delivers some bad news: you’re too late, Jesus, Jairus’ daughter is dead. But Jesus refuses to give up. He takes three of his closest followers?Peter, James and John?and continues on to the home of Jairus. When they arrive, they see a crowd of mourners gathered, weeping and wailing over the death of the little girl. Jesus tells them to stop crying, because the little girl is not dead; she is only sleeping. The crowd laughs at him, but Jesus is still undeterred. He tells the crowd to get out of the house, bringing in only the little girl’s parents and the three disciples. He goes to her bedside, takes her by the hand and says, “Little girl, get up” and she gets up and begins to walk around. Everyone in the room is frozen in amazement. Jesus tells them to not tell anyone and to get the little girl something to eat.

Now that’s a story! It’s got a great plot, suspense, interesting characters and lots of action. Let’s think about how we would cast this film. Of course, you first have to find an A-list actor to play Jesus. He has to be both strong and compassionate in this role, for Jesus wields his great powers with love and mercy. Not everyone can heal a woman who has been chronically ill for the last 12 years, and if that isn’t enough, raise a 12 year-old child from the dead. This role could land somebody an Oscar.

Then there are the supporting roles. We need a refined, solid type to play Jairus, the highly respected synagogue leader who is desperate to save his daughter. Normally, Jairus would not want to even be seen in the vicinity of Jesus, because Jesus is definitely not your mainstream Jew. But he is a father first, and he will do anything to save his 12 year-old daughter, including falling at the feet of this wandering miracle-worker and begging him to come to his house.

Then there is the part of the nameless woman suffering from a chronic hemorrhage over the last 12 years. We need somebody who can be vulnerable and yet portray a lot of inner strength for this role. She is the ultimate outsider in this scene. She has been judged to be ritually impure by Jewish law, unable to associate with anybody else in her community because of her condition. She is impoverished because she has spent all of her money searching for a cure. She is a woman in a patriarchal society, forbidden to address any man in public.

Then, of course, there are the smaller roles. We need some disciples. They only get one line, but it’s a good one. They need to have confused looks on their faces most of the time, because they usually have no idea what Jesus is doing and why he is doing it. We need a little girl to be raised from the dead; no lines, but a dramatic finale at the end of Scene III. And we need lots of extras for the crowd scenes. They just need to be excited by the mere presence of Jesus, the great healer from Nazareth. In fact, they are so excited that they don’t even see the suffering woman reaching out to touch Jesus. We also need some good scoffers who think Jesus is a real loony when he says the girl is just sleeping. That shouldn’t be too hard.

Many of you have heard me say in Bible study classes that the more I read the scripture, the more disturbed I become. In the past, I probably identified with Jairus or the woman, reaching out to Jesus and being healed because of my faith. But, if I were really honest, I would probably cast myself as one of those doubters in the crowd. I am more likely to be impatient, urging Jesus not to worry about whoever touched his clothes so he could get to Jairus’ house before that little girl dies. And, as much as I don’t want to admit it, I very well may have laughed at Jesus when he said the little girl was just sleeping. When we read stories from the Bible, we usually cast ourselves in the big starring roles, but usually we are the extras in real life.

Jesus usually does something radical in these healing stories, and these three scenes are no exception. Two healings take place for two very different people. One is for Jairus, who is definitely an “insider,” as the leader of the synagogue. The other is the unnamed woman, who is the “outsider,” as the unclean outcast of society. The thing that they have in common is their faith. They both take great risks to ask for help, with nothing to go on except reports that this Jesus of Nazareth possesses great healing powers. Over and over again, Jesus crosses the boundaries of class and ethnicity and gender to give new life to those in need.

Of course, it does take belief in a power greater than ourselves to accomplish this. It is easy to overlook the little story that follows this one. After Jesus finishes these miracles by the sea, he returns to his hometown synagogue in Nazareth and preaches about the miracles that God has performed through him. Yet his fellow worshippers take offense at his words and reject him. Mark records that “he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them” and that “he was amazed at their unbelief.” [Mark 6:5] Jesus’ power is activated by the risk of faith these people take.

One such risk-taker in today’s world was Dr. Carlo Urbani. Based in Vietnam, Dr. Urbani was an infectious disease specialist for the World Health Organization. Much of his work was based in Southeast Asia as he attempted to identify and control parasitic diseases that affected millions. This past February, Dr. Urbani was asked to look at a case of atypical pneumonia contracted by an American businessman in Hanoi. Dr. Urbani immediately determined that this was a new syndrome that required prompt action: patient isolation and high filter masks. He had diagnosed the first case of SARS. His quick diagnosis resulted in a worldwide health alert that has contained a potentially devastating epidemic. The risk he took, however, cost him his life. Because of his contact with SARS patients, Dr. Urbani contracted the disease himself and died on March 29, 2003. He was 46 years old. When his wife voiced her concern about working with SARS patients, he replied, “If I cannot work in such situations, what am I here for?answering e-mails, going to cocktail parties and pushing paper?”

That is the kind of risk taking Jesus calls us to do. He is willing to cross boundaries to touch us, but we must be willing to cross those boundaries, too. It takes more than just words to express such belief?it takes action. I can say proudly that this congregation has taken action to heal others in our community. I have mentioned to you before the work of our Health Ministry, under the leadership of our Health Ministry nurse, Mary Jo Dalton, and council chair, Dr. Pat Hassakis. This ministry provides so much to our congregation and community: follow-up care for those who have been recently hospitalized, educational seminars, blood pressure screenings, and the annual flu clinic, just to name a few. We are truly blessed to have this ministry, most churches do not. There is another ministry I want you to know about that is often overlooked: the intercessory prayer group and prayer chain. There are currently 19 lay people who comprise this group, led by Libbie Ranslem, Robin Henning and Mary Lois Roney. Every week, many of you send us prayer requests for yourselves, your family and your friends. The information you provide is treated with great sensitivity and confidentiality. Every one of these requests is forwarded to the prayer chain where these lay people pray for each of you by name.

From the obituary of Carlo Urbani by Lorenzo Savioli, The Guardian, April 21, 2003.

© Greg L. Batson, 2003. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution. All other rights reserved.