WHAT HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT JESUS?
Mark 5:25-34

A sermon given by the Rev. Richard H. Taylor
October 16, 2005 / 22nd Sunday of Pentecost

A few weeks ago I went to an event to discuss poverty and prejudice. One of the speakers got up and said he was not a Christian. He said he had spent a lot of time touring around the United States. He said he delighted in telling people he was not a Christian, a comment that he said caused surprise in many places. He went on, "Why would you want to be a Christian with all the wars they have started and all the people they have killed? Why would you want to be a Christian?"

I wonder about that.

Some American religious groups have been sending their evangelists into Iraq. Apparently they follow the troops, hand out candy to the children, and urge the Islamic faithful to convert to Christianity, the religion of the winners. It is not an unknown process in Middle Eastern religion. It goes well back before the Roman Empire. When Rome invaded Palestine they set up temples to the Roman gods. It was one of the things that got the Jews of Jesus' day angriest with the invading armies. Armies become tools of religious domination. To the victors belong the spoils, at least the appointments to government jobs. Religion follows power. So we go from Babylonia to Persia, to Alexander, to Rome, to the Crusades, to Iraq. Why would you want to be a Christian?

I once served a church where decades before an usher had told a visiting Black family that they were at the wrong Church, that their Church was down the street. That Black family remembered, and the whole Black community heard about it, and remembered it, and it cast a pall on the life of that congregation: one statement from one usher. Why would you want to be a Christian?

So today we have maybe nine people who say they want to be Christians. Why do you want to be a Christian?

I know when I listened to that speaker at that meeting a few weeks back thinking "don't blame Jesus for the people who have taken his name in vain." None of us like it when people take our name in vain, when people say things about us behind our back, things that might not be true. Lots of people have taken the name Christian. All kinds of people have claimed it. Some of them did okay. Some of them did rather well. But some failed miserably. And all of us have failed some of the time. Don't judge Jesus because of me. Let him stand on his own two feet.

Our text today is about a wonderful, faithful, devout woman. There are many things we can learn by learning her story. But when I read her story again I was caught by a line which seems to precipitate the whole story. Mark says "she had heard about Jesus."

The text is also a little despairing. It said "she had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all she had, and she was no better but rather grew worse." It is a story some of us know: sent from doctor to doctor, this expensive test, that expensive test, this medication that causes you to break out in a rash, that medication to cover the side effects of the other medication. And in those days they had bleeding and all kinds of quackery. And all of her money had gone on medical care, and she grew worse. I know a lot of people who are broke because of what they have spent on medical care. I noted in a sermon last summer about how the hospitals and medical services charge ten and twenty times more for similar procedures for uninsured patients than for those on insurance: spent everything, grew worse. I have known people in nursing homes: spent everything, grew worse.

But she had heard about Jesus.

What had she heard about Jesus? What was there in this message? What was it that brought her hope?

The class that Betsy and I are leading in the Beneficent Academy this fall is reading Jim Wallis's book God's Politics. The three central substantial parts of the book include rhetorical questions about Jesus. When did Jesus become pro-war? When did Jesus become pro-rich? When did Jesus become a selective moralist?

When did Jesus become pro-war? My Bible says that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. My Bible says that Jesus cried over the City, wishing that it knew the things that make for peace. My Bible says that Jesus taught that those who take the sword shall perish by the sword. When did Jesus become pro-war?

When did Jesus become pro-rich? My Bible says that Jesus had compassion on the hungry and told disciples to give them something to eat. My Bible quotes Mary as saying that in the birth of Jesus, God has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. My Bible says that Jesus tells the rich young ruler to give to the poor and come follow him. When did Jesus become pro-rich?

When did Jesus become a selective moralist? My Bible says that Jesus said he came to fulfill the law. My Bible says that Jesus told people he cared for to go and sin no more. My Bible says that Jesus instructed us to love one another as he has loved us. When did Jesus become a selective moralist?

You see you are likely to hear all kinds of things about Jesus. I shutter at what Iraqi people hear from the preachers who follow the troops. What have you heard about Jesus?

Yesterday at the program here on torture, one of the speakers quoted one of the witnesses to the Abu Gharib prisoner mistreatment in Iraq. The witness said that prisoners were told to curse Allah and to thank Jesus for being alive. What have you heard about Jesus?

Have you heard that he is an evil ogre who causes people to burn in hell forever? Have you heard that he is rigid ready always to punish, never to forgive? Have you heard that he is arbitrary, unlistening, aloof?

Oh, I'm thankful that that is not what our woman heard. Oh, I am thankful that there is another message about Jesus that was there to be heard.

What had she heard? She heard that he was healing. She heard that he was compassionate. She heard that he was life giving. She heard that in him there was hope.

And what she heard made all the difference. Because what she heard made her faithful. What she heard caused her to believe.

She said, all I have to do is just go to him, just be there, just touch the hem of his robe.

So there she is in the crowd: people talking to Jesus; people on the way to market, people squeezing through a narrow passage on the street. And here is this woman in the crowd full of hope. Here is this woman in the crowd full of faith. Here is this woman in the crowd sick and poor and yet believing, reaching out. Reaching out because of what she has been told.

And oh how I hope she is here this morning. Maybe you are she and she is you. Maybe what you have heard is hope. Maybe what you have heard is compassion. Maybe what you have heard is healing. Reach out. Reach out now. Your faith can make you well. Your hope can make you well. What you've heard can make you well.

If you have heard the right thing. What have you heard about Jesus? Have you heard about hope? I hope so! Have you heard about faith? Oh I pray you have. Have you heard about healing? May it be so for you, now and for eternity!

What have you heard about Jesus?

Only after you answer that question can I ask you the one that I asked at the beginning: why do you want to be a Christian?

I suspect all rests on this, what have you heard about Jesus?

Amen.