Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Weekly sermons from our Central Lutheran Church preaching team plus quick reflections from Pastor Ryan Braley.
Real talk, ancient wisdom, and honest questions — all designed to help you learn, grow, and find encouragement when you need it most.
At Central, our mission is simple: FOLLOW Jesus together, be a community where you BELONG, and LOVE our neighbors across the street and around the world.
Think deeper. Live freer. Share an episode with a friend and visit us in person anytime — you’re always welcome here in Elk River, MN.
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Who Touched Me? with Pastor Ryan Braley
In this episode, Pastor Ryan unpacks the powerful story of the bleeding woman in the Gospels—the moment she reaches out to touch Jesus’ garment and is instantly healed. What seems like a simple act of desperation is actually a profound display of faith, courage, and restoration.
Ryan explores how Jesus’ question, “Who touched me?”, isn’t about ignorance but about bringing her healing into the light—transforming private pain into public restoration. This story reveals what it means to be truly seen, named, and included by Jesus.
Whether you’ve ever felt overlooked, unworthy, or on the margins, this episode reminds us that faith connects us to the power of Christ and that His response is always to restore, not to shame.
Join us! Facebook | Instagram | www.clcelkriver.org
Amen. Thank you, greta. Let's pray this morning. God, we give you thanks for your presence here this morning with us and we ask, as always, god, that you would come and open our eyes and our ears and our hearts and all the ways that we need it so desperately. God, we just confess this morning that, god, we need you and we ask for your spirit to lead us and guide us, help us to think creatively about this passage and this question that Jesus asks of this woman. Think creatively about this passage and this question that Jesus asks of this woman, and may you help us to be people who ask great questions. And we pray these things in your holy and precious name. Amen. How many of you be seated Morning everyone. How we doing Good? Hey, we are in the middle, actually middle the beginning. We just started last week. We're in the second week of our sermon series called. This Isn't Rhetorical and if you were here last week, great. If you weren't, you should go back and we're going to examine.
Speaker 1:Jesus asks over 300 questions in the Gospels. I love that about Jesus. So rabbinical thing to do. Rabbis and Jesus was a rabbi, jewish rabbi, rabbis would ask questions as a way of inviting the listeners, the hear, hear us into a wrestling match, into a conversation and dialogue. Remember, in the rabbinical tradition, in the Jewish story, truth wasn't passed down as sort of a propositional truth statement just to be memorized. Truth was to be discovered, to be wrestled with, to be dialogued over and discussed around tables and, you know, along walks and around fires at night, and these kinds of it was a part of their very fabric, of their very lives. And so Jesus is, of course, behaving like a Jewish rabbi in the ancient world when he asks a bunch of questions. I love that. Last week we talked about Jesus when he asks the disciples, the first two that come to follow him, he turns around and says hey, what are you seeking after? What do you want? What do you desire? This week is a different one, and so I love a good question and I mentioned this last week but and I'm convinced that you and I are two or three questions away with anybody from something very interesting. I'll say that again I think you and I are two, maybe three questions away with anybody from something extremely interesting. The problem is you and I don't ever ask the question. Many of us, unfortunately, are too absorbed in our own lives and our own stories. We don't really think about other people.
Speaker 1:But I was at Starbucks a couple of years ago and I finally one of the times I got it right was I was in Starbucks getting my coffee and it was early. I hadn't had my coffee yet, and so when I haven't had coffee, if I do my best to not be a grouch or crabby until I get it. So I was trying to just hold on by a thread until I got my coffee and and um, but I was getting my coffee and the woman at the at the counter gives me the coffee and I go oh hey, how are you? I'm trying to be polite, you know I hadn't had my coffee. I'm like what's the most low hanging? And she goes I'm okay. And it was one of those moments where I'm like, oh, I noticed what she said, how she said it.
Speaker 1:My professor at Luther always said we should have a good ear for the confession. Now, sometimes the confession sounds like, oh, I've been struggling with anger. Again, that's a confession. But sometimes the confession sounds like somebody who says I'm okay. And so again, in one of the moments I got it right, I said oh, you don't sound okay, what's going on and then that's two questions in. She goes well, actually I'm not doing so well. I said, oh, can I ask what's wrong? What's happening? I was waiting for my coffee Because actually my husband just got diagnosed with cancer yesterday. Oh yeah, okay, so now we can talk Three in and, uh, I'm like how many. So after talking with her, I'm like how many times have I been in this situation? I'm just mystics. I didn't ask the questions. So Jesus was a wonderful question asker, and I think many times he would ask a question just to get some things to pull on this thread in this person's life, to go on an adventure with them and see where it took them. I think this story is just such a story for this woman and also for us, the readers, to be asked this question and go on this adventure down the road, down the rabbit hole, to see where it takes us. So that's what we're going to do. Are you ready?
Speaker 1:Here's the scene Jesus and his followers just got off of the boat. They were over across the lake in a place called the Gerasenes. It's like a. It's like a, a Gentile part of the lake, and he casts out some demons out of this demoniac man, it's this crazy story. Go back and read it just prior to this. And they come back and when they land on this side of the lake the Jewish side of the lake there's a whole crowd of people waiting for Jesus and immediately you can tell it's this crowded place. There's people everywhere. They want to see Jesus and talk to him, and he gets up the boat and there they are.
Speaker 1:Now this is also what we call a sandwich story. So see if you can notice this, there's a story that begins and then it's interrupted by another story and then the first story ends at the end. So you have like a sandwich. You have the part one of story one and you have story two that interrupts it and then part two of story one that ends. And the gospel writers all three of them, do this. They're like hey, read this, both stories together, notice the differences, notice the similarities. They call it a sandwich story. Fair enough, okay, I'm not going to tell you all the answers, you've got to find them for yourself. But this is a sandwich story. Notice the differences, notice the similarities. So here's how it begins.
Speaker 1:Jesus shows up. By the way we're calling this sermon. Who Touched Me? That's the question that Jesus asks who touched me? Now here's what happens. They show up on the lake, off the lake, and there comes thisibles. It's on page eight.
Speaker 1:I want you to follow along a little bit and I want to ask you a few questions. 841 on the right side. We're gonna go Luke. It's in all three of the synoptic gospels, but synoptic meaning there's Matthew, mark and Luke. They read very similarly John's doing his own thing. So it's very different. But so Luke, eight page 841 on the bottom right there, page 841 on the bottom right there, and you see if you can notice the sandwich story. But so read along with me.
Speaker 1:So just then, this guy named what's his name? Jairus. He's a synagogue leaver, so he's a prominent man, he's well known, he's named and everything. And he shows up and he comes, he falls at Jesus' feet, begins to plead with him to come to his house, for he has a daughter who's about 12 years old and she's dying. So Jesus, of course, like yeah, I'll do that, let's go.
Speaker 1:So they get ready, they're moving along this road, wherever they are, and they're going to head to Jairus' house. Jairus, who's a synagogue leader, has a 12-year-old daughter and she's sick and he needs Jesus' help. There's crowds pressing in all around Jesus' point as they head over to Jairus' house. In fact it says this Well, actually I'll get there in a minute. So there's crowds everywhere and if you can imagine this whole scene, they're going to Jairus' house. There's people everywhere and they're pressing in on him on both sides.
Speaker 1:The text says and then the story is interrupted. Something happens on the way to Jairus' house and here's what happens. It says now this woman comes up behind him and she touches the fringe of his cloak I love that. She grabs, like the hem of his garment, the edge of his prayer shawl and touches Jesus. Now, imagine this scene. You can hear the noise, you can sense the pressure all around Jesus. There's people everywhere. You can even smell the I don't know the animals in the area, the body odor you probably can smell in this part. And this invisible woman comes up and touches him and he says this hey, who touched me? So they're going to Jairus' house. They stop and he's like hey, who touched me?
Speaker 1:And immediately the Jairus story is interrupted and Peter, who isn't always the smartest guy, not always the sharpest knife in the drawer, he kind of nails this one. He says this I love it. He's like Master, there's people everywhere pressing against you. What do you mean? Who touched you? In other words, dude, everybody's touching you. What are you talking about? I love this story. You can imagine there's people everywhere and this woman sneaks up behind Jesus and she touches him. Well, jesus responds. Jesus says this. He's like yeah, I know that, I know there's people everywhere, but somebody's touched me because I noticed that power has gone out from me and I feel the disciples are like whoa. And in fact, matthew checked Jesus' Oura Ring app and his Apple Health. Yeah, something sucked out of him right in that moment. Something happened.
Speaker 1:By the way, the word here in the Greek is the word dynamis. Everyone say dynamis Sound like any English words. We know Dynamite. That's the word for power. So dynamite is Okay. Who knows who? This is Nobody, because I I I'm in the stars tonight. Nobody knows dynamite. A couple you're embarrassed to admit. Okay, we had a bet in the back that you would know this song. This is BTS, this K-pop band, dynamite. If I played it, you would recognize it. Fine for you guys. This is your. Okay, fine, dynamite. Fine, fine, try to have a little fun. But nobody wants to have any fun with me. Go home and on your apple music or whatever you use, spotify, uh, do dynamite bt. You'll recognize this song.
Speaker 1:Okay, point is there's like this explosion out of, I imagine like this explosion out of jesus, like something happens that's different than all the other folks touching him. When she touches him, power goes out of him. You know, it's like this dynamite explosion, something that happens in between this man and Jesus, or this woman and Jesus. He expends a certain amount of energy. By the way, don't be surprised. If you're doing ministry, if you're a greeter, or if you're a scripture reader, if you're a piano player whatever your things are that you do here, if you're loving scripture reader, if you're a piano player, whatever your things are that you do here if you're loving your neighbor, if you're loving your enemies, if you're praying for those who persecute you, it will cost you energy. I'm just telling you that. This is why Sabbaths are super important, these kinds of things to restore energy. Sonia, by the way, is on her two-month sabbatical. It's a Sabbath of rest and communion with God in order to recharge. She'll be back next Sunday, by the way, but so keep praying for him so he feels something go out of him.
Speaker 1:Now he asked the question who touched me? Now, maybe he didn't know, maybe he's just like just curious, well, who touched me? I felt something, but who was it? I don't even know what's going on, maybe, or maybe there's something else happening with this question. Or maybe there's something else happening with this question. Maybe Jesus knows something that we don't know, or that the disciples don't know, or the woman doesn't know. Maybe he knows some things and he wants to kind of pull on this thread. As I mentioned earlier, remember, there's a lot of meaning or a lot of words or questions in the text that have multiple layers of meaning. That calls polysemy, not polygamy, but polysemy. There's multiple layers to these words that Jesus uses, or multiple layers of the questions that he asks. And I wonder if this is an example of polysemy, where he's like hey, who touched me? But he's asking a deeper question. He's getting at something deeper than just who was the touch thing.
Speaker 1:It's a chaotic scene, you can imagine. There's people everywhere, all around him, touching him, pressing him on all sides, and they're going. Whose house are they going to? Jairus' house. He's the synagogue leader. They're going to Jairus' house and there's this invisible person that comes up behind him sneakily, like a ninja, grabs the hem of his garment, the edge of his prayer shawl Maybe some scholars would say the tzitzit, which is those little frays that hang off the edge of his prayer shawl and grabs him. And Jesus can't see who it is. He doesn't know who it is, allegedly, and no one around them knows who it was. Nobody knows who it was, ah, but we do. We know who it is.
Speaker 1:Look at your bible. It's a bleeding woman. We know who it is because the story tells us a woman bleeding. For how many years? 12 years now.
Speaker 1:Women in the ancient near east you probably know this already. But uh, women were. Legally, they were restricted what they could do with the law. They couldn't do much. Legally and socially they were marginalized in almost every way women were. And economically they were very vulnerable and religiously they were limited what they could do. Most of their value and worth came from their family of origin or from their childbearing. So you have this woman who's been bleeding for 12 years and her name is what's her name? I forget. Would you look up in the 841? What's her name? I forgot what it was. Sorry guys, what is it? It doesn't say Hmm. So this invisible woman bleeding for 12 years I don't want to put her name in there because I don't know who cares, touches the hem of his garment and he feels power go out of him. How many years was she bleeding for? Yeah, 12.
Speaker 1:Now, 12 is a significant number in the Hebrew Bible and in the Jewish story. In the Christian story, 12 is, of course, the number of tribes of Israel, the people whom God chooses to bless the whole world, the 12 tribes. 12 is the number of disciples that Jesus sort of gathers around him. He had more than that, but it's the 12. He talks about a lot, as if to say this mission I began with Israel to bless the world, to redeem and renew the world. That began in the tribes of Israel. I'm going to renew it in this new covenant community with his disciples. And then you have this woman who's been bleeding for how many years Now? This is a sign that this covenant community will look like this. Watch what happens. I'm going to show you, I'm going to put on display what outreach from God looks like, what a covenant community looks like, when God is trying to restore and renew the world.
Speaker 1:By the way, how old was Jairus' daughter? Oh, okay, all right now. Also, by the way, how old was Jesus? When he goes to the temple, he's younger. He gets lost. He's apparently lost and he goes and hangs out at the temple. They find him there. How old were? We told that he was. Oh, that's funny, isn't it? So it's a very significant number that Jesus is sort of playing on here in the story once again.
Speaker 1:Twelve, and here's the deal about this woman. She's been bleeding for 12 years Now. We know in Leviticus, levitical law, that this actually makes her ceremonially unclean. Here's the law. I'm going to read the whole thing because it's quite radical, so pay attention. It says this is in Leviticus, so this is old Jewish law.
Speaker 1:When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at the time other than her monthly period anybody uncomfortable this morning it's in the Bible and it's just basic biology or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has this discharge, just as in the days of her period. Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during the period. Anything that she sits on will be unclean During her period. Anyone who touches them will be unclean. They must wash their clothes and bathe with water. They'll be unclean until the evening. You get the idea.
Speaker 1:She's unclean in every single way. Ceremonially unclean, that means that religiously she's restricted. She can't go into any religious gathering. Socially, she's isolated. You can't go near people when you're unclean. Ceremonially speaking. Economically, she's probably bankrupt. It's been 12 years she's bankrupting and physically, I imagine this woman is exhausted. In other words, she's desperate for somebody to help her. 12 years, you guys Bleeding, and she sneaks through this crowd to touch Jesus. Now in Mark's gospel we'll read more about her. Mark tells us that she'd suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had. Yet instead of getting better, her condition only grew worse After 12 years.
Speaker 1:I have a good friend who has this condition called endometriosis and she was explaining it to me and it's this extremely painful thing that happens mostly, if not predominantly, in women. It's this feminine disease that you have and it affects your organs and high levels of pain. And she was saying that, yeah, 50, even 50 to 100 years ago, there were many cases of women who had things like this endometriosis that doctors didn't know how to explain it or didn't bother to explain or get too down in the weeds on it and these were thought to be crazy and they would commit them to mental hospitals. They called it female hysteria. Can you imagine that's 50 years ago, you guys? Hysteria. Can you imagine that's 50 years ago, you guys? They were undiagnosed and they were considered crazy because they'd had this pain that no one knew how to fix it. And they called it well, it's just female hysteria and let's throw them into a mental hospital.
Speaker 1:This woman, desperate, bankrupt, isolated, excluded in every way. And yet she says this. When she heard about Jesus, she thought to herself as she comes behind him if I could just touch his clothes, I'll be healed. If I could just grab his clothes, I think that God could heal me. Something could happen if I only could touch his clothes. And the text tells us that she was healed. When was she healed? Immediately I dig that Immediately. Jesus didn't even know it. Now here's the deal Because she's unclean.
Speaker 1:Anything she touches you read that Leviticus passage anything will become unclean. That's how the directionality goes. The unclean things make the clean things unclean. I'll say that again, just so you can follow here. The unclean things make the clean things unclean. So anybody she touches will now become unclean and she's touching a lot of people, because there's people everywhere, like Peter says, and so she's making all of them unclean.
Speaker 1:I was in Thailand. In Thailand, the Buddhist monks there, when they walk down the street in their orange robes, everybody parts ways because they can't be touched, especially by women. That's how their culture works. So everyone just sort of parts like a sea because of the same kind of thing, this ritual cleanliness. And so she makes a lot of people unclean, including Jesus.
Speaker 1:Ah, but notice what Jesus does. He sort of flips the script. Jesus never becomes unclean, does he? No, he makes her clean. So in the old story the unclean thing makes the clean things unclean, but in the story that Jesus is telling and putting on display, he makes the unclean thing clean. He's reversing this old story. He's not affected by her uncleanliness Doesn't affect him in any way, not at all. It's like he just sort of like bounces right off of him, in fact, the old law. He reverses the curse of the old law. Now, this is later, but in Galatians, paul beautifully writes this by the way, jesus with him, the sickness ends with Jesus, it stops. It doesn't keep going, it stops. Now, I love this.
Speaker 1:Paul in Galatians writes this. He says Christ. Now this is way after this story, but Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. When she touches him, he becomes unclean, but somehow he reverses it and he undoes it. Cursed is everyone. This is an old law too. Cursed is everyone who's hung on a tree. This is an old Leviticus law, that whoever dies on a tree or a pole is cursed. So he redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham remember the 12 tribes of Israel might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, so that, by faith, we might receive the promise of the spirit. Yeah, jesus is a curse reverser, and when she touches him to curse this old law and all that she's doing, all her sickness, her bleeding, it all ends and stops with him because he reverses this curse. I love it. I love it. Yeah, the curse, the sickness, the bleeding, it stops with Jesus.
Speaker 1:By the way, guess who's still hanging out around the fringes of this story? Probably what's his name again? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What was her name? Again, I forgot what was her name. Oh, she's not named. Hmm, jairus is over there like. Oh, I knew I should have gone to the minute clinic this morning instead of this, right Urgent care would have probably been faster this morning. He's looking at his ticket. He's like got 47. He looks at her ticket she's 48. She jumped the line, this crazy woman. What are we doing, jesus? I'm all about, this is great, but my daughter? How old is his daughter? 12 years old, by the way. She might be dead by now because this woman tells Jesus her whole story. He's just hanging out on the fringes waiting. This woman, though, who wants to remain anonymous, who tries to be invisible, not to disturb too many people, sneaks into the crowd and touches him and then sneaks away, but Jesus refuses to let her remain invisible. I love this.
Speaker 1:I remember one time I was in Salt Lake City Airport and I was 12 years old. We were flying somewhere to California, I forget and I was exhausted. I just wanted to sit down and read a book. We had a long layover. We're waiting for our plane. We're at the gate. I'm just going to get my book and find a spot to read.
Speaker 1:I sit down near the gate and all of a sudden, the wall behind me moves and it was. Then I realized it wasn't a wall, it was a door, and not just any door, it was an emergency exit door. You know the kind that make lots of noises and lights. All I wanted to do was just sit down and hang out, be alone and have some time of solitude and relax and that door kicked open. I don't know how it did it, I didn't hit the bar, it just opened and that alarm starts going, lights are flickering, people come running over to this door. I'm like son of a gun, people everywhere. What'd you do? I don't know. I just hit the door. I'm sorry, you know. Okay, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. Just the door of this kid here opened. I'm like, oh, now I'm embarrassed, my face is flushing red. This is terrible. I just wanted to hide out. They all kind of leave.
Speaker 1:Well, what happens in airports is help kind of arrives in waves. It's that first wave left, then another wave comes. What's going on here? What's happening right over there? That kid, he's the one that did it. That's me sorry. That's me. You know, those commercials want to get away. That was me, I just wanted to get away, so embarrassing. Another wave, what happened? Oh, that kid, that's me sorry.
Speaker 1:I imagine this woman just wanted to sneak in there and touch his garment, but he won't let her. I dig that about Jesus. And he asks her the question. Actually, he asks everybody who touched me. Why would he even ask who cares? Let her be healed, let's move on. Why does he ask her, what if he knew? What if he knew something and maybe the spirit told him or the father told him or he had this sense of something important is happening, and he pulls on this thread. He's like I'm going to ask a question, see where it goes. Let's just see where this rabbit hole goes a little bit.
Speaker 1:What if he wanted to call her out for her sake and for the sake of everybody watching? What if he wanted to do something to kind of show everybody? What if she wanted to be invisible because of her shame? Undoubtedly 12 years of shame and embarrassment and exclusion and isolation and exhaustion and money spent and she wanted to just hide out. But he doesn't let her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these are all the narratives I imagine she was living by. I'm broke, I'm excluded, nobody wants me, I'm not invited to anything, I'm a pariah, I'm just a menace to society, and that's the narrative. We all have these narratives we live by. If you know this about yourself, you should pay attention to them. Some are not true. And these ones she's living by and Jesus is like oh, you know what? I'm going to give you a different narrative. It's time for a new one, are you ready? So he calls her out I love it. And he makes her healing public. He restores her publicly, in front of everybody, as if then, to give her a face. Oh hey, woman, where are you? Come here, hey, we're going to pause, hold on.
Speaker 1:And like the spotlight is on her and she's healed, he gives her an identity in this moment, calls her up in front of everybody For her own sake. He gives her a face, maybe even a name, because what was her name? I forget what they called her in the text. What was her name? Oh, yeah, it doesn't have one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe he wants to give her one, as if, like he's walking into this three-star Michelin restaurant with this raggedy old lady, young lady who's been oh no, she's with me. Yeah, she's with me, she's fine, let's go.
Speaker 1:I dig that about Jesus. See, he restores in every way her humanity. He fixes her body, so now she's no longer unclean. In that way he restores her dignity, her personhood, her identity, her visibility. He affirms her presence in front of everybody because she was invisible and now she's got some presence, some substance. And then he calls her by name. What does the text say? He calls her hey, daughter. You know, this is the only time Jesus calls somebody daughter in the Gospels. He calls her daughter, he gives her a name. I don't think this is like a sentimental kind of a name Like hey, sweetheart, maybe I think it's covenantal hey, look at me, you belong in my family. Now Everybody, she's with me. This new thing I'm starting it's with people like this and like the lepers and the outcasts. Remember they called Jesus a drunkard because he hung out with drunkards and prostitutes. I love that about Jesus she's with me.
Speaker 1:One time in YWAM years ago in Colorado, I was a young 19 year old kid. We'd have teachers who would come for a week, spend a whole week with us, and I had this deep father wound as a young man. And this teacher came through and taught on the father heart of God. His name was Jeff Pratt and we bonded. I remember I cried with him, we prayed together. He was an incredible man and at the end of that week he was like hey, let's stay in touch. I want to so badly because he just was. Really. He ministered to me, so let's, should we exchange addresses. This is back in the day and a whole year goes by. I just I never wrote him and he never wrote me. I just I forgot.
Speaker 1:And a year later I was at a wedding, his brother's wedding. He was doing the wedding and I saw him from afar. I'm like, oh no, I felt embarrassed, like I hadn't written him. I told him I would. I felt I'm like, ah, I really liked him, I admired. Now it's been a whole year later and he teaches all over the world Every week's in a different city around the world, knows thousands of people. He doesn't remember me.
Speaker 1:Me and Katie sat in the back of this church at my friend's wedding, his brother's wedding, and Jeff was doing the wedding. I kid you not. At the end of the wedding things all close up. He's recessing down the aisle, music, things all close up. He's recessing down the aisle, music's going. I'm in the back kind of hiding out. I'm embarrassed. If he sees me I'm going to have to oh, here's why I didn't have time to write you and try to explain. Remember me, I'm, you know, walk out and he looks at me and he goes oh hey, ryan, and I was like I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. Something deep in my soul got felt. That was like dried and shriveled felt water just kind of pour on it.
Speaker 1:And Jesus says daughter, your faith has made you well. Yeah, he calls her daughter. He asks, not to shame her or to play the blame game, but to restore her. But faith, in this regard too. Faith is not some kind of a work, it's not something, it's not some achievement, it's a posture of open hands, right, it's just sort of her showing up thinking, hey, I'll try this. He says to her, almost like your trust has opened you up to receive what I was already giving. So when you come up for communion in just a minute, you're going to come forward like this, just to receive, in faith, what Jesus has already given. Faith is this posture of trust. It's not an achievement, not a work. You didn't climb any ladder, she's barely snuck in there Like. I don't know If Jesus would have asked her what do you want?
Speaker 1:You know the question from last week. What do you want? You know the question from last week. What do you seek? She would have said you, I want to touch you. I'm after you, jesus of Nazareth, man. By the way, jairus is still there. I'll rush this part because I got to get out of here. But Jesus goes to Jairus' house and the daughter is dead now and she's been. She's 12 years old and Jesus, as a rabbi, as a Jewish man, can't touch folks who are bleeding. And the other thing that you can't touch corpses. This is double pollution. If you're Jesus, this is trouble, double trouble. But remember the arrow. He reverses the curse and the little girl comes back to life. He heals them both. He reverses the curse for both of them. Jesus dives into the suffering. He risks being unclean, he risks sickness, death, contamination for these two people.
Speaker 1:I get tired of hearing the narrative oh, god can't go around sin, god can't be near sin, he's too holy. No, no, that's a misunderstanding. Holiness simply means unique, set apart, different, and God is definitely that. God is not some. You know a God who's wearing a white, you know doctor's garb, with his heel scrubbed and he can't touch anybody. That's not what God, no, that's ridiculous. In Jesus, god dives right into all this stuff, into the chaos, into the things, into the pollution, and he reverses the curse at every chance. That's the heart of God. I can't. I can't be near this sin. That's crazy. He dives right in there and he reverses it in every way. So, central Lutheran Church.
Speaker 1:I think what he's also saying to those who are watching and to this woman and to Jairus and to the daughter hey, be not afraid, we're going to be okay, don't be afraid. So, for those of you who are here this morning, be not afraid, we're going to be okay, don't be afraid. So, for those of you here this morning, anybody this morning, who feels in many ways ignored or forgotten, invisible, I want to tell you you're seen. Maybe those this morning who are like the faithful, but the anonymous. And you're here and you show up and you're doing your thing, but just anonymous, and I don't know if you have a name and nobody says hi to me and nobody acknowledges my. I get it, but I want to tell you you're deeply known and I'd love to have you hear Jesus say to you daughter or son, I see you.
Speaker 1:Also as a church. I would love for us to look around. And who are the invisible people who are reaching out for help? Are we helping them? Do we see them? This Afghan family landed last week and Habib came through here and we met him, incredible man, this journey from Afghanistan and you got Jerry out here raising, you know, collecting coats for people that can't have their own coats. You got tons of cool things happening here. So we, as a church man, we never lose our eyes to see the people reaching out. So, central Lutheran Church, may we also then jump right into this stuff and not be afraid to be contaminated, but may we reach out and help people in every turn, amen.
