Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · July 26, 2009

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Prayer of the Day

Gracious and loving God, this morning we give you thanks for your presence in our lives. We pray that as we worship as a community of faith, we will be mindful of the ways in which you renew and heal the depths of our souls and hearts. Through Christ we say together, Amen.

Scripture

Numbers 15:37-41

The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the Israelites, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner. You have the fringe so that, when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and you shall be holy to your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God.

Message

Living on the Fringe

Jacob Thorne

Several years ago, Paulette and I were traveling in southern India. We had the opportunity to visit three small churches scattered along the coastline of the Indian Ocean. On this particular trip, we arrived not long after the tsunami. The devastation from the massive waves was still quite evident. Fishing boats sat on the beach, while their owners struggled for a way to resume their lifestyles. As we bounced along the countryside in the back of this ancient taxi with our friend, whose name was Francis, a minister in southern India, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to experience such massive destruction? How would one heal?

One church we visited was set in the middle of some rice fields in a village. As soon as we arrived, the minister greeted us and ushered us to the front of the congregation. He sat some chairs down, and we sat there. We sang songs and hymns with one another. Most of the time, it was in a language we couldn’t understand. But you could just feel the warmth of the church and the community. Then it was time for the message. They had asked me ahead of time to preach, so I preached the sermon, and somebody else translated during the sermon. Towards the end of the service, the minister of the congregation came forward, and he had in his hand this prayer shawl. [Editor’s Note: Jacob stepped to the communion table and picked up a blue prayer shawl and put it around his shoulders.] He placed it around my shoulders. He laid his hands on the shawl. He gave us a word of blessing for our travels and for our journeys, and as a reminder that even though we may be scattered throughout the world thousands of miles apart, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and we are united as one.

Now, I haven’t thought about that experience for a long time. As I was preparing for this sermon, a little bit sleep-deprived from Annabelle, I was reminded of this commandment that is taken from the book of Numbers. The book of Numbers isn’t a text we read very often. It is part of the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the Bible. The book of Numbers is also known as a different title. Sometimes people call it By the Wilderness, because it focuses on the Israelites leaving the wilderness and entering the Promised Land. As the Israelites wandered through the wilderness, God would speak to Moses giving Moses these commandments to keep. At one point, God said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and tell them to put at the fringes of their garments, throughout their generations, a blue cord on the fringe of each corner.” 

It just so happens that this prayer shawl has the blue cord at the fringe of it. “And the fringe,” says the Lord to Moses, “is designed so that when you see it, you will remember all of the commandments of the Lord. And you will not follow the desires of your own heart, of your own eyes, of your own soul, but you will follow the desires of God.”

Essentially, the book of Numbers reminds the people to sew the blue tassels on their garments or their prayer shawls so they will not forget God’s promise of hope, God’s promise of land. The cords reminded the Israelites that they are to trust completely 100% in the fullness and the grace of God.

Several hundred years later, following the book of Numbers, the prophet Malachi predicted that one day there would be a coming of the Messiah. And Malachi says, “The Son of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings.”

Biblical scholar and teacher Rob Bell notes the word that Malachi uses for “wings” is kanaf. It is the same word in the book of Numbers that refers to the edge of the garment where the tassels are attached. So, a legend grew, claims Bell, that when the Messiah came, there would be healing powers in his kanaf, and in the tassels of his prayer shawl you would find the healing grace of God.

Now, Jesus, being a devote Jew, would have known by heart and by memorization the teachings of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible.  I have no doubt that, as he wondered the streets, around his shoulders Jesus would have worn a prayer shawl with tassels. 

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus spends some time preaching, and teaching, and healing in the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite of Galilee. After he had been there for several days, a crowd was waiting there for him. When he arrived, a woman, says Luke, who had been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years, came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his prayer shawl. If you remember the commandment from Numbers, and the prediction that Malachi had, then you know exactly what the woman was thinking. We never learn her name, but surely she was thinking, “This is the Messiah, the prophet that Malachi had predicted. I know for sure there is healing power in his tassels.”

Luke tells us that when the woman knew she was going to have to admit that she had, indeed, touched the tassels of Jesus, she came trembling, and falling down before Jesus, she declared in front of everyone present why she had touched Jesus and how she had immediately been healed. Jesus looked at her, and he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

Rob Bell, focusing on this story and the power of the tassels, says that the word Jesus would have used for “peace” is shalom. But Bell claims that it is not appropriate to translate the word shalom as simply “peace.” The word shalom means something much more than just the absence of conflict. The word shalom, according to Bell, is the “presence of the goodness of God.” It is the “presence of fullness, completeness.” So, when Jesus tells the woman to go in peace, he is placing the blessing of God on all of her, not just her physical body. “He is blessing her,” Bell says, “with God’s presence on her entire being.”

For Jesus, being saved or being reconciled to God involves far more than just the saving of your physical body or your soul. It involves all of you. God desires us to live in harmony with God through body, soul, mind, spirit, emotions, every inch of our being.

So, what does this mean for us this morning? To be made whole by God means you transform your entire life, your entire being, into striving to have a relationship with God. The woman who touched the tassels of Jesus desired God with her entire being.

There is a wonderful ancient story that goes like this:

A man tells his friend about an extraordinary spiritual teacher that he has met. Although his friend is curious about this teacher, he is also somewhat skeptical. So, he decides to seek out this holy man and put him to the test. After asking around, he discovers the teacher is living and teaching nearby. The young man goes to see him. He manages to obtain an audience with him. He defiantly walks before the teacher. Before he can catch himself, he blurts out a challenge, “Show me God. Prove to me that God exists.”

The saintly teacher calmly extends his hand, and in a soothing and inviting tone says, “Come with me.”

The young person takes the teacher’s hand in the Asian sign of friendship, and off they go to the neighborhood beach. As they reach the ocean, the teacher leaves the man into the surf, and he asks the young man to dive into the water. Then the teacher does something a little strange. Once the man is under water, he holds the man’s head under the water. As the minutes pass, the man tries three times to come up and get some air, but the teacher holds his head firmly under the water. Finally, on his fourth attempt, the teacher lets him out of the water. The poor, young man burst out of the water gasping for air, and he asked, “What are you trying to do? Are you trying to kill me?”

The teacher looks at him with infinite compassion, and he lovingly and patiently responds, “Forgive me if I caused you undue anxiety. But when your desire for God is as desperate as your desire for air – for your every breath – then you will find God.”

When our need for God is as important as the air we breathe, our life is given new breath. When we seek God in order to understand who we are, what it means to live in a relationship with God and others, when we seek to be made whole, we are given new life and new opportunity. We are healed in ways that we never thought possible.

Later this afternoon in just several hours, we are having a mission trip reunion party for those who just went on the youth mission trip to New Orleans. We will have the opportunity to reminisce, to watch some photos, and to eat some good food. But we will also have the opportunity to witness an incredible event. One of our youth, Michael Tatum, will experience the gift of baptism. Michael and I have been talking, for several months, now about what it means to experience the gift of baptism. Michael decided, after a time of prayerful discernment and his experience on the mission trip, that he is ready to be baptized. When Michael is raised from the water in the pool, he will be raised with Christ. Paul tells us that when we are baptized, our old self dies, and our new self rises. We are healed and made new, claims Paul, because we are redeemed by the power of Jesus dying on the cross. Michael’s baptism this afternoon is a reminder to me, just as the tassels on the prayer shawl were a reminder to the Jewish people, of God’s faithfulness and God’s redemptive love and healing grace. 

Sometimes, I think we are hesitant to talk with one another about the power of the cross and the power of our baptism. There is no doubt that most likely in the past and most likely in the future as well, the cross has sometimes been used as an excuse to control and to dominate. But for me, and I imagine for many of you as well, the cross is a means to be restored, and to be healed. 

On the one hand, as we look at the cross in our sanctuary, the cross stands for the forgiveness of our sin. We know, without a doubt, that Jesus died for our sins. One of the first steps of healing is to know that we are forgiven. But there is a second deeper meaning to the cross that is often overlooked. The cross offers us the opportunity to be restored and renewed. Like our baptism, the cross gives us the opportunity to be complete, to be made whole, to live our life in response to God.  The cross gives us the opportunity to say, “I am not going to be like this any more. I am going to be restored and made full and made new in the power of Jesus.

Now, we all have certain behaviors, characteristics, and pains that we would rather not possess. Some of these characteristics and traits are what make us hurt so badly. But when we are reminded of the teachings from the book of Numbers, of the words of the prophet Malachi, and of the woman who touched the tassels of Christ, we recall that our Messiah, Jesus, has power in his wings.

The cross, the baptism, the tassels all restore us to new life. If you are living a life that you are not proud of… If you have a deep hurt that pierces the marrow of your bones… If there is something about you that needs to change… Whatever it may be, God wants you to be made new and made whole. 

It is so tempting, in today’s world, to think that our hurts can be healed by either success or by ignoring what is taking place within us. We are tempted, in the society in which we live, to be driven and to stop at nothing in order to climb the ladders of success. We may think that more money and more respect in our jobs will end our pains. But the truth is this: the more you have in terms of money and things, the more you will hurt until you slow down and acknowledge what is taking place inside of you, deep in your soul.

The tassels on the garment were put there to remind us that there is something more than the material goods of life. The tassels on the garment represent the healing that comes when we run to Jesus, when we seek him out in prayer, when we know that we will be healed with his touch. 

The way we live our lives needs to be changed and replaced. Take the time for yourself to slow down and to examine what life means to you. Try turning your cell phone off for one afternoon. Try not watching television for one day. Try not to text for one day. Try writing down in a journal what your hope is and how you want to accomplish your relationship with God and others in this very short life that we have on earth. Try reading a psalm each day, either before you go to work or school, or before you go to sleep at night. My guess is that when you try some of these activities, at first, it will be difficult or not possible to succeed. But over time, the goal is to cultivate a sense of God’s awareness.

The whole point of the book of Numbers, from this passage, from the prediction of the prophet Malachi, of the woman touching the tassels of Jesus, is to know that it is OK to face our own vulnerabilities and admit that sometimes we can’t do everything on our own. God is here to heal us. Jesus wants to save our souls. Jesus wants to say to us, to you, to me, “Shalom. You are made well.”

Through Christ, we all say together… “Amen.”

Benediction

Healer, thank you for your commandments. In following them, let us find ourselves freed from the temptations of our own hearts and our own eyes. Let us be healed from our every ill, and filled with your grace and peace. Amen.