Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 27, 2021 – Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-24; 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15; Mark 5:21-43

I’m sure that many of you remembered the AT&T slogan used to be, “Reach out and touch someone.”

There are many reasons why I chose the long gospel this morning. Most of the time, when we have an option, I choose the short option, because of my attention span. But one of the techniques that St. Mark uses is to make a sandwich of two stories. He starts one, breaks off the story and puts another story inside of it, then he continues the first story. When he does that, he wants us to evaluate each story in terms of the other story. And there are six points of contact between the two stories that make them stand out.

The first is that both of the suffering people in the stories are women, which means that they already are at a disadvantage in their world. Now that disadvantage has caused their world to collapse around them.

The second thing is that, in both miracles, it is faith that matters, not the doing away with the problem. He says to the woman, “It’s your faith that has saved you.” He says to Jairus, “Do not be afraid. Just have faith.”

The third thing is that, in both stories, there is pushback. Remember we just heard last week the astounding event of Jesus calming the storm. And yet the disciples say to him, when he starts asking “Who touched me,” “You can see how the crowd presses in on you. And yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” In a sense they’re saying, “Get a grip Jesus. Are you crazy?” They’ve forgotten already that Jesus could know, without being told, who touched him. The other pushback is the associates of Jairus who say, “Leave the teacher alone; it’s too late now.” And the people who gathered to mourn in the house, who criticize Jesus, ridicule Him because of what He says. People not willing to see a way where there seems to be no way.

The next thing is touch. Touch. First, the woman reaches out and touches Jesus. Then Jesus, it very clearly says in the gospel, that Jesus took the little girl by the hand and raised her up. He touched her.

The last thing is the uncleanness involved in both stories. Anybody who had a continual blood flow, no matter how innocuous from a medical point of view, was unclean. Could never go to the temple in Jerusalem to offer sacrifice. Could never go to synagogue service. Was basically shunned and outcast in society. Jesus allows himself to be touched, and becomes unclean. Anyone who touched a dead body, except for the people who are assigned to clean that body for burial, became unclean by that touch. Jesus risks everything by reaching out and touching the little girl. In both cases, Jesus allows himself to become unclean. His compassion crosses the divide of the unthinkable, and stands on the side of those who are unwanted and shunned by society.

Our society is schizophrenic about touch. On the one hand, we are a very lascivious society. Our entertainment, especially our video entertainment, is pushing more and more and more towards soft pornography for general consumption. And yet, not everybody is allowed to be that way. In this age of consenting adults, there’s this very interesting commercial - it’s not a good commercial from a commercial point of view, because the story is so intriguing you forget what they’re advertising. But this teenage boy comes into the house just as his grandparents are reaching up into a closet trying to get something that’s just above their reach. In the attempt to get it, like most of us, they’re groaning and moaning. That’s all the kid hears. He assumes that they are canoodling, and so he avoids being with them at all. He just moves away very awkwardly.

On the other hand we are very diffident about touch. You know all of us imagine that we have sort of a shield around us. No one is allowed to break that invisible barrier. When you hear the expression, “get in your face”, it means someone has broken that barrier, that unspoken separation.

When I was in high school, I used to have to travel by subway, and it was two different subway lines. So you got on one in the morning; you got a seat right away, because it was the end of the line. Then when we got to the hub, we had to transfer, and the train we had to get on was already chock full of people. All the standing room, all the strap hangers, that was all gone already. There were little cubbies at each end of the car, and people would push into those cubbies. How did you get into that crowd? The people behind you on the station platform pushed you, and you wound up shoved against each other. And it was an unwritten rule that you did not make eye contact with the people that you were shoved against, and you tried to breathe as little as possible.

Well, this one day I wound up so packed tight that my feet actually weren’t quite touching the floor. And in the tremendous body heat that’s built up in those little chambers, I fell asleep on somebody’s shoulder. The unthinkable. And, as the train lurched into the stop where I had to get off, I suddenly woke up and I was awfully embarrassed, and this man looked down and said, “That’s alright son, sometimes all of us get sleepy.” He broke the invisible barrier that I had broken in order to reach out and touch me.

Touch is also very sacramental. Obviously first with a capital “S.” Six of our sacraments involve some kind of touch. Baptism is obvious. We touch the child twice to anoint the baby, and we touch the baby with water. We hold the baby in our arms. Holy Communion is the epitome of touch. On our tongue, in our hand, body to body. The sacrament of Penance is supposed to be, that at the end of the absolution, we put our hand gently on the head of the person. But since American people are finicky about that, and because of Covid, and also because you can’t reach through a screen, it’s wound up being raising our hand near the person. But the ritual says you touch. The sacrament of the anointing of the sick is obvious. We anoint, we touch, the forehead, the hands, or perhaps the shoulders, or the neck, or the feet, with sacred oil. We also ordain priests and bishops and deacons by anointing them with oil on their hands. The one that’s not so obvious is marriage. Because the actual touch, in the sacrament of Marriage, is the intimacy between the two people.

But there’s also sacramental with a small “s”. We need to embrace one another. We need to touch one another. That’s what Jesus did. The story even begins with the crowd touching Jesus.

I have a story about that. Recently I ran into a young man whom I haven’t seen since before the shutdown. And it happened to be an important occasion in this person’s life. And I reached out my hand to shake his hand and congratulate him. In the middle of the handshake, he pulled his hand away and impulsively threw his arms around me and hugged me. Even before Covid, he had never hugged me, and I had never hugged him. But he had a great need to touch and be touched.

There’s a horizontal and a vertical dimension to reaching out and touching. One is our reaching up toward God and God reaching down toward us. The other is our reaching out toward one another. So I’d like to end by quoting the lyrics of two songs from the 1970s. One that addresses our horizontal reaching out. The other addresses our vertical. This was written by Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson, both people of color, and sung as a big hit by the Four Tops, also people of color.

“Take a little time out of your busy day to give encouragement to someone who’s lost the way. Or would I be talking to a stone if I asked you to share a problem that’s not your own. We can change things if we start giving. If you see an old friend on the street and he’s down, remember his shoes could fit your feet. Try a little kindness, and you’ll see it’s something that comes very naturally. We can change things if we start giving. Why don’t you reach out and touch somebody’s hand. Reach out and touch somebody’s hand. Make this world a better place if you can.”

This next song addresses the vertical dimension of God’s touch and ours. It was written by Ralph Carmichael, and it was an award winning song by Elvis Presley. “Is your burden heavy as you bear it all alone? Does the road you travel harbor dangers yet unknown? Are you growing weary in the struggle of it all? Jesus will help you, if on His name you call. Is the life you’re living filled with sorrow and despair? Does the future press you with its worry and its care? Are you tired and weary? Have you almost lost your way? Jesus will help you. Just talk to Him today. He is always there hearing every prayer, faithful and true. Walking by our side, in His love we hide all the day through. When you get discouraged, just remember what to do. Reach out to Jesus, He is reaching out to you.”

She reached out and touched his garments. He bent down and touched her hand. Reach out and touch someone.