Do you ever feel like you've been struggling with something for a long time?
Do you ever find yourself fearing that you're nearly at the end of your rope?
Do you ever find yourself thinking that if you just tried harder, things would get better?
Hey everybody this is Steve and only God can save us.
This week, in the Gospel reading, we're looking at two of Christ's miracles: when he healed
the woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years, and then when he raised the 12 year old daughter
of Jairus from the dead.
And in St Paul's letter to the Galatians, we read Paul's advice to be faithful to Jesus
and not to build up what has been torn down.
Remember that you can learn more about both the epistle and Gospel by watching the intro
videos we made about each one.
The links, as always, are down in the doobley doo.
And if you haven't yet, remember to review this week's readings before you watch the
rest of this video.
The links for those are down in the doobly doo, too.
You know the drill.
Pause it if you need to, but I'm not going to wait for you.
You're big boys and girls.
So let's jump right into this week's readings.
In this week's epistle reading, Paul starts out by talking about how we are justified,
not by the works of the law, but by our *faith* in Christ.
Or, as we talked about in an episode of Be the Bee, it's probably more accurate to translate
that verse as saying we're justified by the faith *of* Christ.
We're saved, in other words, through our union with Jesus, our Lord and our Savior.
Even though we remain sinners, people who are struggling along on our road to salvation,
Christ isn't the cause of this sin.
He isn't the agent of sin.
He isn't the agent of death.
Christ is the conqueror of death, the one who trampled it down by His own death.
Death entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned, and we perpetuate it every time we
choose the division of sin over the healing and unity of holiness.
In Christ, all creation is made new.
He tears down death and builds us up again, ready for eternal life with Him.
Yet, sometimes, we try to build up what Christ has swept away.
We choose to identify with our sins, we choose to prefer our false and broken self to the
true self that only comes when we are united to Christ.
This is what Paul is warning the Galatians against.
He's telling them not to ignore what's true and build up something that's false.
He's telling them that they shouldn't add extra and unnecessary things onto the Gospel.
Similarly, the Galatians already had the Gospel.
Paul himself preached it to them.
They had already been united to Christ in baptism.
They had already received the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit in chrismation.
They had already received the fruit of the Spirit.
And yet, that wasn't enough.
They wanted to add more.
Specifically, they wanted everyone, including non-Jewish, Gentile converts to the Church,
to follow the law of Moses and even be circumcised before they could join the Church.
The Church has always seen baptism, chrismation, and holy communion as the road into the Church;
the real culmination of our conversion to Christians.
But the Galatians wanted to add circumcision to that list.
Which raises an important question: how do we distinguish between what's actually the
Gospel, what actually builds up a Christian, and what *we've* built up to take its place?
How do we tell the difference between the works of God and the works of man?
Well, a look back at the Gospel reading can help us work through this tough question.
Like we said a bit earlier, Luke actually gives us two healings in this week's passage:
the healing of the woman with the flow of blood, and the raising of Jairus's daughter.
It's interesting to note that both of these miracles happen, in a sense, in secret.
Christ raises the dead girl in a private room, joined only by the girl's parents and 3 apostles:
Peter, James, and John.
And the woman with the flow of blood touched Christ in a hidden sort of way, without calling
attention to herself, meekly reaching out her hand and touching the hem of Christ's
robe.
In this hiddenness, in this privacy, we see what really healed the woman and raised the
girl.
Before Christ raised the girl, he reassured her parents: "Do not fear; only believe, [only
have faith], and she shall be well."
And when the woman with the flow of blood touched Jesus, she wasn't the only one.
An entire crowd was pressing down upon him; literally dozens of people were smooshed up
against Him.
Yet it was only her touch, her touch of faith, that brought healing.
As Christ said, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace."
This isn't magic.
It isn't mere religious ritual.
It's an encounter with a person, *the* Person.
It's faith in, it's trust in, it's union *with* the person of Jesus Christ.
The girl, despite the vibrancy of her youth, was dead, yet Christ raised her.
The woman was dying, bleeding non-stop for 12 years, in a state of constant weakness,
sinking closer and closer to death.
Yet Christ healed her.
Luke tells us that Christ felt power going forth from Him when the woman touched His
robe.
Can you imagine what it must have been like for the woman to feel that power enter her,
to feel life flow directly from the source of life Himself?
To be at death's door for 12 years and finally have a taste of life?
As we've covered in an episode of Be the Bee, by ourselves we're not actually living.
We're, at best, surviving; postponing the inevitable hour of our deaths.
Making our way inevitably to the grave, just like the son of the Widow of Nain from episode
3.
Yet Christ offers more than survival.
He offers life itself.
He offers us the opportunity to be united to Him, the only-begotten Son of God, so that
we can be children of God the Father.
As Jesus raises the girl, He calls her "child."
As He heals the woman, He calls her "daughter."
When He taught us to prayer, He gave us the Lord's Prayer, and taught us to refer to the
Father as "our Father."
The Father is our Father in Christ.
Because, as Christians, our very existence is transformed into something new and wondrous.
As St Paul says earlier in his letter to the Galatians, "it is no longer I who live, but
it is Christ who lives in me."
Yet the Galatians were pulling back from this, choosing their own religious observance rather
than union with Christ.
They were relying on their own faith, rather than their union with Christ and His faithfulness,
to save them.
They were doing the exact opposite of what the woman did when, through the press of the
crowd, she reached out to Christ.
We've covered a lot of ground today.
And to help work through what this all means for each us, we'll end as we always do: with
3 questions.
First, are your putting your faith in Christ or something (or someone else)?
When times get tough, is Christ the one we turn to first?
Second, what are wounds that you're carrying around?
The woman with the flow of blood was ill, was suffering for 12 years.
What are you carrying around, whether physically or emotionally or spiritually, that is weighing
you down and can only be healed by Christ, the source of life?
Third, and this is a tough one, are there any ways your religious observance distracts
you from Christ?
Are there ways we get so caught up in the forms and expectations of Orthodoxy that we
lose track of Christ?
We'll be back with a new episode on Monday.
And my buddy Christian will have a short response video up on Thursday as he wrestles with these
questions.
I hope you'll read the Gospels and Epistle passages we covered today.
And, whether it's with family or friends or a Bible Study group, I hope you'll talk about
what we've covered and wrestle with what God has for you, in your life.
Most importantly, I hope you'll celebrate with us this Sunday and every Sunday, to hear
the beautiful Scripture readings proclaimed during the Divine Liturgy and to learn how
you can Live the Word.
Thanks for watching.
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