A Leap of Faith

  "A woman who had suffered a condition of hemorrhaging for twelve years -- a long succession of physicians had treated her, and treated her badly, taking all her money and leaving her worse off than before -- had heard about Jesus.  She slipped in from behind and touched his robe.  She was thinking to herself, "If I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well."  The moment she did it, the flow of blood dried up.  She could feel the change, and knew her plague was over and done with.

    At the same moment, Jesus felt energy discharging from him.  He turned around to the crowd and asked, "Who touched my robe?"

    His disciples said, "What are you talking about?  With this crowd pushing and jostling you, you're asking, 'Who touched me?'  Dozens have touched you!"

    But he went on asking, looking around to see who had done it.  The woman, knowing what had happened, knowing she was the one, stepped up in fear and trembling, knelt before him, and gave him the whole story.

    Jesus said to her, "Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you're healed and whole.  Live well, live blessed!  Be healed of your plague."  Mark 5.25-34 The Message

    Sometimes stepping forward in faith means coloring outside the lines, being nontraditional, charting a course not taken by many or any others....  There's a reason we speak about "taking a leap of faith" -- Trusting in and reaching out to Jesus Christ is like getting a running start and catapulting ourselves over a yawning chasm, hoping and praying to God we land safely on the other side rather than ending up crumpled in the ravine below.  Stepping out in faith means leaving our comfort zone, making a gamble of the spirit, betting on an as-yet-unsure thing.  This behavior on our part doesn't feel safe, but we do it anyway because we intuit that our spiritual survival is riding on our holy wager/leap of faith.  Another "flying" image is that of letting go of one trapeze in order to lay hold of another.  The 'tween time in the air is both exhilarating and terrifying.

    Our sister in this Gospel story had nothing left to lose.  She broke the law, violated a taboo, by knowingly touching a man despite the fact she was bleeding.  When she did that, she was airborne in faith.  When she realized Jesus was quizzing people about who had touched him, she must have seen herself plummeting toward the ground at eighty miles per hour.  And yet she "stepped up in fear and trembling, knelt before him and gave him the whole story."  She was energized by desperation, emboldened by faith, unsure of her fate but unashamed, similar to the Syrophoenician woman who begged Jesus' mercy for her possessed daughter (Mark 7.24ff).  There are other people who have done outrageous things, swimming against the current, scandalizing other believers, discounting cultural taboos they found oppressive and unholy: "Women should be seen but not heard in worship;" "Politics should remain outside the doors of the church;" "Charity begins at home;" "My country right or wrong."

        Faith impels us to choose the right rather than the safe path.  Trusting in God, we can lay aside some human sources of security and cling to divine assurances.  We take our leaps of faith not because safe landings are guaranteed but because we are compelled by the Spirit of God.

    Let us pray.

Dear Father in heaven, we your children crave safety and fear danger.  Yet we realize that sometimes we must let go of what we have in order to lay hold of what You would give.  Grant us grace to reach out and touch the healing garment of our Lord Jesus Christ, for our own sakes and for the sake of the world.  Amen

Pastor Mary Virginia Olson, bluiris27@msn.com