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| Image by Paul Carmona |
'cast out'/'pour forth'
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A Greeting
I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
(Psalm 63:4)
A Reading
Now there was a woman who had been suffering from
haemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under
many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no
better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and
came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she
said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ Immediately
her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was
healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone
forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who
touched my clothes?’ And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the
crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’
He looked all round to see who had done it. But the woman,
knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling,
fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her,
‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and
be healed of your disease.’
(Mark 5:25-34)
Music (Only)
Meditative Verse
From oppression and violence he redeems their life;
and precious is their blood in his sight.
(Psalm 72:14)
A Poem
As froth on the face of the deep,
As foam on the crest of the sea,
As dreams at the waking of sleep,
As gourd of a day and a night,
As harvest that no man shall reap,
As vintage that never shall be,
Is hope if it cling not aright,
O my God, unto Thee.
- by Christina Rosetti, found in At the Still Point:
A Literary Guide to Prayer in Ordinary Time
Verse for the Day
Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure.
(Psalm 16:9)
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| Image by Paul Carmona |
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What is the ‘power’ that Jesus feels flowing out of his body, which causes him to know that someone has experienced the flow of the Holy Spirit in and through him to herself? The unnamed woman touches Jesus and he feels a sense of his own 'power' flowing into hers. In this connection between her hand and his clothes, a restoration has occurred that allows her to be whole. ‘Exerchomai’ is a Greek verb that means ’to go or come forth’. In its range of uses in the New Testament it sometimes describes a movement of water that gushes forth, and also the flow of blood from the body. In other places it appears in wider contexts in descriptions of groups of people who have emigrated or flowed out of one land to another or individuals who have been forcibly cast out. But in this story, the verb is used to describe how the power in the Holy Spirit flows from Jesus to the woman. When it was set down in Greek, the writers knew that those listening would hear these nuances. They would hear that a word with a meaning of ‘casting out’ is being used to show God’s willing issuance of healing to an outcast and deeply faithful woman. In the most vulnerable and broken places of our heart, the Holy Spirit finds us with a desire for healing and wholeness. Who do you know that might be comforted by this today?
LC† Power in the Spirit is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto
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