McGregor Page PREACHING THE LECTIONARY: THE McGREGOR PAGE

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--Copyright 2000 by Roland McGregor, all rights reserved--
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Pentecost 3 -- Page 198, July 2, 2000


God Makes House Calls

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43


An epitaph and a cry from the depth of despair, a fund raising appeal and tandem miracles — what is the message?

David reminds the Israelites that Saul made them rich (a bit of an overstatement). Paul reminds the Corinthians that Christ made them rich (an understatement). The Psalmist cries out like Jairus cried out at the death of his daughter, and God responds in Jesus. Paul cries out on behalf of the Macedonians and hopes the Corinthian church will respond the way Titus did.

What shall we make of loss, or what will loss make of us? David lost Jonathan; Jairus lost his daughter and the woman lost her health. We are tempted to make nothing of our loss, to dismiss it as if it were nothing. "I don't want to think about it," Tiger Woods said about the death of Payne Stewart. Saul was David's competitor. His death cleared the way to the throne. What was David going to make of his loss? Would he gloat? Would he just get on with his game? Would he stop to plumb the depths of that loss in the presence God?

"No funeral!" "We just had her cremated. Funerals are such downers. Everyone needs to just get on with their lives."

When we avoid Psalm 130, we leave our grief to eat away at us unrecognized. When we name the loss, calling it by it's right name, and call on God as our witness, grief has met its match.

There is no cure for loss except the presence of God. If God didn't make house calls, loss would be forever. Jesus dropped what he was doing and followed Jairus home. Little did anyone know what his presence would do for the woman in the crowd. Paul wants people in Corinth to drop what they are doing with their money and take Christ to Macedonia. Little would they know about the impact of God on lives there.

"The child is not dead but sleeping." (Mark 5:39) Did the mourners not know the difference between a dead person and a sleeping person!? What they didn't know was that our death in Christ is but sleep. Jairus called Jesus into his home to transform his loss. He didn't deny his loss. He didn't presume he could deal with it on his own. He called for help, and God made a house call. We never know who all will be saved when we ask God to come to our house.

Roland McGregor

United Methodist Preacher

(Comments to Roland at RMAC.PARTI@ECUNET.ORG)

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