As I begin I’d like to encourage you to get out this Devotion/Sermon notes/Prayer

Request sheet that is in your bulletin. Each week I share Scriptures and a devotional reading that

relate to the sermon. This week I’ve shared some biblical stories about people who illustrated

denial and people who experienced recovery. I encourage you to use this each day. I believe

that you will blessed by using it.

Throughout my ministry I’ve been a passionate advocate for having the church involved

in Mental Health issues. I started as the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Plainview,

Minnesota, in 1993. When I started there I did a lot of visiting of people in their homes. During

my visits I occasionally come across people who needed counseling. The people realized that

they needed counseling. I, myself, might offer two or three sessions of counseling, but I don’t do

long-term counseling. We had no counselors in the community of Plainview. I would refer

people to the nearest counselor—who lived about 25 miles away. When I would call on the

person later I would discover that he or she hadn’t gone to see a counselor. The drive was too

long.

So I put together a group of leaders in town who developed a partnership agreement with

a local mental health agency. The agency sent a counselor to our town one afternoon a week.

This went on for about four years. This was a wonderful asset for the Plainview. Over time the

mental health agency pulled out of the agreement, so we were back to having no counseling

services.

Then a Lutheran pastor started coming to our Presbyterian church. He was a licensed

Family System counselor. He was just as interested as me in combining the spiritual and

psychological, so I asked him if he would like to be on our church staff as a counselor. He did. I

came to the realization that every church is called to have a counselor on staff. Over time we at

Chain of Lakes will have a counselor on our staff.

 Then the residential house adjacent to our church property came up for sale. We couldn’t

pass up the opportunity to buy the house. Even though we had broken ground on a million dollar

building a few years earlier, we decided to go deeper into debt to purchase the house. We turned

the house into a ministry called the House of Hope. We hired someone to assess the needs of the

community and find people who would offer support groups. There were no A.A. groups in

town, so we asked someone to start leading one. That group was so successful that we soon had

two groups. We offered seminars on parenting parents, and grief support, basic parenting,

helping kids with ADHD. The House of Hope was a place that offered help.

We were a congregation of 175 members. If our small church could set up these Mental

Health services in a conservative, small town, then any church can share some form of Mental

Health ministry. I can’t wait to see what we do here at Chain of Lakes!

I don’t drink much—maybe a beer or glass of wine on a Friday night. There is a tradition

in the church that encourages complete abstinence from alcohol, but I’m not part of that

tradition. I don’t have a problem when people drink socially and responsibly.

Alcoholism, of course, is much different than occasional social drinking. It’s much more

serious. We as a society don’t take the consequences of alcoholism seriously enough.

Alcoholism is fueled by denial. Many alcoholics would not suffer from this addiction if

they weren’t in denial or their family and friends weren’t in denial about the addiction. What

happens is a system develops around the alcoholic that protects the person from the truth. A

tolerance of abuse develops. People consciously and even unconsciously say, “it’s okay.” Or

they say, “it’s really not that bad.” The problem is minimized.

Our Minnesota Nice personality doesn’t help. I’ve lived in Minnesota almost all of my

life. I know the statements that make up the basic Minnesota creed. One statement of the creed

is “If you can’t say anything nice, (what’s the last part) don’t say anything at all.”
 This is a beautiful statement. At our core most of us Minnesotans want to be nice.

There’s nothing inherently wrong about being nice. However being nice can lead to toleration

and toleration can deepen the problem of alcoholism.

The problem results when we choose being nice over telling the truth. Remember

alcoholism is fueled by denial which is the opposite of the truth. Often no one ever clearly

identifies the white elephant in the room. No one says to the alcoholic, “you’re drinking too

much and it’s hurting you.”

Let me make a statement that might cause you to think that I’m a heretic. The statement

is this. Jesus was not always nice. Jesus didn’t ask his followers—that’s you and me—to always

be nice. Jesus didn’t say be nice to your neighbor as your nice to yourself. Jesus asked his

followers to love God and to love their neighbor as they love themselves. Loving people and

being nice to people are not always the same.

Today’s story is an example of how Jesus chose love over being nice. Let me share some

background. A woman had been suffering from blood hemorrhages for 12 years. She had gone

to the doctors and the doctors could not help her. In Mark’s version of the story Mark shared

that the women had been mistreated by the doctors. Because of the religious law any woman

who discharged blood entered a period of being unclean—that is people looked at her as impure.

It’s hard for us in the 21st century to understand how hemorrhaging blood led to being impure.

It’s not hard for us to understand goodness and badness. By the standards of religious faith the

woman was not good—she was unclean. Anyone she touched would be unclean.

We can see how she would be ostracized and have to live in the shadows

There was a large group of people around Jesus at the start of the story. The crowds

pressed in on Jesus. The woman with the hemorrhage touched the fringe of Jesus garment. Ever

since the time of Moses religious leaders wore a fringe on their garment. This fringe was to

remind people of the religious law. (Remind people of praying during the day)
The fringe on a person’s garment would be like a wedding ring. When anyone sees a wedding

ring on another person they know or are reminded that the person is married. When any person

saw a religious leader wear a fringe on their garment they knew or were reminded of the

religious law.

After the woman with the hemorrhages touched the fringe of Jesus’ garment, Jesus called

out, “who touched my garment.” There was a big crowd around Jesus. I don’t imagine Jesus

said this softly. I think he said it like this, “who touched my garment.” Jesus wasn’t angry

when he made this statement. He wanted everyone to hear what he said.

Why was this important to Jesus? His question was a bit baffling and was certainly

baffling to the people around him. His question was not a nice question. Why did it matter who

touched Jesus’ garment? The reaction of the crowd is fascinating. The story says the crowd

denied it. In a similar way to an alcoholic system, the crowd’s denial covered up a deeper truth.

Jesus’ question, “who touched my garment” was pushing the crowd to find out what was

being hidden. Denial allows people to hide. The crowd’s denial allowed the woman who

suffered from a hemorrhage to continue to hide in the background.

Peter was confused by Jesus’ question. He participated in the denial. “Master, the

crowds are surrounding you and are pressing in on you.” We can hear a bit of exasperation in

Peter’s response to Jesus. We could paraphrase Peter’s comment to be something like, “Who

cares who touched your garment.”

Jesus cared. Jesus cared about more than just the woman’s physical healing. If the

woman had only been physically healed, the story wouldn’t be so powerful.

Then the woman came forward. This woman had been put to the margins by the

religious law; she had been put into the margins because of her gender; she had been put into the

margins by her physical condition. She was an unknown woman who hid in the background.

But when she came forward all of her life changed.

 When she came forward the woman did five things. I want to highlight them because

they are important. The story tells us that:

SLIDE
The woman saw that she could not remain hidden
She came trembling
She fell down before Jesus
She declared in the presence of Jesus why she had touched the fringe of his garment
She said that she had been immediately healed

This week I enjoyed looking through these books that Val Owens gave me. I have never

been to an A.A. meeting. But I have studied the 12 steps of the A.A. We put the 12 steps on our

bulletin board today. I certainly don’t claim to be an expert on the 12 steps. I think these five

steps are similar to the 12 steps. When an alcoholic is healed that person realizes that he or she

cannot remain hidden anymore; I imagine that many tremble as they come to an A.A. meeting;

an alcoholic eventually has to acknowledge a higher power; an alcoholic has to share his or her

motivation for going to a healing. Hopefully the person will be healed.

After the woman came forward Jesus pushed the story to a powerful moment. Do you

remember what he said. He said “Daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace.” Your

faith has made you well.

My task today was to talk about recovery from a spiritual perspective. Jesus’ statement

to the woman is my closing argument. Your faith has made you well.

Let’s push this a step further. What was the faith that the woman displayed? Did she

have faith because she believed that Jesus was God? Did she have faith because she was willing

to touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment? Did she have faith because she was healed by Jesus

I think her faith was the five steps that she exhibited

The woman saw that she could not remain hidden

She came trembling
She fell down before Jesus
She declared in the presence of Jesus why she had touched the fringe of his garment
She said that she had been immediately healed
 These five steps were her faith.

She came out of hiding. To put it most simply she told the truth—about herself.

What’s the best way to experience recovery from a spiritual perspective? Come out of

hiding. Always tell the truth.

I don’t think this is easy. When I say always tell the truth I’m not talking about lying. I

think we Minnesotans are honest people. The challenge that we have is we withhold the truth—

because we are so nice. We withhold the truth about ourselves and about others. We see

something and have an opinion that is the truth, but we don’t want to hurt another person’s

feelings so we say nothing. Witholding the truth is similar to not telling the truth.

Jesus’ question forced the woman out into the open so that she told the truth about

herself. She wasn’t in hiding anymore.

I have a final take away from this sermon that I would like you to have. For one week

speak the truth in love. Don’t withhold the truth. You know what I mean. We’re Minnesotans.

We see something that is not healthy, but we don’t say anything because we’re afraid of

upsetting the applecart. Try for one week not to withhold the truth. When you see something

that is not right—speak the truth in love. Speaking the truth in love is the best spiritual practice

that can help others and ourselves come to recovery. The last reading of the devotion this week

talks about speaking the truth in love.

It is a privilege to start a new church. We have the opportunity to be intentional about the

type of community we are going to be. I believe that God is calling us to be a place where

people come out of hiding; a place where we speak the truth in love to each other; a place where

we accept people without judgment; a palce where we will go out of our way to welcome people

as Jesus welcomed them, and a play where we are released to love each other with joy because of

what Jesus has done for us.

Gracious and everlasting God,
When you asked the question, “who touched me” the forces of creation shifted
A woman came out of hiding. She told the truth about herself in front of others.
She was not an object anymore defined by law, she was a beautiful child of God

Lord, we know people who are living in hiding

People who are not facing the truth about themselves
People who are alcoholics, who suffer from other addictions

We pray for them. We pray that they might touch the fringe of Jesus’ garment
We pray for all people who suffer from addictions
If we have particular people who we know are suffering from an addiction, we pause to pray
for that person.

This week give each of us the courage to speak the truth in love
We pray that the church will always be a place of healing
We pray that we at Chain of lakes Church will be a place where addicts are welcomed

We thank you that you are a God of mercy, care, and compassion.
We thank you for the gift of Jesus. We offer this prayer in your name