More Than Death

[0:00] Well, it would be great if you opened your Bible to Mark chapter 5, the man you read for us a moment ago, on page 840.

[0:12] And that means putting your news bulletins out of your hands and your iPhones down and put them on silent and reach for the Bible, page 840.

[0:24] And when you've got that, I'd like you to keep your finger in there, you're going to need both hands. That's why I said that. And also open up to Hebrews 2, on page 1002.

[0:35] Two places. That would just be great. And while you're looking up those things, let me just give you two items of news.

[0:47] Your synod reps go to Ottawa this week for the Anglican Networking Canada Synod. Dan and I will be there. And the importance of this synod is not only to meet the new churches that have come into our network since last year, but to elect a new lead bishop who's called a moderator.

[1:08] I don't know why. I thought that was a Presbyterian name. But whatever. However, we will elect a new bishop. The other thing is I just wanted to give you a little update on the vision.

[1:19] Those of you who were at the prayer meeting last month heard me speak a little bit about this. The vision for St. John's is currently on my desk, which is where I want it right now.

[1:36] And I want to say thank you to you who have been praying about this. I want to say to you in the last two months, God has given me and our leadership a fresh sense of where we should be going, how we should be moving forward.

[1:54] And I want to be talking about it, but not quite yet. It's not quite finished. Partly because I'm a recovering perfectionist, but partly because it's not quite there yet. So with those two pieces of news, we're going to have a look at the Bible.

[2:08] And I do hope you're enjoying Mark's Gospel. I'm loving it. So in one sense, it doesn't matter if you're not enjoying it. No, no, it matters very much.

[2:21] And the two stories that we have in this Mark 5 passage are so remarkable. They're people in a desperate, desperate situation.

[2:31] And in each context, Jesus gives them more than they asked for, more than they imagined. However, on this Remembrance Day, I want to begin with the power of death.

[2:48] And I want to just read these verses from Hebrews 2 as a way to come into Mark 5. So if you look down in Hebrews 2, it's speaking about Jesus in verse 14.

[3:00] The children, since therefore the children, speaking about us, share in flesh and blood. That is, we're humans. He himself, Jesus, likewise partook of the same things.

[3:12] It's speaking of Jesus becoming a man. Why? That through death, he might destroy the one who has, here's the phrase, the power of death, that is the devil.

[3:28] And deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. What does it mean to say the devil has the power of death?

[3:41] I mean, Satan or the devil doesn't decide when we die. He doesn't decide the moment of our death. The Bible is very clear that God decides that. What does it mean that Satan has the power of death?

[3:55] Well, there are all sorts of different versions of death. Different religions, different worldviews have different versions of death. This is the Oxford Book of Death.

[4:07] It's in my library. It was given to me by someone who worked on staff at St. John's as a sort of a parting thank you. I think.

[4:19] It's a wonderful book. It's bedside reading, I promise you. But it goes through a number of the different sacred texts and what they teach about death.

[4:32] So, you know, there's Plato's sunny optimism about how when you die, the soul goes on this magical mystery tour until it escapes.

[4:44] I remember reading that at university and thinking, no one can believe that. They quote the Upanishads.

[4:59] After death, a man reaps the harvest of his deeds. He returns again to this world of action. Thus, he who has desire, desire is bad, continues to be the subject to rebirth.

[5:12] Or the Quran. The Quran says, The true servants of Allah will be well provided for reclining on soft couches. They shall be served with a goblet that will neither dull their senses nor befuddle them.

[5:27] They shall sit with bashful, dark-eyed virgins as chaste as the sheltered eggs of ostriches. And I just want to say that the Bible view of death is different.

[5:43] It's completely, entirely unique. I know there aren't degrees of uniqueness. But the Bible's view of different is a different version. I think in our culture today, we tend to be materialists without really thinking about it.

[5:57] We think of death as one single event at the end of life. When we talk about death, we think of it as a physical, biological death.

[6:11] And that's essentially the Greek view. That the body dies, but the spirit or the soul goes on. But the Bible has a much bigger view of death than just biological end of life or physical death.

[6:24] The Bible speaks about death in two different ways. It does speak about physical death. And it calls that, let me say, little d death.

[6:35] The end of life, the end of bodily life, physical death. But the Bible also speaks about a greater death, capital D, big D death.

[6:46] Which is a force and a power at work in our world, both inside us and outside us. And it permeates our lives. It frustrates what is good.

[6:59] It vandalises what is wonderful and beautiful. It corrupts our loves. It masquerades in all sorts of forms in our lives.

[7:10] It's a disintegrating force, unravelling love and unravelling families, unravelling relationships. Capital D, big D death, is not a metaphor.

[7:23] It's not, you know, the death of the middle class, the death of hope. It is a spiritual reality that comes from our rift with God.

[7:35] And I'm telling you this before we go to Mark 5. When God first created the world, he placed man and woman in the garden and he said, don't eat of a particular tree.

[7:46] Because if you defy me, in the day that you eat it, you will surely die. But then they did eat it. And when God confronted them, they did not die physically, did they?

[7:59] But what happened was, by defying God, they created a rift between humanity and God where capital D, big D death, entered our world.

[8:10] And now every human being that's ever born is born under the shadow of death. And physical death, biological death, is just the most obvious consequence of this power at work in our world, at work in your life and mine, called capital D, big D death.

[8:27] It is the shadow of our separation from God and it bleeds into every area of our lives. And the reason I'm talking about this is because I don't think we can make sense of Mark 5 without understanding something of this.

[8:43] Because Mark's gospel likes to show more than tell. He likes to show us things.

[8:54] It's like a drama narrative rather than a treatise. And as we've moved through Mark's gospel, we've seen Jesus address illness and demons, not just because he's kind to people or he wants to show his power, but because these two things are the leading edge of big D death in that world.

[9:20] Remember when Jesus healed a man with leprosy? The man with leprosy had big D death at work in his life. He wasn't just losing sensation and feelings in his hands and limbs.

[9:31] He was experiencing social isolation, emotional despair, no hope. The reason I'm saying this is because the power of death in this verse here in Hebrews and in the Bible is fundamentally a spiritual reality.

[9:49] Fundamentally comes from our separation from God. It is the source of physical death. And this is the power that Satan wields in our world. He cannot decide the moment of your death.

[10:01] That's in God's hands. He can't do that. But what he tries to do is he tries to hold us captive by keeping the rift between us and God through guilt and through sin and through darkness and through all sorts of things being victimised.

[10:17] And these miracles in Mark's gospel show us that Jesus has not just come to give us life ongoingly, longer life forever.

[10:30] He's come to deal with both that little D death and big D death. Both physical death and its cause.

[10:42] And to bring us a life that is a different kind of life, capital L life, that the gospels call eternal life. Okay. So, let's go back to Mark 5.

[10:57] It's the second longest introduction I've done at St. John's. I think it's important though, as you'll see. This story, as you can see from the paragraphs, it has three parts.

[11:10] And in verses 21 to 23, we meet Jairus. Jesus is in the middle of a crowd again. And this guy called Jairus runs up to him and falls at his feet and begs Jesus to come with him.

[11:24] If you look at the verses, Jairus is the ruler of the synagogue. He's one of the most important people in town. He's a public figure, a man of considerable influence, well known, well trusted, greatly loved.

[11:37] He's an insider, a consummate insider. And he's wealthy. He's got enough servants to shuttle backwards and forwards between his house and where he is now. He also has enough money to pay for a room for his daughter, which was unusual in those days.

[11:51] He's a high profile Jewish leader and he takes a very big risk. He actually opposes the official Jewish position on Jesus.

[12:03] He thinks Jesus is the real article. And his complicated life just becomes more severely complicated in verse 23. Kneeling before Jesus, he pleads, implores him earnestly, begs and keeps begging.

[12:18] He says, my little daughter is at the point of death. My dearest little one is literally in the Greek having her end. It's not just that she's ill.

[12:31] She is gasping. She is breathing her last. And he says, Jesus, will you come and lay hands on her so that she may be made well and live, so that she may be, the Greek is saved, and live.

[12:43] And Jairus says more than he knows by saying that to Jesus. And this is a desperate situation. It's a parent's nightmare.

[12:55] It's hard enough if your children are in trouble or suffer. But this little girl is now beyond human help. What do you do? I spoke to a man this week whose 18-year-old son had a complete psychotic break and is now full-time in hospital.

[13:14] What do you do when your children are in these circumstances? The interesting thing here is that Jairus recognises that his own religious system, the Jewish system, the one that he has given so much money to and the one that he's invested in so heavily, is completely powerless in the face of little d death.

[13:34] It cannot bring life. But he's heard that Jesus can heal. And he comes to Jesus and he knows he's got absolutely no claim on Jesus.

[13:45] Jesus owes him absolutely nothing. And he leaves the bedside of his dying daughter, you know, right at the moment of her dying, which is remarkable. He runs out and he asks Jesus to come before it's too late.

[13:58] And in verse 24, it just says he went with him. Jesus went with him. It's lovely, isn't it? Jesus doesn't ask for payment. He doesn't consult the crate.

[14:10] He just goes. But you see, verse 24 is divided in half. And as they make their way to Jairus' house, there's a very long and agonising interruption.

[14:22] And in verse 25, we have the privilege of being allowed into the private thoughts and heart and world of a woman who has no name in this story.

[14:33] We never know her name. And I just want you to see how wonderfully Mark takes us inside, behind her eyes, if you will. He doesn't just say, a woman touched Jesus.

[14:46] Look at verse 25. There was a woman. She'd had a discharge of blood for 12 years. She had suffered much under many physicians.

[14:58] She had spent all that she had. She had got no better. Rather, had got worse. Had heard reports of Jesus. Had come up behind Jesus in the crowd and touched her garment.

[15:15] Here is a woman who is captive to her body. She's been hemorrhaging for 12 years. Death is at work in her.

[15:25] Very literally, she is slowly, her lifeblood is flowing away. And it just means she cannot participate in normal life. It's impossible for her to have sexual contact.

[15:37] It's impossible for her to get married or have children. Impossible for her to be part of her spiritual community, the synagogue. She's been exploited by unscrupulous doctors.

[15:50] How glad we are for fine doctors today. And they've done unthinkable things to her body. And while she obviously once had money, she has spent it all on doctors.

[16:02] And now she lives in poverty and there's no chance of escape for her. All the dollars and all the treatments have not made things better. They've just made things worse. She is beyond human help.

[16:16] And she hears that Jesus is a healer of some kind and this is too good to be true. And then in verse 28, we're actually taken inside her mind and we hear her thoughts, verse 28. For she said to herself, if I touch even his garments, I will be made well.

[16:35] I will be saved. She says more than she knows too. Now I want you to think about this for a moment. This is an invisible woman.

[16:48] She's not like Jaira. She's not a public figure. She's not an insider. She's not greatly loved. She's invisible because she wants to be visible, invisible because she feels she has to be invisible.

[16:59] She feels death at work in her, in her very sexual organs. Not just making her unhealthy, but making her undesirable and unwanted and unattractive in every way.

[17:12] She sees herself and knows herself now as someone to be avoided, which of course is all lies. But that's how death, that's how capital D death, big D death spreads in our lives.

[17:24] It spreads by lies. She inhabits the margins because of her desire to be invisible. In every church I've been there, I've been people who inhabit the margins.

[17:38] And often it's because they want to be invisible and often it's because they're believing lies. And so she takes a tremendous risk. The fact that she's in a crowd is a risk. No doubt she's covering her face somehow.

[17:51] She's grown used to the way people see her and write her off. The one thing she wants to avoid is drawing attention to herself. And like Jairus, she knows she's got no claim on Jesus.

[18:03] She's got nothing to offer him. So she sneaks up behind him and she touches his clothes. And her faith, such as it is, is more superstition than it is good theology.

[18:18] But Mark doesn't judge her because she acts on what she knows about Jesus. And that's what real faith does. Verse 29, immediately, the flow of blood dried up.

[18:34] She felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. The healing is not gradual. It's instantaneous. It's not partial. It's entire. It's not incremental.

[18:45] It's complete. It's not just invisible. It's knowable, unmistakable. But before she has even a moment to enjoy her new health, as she's sneaking away from him in the crowd, Jesus calls out, and the verb is repeatedly calls out, who touched my clothes?

[19:06] And he knows this somehow because power has gone out of him, which I find, just as an aside, we think of Jesus a bit like a Superman, don't we? Going around, fix that.

[19:18] But I think this indicates that every time Jesus heals or does an act of power, it costs him in some way. Who touched me, he says, and the disciples mock him.

[19:32] But Jesus is not going to let this alone. He stops. If you look at the next verse, he looks around. He repeatedly calls out, who touches my clothes? Why does he do this? Well, she had her healing, but Jesus is calling on her to take an even bigger risk.

[19:51] Jesus is calling on her to do something that is impossible and unimaginable, to openly and publicly identify herself. She just wanted healing, but Jesus wants her.

[20:06] She'd come for a one-way contact. That's not the way it works with Jesus. He must have a two-way contact. She comes for a what? She leaves with the who. Jesus is not content to just dispense healing and leave her in a superstition.

[20:24] He wants to give her more. He wants to heal the rift between her and God. And so he calls her to make herself public.

[20:35] And this too is how true faith works. It means receiving more from Jesus that we bargained for or imagined. And when we begin to act on what we know of Jesus, what does he do?

[20:48] He calls us to do something harder. He calls us to do something impossible, unimaginable, goes against the grain. Why? Because he wants us to draw near to him.

[20:59] He wants us to trust him and he wants us to know that we are trusting him. And she's terrified, verse 33. She's trembling all over. It says, every fibre of her being is saying, no, run.

[21:13] This will ruin your invisibility. We read in verse 33, she told him the whole truth. How long had it been since anyone wanted to know anything about her except her problems?

[21:29] Jesus wants the whole truth from us. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In verse 34, he said to her daughter, your faith has saved you.

[21:41] He uses the word again. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. Now this is beautifully tender. Jesus uses the same word, little daughter, that Jairus used of his daughter.

[21:57] He wants to direct this woman's faith from his clothing, from the magic view, to him. He says, your faith has saved you. It's faith in me.

[22:08] It's personal. I'm not an impersonal force. Go in peace. Shalom. Live in the blessing of God now permanently. Be healed of your disease. And the tense is, what I've done is permanent.

[22:20] And by doing this, Jesus draws her to himself to have faith, true faith in his word. And by doing it publicly, do you notice, he restores her to her community. And by asking her to do this publicly, he unravels the lies and she suddenly becomes visible to everyone and to herself.

[22:43] It's beautiful, isn't it? Very tender, full of hope, lots of themes. But, Mark is breathless. I don't know if you sat down and read Mark's gospel end to end.

[22:54] He uses this word suddenly, immediately, again and again and again. Before we have a moment to enjoy her healing and wonder at Jesus' grace, we're brought down to earth in the next verse with a thud, verse 35.

[23:09] This lovely delay that has given this woman back her life has proved fatal for Jairus' daughter. The servants run up to Jairus and they say, your daughter is dead.

[23:25] Don't trouble the teacher anymore. And we say to ourselves, why didn't Jesus ask the woman to wait for just two hours? An hour? It's too late now.

[23:37] She's, this little girl has moved over from the realm of life into death. She is now beyond all human contact. Yes, Jesus was a very fine healer. This is different.

[23:50] This is a step too far. And if you're, if you have half a heart, you can feel the panic and the fear rising in Jairus, can't you? And suddenly, all the focus from here on in is on Jesus.

[24:05] He becomes the subject. We know he could have healed this little girl from a distance. He could have said to Jairus when he first came up to him, go, your daughter's made well. We know he can do that.

[24:16] But in verse 36, we read this, overhearing, or rather ignoring, what they had said. Jesus then turns to Jairus, the synagogue ruler, and he says, do not fear, only believe.

[24:30] Just, just as he spoke to the woman directly and called on her to do something that it was absolutely impossible, he does the same with Jairus.

[24:41] He turns to Jairus and he says, stop fearing, keep on trusting and that is absolutely impossible, I think.

[24:53] And it is astounding. And I have to say for us as Christians that not all fear is wrong. We grieve, we should grieve.

[25:03] The New Testament teaches us to grieve in a Christian way. It's right and appropriate. And Jesus does not call for robotic, make-believe, eye-squeezing, imaginative faith.

[25:16] But here in this situation, just as he did with the woman, what Jesus is doing is he is calling on Jairus to shift the centre of his focus from his daughter's death, the reality of his daughter's death, to Jesus himself.

[25:32] Because what Jesus wants to give him is something far more. Jairus has just come to have his daughter healed, but Jesus wants to give Jairus a hope that is way bigger than he imagined, a hope that's going to outlast this world by raising his daughter back to life.

[25:49] Jesus is calling on Jairus to trust him in the face of death. So the story races on, he takes three disciples, only three with him, Peter, James, and John.

[26:02] They arrive at the house, the funeral has begun. The mourners are there, they're making their noise because the procession is about to start. In verse 39, Jesus tries to silence them and he says, the child is not dead but sleeping.

[26:17] And like the disciples in the earlier scene, the mourners mock Jesus and laugh at him. Again, we don't have time to stop here, but this is a lovely thing. Jesus does not say the child only seems to be dead.

[26:31] These mourners are professional. That's why they mock Jesus. They mock Jesus because she is dead. Jesus doesn't deny that the girl has died. He is telling us how we ought to think of death through him.

[26:46] Because for those who follow Jesus, as Dan said to the children earlier today, death is only temporary. It's not final. Jesus' version of death is that all those who follow him are asleep.

[26:57] And in a tender, unforgettable scene, which closes this story, he takes only the mother and the father and his three disciples up into the girl's room.

[27:08] Verse 41. I've got to read this again. Taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha Koum, which means little girl, I say to you, arise.

[27:21] And immediately the girl got up and began walking. She was 12 years of 12. That's what you do when you're 12. And they were immediately overcome with amazement.

[27:33] And he strictly charged them that no one should know this. Good luck. And told them to give her something to eat because dying is very hungry work. Mark was not there, but Peter was, the eyewitness from whom we get this.

[27:50] Jesus. And I think that's why we get these words of Jesus in the original Aramaic in verse 41, that he actually spoke to the girl. I mean, if you had been there and you'd be in an eyewitness, would you have ever forgotten those words?

[28:04] And the emphasis is on tender simplicity. No fuss. Very matter-of-fact. There's no fancy incantation or magic.

[28:18] Jesus takes her hand and speaks these very ordinary words. He says, my dear one, it's time to get out of bed. And instantly, she's raised back to life.

[28:32] And on this remembrance day, I point out to you that Jesus has power over death. He's able to raise the dead back to life.

[28:43] And he has come not just to deal with death, little d, but death, big d. And this scene, you know, what do you do with this story?

[28:54] I mean, words run out, don't they? It seems so exalted in one sense. Jesus sees no division though between his exalted raising power and the ordinary practical realities of life.

[29:08] I think that's why the last two verses are written that way. As the five are gaping in awe, Jesus says she's hungry, give her some food, she's a normal girl, send her out to play.

[29:21] Some of you may be saying, well, great story, that's all very fine, but what on earth has that got to do with us now? You know, very well for Jesus to do these one-offs, granted he did them, what does it mean for us?

[29:34] And I want to encourage you to meditate on three things as you take this away today. And I realise I've gone a bit longer, but I'm just going to go for a face of death.

[29:57] These are not just eyewitness stories of one-offs. That's not why they're here. They are pictures of the saving work of Jesus.

[30:10] The raising of Jairus daughter is the last of four miracles which Jesus did one after the other. In each one, Jesus confronts the power of death, not just little d death, not just biological death.

[30:23] Storm on the sea, it was biological death. But you remember last time, last week, the man possessed by evil spirits, he is a slave to the power of death.

[30:36] The power of Satan and evil have overwhelmed him. He's possessed by demons. He's physically alive, but where does he live? He lives among the tombs, three times we're told. How does he live? He cries out, he cuts himself constantly.

[30:48] Jesus speaks a word of command to the demons and they go. And this man is saved. He's returned to life. He's in his right mind.

[30:59] He's thankful. He talks about Jesus. And in our story, the woman, the woman with the flow of blood, she also is under the power of death, not just because she's bleeding, but because she is isolated and invisible.

[31:13] And Jesus heals her instantaneously and then with a word, restores her to life and to health and community and visibility and hope. And finally with Jairus, Jairus is experiencing the power of death in his family as you may be.

[31:29] Hopeless and helpless before the suffering of his child. In an instant, Jesus raises the daughter back to life again, but he gives Jairus more because he calls on him to trust him in the face of death.

[31:41] The reason Jesus raises this little girl from the dead is to show that he has come to bring salvation and resurrection to all who follow him.

[31:54] He's the rift healer. Let me say it this way. Jesus raises Jairus' daughter not to show that he has power of a little d death, over physical death, but to show that he has power over all evil and all the realm of Satan, big d death, and that salvation means the reversing of all its evil and all the damage that it's done, not just for this little girl, but for all of us.

[32:26] If all Jesus had come to do was to show that he was stronger than physical death, the gospel would finish at the end of the chapter five, wouldn't it? Wouldn't need any more Jairus family sitting around happy and rejoicing.

[32:37] There'd be no need for Jesus to suffer and go to the cross. And I think that's why three times in our story the language of salvation is used.

[32:49] Because the gospel is not finished yet. And salvation, I say it again, salvation is not about biological continuity. It's not just about physical well-being.

[33:00] salvation. It's the reversal of the great power of death. It's life, capital L life. And Jesus must go to the cross to defeat Satan and to neutralize the power of death and rise again to offer us the life of God.

[33:15] And today we wait, we wait for that day when death will be swallowed up completely. I don't think there's anything more relevant for us.

[33:31] September Maclean's magazine cover story was on the generation of young people who are in university. It calls them the broken generation. There's a study out of the University of Alberta of 1600 students.

[33:42] In the last 12 months 51% felt things were hopeless. 52% experienced overwhelming anxiety. 7% admitted they'd seriously considered suicide.

[33:55] 1.2% attempted suicide. Across the United States and across Canadian universities a US poll says that 15% of university students have cut, burned or otherwise injured themselves.

[34:10] Jairus and the woman were under the power of death. They were both looking for well being, they were both looking for life and we're told in this story they were in fact looking for Jesus.

[34:24] Only Jesus can defeat the one who has the power of death and deliver us from lifelong slavery. So that's the first thing to meditate on. Take it please. The great power of Jesus in the face of death.

[34:38] The second thing is the great kindness of Jesus in the face of death. You cannot miss this can you? You know in the first miracle when the disciples were about to go down in the boat they called out don't you care that we're dying?

[34:53] And that is the usual question we ask when the power of death is exercised in our lives and in our families. And you may feel completely overwhelmed right now.

[35:04] Might be something inside you or around you or within you. Might be lies. You're believing about yourself, hiding your true self. You may be isolated and alone.

[35:15] Power of death is at work in you or your family or around you. and you wonder whether God cares and you ask if he cares why does he delay? It's my question, it's the question I ask.

[35:29] I say to myself as I say to you we have to do what Jairus did, we have to do what this woman did, we have to act on what we know about Jesus, we have to come to him and he calls on us to put our trust in him.

[35:41] And the lovely thing for us is that when Jairus approached Jesus, Jesus was under no obligation to go with him but he did. Because Jesus does not treat us as we deserve.

[35:53] And as the woman, Jesus heals her despite her superstitious sneaky touching. When he calls a daughter he's saying to her, no, no, no, you're a member of the family of God, you're my sister.

[36:07] And even the delay in answering Jairus' request is a kindness. Jesus wants to give him something greater. And I don't know why Jesus delays always. And when he finally takes the little girl's hand and speaks to her, the word Talitha in Aramaic means lamb.

[36:27] Actually, it's a diminutive, lamby. It's so beautiful. Lamby, he says, time to get up. And I reflect on this.

[36:37] Jesus cares for you and for me beyond our imagining. He gave himself for us. And finally, the final thing is, well, how does this connect to us today?

[36:51] How does the power of Jesus and the grace of Jesus become increasingly real and it is caused by faith? By faith. Authentic Christian faith trusts Jesus in the face of death.

[37:05] Wonderful picture of how faith works. You know, Jairus and this woman, they have seen the power of death at work. They can see and they see through their normal securities and their normal supports.

[37:19] They say they can do nothing. They hear about Jesus, they take action. That is the beginning of true faith if you are not a follower of Jesus. If they had not acted on what they had heard, they would have never come to experience Jesus, they'd never have known him.

[37:35] Here's the thing, when we do come to Jesus, he asks us to do something impossible and unimaginable to trust him. He draws, he asks us to draw near to him.

[37:47] For the woman, it meant tell me the whole truth openly, which was the opposite of what she wanted. But Jesus knows it's what she needed, not just to restore her to community, but to break the power of the lies that she lived under for so long.

[38:03] Do you know, this is what we do every time we meet. It's called the confession. And I know sometimes we rattle through it quickly, but it's one of the moments in the service that is a complete miracle.

[38:17] Every time we say the words of the confession, we are telling our whole story, the whole truth about ourselves. I've been to AA meetings where this happens in most heartbreakingly honest way, and people get up and tell gruelling stories about themselves, and I've often wondered whether we should do that here at St.

[38:32] John's, but then it would become a competition of who sinned more greatly that week, I guess. There are other moments of great miracles in the service.

[38:42] I think the offertree is another one. Why would you give money to the invisible gospel of Jesus Christ? It's just a miracle that you do that. I think saying the creed, saying I believe, it's another miracle.

[38:57] But confession, we are telling the whole truth about ourselves to God week by week by week. don't say it quickly or perfunctorily. And for Jairus, it's only after he hears the news of his daughter's death that his faith becomes real.

[39:12] He had taken some action, but Jesus wants more, and Jesus wants more from you and from me. And he says to Jesus, sorry, Jesus says to Jairus, stop fearing, keep trusting me.

[39:24] And this, brothers and sisters, this is authentic faith. That's what it is. It's confessing the whole truth about me to him and confessing the whole truth about him as well.

[39:36] It's not just a conviction, it's a movement of our hearts. We draw near to him because he's the one who's laid himself across the rift between God and us, and he calls us to trust him, to lean on him, to stand on him, to rest on him, to go to him.

[39:53] And if you know that he is calling you now to do something impossible and imaginable, trust him. He will do what he says. Trust in his power, trust in his kindness, in facing death, little d death, and death, big d death.

[40:09] And know this, that there is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[40:33] Amen. Amen. Thanks. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[40:50] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.