It has been a long winter. Not that winter is over. But it's Lent, for pete's sake, so it may as well be spring! Time to talk as if we've survived. You might have gotten a postcard in the mail this week that was as welcome as spring. Good news: we're going to concentrate on healing. After a winter like we've had, healing comes not a moment too soon.

The appealing thing about the Luke story is that Jesus is so powerful. He's all about freedom. For Jairus, a man of status who forgoes the power of his position to plead for the only child he's got, it's freedom from fear. For the bloody woman, bound by her ritual unclean-ness to the triple-whammy of gender, poverty, and position, it's freedom from illness. For all of them, it's freedom from death, from the chronic-ness of sickness, from being victimized by the medical community, from the tyranny of waiting rooms, from the hopelessness you catch from others, from the ridicule that demolishes faith. And this freedom comes not a moment too soon.

The postcard read, "When spiritual issues are not resolved in your life, the way through is always more difficult than the way around. Cheap religion gives you the way around; true religion gives you the way through." The statement begs a few questions, of course. What is "cheap religion" versus "true," and what's this "around" and "through"?

Cheap religion comes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's conception of cheap grace, which he writes about in his book, The Cost of Discipleship. Bonhoeffer, you may remember, was a dissenting Lutheran pastor in Germany during World War 2 who lost his life because of a failed plot to assassinate Hitler. Bonhoeffer writes that cheap grace is, "the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession." It isn't individuals coming in for his criticism. In the immediate sense, he critiques the church that stood by while Hitler exterminated the Jews. But his criticism is just as pertinent to present-day religion when he writes, "Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. . . . In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin."

Cheap religion-no need to experience pain because Jesus already forgives. No price, no cost, free grace, free ride. It's a religion comprised of Jesus' admirers, not his followers. The cost of true religion is described in a story I got in an email this week. It's about two African-American brothers in the segregated South of the 1950s and 60s. One brother became a lawyer, the other a civil rights worker. The lawyer's practice defended civil rights protesters, including his brother, who was often arrested for non-violent acts of civil disobedience. Late in the struggle, the lawyer brother once again bailed out the protest brother, a little the worse for wear after a beating and some jail time. The protest brother asked his lawyer brother when he was going to be counted in the struggle for freedom. The lawyer was irate. What had his practice been all these years? The protest brother alluded to following Jesus in the struggle against injustice. The lawyer said he followed Jesus, citing his church membership, prayer and study, volunteer work at the church, and the large checks he wrote. By gum, he said, he followed Jesus! The protest brother merely asked, "When are you going to put your self on the line? You have been admiring Jesus. It's time to follow him."

We are admirers of Jesus when we take the easier way around our struggles, rather than going through. For Jairus, it is his fear for the death of his only child. But it is fear about his pride, his position in the community, that makes him go around. It is his assurance that he has always done the "right" thing, surely an exception would be made for him and she would be spared. The way through for Jairus is to walk into the mob, acknowledging he is no different than the others in needing help. Fear returns when reports of her death come. He loses hope, willing to believe them. The way around is Jesus-as-fixer, Jesus-in-the-nick-of-time. The way through is the understanding that death is not just inevitable, death is necessary before there can be new life. As Jesus invites Jairus to give up fear, to embrace hope, his daughter's spirit returns. In a symbolic act, the dead little girl is enlivened by the touch of Jesus' hand.

The only way out is through. The bloody woman thought she was going through. How much more "through" would she have to go after twelve years? Hers was no easy way out, the public appearance. Everyone in town knows who she is, what her problem is (a twelve-year-long menstrual period!). They know to give her a wide berth, because to actually touch her meant the elaborate purification ritual before they're even allowed back in the synagogue. Braving the crowd is not easy. Sneaking up to Jesus is not easy. Reaching out and daring expose him to her uncleanness is not easy. How could this be "going around"? But Jesus wants to know what's going on. He knows something happened. To privatize her healing-to keep it to herself-was the way around for the bloody woman, but Jesus doesn't need her to tell. The community needs her to tell. And Jesus knows that. Healing is never a private matter in the gospel. Since healing restores a person to community, the faith that brings her to Jesus' coat fringe-her faith-is a community experience.

The postcard promised we'd be talking about spiritual healing. Spiritual healing is God's intended wholeness for us, and it involves our mind, body, and relationships. Because our whole being is permeated by our spirit. Wholeness is neither easy nor pain free, because we are more complex than that. Think of Lent as the time to make room for healing. Traditionally the Church does this with Lenten "disciplines." Things like prayer, fasting, scripture. You know the drill. This year, you might think of the One Great Hour of Sharing worksheet I handed out as a means of your money making room for spiritual healing. But you might also consider including the midweek services as a means of making room. Or staying for the talk-back after worship. Or intentional daily prayer. Or reading one of the books in on the table in fellowship hall. Make room for God to heal your spirit. When spiritual issues are not resolved in your life, the way through is always more difficult than the way around. Cheap religion gives you the way around; true religion gives you the way through.
I'm going to take a few moments during worship to give you practice in making room. The ushers will hand out silent paper-and-pencil exercises which we will begin here. You may wish to continue this conversation with God at home this week.

Spiritual Healing

When spiritual issues are not resolved in your life, the way through is always more difficult than the way around. Cheap religion gives you the way around; true religion gives you the way through. God offers spiritual healing in wholeness of body, mind, spirit, relationship. Your inability to hope can stand in the way of your healing.

Consider a current situation in your life that feels hopeless. Where is hope in that situation? What would hope do or look like?

No one likes pain, but pain can be a gift. Sometimes the message of pain is "Don't do that!" But sometimes the gift of pain invites you to keep going, as if there is more for you to learn. What is the gift of pain in your situation?

Think about a time in the past when you knew that "all will be well" even though the circumstances didn't seem to be that way at the time. How did that relate to hope?

Bring this paper home with you this week and continue to consider and pray about the questions. You might read Psalm 31 or Lamentation 3:1-6, 16-24 as you do so.