Surprised by a Question
I was at a preaching workshop this weekend. It was a workshop designed to engage both clergy and laity by the More and Better Preachers Program from Trevecca Nazarene University. I recommend checking out the program, but this essay is about how we can be troubled, surprised, and curious through encounters with scripture. It will probably help to explain what I mean by and how I approach scripture as a member of clergy in a Wesleyan-Holiness denomination, Scripture for me is the sacred texts of the Jewish and Christian people as canonized by the Church catholic. The authority of scripture is present in the invitation and to know God and our response to that invitation. The inspiration of scripture extends to the reader through the work of the Holy Spirit. Any discussion of inerrancy for Wesleyan-Holiness folk is only concerned with the purpose of scripture which is to reveal how we are reconciled with God.
I met a new friend yesterday because a mutual friend mentioned that he believed we would connect. With another friend and an additional new friend our table and group for the day became set. One of the exercises we were led through is the process of sleuthing the text with others (friends, people in our congregations, and others). The passage we were given to discuss and sleuth was Matthew 9:18–26. This is a story I have always loved and recently saw the portrayal of it in the series The Chosen. I’ll put the passage here so we can be on the same page.
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment. When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread through all of that district. (Matthew 9:18–26, NRSVue)
A few truths I have seen in this passage include the fact that there is nowhere that God is not. In addition, there is no person God is not with, even if the religious rules label them as unclean. God is also present in our suffering. This does not mean that God brings our suffering or uses suffering to teach us, but that when we suffer, like the woman who suffered with a bleeding disease for more than a decade. This means that God is present in the suffering and working to redeem the suffering through that presence. A good discussion of what this means and how it part of the mission of the Church to be with others in suffering I recommend Andrew Root’s Evangelism in an Age of Despair.
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