exclusionary rules

Saturday July 4th, Mark 5: 30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" 31 "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' “32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." Sometimes it is just too much work to find out the real needs of those in our communities. We tried community organizing, it didn’t catch, lives are too busy and needs not personal enough, yet. For now we just go about our lives as a worship community. This is a multiple healing story; The daughter was healed of her illness, the father was healed from having to uphold the exclusionary rules of the synagogue, the synagogue community was healed of practicing exclusion, the woman was healed from having to put up with quacks, the woman was healed of her illness, the community was healed from having her presence excluded from them, and the disciples were healed from their apathy of thinking it too much work to find out who touched the hem of Jesus garment. When inclusion happens, no matter what the reason for exclusion, healing happens. It takes work, deep work and often that in itself is part of the healing process.