unclean

Friday July 6^th, Mark 5: A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." This is the beginning of the second healing miracle in this story. The first story was about the ruler of the synagogue; the second was about an outcast of the synagogue and of the community.  Both show faith, both are blessed with healing.  There may be more than one reason Mark intertwines these stories into one.  I believe the real healing that took place that day was in the community that made up the synagogue.  They learned the vulnerability of those who are in power and their need to depend on God and they learned the vulnerability of the community who can so quickly create victims and call them unclean.  Who are the ones who are “unclean” and therefore not welcome in our communities of faith?  Sometimes that definition comes from someone’s perception, sometimes it’s a personal excuse for not wanting to be involved, sometimes it is a definition the community of faith has.  Perhaps it is the willingness to accept the other as unclean that is really in the need of healing.  In the “unclean’s” inclusion, all are on the road to becoming whole.