She was frustrated. She was exhausted. She was humiliated. She was bankrupt. She was desperate. And she had one last hope. Mark usually gives us only very few details in his stories about Jesus. He is a “just the facts, ma’am” kind of writer, giving us only the most important pieces of information and leaving the details out. But apparently this scene made quite an impression on him, because he tells us quite a lot. And from what he says, we can fill in an awful lot more. Let’s spend a moment and get to know this woman and her situation.

In the New Revised translation we are told the woman had a hemorrhage problem. Older translations call it a constant flow of blood. What the text really means to say is that the woman had a menstrual cycle that was not a cycle, only a constant, ever present reality. Modern medicine would no doubt have at least several explanations for her situation, and at least several potential cures. But this was two thousand years ago. All anyone knew back then was that her condition was far from normal and far from healthy. She had a serious physical problem, but it was not just physical.

Her physical condition was certainly enough cause for concern, by today’s standards, and certainly by the standards of back then. But the physical problem was not the major one. She also had a religious and social problem. According to ancient Jewish thought, the cause of physical disease and malady was spiritual in nature, and not just physical. If there were something physically wrong with you that meant that there was something spiritually wrong with you. You had sinned. God was punishing or disciplining you. In the case of a woman with a constant flow of blood, this meant that she could not marry, or if she were married, it meant that her husband could easily divorce her. It also meant that she was cut off from much of regular social contact. She was considered ritually unclean. She was not even allowed to worship God. She was separated from society.

Mark says she had seen many doctors and spent all her money. In that regard, nothing has changed has it? (Only kidding!) Those two little facts, though, along with what we know about the way a woman with her problem would have been treated in society, are enough to tell us about the situation inside her soul. How must one feel, in her situation? Frustrated, exhausted, humiliated, bankrupt, desperate. For some people, maybe most, that would be enough to make you also feel totally hopeless, enough to make you throw in the towel. But she had one hope left. His name was Jesus.

With nothing but her faith in the power of Jesus, she braved the humiliation of being seen in public, she pushed her way through the crowd, and she managed to touch Jesus’ robe, probably one of the four tassels that hung from the hem of a traditional cloak of the time. That was all she wanted. That was all it took. Immediately, not later but now, she was healed. Immediately, not later, Jesus felt power flow from him. Her hemorrhage stopped and she was well. And because her problem was not just a physical problem but also a social problem, her healing had not just physical ramifications, but social ones as well, even spiritual ones, you might say. She was restored. She was made whole in her body and whole in her standing before God and her standing before her community. She was no longer sick and no longer outcast, humiliated, separated from the love of other people.

You and I remember this famous story of the healing of the woman with the flow of blood as a miracle story. And so often we think of Jesus’ miracles as something he did in order to prove that he was the Son of God. But Scot McKnight reminds us that the primary reason Jesus performed miracles was not to prove himself to us. Especially in Mark we are told that when Jesus does something like deliver a man from his demons or save a frightened bunch of disciples from drowning at sea, he doesn’t want anyone to know. How can you prove yourself if you don’t let your publicist trumpet the news to everyone around? No, when you think about it, every time Jesus does something miraculous it is for the purpose of restoring, healing, saving, taking care of human need. When Jesus does his miracle thing he is putting people back into the place where God means them to be: in relationship with God and with each other, in a place where they can experience all the blessings of life that God means for us to have.

And so there you have an old story of a tragic and sad situation that turns out well. But the real question for you and me today is whether or not the same thing can happen for us. Think about your life. Unless you are very young, in short order you should be able to create a list of situations in your life that could use a healing touch. Let me help you get started with a few general suggestions. How many of you can list one relationship with another person that has gone terribly wrong? How many can list a nagging health problem that refuses to go away? How about a character flaw or a type of sinfulness that resists your best efforts to overcome? Or can you add something illegal or immoral from your past? How many can list at least one situation that is not about your own behavior or character but someone else’s that is having a negative impact on your life? How many can add a great challenge that you see coming sometime in the future? And how many have some great challenge right now that seems nearly impossible to confront? We have to admit that there is a very real side of life that is decayed, difficult, brittle, and maybe even ready to explode.

Where can we go for help? This past Thursday some of us visited the crisis response center set up in a community gym in Rancho Bernardo where dozens of agencies have set up shop and where those who have lost their homes in the recent fires can come for help. There are public and private agencies from city and county and state and federal government, as well as insurance companies, utility companies, and even a couple of faith-based relief agencies. It is a huge triage center designed to provide every form of help available. But it won’t be enough. It won’t be enough because the very toughest and deepest and longest-lived problems we face require something more than human effort to resolve. Healing the soul has to happen before healing the body, or the mind, or the physical loss of your home. The woman who touched Jesus’ robe had exhausted every single remedy known and expended every resource she had, but the only thing that proved up to the task of healing her and restoring her was the love of God and the power of God flowing through Jesus. David McKenna wrote that, “Man’s futility is God’s opportunity.” That’s worth remembering, especially when you are feeling a bit of that futility yourself.

Man’s futility is God’s opportunity to pay the cost of restoring us to wellness and peace. Jesus was in the press of a crowd that day and he was unaware of the woman’s presence until she touched his robe and he felt an energy flow out of him. We don’t need to try to describe that dynamic here. We need only note this: that there is a cost involved in putting our lives back on track. There is always a cost involved when it comes to fixing a broken life, mending a broken relationship, repairing a broken soul. There’s much talk these days of insurance, of rebuilding costs, of lost work costs, of costs that cannot even be counted in dollars, the cost of emotional stress. Some might say that since Jesus was God and therefore infinitely powerful there really was no cost involved for him. But Jesus was also Human, and the price he paid to become Human from God and then to die a Human death was, may we say it, a nearly infinite cost?

God’s will is to restore us from the decay and destruction that we commonly experience in these human lives we lead. Only God can fully restore, and only God can pay the ultimate price. But God also invites us to become a community of people who act as his agents in the world and who begin to learn for ourselves what it means to be conduits of his power, or as St. Francis of Assisi famously put it, “instruments of your peace.” We have focused our attention as a church this year on the twin commandments that Jesus said were the most important: to love God with all we are and to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. When we love in this way, we begin to become a new society, a new reality, a new kingdom, the Kingdom of God on earth. One of the striking characteristics of this Kingdom is that it is a place where we ourselves are restored and where we participate with God in restoring others.

A few days ago a small group of us inspected an empty house that has the potential to become a home. You need to remember that I am the son of a carpenter and I have spent many summers swinging a hammer and slinging a paintbrush. The house that we visited recently needed someone like me, perhaps many someones like me! It is an old house, and it used to be a gracious and welcoming place, I’m sure. But not now. Cabinets have been ripped from the walls. Old carpets cover once-beautiful wooden floors. Roof is a generous term for what covers the top of the place, and the yard makes you think of the famous first line from the poem Evangeline: “this is the forest primeval.” But it has potential! And a guy like me who has seen far worse looks at a place like that and thinks: this could be beautiful again. But several things have to happen to a place like that. You have to be brutally honest about it: it needs work. And it isn’t going to get repaired all by itself: it needs workers. And it is going to cost plenty: in time, and money, and sweat.

I wonder if God looks at us sometimes like I looked at that old house. Hmmm…needs work. Hmmm…is it worth it? Hmmm…will cost plenty. Actually, I think God is pretty good at sizing up the situation when it comes to looking at us and making a quick estimate of the depth of the problem and the cost of the solution. He decided he had to come down here himself in order to do the job. And he decided that it would cost nothing less than the loss of his very own life. But he must have thought we were worth it.

Last summer when I planned this series of sermons the original title I chose for this sermon was “Becoming Myself: Restoration Isn’t Just for Houses Anymore.” I got the idea from one of my favorite television shows, I think it’s called “This Old House,” the one where they show you how to take an old, broken down, used up, hopeless mess of a house, and make it beautiful again. Little did I know how poignant that thought would be in November, as our community is faced with a literal rebuilding of some 1700 houses. I changed the title, because aside from the safety of our conversation with each other in worship together, I thought it might come across as insensitive or opportunistic. And yet, it’s true. All of us have those parts of our lives that are old and broken down, used up and outdated, maybe even close to completely burned out. And we need God’s healing power, God’s restoring energy, God’s very own presence to put us back together, in spirit and soul, in body and mind.

There is a direct connection, I believe, between our spiritual health and our physical health. And there also is a direct connection between our twin roles as recipients of God’s power and as instruments of God’s power. Long before his passion and death, Jesus sent the disciples out into Galilee to minister in the same way and with the same power that he had. And you and I can do the same. This church exists for the dual reasons of being a place where people like you and I can find renewal in our own lives, and of being a place where you and I can be agents of renewal in other’s lives. That is why our support and gifts and participation in this church are so important. Like the woman who touched Jesus’ robe, God wants us to return to a perfect relationship with him and with those around us, and then, God wants us to help others find the same. He touched me and made me whole. And I can do no less than touch others with his love. Can you?

Amen.