Readings: James 2:1-10, 14-17 & Mark 7:24-37

The readings this week have led me to reflect on our sense of touch.  We use the word ‘touch’ in more than one way.   We use it to describe the physical sensation of touching.  Our skin, our largest organ, is the sensor for our sense of touch.  So our whole body is involved.   We also use the word ‘touch’ to describe an inner sense, an emotional response to what happens in our lives.  How often do we say, “I was so touched by what you said, or by what you did for me”?

Sadly we can't touch people anymore.  Teachers can't put their arms around children in their classes.  Even in the church, we have to be careful to check out whether or not it is all right to touch someone.  We have to make certain that our actions are not misunderstood.  Yet the efficacy of touch is well known and documented.  Modern medicine uses therapeutic touch.  We may not understand exactly why it is important, but we do know that it works.  It is important to our well being.  The healing ministry of the church recognizes its importance.  It is a ministry not only of prayer.  We anoint with holy oil; we lay hands on the sick.    

I was reading an article recently about the experiences of some nurses in dealing with the SARS outbreak.  Two of the nurses became ill and so saw the epidemic from both sides.  They in particular spoke of the sense of isolation, of not being touched.  Patients suddenly found themselves in isolation.  Family members were not allowed to visit.  Nurses had to scrub and put on masks before entering a room.  They spoke about feeling as if, somehow, it was their fault for catching the virus in the first place.  Even those who did not get sick said that their whole reason for being nurses was called into question.  The sense of ‘tender loving care’, the ability to touch people in a healing way, was taken away from them. 

There are certain people who really touch our lives.  Last weekend was the anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.  How she touched people in her short life! I know there is a tendency to try to bring up all the scandal surrounding her death.  But I suspect that what we really remember about her is that she touched people.  The pictures that were taken of her were about physical touch.  Diana reaching out to touch a man dying of AIDS.  Diana touching someone with leprosy.  Diana reaching out a hand in solidarity with a street person.  Perhaps the most touching and poignant picture was of a person born with no eyes.  Princess Diana let him touch her face to “see” what she looked like. 

Isn’t that what is memorable about people like Mother Teresa?  She didn’t sit in a chapel and pray for people.  She cared for them.  She wandered the streets of Calcutta and helped the poorest of the poor.  She touched them. 

Jesus touched people.  As Jesus returns to Galilee, the crowd follows him.  Amongst those brought to him for healing is a deaf person.  Because he cannot hear, he cannot speak clearly.  Jesus takes him aside privately.  He puts his fingers into his ears.  He spits and touches his tongue.  Then he simply says, “Be opened,” and the man can speak freely. 

It seems to me that something else is freed up by that wonderful loving touch.  The witnesses to the event are touched on an emotional level, opened up.  New possibilities blossom within them.  Perhaps Jesus is not merely a hometown boy, the son of the carpenter, Joseph.  Perhaps he is more than just another itinerant healer.  He is, after all, remarkable.  “He does everything well!” they exclaim.  Healing and wholeness come through this one who stands before them inviting them to be open.  Touching them, not only physically, but also to their very core. 

Jesus through touch, steps over taboos against relating to unclean persons.  He widens God’s unending circle to include all of us.  By touch eyes are made to see, ears to hear, tongues to speak, feet to walk, hands to serve.  He disentangles the broken strands of life, the discordant harmonies of fear, despair and hopelessness.  He touches, and people are brought back into relationship with a loving God and walk once more within divine order and orbit. 

In the same way, Jesus reaches out into our world.  Alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals, the sick, the lonely, the empty, the suicidal, are touched by the Spirit of God and transformed into loving, serving children. 

And redemption comes to us through God touching us.  Identifying with us.  Entering into our way of life. Being one of us.  God has reached out and touched us.  We have been drawn close through Christ, united, once and for all with God. 

The touch of the Christ is on each of us.  It comes to us through the Spirit at Baptism.  We renew it throughout our lives as we make our own commitment to the faith.  It does not eradicate all of our problems and conflicts, but with the touch of Christ in our lives comes new order and harmony and joy and power and meaning and purpose and salvation.  With that touch comes transformation. 

For that touch from God is our invitation to be opened.  To be opened up to new possibilities.  To be touched on many levels.  To touch others.  Whose voice are we open to hearing?  With what fresh voice can we speak?  What impediments stand in our way? 

Openness to God is revealed in action.  To be touched by God is to be called into action.  As James says, “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”  We have been blessed by hearing the word.  How do we now “do” what we have been blessed by hearing? 

Faith is not merely listening, speaking, discussing, arguing and analyzing.  Those all help us to learn about our faith.  But knowledge is not enough.  Faith is acted out.  It is lived out in the Christian life.  It is not enough to hear and know all about it.  That will never touch another life.  As ‘unanglican’ as it may seem, profession and action are an integral part of our faith.  Our faith is useless unless it is backed up by our actions.  What earthly use is the Christian community if it stands at a distance from the world, preaching at it?  How will that touch people’s lives?  How will that convey to people a God who walks with us?  Will that open people to the gospel message? 

The Christian community is called to involve itself with the struggles and problems of the world.  A world which is searching to become more truly human.  We are not called to stand in judgement.  We must not stand at a cultural distance.  We must identify with all of humanity.  We must enable people to find ways of expressing the life of faith and worship. 

May we live out our faith with a sense of justice.  May the Spirit of God in us touch others as our lives have been touched by God.