Daily Reading for June 28 • The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
When Jesus comes to Jairus’s house, he says to the girl, “Get up,” and then he tells the others to feed her. “Get up” is the way it’s translated here, but it could also be “wake up” or “stir yourself.” The same word is used to speak of raising the dead. If we want healing in this world, we have to stir ourselves to get up and demand it, and expect healing as the proper way of things. We have to touch or move people in a way that lets them feel the suffering of others. We have to believe that healing is possible and do something about it. We may even have to wake the dead in our midst—those who can’t or won’t feel the suffering of so many around this world—and heal them enough to get busy themselves.
You and I have a vision of what the world is supposed to look like, a vision that comes out of the depths of our tradition—the reign of God, where all have enough to eat, all illness is healed, all strife is resolved, and people live together in justice and peace. That vision of shalom is our hope, and it undergirds our faith. God’s vision is stronger than death, and, indeed, after the crucifixion Jesus himself is gotten up to continue that healing work. His command to the community around the little girl is the same one we get: Now, get up—you’ve been healed. Come to the table and eat. But it’s not just a call to those of us gathered here today. It’s a call to the whole world: Get up! Expect and demand the kind of healing God envisions for us all! Go and feed the world!
From “City of God,” quoted in The Gospel in the Global Village: On the Road with Bishop Katharine by Katharine Jefferts Schori. Copyright © 2009. Used by permission of Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. www.morehousepublishing.com