{"id":1356,"date":"2022-12-06T14:32:35","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T20:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/?p=1356"},"modified":"2022-12-07T16:08:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T22:08:17","slug":"engaging-the-living-word-matthew-918-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/2022\/12\/engaging-the-living-word-matthew-918-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Engaging the Living Word &#8211; Matthew 9:18-26"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-modular-content-collection><h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Nourishing Vocation Project<\/h3>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">Engaging the Living Word<\/h4>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Woman with the Hemorrhage: Matthew 9:18-26<\/h4>\n<h5>What is this particular text?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Healing story<\/li>\n<li>Story within a story<\/li>\n<li>Theology\n<ul>\n<li>Centers one from the margins<\/li>\n<li>Jesus&#8217; redefinition of &#8220;clean and unclean.&#8221; The &#8220;unclean&#8221; woman touches him and she is healed<\/li>\n<li>Jesus&#8217; power of sickness<\/li>\n<li>Expansive inclusiveness of Jesus&#8217; mercy. Jesus raises from the dead the daughter of a synagogue leader, and Jesus heals a lowly, sick woman<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Personal encounter with Jesus, story<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>How does the text function within the scriptural story?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Shows who Jesus is<\/li>\n<li>Expands the understanding of who receives Jesus&#8217; mercy<\/li>\n<li>Demonstrates the embodiment of Jesus&#8217; mercy<\/li>\n<li>Amplifies voice of one who is marginalized<\/li>\n<li>First of four successive miracle stories<\/li>\n<li>Contributes to the spreading of Jesus&#8217; fame<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>How can this text function in the church today?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Calls us to center the voices of the marginalized<\/li>\n<li>Reminds us that faith is embodied<\/li>\n<li>Challenges us to ask who we exclude from Jesus&#8217; mercy today<\/li>\n<li>Encourages us to tell personal stories about our encounters with Jesus<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What does this text do to you? How do you react to the text? What feelings does this text engender in you?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Taps into my own longings\n<ul>\n<li>Makes me think of my own &#8220;if only&#8221; experiences<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Reminds me of my personal &#8220;long suffering&#8221; experiences<\/li>\n<li>Evokes empathy<\/li>\n<li>Awareness<\/li>\n<li>Sympathy<\/li>\n<li>Concern &#8211; both personal and collective<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What do you have to say to the text?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>I wish this story could be told in her voice<\/li>\n<li>I wonder how the woman heard about Jesus<\/li>\n<li>I wonder what the woman had heard about Jesus<\/li>\n<li>I wonder what came after this story<\/li>\n<li>Given cultural norms, the woman put herself at great risk<\/li>\n<li>Healing\/miracle stories are both beautiful and hard<\/li>\n<li>Healing\/miracle stories can be both good news and bad news\n<ul>\n<li>Not everyone is healed<\/li>\n<li>Translating healing stories into every day, human experiences can be challenging<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What do you see through this text from the story itself?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Longing is both personal and universal<\/li>\n<li>Longing can lead to vulnerability and risk<\/li>\n<li>Embodied need requires an embodied response<\/li>\n<li>Centering marginalized voices is transformative<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What do you see from within your church\/community\/world? (2022)<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Desperate personal need moves to act<\/li>\n<li>Some voices of need get marginalized<\/li>\n<li>Holding space for specific human need is important<\/li>\n<li>Wondering who among us is suffering in silence can lead to more engaged ministry<\/li>\n<li>Crises of our current time\n<ul>\n<li>Virtual ministry raises new challenges and new imaginative possibilities for embodied ministry<\/li>\n<li>Black Lives Matter &#8211; longing that demands action<\/li>\n<li>Mental health concerns<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What do you see within yourself?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>My &#8220;if only&#8221; experiences<\/li>\n<li>Those whose &#8220;if only&#8217;s&#8221; I have not heard or tended to<\/li>\n<li>Personal need for embodied responses to embodied need<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What is the context &#8211; textual and historical?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Follows the call of the last disciple &#8211; Matthew<\/li>\n<li>Precedes the given of authority to the disciples<\/li>\n<li>Precedes the naming of the 12 disciples<\/li>\n<li>Precedes the mission of the 12<\/li>\n<li>Set within the story of the raising of the synagogue leader&#8217;s daughter from the dead<\/li>\n<li>Immediately follows teaching about fasting<\/li>\n<li>Immediately precedes healing of two blind men and a person who was mute<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What questions does this text raise for you?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>How would the woman tell her own story?<\/li>\n<li>How do we deal with healing stories when people are not healed?<\/li>\n<li>In a world where we are aware of dangers of touch, how do we elevate and embrace healing touch?<\/li>\n<li>What happened to her after this story?<\/li>\n<li>Is it her touching Jesus&#8217; cloak or Jesus&#8217; words that heal her in Matthew&#8217;s telling of this story?<\/li>\n<li>What is the significance of the two stories told, enfolded together?<\/li>\n<li>Who was this woman, what was her name, what was the rest of her story?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What words\/themes seem of particular import?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Suddenly<\/li>\n<li>Suffering<\/li>\n<li>Touched<\/li>\n<li>If only<\/li>\n<li>Seeing her<\/li>\n<li>Take heart<\/li>\n<li>Longing<\/li>\n<li>Need<\/li>\n<li>Vulnerability<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What is the Gospel\/transforming Good News within this text?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Jesus sees<\/li>\n<li>Jesus heals<\/li>\n<li>Interrupting Jesus is good and right<\/li>\n<li>Jesus takes time for human need<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What is the as-over-againstness of this text?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Suffering can last a long time<\/li>\n<li>Not all human need is healed<\/li>\n<li>Vulnerability can be dangerous<\/li>\n<li>Human need can make one an outsider<\/li>\n<li>Human need can create fear<\/li>\n<li>Unfulfilled longing can lead to desperate actions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Who does this text say that Jesus is, or if not Jesus, then who does this text say that God is? What does this text say about God?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Jesus sees individual people in their specific need<\/li>\n<li>Jesus cares<\/li>\n<li>Jesus erases the boundaries between clean and unclean<\/li>\n<li>No one is outside of Jesus&#8217; care<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What have others said about this text?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/billloader.com\/Tassels.html\">Should I touch him? The pain of stretching.<\/a> Pushing my way through. Touching. Touching just his dangling tassel. No one will know. No one needs to know. No one knows. No one knows what it&#8217;s like to be me. No know knows what I&#8217;ve been though. No one knows the shame. It&#8217;s the blood. Not like the rest. Not every month or so. All the time. All the time! And you know what that means! Yes it means unclean, unclean. &#8211; William Loader<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidlose.net\/2014\/06\/matthew-9-18-26\/\">Both of these women are daughters.<\/a> The first is born the daughter of a synagogue leader who comes beseeching Jesus on behalf of his beloved child. The second is called daughter by Jesus, restored to health and wholeness and commended for her great faith. &#8211; David Lose<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What will I teach or proclaim?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>It is good to name your longings out loud<\/li>\n<li>Your suffering and longing matter to Jesus<\/li>\n<li>Jesus sees you in your longing<\/li>\n<li>Jesus cares for you in your vulnerability<\/li>\n<li>Jesus is not too busy for you<\/li>\n<li>Jesus brings the outsiders in<\/li>\n<li>Name that human longings are not always filled, and wrestle with what that means<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/files\/2022\/09\/The-Woman-with-the-Hemorrhage-Matthew-9.18-26.docx-1.pdf\">Downloadable PDF Version<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nourishing Vocation Project Engaging the Living Word The Woman with the Hemorrhage: Matthew 9:18-26 What is this particular text? Healing story Story within a story Theology Centers one from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8561,"featured_media":693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/files\/2022\/08\/14125575880_56640268c0_o.jpg?fit=2560%2C1439&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8561"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1356"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1417,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356\/revisions\/1417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/nourishing-vocation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}