Reach Out and Touch Someone

This sermon was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on the Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sunday June 10, 2007.

1 Kings 17:8-16
Psalm 146
Galatians 1:11-24
Luke 7:11-17

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

On September 17th, “The Nation’s Newspaper,” USA Today celebrates its 25th anniversary. Has it been that long all ready? I was still in college when “McPaper” published its first issue. To celebrate their 25th anniversary, their web site is running a series of lists “big things” that have happened during the life of the paper. In a list called “The Long Goodbye” the editors mourn things that existed when the paper began that don’t anymore.[1] These things include indoor smoking, typewriters, phone booths, service stations, Michael Jackson, and civility. I included these last two items because listing “Michael Jackson” in the same breath as indoor smoking and typewriters helps demonstrate the end of civility. One of the things that missed the list by nine months is the original AT&T.[2]

American Telephone & Telegraph was born in 1885 when the Bell Telephone Company and several other telephone providers merged. In the day, “Ma Bell” as it came to be known, became the juggernaut in the communications industry. AT&T became so big that competitors argued their size and power had created a monopoly in the telephone communications industry, which is illegal under federal anti-trust laws. So in January 1982 AT&T and the Justice Department agreed that AT&T would spin off the seven regional phone companies, the “Baby Bells,” into seven new separate companies and AT&T would maintain long distance service and their technology unit.

Seven years after the breakup, AT&T began using “Reach Out and Touch Someone” as an advertising jingle to promote their long distance phone service. “Reach out and touch someone. Reach out, reach out and just say ‘hi!’” Given the competition that companies like Sprint and MCI had been giving AT&T since the early 80’s, AT&T was trying to get a little bit more market share by having folks just “Reach Out and Touch Someone.” This may not seem like a big deal to us now, but this was long before prepaid calling cards, nickel or dime-a-minute long distance, and free weekends on the cell phone.

“Reach out and touch someone, reach out, reach out and just say ‘hi!’” was meant to be more than just a plea to call Aunt Deegee and Uncle Bob in California; it was a call to a generation to expand its view of community. Before the advent of technology as we know it, it was a chore to get in touch with people who have moved across the country. Suddenly, it was as easy as “reach out and touch someone.”

But why do we reach out and touch someone? Surely it’s not to make AT&T a little more money. In truth, we are called by God to reach out and touch someone. We are called to live and work and be together in the community with other people. We are called to reach out and share coffee and doughnuts with each other. We are called to reach out and share the important events of life. We are called to reach out in the joy of new marriages, fresh relationships, long standing friendships. We are called to reach out and mourn the loss of friends and loved ones. We are called to reach out and share the bounty of the life the Lord has given us. We are called to reach out and share the joy and peace of the life the Lord shared with his disciples. We are called to reach out and share the joy and peace of the life the Lord continues to share with us. We are called to reach out and touch the lives of others.

Our Gospel reading shows a wonderful example of “reach out and touch someone.” But as it is with our Lord, there is more to this story than the miraculous healing of the woman’s son. Christ’s gracious action shows us how we are to treat each other.

Consider the setting of this scene. Jesus is traveling by a village called Nain. It’s a nondescript little town in the mountains about fifteen miles southwest of the Sea of Galilee, only about five miles southeast of Nazareth.[3] It’s not an unattractive village, there is a view of the Plain of Esdraelon. A nearby spring makes attractive groves of olives and figs possible.[4] But there is no major industry, no strategic importance, and only a couple hundred inhabitants and figs. It’s a nothing little town, the only reason it has any New Testament notoriety is because of this story. And as Jesus, his disciples, and a large crowd pass, they pass a funeral.

Jesus sees the situation and is able to size it up in a moment. With compassion and with authority he says, “Do not weep.”

So he touches the bier, a kind of stretcher carrying the body of the dead man, and says, “Young man, I say to you, rise!”

The dead man sits up and begins to speak. Then Jesus gives the man back to his mother.

The crowd is gripped with fear, and gives glory to God. A great prophet has risen among us, God looks favorably on the people, and the good news spreads throughout Judea and the surrounding country side.

What a miracle this is! Jesus reaches out and touches a man and brings him back to life. There is joy in Nain. This would be enough, the sharing of a wonderful miracle of glory and authority, but Jesus was always more subtle than flashy. The flash is good stuff, there’s more substance than style here, but this is more than just a story about a man being healed.

What a heart wrenching sight this funeral must have been. The procession was heading out of town through the city gate toward the cave that would be his final resting place. His body was probably going to be entombed with the remains of his father. In the procession was the widow who had just lost her son, the bearers of the stretcher with the body of the deceased young man, and a crowd from Nain. The widow was weeping, her family was now gone.

The death of her son caused her to become disconnected from the community. Her family had been destroyed, first with the death of her husband and then by the death of her only son. Without their support she was destitute; socially, emotionally, and economically; and she was undoubtedly too grief stricken to care about the horror tomorrow would bring, today was horrible enough.

But Jesus ends her separation from the community. In restoring her son to life and returning him to her, Jesus is able to fully restore the widowed mother to life. In this act, Jesus uses his power and authority not just to bring a man back to life, but to mend the relationship between a mother and her son and a woman and her community. Healing separation caused by death, Jesus mends relationships.

And there’s more. Here’s a touchy thing we learn about Jesus in this passage, Jesus isn’t above breaking the law to do his work. The Levitical code says that it is unlawful to touch the dead. If someone comes into contact with the dead they will be unclean until the evening.[5] Beside that, whatever things come in contact with a dead body are unclean until they are washed in water.[6] So by proxy, anyone who comes in contact with anything touched by a dead body will be unclean until evening. So as Jesus reaches out to touch the bier, he makes himself unclean.

Adding another violation of Levitical code, priests were not allowed touch the dead, not even the dead from their own family.[7] The Lord was very specific about this with Moses. So while Jesus was not a member of the priestly class, he was considered a rabbi and prophet among the people. Even if the priestly law didn’t apply to him directly, as far as many were concerned these laws still applied to Jesus.

So even considering the legal and cultural taboos he would be breaking, Jesus chooses to reach out and touch the bier. Jesus was willing to do something very risky in order to reconcile the relationship between mother and son and between a woman and her community. Jesus is willing to make himself unclean in the eyes of the people to do his work and he is willing to face the consequences of making himself unclean in the eyes of the world to do his work.

Now, I am not recommending anyone go out and rob a bank to provide food for the poor for the Glory of God. Robin Hood is a great story, but that’s not what we are talking about here. When Jesus brushes aside the Levitical codes, he does it to bring glory to the Father, not to himself. In fact, all that Jesus does points to the Father. In the Father, there is only life, there is no death. In the Father, the earthly codes fall away to reveal the peace and joy of new life, a life of love and relationship in God almighty. Where robbing banks and violence against others violate the command to love the Lord our God and our neighbors as ourselves, touching the bier does nothing to separate one from another. As our gospel reading shows us, it does the opposite, it reconciles humanity rather than divide it.

This passage shows when Jesus reaches out and touches someone, something great happens. This greatness is more than just the healing, in this glorious action Jesus brings to life more than just one man, he brings an entire community into new life through the word of God, living in Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is the miracle we are called to remember and celebrate today; Jesus came to earth the Living Word of God, a man of power and authority who came to restore us to life and new relationship with himself and with one.

Nain is not unlike any one of a hundred other villages in Judea; it’s not unlike a dozen villages in Carroll County or any one of a million villages in the world. The only thing special about Nain is that Jesus is there, this is the only thing that is special about anyplace on earth. And as the church, we are called to continue the reconciling work of the Lord in the world.
Jesus comes with compassion and with the power and authority of the Father to make a difference in the lives of those he was sent to redeem. And as the church, we are called to use his power and authority to continue his reconciling work.

And as Jesus breaks the rules to reconcile mother and son, we are called to consider our call and when it intersects earthly barriers, we are called to do the work of God. And then face the consequences of breaking the law if so be.

Today, our ability to “reach out and touch someone” is so much broader than it was when AT&T invited us to reach out. We can now reach out overseas almost as easily as we can call next door. Electronic Mail allows us to drop a quick note with the touch of a few keystrokes. Texting usually uses even fewer keystrokes to send a message. MySpace and FaceBook help people connect with old friends and make ones around the world. Blogging invites people into our most private thoughts, thoughts that we choose to put up for the world to see on the internet.[8] There is a high tech community surrounding us. But as we rest in the community created by technology, we are also called to leave our monk’s cells, our keyboards, and our cell phones and reach out and touch someone, reach out and make a difference in the community.

Reaching out to one another with the love of God shown to us through the work of the Son Jesus Christ we are given a model of how to live and to be with one another in life and beyond death. So reach out, reach out and touch someone. Reach out, reach out and just say “hi.”

[1] The Long Goodbye, USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/news/top25-disappear.htm, accessed June 5, 2007.
[2] SBC, the artist formerly known as Southwestern Bell, has recently reconsolidated the major Baby Bells and purchased AT&T. This new company has been rebranded AT&T and acquired Cingular Wireless to expand its cellular holdings. Every thing that’s old is new again.
[3] Distances are approximate from the BibleWorks Map Module, BibleWorks, LLC. BibleWorks for Windows, Windows 98/XP Release. Version 7.0.018x.8. Norfolk, VA. CD-ROM. 2007.
[4] General information from the entry for Nain, Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. 21st Printing, 1992, Buttrick, George A., Editor. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962 by 21st Printing 1992.
[5] Leviticus 11:31
[6] Leviticus 11:32
[7] Leviticus 21:1, 11
[8] My personal blog is available at http://blog.myspace.com/timelovesahero and my sermon blog is available here.