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Our reading from Mark’s gospel this morning gives us a story of two daughters … two children … two children of God.  One, a little girl on her deathbed, with an influential father to advocate for her.  The other, an impoverished woman whose long illness has pushed her to the margins of society. 
 
These two stories are linked.  The story of Jarius’s daughter acts like the bread of a sandwich, with the story of the older woman as the filling.  Both stories mention twelve years.  Both stories are about healing.  So, why did the author of Mark’s gospel choose to tell their stories this way?  What is trying to be said beyond the healing of two very sick people?

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As I mentioned in last week’s sermon, during this summer and into the fall we will be hearing the saga of David from the Hebrew Scriptures.  David … the boy shepherd who became King of Israel.
 
These stories about David in our Hebrew Scriptures are wonderful.  They have become archetypal.  How many books have you read, or films have you seen where the plot is that of an ordinary citizen taking on big government, or a giant corporation, and winning the battle.  They are referred to as “David & Goliath” stories. 

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"The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, …”
"With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, …”
 
The kingdom of God.  Seed scattered on the ground.  A mustard seed. 
 
I will get to them in a moment, but before I do, I want to call attention to our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures.  This is the story of David … the shepherd boy … being anointed by Samuel to replace Saul as king.  Throughout the summer, and into the fall, we will hear the running saga of David.  This is the story of the least of Jesse’s sons toppling Goliath with a single stone.  It is the account of a very dear friendship with King Saul’s son Jonathon at a time that Saul was trying to kill David.  It is the lurid tale of King David seducing Bathsheba … the wife of Uriah the Hittite.  And it ends with the intrigue of the battle between his sons as David grows old and weary.  This narrative in the Second Book of Samuel is in some sense a biography of David.  Yet in another sense, as author J. S. Park puts it, it is a story of “how God works through ordinary outcasts and extraordinary sinners.” 

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Sermon by The Rev. Deena M. Galantowicz
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In both our Epistle and our Gospel today, we are seeing a person reacting to stress…..Yes, even Jesus.  And I think these readings may prompt US to consider how WE deal with stress, conflict and criticism, because that is certainly a very real part of our OWN lives.  As we continue to read Paul’s letters to the young church at Corinth, which we have been doing for awhile now, we sense in today’s Epistle, Paul’s reactions of strained patience and obvious weariness for the unrelenting criticism of him from the church in Corinth, which HE founded. // And actually, when we move on to consider the Gospel, we are presented with Jesus, under much the same kind of stress, from critics who are prepared to be brutal in exerting pressure.