Thomas J Parlette
“By Faith”
Matt. 9:9-13, 18-26
Gen. 12:1-9
6/7/26
I spend more time in hospitals than your average person. It’s part of the job of being a minister. I am not fully of the hospital, but I’m very familiar with how things work in hospitals and emergency rooms.
One particular thing I’ve noticed over the past couple of years is the identification system that exists in the Emergency room. I don’t know when it started, but if you’ve ever had the opportunity to visit the emergency room and wait for x-rays and tests to be done, maybe you’ve noticed the screen that runs through what all the different colored scrubs mean. Each department or job has their own color scrub. The doctors have one color, the nurses have another, Physicians assistants have their own color, as do the people who take your blood or take you off to get x-rays or come in to give you anesthesia. They’ve probably had it in place for years, but I never noticed it until it appeared on the screen in the patient rooms. I kinda like it. It’s nice to know who you’re talking to when they come into the room.
Lots of professions wear uniforms for their jobs, to let you know who they are and what they are there to do. We see a lot of that around town with all the construction going on – all those fluorescent vests are there to guide you around town now that most of our roads seem to be shut down.
Policemen have their uniforms – for protection and identification. So do firemen. Everyone in the restaurant industry has their own unique uniform to show they are there for service or to work in the kitchen. All these uniforms let people know what your job is, what your role is. They become an extension of who you are and what you do.
Likewise, a prayer shawl has a similar purpose. We are fortunate to have a prayer shawl group in our church that makes wonderfully warm shawls that we give out to confirmands, graduates, new members, or those who can no longer join us on Sunday mornings. There are nice reminders of the church committee still thinks of them and God is with them always.
It’s a tradition that goes back a long time. Years ago, women in particular, would don a prayer shawl in order to meditate or spend alone time with God. Jewish men, and today sometimes women as well, wear what’s called a “tallit” – a kind of prayer shawl that indicates that the wearer is in worship or prayer mode while wearing it – kind of like a “Do Not Disturb” sign hung on a hotel room door.
A tallit usually comes with a kind of fringe called a “tzitzit” (seat-seat). The tzitzit could be sewn onto any piece of clothing, like a shirt or a tunic, but it’s always sewn on the four corners of a tallit. While the tallit itself indicates that the wearer is covering themselves in the presence of God, the tzitzit has an even deeper meaning.
The threads, knotted and twisted together, remind the wearer of God’s commandments and presence. Just like a workers uniform becomes an extension of who they are, the fringe, the hem of the tallit, along with its accompanying tzitzit threads also represent an extension of its wearer, their person and authority. (1) The tzitzit in essence extends and accents the hem.
In the case of a priest or a rabbi, which Jesus was, the tallit and tzitzit become vitality important as holy symbols of God’s presence.
In the book of Malachi we find an interesting reference to the tallit and tzitzit that is especially relevant to our Gospel reading for today. In chapter 4, verse 2, it says, “To you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings.” Healing in his wings. The “wings” refers to the tzitzit on the end of the wearer’s tallit, the fringe or the hem of the garment. He who is the messiah was expected to have healing power in the hem of his garment. The tallit and tzitzit were an extension of the personhood and the power of the Messiah and would therefore have the ability to heal anyone who touched it.
Which makes for a very interesting dinner party here in Matthew. First, Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector to be a disciple. Then he comes to dinner at his house. As he sits eating dinner with him and the other tax collectors, the Pharisees criticize him for eating with sinners. Jesus replies that he has come to the sinner – “Those who are well have no need of a physician, I have come for those who are sick.” So, Jesus clearly sees himself as a spiritual physician, one who heals not only physical ailments, but the sins of the soul.
While he is saying these things, a leader of the synagogue interrupts the meal. His daughter has just died – but he trusts that if Jesus will lay his hands on her, he can bring her back to life. The grieving father’s faith is overwhelming, and Jesus gets up to go with him.
On the way to the synagogue leaders house, a woman, hiding in the crowd, who has been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years, sneaks up from behind and touches the fringe, the tzitit of his garment – because she believes that simply by touching of it, she will be healed within.
The word “fringe” in this passage has an interesting double meaning. The woman who has been plagued with bleeding, she lives on the fringe of society, for two reasons. First – she is a woman. And second – she is considered unclean because of her bleeding. She is a fringe-dweller, who is reaching out to touch the fringe of Jesus’ shawl.
Jesus feels the power go out from him. He turns and asks, who touched me. And the woman kneels before him, admitting it was her, expecting perhaps to be punished. But Jesus blesses her and simply says, “Your faith has made you well.”
Then, it’s on to see the synagogue leader’s daughter. Jesus clears the room. He takes the girl by the hand and brings her back to life. Again, by the faith of her father, she is healed.
Both the leader of the synagogue and the hemorrhaging woman had great faith in God power at work in Jesus as the Messiah. Both events witness to the power of God and the identity of Jesus.
Faith is what holds our scriptures together this morning. In Genesis, we hear the old, old story of how Abraham followed God’s call to pick and move to a new and unfamiliar land. He did this by faith. We hear very little from him about why he decided to do this – the only thing we know is that Abraham had a deep and abiding trust in God, by faith alone, he obeyed God’s call and a new nation was born.
By faith, Abraham followed.
By faith, the bleeding woman was healed.
By faith, the synagogue leader’s daughter was back to life.
As the old hymn says – “Trust and obey, there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
That old spiritual has always had a special place in my heart. That’s the first song I learned to play on the guitar. I learned a simple three chord version using C, F and G, strumming along on my dad’s nylon string guitar.
He song dates back to 1886 when D. L. Moody was leading a revival meeting in Brockton, Massachusetts. A young man named Daniel Towner was leading the music that day and as he remembers it:
“Mr. Moody was leading a series of meeting in Brockton, and I had the pleasure of singing for him there. One night a young man rose in a testimony meeting and said, “I am not quite sure – but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.” I jotted that sentence down, and sent it with the little story to the Rev. J.H. Sammis, a Presbyterian minister. He wrote the hymn, and I set it to music.”
Upon receiving Mr. Towner’s request, the first words Rev. Sammis wrote were – “Trust and obey – for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” (2)
It doesn’t matter if you come from the fringes of society. It doesn’t matter if you come from the most respected circles of the community. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve fallen, or what illness prevails upon you. The key to God’s mercy and healing is faith – if we will but trust and obey.
By faith, God will lead us to new lands and create a new people.
By faith, God will heal what ails us.
By faith, God will raise us up and give us new life.
And for that, may God be praised. Amen.
1. Chabad.org, “The Jewish Prayer Shawl – Tallit and Tzitzit.”
2. Kenneth Osbeck, 101 More Hymn Stories, Kregel Publications, 1985, p 291
