Interruptions - 10/9/22 (by Jane Gaudette)

When Interruptions Come Knocking- 10/9/22 by Jane Gaudette.

Scripture Reading: Luke 8:40-56. A Girl Restored to Life and a Woman Healed

40  Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting

for him.  41  Just then there came a man named Jairus, a leader of the synagogue.

He fell at Jesus’s feet and began pleading with him to come to his house,  42  for he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying.

As he went, the crowds pressed in on him.  43  Now there was a woman who had

been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all

she had on physicians, [a]  no one could cure her.  44  She came up behind him and

touched the fringe of his cloak, and immediately her flow of blood stopped. 

45  Then Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” When they all denied it, Peter [b]  said,

“Master, the crowds are hemming you in and pressing against you.”  46  But Jesus

said, “Someone touched me, for I noticed that power had gone out from me.” 

47  When the woman realized that she could not remain hidden, she came

trembling, and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the

people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed.  48  He

said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

49  While he was still speaking, someone came from the synagogue leader’s house

to say, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher any longer.”  50  When

Jesus heard this, he replied, “Do not be afraid. Only believe, and she will be

saved.” 

51  When he came to the house, he did not allow anyone to enter with him, except

Peter, John, and James and the child’s father and mother.  52  Everyone was

weeping and grieving for her, but he said, “Do not cry, for she is not dead but

sleeping.”  53  And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 

54  But taking her by the hand, he called out, “Child, get up!”  55  Her spirit returned, and she stood up at once, and he directed them to give her something to

eat.  56  Her parents were astounded, but he ordered them to tell no one what had

happened.

Summary: We all hate being interrupted. But many of the most important

moments in Jesus’s ministry were the result of interruptions, such as when a

bleeding woman interrupted him on the way to heal Jarius’s daughter. We can

learn from Jesus example.

INTRO: Has this ever happened to you? You've had a hard day. Finally you have a

few quiet minutes for yourself, you pour a hot bath, you throw in some bubbles

just for a touch of luxury. You put your toe in - kind of hot, but then you ease

slowly into the luscious water, and just as you settle in….MOM! DANNY HIT ME!

An interruption.

You decide to treat yourself and bake a pie. You get out the flour, make the

dough, and reach into the canister for a handful to spread on the counter to roll

the dough when the doorbell rings. Now your arms are white, the vacuum is

sitting in the middle of the floor, and you run to the door to find...Two smiling

Jehovah’s Witnesses.

An interruption.

Interruptions. We all must deal with them again and again, and it seems that they

always come at the worst possible time. During dinner, when you are finally alone

with your spouse after a week apart, when you have work to do and just barely

enough time to do it. Interruptions. How do you cope?

Jesus used interruptions as opportunities for ministry.

-In the Gospel of Luke, the first miracle we read about is the result of an

interruption. Jesus is preaching when a demon possessed man stands and starts

screaming,

"Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are - the holy one of God!"

"Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. "Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the

man down before them all and came out without injuring him." Then listen what happened: The people were amazed and said to each other, 'What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits, and they come out.' And the news of him spread throughout the surrounding area."

-In chapter 5, he is interrupted when a group of friends of a man who was

paralyzed cut a hole in the roof of a house where Jesus was teaching and let him

down through the hole to be healed. Jesus uses the opportunity to reveal his

power to forgive sins. And the people were amazed.

-In chapter 7, Jesus is enjoying a dinner party at the home of a wealthy and

influential religious leader, when a "Sinful Woman" (That means prostitute),

comes along and starts pouring expensive oil on him, and wiping it off with her

hair. He uses the opportunity to demonstrate the gift of grace.

-In Chapter 10, Jesus is teaching when a fellow in the audience stands up to "Test"

him, to see if he is really as hot as they say he is. The lawyer asks him "What must I do to inherit eternal life." When they both agree that the answer is to love God and your neighbor, the guy persists in his interruption and asks "But who is my

neighbor." That interruption led to Jesus telling one of his best known parables,

"The Good Samaritan."

-In chapter 19, the unscrupulous tax collector, Zacchaeus, interrupts Jesus by his

presence in a tree at the side of the road. Jesus seizes the opportunity, and much

to everyone’s surprise goes to Zacchaeus’ house for dinner, where he reveals his

mission even as he demonstrates it: “The Son of Man came to seek and save

those who are lost.”

-And one other interruption stands out. Jesus was teaching near the sea of

Galilee, when a man pushed his way through the crowd, pleading for attention.

His name was Jarius, and his daughter was dying. He fell at Jesus's feet, begging

him to come to his house, to heal his daughter before it was too late.

Imagine his passion for this urgent problem. So Jesus started on his way. The

crowd was thick, they wanted to catch a glimpse of the miracle worker. They

wanted to get near. The Bible says that the crowd nearly crushed him.

You've seen crowds like this on the highway when there has been an accident.

Rubberneckers, who stop even the help from getting through.

As Jesus was pushing his way forward, he was interrupted. A woman had

somehow managed to get through the crowd to him, at great personal risk. She

had had a problem with bleeding for twelve years, so she was weak. Worse than

that, she was continually ritually unclean. In fact, she shouldn't have been out in

public.

But somehow she pushed her way through, and touched the edge of his cloak,

hoping to be healed. And immediately, immediately her bleeding stopped.

"Who touched me?" Jesus asked "Someone touched me; I know that the power

has gone out from me."

And the woman came forward, and he touched her, and spoke with her, and

blessed her. She was an interruption, but she had been an opportunity for

ministry.

Unfortunately, she was more than just a minor interruption. Jesus was already

being slowed by the crowd as he went to heal Jarius's daughter. The woman

slowed him even more.

Imagine Jarius watching this take place - trying to be patient but frantic at the

same time. This woman has been sick for 12 years. My daughter is about to die

right now! Jesus - Why are you stopping? Why are you talking to her. You can

come back later, but you need to come to my house now before it’s too late!

And then, the worst happened. A messenger came out of Jarius's house with bad

news. The interruption was too long; Jesus was too late. The girl was dead. What

a price to pay for an interruption.

But he kept on, and when he got to the house, he went inside, took the girls hand,

and said "My Child, get up!"

And she did, and he fed her, and he used even this worst of all interruptions as an

opportunity to minister to one of God's children. And her parents (you guessed it) were amazed, astonished, overwhelmed. Whenever Jesus was faced with an interruption, he turned it into an opportunity

for ministry.

COPING WITH OUR INTERRUPTIONS

Just what is it about interruptions that makes them so distasteful to us? What is it

that makes them so maddening?

Think about interruptions. There you are, going about your own thing, when

someone or something else comes along, and want you to do their thing. Isn't

that exactly what we find annoying? We like to set our own agenda for life.

Interruptions are someone else's agenda imposed on us. And we simply don't like

that. We prefer independence.

In fact, we are even inclined to insist on our own agenda when we minister to

someone else.

We all approve of the idea of witnessing to Jehovahs Witnesses. But we don't

want to do it in their time, when they come to our door.

We all approve of comforting someone in distress, but not during the Big Game.

We want to be ministers of Jesus Christ, but we want to minister on our own turf,

in our own time.

The problem with that attitude is that it simply doesn't work. Look at Jesus. He

was willing to deal with peoples' needs where and when they had them, even if it

interrupted his schedule, his plan, his agenda.

To turn interruptions into opportunities I need to:

Surrender my agenda to God’s will

If a sick person came to him on the Sabbath, he didn't say "Come back on

Monday, when it's more convenient. I have office hours from 2 to 5." No. He

healed them. He saw each and every interruption as an opportunity to touch a person's life. And you know, there is no better time to touch a person's life than

when they come to you, wanting to be helped.

To turn interruptions into opportunities I need to:

Place the needs of others above my wants

Of course, one major factor in being able to turn interruptions into opportunities

is thinking of yourself not as just John or Jane Doe, citizen, but as John or Jane

Doe, child of God, minister of Jesus Christ. Each is called to ministry. You may not

be a pastor, but you are called to minister. When we think of ourselves as

ministers, interruptions take on a whole new meaning.

To turn interruptions into opportunities I need to:

See my life’s purpose as ministry

We need to be available to each other. That is part of every ministry.

Availability is an attitude that says to God, “Wherever I am, whatever I’m doing,

whenever you call, I’m ready. Here I am. Send me.”

To turn interruptions into opportunities I need to:

Make myself available to God

Why does God send interruptions our way? Sometimes he sends them as an

opportunity for us to minister to one another and to the world in his name.

Sometimes he sends them as a way of ministering to us.

The fact is that sometimes you and I get in a rut. We start seeing life in one way,

doing things one way, living one way, and acting one way. Our way. And those

ruts can be pretty deep. We start living by our agenda, and our agenda alone.

Then God sends along a little interruption, and he un-ruts us. He forces us to step

back and take a look where we are going.

Every interruption is can be an opportunity for growth, an opportunity for

ministry, an opportunity to serve God. Praise God for interruptions.