June 27, 2021 - 5th Sunday after Pentecost - Last "Pandemic" Sermon by Bishop's Associate Pr. Melissa Reed of the Oregon Synod Bishop's Office - The Love We are Made From and For

Creator experienced the last so-called "Pandemic" sermons of the season today. The video sermon was given by Pastor Melissa, These sermons, offered by the Oregon Synod throughout the pandemic, have all been inspiring and faith filled. They have been a blessing that many times allowed churches in the Synod to see the pandemic in a larger context, through the lens of the Gospel stories. In many ways we can trace Creator's journey through our by following these sermons.

Pastor Melissa's sermon today was no exception. She preached on Mark's Gospel, Mark 5, which begins with the healing story of a young girl connected with the synagogue leader Jairus which is interrupted with another healing story of a woman with hemorrhages for twelve years and concludes with the raising of the first young girl even though she had died waiting for the delayed Jesus to arrive.

Pastor Melissa begins by making both stories visceral and immediate. She calls the life which has been led by the woman with hemorrhages a pandemic life because of the social interaction, or lack of it, she must have experienced given the Jewish purity laws. She is breaking those laws even by getting as close to Jesus as she does. Pastor Melissa characterizes it as a pressure cooker situation.

The interruption of the story of Jairus' daughter; with this healing story of the woman with hemorrhages who has led, in turn, an interrupted life due to her illness, seems at first to indicate there is only so much life and healing that Jesus can share. This turns out not to be the case. 

The sermon continues by not only tying our past year's experiences with the woman with hemorrhages' past but her future. What happens to her is not detailed in the Bible But Pastor Melissa challenges us to tell the rest of her story through ours, after her life is transformed (and after we have taken the time ro dance wildly and feast).  

After 375,000 deaths from the pandemic in the U.S. this challenge feels important and imperative.