She had heard of Jesus. She had heard about the kinds of things he did - that he healed all sorts of people. She was desperate. She had been sick for 12 years. Oh, more than sick, she had been hemorrhaging, bleeding for 12 years. Her community rejected her because of her illness. She was untouchable (according to Jewish law). She could not prepare food for others, ...she could not touch anyone or be touched by anyone. CAN YOU IMAGINE HAVING NO HUMAN TOUCH YOU FOR TWELVE YEARS? Not even to hold your hand, or put an arm around your shoulder.... ...she could not set foot in the synagogue,...she was an outcast.

And so, like I say, she was desperate. Risking the reaction of the crowd, risking the reaction of Jesus, she slipped in from behind and touched Jesus' robe. She was thinking to herself, "If I can just put a finger on his robe, I can get well. I know I could." The moment she touched him, the flow of blood dried up. She could feel the change, and knew her plague was over and done with.

In one way or another we are all that woman. In one way or another, we all suffer with chronic illness, be it physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually.

Walk the downtown streets of Edmonton and you will see people who suffer for years with mental illness and lack of family support. Talk to any recovering alcoholic and he or she will tell you that they always have that chronic illness - even though they may not have had a drink in years. The women in my family have a history of suffering with depression and the threat of falling into a depression is always there. What is your chronic illness?

I think the most rampant and chronic illness in our society, is the disease of meaninglessness.

The most predictable factor for heart attacks is not cholesterol level, lack of exercise, smoking, or even high blood pressure. The single greatest predictor for heart attacks is Monday morning. Most heart attacks occur Monday between 8 am and 9am. Researchers believe this is because we face a week of work that we don't really want to do. Meaninglessness makes us ill.

When the Boeing Company studied the incidence of disabling back pain amoung its 31 000 Seattle employees, it found that white collar workers pushing papers across their desks suffered as much as blue collar workers lifting heavy packages. It turned out that the best predictor for back pain was not physical exertion, but, rather, job dissatisfaction.

The disease of meaninglessness makes us physically ill. It also can make us emotionally and spiritually ill. Psychiatrist Carl Jung claimed that after age 35, every emotional crisis that we have is a spiritual crisis or crisis of meaning. Psychologist Erik Erikson believed that mid-life crises are resolved when we discover a meaningful way to care for others.

How many of us are that hemorrhaging woman, suffering through life with chronic illness? Oh sure, we can justify and rationalize why we stay in a job we hate for 25 years. I know someone who says he hates his job. But he sticks with it because it provides him a very comfortable living and it provides well for his family.  He says that when his kids were grown and gone he'd find something else that he actually will enjoy. He didn't see it as unreasonable to work long days and be away from his family travelling for weeks and spending 10- 15 years, a large bulk of his life, doing something he hates. He didn't think that its unreasonable! What kind of a society are we in that we don't think that that is unreasonable! As a society we suffer the chronic illness of meaninglessness.

A friend once asked me, "What if our emotional and spiritual wellbeing showed on the outside? What would we all look like?" We would probably have huge bleeding, pussy sores. Because so many of us are like that woman , hemorrhaging for 12 years. And we think that that's not unreasonable.

Jesus speaks strongly against coasting through life. Jesus calls us to find our calling, to work for the kingdom of God. Jesus says, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.

If you're working for the kingdom of God, you've got meaning in your life. Jesus isn't talking about coasting through life and taking what ever comes along. Jesus isn't talking about settling for second best . He's talking about working for the kingdom of God. He's talking about leaving your spouse and your home for the kingdom of God. He's talking about taking risks. Risks- like the hemorrhaging woman.

According to Jewish law that woman was untouchable. If anyone touched her, they would be rendered unclean. The crowd was large. Many people were pushing in on Jesus and she slipped in from behind and managed to touch him. If the woman had touched people in the crowd and made them unclean, they could have easily turned against her. There could easily be a riot. She could easily be stoned to death.

But what would we rather have her do? Would we rather her not take the risk? Would we rather have her stay in her safe little world where no one could touch her? No, of course not! We applaud her daring effort.

What is your chronic illness? Maybe its not meaninglessness, may be like the untouchable woman, its a shameful diseases that no one wants to admit to - maybe its addiction, or maybe your a survivor of abuse - physical or sexual, or maybe its depression. But if we are like that hemorrhaging woman, we have got to take a risk to get better. We've got to be shaken from our places of complacency. We've got to risk the crowd so that we can get to Jesus. We've go to risk the crowd's disapproval so that we can touch Jesus and be healed by his touch.

Being a Christian is not about living the safe way, its about working for the Kingdom of God and if we are ill, how can we work? If we are ill, how can we be good for anyone? And why should we think that it is reasonable for anyone to suffer for years? - Especially us, especially me, especially you.

She took the risk and in faith, by the grace of God, she was healed. Thanks be to God. Amen.