Homily
Delivered by
The Reverend Debra Saffrey-Collins
Head of Chaplaincy and Diocesan Partnership
Brotherhood of St Laurence
Readings
Isaiah 40: 28 – 31
1Corinthians 12: 12 – 26
Mark 5: verses 22 – 43
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
Throughout this year our College has named a number of themes to focus upon including the empowerment of its students, inspiring them for the next steps of their life.
As we celebrated the 2025 International Women’s Day earlier in the year, the College newsletter focused on the opportunity to reflect upon the progress made toward gender equality and how much is still to come.
As a school educating girls and young women, we are proud to be a place where possibility, leadership and ambition in action is seen, and encouraged. And where gender equity, empowerment and taking a chance, an opportunity given, have long be championed.
“Throughout our history” the article reads: “countless women have walked through the Krome Gates and made a lasting impact in their fields and communities.”
Even if we don’t believe it of ourselves, each of us who have passed through before, inspire, give courage, empower, support and uplift one another, generation after generation. Creating a culture that continues to see no limits in what ever direction we may point ourselves in our chosen careers and lives.
The founders of our beloved institution created a school where the measure of success was the growth, morally, academically, physically and spiritually of all of its students. Through faith and love as expressed in the story of the relationship with God, God’s son Jesus Christ and the Spirit Incarnate amongst us here on earth, there is the gift of life and hope.
Today the Colleges values speak of the same relationship:
- Engage with respect
- Aspire with responsibility
- Act with compassion and
- Explore with courage
What marvelous words!
I wonder if like me you sat in that wonderful high ceiling assembly hall just up the hill and wondered what “For God and For Home” - Deo Domuique - on those most extraordinary wall murals might mean and how does it speak into my situation? For me, for God and for home reminds us of the commitment that we need to make to ourselves, our families and friends and our communities to act with dignity and in truth in our daily lives. Currently the college understands it to reflect being true to one's principles and beliefs, and the importance of service to others.
Well yes! Absolutely!
For God and for home: respect, responsibility, compassion and courage. To empower others, to be of service to others and to be sources of inspiration. Values indeed to build our lives upon.
I chose today’s readings because they spoke to me of what it means to consider these values in our own journey of faith. In Isaiah we are asked: do you not know, have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God. He will not grow tired or weary, but he gives strength to the weary.
In Corinthians we are challenged to remember that no-one is ever forgotten. Everyone has a role in developing the community of faith. God calls all people, not just one group, to be a part of the kingdom of God. Even the smallest, the littlest and the least, the child amongst us, and the oldest and infirm, must be present for everything to work as a whole and as a complete entity. If one of us is missing then the community of God is incomplete – and yet God waits for us and never leaves us behind.
For God and for home then becomes significant for us when we recognise that all of us are called to take our place and for each to have equal concern one for another. In honouring God, we honour our families and friends, our communities and ourselves; and we are called to struggle and work for all we hold dear and all that is dear in God’s all-encompassing love. We act courageously and we empower each other through faith to challenge injustice and care for the most disadvantaged. We seek to inspire each other and to speak the truth in love.
Finally, the story of Jairus’ daughter and the haemorrhaging woman are the stories of real faith. These two significant miracle stories of Jesus healing and bringing back to life – challenge our own faith in surprising ways. Intricately tied up one with another, Mark places significant pointers along the way for us to see how important they are for ourselves.
Belief, faith in God, can be the smallest thing and it can start in the smallest way – the woman courageously touches just the hem of Jesus cloak in hope that she may at last be cured, he knows she is present, and in some miraculous way she is indeed healed. Thus, it is for us – the smallest of yes, the tiniest seed of believing, is all that Jesus tells us that we need.
And in a most extraordinary way Jesus brings Jairus little daughter back to life as he begs him to save her. These are stories of compassion and love. They point directly to the kind of compassion and love that we are called to show too. One that never fails to act in love and compassion.
The theologian Alison Joyce writes:
“Ours is a God who’s love in Christ, knows no bounds. It is a love that cannot be contained even by death – hence the raising of Jairus’ daughter. It is a love that defies the boundaries of social convention and moral acceptability - hence the healing of the women with the issue of blood. For its time both stories are of individuals who are unclean and untouchable (even the child was a person who was dead and therefore could not and should not be touched). It is a love that pours out excessively … touching everyone and everything: healing, transforming and saving.”
A tale of two daughters
The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce 2021
How do we go from this place today, our beautiful and special chapel, to live more faithfully able to inspire and empower? To live courageously and be the people of faith that God calls us to be?
Perhaps as we look toward Christ active in our lives, and the lives of others, we find that impetus to be the person God calls us to be. But just like the woman who touches Jesus cloak and hopes for healing; and just like the father who begs Jesus to make his daughter well again even as her little life slips away, faith calls us to believe that full life in God is possible even if our prayers are not always answered as we might hope.
In the beautiful words of the Old Testament book of Joshua I leave you with this prayer:
Be strong and courageous,
Do not be afraid;
Do not be discouraged,
for the Lord your God will be with you
wherever you go.
Amen,
The Book of Joshua 1: 9