‘Touch and other double sensations’

Andrew Collis
Ordinary Sunday 16, Year B
Psalm 89; Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-44,53-56

Wherever he appeared … they laid down the sick in the open places, begging him to let them touch just the fringe of his cloak, and all who touched Jesus got well.

Philosopher Richard Kearney describes the sense of touch as double sensation – touching and being touched – a figure for much else, including tact, vibrant relation, interpretation …

Our gospel recounts divine-human interactivity and invites reflection on touch and other double sensations: leisure and labour, recreation and education, retreat and engagement, Word and Sacrament …

We are given this image of Christ … Jesus wore a cloak with tassels.

Attached to the four corners of the garment, the tassels (tzitzit in Hebrew)* symbolise the goodness of Torah (love of God and neighbour) – an invitation to walk in the ways of Wisdom, to encounter Wisdom in the world (see Numbers 15:38-41; Deuteronomy 22:12).**

This Christ/a event (Jesus and friends, Jesus and other Christs)*** is a sign of signs – signifying true humanity and divine love wherein the world and all its creatures participate …

“God’s incarnations are as many and varied as the persons who are driven by the power in relation to touch and be touched by sisters and brothers” (Carter Heyward).

Perhaps we see tassels as we walk in faith … as we walk in the ways of Wisdom – north, south, east or west … encounters with Wisdom, goodness, peace in the world around us … the glory of Christ/a in fringes of leaves, streams of light, water spilling, splashing …

Perhaps we see tassels where people/communities work for justice … truth-telling, treaty, in the Spirit of Covenant … the beauty of Christ/a in testimonies of courage, witness to sovereignty as spiritual strength, cultural knowledge, generosity and compassion …

Perhaps we see tassels where the mainstream encounters new questions (critical questions both suspicious [of bias] and affectionate [toward grace]) – at society’s fringes – on the margins of the neighbourhood where people feel isolated and lonely, distressed and angry … where many feel frail and vulnerable …

Are these not images of divine presence/promise?

Perhaps we see tassels at the edge of the sanctuary – at the side altar or morning tea table … in the Orchard Gallery (Margaret Vazey’s work includes tzitzit) … in the foyer, in the pages/margins of the South Sydney Herald, in the doorway, in the street …

Perhaps we see them. Perhaps we imagine.

We are touched, then, by the beauty/glory of Christ/a, in whose Spirit we pray for musical, pastoral touch, and more. Social and emotional contact, understanding. Maintaining contact, which means learning to be tactful, sensitive to need and alive to possibilities for healing.

Aunty Margaret Campbell speaks of connection to Country via trees of birth …

Rosemary Radford Ruether perceives, on the periphery of church tradition, perhaps, these everyday resurrections:

“Bread. A clean sky. Active peace. A woman’s voice singing somewhere. The army disbanded. The harvest abundant. The wound healed. The child wanted. The prisoner freed. The body’s integrity honoured. The lover returned … No hand raised in any gesture but greeting. Secure intentions – of heart, home and land …”

We walk/pray, attentive to the promptings of instinct and conscience, self-respect and selflessness, Scripture and Tradition … We walk in the ways of Wisdom. May it be so. Amen.

*The way tzitzit are tied reminds the Jewish person wearing it of God’s commands – all 613 of them in the Torah. Eight strands in each tzitzit are tied in a series of five double knots to symbolise the number 13. According to Jewish tradition, adding 13 to the numerical value of the Hebrew word “tzitzit,” which is 600, gives the grand total of 613.

**Using a special colour in the threads is another way to exalt God. The long thread of a special shade of blue that God commands in each tzitzit is called techelet in Hebrew. According to a Midrash (story), the blue thread acts as a visual reminder to keep a heavenly focus on the Divine Presence, since the blue resembles the ocean, which resembles the sky, which resembles the Throne of God.

***Christ/a comes to expression in others when Jesus’ “message and practice” is made manifest: “good news to the poor, the confrontation with systems of religion and society that incarnate oppressive privilege, and affirmation of the despised as loved and liberated by God” (Rosemary Radford Ruether, Introducing Redemption in Christian Feminism, Sheffield Academic Press, 1998).

Image: Rachel Schwartz stands in front of a piece of graffiti that plays on the commandment to wear tzitzit, written in the Hebrew feminine (courtesy of Rachel Schwartz).
The California-based artists behind the Tzitzit Project had a hunch that the ritual garment could appeal to a more diverse set of observant Jews than the Orthodox men to whom the mass-produced options are marketed. The Tzitzit Project joins other initiatives meant to explore and expand the use of tzitzit. A 2020 podcast called Fringes featured interviews with a dozen trans and gender non-conforming Jews about their experiences with Jewish ritual garments (https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com).