© Simon Baynes 2008 The Finger of God Lyrics

Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.

Imagine the touch that brought order out of chaos;
the finger of God;
the whisper of his voice, saying 'Let there be light.'
Matter from that moment became holy, earth became good.

A touch of the same hand created man;
a touch of the artist,
a touch of the craftsman.
He was created out of the earth, moulded, shaped, inspired.
It was the touch of love, and man was good.

That finger touched the heart of man, bruised his side lovingly;
woman was made; love was multiplied.

And so throughout creation, throughout history, we feel that finger's touch.
It is the touch the poets know.
'God's finger touched but did not press in making England,'
said Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
'Over again I feel thy finger and find thee,' said Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Imagine the fingers of newborn Jesus clasping Mary's hand;
fingers of the boy learning the use of saw and plane;
turning the sacred pages of the Scriptures;
blessing children; writing in the dust;
touching the blind, the sick, the paralysed, the deaf, the dumb, the dead; breaking bread and blessing wine;
stretched in agony, pointing east and west, stiffening into death,
unable to move, able only to endure, to let the world believe it had won.
These were the fingers of Jesus.

Let the finger of God find and touch you today.
Let him show you the holiness of every living thing;
the preciousness of every living person.

Who are you afraid to touch?
Muslim, Jew, Rastafarian?
Naked aboriginal?
Hoodie, junkie, drug pusher?
Prostitute, binge drinker, Big Issue seller?
Fanatic, dictator, terrorist, fascist, communist, Al-qaeda, the BNP?
The man distorted by leprosy, the woman dying of AIDS?
Who is untouchable?

'How then should I and any man that lives
Be strangers to each other?' said William Cowper.

So let us look at our hands.
They are made in the image of God's hands, are they not?
Made to do the work of God.
To touch, to bless, to heal, to welcome, to embrace, to reassure.

Look again at this passage: a dead body - unclean by Jewish law. Jesus touched it.
A haemorrhaging woman - unclean by Jewish law. Jesus healed her.
How can we ever dare to use the word untouchable again?