March, 2030
Lectionary Texts
2 Kings 5. 1-14. Elisha heals Naaman of leprosy.
Psalm 30. When I cried out you answered me. You have turned my weeping into dancing and gotten rid of my sackcloth.
1 Corinthians 9. 24-27 Discipline yourselves like athletes in training, so that we are in good spiritual shape.
Mark 1.40-45 Jesus heals a leper.
Preaching Thoughts
Every society has its untouchables. People we don’t want to touch, to see, to fully take in as fellow human beings. Lepers are made to live outside the town, so no one has to interact with them. Foreigners are looked down on. Jesus and Elisha both reach out across their culture’s taboos to heal. Your culture has untouchables. Who are they? You yourself have untouchables, people you just don’t want to have to deal with. Who are they?
Leprosy was considered a disease of “uncleanness.” It wasn’t just the “eeew” factor. There wasn’t merely something wrong with your skin: there was something wrong with you. Part of the disease is not just the pain, but the shame. It may seem primitive and barbaric to think that way—but we do, too. Sometimes we attach shame to misfortune. We think “You (or I) must have done something to deserve that.” Victims of rape or abuse, victims of poverty, victims of abuse of power are often made to feel shame, as if it’s their fault, as if there’s something wrong with them that either caused or resulted from their suffering. What power there is, then, in Jesus saying, “You are clean!” To see someone as being “acceptable in the sight of God” is healing in itself.
Have you ever felt dirty, and been healed by someone who reached out across the gulf of distaste and touched you anyway? Imagine the grace with which God has reached out to touch us, to embrace us, to fully take in our suffering, our loneliness, our shame. Gratitude for that grace might compel us to reach out to others similarly wounded or ostracized.
Maybe the worst part of the life of a leper is not just the sickness, but the loneliness. The more we are identified by what’s wrong with us the harder it is to see anything else. It’s harder and harder to avoid self-doubt and even self-loathing. And there’s no one to say “I see more in you than your wound.” We become our pain. This is the real healing that Elisha and Jesus offer: that someone cares. What would it be like to undo the taboos, the lie of untouchableness, and let those who are ostracized know that they are beloved and beautiful?
Naaman expects grander proceedings for his healing than what the prophet offers. Sometimes our ego gets in the way of our healing. What we want hinders what we need. Sometimes the door to our healing is not heroics, but humility. In fact sometimes humility is our healing. Humility doesn’t mean low self-regard. It means seeing ourselves as God’s Beloved, no more and no less. Sometimes that itself heals us of the pain our own fears and desires inflict on us.
The leper says to Jesus “If you are wiling.” Jesus says, “I am.” When we pray for healing, for ourselves or others, we might be tempted to think we’re convincing God to heal. But God is already willing. God is always willing. But healing doesn’t always come the way we want it. Sometimes healing isn’t possible. But God’s will is still, always, toward healing, toward wholeness. When healing doesn’t come, we don’t know why, but it’s not because God isn’t willing. Some things are too broken to heal, or the healing needs to come in a different way, a different dimension, than where we’re looking. Still, this is the hope by which we live, that God always wills healing. The love of God is energy toward wholeness.
Jesus sends the healed man to the priests as a sign to them, not just that the man is healed, but that he is forgiven, that uncleanness is being vanquished purely by God’s grace, not human effort.
Call to Worship
1.
Leader: God our savior, you forgive our sin.
All: You re-create us, and we thank you!
Christ our brother, you touch our wounds.
You heal us, and we praise you!
Holy Spirit, you lift our burdens.
You set us free, and we worship you! Alleluia!
Come, Spirit of Life, and transform us by your grace. Alleluia!
2.
Leader: Creator God, we praise you!
All: Risen Christ, we greet you!
Holy Spirit, we are one body by your grace.
You alone are holy, and we worship you.
Glory be to you, O God of all Creation.
Thanks be to you, O Christ, for our salvation.
You have stretched out your hand and touched us.
You have held us in your warm embrace.
You have healed us; now empower us to heal others.
Alleluia! Come, Holy Spirit, and transform us by your grace. Alleluia!
3.
Leader: Loving God, you have cleansed us of all sin, and healed us of our diseases.
All: We thank you for your mercy, for you alone are our healing.
We come now to worship, to be made new, to be made yours.
Alleluia! Reach out your hand and touch us, Lord Jesus.
Holy Spirit, come and transform us by your grace. Alleluia!
Collect / Prayer of the Day
1.
God of Life, we come to you broken and in need, sick and wanting, and yet also beautiful and beloved. Stretch out your hand and touch us where we are broken. Create us anew by your Word. We open our hearts to your will. We open our lives to your working. In your grace and your love, make us whole. Amen.
2.
Gracious God, Elisha healed Naaman, and Jesus healed the leper, and you have healed us in so many ways. You have walked with us through this life with your arm around us. You have blessed and sustained us, Now speak to us: reach out to us and touch us through your Word, and make us new, so that we can bear testimony to your grace. We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.
3.
God of love, there is much in us we don’t want others to see or touch. But you see us, and you touch us There is much in us that is not healthy, but you offer us healing.
4.
God of grace and healing, lepers came to Jesus and he healed them. Come to us now, heal the wounds of our hearts, and make us your new people, that through your grace working in us, the good news of your love may spread throughout the world. Speak to us now, in the presence of Christ and the power of your Spirit. Amen.
5.
God of healing, Jesus brought your good news to those who were outcast and broken, and by your grace he forgave the guilty and healed the sick. Speak to us, grant us your forgiveness, heal us of what paralyzes us, and set us free to walk in your ways, in the name and the spirit of Christ. Amen.
Listening Prayer
(suitable as a Collect, preparation for hearing scriptures, or invitation to prayer)
God of mercy,
for our healing
you are willing.
God of love,
for our wholeness,
you reach out.
Humble, grateful,
we receive you.
Prayer of Confession
God of love and mercy,
we confess all within us that feels dirty.
You reach out, and touch us, and make us clean.
We confess that we judge others as dirty,
and avoid them.
We confess our judgment and our fear.
By your grace in healing us,
move us to extend love to others.
Give us courage to cross the gulf of taboos,
to touch the untouchable,
to embrace the ashamed.
God of love and mercy,
by the grace of Christ
make us all, together, as one body,
clean and whole.
Response / Creed / Affirmation
We believe in God, Creator of all things, heavenly father and mother, of infinite love, wisdom and power, ruler of all that is and all that is to come.
We follow Christ, God’s chosen one, who loved and served humbly, who healed the broken and included the outcast. He was crucified for his love; yet he was raised by God to new life. We believe that he calls us to humbly follow him and obediently serve him for the sake of proclaiming God’s grace. We trust that he accompanies us and will help, guide, heal and defend us through all difficulty and suffering.
We trust the Holy Spirit to guide us, empower us and sustain us as servants of God’s grace. We live as the body of Christ, with all the communion of saints, in the power of forgiveness and the reality of resurrection, and in the light of eternal life. With all our lives, may God be praised! Amen.
Eucharistic Prayer
[After the introduction, the body of the prayer may be read responsively with the presiding leader(s) and congregation, or by the leader(s) alone.]
God is with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to God.
Let us give thanks to the Holy One, our God.
It is good and beautiful to give God our praise.
Holy One, you created the world as one body, whole and beautiful.
When we are broken, when we sunder your world, you heal us.
You set free your beloved from slavery Egypt.
You healed them of exile and brought them home.
You gave us Jesus, your great healer,
so that we might have life, full and whole, and abundant.
[Sanctus, spoken or sung:]
Holy, holy, holy One, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is the one who comes in your name.
Hosanna in the highest.
[or alternate version]
Blessed are all who come in your name,
and blessed is Jesus, your Christ,
who loved the unloved, who touched the untouchable,
who embraced the outcast,
who made a broken people whole,
who heals us and calls us to rejoice together.
(The Blessing and Covenant)
As long as we break this bread and share this cup
we remember his death and resurrection, until he comes again.
Therefore, remembering these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves as a living and holy sacrifice,
in union with Christ’s offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of our faith:
[Memorial Acclamation, spoken or sung:]
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
—or—
Dying, Christ destroyed our death. Rising, Christ restores our life.
Christ will come again in glory.
[or alternative]
Pour out your Holy Spirit on these gifts of bread and cup,
that they may be for us the body and blood of Christ.
Pour out your Spirit on us, that we may be for the world the Body of Christ,
moved by your grace to love those who are excluded,
to heal what is broken, to make one what is divided,
for the sake of the mending of the world,
in the name and the Spirit of Christ.
[Spoken or sung]
Amen.
____________
* The Blessing and Covenant
[I usually don’t print the words. I want people to be looking at the bread, not their bulletins.]
On the night in which he gave himself for us
Jesus took bread, blessed it,. broke it, and gave it to his disciples,saying,
“Take and eat; this is my body.”
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup,
blessed it with thanks and gave it to them, saying,
“Drink of this, all of you. This is my blood,
poured out for you and for many, in a new Covenant,
which is the forgiveness of sin.”
As long as we break this bread and share this cup
we remember his death and resurrection, until he comes again.
Prayer of Dedication / Sending / after Communion
[Adapt as needed.]
Gracious God, we thank you for (the mystery that you give yourself to us / this mystery in which you have given yourself to us.) You have healed us by your presence with us and within us. Send us in your Spirit as your healers with Jesus into the world that so needs your healing. Amen.
Suggested Songs
(Click on titles to view, and hear an audio clip, on the Music page)
Becoming Whole (Original song)
We are a broken people become whole again.
We are a wounded people being healed again.
… multiple similar verses
Christ our healer (Tune: Ode to Joy; or Love Divine, All Loves Excelling;
or HOLY MANNA)
Christ, our healer, you have touched us, reaching through the dark divide,
healing broken hearts and bodies, casting death’s old shroud aside:
raised us from our bed of sorrows, put your arm around our pain,
raising us to new tomorrows, bringing us to life again.
Christ, our teacher, in our healing you have given us your gift:
grace to bless, your love revealing, pow’r to heal and hope to lift.
In your Spirit, your forgiveness, your compassion we embrace
ev’ry wounded, shamed or silenced child of God with gentle grace.
Christ, our savior, you are going on to every town and field,
on to every land and people, on until the world is healed.
Use us in the whole world’s mending, use us as your healing hands,
’till as one the world, made whole, takes up its mat with joy and stands.
Jesus, My Healer (Tune: Fairest Lord Jesus)
Jesus, my healer, come to me and touch me;
lay your hand upon my soul.
All of my woundedness gently embrace and bless
and, though I’m broken, make me whole.
Source of our healing, God, our Re-Creator,
your deep joy is to raise and bless.
Your faithful promises and all our trusting hope
are stronger than our dark distress.
Spirit of healing, move among your people
to bear the blessing that flows from you:
with tender love to bless the world’s brokenness
and share the grace that made us new.