THE EPISTLE LESSON 2 Corinthians 8:7-15
THE GOSPEL LESSON Mark 5:21-43
SERMON "Sent to be a Healing Community"
Worship Notes
Our central text for worship this morning is Mark's account of two healings by Jesus. For Mark, one of the central ways Jesus manifests the Kingdom of God is through his healing of those excluded from the social and religious world of Jesus time. The text begins with a religious leader named Jairus begging Jesus to save his very sick daughter at the point of death. While on the way to Jairus' home, a woman with an isolating and unclean disease touches the hem of his cloak and is healed. There is an interaction between Jesus, his disciples, and the bold woman whose faith has made her well. After this interruption, Jesus continues on to Jairus' home but then is informed the twelve year old girl has died. Jesus refuses to be deterred and therefore foreshadows the power of God's Kingdom where the dead are brought back to life.
Our text is illuminated by our opening prelude affirming Jesus as the healer of our every ill. The Call to Worship captures that very human need and desire to be heard by God in the depths of our pain and fear. The opening hymn captures the sense of how we find solace from "the sadness that fills our minds." In many ways the liturgy and prayers this morning are intended to communicate the power of God's healing love experienced in Jesus.
Many of the children who have participated in our Vacation Bible School will be singing for us this morning one of the hymns they learned this past week. The theme of our VBS was social justice, in particular, the civil rights movement of the 1960's. Our children learned that an important aspect of our faith is the healing needed for racial reconciliation. The Affirmation of Faith written by many of the youth of Westminster captures the importance of church as a community of people "where all are safe and welcome." The sending hymn reminds us we are "Called from worship to Your service,
Forth in Your dear name we go,
To the child, the youth, the aged,
Love in living deeds to show."
