For those who want to include an Independence Day component in the service, George Reed provides worship resources for that theme (based on the First Reading of the lectionary) as well as for the Gospel lection. A children's sermon by Wes Runk also echoes themes from the Gospel as well as the national holiday.
Contents:
A Prescription for Olive Oil
Team Comments
Related Illustrations
Worship Resources
Children's Sermon
A Prescription for Olive Oil
by George L. Murphy
Mark 6:1-13
A Current Crisis
As you greet people at the church door after a Sunday service, a retired couple in your congregation tells you that this year they're taking their vacation to Canada. There are places north of the border that they'd like to visit, but the main reason for going there is that they can combine their vacation with an expedition to buy some of the many prescription drugs that they have to take, and save hundreds of dollars by buying them in Canada. Another older man standing there comments that he's been thinking of joining a trip to Mexico just to buy some of the medications that his doctors have him taking, but he's concerned about counterfeit drugs being sold there.
Nobody should be surprised today at such stories, which are frequently in the news. (See, e.g., "The Mexican Connection" in AARP The Magazine, July-August 2003, p. 30, and "Health on the Border" in the June 9 issue of U.S. News & World Report, p. 54. The latter article has a table showing comparative prices for some drugs in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.) Prescription drugs in general is a topic we often hear about today. Many of these medications are expensive, and that's a serious problem for a lot of people on fixed incomes. As I write this, Congress is trying to finish working out the details of a plan to include prescription drugs for seniors under Medicare. Even if the details are negotiated and the plan becomes law, it won't provide immediate relief. The arrangements won't actually become effective until 2006.
It isn't only older Americans who have these problems. I'd never watched the TV program Doc before, but last night that was the best thing I could pick up on our little basement set to watch while Nordic Tracking. The episode that was on dealt with the selling of counterfeit prescription drugs in a Hispanic neighborhood and the health risks associated with it.
If you're looking for some timely connection with lectionary texts for this coming Sunday, you might miss one that's in the Gospel (Mark 6:1-13), because it seems to be slipped in just at the end. Jesus has sent the Twelve out on a missionary journey, and we're told in closing that they "anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them." That's an important part of the two-pronged task that such missionaries generally have in the New Testament, to preach and to heal.
Anointing with oil-olive oil to be precise-today calls up images of a religious ritual. Many churches have rites for the anointing of the sick, both in public services and in individual settings, and in some it's considered a sacrament. But in biblical times olive oil was, among other things, a common medicine. We see it used in that way in the parable of the Good Samaritan who "poured oil and wine" on the wounds of the injured man (Luke 10:34). Today we consider olive oil to be at best something in the household remedy category. But when it's used in the anointing of the sick, it's a symbol of all medicine. When used with prayer (James 5:14-15), it's a way of asking that God would heal through whatever medical means are appropriate-including prescription drugs.
But what if people can't get those drugs? What if they can't afford to fill their prescriptions, have to take lower doses than have been prescribed, or are forced to make a choice between paying for their medicine and buying food? Those choices are far from imaginary for many retired people and for families with low incomes. We might want to concentrate on the interesting theological question of how God works to heal through the chemical actions of medicines. Our attention is called instead to an area of social concern for the church-how Christian communities are to be involved in the healing process. It's good to include those who are sick in the Prayers of the Church on Sunday, but we can't simply pray for healing and then ignore the fact that some people in our society aren't able to get the means that are needed for healing.
There are a number of ways in which churches can express their concern for the physical and mental healing of people. I've already mentioned prayer and services of healing. The support of medical missionaries and, at home, parish nurse programs is also important. When it comes to large-scale issues such as those connected with prescription drug plans under Medicare, churches' roles will probably be some form of advocacy with health-care providers, insurance companies, and government. (Just how such advocacy is focused will depend to some extent on one's views about the proper role of government in such matters, something that can't be decided by theological considerations alone.) Unlike the disciples with their olive oil, Christians in general (unless they are health-care providers) are not going to be handing out Coumadin or Prozac. But they will be concerned to see that people who need such medications get them.
Jesus, the Preaching and Healing Carpenter's Son
What we're concerned with here is preaching, with an emphasis on the gospel. The point isn't just to exhort people to call their congressional representatives, though some may be moved to do that. In order to develop some possibilities for preaching, we need to explore the gospel a bit more.
Mark 6:1-13 has two parts. The first is Jesus' return to his hometown and his rejection there because he's too ordinary: His wisdom and power seem tainted because he's just the village carpenter. But, although his ministry is limited because of this lack of faith, he continues to teach and is able to heal a few people.
Then he sends out the Twelve, with a warning that they too will face opposition (v. 11). With typical Markan brevity we're told that they preach simply "that all should repent," and we are reminded that Jesus began his own ministry by preaching repentance because of the nearness of the kingdom of God (1:15). And, as we've noted, they anointed people and healed them.
Thus the two parts of the Gospel are linked by the parallelism of the two missions. In fact, there is really only one mission, with the disciples carrying on the work of Christ. This work is, in general terms, an opposition to the powers of evil (indicated here by the language of "unclean spirits" and "demons") and, in positive terms, providing signs of the breaking in of the kingdom of God. In both cases there is opposition, though the reasons for that may vary.
So one approach is simply to emphasize both the unity of the church's mission with that of Christ and its scope, which includes both spiritual, mental, and physical healing. Of course, his role as Lord and Savior is unique, but in his name we are called to continue to preach repentance and forgiveness, and to be involved, to the extent that we can be, in healing people's ills. Our concern that people have the medical treatments that they need for health should be just as strong as our concern that they have enough to eat. (In the Gospels, Jesus does a lot more healing than feeding!) But this doesn't need to be stated-as Americans are prone to do-in terms of whether or not people have a "right" to one or another type of health care.
To put it another way, Jesus is involved with down-to-earth issues in a hands-on way. There is another thing almost hidden in our text that may help to bring this out. Jesus is described in verse 3 as ho tekton, "the carpenter"-although the Greek is really more general and can refer to a worker in other materials, such as stone (compare our word "technology"). This was something of an embarrassment to Christians as the gospel spread into the cultured Mediterranean world, in which pure philosophers were more highly honored than those who worked with their hands: The pagan Celsus ridiculed Christians for believing in a mere carpenter. This may be why the corresponding passage in Matthew (13:55) calls Jesus "the carpenter's son," and why some manuscripts of Mark have this reading.
But the Christian claim is that the Wisdom of God has become incarnate, not as an academic philosopher but as one who earned a living by working with his hands. The bumper sticker that says, "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter," may by now seem trite, but there is a profound insight in it. The culture influenced by the message of this Jewish carpenter is the one in which science (which requires experiment as well as theory), developed-and this includes the development of scientific medicine. And if we remember who our "boss" is, we will resist temptations to retreat into some realm of
pure spirituality.
We need to be aware as we preach this broad sense of salvation, however, that we are not just telling people what they're to go into the world to do. The message about spiritual and physical healing comes first to the people in the pews, and hard questions may be provoked. Those with serious ailments may ask, "If God wants me to be healed, why haven't I been healed?" We need to avoid the pitfalls of so-called "prosperity" preaching, or what's been described as "The Health and Wealth Gospel." (Bruce Barron's book with this title was published by InterVarsity Press in 1987.) Christians are given no assurance that a strong faith in Christ will assure them of either physical health or prosperity, and sickness is not a sign of lack of faith.
Some insight into this matter is given by the Second Lesson for this week, 2 Corinthians 12:2-10. Here Paul speaks of the "thorn in the flesh" that he asked God to remove, and he tells us that God's response (v. 9) was, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." We don't know what Paul's "thorn" was; people have guessed epilepsy or some kind of eye problem. In any case, this is a reminder that faithful Christians may have to continue to struggle with the difficulties associated with the fact that we are physical beings. The various health problems of Martin Luther or the blindness of the hymnwriter Fanny Crosby could also be mentioned.
The statement that "power is made perfect in weakness" is hardly a simple solution to the questions that people may raise about the relationships between faith and health, but it does call our attention to the fact that those questions have to be answered in terms of a theology of the cross. Nor does that statement relieve us of the responsibility to do all we can for "the healing of the nations" (Revelation 22:2).
There is always a temptation for the preacher to close by telling people what to do. Advice is sometimes helpful, but stay aware of the difference between proclamation and conveying information. If Christ is preached, it is the Spirit of Christ who will move people to respond. The theme of Jesus continuing to minister to "a few sick people" even while faced with general opposition can move people to be actively concerned for those in need of healing today. And the promise that God's power is made perfect in weakness, which has its validation in the victory of the crucified, can be a powerful message to those struggling with their own weaknesses of body and soul. Be the instruments through which the Word does its work.
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Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: There's an old Yiddish proverb, "If the rich could hire other people to die for them, the poor could make a wonderful living." The wry humor in that statement comes from its absurdity. Yet in a strange way, isn't that what's happening with the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs in our society?
On the quiet research campuses of America's pharmaceutical companies, medical marvels are multiplying beyond all imagining. Never before in human history have we witnessed such rapid technical advances in the treatment of disease. Drug companies expend huge amounts of venture capital systematically testing various naturally occurring and chemically produced substances, on the off chance that a few may be effective in treating medical conditions. And now, for the first time, pharmaceutical chemists are able to introduce into their supply cabinets not only traditional raw materials such as these but also entirely new substances produced through the art of gene-splicing.
All this comes at a cost: a very high cost. The drug companies pass these costs on to consumers, through a pricing structure built on high profits for the patent-protected first years of a new drug's life, followed by a longer period of lower profits as generic equivalents are introduced. Sometimes this Byzantine process is derailed by a competitor's introduction of a newer, more effective medication which hijacks the first company's profits: leaving the drug's developers holding the bag.
On the macro level, this system works wonderfully well to stimulate research, but on the micro level of the individual consumer, it's a mess. What the system does, in effect, is fulfill the Yiddish proverb: allowing the rich to hire the poor to die for them. If it were not for the implicit sacrifice being made by the poor-who must forgo necessary medications until the pharmaceutical companies' R&D expenses are paid off-no one would be able to afford these new drugs.
The whole, mixed-up system calls into question a fundamental idolatry of modern culture: that medicine bestows life. Giles Fraser, writing in Britain's Guardian newspaper last year, reflected on the unreal expectations many today bring to medical technology:
"The new University College hospital trust building, £420m of glass and steel, has been described as a 21st-century answer to cathedrals. It's an interesting comparison, for like the great medieval cathedrals, the magnificence of university hospital buildings, so evident particularly in the US, reveals a great deal about the hopes and fears of the societies that built them. They also say much about the attitudes of their respective communities to death and dying.
"According to the book of Ecclesiastes: 'For everything there is a season, and a time for everything under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die.' But when is the right time to die? We used to have a sense of these things: three score years and ten was the shorthand. It was a time-span made sense of by the rhythms and responsibilities of community life.
"Shakespeare wrote of the seven ages of man. But the idea of having 'a good death' makes little sense to us now, for the expectations of how long we live are no longer related to patterns of community life, or to a sense of our responsibilities discharged, but to the state of medical technology-very expensive medical technology celebrated in glass and steel. We now die when the medics have failed us, when the doctor cannot do anything more. We no longer share a sense of what a natural life-span might be or of any appropriate time for our life to come to an end." (Giles Fraser, "Estranged from death," in The Guardian, Friday, May 10, 2002. Rev. Dr. Giles Fraser is the vicar of Putney and lecturer in Philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford.)
Critiquing his own country's often-inefficient National Health Service, Fraser calls for a new focus on the micro level of patient care:
"Priority in heath service resource allocation must be given to the care of patients (not clients or consumers). It's beds in the corridors and horrendous waiting lists we need to tackle, rather than spending money on expensive innovative technologies that search for ever more ingenious ways of keeping us alive. In fact, it's an ancient wisdom we need to recover. In the fifth century St. Benedict shaped the future of monasticism by arguing that every guest, whatever their condition, must be treated and cared for as one might care for Christ. Monasteries set aside spaces for the care of their guests and the hospital was born, the word hospital deriving from the Latin for guest. Hospitals were originally places of hospitality. The hospice movement is the nearest contemporary equivalent, understanding that the advances in medical science must not be seen as an end in themselves, but ought to be subservient to the care of their guests. It is a part of what can make hospices such wonderfully life-affirming places. And that's precisely what we now need in the NHS."
Jesus' approach to the sick, as described by the Gospel writers, belongs to this micro level of care. Today's passage, Mark 6:1-13, tells how he "began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits." These first-century healers are known not by an upwardly mobile lifestyle, but rather by their simplicity: "He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics." Mark tells how the disciples proceed from house to house, in a very hands-on, individual fashion. Their patients are not anonymous numbers in an actuarial database, but rather flesh-and-blood individuals with whom they interact personally. The result is summarized in this starkly simple statement: "They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them." It's all too easy to project the problems of our present prescription-drug crisis into lofty abstractions, addressing them on the macro-level of corporate economics. Let us never forget, however, that behind each entry in a statistical database is a real, live person, who hurts and aches and worries about where the next dose of medicine is going to come from.
Addressing this problem, what would Jesus do? I think Mark 6:1-13 gives us the answer.
Carter Shelley responds: I appreciate the article references you've provided in "A Prescription for Olive Oil" as well as the Guardian piece Carlos has included. I'm a fairly alert person, and I confess I'm already confused about exactly what benefits Seniors will receive once Congress passes the current prescription drugs Medicare plan. Is it a co-pay? A total pay? Will it be available to all Medicare participants? Will it be available through HMO's and private medical insurance companies? I've heard a lot about it on the radio, and I remain confused as to how much help it will be to older Americans once it is implemented in 2006.
NPR's All Things Considered on Thursday, June 26, had a segment about this legislation and interviewed one retired individual who is living on $1300 a month and having to spend a significant portion of that income on medicine and medical insurance options. The range of different insurance plans, Medicare resources, and prescriptions she has had to negotiate since her retirement in 1995 was incredible and would baffle many an individual, including those blessed with a clear mind and strong organizational skills. To get a more accurate version of this woman's plight and also a better grasp of the current legislation, TIW subscribers can go to NPR.org and listen to this interview.
It's interesting how healing people is not a moneymaking venture for Jesus or his disciples. They are to preach to people and to heal them. They are not to make a profit on the illnesses and misfortunes of others.
The use of olive oil as a healing balm in Jesus' day was of interest to me, as I hadn't read anything about that before. Oddly enough, the recent Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating book Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy by Walter C. Wilted, M.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, sings the praises of olive oil as one of the good cholesterol oils that most of us should consume and use in cooking in preference to the vegetable oils often used in American homes and fast food restaurants.
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Related Illustrations
In thinking about the Twelve being sent out I recalled how Martin Bell in The Way of the Wolf conjectured about what happened to the nine lepers Jesus healed who did not return to thank Jesus. It led me to imagine twelve clergypersons getting on a hospital elevator together each heading to visit a parishioner, and twelve of the many different ways ministers minister to the sick and dying. Here's my result:
Pastoral Care to Hospital Patients, Some of Whom Are Parishioners
Twelve clergy men and women enter an elevator at Christ's Resurrection Hospital in Anywhere, America. All twelve get off the elevator at the oncology floor.
Number one stops before the hospital room door to put on his stole and make the sign of the cross before entering to give the last rites to a parishioner.
Number two heads to the intensive care waiting room, where he first speaks with the family before he is admitted into the intensive care unit. There he consults with the nurses on the progress of his charge, moves to sit by the bed of the unconscious man, holds his hand for a time, and then returns to the family in the waiting room.
Number three stops by the ladies room to check her face and hair, wash her hands and take three deep breaths before entering the room of a teenage boy who's just been diagnosed with leukemia. The boy's mother says, "It's God's will." The minister wants to reply, "The hell it is!" but instead asks if there's anything she or church friends can do to help the family. Then, to her own horror, the minister bursts into tears. The situation is so sad, so awful, such a waste. She can't help herself. Soon mother, father, and son are all crying with her.
Number four takes his well-used Bible into the room of a stranger and begins to preach to him the need for repentance, the need to declare Jesus Christ the sick man's Lord and Savior before it is too late, before Hell engulfs him.
Number five carries a small box that contains the elements required to serve communion to a church member unable to make it to church. Number five is accompanied by a church officer. Scripture is read, prayers are prayed, the Words of Institution are shared, and then the sacrament is administered. Handshakes are exchanged at the conclusion of the visit.
Numbers six and seven are hospital chaplains. They are wearing black clergy robes further embellished with large crosses and colorful stoles. One carries a pulpit-size Bible and the other carries a container holding incense. They are visiting a young man they have seen a number of times before. His cancer is in remission but the young man believes he is possessed by a demon and will not recover. After consultation with the floor social worker, hospital psychiatrist, and the oncologist, they've all agreed that an exorcism is worth a try. Neither chaplain has ever performed an exorcism, but the mind as well as the body is in need. They enter the room: speak in Latin, wave the incense around in the air, pray several times, read Gospel texts about Jesus' exorcising demons, pray for the healing of the young man, then slam the Bible shut with a loud "Whop!" and depart. Within twenty-four hours the young man is feeling better and talking about soon going home.
Number eight enters the room of a church officer whose cancer has returned after a four- year remission. Number eight gives the woman a book on living with cancer, has a prayer, and departs.
Number nine sits by the bedside of a church member who can no longer speak due to the ravages of throat cancer. Number nine chatters away about activities at the church, news of the town, and how great it will be when the church member gets well and comes home from the hospital.
Number ten prays to God that the man in the bed may be made well in mind, spirit, and body. Number ten also prays that if it is God's will that the man die soon, that the man make his peace with his family before it is too late.
Number eleven storms out of the hospital room of her church member to find a nurse or a doctor. The man is clearly in pain and has been for some time. He hasn't been seen by anyone but the blood technician all day. Number eleven rips into the lone nurse seated at the nurse's station and demands to see someone in authority immediately.
Well trained in the Rogerian method of pastoral care, number twelve listens to the hurts, the fears, and the grief of the patient in the bed. Having had a lot of practice, this minister knows not to parrot back what the patient says, and also knows that less is more. Listening can't necessarily heal all, but it can help.
--Carter Shelley
***
In response to your suggestion that "Christian communities are to be involved in the healing process," I have some concrete suggestions related to individual responsibility and participation in one's own health care. None of these actions costs money or requires lobbying Congress. Any American who can read and write can apply them. Any American who cannot read and write will want to have someone who does assist them with these same recommendations. They come from my own past history as a chronic renal patient prior to my transplant, what I've learned from the other side since marrying a family practice physician, and from insights my stepdaughter, Somjen Frazer, derived from work with Cornell students and medical personnel at the campus infirmary. Sharing this list is as simple as enclosing it as a bulletin insert or church newsletter article.
Ways You Can Help Reduce Your Medical Expenses
Most of us when we become sick enough to need medical care are more worried about what is hurting or making us sick than we are about the important role we ourselves play in our medical care and recovery. The following steps can help you be in charge of your medical care and can also save you time and money!
1. As soon as you start feeling bad, write down the ways you feel bad, the time it began, whether the discomfort or illness is getting progressively worse, etc. If possible, take your temperature and record what you get. If you have a blood-pressure cuff, record your BP as well.
2. Telephone your family practice physician or GP and make an appointment for that day if possible. If the receptionist tells you, there isn't a free spot for several weeks, be firm and explain the degree of sickness you feel and your need to be worked in that day or referred to another physician who can see you that day.
3. Any time you have a doctor appointment, take with you to the appointment all of the prescriptions you are currently on. Chances are you won't be able accurately to remember the name of each prescription, its dosage, its purpose, or its mg amount without bringing the prescriptions with you. This information is very helpful to your doctor, as many of us see specialists as well as family practice physicians. Doctors do not always know which prescriptions have been given to you by other doctors.
4. If you get nervous in doctor's offices and often forget to tell him or her everything that's relevant to your illness, take someone with you to serve as a second voice and set of ears. You need an advocate, someone who isn't sick, to support you. It's OK to include a third person; just tell the medical office assistant, nurse, or M.D. why that person is with you.
5. You or your companion should write down everything important the doctor says to you. What is the diagnosis? What prescriptions will you be on? What is the purpose of each? How long will you need to take it/them? Is there a generic version you might substitute that will be less expensive?
6. Use your doctor visit time wisely. Write out questions ahead of time, have your symptoms written out as well, and bring prescriptions along. Usually, physicians are under a time crunch. The better prepared you are, the more effective health exchange you'll have.
7. Don't assume your doctor can look at you and immediately diagnose your illness. He or she is not a mind reader. You are the ultimate expert on your body. You know how you feel physically and emotionally. You know whether you are sleeping adequately, eating properly, etc. Tell them everything you can so they can be as helpful and accurate in your treatment as possible.
8. If you don't understand something the doctor says to you, say so. You are not supposed to be a medical expert. It's OK to ask for a layperson's definition and translation from medical speak.
9. Keep a medical diary of your own. Anytime you feel dizzy, short of breath, nauseous, etc., record those details. It may be related to the side effect of some prescription. It may be a repetition of a pattern that will have significance once reported to the doctor. It's so easy to forget what you felt and wondered about five days ago, so it's best to write things down as they occur so you and the doctor can discuss them when you have an appointment.
10. Be compliant. If you are told to get more exercise, eat more sensibly, find ways to reduce stress in your life, take better care of yourself, give up smoking, stop drinking alcohol, using crack, having unprotected sex-do it. The more good sense and good care you apply to your own body and person, the healthier you will be and the less you will need expensive medical procedures and prescriptions.
--Carter Shelley
***
"Our dominant cultural and medical approaches to suffering and death are characterized by complaint and optimism. People tend to be optimistic that any illness or wound can be treated and cured. If for some reason that does not seem possible, we shift into a mode of complaint-complaint about the pain being endured, complaint that medical technology has not progressed rapidly enough, complaint that we are not devoting enough resources to saving the lives of those we care about.... In Practicing Our Faith, Amy Plantinga Pauw notes that the Christian practice of dying well should be shaped not by complaint and optimism, but by lament and hope."
- L. Gregory Jones, dean of Duke Divinity School, in "Shaped by Lament and Hope," on the April 28, 1999 Christian Century web site
***
"Any religion which professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the social and economic conditions that can scar the soul is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Strive toward Freedom (New York, 1958), p. 72.
***
"I had once believed that we were all masters of our fate-that we could mould our lives into any form we pleased.... I had overcome deafness and blindness sufficiently to be happy, and I supposed that anyone could come out victorious if he [sic]threw himself [sic]valiantly into life's struggle. But as I went more and more about the country I learned that I had spoken with assurance on a subject I knew little about.... I learned that the power to rise in the world is not within the reach of everyone."
- Helen Keller
***
When I was a child, I was plagued with earaches, often in the middle of the night. My mother had a cure that never failed to work. She poured some olive oil into a teaspoon, and then heated it by holding a lit match beneath it the spoon. She then dipped a cotton ball in the warm oil and placed the soaked cotton into my ear. I'd lie down, sore ear up, and feel the oil trickle into my ear. I was asleep within minutes and when I awoke the earache was gone.
I happened to tell this once to a man who had been a medic in the Korean War. He said they did the same thing on the battlefield when soldiers complained of earaches, and he added that in a pinch, even motor oil would work.
- Stan Purdum
I experienced the same thing that Stan experienced but with another touch to it. My mother would pray very quietly with me until I would fall asleep. It was such a wonderful conversation she would have with God that I would occasionally ask her to do it with me even when I did not experience any earache. I can recall the warm oil entering my ear and knowing that soon things would be better. But most of all I remember how she would put me into the care of God and raise my expectations that during the night it would be his personal presence that would not only relieve the pain but increase our friendship.
- Wes Runk
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Worship Resources
by George Reed
Related to the theme of healing in Mark 6:1-13
OPENING
Hymns:
"All Creatures of Our God and King." Words: Francis of Assisi, ca. 1225; trans. William H. Draper, 1925, adapt. 1987. Music: Geistliche' Kirchengesange, 1623; harm. Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906. Adapt. (c) 1989 The United Methodist Publishing House. Found in UMH # 62; LBW # 527; TPH # 455; Hymnal '82 # 400; TNNBH: # 33; AAHH: #147.
"For the Fruits of This Creation." Words: Fred Pratt Green, (c) 1970 Hope Publishing Co; Music: Francis Jackson, 1957, (c) 1960 Francis Jackson. As found in UMH # 97; LBW # 563; TPH: # 553; Hymnal '82: #424.
Songs:
"From the Rising of the Sun." Words and music: Anon. As found in CCB #4.
"Holy Ground." Words and music: Geron Davis, (c) Meadowgreen Music Co/ Songchannel Music Co. As found in CCB #5
CALL TO WORSHIP
LEADER: Come to the Lord, all you who are weary and heavy laden.
PEOPLE: We are sick and tired.
LEADER: Come to Jesus the Great Physician.
PEOPLE: We are full of unhealth and disease.
LEADER: Come to the One who knows you inside out.
PEOPLE: We are afraid of what might be found.
LEADER: Come to the One who loves you as you are but will not let you
stay that way.
PEOPLE: We come to our God, to worship and to follow.
COLLECT/OPENING PRAYER
O God who made us in your own image: Grant us the wisdom to care for one
another, not only in spirit but also in body. Help us to use our resources
wisely on things that bring life and not death; through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.
or
God of the sparrow and God of the whale, you are God of our bodies as
well as our souls. We praise you for making us such wonderful and awesome
creatures. Grant that we might not only praise you with our lips for
making us but that we might join your creative power in bringing healing
to all your children. Amen.
RESPONSE MUSIC
Hymns:
"O Christ, the Healer." Words: Fred Pratt Green, 1967, (c) 1969 Hope Publishing Co. Music: Geistliche Lieder(Klug), 1543; harm. J. S. Bach, 1725. As found in UMH # 266; LBW #360; TPH 380.
"Dear Lord, for All in Pain." Words: Amy W. Carmichael, 1931, (c) 1933 Dohnavur Fellowship. Music: K. D. Smith, 1928; alt., (c) K. D. Smith. As found in UMH # 458.
"There Is a Balm in Gilead." Words: Afro-American spiritual (Jer. 8:22). Music: Afro-American spiritual; adapt. and arr. William Farley Smith, 1986, (c) 1989 The United Methodist Publishing Co. As found in UMH # 375; Hymnal '82 # 676; TPH # 394; AAHH # 524; TNNBH # 489.
"Silence, Frenzied, Unclean Spirit." Words: Thomas H. Troeger, 1984. Music: Carol Doran, 1984, (c) 1984 Oxford University Press. As found in UMH # 264.
"When Jesus the Healer." Words: Peter D. Smith, 1979. Music: Peter D. Smith, 1979, (c) 1979 Stainer & Bell, Ltd. As found in UMH # 263.
Songs:
"Spirit Song." Words and music: John Wimber, (c) 1979 Mercy Publishing. As found in CCB # 51.
"People Need the Lord." Words: Greg Nelson and Phil McHugh. Music: Greg Nelson and Phil McHugh; arr. J. Michael Bryan, (c) 1963 Shepherd's Fold Music/River Oaks Music. As found in CCB # 52.
"Cares Chorus." Words and music: Kelly Willard, (c) Maranatha! Music. As found in CCB # 53.
"Through It All." Words and music: Andrea Crouch, (c) 1971 Manna Music, Inc. As found in CCB # 61.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION/PARDON
LEADER: Let us come before the One who made us and confess who we have become.
ALL: We confess to God and before our brothers and sisters that we have become other than what God created us to be.
(The following lines may be said in unison, responsively, or chorally:)
We have taken the good earth and abused it.
We have taken what has been given for our health and used it for our own destruction.
We have grown fat while our brothers and sisters starve.
We enjoy the healing arts while denying them to the poor.
We have forgotten our elders.
We have turned medicine into a business instead of a compassionate art.
We mouth our allegiance to Jesus the Great Physician while we spend our resources on weapons of mass destruction.
ALL: Forgive us for our selfishness and shortsightedness. Fill us with your Spirit and call us back to the wholeness you envisioned for all your creation.
LEADER: God is good. God is gracious. We are forgiven and loved. As God's renewed people, do all you can to bring God's healing wholeness to all creation.
GENERAL PRAYERS AND LITANIES
We worship and adore you, Creating God. You have made all creation to work together for its health. You have made our bodies, minds, and spirits to work together for wholeness. You are truly an Awesome God.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess, O Lord, that we have abused your good gift of creation. We have not only polluted and defiled your earth, but we have abused our own bodies. We have chosen poorly in what we have eaten and the quantity of our food. We have overused and misused the healing drugs that have been available to us. We have chosen to build weapons of mass destruction and to unleash them on our brothers and sisters rather than to provide for the life and health needs of your children. Forgive us and redirect us by the power of your spirit to personal choices and public policy that will lead us to health and wholeness and your salvation. We thank you for all that you provide for our lives. You give us food abundant and wonderful. You provide healing substance within creation and give knowledge for creating others. You teach us how to live as whole persons. You have even sent your own Son to be the sign for us of what a true human being can be. (Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
We offer up to your love and care those who are broken and hurting. Some of your children have been denied food and shelter and some have been denied the healing arts that you have given to us. Help us not only to pray for them to be in your healing spirit, but to offer the anointing of care through our words, actions, and policies. (Other petitions may be offered.) All of these things we ask in the name of the Great Physician, Jesus Christ our Lord, who taught us to pray, saying, "Our Father ."
* * * * *
Related to 2 Samuel 5, on being a blessed nation
OPENING
Hymns:
"This Is My Song." Words: stanzas 1, 2 Lloyd Stone, 1934; stanza 3, Georgia Harkness, ca. 1939; stanzas 1, 2 (c) 1934 Lorenz Publishing Co; stanza 3 (c) 1964 Lorenz Publishing Co., arr. (c) 1933, renewed 1961 Presbyterian Board of Christian Education. Music: Jean Sibelius, 1899; arr. from The Hymnal, 1933. As found in UMH # 437.
"O God of Every Nation." Words: William W. Reid, Jr., 1958, (c) 1958, renewed 1986 The Hymn Society of America; harm. By permission of Oxford University Press. Music: Welsh hymn melody; harm. David Evans, 1927. As found in UMH # 435.
Songs:
"From the Rising of the Sun." Words and music: Anon. As found in CCB #4.
"Holy Ground." Words and music: Geron Davis, (c) Meadowgreen Music Co/ Songchannel Music Co. As found in CCB #5.
"Glorify Thy Name." Words and music: Donna Adkins, (c) 1976 Maranatha! Music. As found in CCB # 8.
CALL TO WORSHIP
LEADER: Great is the Lord
PEOPLE: and greatly to be praised.
LEADER: Your Name, O God, like your praise,
PEOPLE: reaches to the ends of the earth.
LEADER: Your right hand is filled with victory.
PEOPLE: God will be our guide forever.
COLLECT/OPENING PRAYER
Almighty God who is beyond our praises: Grant us the wisdom to know that true greatness comes from our relationship with you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
Almighty God, we come into your presence to worship you. We, your creatures, offer our praises to you, our creator. Fill us with your breath that we may speak and sing your praises. Fill us with your Spirit that we may rise to the true greatness for which we were created.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION/PARDON
ALL: Lord, we come before you today to acknowledge who we are in the light of your truth. We have been created in your image and made one with Christ in our baptism yet we seek to find greatness in empty ways.
We ignore our birthright.
We use our brothers and sisters in shameful ways.
We destroy your good creation.
We seek power, wealth, and prestige to laud over others.
We have forgotten who we are.
In your compassion, forgive us and fill us again with your Spirit that we may know who and whose we are. Bring us to the true greatness of love and service through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
LEADER: You are God's own, loved and forgiven. Receive God's grace and Jesus' commission to follow as true disciples.
GENERAL PRAYERS AND LITANIES
We adore you, O God, who is and was and is to come. We worship you as our Creator and Lover. Your graciousness is beyond our understanding. You are the Eternal One and yet you deign to dwell among us and within us.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We have been created in your image and made one with Christ in our baptism, yet we seek to find greatness in empty ways.
We ignore our birthright.
We use our brothers and sisters in shameful ways.
We destroy your good creation.
We seek power, wealth, and prestige to laud over others.
We have forgotten who we are.
In your compassion, forgive us and fill us again with your Spirit that we may know who and whose we are. Bring us to the true greatness of love and service through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We thank you that you have given us so many signs of your love and care for us. We thank you for the good creation that nurtures and sustains our bodies. We thank you for the love of family and friends. We thank you for our country as together we struggle to be the kind of people you would have us to be. Your constant grace and guidance are always offered to us as we try to live in unity and diversity. (Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.) Most of all we thank you for Jesus who loves us and leads us to new and abundant life.
We pray to you for one another as citizens of this country, of the world, and of your present and coming reign. Give us the grace and wisdom to seek you in all we do as a people. Bless and guide our leaders that they may lead us into ways of justice and peace. Bless all the nations of the world that we may know your gracious reign here on earth as it is in heaven.
We pray for those who are sick in body, mind, or spirit. We pray for those who have lost their way in life and no longer hear your voice. We pray for ourselves as your children. Help us to grow into the kind of people you created us to be. (Other petitions may be offered.) We offer our prayers in the name of our Savior who taught us to pray, saying. "Our Father .... "
Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
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A Children's Sermon
by Wesley Runk
Mark 6:1-13
Text: "He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics." (vv. 7-9)
Object: A walking stick and some sandals
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you celebrated the Fourth of July? (let them answer) How many of you saw some fireworks? (let them answer) Did you get together with your family and friends and have a picnic? (let them answer) The Fourth of July is a great time to celebrate the birth of our country and thank God for our freedom.
Today I would like to tell you about a big day in the lives of Jesus' disciples. Most of the time, being a disciple of Jesus was like going to school. They would walk together as a group and discuss the new teachings that Jesus wanted to share with them. Sometimes they would sit on the side of a hill or, if they were in a village, meet in someone's house. But on this one day Jesus asked the disciples to go out as partners to different places and share with strangers what they had learned as disciples.
We are not sure how they were chosen to be partners, but we do know what they wore and what they took with them. Each of them could take a large walking stick, one pair of sandals, and their regular clothes for the day. They could not take any money or food or any extra clothes. Instead they were to share their teachings with people they met and, if they were invited to stay in someone's house, they could stay and receive any food the people offered them. If they asked them to stay overnight and provided them with a bed to sleep in, that was all right also. But if the people did not receive them as friends, they were to move on to meet other people. Jesus told them to shake the dust off of their sandals (clap the sandals together) at places they were turned away from and find other people who wanted to learn more about God as Jesus taught them.
The disciples had a wonderful time. They were overjoyed at the response they received and how happy people were to hear about Jesus. In many cases the disciples were even able to cure people of their diseases and they were made healthy again.
The disciples loved their missionary work. They learned a lot about people and how glad the people were to know that God was love and that God really cared about them like parents cares about their children.
Jesus would like for you to be a disciple like Peter and John and the rest of the disciples. He hopes that you will tell others about how much God loves them. You don't have to have anything fancy to do it. You don't need to buy people gifts to tell them the story of Jesus. You just need a love for Jesus and share his story to be a good disciple. Let's suppose you are taking a walk with a friend and you ask your friend if he knows Jesus. If he says yes, ask him to tell you what he likes best about Jesus. If he says no, then ask him if you can share a story with him about how he helped the poor or healed the sick. Tell your friend your favorite story, like when the shepherd hunted for the lost lamb or about when a stranger helped another person that had been beaten and robbed. There are a lot of stories you can tell, but they will all say one thing: God loves all of us and wants us to love him.
When you have been a disciple of Jesus and shared his story, I would like for you to give me a call and tell me all about it. Let's be like the disciples of Jesus and share his love with our friends and strangers. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, July 6, 2003 issue.
Copyright 2003 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
