The link to today's Worship service: Today Service of Word & Worship on YouTube
The Fifteenth Sunday after
Pentecost
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Prelude, Welcome, and Information
Hymn
#510 Word of God, Come Down to Earth
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The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you
all.
And also with
you.
Psalm 146
1 Praise the Lord! Praise
the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise
the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my life
long.
3 Do not put your trust in
princes, in mortals,
in whom there is no help.
4 When their breath departs, they
return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.
5 Happy are those whose help is
the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their
God,
6 who made heaven and earth, the
sea,
and all that is in them; who keeps faith
forever;
7 who executes justice for the
oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8 the Lord opens the
eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are
bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over
the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings to
ruin.
10 The Lord will reign
forever, your God, O Zion,
for all generations. Praise
the Lord!
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The Lord be with you. And
also with you.
Let us pray.
Gracious God, throughout the ages
you transform sickness into health and death into life. Open to us the power
of your presence, and make us a people ready to proclaim your promises to the
whole world, through Jesus Christ, our healer and Lord. Amen.
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Reading:
Isaiah 35:4-7a
A reading from the prophet Isaiah
4Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is
your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come
and save you.”
5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf
unstopped; 6then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the
tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the
wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7the burning sand shall become
a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water…
The Word of the Lord
Reading:
James 2:1-10 [11-13] 14-17
A reading from the letter of James
2My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really
believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2For if a person
with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor
person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3and if you take notice
of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while
to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” 4have
you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil
thoughts? 5Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God
chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom
that he has promised to those who love him? 6But you have
dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who
drag you into court? 7Is it not they who blaspheme the
excellent name that was invoked over you?
8You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the
scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 9But if
you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as
transgressors. 10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one
point has become accountable for all of it.[ 11For the one who
said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now
if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor
of the law. 12So speak and so act as those who are to be judged
by the law of liberty. 13For judgment will be without mercy to
anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.]
14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but
do not have works? Can faith save you? 15If a brother or sister
is naked and lacks daily food, 16and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their
bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17So faith by itself,
if it has no works, is dead.
The Word of the Lord.
Gospel
Verse:
Alleluia! Rejoice in the
Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Alleluia!
Gospel Reading: Mark 7:24-37
A reading from the Gospel of Mark
24From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a
house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape
notice, 25but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean
spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his
feet. 26Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin.
She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27He said
to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the
children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 28But she answered
him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29Then
he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your
daughter.” 30So she went home, found the child lying on the
bed, and the demon gone.
31Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon
towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32They
brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged
him to lay his hand on him. 33He took him aside in private,
away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched
his tongue. 34Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to
him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35And immediately his
ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36Then
Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more
zealously they proclaimed it. 37They were astounded beyond
measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear
and the mute to speak.”
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Sermon
(added at the end of the document)
Hymn #886 O, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing
Thanks and Offertory
Prayers
of the Church:
Trusting Jesus’ promise that we will be heard,
we offer our prayers for the world God loves, the church God calls, and for all
people according to their needs.
[Short pause]
Holy One of gracious
confrontation, Jesus is always a challenge, no matter how long we have been
following. Open us to this challenge. God who is with us,
Hear our prayer.
Holy One of gracious
confrontation, it is difficult to remember that we are still called to
grow. Free us for the journey we must still make. God who is with
us,
Hear our prayer.
Holy One of gracious
confrontation, it is hard when our assumptions are exposed to the light, and we
are forced to admit our need. Remind us that your light is love, and your
purpose is healing. God who is with us,
Hear our prayer.
Holy One of gracious
confrontation, you continue to invite your church to honest reflection on who
we have become. Call us again to ourselves, that we may more faithfully
be your people. God who is with us,
Hear our prayer.
Holy One of gracious
confrontation, your presence is found in all the uncomfortable confrontations
of life: broken relationships, disappointed hopes, declining health,
approaching death. Use your people to show your loving presence to all
whom we name before you.
[Long pause]
God who is with us,
Hear our prayer.
Holy One of gracious
confrontation, continue to get in our way; continue to disturb us; continue
your loving journey toward us, that we learn again to trust your coming.
God who is with us,
Hear our prayer.
Holy One of gracious confrontation, bless all the congregations of the
Thames Ministry Area as they all pray for us today.
God who is with us Hear our
prayer.
We ask all this in
the name of Jesus, the Christ, our Saviour and Lord.
Amen.
Hymn #673 God, Whose Almighty Word
The
Lord’s Prayer
Finally let us pray for all things as
our Lord would have us ask:
Our
Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven.
Give
us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against
us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For
thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the
glory, forever and ever. Amen.
Hymn
#731 Earth and All Stars
Benediction and
Sending
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine on you and
be gracious to you.
The Lord look upon you with favor and +
give you peace.
Amen.
Go in peace. Serve the Lord. Thanks
be to God!
Then
looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be
opened.”
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Today we hear
of two miracle stories involving Jesus, a woman and her daughter, and a man who
is unable to hear or speak clearly, all Gentiles. I suppose that we could chalk
it up to a tally of miracle stories in Mark’s Gospel, seeing that they appear
to have little or nothing to do with each other.
·
The truth is
these stories have a lot to do with each other. Yes, they are miracles and yes,
they happen to individuals who are not of the children of Israel. They show the
power that Jesus had in his time. And there is more.
·
These two
events are both signs of the Kingdom that is to come being already present.
Isaiah proclaims this in the first reading for today: “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” He goes on to
tell of the sign of the presence of the Kingdom of God: the blind see, the deaf
hear, the lame leap, the speechless speak, water flows in the desert, and so
on.
·
All these
things are signs of the coming reign of God. In Jesus and his healings show
that the Kingdom is already present.
·
The events
Mark tells of are also more than healings. Demonic possession and hearing loss with the
inability to speak would exclude people from the community around them. They
could not take part in the normal daily life if they could not hear or speak or
if they acted is such a way as to make people suspect a demon was involved. The
isolation, fear, and shame involved in these things would continue to keep
people away from the community around them with all it could mean.
·
Community is
important to us as well. In Jesus’ day, there was more to it than in ours. Then
any physical problem, especially those that were problems from birth, were
considered to be a curse by God, because of some sinful offense by the person
themselves or perhaps an ancestor. This would be enough to keep those afflicted
separate from their neighbors. We have such things among us today. Certain
diseases carry a stigma. I’m ashamed to say it but the first time I met a
person with AIDS, I had to stifle a huge urge to wipe my hand on my pants after
shaking his hand. He had done nothing wrong, yet he and his fellow sufferers
were often kept at a distance. (I probably won’t shake anyone’s hands after our
in-person services, although that is a safety procedure for your health and
mine, not because of some moral failing on either of our parts.)
·
By exorcising
the unclean spirit from the little girl and opening the ears and loosing the
tongue of the man, Jesus restores them to their communities. Even the
Syrophoenician woman’s snappy comeback permits Jesus (who sounds rather snippy
himself) to teach that his power, mercy, and care extend to all people. His
community is larger than people expected.
·
What did
these people do to receive healing? They didn’t achieve it or measure up to a
special standard. They simply asked - or someone asked for them - and they
received freely from Jesus, without cost. Yes, the deaf man did not stay quiet
as Jesus “ordered” him to. Maybe he HAD to speak once he could.
·
Grace is at
work here once again. No affliction, no national or religious barrier, no
earthly impediment can hold it back. When Jesus healed the deaf man, he looked
to heaven and said “Be opened.”
We might say he was speaking to the deaf man, but maybe he was speaking to
heaven and opening the reign of God as well, to all people, for, no matter
what, grace abounds and the Kingdom found where Jesus is.
Then
looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be
opened.”
