Service of Word and Prayer for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany |
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 147 (today’s Responsorial Psalm) 1 Praise the Lord! 7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; |
Oration for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Everlasting God, you give strength to the weak and
power to the faint. Make us agents of your healing and wholeness, that your
good news may be made known to the ends of your creation, through Jesus Christ,
our Savior and Lord. Amen.
Gospel Reading: Mark 1:29-39
29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon
and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s
mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at
once. 31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her
up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32 That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or
possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered
around the door. 34 And he cured many who were sick with
various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons
to speak, because they knew him
35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a
deserted place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and his
companions hunted for him. 37 When they found him, they
said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” 38 He
answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the
message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” 39 And
he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and
casting out demons.
Sermon
(added at the end of the document)
Thanks and Offertory
The
Prayers of Church:
Walking in
the dawning light of Christ, we offer our prayers for the world God loves, the
church God calls, and for all people according to their needs.
·
Gracious
healer, loving restorer, purpose giver, you reach out to us in our isolation,
moving us to a place in which we can take part in your life-giving work. We thank you for this opportunity. let us
pray. Have mercy, O God.
·
Gracious
healer, loving restorer, purpose giver, you call us in our weakness and
frailty, and enable us to serve in our weakness and frailty. Inspire our trust in your promise. let us pray. Have mercy, O God.
·
Gracious
healer, loving restorer, purpose giver, our broken world can overwhelm us; the
pain we experience can immobilize us.
Set us free to embrace the world with your care, that your love may
become more visible. let us pray. Have mercy, O God
·
Gracious
healer, loving restorer, purpose giver, you create your church whenever
compassion is shown and welcome is declared.
Continue to make this congregation a community which holds the hurting,
and lives out your hospitality. let us
pray. Have mercy, O God.
·
Gracious healer, grant continued
progress in the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine and treatments, let us
pray. Have mercy, O God.
·
Gracious healer, purpose giver, for our
bishops, Susan and Michael and all in authority in the church, let us pray. Have
mercy, O God.
·
Gracious healer, for our neighbors in
the Anglican Church of Canada, Trinity Church and Archdeacon Janet Griffith,
and the Bishop of Huron, Bishop Todd Townsend, let us pray. Have
mercy, O God.
·
Gracious
healer, loving restorer, purpose giver, you continue to extend your healing
presence to those who are ill today. May
we touch those around us who need restoration, including those we name before
you.
·
[Long
silence] Let us pray. Have mercy, O
God.
·
Gracious
healer, loving restorer, purpose giver, you call us good, you bring us back,
you send us out. Give us the faith and
the will to respond. let us pray. Have mercy, O God.
·
Into your
hands we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your mercy; through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
The
Lord’s Prayer
Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
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.
First Reading: Isaiah 40:21-31
21 Have
you not known? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the
earth?
22 It is he who
sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a
curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to live in;
23 who brings
princes to naught,
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
24 Scarcely
are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows upon them, and they
wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25 To
whom then will you compare me,
or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your
eyes on high and see:
Who created these?
He who brings out their host and
numbers them,
calling them all by name;
because he is great in strength,
mighty in power,
not one is missing.
27 Why do you
say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not
known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting
God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives
power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.
30 Even youths
will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
31 but those who
wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.
Benediction and Sending
The Lord bless us and keep us.
The Lord make his face shine on us and
be gracious to us.
The Lord look upon us with favor and
give us peace.
Amen.
Go in peace. Share the Good News. Thanks be to God
-----------------------------------------------------------------
(This
reading is included for the sake of being complete.)
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
16 If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground
for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not
proclaim the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I
have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a
commission. 18 What then is my reward? Just this: that in
my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full
use of my rights in the gospel.
19 For though I am free with respect to all, I have
made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. 20 To
the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I
became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I
might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law
I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am
under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. 22 To
the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things
to all people, that I might by all means save some. 23 I
do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.
·
If Jesus appears to be very busy in today’s Gospel
reading, you’d be right. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus moves from one thing to
another in an almost breathless way. Mark’s favourite word translates as “immediately.” This appears to be Mark’s
style since the other three Gospels don’t have that same quality; that’s just
Mark’s way.
·
Still Mark’s style carries a message. Not that we
should spend all our time busy-busy-busy, but that the Kingdom of God that
Jesus came to proclaim and initiate is present now… immediately… in a number of
ways. If we look at what Jesus was up to in this passage, we get a glimpse.
·
Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law (who gets up to
serve those in the house, whether or not that bothers our modern sensibilities
and ideas.) He goes on to heal many of those who are brought to him and even
drives out demons. Early the next day, Jesus goes off by himself to pray, much
to the distress of his disciples. He then leads them to the nearby towns so that I may proclaim the message there
also…
·
Jesus dedicate himself to those who cannot repay
him, in this case the common folk of Capernaum where he had been teaching in
the synagogue. He didn’t do this to enhance his reputation or build up a
following. He did it because it was needed. He didn’t allow the demons to speak
because they knew him. Jesus’
Messiahship is still unclear to those around at this point and he strives to
keep the secret. The demons might spoil that by identifying him and with that
might undermine the possibility of faith among the people. This dedication to
those in need is a Gospel value as is the humility with which Jesus lived. He
did not come to spread his own fame, but to proclaim the Kingdom of God in his
words and in his works.
·
It isn’t easy to see here but there is a current
within the Gospel stories of people wanting Jesus to remain with them, to be
their personal, even private healer and saviour. This happens again in the
Gospel narrative of the multiplication of the loaves and fish where the crowd
looks for Jesus to make him king… and assure themselves of plenty of food.
Jesus’ ministry always looked to the Kingdom of God and all his works leant
themselves to that end.
·
In his work, Jesus realized that he would not be
able to heal everyone. He was limited in a number of ways by circumstances, by
place and time, and, to some extent, by custom. After all, he was a man of his
own time. We also can come to understand that we have limitations of all sorts
and we have to work around them and sometimes, through them. It could be
possible that Jesus was always leaving room for the actions and energy of the
community.
·
Even while Peter, the other disciples, and “everyone” is searching for
him, Jesus has gone off by himself to
a deserted place to pray. All of our Gospel accounts show him doing
this a number of times. He needed to do this to energize himself through
contact with his Father. We have no idea of the content of Jesus’ prayer in
these quiet moments, although we have examples of his prayer in other places in
the Gospels. There is however the constant example of Jesus going to pray by
himself in some out-of-the-way place. That at least is an example we can take,
whether our out-of-the-way place is inside or outside, upstairs or down.
·
Lastly, we might ask ourselves if we can see this
Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed. We can! We can see it and it is often
subtle.
·
When we work for the good of those in need without
looking for a reward, the Kingdom is there.
·
When we don’t limit our work and words to only
certain people or groups of people (often those who look like us), then the
Kingdom is there.
·
When we do what we can, realizing our efforts will
fall short AND don’t stop because of that realization, the Kingdom is there.
·
When we pray from the heart, wash others in Water
and Word, and eat the bread and wine because that is how Jesus told us to
remember him, the Kingdom is there.
·
No matter what way it takes place, when the message
of the Kingdom of God is present, the Kingdom comes in… and we’d be surprised
how things might change.
Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so
that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.
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