January 30, 2022
Hope and Healing
Focus: “When I stand before thee at the day’s end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing.” – Rabindranath Tagore
“Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.” – Buddha
Welcome:
Gathering: You Say (by Lauren Daigle) -Michelle Currie
Call To Worship:
One: Breath of God, you are the one
in whom we live and move and have our being.
All: And we are the ones in whom you live and move and have your being, for you made us in your image and likeness.
One: May your unifying energy be felt here among us,
All: And rekindle the fire within,
that makes us feel alive when we care for others.
One: Let us draw from the well of living water,
All: And be attentive to that which needs nourishing
in ourselves and in our world.
One: Come, let us worship where all are welcome in the house of God,
All: And find safe-haven in the heart of the One who loves us.
Opening Hymn: Make Me A Cannel of Your Peace *See Lyric Insert
Opening Prayer:
God of our ancestors, of prophets from long ago and today, you have spoken your word deep within us.
Help us to hear your wisdom and to feel it in our bones.
You have called us to a life that liberates and is liberating,
so on this day, may we sense the strength we have together to create a way when there is no way. As people who have walked in darkness, yet have seen a great light, may we befriend the stranger with the warmth of our hospitality. As a community of faith, let us stand on the ground of the Good News that offers healing to the broken and belonging to the lost. Spirit of the Living God, guide us in your ways
of justice and grace. Amen.
Lord’s Prayer
Awakening: Scars In Heaven (by Mark Hall) -Michelle Currie
Scripture: Thoughts on Healing by John ODonohue;Mark 1: 29-39
Sermon: Meditation on Healing Rev. Paula Norbert
Music: Meditative Instrumental ~ Meditation (By Andrea Bocelli/Arr. Mauro Malavasi) -Michelle Currie
Prayers of the People
Closing Hymn: How Can I Keep From Singing *See Lyric Insert
Benediction:
A prayer (adapted from St. Augustine)
God of life, on the days when burdens weigh heavy on the heart and difficulties bring weariness, be the strength that is needed. When the road seems tedious and endless, and life has no music in it, be a spark of joy and light. May you go in Peace…Amen.
Postlude: Go In Peace
Make Me A Channel of Your Peace (Lyrics)
1.Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring love,
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord, and where there’s doubt, true faith in you.
2.Make me a channel of your peace. Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope. Where there is darkness, only light, and where there’s sadness, ever joy.
3.O, Master grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to beloved as to love with all my soul.
4.Make me a channel of your peace. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, in giving of ourselves that we receive, and in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
How Can I Keep From Singing (Lyrics)
1.My life flows on in endless song, above all earth’s lamentation.
I hear the clear, though far off hymn that hails a new creation.
2.Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing.
It finds an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing?
3. What through my joy and comforts die? I know my savior liv-eth.
What through the darkness gather round? Songs in the night that giv-eth.
*Refrain
No storm can shake my in-most calm while to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?
*Repeat vs. 1
HEALING AND RENEWAL
There is a healing for each of our wounds, but this healing is waiting in the indirect, oblique, and nonanalytic side of our nature. We need to be mindful of where we are damaged, then invite our deeper soul in its night-world to heal this wounded tissue, renew us, and bring us back into unity. If we approach our hurt indirectly and kindly, it will heal. Creative expectation brings healing and renewal. If you could trust your soul, you would receive every blessing you require. Life itself is the great sacrament through which we are wounded and healed. If we live everything, life will be faithful to us.
John O’Donohue Excerpt from ANAM CARA
Mark 1:29-39
1:29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
1:30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once.
1:31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
1:32 That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.
1:33 And the whole city was gathered around the door.
1:34 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.
1:35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.
1:36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him.
1:37 When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.”
1:38 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.”
1:39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.