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Mark Wheeler
Mark 1:40-45
02/11/2024
"Bread, Bapt & Beyond – Sacraments and Worship 6"
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
Good morning Church! We are a people of family and friends who gather to worship with this Community of Christians, believers and belongers, wonder-seekers and truth-searchers; and we welcome everyone who gathers with us – and we invite you to dive as deeply as you are comfortable into this time of worshiping our Almighty God!
Today is Day 42 of the year 2024 – six weeks into our New Year's Resolutions – who's still in? Has anybody not failed yet? Are we Beyond Hope?
On this sixth Sunday in this between Christmas and Lenten series on Worship and Sacraments – what do we do on Sunday mornings, and why do what we do it, and how that impacts how we live every day! Bread, Bapt and Beyond!
Communion – Jesus, the Bread of Life – we partake of this everlasting-life-bread every time we come to Jesus, every time we start to believe in Him.
Baptism – the water of life!
And we have been walking our way through the first chapter of Mark's Gospel – and experiencing how Baptism and Communion give meaning to every day!
Bread, Bapt and Beyond – a look at the Sacraments that demonstrate and perform the grace of God, and the worship that develops from them.
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To invite us into that experience, Micki calls us to worship from Psalm 30:
4-7 And our Prelude of Praise and Worship ––– #482 … My Hope Is in the Lord –
8 Good morning Friends! Welcome to worship at Lidgerwood!! Shalom Aleichem! May the PEACE of Christ be with you!
Welcome, friends, from around the world, to this worshipping community!
Be filled with God's Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God's Word.
9 This morning our Chancel Choir leads us in worship with Hope-filled anthem: "Refuge and Strength"
10 Children's Message
11 Micki opens our Prayer time in Confession and Thanksgiving
12 Gloria Patri
13-16 Praises, thanksgivings, adorations, concerns and prays [The Lord's Prayer]
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18-19 Song of Devotion and Preparation to receive God's Word – #412 – Jesus' Hands Were Kind Hands –
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Our Gospel lesson this morning picks up where we left off last week when we heard about how Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law and people came from everywhere hoping he'd heal them as well.
And, He healed a bunch; but the next morning there were that many more. People came from everywhere. The problem was when they got there Jesus was nowhere to be found. He'd gotten up before daybreak and slipped away to be alone with God in prayer.
Mark says they went throughout Galilee and Jesus proclaimed God's Kingdom in the synagogues and cast out demons along the way. Then He says,
… in the Word of God, from Mark 1:40-45 …. ----
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40 And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean." 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, "I will; be clean." 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
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43 And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them." 45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.
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"A leper came to Him, begging Him, kneeling down to Him, and saying to Him, 'If you want to, you can make me clean.'" (Mark 1:40)
There were lots of different forms of leprosy in Jesus' day, but they were all treated the same. The Torah made no provision for psoriasis or a bad case of acne. Leprosy was leprosy, and if the priest said you had it, the Law was clear:
"The leper in whom the plague is shall wear torn clothes, and the hair of his head shall hang loose. He shall cover his upper lip, and shall cry, 'Unclean! Unclean!'… He is unclean. He shall dwell alone. Outside of the camp shall be his dwelling." (Leviticus 13:45-46).
What's worse was the social stigma. In Old Testament times, it was generally assumed that, if you were afflicted with a terrible disease like leprosy, you must have done something really bad, and this was your punishment.
Remember the story of Job and his three friends? They came pretending they were consoling him, but what they really wanted was to get him to fess up: "Golly Jeez, Job, what did you do to deserve this? Must've been a doozie! Tell us about it." The stigma was as bad as the disease.
Then there was the practical reality. Once declared a leper, the person was cut off from his family and friends and community of support. No longer able to make a living or support his family. He couldn't even go to the synagogue to pray. It was a fate worse than death.
Can you imagine what it was like to be a leper in Jesus' day – to live as an outcast, to be excluded, to live in a perpetual state of quarantine? Quarantine – isolation – face masks --- oh wait, maybe we CAN imagine a little of what this was like….
Have you ever been to Costco without your Membership Card?! [The only way in is to pretend you're with the guy in front of you….] But you still can't buy anything!
But that hardly compares to being a leper, now does it?
Some analogies come to mind: Racial segregation, for example. I remember when I was in seminary watching the news about Apartheid in South Africa and thinking what an inhumane way to live. But that's the way it used to be right here!
What it is it like to be gay or lesbian, living the semblance of a normal life in public, but knowing full well that, if you say too much or express your feelings too openly, you could lose your job or be ostracized by your family.
How about illegal immigration? Having just returned from Guatemala and hearing stories about Guatemalans and other Central Americans trying to eke out enough money to feed their family, sometimes getting across the Border in Arizona or Texas is their only hope!
These are only three examples. I'm sure you can think of others. To be a leper is to be untouchable. And so, according to Mark, "A leper came to him, begging him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, 'If you want to, you can make me clean.'" (Mark 1:40)
Can you hear the desperation in his voice? Can you imagine the agony he must have felt being separated from his wife and children and cut off from society? If only he could be made clean, he could go back to his family and resume a normal life.
Jesus' hands were holy hands. Hebrews 4 tells us that Jesus was "tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin." But the religious people of Jesus' day certainly didn't think that Jesus' hands were holy.
He stepped over too many of their time-honored boundaries which marked what was holy and what was not holy.
In touching the leper Jesus disregarded a taboo.
The leper was ceremonially unclean … … But: "Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man."
For Jesus, there is no taboo against the love of God. He touched the unclean … and through doing this He validated the fact that His hands were indeed holy!
We can't think very long about the hands of Christ without marveling over all the people He touched. He took children in His arms, He laid hands on them and blessed them. When He healed, He usually touched the person … … He grasped the hand of a panicking Peter as he was sinking into the Sea of Galilee … … and He gently cleansed the feet of His disciples.
Without a doubt, one of the reasons Jesus was eventually put to death was because He touched all the wrong people.
Touching was an expression of Jesus' spontaneous sympathy and compassion …. … and it's an action that we are confronted with again and again in the Gospels.
We find one or two stories that show Christ's power to heal at a distance, but in the great majority of cases it was a personal touch.
Do we have that personal touch? Jesus' harshest critics complained that "He eats with sinners."
And among Jesus' friends were despised tax collectors, a Samaritan woman, the demon-possessed--- all the people that everyone else had (seemingly) a good reason to avoid! Even harlots were embraced by Jesus!
We're alienated from God and each other by our sinful human nature; but we can be reconciled and restored by the power of God's forgiveness and love.
That's it in a nutshell: At the heart of every human being there's a basic feeling of unworthiness. It may be just a twinge, or it may be all-consuming; it may be lie out in the open, or it may be covered by layers of bravado and machismo. But deep down inside we're all painfully aware of our sinful nature and we know that, if we were to stand before the judgment seat of God today, we wouldn't have a chance.
That's not to say we've committed some heinous crime. It's simply to say that we think perverse thoughts and say unkind things and act in self-serving ways. While we may look like fine, upstanding men and women on the surface, inside we know better.
I don't say this to put us down or make us feel bad; on the contrary, I say it to set the stage for what is the most remarkable word we can ever hear, and that is:
God already knows this and loves us just the same. God sent Jesus into the world to die for the forgiveness of our sins. Once we hear that and accept it as fact, it has the power to transform our lives – to cleanse us and make us whole.
Holiness is not the formation of an elite club of self-righteous do-gooders. Jesus' kind of holiness is all about compassion, and a new, inclusive fellowship. To use John Wesley's words, "holiness is both internal, purity of heart within … … and external, the manifestation of that holiness in acts of love toward others in need."
The personal touch of life is indispensable in any world and every world. There is no adequate substitution for outstretched hands and outstretched lives. No committee or organization can replace them!
The Word of love, that was in Jesus, must become flesh and dwell among us. And we, as Christians, are called to be the Holy Hands of Christ!
I've read a story about a wealthy western woman who once visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta and offered to write a check to support the work of the Sisters of Charity. But Mother Teresa declined: "I won't take your money."
The woman insisted, reminding Mother Teresa that she had great resources to donate.
But Mother Teresa still said, "No money."
Exasperated, the woman stammered, "Well, what can I do?"
Mother Teresa said, "Come and see."
She led the woman by the hand down into a dreadful shelter … … found a desperately dirty, hungry child, and asked the woman to take care of him.
The woman took a cloth and a water basin and bathed the child.
Then she spooned cereal into the child's mouth.
The woman reported later that her life was changed!
She became part of something that money could not buy or fix or replace.
She took care of this child on a human, personal and tangible level.
Have we become part of something that money cannot buy, fix or replace?
Sometimes our hands must become dirty in order for them to represent the Holy hands of Christ.
In his book Caring, Feeling, Touching, by Sidney B. Simon, a teacher at the University of Massachusetts, speaks of a "skin hunger" that is felt by all of us. It is a deep-seated need for the touch, the feel, the concrete reality of human contact. He points out that every human being comes into this world needing to be touched… …and that this is a need that persists until death.
Perhaps the worst thing that happened during Covid is that we stopped touching each other.
God too, is waiting with arms wide open … wanting us to accept His embrace … and then pass His love on to others.
Are we doing this?
We are to touch others with the Holy Hands of Christ only because we love Jesus. When I was in Middle School, I learned this song by Ocean (1971, Put Your Hand in the Hand):
Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water
Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea
Take a look at yourself and you can look at others differently
By puttin' your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee
Every time I look into the Holy Book I want to tremble
Or when I read about the part where the carpenter cleared the temple
For the buyers and the sellers were no different fellas than what I profess to be
And it causes me shame to know we're not the people we should be
So, put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water
Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea
Take a look at yourself and you can look at others differently
By puttin' your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee
Jesus made a speech during the last week of His earthly life about the great judgment at the end of time.
This speech is recorded in Matthew Chapter 25. The sheep will be separated from the goats. Did you feed the hungry? Did you give a drink to the thirsty? Did you welcome a stranger? Did you clothe the naked? Did you visit those in prison? Those who did will share in eternal blessedness. Those who did not will be hurled into the abyss of eternal fire.
These are stern words.
But Jesus tells us that when we do these things for "the least" … … for people who are down, hurting, disadvantaged … … we actually do them for Jesus!
The real test of our faith is not just whether we care about poor folks who are down on their luck … …. the real test is: Do we love Jesus?
The real surprise is how the sheep respond to the news that they have been blessed with eternal glory: "Lord when was it that we saw you hungry?"
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." When our hands truly become the Holy Hands of Christ there is a certain absentmindedness about it … … there is a spontaneity about it… … a lack of self-consciousness or calculation.
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My friend, Pastor Robyn Hogue, posted a story on her Facebook Page:
You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere.
Why did you spill the coffee?
"Because someone bumped into me!!!"
Wrong answer.
You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup.
Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea.
*Whatever is inside the cup is what will spill out.*
Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It's easy to fake it, until you get rattled.
*So we have to ask ourselves... "what's in my cup?"*
When life gets tough, what spills over?
Joy, gratefulness, peace and humility?
Anger, bitterness, harsh words and reactions?
Life provides the cup, YOU choose how to fill it.
Through Jesus' teachings God has opened up for us an elusive but crucial paradox at the heart of our lives.
The ultimate good in life is when we are liberated, let loose to become such lovers of God that we virtually surprise ourselves by loving those whom God loves … … but freely, without expecting a payoff.
Father Damien gave himself unselfishly to serve those with leprosy. One day when he stood to speak to his flock, he began his remarks by addressing them as "We lepers." He had touched them so intimately as he bound their wounds, that he himself contracted the dreaded disease.
If we seek to touch the hurting places of the world, we need to be prepared for the fact that there are costs involved. And yet, this is the way the power of Christ continues to get out to a hurting world.
All throughout our lives others have touched us with their gifts, and those gifts are to be passed on as we touch others. All over this hurting world there is a great need for the healing touch of Holy Hands.
God became flesh and dwelt among us. His name is Jesus Christ. He lived with us. He felt the pain we feel. He showed us and told us about the love of God. He even died so that we won't have to … … He rose from the dead, and through His resurrection we too have the hope of eternal life.
One day, while Jesus was here on earth "A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, 'If you are willing, you can make me clean.' Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.
'I am willing,' he said. 'Be clean!' Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured."
I read that Mother Teresa once said that if at the end of the day you want to examine your conscience, just look at your hands. What have your hands done today? Whom have they served? Has the imprint of Christ's image been left on anything those hands have touched?
Today let's work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation; and kindness, gentleness and love for others.
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On this earth, at this crucial time in history, on this Super Bowl Sunday, in this season of elections, Christ has no hands except our hands. Our hands are the hands of Christ.
Let's fill our cup with Jesus love and compassion – when we see someone suffering, or when we get shaken – may Jesus' love and compassion come tumbling out of us!
26 Receive our tithes and offerings as symbols of our very lives and livelihood, given as response to Your life given for us! Bless it, and by it bless the world around us. In Christ's name, Amen.
Offering (4449 N Nevada St., Spokane, WA, 99207; click HERE; or text 833-976-1333, code "Lidgerwood")
27-30 Expedition Song #517 – The Solid Rock! –
31 Benediction:
May we Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be filled with God's Holy Spirit. And give glory to God, today, and forever! Amen.
"May the Lord bless you and protect you; may the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace."
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Announcements
- Tuesday is our first new Board of Deacons Meeting and our first new Elders Council Meeting
- Wednesday is Ash Wednesday – the first day of Lent – We do not have an Ash Wednesday service, but the doors will open for a personal time of repentance and the imposition of Ashes between 9am and 4pm
- Furnace Fundraiser
Resources:
Sauer, Kenneth Emerson; "Holy Hands"; Parkview United Methodist, Newport News, VA; 03/10/2003.
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