Are we "Open to Healing?" For Grace?

 Scripture: 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27 and Psalm 130  • Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15, 2:23-24 or Lamentations 3:22-33 and Psalm 30  • 2 Corinthians 8:7-15  • Mark 5:21-43

This week's gospel provides a look at God in man made manifest as Jesus crosses barriers to bring healing, salvation and life to the lost, the hopeless, and the dead. As Jesus heals the woman who had been bleeding for years, and raise up a young girl who was dead - allowing the "unclean" to touch him while he touches the "unclean," also provides us insight into the faith Jesus invokes in us.

This lesson follows lessons the last two weeks when God shows us what can be done with faith the size of a mustard seed, and inspiring a young shepherd boy to defeat the power of the giant Goliath. God moves, not only in mysterious ways, but shows up in the most unexpected places.  And yet with faith as small as a mustard seed, we can have "Expectant Hope," as 

Lucy Standlund says. The Rev. Canon Frank Logue gives us God's perspective in "A Beloved Child of God."

What does it take to be open for healing... for grace?

Conquering Fear

 Scripture:1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49 and Psalm 9:9-20 or 

• 1 Samuel 17:57-18:5, 18:10-16 and Psalm 133  • 
 
• Job 38:1-11 and Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32  • 
 
• 2 Corinthians 6:1-13  • 
 
• Mark 4:35-41

This week, reflect on the story of David and Goliath and think about the small and the great, and the  source of his strength and confidence. Consider the Shalom - Peace, be still! - of the one who calms the storms. 

For further reflection see Robert Cornwall's " Sleeping through the Storm," and Steve Goodier's "What I Pray For." Put yourself in the place of the disciples on the ship. 

And finally, as Jesus crosses to the other side, consider The Rev. Dr. Richard Burden's "The Other Side."

Losing Control

 Scripture: 1 Samuel 15:34 - 16:13 and Psalm 20  • Ezekiel 17:22-24 and Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15  • 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17  • Mark 4:26-34

The desire to control is something we have from toddlers to old age, although  I have less desire to control situations in retirement than I did providing and caring for my family.  It never leaves us entirely, though. 

This Sunday's gospel parables of the gardener who sows and then sleeps, and of the mustard seed look at the mysteries of life, especially when we have no control, or limited control. In "The Sleeping Gardner," Debie Thomas offers us astonishing insights and life lessons as she considers Jesus' parables. Astonishing? Isn't that what a wonderful life should be? It's not always easy to cease worrying, and cede control, but we miss a lot if we don't heed the lesson of these parables. 

Seen and Unseen. The Spirit Leads Us.

 Scripture:1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20) and Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18  • Deuteronomy 5:12-15 and Psalm 81:1-10  • 2 Corinthians 4:5-12  • Mark 2:23-3:6

Our Scripture this week is full of hearing and responding to God's call. What do we hear and heed in our busy lives? Who does God call? How? How can we hear God''s call? As we read this week's Scripture, we are invited to consider the value of human life, of all life, especially when reading beautiful Psalm 135, and Jesus' teaching about feeding the hungry, and healing on the Sabbath, telling us that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath is made for humankind. 

Both the passage from Paul's second  letter to the Corinthians and Mark's gospel invite us to see what cannot be seen. Read Susan Butterworth's "Human and Divine."

 The Rev. Danáe Ashley's "Bread, Law, and Spirit," considers questions we ask, such as "Why am I here? What is my purpose? What am I supposed to do with my life," discussing ways of discerning God's call to us, and what is life affirming, and what is not.

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
139:1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me.

139:2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.

139:3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

139:4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely.

139:5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

139:13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

139:14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

139:15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

139:16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

139:17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

139:18 I try to count them -- they are more than the sand; I come to the end -- I am still with you.