Planning. 5th Sunday after the Epiphany 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Waitangi Day (Aotearoa New Zealand) February 2018

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1 Planning SAT 10 FRI 9 THUR 8 WED 7 TUES 6 MON 5 SUN 4 5th Sunday after the Epiphany 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time Waitangi Day (Aotearoa New Zealand) Things to keep in mind this week Planning ahead February 2018 Sunday, February 4 Saturday, February S M T W T F S January 2018 S M T W T F S March 2018 S M T W T F S Revised Common Lectionary (Year B) Isaiah 40:21 31 Psalm 147:1 11, 20c 1 Corinthians 9:16 23 Mark 1:29 39 Liturgical colour: green If you have Internet access, visit to access Spirit Sightings for connections between current events and the focus passage. Ecumenical Prayer Calendar Ireland; United Kingdom: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales As listed in In God s Hands: Common Prayer for the World, ed. by Hugh McCullum and Terry Mac- Arthur (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2006). Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Advent Christmas Epiphany

2 Advent, Christmas, Epiphany Focus scripture Mark 1:29 39 Additional scriptures Isaiah 40:21 31 Psalm 147:1 11, 20c 1 Corinthians 9:16 23 Biblical Background February 4, 2018 God of our beginnings and endings and every transition in between, help us to recognize our need for healing and to understand the ways we are formed by its process, even when a resolution is never in our sight. Amen. Called to Healing Healing takes many forms. The scriptures give accounts of healing in body, in spirit, in mental health, in community, and in nations. With so many ways, God tends to God s people; we see that healing is a process and always in process for those who seek God and are known by God s love. Focus scripture: Mark 1:29 39 Mark 1:29 39 speaks of particular healings that happen after Jesus teaches in the synagogue. It is significant that these happen in a home and to a woman. While we must question the social demands that require a woman to be whole in order to serve others, we can honour the significance of Simon s mother-in-law as Jesus honours her and her right to be free of her fever and restored to her strength. We can also honour the choice of her action upon being well. As the gospel says and she began to serve others. While no social system is without obligation, we can hope that with strength restored, the woman made a choice beyond coercion. The choice to serve others even under duress is a choice Jesus makes in life and in death, returning to the search for restoration for the whole rather than resting in the illusions of privilege on the broken backs of others. Jesus leaves the synagogue to heal this woman in her home and then takes to the streets casting out many demons. Demons wound people by subjugating their bodies, spirits, or minds. Jesus frees people by casting out what unhealthy patterns of being or unbalanced bodily systems bully them. Jesus moves from sacred space to domestic sphere to public forum and affirms that his religion is one that is not only beyond institutional belief but for personal practice and social order. The way of Jesus is for our daily lives, honoured in how we treat ourselves at home and how we interact with others in the streets. In 1 Corinthians 9:16 23 we see the speaker wrestle with the paradox of being set free by the gospel in order to choose to serve again. To live in the gospel of Jesus Christ is to be loosed from the binds of a hierarchical social order that mediates relationships by unwritten codes and legal discipline. It invites us back into those relationships in a mutually dependent and equitable way of living and understanding life, as a shared reality. God gathers the outcasts and heals the brokenhearted. Psalm 147:1 11, 20 is unapologetic in the abundance of God s healing power. Healing is not merely a grand call to tend to the masses of the underserved. For the power that numbers the stars, grows each blade of grass, and feeds every raven, healing is the intimate touch of God on individuals and the intentional divine whisper of their names. Consider the grasshopper, thriving under the tent of heaven, says the prophet in chapter Isaiah 40: Who created these? Isaiah asks what it says about the Creator that not one is missing. The everlasting God is unsearchable, and yet the process of healing is infinite for those who wait on this Creator. We don t have to be perfect to be a healer. We can have faith that healing is the desire of Jesus by seeing how well Jesus performs the healing miracles, but we can also have faith in our own strength to serve through the witness of Simon s mother-in-law. Henri Nouwen offered the image of Jesus as a wounded healer and invites us into this paradigm for our service. The great illusion of leadership writes Henri Nouwen, is to think that [one] can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there (The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society). What is our role in proclaiming the gospel and in becoming healers in our time and circumstance? 154 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Advent Christmas Epiphany Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2017

3 Reflection and Focus February 4, 2018 Reflecting on the Word Advent, Christmas, Epiphany Adapt and use for youth and adult studies, sermon seeds, lay worship teams. Connecting with life What does it feel like to recognize your own need for healing? Consider a time when healing others and seeking to heal felt reciprocal. When have you embraced healing as a search and a process? When have you sought resolution? Scripture Mark 1:29 39 The second phase of Jesus healing in the text reveals a swarm of people taking to the streets in search of restoration. Consider what a town filled with a crowd would look like in Mark s town. What does so many bodies seeking the same thing communicate to those who participate in it? for those who observe it? Consider what kind of spiritual and political unease is required to start a political movement. What kind of common understanding and shared hope must organize and activate it? When we take to the streets to heal, as individuals with others, how do we understand our ailment and our restoration differently from when we seek a resolution or cure privately? When healing is reciprocal act, it involves both free choice and submission to another s free will too. 1 Corinthians 9:16 23 asks us to consider the paradox of having freedom even in the midst of obligation and servitude. Can a free person truly be a servant to all? Can servants give freely of themselves? Consider a time you recognized a duty you did not wish to meet or felt pressure to meet, but chose to do it anyway. What did that feel like before, during, and after? Was there a benefit to others in your completing the duty? What effect did it have on your own sense of freedom? Psalm 147 reminds us that our understanding of God is never complete, but that is no reason to postpone praise. It is in processes, like the evolution of Earth and its inhabitants. Healing is also never finished. A cure is only a temporary resolution to the inevitability of mortality and finitude. Consider a time you felt uncertain, broken, or fearful. What was it like to praise God at that time? Connecting scripture and life Even at the heart of the smallest church is a desire to care for each other in prayer, in providing meals and rides. Churches can become consumed by the needs of caring for one another, or they can find the work of loving within the community inspiring to expand the reach of that care. Jesus took to the streets to heal many and gives the disciples that capacity. What ways of caring are strong in your church? How can your church draw on its strength to heal and strengthen others? Focus for Worship, Learning, and Serving Showing our wounds to one another invites the understanding we need to be invested in healing as a reciprocal process. Consider your congregation s wounds. Who is suffering? Whose suffering is acknowledged in prayer requests and liturgy? Who suffers in silence? Who of the world s suffering is represented in your congregation? How do you bring the suffering of the world into the sanctuary of your worship to honour and heal it? How do you send people out to heal others? Take time to teach sacred conversations or another listening technique utilized in grassroots organizations. Encourage learning opportunities for parents, caregivers, and partners to listen and communicate better as a way of seeing our own wounds and honour those of others before trying to fix a problem. Listening is a powerful tool in healing and can be practiced in worship, small groups, and in service and activism opportunities. How might you encourage your congregation that following Jesus is more than walking the talk; it is hearing the unheard. Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Advent Christmas Epiphany

4 Called to Healing Bring items for setting the worship space. Include as many healing items as possible: oils, cloths, basins, water jugs/pitchers, medicinal flowers and aromatic herbs in an arrangement (be mindful of allergies). Invoke the senses as a way of assuring all that healing is for the body. If appropriate in your setting, consider aromatic herbs for the opening prayer. However, be mindful of allergies. Provide paper and pens/pencils for the reading from Isaiah. Consider having a healing station of prayer with anointing, the laying on of hands or foot washing. Gather oils, washcloths, basins and jugs/pitchers as necessary for inviting people into this space, as a response during the order of worship or as a special time before or after service. Bring a collection of recycled jars (used for pickles, jams, and other preserves) for the sending out. Prepare Gather Music Suggestions Worship Outline February 4, 2018 NOTE: All of these suggestions are mere starting points; adapt, delete, and add according to your local needs. Recruit volunteers needed for worship. You might choose to print the art image Mountains Melt Choose an option for hearing Mark 1: For the Like Wax on your bulletin covers (in the Images to Project Bible story, arrange for a storyteller to present the story and Print folder on the Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Challenges and Joy on p For the inquisitive CD and in the web version of SeasonsFUSION). You reading, gather a team of 6 11 readers and, if possible, might also include one of the art engagement ideas described extras to show the shift from intimate space to public in Connecting with the Art (p. 4). space and the call to heal in both. Call to worship From Isaiah 40:21 31 One: Have you not known? Have you not heard? All: What is it that is told from the beginning, and understood since Earth was formed? One: The Holy One sits above the circle of Earth watching over us. All: Not one of us is without a name. Not one of us remains uncounted. One: The Holy One is unsearchable to us. The divine ways are hidden. All: But even in our misunderstanding, we are lifted up. Even in our faint-heartedness, we are strengthened. Therefore, let us praise the everlasting God. Amen. Bring song such as Children of the Spirit (Seasons Songbook, vol. 7, #4 on Seasons Music CD, vol. 7. Printed music and recording are also available at Seasons MP3 Downloads, Set stations as described on pp All Are Welcome Marty Haugen; Seasons Songbook, vol. 9 Children of the Spirit Monica Obrien, Gina Ogilvie; Seasons Songbook, vol. 7 Spirit of Life Carolyn McDade; Seasons Songbook, vol. 7 All We Long For Trisha Watts; Seasons Songbook, vol. 6 A Circle of Love Felicia A.B. Sandler; Seasons Songbook vol. 5 Spirit of the Living God David Iverson A chart that shows the licence holder(s) for each song in each of the 9 Seasons of the Spirit Music Volumes can be found at Click on Library; Seasons Music Information. Please contact a licence holder for permission to duplicate. Opening prayer If appropriate in your setting, consider aromatic herbs in a processional as you invite people in a unison prayer. However, be mindful of allergies. All: Open our senses to the fragrance of Christ. Open our minds to the teachings of Jesus. Open our hearts to the love of God. Open our actions to the movement of the Spirit. Open us, Divine Healer, to the work of reconciliation and the promise of wholeness into which we are called. Amen. 156 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Advent Christmas Epiphany Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2017

5 Worship Outline February 4, 2018 Prayer of confession God, we confess that we are bound to our egos, and imprisoned in harmful patterns of living and relating. You call us to listen, and to connect with others, yet we are too consumed with doing things the way we like them. We ignore, we judge, and we push away that which is unfamiliar to us. Help us to consider the needs of others for, just as Christ became all things to all people, we are called to meet others where they are, not just where we want them to be. May we have confidence in the gospel, so that we may share its blessings. Amen. Engage Words of affirmation Jesus was a friend to the stranger, weak, and outcast. He gathered friends together at a table and invited new guests to the banquet. He healed whoever asked it of him, and wept for the prisoners who shared his fate on the cross. Friends, hear the good news of the gospel: In Jesus Christ, you are accepted. You are forgiven, loved, and free. Amen. Opening the word Isaiah 40:21 31 is a promise that God, although mysterious, is tender and nurturing towards us. Ministry with and for God is exhausting, but our power is not self-generated. Consider the people and initiatives in your congregation that are begging for renewal. Have they lost their vision? Do they feel busy but without direction? Do they identify the fruits of their labour, or do they feel they are speaking to a wall? Invite the people into a time of silence and listening. Ask them to observe the ways God feels mysterious to them and God s ways feel unknown. Then, invite them to write down their questions about where God is leading. What places in their ministry feel weak and where do they want to be strengthened? Invite them to visualize an eagle flying across a broad horizon towards them with a branch tied with a message or a bundle in its mouth. What would they hope is on that message or bundle that would bring renewal in their ministries and re-visioning? Moving into the focus scripture Invite people to reflect on a time when their suffering and recovery led to an increase of compassion and renewed energy to address the pain of others. Invite them to consider not how there is a purpose-driven relationship between our suffering and our service but how all of our experiences good and bad teach and prepare us to live into our calling to love God and others. Mark 1:29 39 Choose from the following for hearing the focus story. Bible story Have a storyteller present the story Challenges and Joy on page 160. Inquisitive reading Arrange for several readers to retell the story of Jesus healing in many spheres, addressing the needs of many people in the form of personal statements about what each healed person was searching for. Simon, Andrew, James, and John: We are searching for a friend to welcome into our house. For someone who will know us so intimately, they will call my mother by her name. Simon s Mother-in-law: I am searching for a hand to help and for strength outside me to lift me up. I do so much for others, but I need someone to do this small thing for me, too. Demons: We are searching for someone to silence us. We are anxious and consumed in our desire to control people. We feed off their addictions and their sickness, but our work never ends. We want someone to push us back, to tell us to stop. We are ready to release people and to be released ourselves. Simon and his companions: We are searching for a way to respond. We see so many in need but do not know how to lead them out of the confusion of the crowds and into an ordered way of life. We are searching for a leader that can address their needs and help us to address them, too. People in the neighbouring towns: We have heard of others in towns near and far who are no longer confused. We are searching for someone with a clear message and a way out of our difficulties. Jesus: I am searching for my centre. Before the sun rises, before the place is filled, I find God is with me always in the deserted places and in the crowded streets. I am searching to make God s peaceful presence known by others in their homes, in their sickness, in their busyness, and in their crowded towns. After the focus scripture Invite children, young people, and all who wish to move to the stations. Others will remain seated for proclaiming the word. Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Advent Christmas Epiphany

6 After proclaiming the word, you might invite those who have not already done so to move to and around the stations, taking ten minutes or so with a chosen practice. Sing or listen to a song such as Children of the Spirit (Seasons Songbook, vol. 7, #4 on Seasons Music CD, vol. 7. Printed music and recording are also available at Seasons MP3 Downloads, Prayers of the people God, you are with us always in the most deserted places, and in the most crowded. You approach us in the most intimate spaces, and the most public. You call us to welcome each other in this same way, not turning from our sufferings but offering to heal at any time, in any place so that we may be restored with the rest of the world. We lift up those who need strength to love and serve you: Blessing jar God, who looks on the circle of Earth, counts every grasshopper and knows every name. Distribute glass jars (once used for jam or pickles, and so on). Invite the people to collect random unclaimed objects throughout the week. With each selection, pick it up, consider it from all angles, give it a name, and count the total contents of the jar. Seeing Special Day Commentary February 8 Nirvana Day (Buddhism) This day commemorates the death of the Buddha, which is also the day he achieved nirvana or total enlightenment. While celebrations vary according to region and culture, Buddhists generally observe the day by meditating or going to Buddhist temples or monasteries. Often special food is prepared, and some people bring gifts to the temple or monastery such as money, household goods, or clothes. Some Buddhists will read passages from the Paranibbana Sutta which describes the last days of Buddha, while others may reflect on those who have recently passed away. Respond Bless Worship Outline February 4, 2018 For the elders of the church who wish to welcome others, to lead your disciples, and to restore strangers to life. For our relatives that care for us until they are worn out and need a helping hand of their own. For our minds and the minds of others who are possessed by difficult emotions, thought patterns, and ways of living; who need a reason to cease the chaos and permission to seek inner peace. For the exiled in spirit, body, and place that need to know the depth of God s love even in the absence of companions on the journey with them. For the crowds of strangers in need of order and vision, and searching for assurance that reconciliation is possible and that Love is the greatest power on earth. Prayer of dedication We sing of thanksgiving and give with praise, for the Gracious One gathers the outcast, heals the broken-hearted, and binds all our wounds. We are all given a name. We are all lifted up in the power and abundance that can only come from God. Amen. the world as a scientist sees it, collecting every specimen and classifying it, can awaken us to the caring and intimate detail of God s loving sight exercised every day as God gazes upon the circle of Earth and counts every hair on our head. With each detail that we collect over the week, we are participating in the act of God blessing the world. 158 Seasons of the Spirit SeasonsFUSION Advent Christmas Epiphany Copyright Wood Lake Publishing Inc. 2017