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Sermon July 22, 2018
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Ninth Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 11, track 1
//lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost/BProp11_RCL.html
And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed. Mark 6:56
Please be seated.
I love Broadway and New York City musicals. I saw Godspell and Pippin when I was in high school in the 1970s. I saw a number of other musicals and dramas throughout the years. And when I lived in New York City when I went to seminary, I really took advantage of going to the theater. I have a stack of programs from the many productions I saw.
On my recent trip to Maine, I started listening to the Pandora app, rather than the radio. The app has a Broadway Musical station. One of the songs I heard was from the musical “Wicked.” It’s called For Good
Some of the words struck me as ways to experience our relationship with God and Jesus:
Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood
Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea
Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?
But because I knew you, I have been changed for good
So much of me is made of what I learned from you
You’ll be with me like a handprint on my heart
In our Gospel today, Jesus and the disciples are traveling from place to place with great crowds following them. The word has gotten out that Jesus can heal people of whatever ails them, whether it be physical or spiritual. Jesus knows he and his disciples need some rest, but even when they try to go to a deserted place, the crowds follow them. And Jesus keeps healing. Jesus keeps changing peoples’ lives.
I did some reading this past week about healing. I was reminded that many people in Jesus’ time believed that illness came from God. That if you were not in right relationship with God, God made you ill as a punishment. Jesus’ frenzy in healing people was to banish that notion. Jesus wanted people to understand that God did not punish through illness or disease. Jesus wanted people to know that God was about wholeness…total wholeness and health – physically, emotionally and spiritually.
We cannot physically touch Jesus today and yet I believe that Jesus continues to heal us. Jesus continues to be with us in our difficult times. Jesus continues to be here on a Sunday morning when we all gather. Jesus is here during our Eucharist…our sharing of a meal.
Jesus’ simple, yet challenging call to love God, love our neighbor and love ourselves, is healing. Loving God, loving our neighbor and loving ourselves – honoring God who is in us – creates health, peace and wholeness for us.
Living Jesus’ call of love of God, love of neighbor and love of self, changes us for the good.
Amen
