Home Service 30th June 2024

Prayers of Approach

God of all, as a crowd, as a church, as a family, as individuals, we come together and reach out today for your grace and your healing. We pray for your help where we face challenges, and for your guidance where we have barriers to overcome.
Lord, it is so easy to be part of the crowd, following behind others not knowing what is taking place in front. Give us the power to make our way through the moving throng, and the courage to touch you, to receive that life-transforming experience. But we also ask that you stop and turn around, and call us by name, saying those words that make us know we are completely forgiven and unconditionally loved.
Lord Jesus, we worship you this morning as the one who removed the greatest barrier between God and us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, enable us to tear down artificial and human-made barriers that stop us from living and loving in accordance with your will.

Amen.

Hymn Great is thy faithfulness (R&S 96)

Readings: Lamentations 3:22-26

Mark 5:21-43

Introduction

Lamentations encourages readers to hold on to a belief in God’s goodness, and wait quietly for his mercy to be revealed, even in the face of extreme suffering. The writer speaks of the pain, suffering and loss caused by exile; yet woven through the verses is a clear sense of God’s (past) goodness and ongoing mercy and compassion. Waiting in despair will bring salvation, and much more than was lost.
Jairus, a religious leader, asks Jesus to heal his daughter. While Jesus is on his way, a woman, suffering with bleeding, dares to touch his cloak. In ancient Jewish culture, bleeding made you unclean, so this woman would have been an outcast. In her desperation, she crosses a boundary to be healed (by touching Jesus’ robe) and Jesus crosses a boundary when he not only insists on finding out who she is, but also does not condemn her actions as he offers her healing.

Hymn Jesus’ hands were kind hands (R&S 197)

Sermon

In our Gospel reading today there are two accounts of healing. Two desperate people – an ailing woman and a man with a dying daughter – were in urgent need of Jesus’ help. The two are at opposite ends of society, the woman in the crowd cut off from her community because of her illness and the child the daughter of a synagogue leader, a respected person, and therefore at the centre of the community. Yet they have many things in common. To begin with they are both female which dictates their status and place in society, and neither of them are named. Despite this they will always be remembered, one as Jairus’ daughter, the other simply as ‘the woman in the crowd’.
Their stories are inextricably entwined. Jesus has been called by an important man in the hope that he can heal his daughter, an immediate and urgent need. Yet as he is on the way he stops and refuses to go on until he has found out who touched him out of the large crowd of people following him. To Jesus’ disciples it was inexplicable – how could he have known that someone had deliberately touched him out of such a crowd in which people must have been brushing against each other all the time, and why does it matter? But something important has happened and needs to be acknowledged. The courage of the anonymous woman has to be recognised and her healing confirmed in order that she might be restored to society.
The interweaving of the stories shows that that they are equally important. In both cases there were barriers to be crossed – the woman was untouchable, the child apparently dead. But they are both ‘daughters’ – Jairus’ daughter and a ‘daughter of Israel’ – both loved and both matter. It’s not just about power, it’s not just about healing, they are stories of human need, of suffering and of sorrow, and of restoration. The woman is restored to society, Jairus’ daughter restored to life. They show how God reaches out to all, regardless of status, and renews and restores us in his love – ‘Come, all of you! Take my hand.’ How can we renew our own life in God so that we can then reach out to others? How do we cross the barriers which divide us and separate us, from each other and from God?

Hymn Let us build a house where love can dwell (Singing the Faith 409)

Prayers of Intercession

We give you thanks, Lord, that your healing ministry transcended cultural and social barriers. We pray for a cleansing of all prejudice, and for those whose illness or situation distances them from others.
Living God, in our prayers, we bring to you those who are desperate for help, and those who take great risks in their search for healing. We ask your blessing on those who transcend political and cultural barriers to take aid and medical care to those in greatest need – organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières – and all who work in war zones across the world, reaching out to the hungry, the traumatised, the displaced.
We pray too for the mentally ill, the homeless, for refugees and all on the fringes of society. May they, and all creation, know your healing and accepting love, and may we all reach out where we can, in your name.
Lord, break down the barriers we put up; turn obstacles into opportunities and touch those in need of healing. Amen.
Living God, we give thanks for the best work of social media, that which brings into our homes the lives of the faces in the crowd, and draws us closer to them and their concerns. We pray for reporters who risk their lives to bring us news, for photographers, camera and sound operators. We pray for more opportunities for people’s stories to be shared and heard, for injustices to be highlighted and positive change to be celebrated.
As we approach the general election we pray for politicians of all parties that they may not be swayed by prejudice or expediency in their campaigning and that they transcend the barriers of hate and discrimination. Lord, break down the barriers we put up; turn obstacles into opportunities and touch those in need of healing. Amen.
Living God, we pray for those who fear that help will come too late, for all who have lost hope, for those who have lost livelihoods, homes, and loved ones. We pray for those waiting for hospital treatment, for transplants, for a diagnosis. We pray especially for children who are seriously ill and for their families. We pray too for those applying for citizenship, especially those waiting to hear if they will be sent back to countries they have fled from. And we continue to pray for all who analyse data, and decide policy, who have the power to prioritise who is helped first and who must wait, and those around the world – political leaders, scientists and medical staff alike – struggling with difficult decisions.
Lord, break down the barriers we put up; turn obstacles into opportunities and touch those in need of healing. Amen.
Living God, we pray for the church and for one another, that we would reach out across barriers of culture and creed with faithfulness and integrity. Help us also to reach out to you in prayer for guidance, for strength, for wisdom, and to reach out to one another as we journey together in Jesus’ name.
Lord, break down the barriers we put up; turn obstacles into opportunities and touch those in need of healing.

Amen.

Hymn Brother, sister, let me serve you (R&S 474)

Blessing

Lord, as we head into a new week, help us to be people who choose to stand out from the crowd, rather than simply to follow it. By the power of your Spirit, help us to also step out of our comfort zones, and give us the courage to challenge barriers that confine or constrain or control us.
And may your blessing rest upon us now and always.

Amen.