Healing Grace

One of the lectionary readings for the week is Mark 1:21-28. Jack preached today about healing -- how we all have ways in which we can be healed and ways in which we can heal each other. I thought it was a good word to bring to the congregation.

He used the hymn "Silence Frenzied Unclean Spirit." I've never actually sung that song before because the tune is horrible. Instead of that horrible tune, though, we used the tune that is used with Come Thou Font of Every Blessing. (Probably, if I thought about it, there is a blog post in that juxtaposition, too). I hadn't realized how modern the song is -- 1984 (the phrase "gray cells) kind of gave it away. Here's the third verse:

Silence, Lord, the unclean spirit
in our mind and in our heart;
speak your word that when we hear it,
all our demons shall depart.
Clear our thought and calm our feeling;
still the fractured, warring soul.
By the power of your healing
make us faithful, true, and whole.

What are our "demons?" We think of them as BIG -- as evil incarnate -- but instead think of those things that cloud our thoughts and separate us from a feeling of peace. What kinds of things disturb our minds and dance through our thoughts?

• They can be giant things -- there is a gentleman in our Sunday school class who is battling drug and alcohol addiction. He's working through this, but isn't this something that our church can help with, too? Can we be a healing element in this battle?
• Another member of our Sunday school class lost her sister last week? I know that there are ways in which our church can help with that kind of sadness. We can't fix it, but we can be grace.
• MT was the liturgist today, and she led the Children's moment. She talked about ways that we use our hands -- good ways of helping and bad ways of hurting. Can't a touch be healing? A handshake? A hug? A touch?
• Aren't there things that we carry around with us that need healing? Mistakes that we have made? Things that worry our minds? That we wish we could change? I was mean to a friend last week, and it has stuck in my mind.

Our lives are fertile grounds for the healing of grace. Jack was right.