{"id":6090,"date":"2017-01-19T15:30:34","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T20:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/?p=6090"},"modified":"2017-01-19T15:31:52","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T20:31:52","slug":"january-22-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/january-22-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"January 22, 2017&#8211;Hope for Healing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Bob Chell, Sioux Falls, SD<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Warm-up Question<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Who were you hoping would be inaugurated President this week? What did he or she say or do that led you to believe they could be a force for justice and good in our country and the world?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hope for Healing<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The big news story this week is, of course, the inauguration of a new president of the United States.\u00a0 The day is greeted with rejoicing by many and despair by others.\u00a0 A constant theme throughout the election and run up to the transition of power has been the division of the country along racial, economic, and cultural lines.\u00a0 There is little agreement on why we are divided, who is to blame, but everyone expresses the need for &#8220;healing&#8221; after a brutal election.\u00a0 Everyone professes a desire for reconciliation, but it is not at all clear how that can happen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you are discussing this in a group, have each person make the best case possible for a candidate, they did NOT support.<\/li>\n<li>How involved were you in the presidential campaign? What got you involved or what would have a candidate had to do or say for you to become involved?<\/li>\n<li>Who do you admire as a leader? Why?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Third Sunday After Epiphany<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=351857663\">Isaiah 9:1-4<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=351857696\">1 Corinthians 1:10-18<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/?ql=351857746\">Matthew 4:12-23<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Text links are to <a href=\"http:\/\/bible.oremus.org\/\">Oremus Bible Browser<\/a>. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year B at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elca.org\/Our-Work\/Congregations-and-Synods\/Worship\/Lectionary\/YearB\">Lectionary Readings<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic <a href=\"http:\/\/www.agnusday.org\/\">Agnus Day.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gospel Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I want to tell you some true stories which I made up.<\/p>\n<p>First, let me explain. I want you to know I made them up because I am always honored when people trust me as their pastor with pain and problems and decisions about intimate and significant parts of their lives. I don&#8217;t violate that trust by using those stories as sermon illustrations.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, I think you will sense the truth these stories point to.\u00a0 <strong>Anne\u2019s counselor told her it wasn\u2019t her fault yet the guilt remained.\u00a0 <\/strong>\u201cI shouldn&#8217;t have gone back to his dorm with him,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAt first acted like he was fooling around, and when I realized he wasn&#8217;t he scared me. I thought I could calm him down, I should&#8217;ve screamed, I don&#8217;t know&#8230; I was&#8230; Anyway, afterwards he told me if I said anything he would just deny it and no one would believe me anyway, and it&#8217;s true. It&#8217;s my fault, I shouldn&#8217;t have gone home with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The counselor listened patiently, knowing that victims of assault often blame themselves for things they have no control over.\u00a0 Anne was haunted by guilt and shame, and over &amp; over the same words came back, \u201c&#8230; my own fault&#8230; I should have&#8230; I don&#8217;t know why&#8230;I just wish\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>++++++++++++++<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cIt\u2019s my Grandpa Stan.\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong>Stan the man, everybody calls him that. He&#8217;s a great guy. He knows everybody in town Always a smile\u2014everybody in the coffee crowd at the cafe seemed to perk up when Grandpa showed up.\u00a0 That was before Grandma Betsy\u2019s death. &#8230;49 years. They were so excited about their 50th anniversary. The whole family was going to be there, even Uncle Jim from Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Why did she have to die? Why couldn&#8217;t\u00a0 there be a few more years, good years, happy years, healthy years?\u00a0 Oh, Grandpa still smiles but it\u2019s not the same. That&#8217;s what everybody says. \u201cHe\u2019s just not the same,\u201d they say, \u201c&#8230;since Betsy\u2019s death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>++++++++++++++<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201c &#8230;Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>Every disease, every sickness, all those things which incapacitate, hold down, immobilize. and oppress.\u00a0 What does it look like, what does it feel like to be sick? It looks like guilt, it feels like anger, it sounds like loneliness.\u00a0 It feels the same in our lives\u2014young or old. The list is infinite: death. fear, hurt doubt, shame, depression, illness, addiction, obsession. Choose one or a handful.<\/p>\n<p>Those are the words but our pain is sharply felt in specific instances unplanned pregnancies, alcohol abuse, cancer, no relationships, broken relationships, family violence, no job, no money and more.\u00a0 .<strong>..and Jesus came to heal. Why then, do we know our pain so much better than we know Jesus healing?\u00a0 <\/strong>Where is <strong>my<\/strong> help, where is <strong>my<\/strong> healing?\u00a0 Our lesson is primarily about the calling of the disciples, yet, our pain gets in the way of following. the pain of our history the pain of our present, the pain we fear awaits us.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the presidential candidates who promise to take away our pain and suffering, Jesus invites us deeper into the darkness. <em>\u201cYou will find your life by losing it,\u201d<\/em> he once told his followers.<\/p>\n<p>Some among us know the miracle of healing, of joy restored, a relationship rekindled, a healing of heart or mind or body. If God has healed your heart, cherish it, treasure it. You know in a special way the power of God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, all of us know of times, and places and pains in our lives which God has not touched. Those places where the pain is so fresh, so unrelenting, so immediate that we can only sit and stare and hurt.\u00a0 It is hard to reconcile our pain with God\u2019s promises.<\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t tell you <strong>when<\/strong> God\u2019s care will break through your pain. I can\u2019t tell you <strong>if<\/strong> God\u2019s care will break through your pain. I <strong>can<\/strong> tell you about Peter and Andrew, James and John.\u00a0 Did Simon Peter understand that responding to Jesus that day would lead to his own crucifixion? Or that Andrew would share the same fate. That James, one of the first to follow, would also be the first of the 12 to be executed for his faith. Or John, Surely John couldn\u2019t imagine that following Jesus would mean living homeless, in exile, on the island of Patmos.<\/p>\n<p>You are reading this because you have heard Jesus invitation to follow.\u00a0 We want the following and the healing to come together. We follow. God heals.\u00a0 Instead, God has chosen to do it differently.\u00a0 God heals first. Then we follow.\u00a0 The blind beggar, the woman who had bled for 12 years, the man who could not walk by the side of the pool, the woman who slept around. The Bible is full of people who healed by Jesus, turned to follow his promises.<\/p>\n<p>Healing wasn\u2019t the end for them but the beginning of their faith journey. It probably wasn\u2019t easy for them either.\u00a0 The blind man with no job skills, The woman ill for 12 years who no one remembered when she returned home, the woman who slept around whose reputation no one would forget the reformed tax collector no one would trust.<\/p>\n<p>Healing is not the end of our pain, instead the pain is the beginning of our healing.\u00a0\u00a0 We don&#8217;t choose the shape of our healing. We don&#8217;t choose the when or the where or the how.\u00a0 Not all our prayers are answered when we would like.\u00a0 Not all our prayers are answered as clearly as we would like. Some say faith changes things, usually, that thing is us.<\/p>\n<p>We know that. We know now that the time we were most unhappy is the time when we began determining who we were and what we were about. The time we were certain we had messed our life up beyond recovery as the time we began to get our life under control. The fight with our best friend that ended up deepening our friendship.\u00a0 The problem is that growth often feels like dying. We know that, too.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus looks for each of us, calls to the lost and lonely part of each of us, the part of us which is restless and unsettled. Follow me, he says.\u00a0 Our lives are stories of faith continually unfolding stories of those whom God loves, whom God feeds, whom God searches out if need be, whom God heals.\u00a0 In your sharpest pain and in your greatest joy, you are in God s care.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How do politicians&#8217; solutions to our problems differ from Jesus&#8217; solutions?<\/li>\n<li>Why does God allow suffering?<\/li>\n<li>Can you recall a time of deep pain which was also a time of personal or spiritual growth?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Activity Suggestions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do something to encourage someone you know is having a tough time.<\/li>\n<li>Ask an elder in you congregation or family how God helped them through a tough time.<\/li>\n<li>Make a list of three things which will give meaning and purpose to your life. Talk about what you are doing now that reflects these values.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Closing Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>God, we don&#8217;t understand why innocent people suffer. We want to trust in you but it&#8217;s hard when our lives are spinning out of control. Give us patience and give us<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bob Chell, Sioux Falls, SD \u00a0 Warm-up Question Who were you hoping would be inaugurated President this week? What did he or she say or do that led you to believe they could be a force for justice and good in our country and the world? Hope for Healing The big news story this week [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1400],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>January 22, 2017-Hope for Healing - Faith Lens<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/january-22-2017\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"January 22, 2017-Hope for Healing - Faith Lens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bob Chell, Sioux Falls, SD \u00a0 Warm-up Question Who were you hoping would be inaugurated President this week? 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