Jesus' healing of the woman with a flow of blood and the ruler's daughter
Worship
Lectionary Worship Workbook
Planning Ideas And Resources For The Entire Church Year
Pastoral Invitation to the Celebration
Suggestion:
Begin, How have you come to worship today? Expectant or fearful, or both? Do you think that God might touch you today? Will the pastor expect you to touch someone else, beyond the traditional handshake? Give a brief pause for these ideas to sink in. Then, ask the people to greet each other in an appropriate way.
The Act of Recognizing our Humanness and The Act of Receiving New Life
Consider this:
Begin, Jesus often touched people when he healed them. Touch usually meant "holding tightly," not simply brushing against them. Many of us have been touched painfully, harmfully. Sometimes, people need many years of counsel-ing and psychotherapy to undo the destructive touch. I invite us, for a few minutes, to consider how we use the touch in and as the church. Consider the fact that we touch each other with our hands and also our voices. How do we do that? Give several minutes for people to get in touch with the way they were touched and the way they touch each other. Following the silence, offer a healing prayer of forgivenss.
(give several more moments of silence.)
Then, point out that one prayer, one worship may not break through the barriers of the harmful touch. Yet, let them know that the church, at its best, seeks to bring the healing touch of Jesus to all who receive. Conclude with a prayer similar to this:
Because, O God, we can hide nothing, including ourselves, from you, we have confessed our fear about how people treat us, and our guilt about how we often treat others. We rejoice that you have forgiven us for our fear and guilt. So keep on removing from us the guilt which destroys and the fear which betrays our trust in you, in the name of the Christ, the Sin-bearer and Reconciler.
Message with the Children of All Ages
Suggestion:
Take either one of the healing stories, and either tell it or act it out. You may want to put the emphasis on the touch. If statistics are anywhere near the truth, many of the children have been physically and/or sexually abused. You can get at this by asking how they see their friends treated, and how they treat their friends. Compare how Jesus treated and touched the people who came in contact with him.
Proclamation of the Word
Consider this:
Topic:
The Ministry of the Touch
I. The touch heals or harms.
II. Give examples of each. You may want to conclude with this one from a movie, "David and Lisa," a story which takes place in a school for exceptional children with deeply damaged personalities. Neither could stand the touch of another person. One day, a boy touched and patted the shoulder of David. David lurched away and screamed, "You touched me, you boor; you unmitigated fool ...! Do you want to kill me? A touch can kill ..." His face was contorted with rage. He turned and left them, muttering to himself, "the touch that kills; the touch that kills." But then, much later in the treatment, with the counselor showing great patience, the final scene of the movie shows both David and Lisa's hands moving slowly, cautiously, toward one another. Finally, they touch, they grasp hands, and they walk out together. From the touch that kills to the touch that cures.
This is the meaning of Christ's touch;
This is the meaning of the touch of Christ's people.
Stewardship Challenge
Suggestion:
The stewardship of the touch. In the early years of the human potential movement, people touched each other in harmful, seductive, manipulative ways. That's also our danger. We sometimes touch people on our agenda, not theirs. How do we go about touching, healing each other, and this community?
Charge to the Congregation
Consider this:
Develop it around these, or similar, examples:
1. A member of a congregation committed suicide, and left a note which read, in part: "I have always felt unworthy of people's touch."
2. A woman, walking along a busy street, wore a signboard which read, "Touch me - wrinkles are not contagious."
Planning for Your Congregation
Suggestions
Your Situation
I. Other Scriptures
Liturgist:
Psalm 24
Psalm 30
2 Samuel 6:1-15
Lamentations 3:22-33
Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
2 Corinthians 8:1-15
II. Suggested Hymns
Coordinator:
"Life Up Your Heads, O Mighty Gates"
Georg Weissel, 1642 Trans. by Catherine Winkworth, 1855; alt.
"This Is My Father's World"
Maltbie D. Babcock, 1901
(You may want to encourage the people to use Father/Mother interchangeably, or to get the non-sexist version of this hymn.)
"We Bear the Strain of Earthly Care"
Ozora S. Davis, 1909
III. Other Music Possibilities
Organist/Choir director:
Music for Preparation
"The Peaceful Forests"
Isaak (1539)
Response to the Prayer of Praise
"Clap Your Hands"
Ray Repp
(from New Wine, United Methodist Church; non-sexist version available.)
Response to the Stewardship Challenge
"Elevation"
Zipoli (1688-1726)
Response to the Benediction
"Immortal Love, Forever Full"
John Greenleaf Whittier, 1866
Music for Dismissal
"Rigaudon"
Campra (1660-1774)
IV. Bulletin Cover
Church secretary:
V. Bulletin Symbols
VI. Miscellaneous Details (Assignments:)
Ushers
Candlelighters
Hosts/Hostesses
Banners
Flowers
Greeters
Posters
Name-tags
Others
Suggestion:
Begin, How have you come to worship today? Expectant or fearful, or both? Do you think that God might touch you today? Will the pastor expect you to touch someone else, beyond the traditional handshake? Give a brief pause for these ideas to sink in. Then, ask the people to greet each other in an appropriate way.
The Act of Recognizing our Humanness and The Act of Receiving New Life
Consider this:
Begin, Jesus often touched people when he healed them. Touch usually meant "holding tightly," not simply brushing against them. Many of us have been touched painfully, harmfully. Sometimes, people need many years of counsel-ing and psychotherapy to undo the destructive touch. I invite us, for a few minutes, to consider how we use the touch in and as the church. Consider the fact that we touch each other with our hands and also our voices. How do we do that? Give several minutes for people to get in touch with the way they were touched and the way they touch each other. Following the silence, offer a healing prayer of forgivenss.
(give several more moments of silence.)
Then, point out that one prayer, one worship may not break through the barriers of the harmful touch. Yet, let them know that the church, at its best, seeks to bring the healing touch of Jesus to all who receive. Conclude with a prayer similar to this:
Because, O God, we can hide nothing, including ourselves, from you, we have confessed our fear about how people treat us, and our guilt about how we often treat others. We rejoice that you have forgiven us for our fear and guilt. So keep on removing from us the guilt which destroys and the fear which betrays our trust in you, in the name of the Christ, the Sin-bearer and Reconciler.
Message with the Children of All Ages
Suggestion:
Take either one of the healing stories, and either tell it or act it out. You may want to put the emphasis on the touch. If statistics are anywhere near the truth, many of the children have been physically and/or sexually abused. You can get at this by asking how they see their friends treated, and how they treat their friends. Compare how Jesus treated and touched the people who came in contact with him.
Proclamation of the Word
Consider this:
Topic:
The Ministry of the Touch
I. The touch heals or harms.
II. Give examples of each. You may want to conclude with this one from a movie, "David and Lisa," a story which takes place in a school for exceptional children with deeply damaged personalities. Neither could stand the touch of another person. One day, a boy touched and patted the shoulder of David. David lurched away and screamed, "You touched me, you boor; you unmitigated fool ...! Do you want to kill me? A touch can kill ..." His face was contorted with rage. He turned and left them, muttering to himself, "the touch that kills; the touch that kills." But then, much later in the treatment, with the counselor showing great patience, the final scene of the movie shows both David and Lisa's hands moving slowly, cautiously, toward one another. Finally, they touch, they grasp hands, and they walk out together. From the touch that kills to the touch that cures.
This is the meaning of Christ's touch;
This is the meaning of the touch of Christ's people.
Stewardship Challenge
Suggestion:
The stewardship of the touch. In the early years of the human potential movement, people touched each other in harmful, seductive, manipulative ways. That's also our danger. We sometimes touch people on our agenda, not theirs. How do we go about touching, healing each other, and this community?
Charge to the Congregation
Consider this:
Develop it around these, or similar, examples:
1. A member of a congregation committed suicide, and left a note which read, in part: "I have always felt unworthy of people's touch."
2. A woman, walking along a busy street, wore a signboard which read, "Touch me - wrinkles are not contagious."
Planning for Your Congregation
Suggestions
Your Situation
I. Other Scriptures
Liturgist:
Psalm 24
Psalm 30
2 Samuel 6:1-15
Lamentations 3:22-33
Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
2 Corinthians 8:1-15
II. Suggested Hymns
Coordinator:
"Life Up Your Heads, O Mighty Gates"
Georg Weissel, 1642 Trans. by Catherine Winkworth, 1855; alt.
"This Is My Father's World"
Maltbie D. Babcock, 1901
(You may want to encourage the people to use Father/Mother interchangeably, or to get the non-sexist version of this hymn.)
"We Bear the Strain of Earthly Care"
Ozora S. Davis, 1909
III. Other Music Possibilities
Organist/Choir director:
Music for Preparation
"The Peaceful Forests"
Isaak (1539)
Response to the Prayer of Praise
"Clap Your Hands"
Ray Repp
(from New Wine, United Methodist Church; non-sexist version available.)
Response to the Stewardship Challenge
"Elevation"
Zipoli (1688-1726)
Response to the Benediction
"Immortal Love, Forever Full"
John Greenleaf Whittier, 1866
Music for Dismissal
"Rigaudon"
Campra (1660-1774)
IV. Bulletin Cover
Church secretary:
V. Bulletin Symbols
VI. Miscellaneous Details (Assignments:)
Ushers
Candlelighters
Hosts/Hostesses
Banners
Flowers
Greeters
Posters
Name-tags
Others
