Jesus came, took Peter's mother-in-law by the hand, and lifted her up. Let us too allow him to take us by the hand and lift us up.
Invitation to Confession:
Jesus, we offer you our sickness of soul.
Lord, have mercy.Jesus, raise us up and help us to be well in body, mind and soul.
Christ, have mercy.Jesus, make us whole again.
Lord, have mercy.
Reading:
Mark 1:29-39
As soon as they left the
synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
[30] Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about
her at once. [31] He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the
fever left her, and she began to serve them. [32] That evening, at sundown,
they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. [33] And the
whole city was gathered around the door. [34] And he cured many who were sick
with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the
demons to speak, because they knew him. [35] In the morning, while it was still
very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.
[36] And Simon and his companions hunted for him. [37] When they found him,
they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." [38] He answered, "Let us go
on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for
that is what I came out to do." [39] And he went throughout Galilee,
proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Story:
Children can be very anxious around illness, especially illness of a close family member. In this story, Mr Skillett is anxious about his friend Mrs Round, but manages to overcome his own personal dislike of illness, for Mrs Round's sake. And Mrs Round immediately feels much better when surrounded by the love and care of her friends.
When Mrs Round Was Sick
Mrs Round was sick. When Mr Skillett knocked tentatively on the little round front door of her little round house, there was no cheery voice calling to him to come in. Mr Skillett knocked a little louder, and stooped down to press his ear against the door. Still no reply. With great daring and his heart in his mouth, Mr Skillett gently pushed the door open. He stuck his head inside and called out, "Are you there, Mrs Round?"
There was a feeble moan from somewhere in the back of the house.
Mr Skillett had never been past the front room. Since he was a tall as a bus and as thin as two pieces of paper stuck together, he had to fold himself in three to enter Mrs Round's little round house, and after that he usually just flopped into the nearest chair. But now he would have to investigate. He decided to navigate on all fours, but crawling round the little round house wasn't easy. Since everything was round, it was difficult from his position on the floor to determine where the walls ended and the doors began. Mr Skillett consoled himself with the thought that at least there weren't any nasty sharp corners waiting to impale him.
He kept calling out to Mrs Round, and tried to follow the direction of her voice, but her voice was very weak. Mr Skillett was extremely worried. He hated illness; it made him feel queasy and he usually ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction if anyone was ill. But Mrs Round was his friend and she was all alone. He knew he had to overcome his fear and do something.
At last Mr Skillett discovered Mrs Round's bedroom. Little Mrs Round was lying on a little round bed in the little round room, moaning softly to herself. Mr Skillett, his heart thumping, gingerly raised his head to look at her. Her normally rosy face was very pale, but covered in large, round red blotches.
"Oh Mrs Round!" gasped Mr Skillett, "Whatever has happened to you?"
Mrs Round opened one eye and looked at him dolefully. "I'm ill," she whispered.
Mr Skillett nodded wisely. He could see that Mrs Round was ill and he didn't like what he saw one little bit. Besides, he had no idea what to do. He wondered if Mrs Round had a temperature, but he didn't dare get close enough to feel her forehead. And he wondered if whatever she had, was catching. That thought terrified Mr Skillett so much that he nearly had a panic attack and turned tail and crawled out of there as fast as he could. But just in time he remembered that Mrs Round was his friend, and forced himself to stay where he was. 'Dear God, I don't know what to do!' he thought to himself in despair.
And immediately, a brilliant idea shot into his mind. Suddenly, a wide grin split his face. "Why, Mrs Round," he said, nearly shouting in his delight, "don't you worry. I know exactly what to do! Just you stay here, and I'll be back in the splitting of a hair."
While Mrs Round was puzzling over how long it might take to split a hair, Mr Skillett disappeared. Mrs Round had no idea how long he was away, because she puzzled so long and so hard over the splitting of a hair, that she fell asleep.
She was awakened by a shadow falling across her bed. When she opened her eyes, she could see nothing but black. It was very scary and Mrs Round opened her mouth to scream, but as she did so a clinical thermometer was popped in and she felt the shadow of a hand hold her wrist to take her pulse. Then she sighed contentedly and lay back against the pillows. "Dr Black!" she murmured.
"Hmm," said Dr Black in a wise and knowledgeable way. "What have you been eating, Mrs Round?"
"I couldn't eat at all today," began Mrs Round, "because I felt so sick. But yesterday - let me see - I think I had chocolate and shrimps (that's my favourite), followed by Brussels sprouts with custard, and topped off with homemade chutney and cabbage ice cream. It was a lovely supper."
"Hmm!" said Dr Black again, this time with a faint hint of surprise in his voice. "And was this your only meal of the day, Mrs Round?"
"Oh no, Dr Black! I also had -"
"- never mind!" said Dr Black hastily. "I think I have the picture. Mrs Round, you have an allergy to something you've eaten. It could be peanuts or shrimps or milk - oh, any one of a host of things. You need to eat very plain food for at least a week. Then you'll be better."
But Mrs Black was so pleased with the news that she wasn't going to die, that she sat straight up in bed. She clasped Dr Black's shadowy hand. "Thank you so much, Dr Black," she cried, in a much stronger voice. "Do you know, I feel better already! And I certainly feel much better with my friends around me."
And with that she hopped out of bed like a little bird and began to make a pot of tea. Mr Skillett crawled back into the front room and flopped thankfully into an arm chair, and Dr Black sat down opposite him on the sofa and winked. He leaned towards Mr Skillett and advised, "Just eat the cake."
And that's exactly what Mr Skillett did.
Activity:
You need:
A large sheet of paper
Felt tip pens or
crayons
A pile of old magazines
Scissors
Glue
Talk to the children about illness and invite them to share their own experiences, either of their own illness or of the illness of family members. Some might have experienced hospital treatment and most will have experienced visits to or from the doctor. Elicit from them everything which helps to make people better, e.g. cuddles and kisses and love, medicine, pills, surgical implements, medical people including ancillary staff, good food etc.
Draw or paste in the centre of the paper a large picture of Jesus, preferably with arms outstretched to include everyone. Using the magazines and coloured pens, make a collage of everything that helps to make people well. Point out to the children that people almost always get better from illnesses, and that the love of Jesus enables us to love each other (essential ingredient in getting better) and enables some people to have special gifts of healing - doctors, nurses, radiographers etc. and healers. If you can, display the finished collage in church.
Diary Time:
Any children still keeping diaries might like to note down times when they've felt ill, and what was most important to them at such times. This might be their own bed, or parents, or medicine, or a visit from the doctor, or somebody reading to them, or anything else.
Intercession:
Healing Lord, we ask you to heal our world. Where human beings have been greedy and damaged the earth, we ask you to heal it. Where human beings are full of hatred and fight each other, we ask you to heal their hearts.
Healing Lord, we ask you to heal our memories. Where we remember times when we have hurt other people or other people have hurt us, please heal us.
Healing Lord, we ask you to heal our relationships with each other. Help us to love each other and to be kind and courteous to each other and help us always to consider other people's points of view.
Healing Lord, we ask you to heal those who are sick, and we name them before you now.....
Blessing:
May the healing power of the Lord Jesus
be in your heart and mind.
body and soul,
today and always.
And the blessing of God almighty,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
be with you now,
be in your homes and in your families
and with all those whom you love
and for whom you pray,
now and always.
Amen.
