Healing – Council Nedd II

What’s the Point of Prayer?

September 8, 2015Leave a comment

As often as we might pray, we have to recognize the superficiality of them. These type of prayers are trite when measured against the collect for purity that I use to begin our service every Sunday…

“Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid . . .”

There is no hiding anything from the all-powerful God mentioned in that prayer. The God mentioned in that prayer knows our innermost secrets. The God mentioned in that prayer knows the darkest thoughts in our minds and imaginations. He knows the things we won’t divulge to even our oldest and closest friend. In fact, he knows our thoughts before we do.

This raises the question… if God already knows… What’s the point of prayer? For the answer to that question, click here.

Share the News of God’s Mercy

August 26, 2015Leave a comment

This morning’s collect begins, Almighty and everlasting God, who is always more ready to listen than we are to pray, and is always willing to give us more than we desire or deserve.

Jesus spends a lot of time performing physical healings on people. It is clear, especially in the Gospel of St. Mark, that his ability to heal and to cast out demons was the main way he attracted people. They would come to him because they had heard of His miracles and to some extent wanted to see a show, a spectacle, and maybe even a stoning. Regardless, the crowds would come for the show, and that would make them more receptive to His preaching and teaching.

Miracles, teaching and prophesies reinforce each another. Prophesies tell us what’s going to happen. Miracles attract people who then hear the teaching which explains the miracles, which in turn makes them more receptive to the possibility of miracles.

The church follows the same outline Jesus did. The Church offers preaching and teaching, and miracles come through the sacraments and in God’s answers to our prayers. Sadly, we see the major sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion performed so often that we forget that they are, in fact, miracles. It is extraordinary that someone dies and rises again when he is baptized – and that bread and wine become the body of and blood of Christ. To hear the rest of this sermon, please click here.

Jesus Groaned in His Spirit

September 16, 2013April 23, 2015Leave a comment

. . . Instead of immediately raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus spends a long time in fruitless debate with the young man’s sisters, Mary and Martha, trying to persuade them not to press for Lazarus to be raised from the dead. “I am the resurrection and the life,” he tells Martha, “He that believeth on me, though he were dead yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Believest thus this? St. John then tells us that Jesus “groans in his spirit” and is “deeply moved.”

http://www.stalbansanglican.org/System/Media/play.asp?id=40752&key=27D137F5-C76D-4C68-90B1-664D864B74F4