Sept 8,  2024
The cause of the oppressed 

Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements 

Call to Worship
Come, let us praise God together! 

Blessed are we who place our trust in the Lord our God.
For our God is the Maker of the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything  that lives within them;
Our God keeps every promise, and remains faithful forever.
Our God gives justice to those who are oppressed, and food to those who are starving.
Our God frees the prisoners, opens the eyes of the blind, and lifts the burdens of those who are overwhelmed.
Our God cherishes those who do what is right, protects the immigrants, cares for the orphans and widows, but frustrates the plans of the wicked.
Our God reigns—today, tomorrow and forever.
Praise God! 

 

Hymn:  467 Praise my soul the God who crowns you

Prayer of Adoration 

Faithful God, you draw near to us in our joy and in our grief, in our hope and in our despair.   When we are bowed down, you raise us anew.   We turn to you now in search of your healing touch.  

God of compassion and love,  move among us this hour.  Open our eyes, dispel our fears, and show us the real life you have to offer.  

You call us to righteousness,  to reach out to others with justice and mercy.
You teach us right from wrong, that we may truly live in your grace.  In the shadow of that grace, we offer compassion and mercy to others.
Abide with us this day, that we may serve you forevermore. Amen. 

That we may serve you well, we first confess before you, that which holds us back from being servants.   We say together: 

Prayer of Confession:
Gracious God, we come before you today knowing that we often fall short of your call to love one another well.  We allow ourselves to be blinded
by wealth and power.  We ignore those around us
who suffer injustice, poverty, and rejection.  We tune out the cries of the poor and those on the edges of our communities.  Help us to see your great generosity, hear your word of mercy, and feel your great love for all who need your redemptive grace
Strengthen us to reach out in service to those who are in need.
May we continue to grow in grace as we learn how to serve you in the name of the great Servant,
even Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon 

We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God.
May we understand the grace and forgiveness bestowed upon us by God, that others may find the Kingdom within us and among us.
 

Passing the Peace
 

Hymn:  377 Come children join to sing

Scripture:

Responsive Psalm 146 p 980
Mark 7:  24-37 p 1564 

Sermon:  The cause of the oppressed 

Today in the Psalm we read this about the nature of God: 

 6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
    the sea, and everything in them—
    he remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
    and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
8     the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
    the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the foreigner
    and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
    but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. 

10 The Lord reigns forever,
    your God, O Zion, for all generations. 

Praise the Lord.  Ps. 146 (NIV) 

Upholds the cause of the oppressed. 

Gives food to the hungry. 

Sets prisoners free. 

Gives sight to the blind. 

Watches over the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 

What exactly does this look like?  How does God do this? 

We see this part of God’s nature played out in Jesus every time he has an interaction with people on his journey through Israel and Galilee.   

He heals.  He frees.  He feeds.   

He takes up the cause of women, the widow at the city gate, the bleeding woman, the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Syro-phonecian woman. 

He helps those who are considered unclean, and the foreign women.   

Jesus gives sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf.  Again and again we hear these stories.  It doesn’t matter if blind, deaf, or covered in leprosy.   

No one is too unclean, too sinful, too foreign, too good or too sinful.  All are welcomed, and healed.   

There are so many stories.   

Today we specifically look at the case of the foreign women and the case of the deaf mute.  We see not only the grace that underlies the compassion of Jesus, but also the ways in which his interaction with these people empowers them.  We notice that he sees them as people, not just the faceless, nameless mass of people who come to him for aid again and again.   

 

That seeing of the real person is the most ironic part of the grace of empowerment, because in each of these stories today, we never learn the name of the people.  In fact, in most stories of grace and healing, we don’t learn the identity of the people.  A woman.  A gentile.  A voiceless man on the street.   

Basically, in these healing stories the person who is given grace can stand in for every person.  It could be us.  Or our neighbour.  Or the homeless for whom we pray.  Or the many around the world displaced by war and destruction.  Anyone and Everyone who is oppressed and disempowered—everyone who needs the gift of grace that will set them free.   

 

Today we see  every person in the Syro-Phonecian woman and her daughter, and the man who is both deaf and speechless.   Jesus meets with each of them differently, as that real person whom he sees and knows beyond their presenting problem. 

First, we meet a woman who persists in asking Jesus for healing for her daughter.   She just happened to be in a home where Jesus entered in the hope of getting away for a bit of a break. 

She spies Jesus immediately and asks him to heal her daughter who is possessed by a demon.   She falls at his feet and she begs him.   

Jesus denies her, saying, “First let the children eat all they want for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 

The woman does not retreat. She doubles down, and she confronts the truth of this statement. 

More than that, she begins her argument by calling Jesus “Lord”.  It’s a sign of respect, but  more than that it is a sign of faith.  She is a believer.  In his time there were many believers who were gentiles, living out their faith in the fringes of those who were welcome in the Temple.   

That she is a person of faith is important.  Not only does she believe, she is also bold to speak about what she believes, saying, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 

We know that a big part of the growth of the followers of Jesus and the establishment of the church, was that all who believed were welcome.  Not just the “right” people—all who believed. 

 

Some of the commentators talk about how rude Jesus was to speak to her in the way that he did, calling the woman and her daughter dogs.  But one of the commentators said that his rough speech was a part of the way he acknowledged who she was, and what she believed.  This commentator wrote that when the woman was bold spoke to Jesus in this way, and when Jesus acknowledged her faith and it’s importance in the healing of her daughter, that what Jesus did for her was to empower her to be able to speak her faith in public.   

A gentile woman was welcomed to speak her faith, and more than that encouraged to speak her faith. 

Jesus assured her the demon was gone, and she went home to find her daughter healed, and commanded her to go.  

She might be a nameless foreign person in this story, but for Jesus she was a woman of faith, and he acknowledged her faith and her right to approach him on behalf of her daughter.   

 

The second story introduces us to the deaf-mute man.  As a man unable to work, he was reduced to being a beggar living off the kindness and generosity of those who would give him alms.   

He was also a man who had a community that watched out for him.  We can never underestimate the community that supports us, prays for us, takes care of us and most importantly of all brings us to Jesus.   

These friends begged Jesus to lay his hand on the man. 

Then, Jesus gives the man what he needs.   

He takes the man away to a place that is private.  That must have been a treat for a man who lived his life in front of a crowd of strangers every day.  Someplace quiet, away from the hustle and bustle, away from people crowding him, and abusing him.  Just him and Jesus and the people who have befriended him. 

 

Then Jesus puts his fingers in the man’s ears.  Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue.  While we might recoil from how graphic this healing is, what we are missing is that need of the man to feel where the healing was going to happen.  How else did he otherwise know what was going on.  The feeling in his ears and the spit in his mouth was the sign that something monumental was going on.   

Then when Jesus spoke, the man heard him. His ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he spoke for the first time in his life.  

Again Jesus gave him a command…. Do not tell anyone. 

In Mark that command comes over and over; and yet is never obeyed.  Gratitude, joy, wonder and amazement compels us to speak of what Jesus has done for us.   

All that heard the story were amazed at what Jesus had done…they spoke far and wide that Jesus had healed a man who could not hear or speak.  

The people who heard the story only spoke about the end result.  They did not speak of the compassion of Jesus that caused him to treat the man as someone he knew and how Jesus met the need that he had to feel in his ears and on his tongue the healing that was to come.   

Two ordinary people, nameless, faceless and at least one of them voiceless in the world.  And Jesus met them for who they were, and gave them exactly what they needed in order for them to see and to speak of the grace that Jesus came to bring. 

 

If these two people are every person, then we can take heart that Jesus also sees us and knows us in a uniquely personal way.  Jesus knows what we need and he knows how to give us exactly what we need.  Whether we speak to him on our own behalf, or whether others speak for us, Jesus hears our need and then gives us exactly what we need in order to carry on. 

What do we need to empower our faith?  Jesus will give it to us. 

What do we need to enable us to hear of grace and speak of God’s goodness?  Jesus will give it to us. 

Do we need to have our heart healed?  Or our confidence healed?  Or to be infused with strength?  Jesus knows us personally and will speak to us, what we need to hear.  Jesus knows us personally and will touch us in order to heal our unique need.   

How can we be sure of that?  Jesus hears the cries of the oppressed and answers.  That is all that we need to know.  If we are oppressed by illness, or poverty, or grief, or homelessness Jesus knows us by name and comes to us to give us what we need…or perhaps more correctly what he knows we need.   

With the psalmist we all proclaim:   The Lord reigns forever,
    your God, O Zion, for all generations.  Praise the Lord.  Amen 

 

Hymn:   472  We are God’s people

 

Offering and Doxology 830

Offertory Prayer 

All that we do is in your holy name, O God.  Even as we share the riches of our labors, may we continue to honor your name in all that we do.
Bless these gifts given freely, that your justice and mercy may prevail in a weak and weary world. Amen. 

 

 

Gathering Prayer Requests 

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession 

Lord, you know how great our needs are. You have proven your goodness over and over again.   Help us to place our trust in you. Remind us again of how you transform lives, not just with healing, but with a spirit of hope and compassion.  

Keep us hopeful. Teach us not to give up when things are going wrong. Give us faith that can move mountains. Give us hearts that are ready to be of service to others in all times and in all places.  

In that spirit of service, we remember before you our joys, and our concerns, locally and globally. 

JOYS 

 

 

 

 

CONCERNS 

 

 

 

 

 

WORLD 

 

 

 

 

As we have lifted up people and situations which concern us and have asked for your hand of healing, remind us that that same healing hand rests on us also. Enable us to be people of compassion and trust; for we ask these things in Jesus’ Name, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.  Amen 

 

 

Hymn:  585  Christ you call us all to service

Benediction
Blessing Song:  Go now in peace

Go now in peace. Never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now in love, and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there watching from above.
Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.
Public Domain 

3 Fold Amen