2018-7-1 “Touching Moments” – Community Congregational Church of Chula Vista UCC (276 F St)

“Touching Moments”

A Meditation & Prayer Experience

Based on Mark 5:21-43

July 1, 2018

Community Congregational Church of Chula Vista

Dr. Sharon R. Graff

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What to do on this Sunday closest to the Fourth of July…in the two years past, on this particular Sunday, we’ve read many of this country’s signature documents…and been reminded of the great values upon which the United States was ostensibly founded. Today, I choose a different route, a route that is timely and especially relevant for you. For one of your great strengths, Community Congregational Church, is your ability to pray…and to pray with great love…to pray in ways that make a difference.

So today, in place of the usual meditation from me, I invite you into prayer. As you see in your bulletins, I will share a prompt for your praying, and we will all respond, “God in your mercy, hear our prayers…” followed by 1 minute of silence for you to pray in response to that prompt. Then I’ll offer another prompt, we’ll all say together, “God in your mercy, hear our prayers…” and pray in the minute of silence that follows. We’ll do that 9 or 10 times, so our prayers this morning will be quite a bit longer lasting than usual.

Let’s start with two stories. First, the Jesus Story we’ve read and heard this morning. Jesus uses the gift of touch—first with a woman then with a child. And in both those instances, through touch, healing happens. A woman, a child, dispensable in many cultures, including, now, our own. Yet Jesus sees them. Jesus hears their plight. Jesus does the unthinkable and the illegal: he touches them…he allows them to touch him. And in that exchange—a simple human touch that carries the healing energy of the Divine—they are made well again. You have the same power in you, my friends. You have that power through prayer, and in a few moments, you’ll be invited to offer that power, to use that power for good.

But first, another story…one I shared with you last year and the year before; it’s a story told in 1971 by former-share-cropper-turned-civil-rights-activist Fannie Lou Hamer; it is the story of an old man:

“This old man was very wise, and he could answer questions that was almost impossible for people to answer. So some people went to him one day, two young people, and said, ‘We’re going to trick this guy today. We’re going to catch a bird and we’re going to carry it to this old man. And we’re going to ask him, ‘This that we hold in our hands today, is it alive or is it dead?’ If he says ‘Dead,” we’re going to turn it loose and let it fly. But if he says, ‘Alive,’ we’re going to crush it.’ So they walked up to this old man, and they said, ‘This that we hold in our hands today, is it alive or is it dead?’ He looked at the young people and he smiled. And he said, ‘It’s in your hands.’”

In her spirit, knowing that Jesus has given you the power of healing touch—this country, this world, they are in our hands today—let us receive them, hold them, and pray together…

For immigrants awaiting a new life at so many of our world’s borders…