Choosing Healing
Prayers for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
February 12, 2012

2 Kings 5:1-14  •  Psalm 30  •  1 Corinthians 9:24-27  •  Mark 1:40-45

The simplicity of the story of Mark 1:40-45 begs to be experienced as much as told. A space of healing is created around Jesus and the person with leprosy; this suffering person chooses to seek Christ’s healing, and Christ chooses to heal. Because so few details are offered in this healing story, we may enter into the story simply by reflecting on whatever it is in our lives that requires forgiveness and healing. 

Call to Worship (based on Mark 1:40-45)
One:	Offer the space for God to move;
All:	God chooses to be here with us now.

One:	Entrust yourself to the gathered community here;
All:	These strangers and friends 
	will understand how healing it is to be here,
	choosing to seek God together.

One:	Open your life to the mystery of God’s healing. 
All:	Many will want to know how it happened,
	but words cannot explain what happens here.

One:	Offer space for God to move;
All:	God chooses to be here with us now.

Prayer of Confession (based on Psalm 30)
	O Healing One, we cry to you for help. 
	We choose to listen for your voice above all others.
	Be gracious to us for we have made mistakes.
	We have made choices that have harmed our relationships 
	with your children and your created world. 
	Hear us, Healing God, as we move next to you in silent prayer.
	
Extended prayerful silence.

Prayer of Our Savior

Words of Assurance (based on Psalm 30 and Mark 1:40-45)
	When we are silent, God moves! 
	Praise our Healing God with all your soul!
	Give thanks forever for God has chosen you!

Choosing Healing

A special opportunity to choose healing may be welcomed in this service of worship. The sermon or meditation may lead into this ritual so that the gathered community has time to ponder those relationships, wounds or needs that require healing. Alternatively, you may choose to share the Gospel Lesson and move directly into this liturgy. The italicized words may be included in the worship bulletin to guide the congregation.

Invitation Toward Healing

One: 	Jesus said: Ask, and it will be given; 
seek and you will find; 
knock and it will be opened to you. 

All: 	For everyone who asks receives, 
and those who seek find, 
and to each who knocks, it will be opened.

One: 	Friends in Christ, 
God knows our needs before we ask 
and in our asking prepares us to receive the gift of grace. 
God ministers to us not as one who is absent 
but as one who is present 
in human hands, voices and lives full of the Holy Spirit.  
Let us open our lives to God’s healing presence among us, 
working through us, 
even though we might not understand it.  
Let us resound with the leper’s faith:

All: 	If you choose, you can make me whole.

One: 	Christ responds:  “I do choose!”.

Shared Silence
In this silence, you are invited to share your needs for healing with God.  If you feel so moved, you’re welcome to speak those needs for healing aloud so that we may pray with you. 

Prayer for Wholeness
My Lord God, 
I have no idea where I am going. 
I do not see the road ahead of me. 
I cannot know for certain where it will end. 
Nor do I really know myself, 
and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. 
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. 
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. 
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, 
though I may nothing about it. 
Therefore I will trust you always 
though I may seem lost and in the shadow of death. 
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, 
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.
Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude page 83, © 1988 Merton Legacy Trust

Hymn Suggestions:
•	There is a Balm in Gilead (TNCH 553) or
•	Out of the Depths, O God, We Call (TNCH 554) or
•	Here, Savior, in this Quiet Place (TNCH 555) or
•	More Than We Can Ask (Sing! 81) or
•	There is Peace (Sing! 90) or
•	Make Us One (Sing! 101).

Being Each Other’s Healing Hands
In this time, the gathered are invited to come forward as they feel able to be each other’s healing touch. We will practice the ancient act of the laying on of hands.  With our healing hands upon each other’s heads and shoulders, we’ll share this prayer for all who desire to be healed.  

One: 	Friends in Christ, united by these hands, 
we ask healing for ___________ in the name of Jesus our Christ.

All: 	You are not alone.  
God is with you in our hands, our voices and our lives.  
May God always fill you with this grace. Amen.

Invitation to the Offering 
	We don't always have words for the ways that God moves,
	but we have chosen to feel our God move here.
	In oil and hands and silent prayers, 
	We have felt God’s healing choice.
	Let us give God our thanks in our tithes and offerings.

Dedication of the Offering
	O Healing One, bless these your gifts 
	that we have chosen to offer
	toward your healing in all of the world. Amen.

Benediction (based on Mark 1:40-45)
One:	You know what happened here
	when you gathered with strangers and friends.
	You know how it felt when God chose you.
All:	Begin to proclaim it freely!
One:	You have felt God move
	and believe that it will happen again.
All:	Spread the word! 

Choosing Healing: Service Prayers for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany was written by the Rev. Elsa A. Peters, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, presently serving as Pastor and Teacher of the First Congregational UCC in South Portland, ME, an Open and Affirming congregation where God is still speaking. She wonders about ministry and liturgy at: http://impossiblethingswithgod.blogspot.com/.

Copyright 2012 Local Church Ministries, Congregational Vitality and Discipleship Ministry Team, United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, OH  44115-1100.  Permission granted to reproduce or adapt this material for use in services of worship or church education.  All publishing rights reserved.