Order, Words, & Voices
04.14.24, Asking for the Wrong Thing, Acts 3:1-10
Order
Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close
Songs King of My Heart Lynn/Team
Our God
Participatory Reading and Prayer Beth
Songs Blessed be the Name (old hymn) Lynn/Team
Better is One Day
Passage Acts 3:1-10 Martha
Message Asking for the Wrong Thing Rick
Music It is Well with My Soul Lynn/Team
Community/Benediction Rick
Closing Peace Rick
Closing Music Our God Will Go Before Us Lynn/Team
Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close
Music (Slides) Lynn/Team
King Of My Heart CCLI Song # 7046145
Verse 1
Let the King of my heart
Be the mountain where I run
The fountain I drink from
Oh He is my song
Let the King of my heart
Be the shadow where I hide
The ransom for my life
Oh He is my song
Chorus
You are good good oh
You are good good oh
You are good good oh
You are good good oh
Verse 2
Let the King of my heart
Be the wind inside my sails
The anchor in the waves
Oh He is my song
Let the King of my heart
Be the fire inside my veins
The echo of my days
Oh He is my song
Chorus
You are good good oh
You are good good oh
You are good good oh
You are good good oh
Bridge
You’re never gonna let
Never gonna let me down
You’re never gonna let
Never gonna let me down
You’re never gonna let
Never gonna let me down
You’re never gonna let
Never gonna let me down
Chorus
You are good good oh
You are good good oh
You are good good oh
You are good good oh
Ending
When the night is holding on to me
God is holding on
When the night is holding on to me
God is holding on
Our God CCLI Song # 5677416
Verse 1
Water You turned into wine
Opened the eyes of the blind
There’s no one like You
None like You
Chorus
Our God is greater
Our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is healer
Awesome in power our God our God
Verse 2
Into the darkness You shine
Out of the ashes we rise
There’s no one like You
None like You
Chorus
Our God is greater
Our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is healer
Awesome in power our God our God
Bridge
And if our God is for us
Then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us
Then what could stand against
And if our God is for us
Then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us
Then what could stand against
(Then) what could stand against
Chorus
Our God is greater
Our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is healer
Awesome in power our God our God
Response (Slides for lead and response) Beth
[Slide] Leader: Every day he sits with his back against the gate, his back to beauty that others take for granted. He attempts to gain the notice of those who do not want to notice him.
Response: He sits begging for the help of others that resent his presence.
[Slide] Leader: He lives dependent on the kindness and generosity of his community. They carry him to his place lowering him to the ground where he spends the day begging.
Response: Those passing by do not look into his heart, they seldom see his soul.
[Slide] Leader: He does not go beyond the beautiful gate where he sits. There is no consideration of his hopes, his life is survival, there is no time to waste on frivolous wants.
Response: He watches as others enter the holy place.
[Slide] Leader: He asks for his basic needs from those who choose to not see him.
Response: He is seen by God, we are all seen by God.
[Slide] Leader: We live in a world of the unseen, a world unwilling to notice, a world that does not recognize the hearts of those whose backs are against the entry.
Response: We often fail to see the beauty, we frequently fail to hope.
[Slide] Leader: God leads us to see, God encourages us to notice, God calls us to love.
Response: May we see beyond the burden, may we step into the holy.
Leader: Join us in the prayer of Jesus,
[Slide] Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
[Slide] Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.
[Slide] Give us this day our daily bread.
[Slide] Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.
[Slide] And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
[Slide] For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Music (Slides) Lynn/Team
Blessed Be The Name Song # 3798438
Verse 1
All praise to Him who reigns above
In majesty supreme
Who gave His Son for man to die
That He might man redeem
Chorus
Blessed be the name
Blessed be the name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be the name
Blessed be the name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Verse 3
Redeemer Savior Friend of man
Once ruined by the fall
Thou hast devised salvation’s plan
For Thou hast died for all
Chorus
Blessed be the name
Blessed be the name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be the name
Blessed be the name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Better Is One Day Song # 1097451
Verse 1
How lovely is Your dwelling place
O Lord almighty
For my soul longs and even faints for You
For here my heart is satisfied
Within Your presence
I sing beneath the shadow of Your wings
Chorus
Better is one day in Your courts
Better is one day in Your house
Better is one day in Your courts
Than thousands elsewhere
(Than thousands elsewhere)
Verse 2
One thing I ask and I would seek
To see Your beauty
To find You in the place
Your glory dwells
(REPEAT)
Chorus
Better is one day in Your courts
Better is one day in Your house
Better is one day in Your courts
Than thousands elsewhere
(Than thousands elsewhere)
Bridge
My heart and flesh cry out
For You the living God
Your Spirit’s water to my soul
I’ve tasted and I’ve seen
Come once again to me
I will draw near to You
I will draw near to You to You
Bridge
Better is one day better is one day
Better is one day than thousands elsewhere
Better is one day better is one day
Better is one day than thousands elsewhere
Chorus
Better is one day in Your courts
Better is one day in Your house
Better is one day in Your courts
Than thousands elsewhere
(Than thousands elsewhere)
Passage (Slides) Martha
One day, at 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon, which was the hour of prayer, Peter and John were going up to the temple.
As they arrived, a man who had been unable to walk since birth, was being carried in by a group of people who faithfully, everyday, laid him at the Beautiful Gate of the temple.
And, everyday, the man would sit at the Beautiful Gate and ask for food or money from those entering or passing by the Temple.
When the man saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for money or food.
Peter and John looked intently at the man who was sitting on his mat. Peter said to the man, “Look at us.” The man looked at the two while hoping to receive some food or money from them.
Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”
Peter then took the man by the right hand and raised him up. Immediately the man’s feet and ankles were made strong.
Realizing he no longer needed any assistance to stand, the man jumped up and began to walk, and enthusiastically entered the temple with Peter and John.
Everyone around could not help but notice the man as he entered the temple talking, leaping, and loudly praising God.
Those witnessing this moment also recognized the man as the one who had sat at the Beautiful Gate asking for food and money every day for as long as they could remember.
Acts 3:1-10
Message Rick
[Do not screen share until first slide is noted]
Introduction:
- Thunder Jumbo Screen. Easy to look at wrong version, to ask for wrong thing.
- Healing Theme (so many ‘why questions – why were others not healed, why were the others in need of healing at the gate not healed, as Jesus would have walked by this gate, and this man, why did Jesus personally not heal the man.
- ‘What do you want me to pray?’
Healing & Absence of Healing
- Cessation v Continuous
- Intervarsity Nurses Study about small number of Healings/categories of healing
- Expectations are often not met in the ‘how’ of healings so they are ignored, and sometimes we don’t like the how of the healing. Healing as in modern science, research/doctors, and tech healing has become common so often unnoticed
- NT Wright theory of the Purpose of Healing in Scripture is that it is an inclusive act for those rejected by religious institution and therefore by society. Wright places a huge emphasis on Jesus as the redeemer of Israel, the one who is bringing the restored Israel from the exile, and who is redefining what that redemption looks like. and is reconstituting what it means to be an Israelite (i.e. the inclusion of the Gentiles). With that in mind Wright says:
“For a first-century Jew, most if not all the works of healing, which form the bulk of Jesus’ mighty works, could be seen as the restoration to membership in Israel of those who, through sickness or whatever, had been excluded as ritually unclean. The healings thus function in exact parallel with the welcome of sinners, and this, we may be quite sure, was what Jesus himself intended. He never performed mighty works simply to impress. He saw them as part of the inauguration of the sovereign and healing rule of Israel’s covenant God.”
Wright explains why Jesus performed miracles for Gentiles and for a Samaritan, saying that they
“bear witness to the inclusion within the people of YHWH of those who had formerly been outside (Gentiles and Samaritans). The effect of these cures, therefore, was not merely to bring physical healing, but to reconstitute those healed as members of the people of Israel’s god. In other words, these healings, would be seen as part of Jesus’ total ministry, specifically the open welcome which went with the inauguration of the kingdom – and, consequently, part of his subversive work, which was likely to get Jesus in trouble.”
Basics of man in story
- Back against beautiful gate (mentioned this time, beautiful gate and hallway in)
- ‘People’ carried him in everyday probably since childhood to beg for alms – food and money.
- Peter says stand and the man stands without question/argument receiving healing as he stands. (would he have been healed if he never stood, or would he have ever recognized standing if he hand not stood). Other healings – was it because the friends continued to carry, or the woman pushed through the crowd, or…)
- Went into temple probably first time since his parents carried him in for rites
- Telling his story, praising God, Leaping w/healed legs
(Buddhist zen philosophy) Find Patience, Find Healing, Find Hope, Find something to do
(T.S. Eliot) “I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”
Asking for the wrong thing – Questioning my original premise that the man was asking for the wrong thing. Is it possible that the man was correct in his waiting with the attitude of survival? Possibly he had taken stock of what he had, a community that would carry him to the gate and then back home, a mat on which to sit, strangers who, for whatever reason (guilt, disgust, or compassion), provided him with the means to live whether it was food or money, a voice to call out, …he was open to the voice that said ‘take my hand and stand up.’
Intervarsity nurses found No mention of faith on the part of man, would have been Jew since he does go into temple (not unclean, no waiting period) – cannot deny the fact that the man persisted everyday. Did he have an irrational hope? Did he have an unmentioned faith? Did his community have both of these and continued against his arguments? Did he want healing, did he want hope, did he want purpose, Did he want faith? Was he like the scribe who Jesus described as being ‘not far’ from God.
Focus on the response of the man. Even though Peter, in healing the man, was relatively calm and subtle, the man could not now behave in that stoic manner, his reaction to his own experience mixed with what was probably his own personality, could not be dampened. This is probably what so few were able to follow through when Jesus asked them to not proclaim their healing.
Healing, of whatever nature, allows us to see what we did not/could not see before, and therefore, why that which we asked for was just a smidgen of what God wanted to give. When our back is against the beautiful gate, when we have never experienced the joy of entering the gate and walking through the temple – we can not aspire to that.
If we have never been able to metaphorically stand, if we have been disappointed every time we have tried, if past failed promises of healing have destroyed our dreams and vision, we settle into our own created limits, adopting the unspoken boundaries set by those around us. We dare not think outside of our own experience and those boundaries or those that we set on ourselves. We fail to look for the hand extended to us because we have settled into reclining on the mat. We ask for alms but do not expect the answer to be that we must stand. We desire to walk but are not ready the answer to be the pain of physical therapy. We hope for peace for our loved one but cannot fathom the answer will be in their passing. We sit with our back to the gate and fail to recognize that the gate has, all along, been open and welcoming even to us.
As long as we refuse to see healing except for our own defined avenue and means of healing we cannot see any reason to recognize and take the Spirit’s hand.
(Poem by Nicky Gant)
All Jesus had to do was walk through crowds, and people were healed, forever illumined by the Light of His presence. Miracles dance out of the shadows, when they sense the greatness of God nearby. Freedom spreads like wildfire, when sparked by His love.
All Jesus has to do is be Himself, and the whole beautiful world is created
again and again in our lives. He is responsible for everything good.
What if we allowed His Spirit to roam unfettered like a wild horse within us? What if we allowed His Light to shine through clear-glassed hearts into the world? What if we expressed the full potency of His love like medicine for wounded souls?
If presence is so powerful, what’s stopping us from embodying His? What’s clogging the grace that wants to flow through us and heal the world?
What is our blindness to God’s works of grace in healings enacted through God’s perfect plan. Is it our judgement and condemnation of others that closes our eyes to the avenues of grace? Is it our pain, resentment, bitterness, or hatred that causes us to see only darkness when we search for hope? Is it the fact that we have can no longer practice patience, that we cannot wait in hopelessness, that we refuse to take God’s hand, is it that we refuse to do something outside of our selves?
Is the key of this story that the man stood, or was it that he hopelessly continued to ‘survive’ sitting at the gate, or the faithful network of ‘people’ who carried him to the gate, or was it merely God’s power used through the willing apostle Peter? Is the key to wait until the step ahead is offered even though it does not seem to be anything like the healing we were hoping for, whatever the healing need way?
[Message closing Prayer by Thomas Merton]
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. 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 know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be 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
Music (Slide) Lynn/Team
It Is Well With My Soul Song # 25376
Verse 1
When peace like a river
Attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot
Thou hast taught me to say
It is well
It is well with my soul
Chorus
It is well with my soul
It is well
It is well with my soul
Verse 3
My sin O the bliss
Of this glorious tho’t
My sin not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross
And I bear it no more
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord O my soul
Chorus
It is well with my soul
It is well
It is well with my soul
Verse 4
And Lord haste the day
When the faith shall be sight
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll
The trump shall resound
And the Lord shall descend
Even so it is well
With my soul
Chorus
It is well with my soul
It is well
It is well with my soul
Community (Slides) Rick
- Next Sunday, 04.21.24, Chosen…Because, Acts 17:1-9 & 1 Thess. 1:1-10
- Coming – Pizza and games night, Thursday, April 25 at 6:00pm
Closing Benediction (Slides)
[Slide] We walk the path of the one who has experienced suffering and despair, who has cried out from pain and rejection, who is present in this moment, who shares the burdens that weigh us down.
[Slide] We go into this new week sustained by our faith in the risen Christ. May those things that trouble us be lifted up by God’s mercy. May our moments of joy never fail to bless others as it blesses us. May grace leap from our life for all to see.
[Slide] We live in the presence of the God in whom we trust. We praise as we witness and experience the love of God through all that this week has to offer.
Closing Peace (Slides) Rick
[Slide] Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.
[Slide] Response: And also with you.
Closing Music Lynn/Team
Our God Will Go Before Us Song # 7218329
Verse 1
Our God will go before us
And guide us by His presence
What confidence this promise is
We will never walk alone
Verse 2
Through unknown paths through shadows
Our hearts fear not tomorrow
For every step His faithfulness
Is the truth that lights our way
Chorus
Our God will go before us
The Lord of Hosts is with us
O praise the One who leads us on
For His grace will bring us home
Order, Words, & Voices 