Hospitality and Healing: Embracing Community and Christ
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
"I feel kind of like the angels who speak to the women who go to the tomb and say, why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. So for me, I experienced my parents' presence and my brother's presence with me in multiple ways. And so going to a graveside doesn't necessarily help me remember them. In fact, in some ways, it reminds me of the finality of them not being here anymore." [00:46:39] (32 seconds)
"No one tries to minimize what you're going through. No one has any of these, you know, platitudes that we hear. In fact, we've joked about one of our sessions, we're going to eat lunch together afterwards and share some of the worst things that people have said to us after our grief. And, you know, but no one does that in this group. There's just an openness. And because of that, as we share our stories, we get to witness, and we get to share one another's burdens. And the most beautiful part is that we then experience that we are not alone." [00:48:29] (37 seconds)
"And in accepting my grief and the fact that God did not heal my son, I've begun to see miracles in a much broader definition. I've begun to see miracles in every person I speak to. I've begun to see miracles in the sunrise this morning, in my cat and my dog as they lay next to me and don't want me to get out of bed, in the hugs that I receive, in the healing of relationships that I've experienced." [00:50:38] (34 seconds)
"There is so much miraculous all around us. And so, although I'm not sure that I think you just have enough faith and you'll be healed, there is something beautiful about God's promise of healing and about having faith. Because having faith is trusting that God is going to be there with us, that we are not alone. And so, just like, you know, we share in this grief group this sense of we bear one another's burdens, having faith means we get to experience the presence of Christ in our midst. And that is a healing power." [00:51:27] (44 seconds)
"And so, he heals her and then restores her to community. And so much of our healing, the healing that we need, is in relationships. We need healing in our communities. We need healing in relationships within families. We need healing in friendships. We need healing in relationships in our nation, which is so divided. And we hate each other so much. We desperately need God's healing. And so, Jesus is helping us to see that we can be restored even to community." [00:54:31] (36 seconds)
"And Jesus looks at Jairus and says, the thing that angels say all the time, do not be afraid, only believe. Do not be afraid. Boy, if we could take fear away from everyone, we would be restored to community because I guarantee you the hatred that we feel towards one another is all based on fear, all of it. And Jesus says, do not fear, only believe." [00:55:45] (32 seconds)
"But the second thing that I think Jesus does that we too often shy away from is he touched her. He reaches out his hand, he takes her by the hand and he invites her to get up. I think our society has probably over -sexualized touch to the point where we're afraid to put a hand on somebody's shoulder, right? And yet, how many of us have been healed by a warm embrace, by someone, you know, taking us by the hand, by praying with each other, holding hands, by a reassuring hand on your shoulder. You got this." [00:58:10] (39 seconds)
"What does it mean to be the presence of Jesus? We're about to take communion where we are reminded that the presence of Jesus is in this place. It's in us. And when we take the body and the blood into our bodies, we are reminding ourselves that Jesus lives in us. So wherever we go, we bring the presence of Christ with us. What an amazing privilege to be the presence of Christ for each other and for other people who don't even know who Jesus is." [00:59:18] (43 seconds)
"And she talked about the things that people said to her. Because she had done all this research, she had all of these people that she knew from around the country, and, you know, people tried to minimize it. They would say, oh, don't worry, you're going to get through this. And you know what? If you don't, you're going to a better place anyway. So don't worry about it. Or they would try to teach her. They would try to say, you know, this is going to be the greatest test of your faith ever." [01:01:24] (34 seconds)
"And she said, but what happened was when it no longer was there, there was an imprint on my very soul that the presence of an unbidden God had been with me. She said, that never left. And of course, she had a young son and she was married and she, you know, felt like her whole life was ahead of her. And yet, she experienced this amazing presence of God in the midst of it all." [01:04:08] (32 seconds)
"You see, that's what happens when we are willing to face our own fears and to go to be with others in the midst of their suffering, is that we mirror to them the amazing, loving, healing face of Jesus. And they know that they are not alone because of our simple acts, our simple acts of a card of encouragement, of flowers, of warm socks, of meals, of, you know, phone calls, of all sorts of things that we do when we surround people who are hurting. We become the presence of Christ for them. We mirror back the very face of Jesus." [01:05:18] (44 seconds)
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"No one tries to minimize what you're going through. No one has any of these, you know, platitudes that we hear. In fact, we've joked about one of our sessions, we're going to eat lunch together afterwards and share some of the worst things that people have said to us after our grief. And, you know, but no one does that in this group. There's just an openness. And because of that, as we share our stories, we get to witness, and we get to share one another's burdens. And the most beautiful part is that we then experience that we are not alone." [00:48:29] (37 seconds)
"And in accepting my grief and the fact that God did not heal my son, I've begun to see miracles in a much broader definition. I've begun to see miracles in every person I speak to. I've begun to see miracles in the sunrise this morning, in my cat and my dog as they lay next to me and don't want me to get out of bed, in the hugs that I receive, in the healing of relationships that I've experienced." [00:50:38] (34 seconds)
"There is so much miraculous all around us. And so, although I'm not sure that I think you just have enough faith and you'll be healed, there is something beautiful about God's promise of healing and about having faith. Because having faith is trusting that God is going to be there with us, that we are not alone. And so, just like, you know, we share in this grief group this sense of we bear one another's burdens, having faith means we get to experience the presence of Christ in our midst. And that is a healing power." [00:51:27] (44 seconds)
"And so, he heals her and then restores her to community. And so much of our healing, the healing that we need, is in relationships. We need healing in our communities. We need healing in relationships within families. We need healing in friendships. We need healing in relationships in our nation, which is so divided. And we hate each other so much. We desperately need God's healing. And so, Jesus is helping us to see that we can be restored even to community." [00:54:31] (36 seconds)
"And Jesus looks at Jairus and says, the thing that angels say all the time, do not be afraid, only believe. Do not be afraid. Boy, if we could take fear away from everyone, we would be restored to community because I guarantee you the hatred that we feel towards one another is all based on fear, all of it. And Jesus says, do not fear, only believe." [00:55:45] (32 seconds)
"But the second thing that I think Jesus does that we too often shy away from is he touched her. He reaches out his hand, he takes her by the hand and he invites her to get up. I think our society has probably over -sexualized touch to the point where we're afraid to put a hand on somebody's shoulder, right? And yet, how many of us have been healed by a warm embrace, by someone, you know, taking us by the hand, by praying with each other, holding hands, by a reassuring hand on your shoulder. You got this." [00:58:10] (39 seconds)
"What does it mean to be the presence of Jesus? We're about to take communion where we are reminded that the presence of Jesus is in this place. It's in us. And when we take the body and the blood into our bodies, we are reminding ourselves that Jesus lives in us. So wherever we go, we bring the presence of Christ with us. What an amazing privilege to be the presence of Christ for each other and for other people who don't even know who Jesus is." [00:59:18] (43 seconds)
"And she talked about the things that people said to her. Because she had done all this research, she had all of these people that she knew from around the country, and, you know, people tried to minimize it. They would say, oh, don't worry, you're going to get through this. And you know what? If you don't, you're going to a better place anyway. So don't worry about it. Or they would try to teach her. They would try to say, you know, this is going to be the greatest test of your faith ever." [01:01:24] (34 seconds)
"And she said, but what happened was when it no longer was there, there was an imprint on my very soul that the presence of an unbidden God had been with me. She said, that never left. And of course, she had a young son and she was married and she, you know, felt like her whole life was ahead of her. And yet, she experienced this amazing presence of God in the midst of it all." [01:04:08] (32 seconds)
"You see, that's what happens when we are willing to face our own fears and to go to be with others in the midst of their suffering, is that we mirror to them the amazing, loving, healing face of Jesus. And they know that they are not alone because of our simple acts, our simple acts of a card of encouragement, of flowers, of warm socks, of meals, of, you know, phone calls, of all sorts of things that we do when we surround people who are hurting. We become the presence of Christ for them. We mirror back the very face of Jesus." [01:05:18] (44 seconds)
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