Seattle Mennonite Church Sermons

A Gaze That Heals and Sparks Joy - Zoom Church

April 26, 2020 SMC preachers
Seattle Mennonite Church Sermons
A Gaze That Heals and Sparks Joy - Zoom Church
Show Notes

Joy infuses our worship and singing together; longing ignites our prayers. Pastor Megan's homily explores how biblical stories that seem to equate healing with miraculous physical cures, at best confound the deeper and more beautiful complexity of what we know about healing, and at worst cause great harm. At first glance our story from Acts 3 appears to be a transactional healing story (in the form of a physical cure) for one man, but upon holding its steady gaze reveals itself to tell a wildly more beautiful story of transformative healing for a whole community. How might a seemingly simple gaze reveal a path for healing our most profound ruptures, and might we find the JOY in that healing uncontainable?!
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Acts 3.1-10
PHOTO: screen shot of Rogue (the cat), beatifically demonstrating holy, healing gaze-holding, whilst Pastor Megan reflected on it - who was the better teacher?! ;)
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Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

  • Halle, Halle, Hallelujah - Words and Music: Caribbean folk song, arr. Hal H Hopson, © 1998, Hope Publishing Company
  • Amazing Grace - Text: John Newton, and fr. A Collection of Sacred Ballads, 1790. Music: Columbian Harmony, 1829.