WELCOME
Thank you for coming! 
We're so glad you've chosen to worship with us today.
This is a sacred time, as we gather in community to open our hearts to God.
I invite you  to light a candle,
As our candles are lit here in our sanctuary,
to remind us of God's presence with us,
and to set aside this as a time of worship for you.

I'm going to go ahead and play our Gathering Music,
and run the announcement underneath.

GATHERING MUSIC
“If Not Now” – Carrie Newcomer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bY585-fzSs

First United Church of Christ and Conference Center is 
a church with full real life standing in the Eastern Association;
Southern California Nevada Conference of the
United Church of Christ (UCC). 
And anyone you see with a "Minister" tag is an ordained UCC minister in real life. 
As we like to say, it's good to be real in Second Life! 
And as a UCC church, we'd like you to know that
"No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, 
you are welcome here."
Our service will be in voice and text.  
Music will be on the media viewer, so be sure that you have media turned on. 
Please try not to touch the viewer,
it just stops playing for everyone.
There will be a link in Nearby Chat if you want to view the video in your own browser.
If you would like a bulletin for today's service you can find it in the red binder in the back.
If there are any other announcements about the life of the church, please type them in Nearby Chat at this time.

SHARING OUR GIFTS
Most churches have a time of offering.
Making an offering, 
sharing what you can in God’s name,
is a spiritual practice.
That offering can be an offering of prayer, of presence, 
an offering of work on behalf of the church doing things like reading scripture, serving on the board of directors,
hosting social events, being a guide,
leading Psalter, participating in church governance by being a voting member, 
helping with any of the myriad of things that are needed for the church to function,
or that offering can be of money.
As a UCC church, we support the work of the wider church both with prayer and with donations, as do all UCC churches. 
And though we don't have a physical building, there are monetary costs for this ministry to function.
If you would like to make an offering by participating in leading worship or social events,
or if you would like to become a member of this church,
let any clergy of staff member know. 
If you would like to make an financial offering to support this ministry 
there is a donation bowl by the door to the sanctuary,
or you can go to our website:
firstuccsl.org
and make a donation in RL currency. 
We are a 501(c)(3) public charity, so monetary donations are tax deductible in the U.S. 
We thank you for the blessing of your presence and your support. 

SCRIPTURE INTRODUCTION
Our lectionary Gospel reading for this Sunday continues the stories from Jesus early ministry according to Mark. 
Last week we saw Jesus gathering disciples around him,
This week, Marks begins the story of Jesus’ public ministry.
I remember when I studied literature and film in college being taught to pay attention to how a storyteller starts a story,
Because they can provide some insight into the larger themes of the story to come.
In this case, the gospel writer’s understanding of Jesus’ mission and character.
Matthew shows Jesus first as a teacher and preacher 
who took up the call to “repent, for the kingdom of God has come near” after the death of John the Baptist. 
In John, Jesus creates unexpected and unimaginable abundance, turning water into wine. 
In Luke, he was a teacher who was not accepted in his home town, 
particularly when he proclaimed good news to the poor and the Lord’s favor to all. 
And in Mark, the earliest of the canonical gospels to be written . . . well, you’ll see.
Let us listen to God speaking through the words of Mark, chapter 1, verses 21-28.

Mark 1:21-28
They went to Capernaum; 
and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 
They were astounded at his teaching, 
for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 
Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 
and he cried out, 
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? 
Have you come to destroy us? 
I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” 
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, 
“Be silent, and come out of him!” 
And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 
They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, 
“What is this? A new teaching—with authority! 
He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 
At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

The Word of God for people of God.
Thanks be to God.


“Inner Authority”

Let us pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts
Be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.
Amen.

So, in Mark, Jesus’ public ministry begins pretty unremarkably.
Get it. Never mind.
Jesus has gathered disciples around him,
And then, since it was the Sabbath, they did what would be expected,
They went to synagogue.
Pretty normal stuff.
And while there, Jesus taught.
But did you notice that the people were not surprised that this carpenter’s son had the temerity to teach in the synagogue?
That was apparently not too weird. 
What astounded them was that his interpretation of scripture didn’t jive with what the scribes,
The expert professionals, were teaching.
Mark doesn’t tell us what this teaching was, just that Jesus taught it with “authority.”
Scholars suggest this could mean that Jesus didn’t refer to the teaching of other rabbis before him to support his interpretation.
His authority didn’t come from something external, it came from within.
And that he could speak from that inner authority, without all the degrees and credentials, 
showed the people that they didn’t need to rely on external experts to understand scripture.
That authority was within them too.
Pretty scary stuff for the official “authorities.”
Authority is an important word in this pericope, this excerpt of the text.
Mark uses it twice in just a few short verses,
Tying the two things that happened in the synagogue that day together.
Both involved an exercise of inner authority.
So, Jesus was teaching at the synagogue, the people were astounded, 
then, probably from the back, there comes a commotion
Caused by a man, we are told, “with an unclean spirit.”
Who was this guy? Why was he heckling Jesus?
This man was at the synagogue, on the Sabbath, 
which suggests he was a part of the community at Capernuam or nearby.
But the fact he is labelled “unclean” means there was some distance between him and the others.
He wasn’t quite “right.”
Some suggest the man was possessed by a demon,
And imagine a scene straight out of “The Exorcist,” 
Complete with the man’s head doing a 360 like Linda Blair.
Others, more “enlightened,” suggest some sort of medical condition,
Like epilepsy, that causes convulsions,
Or a behavioral disorder, so he couldn’t help but be disruptive.
But whatever his condition, he was someone in need of healing.
And he brought attention to himself crying out:
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? 
Have you come to destroy us?”
And I have to wonder, what was it about Jesus’ teaching that triggered this reaction?
That man could just have listened, then gone home, 
Unclean spirit and all,
Like he undoubtedly had for many Sabbath’s before that.
But he didn’t.
And while his words seem belligerent and confrontational,
They read to me like a cry for help,
Addressed to what he saw more clearly, perhaps,
Than the clueless people around him;
Open, in his need, to what was happening in the synagogue that day.
He didn’t need Jesus to show him his credentials,
He didn’t need the professional experts to tell him who Jesus was,
That Jesus was “the Holy One of God,”
He realized that Jesus could help him, heal him,
And knew, perhaps that the he
And Jesus did.
Unclean no more, the man was restored, made whole,
And so the community was healed as well.
It wasn’t pretty – healing rarely is. 
Just ask any doctor or nurse in the Emergency Department or COVID-19 ward,
Healing is not for the faint of heart.
But Jesus didn’t hesitate.
Once again, the people around him were amazed:
“What is this? A new teaching—with authority!” 
In Mark’s gospel, more than any of the others, healing was central to Jesus’ ministry.
And his power to heal, this text suggests comes from the same source as his teaching,
An inner authority.
And the purpose of this authority,
Wasn’t for Jesus’ own profit or self-aggrandizement,
But for the glory of God and the healing of the world.
God revealed as scripture is interpreted,
God revealed in the act of healing.
God revealed to and through individual human lives and actions.
Reading this, millennia later, it’s easy to say,
“Oh, but that was Jesus.”
The thing is scripture makes clear that we have that inner authority too. 
Jesus taught others how to interpret scripture, as he did, through the lens of love, 
Rather than through the lens of the law alone.
The Spirit can speak through each of us as we read, meditate on, and interpret scripture.
And Jesus commanded his disciples to heal, as he did.
From the book of Acts and the letters of the Apostle Paul,
We know that healing was an important part of the mission of the early church. 
Paul even listed healing as one of the gifts of the spirit.
The Spirit works through each of us for the healing of the world.
Healing was an important part of the church’s mission for centuries.
But while Jesus’ command that those who follow him should preach, teach, AND heal has never been repealed,
As far as I know,
Healing is not a central part of the mainstream church today.
In Acts 3, there is a story that one day when Peter and John went to the temple,
A lame beggar asked them for money.
Peter told the man to look at him and John, then he said,
“I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give to you.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”
And he did.
It is then said that in the 12th century,
The famous French abbot Bernard of Chairvaux visited Rome,
The Pope delighted in showing him all the rich splendor of the Vatican.
The Pope, pointing to the wealth of the church, said,
“Ah, Bernard, no longer must the Holy Church say, 
‘Silver and gold I have none’!”
“Yes, Holy Father,” replied Bernard softly,
“but neither do we even try to say, ‘Stand up and walk.’”
Today the healing ministry of the church includes things like
Praying for others, yes,
Comforting the sick, yes,
Perhaps providing funds to support things like hospitals,
Or paying off medical debt for people,
Which has become a big thing in the UCC today,
Yes, that too.
And I say “amen” to all of that.
But by and large, these are things done either at a distance or by a very few.
Pastors, or deacons, or maybe the church prayer team,
The modern equivalent of the scribes of old,
Not by everyone.
I realize it may feel uncomfortable for me to say that each of us has the power and inner authority to heal.
It conjures up images of faith healers in revival tents, new age healing rituals,
Or tragic stories of children who die because their parents,
On the advice of their church leaders,
Withheld medical treatment and relied on prayer as the only medicine.
But that is what happens when we abandon healing to the religious fringe,
Instead of seeing it as central to not only the mission of the church
and to us as followers of Jesus.
I have seen too many things to discount the power of healing miracles in our world today,
Miracles enabled by the hands of doctors, and nurses, and all manner of everyday people,
But that are miracles just the same.
It is also, important, I think, to recognize that there are many kinds of healing; healing does not always mean that someone is cured of all ills;
death is not necessarily a failure of healing, or of the healer, 
but a part of the circle of life.
Yet, I think that call to every one of us to be a co-healers with God,
Not for our own profit, or self-centered self-righteousness,
But for the healing of the world.
That call begins right here, in this scripture text,
When the man heckles Jesus from the back and says,
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?”
I think that the man wasn’t talking about some spirit living in his body,
I think he meant all of us.
All of those gathered at the synagogue that day.
All of those who answer Jesus’ call to follow him.
We are all in need of healing, 
And have a right to be healed and whole.
And at the same time, we are all called to be healers.
Last week, Jesus said “follow me and you will fish for people.”
Just a few verses later, Jesus shows them, “follow me, and you will heal people.”
We live in a world desperately in need of healing,
On so many levels.
Of course, the pandemic immediately comes to mind,
But there’s also the epidemics of racism and hatred,
Of hunger,
Of poverty,
Of self-centered individualism,
To name just a few of the “demons” besetting our world that need to be exorcised.
And healing them, in even a small way, won’t be easy, or pretty,
Healing never is.
And the wounds and illness seems so big, it’s easy to say, “what can I do?”
A lot,
If we accept and acknowledge that we have inner authority, 
That Spirit can work through us,
That we are the hands and feet of Christ,
And chose to use our inner authority to manifest healing in our world?
Once we really accept that, we will see what is ours to do. 
It might look like a public health crew, stuck in a blizzard with a rapidly expiring batch of COVID vaccine,
Walking in the frigid snow to vaccinate anyone in the cars stuck with them they could.
It might look like standing up and speaking up for a Muslim woman being harassed on the subway.
It might look like calling someone you know is having trouble with the isolation of our needed social distancing.
Jesus may have had an impact felt round the world for millennia,
But according to Mark that all started one Sabbath day,
In one community, with the healing of one man.
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?”
With the unclean spirits, the demons, the brokenness,
In our bodies, in our communities, in our world.
And what have we, the body of Christ, to do with them?
Everything.
Amen.

“There is a Balm in Gilead” – The Adventist Vocal Ensemble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fcMxI_6xsk

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

And now, in the silence of our hearts
or in words typed in Nearby Chat
let us give thanks for the gift of this day
and pray for the life of the world.
If you have a prayer of joy or concern that you wish to lift to God, 
and have supported by the energy of those gathered here, type it in Nearby Chat at this time.
As people share their prayers in text
please read them prayerfully
and hold this space as sacred and safe
to open our hearts to God.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers.


Lord hear our prayers.
Those voices here today.
Those spoken only in the depths of our hearts.
Those for which we have no words.
We lift them all to you, O Lord,
with faith in your boundless love and grace.
Amen.

WORDS FOR THE JOURNEY
"And All Be Made Well: A Healing Blessing"
by Jan Richardson
That each ill
be released from you
and each sorrow
be shed from you
and each pain
be made comfort for you
and each wound
be made whole in you
that joy will
arise in you
and strength will
take hold of you
and hope will
take wing for you
and all be made well.

Our worship is over
our ministry to the world is just beginning
the world is waiting
for you to claim your inner authority
and use it to help heal the world.
Go in peace.
Come again in hope.
Amen.

MUSIC FOR THE JOURNEY
I used this to close our Friday InterPlay class and it is still stuck in my head. 
So enjoy.
“Light Everywhere” – Lynn O’Brien
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8GLdTYsUYY