Unexpected Blessing

 

This morning was Sunday morning, a time when I am usually at church and leading worship. Because of the pandemic and the ways that things have played out here on the reservation our congregation has not been able to gather for worship since March of last year. We are hopeful that will change soon, and it is possible that we could gather again as soon as next Sunday.

Right now we can’t gather as a large group but since last fall I have been at church during the time when we would ordinarily worship, available to individuals and small family groups for prayer and the Lord’s Supper. Some Sundays a few people may stop by. Other Sundays I spend the time reading and praying.

This morning it was a bit after noon and I was beginning to think that no one would be coming when I got a text asking if I was still there, as two sisters wanted to come by. I told them I’d be glad to see them and about 10 minutes later I was with a family group totaling six people.

They came in several vehicles and we got caught up while were waiting for everyone to arrive. To begin I led a prayer and then preached a short message from Psalm 46:1. Then we shared the Lord’s Supper and I led another prayer to close our worship. We talked a bit more as we all worked our way to the church entrance. From my point of view as a pastor it had already been a very good time to connect with this family, but it was just about to get better. One of the older adults told me that I needed to pray with her son. I spoke to him briefly and then he and I went to the front of the church, where we keep a bottle of oil on the table.

On an ordinary Sunday morning we have a part of worship devoted to prayer. We have a prayer of confession, a prayer for healing, and a congregational prayer, which is made of a number of things I work out ahead of time and where I also incorporate whatever prayer requests are made that morning.

The prayer for healing was something that was already in place before we arrived here in 2013. Theologically it is grounded in James 5:14, where James writes:

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him in the name of the Lord.

Each Sunday I make an invitation. In the 6 ½ years we were here before the pandemic I think there were only 2-3 Sundays where no one came forward. There is a lot going on in people’s lives here that hurts and needs the healing touch of the Lord. Illness. Grief. Familial trauma. All sorts of things that hurt, adn often hurt very deeply. I never ask what may be the reason any one comes forward. My role is to make an invitation on behalf of the Lord and to lift His people up to Him. The answers to the prayers, and the timing of those answers, is all in His hands. I make the invitation, people come forward, we gather in a circle, I bless everyone by name, using the oil on the table, and then pray for them.

And so this morning the young man and I went up to the table and I got the oil to bless him and as I did so everyone else came up to join us. It occurs to me as I write this post that our action this morning was a putting into practice of the main point of my sermon this morning. I won’t add and explanation of that, for fear of making this post any longer than it needs to be. Here is the link to the sermon, Galatians 5:26-6:5, Sharing The Load.

The events of this morning were an unexpected, and delightful, blessing for me as a pastor, and also, I pray, for the family the Lord brought together for worship. This morning wasn’t quite what we would call normal, but it was the closest I’ve been in almost a year, and I praise God for that too.

 

 

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.