Seventh Sunday After Epiphany
Sun 19, Feb 2006
Isaiah 43:18-25
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12
Psalm 130
Children's Sermon: Heidi describes God's love as being like a washcloth. Through Jesus, we are wiped clean of sin.
Sermon: (Frank Eberhardt)
(Pastor had just returned from Guinea, Africa, and so he recounted his preaching there). It was an opportunity to learn God's promises anew. When he lost his luggage, it taught him to seek God's kingdom first. He also learned that God givs the word of the Spirit at the right time. God's faithfulness and His spirit were a big lesson.
He attended a meeting of villagers. The discussion was about the possibility of a lion attacking the village. "How would you react?" they asked. They spoke about how people outside the town wouldn't help them. The pastor, though, said that he was a hunter. That shocked the minister he was with, but he explained that he "hunted fear, death, and demons." He asked the minister to pick out the toughest man from the crowd. He told this man that he couldn't do the hunting of birthing, but a doctor could. He said that they were all hunters if they'd help each other. He told the cynic that Jesus taught him how to hunt. Frank tried to wash the man's feet, but it was drinking water, so he was handed some other water to use. Frank told the people that Jesus taught him how to hunt. Jesus hunted sin. He said that a bad hunter only hunts for himself, not to serve others. The tribes began to work together, inspired by the lesson.
What kind of hunter are you? (Tells account of Mark 2:1-12). Mark didn't say that the four men who helped the man through the roof were friends of his. What do you do when a person has no friends? That man found a way.
Frank helped a woman who had no heat or electricity. She didn't have any friends to help her. Mark's gospel recounts how Jesus declared the man's sins forgiven. Only God knows the sin. The pharisees saw this as blasphemy. But Jesus made the man walk, a visual image of what he was teaching.
In the Kissidudu Hospital, some kids had malaria, but had no medicine. The doctors suggested what drugs should be used. Frank asked the doctors if he could lay hands on them. This was an Islamic country. He prayed for the doctors and nurses and kids, and asked for healing. The next day, the kids recovered from their illness without any drugs. You have to be bold. If Christians can pray for Moslems, and do that healing work, then Christ can work in their hearts, too. Right now, a medical ministry for Guinea is being planned and plotted.