Seeds of Prayer Liturgy Resource: Jesus and the Gerasene Demon

Mark 5:1-20

Psalm 89:1-4

Bulletin by Rev. Dr. Barb Hedges-Goettl

Sermon by Katy Stenta

Call to Worship

O God, Lord of hosts, who is as mighty as you?

Your faithfulness surrounds you.

The heavens are you, and the earth, the North and the South you created.

Let us extol your name all day long.

Call to Worship

Our God is the God of the covenant, the one who’s word never fails

God never comes too early or too late, God comes in God’s perfect time

Put your faith and trust in God

Praise the God of steadfast love

Call to Worship

Who is Mighty

The God of Love

What is the power of our Lord and Savior? What is this forgiveness?

Help us to proclaim the power of your love we pray.

Prayer of Confession: Steadfast Love, we so often fall short to show the vastness and extent of your love. As such we have as much trouble naming evil, as we have proclaiming good. Sort out our hearts, cast away all the is not a part of your covenant, and bathe us once again in your forgiveness we pray.

Prayer of Confession: Too often we task ourselves with sorting who is in and who is out. We cast out entire individuals, ignoring that which torments them. Teach us to be the neighborhood, community and people of faith who practice welcome and let us leave the sorting to you, we pray. 

Assurance of Pardon: God is mighty, our rock and our salvation, so we can proclaim the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Assurance of Pardon: God’s forgiveness is stronger than rocks and longer than history: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Let us tell of your righteousness, God of steadfast love, covenant and forgiveness. This is the God we want to worship, this is the God who is a part of our lives. Let us go out and tell this news to the whole neighborhood we pray.

Communion Prayer: God you are our shade in the hot sun, our rock when things are unsteady, our shelter when we are under attack. From the beginning, you placed us in the garden and walked with us. When we missed your presence, you sent yourself as a teaching, healing, loving embodiment of your Love Jesus: the word, the covenant, the body, the presence. Send your Holy Spirit upon these elements so we can taste and see your love as a foretaste of the kingdom banquet we pray.

With Children: Create a contract of Love between the kids and God, Talk about what bad thoughts/feelings plague you: pray that they can be treated/controlled (maybe write them down and rip them up). Talk about why the people might have been afraid of the healing (bad treatment in the past? the fact that they blamed the man for his ills?), Ritually wash hands/talk about fogginess, burn sins (mini Ash Weds/precursor)

 

Caution: This passage also allows for Ableism particularly for those individuals with mental illness.

More Resources:

Mark 5:1-20

https://www.epriest.com/reflections/view/1383/en  Reflections on sin and mental illness.

https://www.theologyofwork.org/the-high-calling/work-as-prayerful-relationships-mark-5-sermon-notes Jesus as making people uncomfortable

https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/9038/preaching-with-the-storytellers-bible-june-24-2018 Stilling of the storm cf. the healing of the demoniac

https://www.theologyofwork.org/the-high-calling/live-so-others-may-flourish Living to set others free

https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1187 But pigs can swim…

https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1187 The demoniac as good soil—and God’s use of flawed humans

http://download.luthersem.edu/media/working_preacher/narrative/021WPNarrative.mp3  Podcast dealing with the good news of this pericope

https://preachingandworship.org/api/lc/d964f5f065b93c918f184b720e70a1b85e152d70d5124 The Gerasene demoniac and mental health

http://theafricanamericanlectionary.org/PopupCulturalAid.asp?LRID=419

A service of healing based on Mark 5:1-18  

http://theafricanamericanlectionary.org/PopupWorshipAid.asp?LRID=419  

Direct link to the worship resources for the service above

https://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2016-06/consequences-deliverance The cost of freedom/consequences of deliverance

https://www.facebook.com/Frederick.Buechner.Center/posts/todays-guest-quote-is-byjohn-ortberg-from-who-is-this-manone-day-jesus-drops-a-/712537528796785/

The response to Jesus on the wrong side of the tracks: the Gerasenes and the healed man

http://www.textweek.com/mkjnacts/mark5a.htm RCL-based resources

Includes http://www.michaelturton.com/Mark/GMark05.html#5.p.1.20 addressing chiasmic structure of the passage and the impossibility of it being historical

And http://www.michaelturton.com/Mark/GMark05.html#5.p.1.20 addressing the demoniac’s example of how to address the powers of darkness

And http://www.ekklesiaproject.org/blog/2013/06/declare-how-much-god-has-done-for-you/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=declare-how-much-god-has-done-for-you  “Declare how much God has done for you.”

 
“tomb” https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G3419&t=KJV; cf. resurrection accounts. Root is μνήμη mnēmē remembrance, cf. mne·mon·ic, anamnesis, amnesia, etc. ttps://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=G3420&t=KJV

“unclean” cf. catharsis

ἀκάθαρτος

Transliteration

akathartos

Pronunciation

ä-kä’-thär-tos (Key)

Part of Speech

adjective

Root Word (Etymology)

From ἄλφα (G1) (as a negative particle) and a presumed derivative of καθαίρω (G2508) (meaning cleansed)

“torment”

 Mar 5:7

And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment ^G928 me not.

TOOLS

 Mar 6:48

And he saw them toiling ^G928 in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them.

The KJV translates Strong’s G928 in the following manner: torment (8x), pain (1x), toss (1x), vex (1x), toil (1x).

Outline of Biblical Usage [?]

1. I.to test (metals) by the touchstone, which is a black siliceous stone used to test the purity of gold or silver by the colour of the streak produced on it by rubbing it with either metal
2. II.to question by applying torture
3. III.to torture
4. IV.to vex with grievous pains (of body or mind), to torment
5. V.to be harassed, distressed
   1. of those who at sea are struggling with a head wind

Strong’s Definitions [?](Strong’s Definitions Legend)

βασανίζω basanízō, bas-an-id’-zo; from G931; to torture:—pain, toil, torment, toss, vex.

Other Weeks of Seeds of Prayer Narrative Lectionary Resources available here