Worship, prayers and Bible resources

Second Sunday before Lent - Year B

Liturgical Colour - Green

Opening Verse
Collect Prayer
First Reading:
Second Reading:
Gospel Reading
Post Communion Sentence
Commentary:
Meditation:
Hymns
Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead:
Intercessions from our Sunday worship
Sermons

Introduction

There is a choice of lectionary readings this week, the Methodist Lectionary is different from the Common Lectionary. Common Worship will use

Proverbs 8:1,22-31, Colossians 1:15-20, John 1:1-14 These are shown below under Additional Material.

In Jesus' day, the word leprosy was used for a broad range of skin conditions, many of which today would find a remedy in a good bar of soap. Sadly in the Old Testament they often thought that God afflicted people with leprosy as punishment (Num. 12:9-10; 2 Kings 5:27; 15:5; 2 Chron. 26:19-21). Lepers were cast out from the group and regarded as cursed by God. But this is not just a sin of the Israelites, in all societies people who are different, disabled, or disfigured simply do not fit in. Moreover often we invest their ‘defects’ with a social stigma that we do not want to catch. We avoid looking at them, we avoid touching them because they are bad people.

It is glorious to see in the reading today just how Jesus is prepared to go out and literally touch these people. Whatever had caused people to become prostitutes or sinners, whatever society taught about the sinfulness of the lepers, he was prepared to cross the divide and show them that God cared. According to the Old Testament Jesus would have been made unclean through his contact with this leper, instead with Jesus the power goes the other way and the man is restored. Such is the power of God. So who are we afraid of touching?

Opening Verses of Scripture Psalm 104:31,34

May the glory of the Lord endure for ever; may the Lord rejoice in His works. May my meditation be pleasing to Him, for I rejoice in the Lord.

Collect Prayer for the Day — Before we read we pray

Almighty God, you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image: teach us to discern your hand in all your works and your likeness in all your children; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things, now and for ever. Common Worship

Almighty God, give us reverence for all creation and respect for every person, that we may mirror your likeness in Jesus Christ our Lord. Common Worship Shorter Collect

First Bible Reading 2 Kings 9:1-14

Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.” As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”

When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.

Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

Second Reading 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Gospel Reading Mark 1:40-45

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

Post Communion Sentence

God our creator, by your gift the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise, and the bread of life at the heart of your Church: may we who have been nourished at your table on earth be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Commentary

One of the worst things for children is being different. If you stand out from the crowd in any way you are picked on taunted, bullied and abused. It might be wearing the wrong kind of coat, or the wrong brand of shoes. A pretty child and an ugly child share the same problem, they are not middle of the road. This is the territory in which children live in schools.

Fortunately as we grow older and more mature we learn not only to stick up for ourselves, but hopefully also to accept others, to recognise that we are all different and that it is OK to be an individual. You do not have to dress, think, speak the same as the rest of the group. This is about "social acceptability" but perhaps sometimes it is wishful thinking. International wars have been started and continue to be threatened because we are sometimes not so mature about our differences.

The same thing is demonstrated in the two passages today from 2 Kings and Mark. In the lesson from Kings we read about Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in his society a brave soldier and highly regarded. Then Mark tells us about another man who approached Jesus who was forced to live as an outcast in his society, he would have had his hair unkempt, he would have covered the lower part of his face and was supposed to cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' (Lev 13:45). These two men lived very different lives but they had one important thing in common, they each had leprosy. Naaman suffered from a skin disease which bore no stigma among his own people, but it put him in the ‘unclean’ category among the chosen people of Israel.

Meditation

Hymns

Praise to the holiest
Let all mortal flesh keep silence
Thou whose almighty word
Christ triumphant ever reigning
Name of all majesty
Hail thou once despised Jesus

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

Prayer is a plant, the seed of which is sown in the heart of every Christian,
if it is well cultivated and nourished it will produce fruit, but if it is neglected, it will wither and die

Prayer encouragement in the Christian life

Additional Material

Proverbs 8:1,22-31
Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?

“The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be. When there were no watery depths, I was given birth, when there were no springs overflowing with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the world or its fields or any of the dust of the earth. I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.

Colossians 1:15-20
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

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