Sunday Gathering June 7

Our own Linda Lund and her guest, Jan Morrissey, lead us in worship today.

Call to Worship:

It is time again for us to re-unite and be one body, to bring our individual beliefs and spiritual expressions together as one. 
We create in community more than a sum of our parts. 
We create in community a ministry to our world more than any alone can give. 
As we join together as the body of Christ, let us give our thanks to God.

If you have a Voice United hymn book, look up "Come and Find the Quiet Centre" VU#374. 
Click here to listen with words.

Vs. 1 
Come and find the quiet centre
in the crowded life we lead,
find the room for hope to enter,
find the frame where we are freed: 

clear the chaos and the clutter,
clear our eyes, that we can see
all the things that really matter,
be at peace and simply be.

Vs. 2 

Silence is a friend who claims us,
cools the heat and slows the pace,
God it is who speaks and names us,
knows our being, face to face,

making space within our thinking,
lifting shades to show the sun,
raising courage when we’re shrinking,
finding scope for faith begun.

Vs. 3 
In the Spirit let us travel,
open to each other’s pain,
let our loves and fears unravel,
celebrate the space we gain: 

there’s a place for deepest dreaming,
there’s a time for heart to care,
in the Spirit’s lively scheming,
there is always room to spare!

Opening Prayer:

God of Life, you are as near to us as our breath.  Touch our eyes that we may see you, our ears that we may hear your voice, and enter our hearts that we may know your love.

Grace our souls and bodies with your presence that we might feel your strength and healing touch. In the name of Jesus the great healer.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 9: vs 2 and 6   

Then he sent them out to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal.  The disciples left and traveled through all the villages, preaching the Good News and healing people everywhere.

Scripture: John 14: verse 14    

If you ask for anything in my name, I will do it.

Message:

By Linda Lund and Jan Morrissey

Hi, I’m Linda and I’m here today as a Healing Pathway practitioner.  We have a healing ministry here at Trinity that I want to talk to you about.  I think of healing touch as a form of prayer.  Our intention is the highest good for the person we are working with and we offer ourselves as a channel for God’s healing power and unconditional love.  God is the power source that we plug into and assist the receiver to connect with God in a unique way. 

Healing the sick by laying on of hands and prayer is centuries old and common to many cultures – the four gospels are full of stories of Jesus healing physical, mental or emotional issues.  Then Jesus sent his disciples out to heal as he did, to restore people to wholeness and balance.  Anytime you have reached out to another in compassion, you have been involved in healing too.

Healing Pathway is a discipline of the United Church of Canada and is a form of energy healing.  Energy flows within us and around us continually.  We can feel areas where energy stagnates or does not flow easily, and that’s what we work on using techniques we’ve learned.  We normally have a person lie on a massage table and we usually work above the torso without touch, then hold hands, feet or head - but that’s not possible during this time of social distancing so we are now offering distance healing. 

How does that work? 

Like radio or TV, energy travels in waves and all that’s needed is a sender and a receiver.  The science behind this is quantum physics which I don’t pretend to understand.  I just know it works if the receiver is open to the healing.  The outcome of a healing session differs from one person to another and every session is different.  You may feel relaxed, get a good night’s sleep, pain may ease off, you may develop better coping skills, or you may suddenly see your way through a difficult situation.  There is no way of predicting an outcome.  There are no bad side effects.

Healing is different from curing.  The medical profession works on curing or relieving of symptoms, and we work on wholeness and balance.  We see ourselves, not as alternative, but as complementary to what the medical professions do.

The practitioner is the sender – say that’s me in my living room at home.  I centre myself, say a prayer for healing for the person and state my intention to connect them with God’s healing energy, and the receiver in their home is lying down somewhere comfortable at a day and time that is mutually agreeable to both of us.  They are encouraged to breathe slowly in and out and inhale healing energy which they can direct to wherever they feel it’s needed.  I maintain focus on the receiver and imagine them lying on a massage table in front of me.   I do the healing techniques that are most appropriate - clearing, balancing, draining excess or filling extra energy that’s needed.   Anyone walking by my house and glancing through the window would wonder what the heck is she doing, waving her hands around?

Just being with someone with the intention for their highest good can be healing.  The healing is the work of the receiver, not the giver.  We can only offer energy and encourage it to move more freely.  It’s not our energy – it is divine energy from the universal energy field, flowing through us.  In working as instruments of healing for others, we also recognize we need to take care of ourselves. 

Confidentiality is vitally important to this ministry so I’ve asked Jan, who is one of the Directors of the Healing Pathway and also an instructor, to tell to you about her experience after one of her recent trips to Guatemala with other practitioners and her experience as a receiver.  Of course, the planned trip was cancelled for this year.

Jan speaking: A group of us go to Guatemala usually every year at the request of the Casa Artesana group to give people, mostly women, tools they can use to help themselves in isolated villages and in prisons.  Artesana is a sort of play on words meaning something like health through the arts – they instruct in music, art, poetry, dance and crafts, and also give medical help, educational help, emotional and psychological support whenever needed.  They are courageous and untiring and we are grateful for the opportunity to partner in the healing work that they do.

I want to share a healing experience I had near the end of our last trip.  We always make sure we have time for each of us to receive a healing session at some point in the journey.  When it was my turn, I was quite clear on my intention to be able to leave behind anything from my experience that I did not need to carry with me, because the year before when I got home, I felt burdened with heaviness at all the worrisome things we saw. 

As soon as the session began, I started to cry, releasing the tears that I had been holding.  I asked one of the practitioners to put her hand on my heart as it was hurting.  She did and said, “You know Jan, you can rest your heart in God’s heart”.  I opened to that thought and more tears came but a different kind this time.  I had a profound sense of God’s presence, a powerful sense of awe and wonder.  This wasn’t the loving, comfortable God I experienced before but a more awesome, thundering God. 

On reflection later, I remembered the ending of the story of Job and the message I got was that my God was too small.  God is big enough to carry the hurts of the world and I don’t need to do that.  I don’t need to tell God what to do and worry about things beyond my control.  I just have to do what I can and be open to God’s spirit leading and supporting me.  Jesus said, ‘Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” 

Do you have burdens that you can hand over to God – burdens of fear or guilt or anger or hurt? 

The good news is that none of us needs to do it alone.  God is with us and we can live in trust that we do not have to carry the load.  I came home without the burden of sorrow and pain, and with a strong drive to tell the story.  Thank you for this opportunity.

Closing: We release each one of you on your continuing healing journey.   May you feel God’s presence with you every step of your healing pathway, may you know God’s unconditional love and realize that you are never alone.  God hears our cries for healing and wholeness.  May we be partners in God’s healing process.   Let us link our spirits together and pray for new insights of hope and healing and that may we be a blessing to everyone we meet.  Thanks be to God.  Amen

Closing hymn: If you have a Voice United hymn book, look up  VU #356 "Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God".
Click here to listen with words.

Vs. 1 
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
and God’s righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you. 
Hallelu, hallelujah.

Vs. 2 
Ask and it shall be given unto you,
seek and you shall find,
knock and the door shall be opened unto you.   
Hallelu, hallelujah.

Vs. 3 
We do not live by bread alone,
but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Hallelu, hallelujah.

Blessing:

May the light of God surround you
May the love of God enfold you
May the power of God protect you
May the presence of God watch over you
Wherever you go, God is with you.  Go with God.

God to enfold you
Christ to uphold you
to keep you this holy day
So may God grace you, heal, and embrace you
Lead you through the darkness and into the light.

Announcements and Additional service materials:

Giving  

• if you are already on Pre-Authorized Remittance, thank you.
• we do ask that you continue to offer your financial support even though we are not meeting face to face, our ministry together continues.
• at the top of this page you will see a "Donate Now" button. If you click on it, it will lead you to our donation page.