Wednesday, January 12, 2005


Prayer for a Paralyzed Church

Filed under: (uncategorized), Anglican leaders, Jill Woodliff prayers — Karen B. @ 7:48 am

All, Jill Woodliff wrote this prayer based on the story in the Gospels of the 4 friends who cut through the roof to bring the paralyzed man to Jesus for healing, the Mark 2 version of which “just happens” to be the Gospel lesson for tomorrow, Jan 13th! She had sent me a slightly different version of this prayer, suggesting it might be relevant for the HOB meetings before either she or I had looked at the Gospel lessons for the HOB meeting days. We were both quite stunned when we discoverd this very passage would be in the lectionary during the HOB meetings. The following version is further revised to make it as appropriate as possible for the HOB meetings.

Originally, because the Gospel narrative refers to four men who brought the paralytic to Jesus for healing, every petition of the prayer was written “give us four leaders…,” but I have made the prayer more generic, “give us leaders…” But perhaps you may want to pray that God will indeed raise up four leaders within the HOB who will be able to cut through all the obstacles and make a way for the church to come “face to face” with Jesus (in worship, in hearing the Scriptures proclaimed, through faithful preaching and exhortation, and through faith-filled prayer) so that we might be healed.
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Reading: Mark 2:1-12 (Gospel lesson for Thurs. Jan 13th)

Healing for a paralyzed church
a prayer by Jill Woodliff

Dear Jesus,

We are paralyzed. We cannot walk as you would have us walk. The Episcopal church, claiming to be Your very body, is paralyzed. We cannot walk as you would have us walk.

Is it because we talk about You more than we talk to You? Is it because we think about Your role more than we think about You? Is it because we desire the role of being Your sons and daughters more than we desire You?

Give us (four) leaders, Jesus. Give us leaders who walk as You would have them walk. Give us leaders who talk to You. Give us leaders who think about You and You alone. Give us leaders who desire You. Give us leaders who believe You can forgive sins. Give us leaders who believe You can heal. Give us leaders who are willing to interrupt the Pharisees and teachers of the law. Give us leaders who will not give up. Give us leaders who dismantle perceived barriers. Give us leaders who put aside pride and work in concert with one another. Give us leaders who have faith in You. Give us leaders to lead us to You that we may be freed from our sins and all that which cripples us.

We want to be seized with amazement. We want to be filled with awe. We want to say, “We have seen extraordinary things.” Amen.

4 Comments »

  1. Thanks for offering this…Amen and Amen.

    Grace and Peace,
    Joe

    Comment by JTFS — Wednesday, January 12, 2005 @ 12:58 pm

  2. […] ness and judgment.” Pray for the kind of leadership Jill Woodliff identified in her Prayer for a paralyzed church. I’ll be posting quite a few more prayers this afternoon, […]

    Pingback by Lent & Beyond… An Anglican prayer blog » Nearing 2 p.m, Day 1 — Wednesday, January 12, 2005 @ 3:58 pm

  3. Jill, this is one of your best prayers yet (and that is saying something).

    Comment by Tim Jones — Friday, February 4, 2005 @ 9:29 am

  4. […] members and leaders do not live up to the calling and teachings of Christ. I hope you find the prayer as moving as I did. Here is a section of it that embraces the appeal […]

    Pingback by All Too Common » Blog Archive » Prayer for a Paralyzed Church — Saturday, August 27, 2005 @ 9:53 am

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