Wounded Healers

Hey everybody, this is Brian Zond, and welcome to the Word of Life Church Sermon Podcast.

I'm glad you're interested in what we have to say as we try to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you would ever be so inclined to help us financially, you can do that at wolc.com.

Good morning, everyone. Pastor Brian and Perry are in Chechia. I don't know if I said that right

or not, but the Chechians put together a conference called When Everything's on Fire

Conference and had Pastor Brian come speak to them. And so just hold them in your prayers,

please, as they travel and that they would have traveling mercies to come back home safely. But

I'm excited to preach this morning. Can we pray before we continue this morning? Would you join me?

Lord Jesus, we want to be open this morning to your presence here among us as we gather

in your name. We are confident that you are here with us in our midst. So, Lord, would you give us

ears to hear and eyes to see that which you would want to speak and show us this morning. Lord, may

the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing unto you, O God. In Jesus' name,

all of God's people said, amen. One of the things I love about Word of Life Church is our involvement

with our community.

Especially our support of our local schools. Do you know that this year marked 17 years of

Project Backpack? That we were able to supply under-resourced students in a couple of our

schools with the needed school supplies this year. And you all have been generous and this church has

done that for 17 years. Another way that we were able to serve our local school district this last

year, I believe it was this past year, was we were able to do some voiceover work for them.

So we have some audio equipment. We have some audio equipment. We have some audio equipment.

And we have an incredible audio engineer at Word of Life here. His name is Aaron Zond. He's

incredible. He does a bunch of stuff. Shout out to AZ. He was up here running the camera this

morning, in fact, running around. But he was here and he said, yeah, hey, the school district, come

on over and we'll do some voiceover work for a project that they were working on. And so one of

their representatives came over and Aaron had blocked out a bit of time because people that

aren't from a production.

Industry coming in to do a voiceover, you expect them to have a few takes. Well, this lady came in

and nailed it like a one take wonder. She threw it down, was done. And Aaron goes, oh, my goodness,

I can tell you have done this before. She goes, well, in fact, I have. I was the voice of the

Jerry Springer show. Speaking of the 90s, right? Like, man, that was good TV. You know what I'm

saying? That's when TV was really good. If you don't know what the Jerry Springer show was, you

don't know what the Jerry Springer show is. This is where Dr. Phil came from, okay? Like, he was like a

tamed version of Jerry Springer. If you don't know, then just don't go look it up. Don't just leave it

alone. But it's pretty entertaining. This show is where people would bring their drama onto the show

and work it out. And working it out often meant literally duking it out, like fighting one

another. It was often like baby daddy,

baby mama drama. And so, like, I feel like Dr. Phil saw the need for this, but decided that it

would probably go over better without the fistfights. Anyway, so Jerry Springer is on my

mind this morning because my hope is that we can bring some of our drama, some of our pain, some of

our hurt, maybe even some of our trauma, center stage this morning into this space. And I pray

that we don't resort to blows.

There's no fighting, that this wouldn't be a place where our drama turns into a place of further

trauma. But rather, in this space, we can bring our trauma, our drama, and we would find healing.

Amen? That this would be a beautiful place where we actually find that our wounds can be healed.

This morning, our sermon is entitled Wounded Healers. And I was on Instagram,

this week. Yes, I find myself on there too much. I'm a millennial, so this is my social media

preference. If you know, there's, like, certain social media platforms for certain generations.

Did you know they've done studies? Right? Like, the generation after me, the young people, I'm

looking at a few Gen Z folks over there. They're definitely going to be on TikTok, all right? But

for me, having middle-of-life, like, middle-aged responsibilities, I have, like, if I'm on TikTok,

it's way too addicting for me. Like, I will waste way too much time. And then the generation ahead

of me, the elders that I respect are on Facebook, right? So, I was on Instagram, and I followed this

psychologist and trauma expert. And I ran across this video where he was talking about our trauma

in life. And I just want to say that as we talk about pain and trauma and drama,

all of those things in church this morning, I do want to say this explicitly, that if you are

dealing with deep woundedness from some past events in your life or current events, that

it is okay to get help. In fact, you need to get help. We have this kind of myth sometimes in

America that we can go at it alone, that we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. And people

do incredible things on their own. But

when it comes to our pains, I believe that we're meant to deal with that in community. And I thank

the Lord that we're in a place within society now where we have licensed therapists who can help you

heal from that pain. So, please, if you need help, get help. And if you don't know how to navigate

those resources, come find me after service, and we'll do that together. But I also believe

that alongside therapists, that the Lord can use his church and this space to bring healing.

And I'm going to kind of combine these two for a moment.

This clinical psychologist trauma expert, he said that in an acceptance-oriented therapy

perspective, he often uses a finger trap with clients, not to keep them in their chair.

Speaking of the 90s, we just did Finding God in the Music, 90s edition, Jerry Springer. I was a

90s kid. I was born in the 80s, but really grew up in the 90s. This was like, this would provide

hours of entertainment for kids who had no cell phones, right? Like, this is what we would do.

In life is play with dumb toys like this. And he said, this really helps us understand

how many of us deal with our pain in life. That just like this finger trap, our instinct with our

trauma and pain, with the drama of our life, is we want to pull away from those things.

We want to get away from pain, especially in our culture today. But as we do, the more we pull away

from the pain, the more we get away from the pain. And I think that's what we want to do.

And I think that's what we want to do. And I think that's what we want to do. And I think that's what

we want to do. And I think that's what we want to do. And I think that's what we want to do. And I think

of trauma and pain in our life, the further we actually become ensnared by those things,

that we actually enter into a cycle of being trapped inside this pain, inside this trauma.

But if we can find the courage, and would I even be so bold to say by the power of the Holy Spirit

that's been sent as the helper to us who are in Christ, if we could have the courage to move

towards the pain that we carry,

to accept that we are in it, that it exists, and that we are living life with this woundedness,

that over time and with some patience, we can be set free from those things.

And so this is maybe a picture of what we can do this morning together here in this space.

And I don't want to run away from the fact or pull away from the fact that as we talk about healing

this morning and pain, that I'm doing so in a church. I'm doing so in a church. I'm doing so in a

church. In a good church. I believe Word of Life Church is a good church. But I also want to

accept that church can be a mixed bag of experiences for people. Did you know this?

That on the one hand, church is a beautiful place full of grace and mercy, and I've seen the most

beautiful acts of grace in the church. But on the other hand, church can also be a place of great

pain and hurt for people, even trauma. In fact, this has been my experience personally. I love to

church. Can I say that just emphatically? I love the church. I love this church. I love the church

globally. I love the church historically. I'm so grateful for the church. And I've seen some of the

most beautiful acts of grace in the church. I grew up in the church. We were singing this last song

together. It was like, I don't remember the words exactly, but basically from birth to death, Jesus

commands my destiny. And I thought, that's my story. I was just born into the church. In fact,

I remember seeing the church. I was born into the church. I was born into the church. I was born into

this picture of my mom on a Sunday, and she was walking us to church because my dad was working,

and it was like at the church. She had just walked us there in a stroller. My dad was working a second

job. We didn't have much money at the time. They had one car, and my mom was just dedicated to

getting us in church. She had grown up in the church, then run away from the Lord, and then

found the Lord again, which often happens when people have children, and they start to think,

wait a second.

Man, I grew up knowing Jesus. I want my kids to know Jesus. And so my mom was just dedicated to

keeping us in church as children, and she had me in a stroller, and she was wearing this ankle-length

floral dress with high-top white Reeboks, knee-high tube socks pushed down. Do you know the

look? It's Little House on the Prairie meets Richard Simmons, right? Like, boom. And it's back.

That look is back.

Like, the grandma dresses are in, folks. And so this was my mom. She was looking pretty awesome

walking us to church, and my family raised my sister and I in the church. And then my family

around 10 years old just fell apart. My parents separated. We experienced a lot of substance-like

addiction and just lots of drama and trauma within my family unit. And when my family fell apart,

the church became the family.

And that was the family of God that scooped me up, right? And that said, in the midst of the storm,

we're going to give you a shelter from the storm. When your home seems to fall into broken pieces,

you can come home to the Father's house and find a place to belong, a place to be loved,

a place to feel secure. And that was my experience growing up in the church. I'm so thankful for the

church I grew up in. Well, then my church fell apart. So that was great. Not great, right? Our

pastor,

of 13 years, had a major moral failure and some mental health issues that came along with it.

And then right after that, we discovered that the church was in incredible financial ruins.

Some shady financial stuff had gone down. And so the church I grew up in doesn't exist today.

And then I made my way to ministry school. By the second year in ministry school, the part of our

leadership had a major moral failure. Praise the Lord, I was promoted to leadership. In the midst

of that. And so then after that, I went off to college at a predominant Christian university,

where my diploma is signed by an interim president because our president at the time got fired for

misappropriation of funds. And so he had kind of abused the finances of the ministry and got let

go while I was there. And then while I was in college, the news hit that the head of the ministry,

one of the national association of evangelical churches, one of the leading mega church pastors

in the nation, had a major public national moral failure. And as a young person, wanting and feeling

called to go into ministry, I had met on Monday nights with a group of friends to pray and worship

together. Not because we were overly spiritual, but we were very broke. And we were on a drive,

dry campus, so we couldn't party. So we decided to get a guitar and play some worship music and

pray. But in all seriousness, we would gather for worship and prayer on Monday nights,

and we got the news of this. And I just remember we were on our knees just weeping.

Because in my own story, I've shared with you just several times, for some reason in my experience,

in my generation, we've watched these big mega church personalities fall hard.

And people that we looked up to, wanted to be like, and then it felt like it all just fell apart.

And there were the ashes. And we were just in prayer, weeping because we were broken hearted,

but also repenting. Lord, forgive us. We're really screwing it up here as the church.

Lord, help us. And we began to pray, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit, would you help

our generation do better? Not because we are,

but because the church needs us to do better. And so my hope, and I've watched some of my friends

from that very night, they're pastoring churches and planting churches in some of the most unchurched

areas of our nation, in the Seattle area. My friend Pradeepan, who was there, is pastoring

a beautiful church called Kalos. And I've just watched the Lord really answer those prayers

among these young men that were friends of mine at the time. And with all of that,

that ugliness that I've experienced at times in the church, the church is still the place

when I was at my darkest hour in life, when I felt more lost than I've ever felt as a young person,

the church taught me Isaiah 61, that the Lord will provide for those who grieve in Zion to

bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning,

a garment of praise.

Instead of a spirit of despair. Can I get an amen this morning? The church taught me Romans 8,

28. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are

called according to his purpose. Amen. The church taught me Isaiah 53, verse five. But Jesus was

pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought

us peace was upon him. And he was crushed for our iniquities. And he was crushed for our iniquities.

And he was crushed for our iniquities. And he was crushed for our iniquities. And he was crushed

for our iniquities. And he was crushed for our iniquities. And he was crushed for our iniquities. And

listen, by his wounds, we are healed. That was like my theme verse growing up. The church gave me

this gift that I believe that the Lord will give us beauty for ashes. I believe that the Lord will

make all things, not just some things, but actually all things, especially the ugly things,

work together for good. And I believe that the Lord is going to continue to bring us healing

by his wounds.

By his wounds, we are healed. Isaiah 53, this passage was written some 700 years before Christ

was crucified on the cross. And it's a beautiful picture, a prophetic picture of the work of Jesus

on the cross. You know the cross. We've got a cross there on the wall. We've got a crucifix

here. We've got our cross here. Cross is everywhere. Because we're a church,

right? And the cross is the international and historic sign of the church.

This is how we proclaim. We're Christian because we have a cross. And we have crosses hung in our

places of worship because they're beautiful. We hang them around our necks as jewelry. We place

them at the center of our worship spaces because this is a sign of adoration for us and beauty.

But as you know here at Word of Life, we've kind of talked about this, especially when we were

exploring the wood between the worlds with Pastor Brian. Like the cross for the first 100 years was

not found in places of worship. It was not found in places of worship. It was not found in places of

worship because that generation had seen a crucifixion. The state sponsored public torture

and execution of criminals and enemies of the state. And they had seen how in reality that

a crucifixion is incredibly grotesque and traumatic. And so it took some time. And as time

passed, the saving work of God began to transform this symbol of

torture and execution and maybe the height of human ugliness, this place of trauma into something

beautiful in which we hang at the centerpiece of our places of worship and say, isn't that beautiful?

Pastor Brian writes, if the cross can be made beautiful, all things can be made beautiful.

If the cross can be made beautiful, all things can be made beautiful. That's my

theme in life right now. That just reverberates in my heart. I'm like, Lord, in the world we live in,

if the cross can be made beautiful, all things can be made beautiful. I want to speak into your

situation, your pain, your hurt, your trauma. If the cross can be made beautiful, your pain,

your trauma, your ashes can be made beautiful. Throughout scripture, we see this at work time

and time again, story after story.

Of God's saving work in Christ, bringing people beauty for ashes, healing for their wounds,

hope for their hopelessness. One of the stories, we heard a couple of them in our gospel reading

this morning, this healing of the Syrophoenician's daughter, woman's daughter, and the healing of

this other man. And this morning, I want to talk about another picture of this beautiful work out

of Acts chapter three. I want to talk about a story at a place called beautiful. Acts chapter

three, verse one says,

one day, Peter and John were walking up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the

afternoon. And now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called

beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. And when he

saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him as did

John. Then Peter said, look at us. So the man gave them his attention.

I want to stop there for a moment and point something out. Think about this man has been

crippled from birth. Some of us carry trauma that we were just born into. A situation and some

woundedness that we had no choice in the matter. It just kind of was given to us since birth. Just

like this man, he's been crippled from birth, but then he's been so beat down by his woundedness

in life that he doesn't even have the dignity left to look at people. He's sitting at the gate,

begging. Do you have any money? Peter says, look at me. And the man lifts up his eyes and looks at

him. Did you know that when we look at people in the eyes, when we talk to them, this is the moment

they become like a human being to us. They're no longer a shape. They're no longer a position at

work. They're no longer someone on the opposite aisle of the political spectrum from us. We look

someone in the eyes and something happens. And for many of us, we start getting uncomfortable. Can we

be honest? There's times I find I'm talking to someone and we're looking at each other in the

eyes and it's just starting to get uncomfortable. And I've just got to look away for a moment,

break the, you know what I'm saying? Because there's something about looking into someone's

eyes that just seems to connect us on this kind of deeper level. Maybe it's that we realize that

each of us is created in the image of God, that we're all a part of this family. We're all children

of God. And in this moment, Peter, by saying, look at us, we're all a part of this family.

He says, look at us, begins to, even in that statement, restore the dignity of this man that

has been lost. By looking at him and having him look at me, he says, I see you. You are a person.

You're not defined by your woundedness, but I see you as a fellow child of God. And then the story

continues. Peter said, silver or gold, I do not have, but what I do have, I give to you. In the

name of Jesus Christ, I give to you.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk, taking him by the right hand. He helped him up and instantly the

man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with

them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. When all the people saw him

walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the

temple gate called beautiful. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had

happened to him. They said, we know this man. He sits there every day. Every day we

walk with him. We know this man. He sits there every day. We know this man. He sits there every

day. We know this man. He sits there every day. We know this man. He sits there every day. We know

this man. He sits there every day. We know this man. He sits there every day. We know this man. He

is the crippled man at the gate. And here he is not just walking, jumping and dancing and praising

God. He's been given a song of praise for his despair. And they say, we are amazed and full

of wonder at the work of God. I love that we can stun the world when we let God do his work in us,

that people would see who we were. And they say, I know the wounds that you've carried

all of your life, but if we're willing to take the steps towards Jesus and open our life to what

Jesus would have and let his healing work happen in our lives, my prayer is that we could go

through the world and that people in our lives would say, what has happened to you? There's

something different about you. From this experience, Peter goes on to write this in

1 Peter chapter 2. His experience of watching the healing work of God in this man's life,

I don't know if he was thinking of that when he wrote this, but I sure couldn't help but connect

these passages this morning. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 24, speaking of Jesus, he himself bore our

sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds,

you have been healed. For you were like straying sheep, but now have returned to the shepherd and

overseer of your souls. Again, to reference the wood between the worlds, when we bring our wounds

to the wounds of Jesus, it does not multiply woundedness, but in a mystery tends towards

healing. By his wounds, we are healed. Isaiah 61 echoed here in 1 Peter chapter 2, by his wounds,

you have been healed.

For you were like straying sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your

souls. I love that Peter talks about sin as woundedness and lostness. Did you catch that?

Peter is talking about our sins, that Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree.

Okay, so we've got some sin in our life. We have sinned. And he's saying that, you know,

oftentimes we picture sin as a kind of scorekeeping.

A kind of balancing the scales. Or we see it as pass or fail. Yeah, we passed the test. Or man,

I really failed there. Screwed that one up again. Or oftentimes it's in a judicial context where

there needs to be a sentencing and a punishment to right the wrong. These are all pictures that

we have in our mind when we think about sin. But Peter here, talking about sin, talks about it in

the context of woundedness and lostness. And he talks about sin as a kind of scorekeeping. And he

talks about sin as a kind of loss. That sin is wounds that need to be healed. That sin is being

lost and needing to return home to the love of God. To the shepherd of our soul. And for many of us,

we've experienced that sin is the, that salvation is the need for us to find the restoration of our

being and our belonging. Can I say that again? That for salvation, it is the restoration of our

being and our belonging. And for many of us, it is the restoration of our being and our belonging.

And for many of us, it is the restoration of our being and our belonging. So who we are and where we

belong. Because sin has a way of taking who we are and disfiguring that. Twisted out of shape by

society's pliers. I think about that Bob Dylan quote. And it's like, that's what sin does. It

just takes who we were created to be. You were fearfully and wonderfully made. And at your core,

your being is an image of God, the creator. And then sin,

enters the story and begins to twist and distort the image of God in our being, who we are. So we

become unrecognizable. We lose ourself. Sin also has a way of alienating us from God. Not because

God moves away from us because he can't stand to look at sin, etc. But because in sin, we move away

from God. We are the ones who are moving away from God. And it is God who is reconciling us to himself.

Salvation is the experience of us, of the restoration of our being and our belonging. And

it is not just our sin that creates this woundedness and alienation in our lives. But

oftentimes, it's the sin of others. It's sins sinned against us. People who have trespassed

against us that begin to disfigure who we are. And we lose a part of ourselves from suffering

that wound. Or we

become increasingly alienated in our sense of belonging in the world, especially when those

wounds and those sins are experienced from those closest to us. Did you know this is the risk of

love? I just want to, this is a side note. It's not even in my notes. I was thinking about this.

That I feel that when we choose to love, we open up ourselves to the risk of being hurt.

And I want to say that love is worth the risk.

Because when we get close enough to someone to experience love in life, and I'm not just talking

about romantic love, I'm talking about familial love, I'm talking about brotherly love, a deep

friendship kind of love, that when we become vulnerable enough to experience the greatest

thing on earth, and that is a genuine relationship with someone else that's filled with love,

then we open ourselves up to being wounded by that person. That's just the reality of life.

The risk of love. And I want to say the risk is worth,

but I thank God that in our woundedness, we have a healer. That we're not just stuck in our

woundedness, but that we can come to a place called beautiful and find healing for our wounds.

I want to kind of close with a modern day parable about, that made me think of this. I found this

on Facebook. It's where I find all my greatest sermon content, Facebook and Instagram.

No, I'm just going to stop that joke right now. This was years ago. I was on Facebook a long time

ago, one time. And I ran across this parable. It's like a modern day parable. And it was this story

of a father and son. And maybe some of you have heard this before. I don't even know if I've

preached it here before or not, but I just, this is such a beautiful picture, I think, of what

the work of Christ can be in our lives. But let me get to it. Okay. So there's a father and a son,

and the son has an anger problem. Okay. And he has a way with his words. When he gets angry,

he expresses his anger verbally through words and he lashes out and he's always cutting people down

and speaking words of hate to people, especially his mother and his siblings and his peers and his

friends at school. And so one day the father says, son, you've got a problem, an anger problem, and I

want to help you with it. He said, I want to do something. Every time you lash out in anger and

say something hurtful, we're going to do something. And he says, I want to help you with it. And he

says, I want you to take this hammer and this nail, and I want you to go to the backyard. You

see our fence back there, and I want you to put a nail in the fence. So the son says, okay, dad,

I'm going to really try to not put a nail in the fence. The next day, son wakes up and before

breakfast is even served, he's cussing out his little sister because she touched one of his toys,

right? So his father just brings him and hands him the hammer. Son hangs his head, goes to the

backyard, puts the nail in the fence. Next day, he wakes up and he's like, I want to help you with this.

He wakes up at school. He gets really ticked off at someone because they cut in line at the

cafeteria and grabbed that nasty pizza before he could get to it. Goes home, has to put a nail in

the fence. Day after day, this young man loses his temper, puts a nail in the fence

until the whole fence is filled with nails. Every picket has a nail in it.

He comes to his dad. He says, dad, I don't know what to do.

I'm lost. I can't help myself. Look how many nails are in this fence. He says, son, I know,

I know. Let's work on some ways to cope with your anger instead of just lashing out.

I want to help you with some things. And his father begins to coach him on some different

ways to deal with anger and cope with anger and starts dealing with why are you so angry and

gets him a therapist. How about that? And the son gets, I'm just kind of making it up as I go here,

some of the filling in the middle here. Anyway,

then his dad says, here's what we're going to do, son. Every day, you don't say something hurtful

to someone. I'm going to give you this hammer. You're going to go out and pull a nail from the

fence. And the day comes where the son goes a whole day and he doesn't say anything hurtful

to anyone. Dad, I did it. I've gone all day. It's time for bed. And he says, here's the hammer. And

the son goes out to the backyard in his slippers, pulls off the nail. He's so excited. The next day,

same thing happens. He's like, I'm going to pull a nail from the fence. I'm going to pull a nail from

the fence. And the day comes where he pulls the final nail from the fence. And his dad puts his

arm around him and says, son, I'm so proud of you. He says, dad, I can't believe I did it. Thank you

so much. He says, here, come with me. And they walk to the backyard, to the fence. And he says,

son, look at this fence. I'm so proud. You pulled out all the nails, but look,

look at this fence. It's filled with holes. This fence is damaged. The words that you spoke

to people have left them damaged. This fence will never be the same again.

And that was the end of the parable. And I thought, this is terrible.

This is a bad parable. I understand the lesson that's trying to be taught, like words hurt,

right? And like, you can't take back what you said. But really what this is telling us is that

we can be wounded,

in a way that leaves us disfigured forever. Some of you have been told this same thing.

You will never be the same again. You are damaged goods. This is the voice that you hear in your

head. You are beyond hope. Yeah, I know it was a long time ago, but the wounds are still there.

And there's no way that you'll ever get beyond them.

You will be,

crippled for life. And I want to say that those are lies, that that is not the gospel,

the good news that we have in Jesus Christ. Because I grew up and my dad was a carpenter

on the side. He remodeled houses and he taught me about spackle and caulk and wood filler and

sandpaper and paint. And when there was holes in a fence or damaged building goods, we would go in

and we would begin to fill the holes and patch the broken pieces. And then we'd sand it down.

And we would work on it. And over time, we could restore something to a beauty beyond where it was

originally. In fact, I know someone else who's the son of a carpenter. Come on, church. Come on,

Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whose father was a carpenter. And I know his dad here on earth

taught him how to restore things that were broken. But I want to say his heavenly father,

he is also the one who knows how to be.

The restorer of our souls, that when we are broken and the world and the enemy says you are

damaged goods, you will never be the same. Jesus says, not so fast. You are fearfully and wonderfully

made. I created you in the beginning and I can put the broken pieces back together again. I can

touch the wounded places and bring healing. I can restore your being and your belonging.

I believe this with all of my heart. Amen. That's worth applauding this morning.

And so I just want to, I want to say this to you in closing.

From Henry Nouwen, he says this, nobody escapes being wounded.

We are all wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually.

The main question is not how can we hide our wounds so we don't have to be embarrassed,

but how can we put our woundedness

in service of others? When our wounds cease to be a source of shame

and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers.

This is the way of Jesus. He is our wounded healer. That, that's this picture right here.

And it's beautiful. It's a beautiful picture of the,

the saving work of God in the world. That Jesus leads the way. He does not hide his woundedness.

His wounds are no longer a place of shame, but his wounds are here, present, not hidden,

on display for us. Even here, available to us at this table.

May we receive the healing that we need today.

Here in the presence of the wounded healer, here at this table, as we receive this bread,

which is his body broken for us, and this cup, which is his blood shed for us,

may we find the healing that we need. And then may we go this week into the world,

not ashamed that we too are wounded, but rather confident that God is working to transform our

wounds into something beautiful. And that we can now go into the world, and we can go into the world,

and we can go into the world, and we can go into the world, and we can go into the world,

and do the same in the world by the power and the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we can walk

the world as wounded healers. Amen. Would you stand on your feet with me? And I'd like to pray

a prayer to close our time together. And then we will confess our faith together in the Apostles

Creed, pray a prayer of confession, find absolution for our sins. And then we're invited

to participate in Holy Communion this morning. Everyone is welcome.

And as you come, someone will say to you, the body of Christ broken for you. Know that it is,

that his body was broken for you, that in his body he bore our sins. Not just our sins that

we've committed, but the sins of others that have been committed against us, and the woundedness

that we carry, he bore that in his body. And you'll take the bread, and then someone else will say,

the blood of Christ shed for you. Know that it is, that his blood was shed, that we might find a new

belonging.

And God, a new covenant of love would be established in our life, where we are made whole in our

relationship with God. You'll take the bread and dip it in the cup and receive into your body the

healing power of God. By his wounds, we are healed. Let us pray. Lord Jesus, you stretched out your

arms of love upon the hardwood of the cross, that everyone might come within the reach of your

saving embrace. So clothe us in your

spirit, that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge

and love of you, for the honor of your name. Amen. Let us confess. I believe in God, the Father

Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord. He was

conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under

Pontius Christ, the Son of God, and was born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Christ,

Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day, he rose

again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again

to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church,

the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life

everlasting. Amen. Now let us confess.

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed,

by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart.

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.

For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us,

that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name.

Amen. And God is gracious to all who confess their sins and in humility ask for mercy.

In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. And this is the table, not of the

church but of the Lord, and it is made ready for those who love him and for those who want to love

him more. So come, you who have much faith and you who have little, you who have been here often and

you who have not been here long, you who have tried to follow and you who have failed, you who have

failed, come. For it is the Lord who invites you. It is his will that those who want him

should meet him here. The body of Christ broken for you and the blood of Christ shed for you. Amen.