Preaching for : A Liturgy Focused on Mental Health

 January 26, 1986  - millions of people, including classrooms full of eager school children, were gathered around televisions to count down and watch the launch of the space shuttle Challenger. Shortly after taking off the space shuttle exploded into pieces.  Seven astronauts died. For those watching, - shock, disbelief, silence, panic- there was nothing to say, no action to take- the image and reality just sat with us, a collective group traumatized.

A few days later in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State at Holden Village Retreat Centre, those living there received the news. As a community they held a prayer vigil and sang the hymn, Healer of Our Every Ill, a new hymn created in that community for this occasion by Marty Haugen so that the community could make expression of their collective grief and a grief of the larger loss to America as a whole.

 

Following the sermon, the hymn of the day is, Healer of Our Every Ill. It was chosen for the service because our focus today is a liturgy focused on mental health.

I had no idea, until I sat down to write, the circumstances for the writing of this hymn --- a hymn that sits well with many, perhaps that is so because it speaks to our experience, where according to the World Health Organization, 1 in 4 people will experience mental health issues in their lifetime. And each person affected has family and friends who experience the mental illness in relation to their loved one. With the intention of focusing on mental health, our own, our loved one’s, the community’s, this hymn is good news - a wealth of instruction for the church and an openness to the journey of healing.

The hymn is not all that different in character from Psalm 43, read earlier.  You will note similar progressions in thought.

 

Much of what we do in Christian community and worship is relatable to life, unfortunately too often the church has failed to articulate connections, assuming that people and the world will make connections and creatively apply what is said and done. In terms of mental health, the church has a rich well of healing to draw from. Today’s hymn draws us to specific gifts of healing:

 

PRAYER –

The church when worshipping together does a lot of praying. Pick up our hymn book and you will note all the prayers in the front for various occasions. You find a prayer for each Sunday of the church year. Read through the liturgy and count the ‘amens.’ As a community we spend time praying together. Continue reading the hymn book by reading the texts of the hymns, and note that the words are prayer, in the form of thanks, help, praise, lament, confession, intercession.

Healer of Our Every Ill is a prayer addressed to God as Healer.

The prayer is one for healing of body, mind, and spirit – a wholeness of being.

The words express thoughts and feelings that humans find difficult to put into words.

The big ask, and a prayer on many a human heart today, asks God for

Peace beyond fear and hope beyond sorrows.

What a mantra for these times; a phrase to repeat as one falls asleep, a prayer for those moments in the day when overwhelmed and ready to quit:  God for peace beyond fear and hope beyond our sorrows.

 

NAMING-

Church and Christian community, as I have experienced it, is a place that allows individuals and communities to name – to articulate that which makes us less than whole. We name grief, sin, injustice, illness, hopelessness. Through story we wrestle with the complexities of life.

There is a poster in the church hall that reminds us that God is with those who are less than whole: Noah got drunk, Joseph was abused, David was a murder, Gideon was afraid, Elijah was suicidal, Jonah was a coward, Martha was a worrier.  Investing the stories of these loved Bible characters one easily sees a connection to mental health. Working through the stories helps communities wrestle with similar issues.

The hymn of the day is important because it names the mental health concerns of fear and sadness.  Are you experiencing either or both of these? In a time of pandemic and uncertainty, if we are honest, all of us have experienced both – as a community we have experienced both.

Our naming of where we are also names the where we want to be: peace beyond our fear and hope beyond our sorrows.

 

JOY-

When we gather together to pray and worship -coming with our fears and sadness- the Spirit of God moves among us. There is a collective bearing of burdens and an exchange of energy.  There is a quiet understanding that we come as we are to share in relationship; to share a hearing of good news and God coming to us through word, water, bread, and wine. There is an expectation of grace. There is an expectation of feeling more put together and alive when we leave than when we arrived; having received peace and even gladness. In the hymn of the day we pray: Grace us with peace and gladness. We also ask to be open so that we witness and experience:  How [God’s] grace is still unfolding; acknowledging we are not entirely whole, but have received enough for today and hope for tomorrow. This peace, hope, gladness – is this not a form of joy?

 

Consider this morning’s Gospel from John 2. Jesus is at a wedding celebration, where they run out of wine. Jesus is asked to make more. Jesus takes vessels of water and turns them to wine. The story is celebratory and leaves readers with a sense of extravagant abundance.

This is a great miracle story, one that we can put ourselves into… imagining being in the experience.

I wonder though, as Jesus’ stories go, if we need to consider that there is a deeper meaning to this tale. Water is life, it is part of life, it is ordinary; in the case of this story water is readily available and ready for use. The story relates wine to the hospitality of a host for their guests; it is celebratory and it is shared. Wine is related to joy: the joy of the wedding day, the joy of the host, the joy of sharing, the joy of the guests celebrating.

The human body is 75% water, filled with life, yet, ordinary. Joy is water turned to wine, metaphorically speaking of course. We can be filled with wine. We can be filled with JOY. And in this story of Jesus’ miracle, it is not the wine that brings the joy, it is the continued hospitality of the host and the continued celebration of the guests. It is the infectious nature of relationships of all sorts of people together in a group to celebrate love, generosity, and hospitality.

 

ACTION-

Healer of Our Every Ill, commends to those singing its words, an action plan to help one’s mental health and body-mind-spirit balance. The hymn prays: give us strength to love each other – urging one to show love and kindness to siblings. The hymn also prays, teach us all your way of healing, noting that this action is continual until compassion fills each heart. There is an articulation of hope, future possibility, where compassion fills each heart. I want to be part of that. I want to experience that. I can work toward that vision, one loving act at a time.

 

 

Four carafes of water:  PRAYER, NAMING, JOY, and ACTION

 that when embraced and practiced as a community of faith, work to improve our mental health, and as our health is made whole, it -the good news- reaches into the neighbourhood -

and there is abundance as water is turned to wine.

 

Healing God,

we stretch our hands out to lay them on each other, we pray for our siblings in Christ,

those of us connected in this moment through technology;

grant comfort to those suffering mental health issues. When siblings are afraid, give them courage; when afflicted, give patience; when dejected, give hope; and when alone, assurance of the support of your holy people. For all, we ask your peace and gladness. Believing in the power of the Spirit we await grace upon grace and an abundance of mental health, wholeness, and joy.  Amen.