Eastertide

April 19, 2021

Scripture Reading:
Acts 4:5-12
The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, ‘By what power or by what name did you do this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is
“the stone that was rejected by you, the builders;
   it has become the cornerstone.”
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.’

Good health is a luxury for those who cannot afford medical care or food or clean water or time for rest. We were created as an interdependent world where the well-being of one raises the well-being of all. During the COVID pandemic, we see the disproportionately negative impact the virus has had on those who fundamentally enable others to continue their routines—shop clerks, bus drivers, janitors, and sadly grave diggers. We must recognize and correct the inequities in our society, assure that all have access to affordable quality health care, and earn a living wage. In times such as these, our call to do justice echoes throughout the land.

O Christ, the healer, we have come
to pray for health, to plead for friends.
How can we fail to be restored
when reached by love that never ends?

In conflicts that destroy our health,
we diagnose the world’s disease;
our common life declares our ills:
is there no cure, O Christ, for these?

Grant that we all, made one in faith,
in your community may find
the wholeness that, enriching us,
shall reach the whole of humankind.*

Prayer: O Christ help us become healers as we do justice for all your people. Amen.

*First, fourth, and fifth verses of O Christ, the Healer by Fred Pratt Green see at https://hymnary.org/text/o_christ_the_healer_we_have_come

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.