Holy Desperation and Audacious Faith

Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, July 25, 2025

Proper 10, the week of the fifth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrase for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:

2:1When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. 3Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’

(You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.)

Daily Office Lectionary readings (BCP, 974)

AM Psalm 26, 28; PM Psalm 36, 39

1 Samuel 19:1-18; Acts 12:1-17; Mark 2:1-12

David's Reflections

Can you imagine the comedy in the spectacle of people digging through the  roof of a Palestinian house during a teaching session where the audience has filled the place and overflowed out the door?  Can you imagine the gradual growing awareness that came over Jesus and the onlookers?  Bits of adobe-like plaster and wood splinters must have begun to sprinkle down on Jesus and those nearby, along with the sounds of digging and scraping growing louder and competing with the sound of Jesus' voice.

I can envision Jesus and the crowd looking up and trying to avoid the falling debris, with Jesus' teaching gradually giving way to his and the onlookers' watching a growing opening in the roof and shafts of light and flashes of blue sky appearing.  The owner of the home (perhaps Peter) must have been wondering what it might cost to repair the damage and just who those crazy people were and what were they up to. Who’s going to pay for the new roof?

Try to capture in imagination the audacity of the faith of the four diggers and the one paralytic.  They believed that a transformation and healing would come about if they simply could get this person into the presence of Jesus. Their sense of urgency and expectant hope prompted this audacious action, four of them carrying a paralytic up those treacherous narrow steps with the intent of lowering him into the room. It was the only way they could see to get to Jesus. They could not force their way through the crowd.

For us to engage in the ministry of healing prayer involves that kind of audacious risk-taking, believing that healing and transformation will be inevitable where need and faith merge into holy desperation.  It also involves the risks of digging through ceilings, of chancing the misunderstanding and disapproval of those for whom such audacious desperation feels so alien. I am not advocating for magical thinking that denies the reality of intractable illness or injury. Rather, I am inviting you to look for God’s response within suffering as well as the possibility of deliverance from suffering.

Can we respond to the powerlessness of the sick and wounded we know, our versions of the paralytic? Can we wonder about our own physical maladies and all those paralyzed and caught places within ourselves that we've never dared expose to Jesus and to those most trusted in our community.? There are times when we need those "four bearers of the palette" to encourage and strengthen us into the presence of Jesus, to carry us onto the roof, to assist in digging through the ceiling that we cannot penetrate alone.  There are areas of our lives that can only receive strength to bear the palette on which they have lain powerlessly when we find ourselves in the presence of Jesus, desperate but audaciously hopeful.

We lean toward a holy tomorrow where God’s new creation will bring ultimate healing to individuals and to the creation itself. Jesus’ healing miracles give us a preview of that new tomorrow toward which we lean and into which we live with audacious faith, faith that holds to the vision of new creation and God’s intent to make all things new.

Krister Stendahl, Swedish Lutheran bishop and New Testament scholar, got at this with his image of Jesus’ miracles as acts of mending the creation. “Jesus' miracles were not primarily signs of his power but acts of mending the creation, pushing back the frontier of Satan, healing minds and bodies, feeding, even counteracting the devastation of the premature death of the young and needy.”+ The ultimate mending will come in the resurrection.

+Krister Stendahl, "Christ's Lordship and Religious Pluralism," in Meanings:  The Bible as Document and as Guide, (Philadelphia:  Fortress, 1984), p. 235

Collect of the Day, Proper 10, the fifth Sunday after Pentecost

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 231)

A Collect for Peace

Most holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen. (BCP, 123)

For those in the Armed Forces of our Country

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP, 823)

A Prayer for Light

Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified:  Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.  (BCP, 100)

Daily Office Gospel, Mark 2:1-12

2:1When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. 3Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ 6Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7‘Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ 8At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? 9Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? 10But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ —he said to the paralytic— 11‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’ 12And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’

Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer 

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer 

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer