Faith in the Dark
Rev. Jake Medcalf reflected on Matthew 8’s healing of a man with leprosy, highlighting Jesus’ willingness to heal and restore. After celebrating VBS, he invited the congregation and online viewers to text prayer needs, then read requests ranging from mental and physical health struggles to family, vocation, addiction, hospice, and caregiving, and led a communal prayer. He connected the leper’s isolation and shame to a “leprosy of the soul” marked by anxiety, bitterness, unforgiveness, and control, and emphasized that Jesus reaches through stigma with touch, grace, and mercy. He acknowledged the mystery of unanswered physical healing while framing miracles as foretaste of the coming kingdom, and called the church to be a healing community—wounded healers and Jesus’ hands and feet—offering prayer during worship.