Scripture suggestions for preaching and study on Serious Mental Illness Awareness Sunday

Passages from the Hebrew Scriptures

• Genesis 18:1–8
  Hospitality toward strangers
• 1 Kings 19:1–16a
  Elijah in the desert
• 1 Samuel 16:14–23
  David helps the tormented King Saul
• Jeremiah 29:1, 4–7
  Words to those in exile
• Habakkuk 1:1–4, 2:1–4
  From despair to hope

From the Psalms

The Psalms are a wonderful resource for preaching, praying and studying. Walter Brueggemann in Praying the Psalms writes, “The Psalms mostly do not emerge out of such situations of equilibrium [confident well-being]. Rather, people are driven to the Psalter’s poignant prayer and song precisely by experiences of dislocation and relocation. It is experiences of being overwhelmed, nearly destroyed, and then surprisingly given life that empower us to pray and sing.”

• Psalm 22
• Psalm 23
• Psalm 27:1–5
• Psalm 30:2–12
• Psalm 42
• Psalm 65
• Psalm 77
• Psalm 88
• Psalm 91:1–6, 14–16
• Psalm 103:1–5
• Psalm 116:1–9
• Psalm 121
• Psalm 137
• Psalm 142:2–8

From the New Testament

• Matt 4:23–25
  Jesus’ Healing Ministry (Mark 1:35–39, Luke 4:40–44)
• Matt 5:1–12
  The Beatitudes (Luke 6:20-26)
• Matt 8:14–17
  Healing at Peter’s Home (Mark 1:29–34, Luke 4:38–41)
• Matt 8:28–34
  The Gerasene Demoniac (Luke 8:26-39, Mark 5:1-20)
• Matt 18:10–14
  The Lost Sheep/Coin/Son (Luke 15:1–10)
• Luke 13: 10-17
  The Bent Over Woman