(RNS) Years ago, I stood beside my bishop’s hospital bed as he lay dying.

I was newly wed, newly ordained and newly installed as vicar of a struggling mission near Indianapolis. Our diocese was in severe decline, and I could already sense that three years of parsing Scripture and arguing about rules hadn’t prepared me for actual ministry among actual people.

I asked Bishop John Craine for his blessing. Sure, it was pathetic — he was in a coma and hardly able to breathe, much less bless. But it was an expression of faith, as well, that, even on his way to death, this man of God could “make the wounded whole.”

That’s the way it was for Jesus. On his way to Jerusalem and death, Jesus faced 10 lepers seeking wholeness. That moment, too, was sad.

Even as Jesus steeled himself for death at the hands of those he came to save, the needy still turned to him. Theirs was an expression of faith; they believed that Jesus was their Lord and could take away their disease.

Need and faith go hand in hand, no matter how close death seems.

On Sunday, I heard passion preached from the pulpit at my church in New York City. This was serious passion, hands-raised passion. This was promised-land passion of a preacher who had decided he was going to be “free” and speak boldly of faith, conviction, liberation and justice.

“You might not like it,” he warned, but he had been careful long enough.

The people did not cast stones from the pews. No, they applauded and shouted in joy, for they, too, are ready to move forward.

The week before, I had given voice to my own passion. Our mainline churches are dying, I told Presbyterians in New Mexico, and we are on our way to tragic extinction. Their own congregation has reached a watershed: change, risk, serve boldly, become something new, die to self and safety — or fall below the threshold of viability.

It doesn’t need to be this way, I told them. The world needs us more than ever, and God hasn’t abandoned us. It is time for us to “buck up” and get outside ourselves.

They didn’t throw stones, either. They walked out exuberant. “Let’s go!” said one. “Forward!” said another.

This is a time for passion. It is a time for our flawed, self-absorbed and self-destructive congregations to set aside politeness and caution.

Yes, we are on the way to death, but so was Jesus when he healed lepers, fed disciples, preached justice, gave hope and spoke truth to power with such conviction that the powerless were transformed.

The needy cry out for healing. The oppressed cry out for justice. The cruel and greedy need to be cast down from their thrones, and God’s yearning is strong. We need to counterbalance the voices of hatred, bigotry and division that are claiming the gospel as their sanction.

No more caution.

No more pleasant rituals.

No more genteel murmurs.

If we are dying, let us die boldly with hands raised in passion and stretched out in healing. And if there be life beyond this death, let it be God’s life, not the clever survival of our own.

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus” and founder of the Church Wellness Project. His website is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com. Follow Tom on Twitter (at)tomehrich.)