PRACTICING OUR FAITH: HEALING
Psalm 103:1-14; Luke 6:17-23
February 7, 2010 – Rev. Jerry Duggins
I
remember being asked in my high school Bible study a few years ago what I
thought about “faith healers.” Kathryn Kuhlman was active at the time though no
longer in
The
question was not really about faith healing, but about the healer and whether
or not I thought he or she was just a fraud. This happened to be the media’s
primary interest as well and from time to time you would read or hear about
these exposes on faith healers.
The
mainline church usually kept its distance, hesitant to either endorse or
condemn the practice. By the seventies, and probably long before that, the
mainline church had consigned the practice of healing to doctors and the
medical industry. We did retain some interest in counseling people for their
psychological well-being, but even then we generally bow before the secular
experts. We add our prayers, but look to the medical and therapeutic community
to do the hands-on work of healing.
There
are some quite valid reasons for doing this, the primary one being that we have
prayed for too many people without discernable effect. We’ve seen illness take
loved ones who were far too young. We’ve seen friends and family who were
unable to break addictions to alcohol or drugs. We know people who have lost
homes for lack of a job. So many of these people we consider people of good
faith. We are not so sure that faith heals or at the very least, we are sure
that it is far more complicated than that. Generally, we begin with the doctor,
and we turn to faith when all other hope is gone.
And
yet, as Diana Butler Bass reminds us,
Jesus did not just heal a few people in a few odd
stories about miracles. Rather Jesus embodied healing, healing for all
creation, healing that would bring forth God’s shalom. (p.111)
Having
outsourced healing to the medical community, the mainline church is beginning
to reclaim its vital role in healing through this concept of shalom. We translate this Hebrew word
often as “peace,” but it includes as well a sense of health, welfare and
wholeness. The word broadens our understanding of the meaning of healing, thus
opening the door for the church to respond to its original calling.
Bass defines it this way translating it as “harmony.”
She writes:
Harmony is the overcoming of division, hatred, and
discord; the mending of what is displaced or broken. In short, harmony is a
kind of healing or making whole, the creation of what is disordered into what
is ordered. To find harmony is to find balance, to touch the center point of
wholeness. (p.104)
She goes on to say:
Throughout the scriptures, harmony is a way of life
practiced by a community with healing at its center. (p.104)
Here,
we see the church not just reclaiming the practice of healing as one practice
among many, but actually moving it into the center of its life together. John
Koenig puts it this way:
In this vision, healing is an indispensible part of
the coming wholeness that God intends for all creation. This means that the
practice of healing is a central part of the reconciling activity of God in the
world. (p.148)
Healing
is what we do as the church. We offer a place and a message that addresses the
emotional scars that we acquired in life. We exercise concern for the physical
well-being of individuals both with respect to their bodies and their
circumstances in life. We are interested in overcoming the divisions that
separate people, in mediating disagreements. And we extend all this concern to
the environment as well. Again Bass writes:
For mainline pilgrims, salvation entails several
levels of healing: emotions and the psyche, physical wellness, human
reconciliation, and cosmic restoration. (p.108)
Of
course, we shouldn’t let this notion of wholeness lead us to neglect the role of
faith in physical healing. We’ll never discern the activity of God in this kind
of healing if we continue to relegate it to the medical field alone. God’s
intention for the world is not to produce a people with healthy spirits while
their bodies fall apart. God knows that in one sense our bodies are frail, as
the psalmist wrote, God “remembers that we are dust.” God’s love extends even
to the weakness of our bodies.
It
does happen sometimes that physical illness becomes a drag on the spirit. As
Koenig remarks: “Sometimes we even feel defined by our maladies…” (p.147). We
see ourselves as a cancer patient instead of as a child of God who happens to
have cancer. The church, in preaching the gospel, cannot forget how easily we
see ourselves in light of our failings and illnesses. Part of what we do in
sharing the good news is to help others reorient their lives with the
understanding that whatever their health or circumstance, they are loved by
God. This is why it is so crucial for the church to reclaim its role in healing
ministries.
As
with all the practices of faith, healing is for this life. Soul and body are
intimately connected. We see this in all the healing stories in the NT. The
Greek word which we translate as “to heal” also means “to save.” Healing
stories are salvation stories. When we see body and soul linked like this, it
enhances our appreciation both for the work of doctors and the “more spiritual”
work of the church as it prays and supports those in need. Doctors should
understand that when the medical cure works, they have done much more than mend
a broken bone. They have set the injured person on a path toward wholeness. And
on the “other” side of things, the deacon who prays with someone in the
hospital does much more than offer spiritual solace but makes a genuine
contribution to their physical well-being.
John
Koenig brings out these complementary roles played by doctor and church. He
quotes Dr. Douglas Anderson who reminds health professionals that “one of the
main sources of preventive and restorative therapy was participation in
congregational life and worship” (p.156). And of churches who take seriously
their role in the practice of healing, Koenig writes:
When we act in communion with God to bring about
healing, or when we ourselves receive it, we participate directly in the divine
restoration of the material order. (p.148)
After
our deacons’ retreat yesterday where we focused on being a community of caring,
I’m pretty convinced that we have a strong practice of healing at
It
may be that we need to be more intentional in our practice of healing. I would
certainly encourage those whom we ordain and install as deacons this morning to
think of themselves as healers; maybe not faith-healers, but people whose faith
has called them to the practice of healing. Though he wrote these words more
than a decade ago, John Koenig hits the mark for today:
Particularly in this time of anxiety and distress
about health care, the diverse healing ministries of the church need to become
a more integrated, more normal, and more public feature of our mission. (p.160)
He
couldn’t be more right when he says, “Ours is a time that cries out for new
forms of healing” (p.157). The practice of healing concerns itself with the
whole person. It addresses the frailness of the human body and the confusion
that sometimes surrounds the human spirit. Its scope of concern extends from
the little tumor resting on the vocal cords to the stresses of life we find in
workplace, family and neighborhood. The practice of healing is as simple as a
cup of chicken soup and as complicated as the causes of homelessness. Wherever
need or division exists, the practice of healing seeks to make a mark. And
wherever healing is experienced, God’s presence can be known. There are few
things as satisfying to be a part of as the healing process. Bass says it this
way: “… people want to be part of healing the universe” (p.108).
It’s
not just about the body, though it is about
the body too. Healing can forge a new connection with God.
It is through the hands, voices, ears, and compassion
of the broken people with whom we work and pray that God’s healing presence
touches our lives and makes a difference. (p.155)
Isn’t
this what sharing the gospel is all about? Isn’t this how we ought to and often
do experience life in the church? When the church is at its best, it is a place
of profound healing. But for this, as Janet likes to say, it all comes down to
grace. And this is the bottom line for Diana Butler Bass as well, who concludes
her thoughts on the subject like this:
The practice of healing traces grace in our hearts and
opens us to see the evidence of shalom
in all creation. (p.114)
What
greater grace than the privilege of being partners with God in bringing healing
to our broken world! Thanks be to God for doctors and deacons and all who
participate in the practice of healing. Amen.
Christianity for the Rest of Us: How
the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith. Bass, Diana Butler. HarperCollins
Publishers:
“Healing” by John Koenig, in Practicing
Our Faith: