Discipleship

February 6, 2021

Scripture Reading: Mark 1:29-39

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. –Mark 1: 29-34

We are called to be the Body of Christ in the world today. Jesus was a healer of both physical and mental illnesses. While we may not possess the ability to lay our hands on someone and heal them, we continue to be called to bring health-wholeness into the lives of all people. We are now caught in a world more concerned with making a profit on health care than keeping people healthy.

54% of Americans with medical debt have no other debts.
Around 530,000 families file for bankruptcy due to medical expenses, every year.
Medical bankruptcies represent 62% of all personal bankruptcies.
20% of all medical bankruptcy filers are people over the age of 55.
20.1% of families who file for medical bankruptcy are military families.
48% of those who filed for medical bankruptcy say hospital bill was their largest expense.
70% of Americans with medical bills had to lower their spending on food to avoid bankruptcy*.

Making quality, essential health care available to all people benefits everyone. We are seeing that now as COVID-19 spreads across our world. We also experience it in routine health care provision. For example, a 47-year-old man with no insurance is so sick he is not able to work. He finally goes to an emergency center in acute pain and is diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. He dies three months later. Payment for his care will be written into the hospital’s operational cost, which will eventually be factored into everyone’s hospital payments. Not only was his emergency treatment expensive, but a family lost its primary breadwinner, and the community lost a much-needed skilled laborer. Those adverse outcomes would not have happened if he had received routine preventive health services along the way, including a colonoscopy.

Prayer: Lord, broaden our vision to see creative ways to meet our world’s health care needs using efficient and effective practices and heal us of the greed that holds us back from implementing them. Amen.

* https://spendmenot.com/blog/medical-bankruptcy-statistics/

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.