Tag Archives: Healing

Jesus, the Healer

the-raising-of-jairus-daughter-english-schoolLiving in the Spirit
June 27, 2015

Scripture Reading: Mark 5:21-43

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ So he went with him. –Mark 5:21-24

Is the availability of accessible, affordable, and appropriate health care a right or a privilege? This is a very complicated question. Medical professionals deal with it on a daily bases as they make difficult, ethical decisions regarding the efficacy of health care and its cost. In Oklahoma state sponsored mental health care is rationed with the more critical cases getting highest priority. By not treating early onset conditions, either physical or mental, we are mostly likely contributing to conditions becoming worse requiring more costly interventions later. While there are some medical procedures that might be deemed unnecessary for the wellbeing of people, such as purely cosmetic surgery on a normally healthy and attractive person, I believe that basic health care is a right and thus falls under the definition of the common good for which governments have some responsibility.

The assurance of the provision of health care is more than charity or even compassion for I believe people are our most valuable resource. Created in the image of God, all people have been endowed with talents and skills necessary to make our society function as God envisions it. When we as a society fail to enable each person’s full potential, we are negatively impacting the full fruition of God’s kingdom.

The reports of Jesus’ ministry found in the gospels illustrate the level of importance he gave health care. Our scripture today tells of his healing both a small child, who would not have been considered of much value at that time, and an unclean woman, who sought his healing in the anonymity of touching the hem of his garment. His care and concern for the least of the people is surely a plumb line for our care of each other.

Prayer: O Great Physician, let your healing powers surge through us as we work toward all your children’s wholeness. Amen.

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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Influence of Our Words

Peter healsEastertide
April 13, 2015

Scripture Reading: Acts 3:12-19

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. –Acts 3:13-16

Before making the statements above, Peter had healed a lame man. All who saw it knew the man had been lame from birth. I am sure his healing caught the attention of those present. I am not so sure how they felt when Peter told them that they had killed the one who had made this healing possible.

One of the best types of learning we do is gained from our mistakes. No one knew that better than Peter. He has always impressed me as being a shoot now and ask questions later kind of guy. I could see him plowing through the crowd to get a closer view of Jesus standing before the Sanhedrin. But Peter was not so bold when those around him recognized him as one of Jesus’ disciples. Peter then denied knowing Jesus three times. The experience surely stayed with him for the remainder of his life.

I have never thought it particularly helpful to point out the obvious errors of others, particularly when an audience is present. Shame is rarely a positive motivator. On the other hand, the raw emotion, pain, and regret in Peter’s statement might well have offset the taunting nature of the words. Perhaps the listeners had been fringe followers of Christ who were now recognizing that their getting caught up in a crowd’s frenzied calls for “crucify him! Crucify him!” a few weeks earlier was a bad misjudgment indeed. I do not suppose we will ever know how the hearers responded, but we do know that the followers of Jesus multiplied markedly in those first few chapters of Acts.

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. (Psalm 19:14)

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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

Forgive or Retain?

The MissionEastertide
April 11 2015

Scripture Reading: John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ –John 20:19-23

What does Jesus mean by retaining the sins of any? First, I think it is important that we recognize that in the book of John “sin” is a theological failing, not a moral or behavioral transgression.* More importantly we must look at our role model, Jesus Christ, and note that in his walk on earth, I do not recall, an instance when he did not forgive. He even implored God to forgive those responsible for his death on the cross.

What results from the retention of sin within a community? Most often I would say, the answer to that question is broken relationships, discord, dysfunction, and lack of progress toward the community’s purpose. Could Jesus have been giving his followers a warning? He had become very well acquainted with humans being human. He knew from experience that evil came raise its ugly head and totally disrupt positive forward movement by the smallest of slights or disagreements. Could he be saying: Let it go? Retaining anyone’s sins, including our own after being forgiven, has no redeeming value.

The Mission* is my favorite all time movie. It is the story of the church being established in South America at the same time natives were being captured and sold into slavery. One of the slave traders has an encounter with one of the missionary priests who grants the slave trader forgiveness for his horrendous sins and instructs him to climb a very steep mountain with all his armor tied in a bag on his back. The slave trader makes it to the top totally exhausted and totally defenseless. The first person he encounters is a native youth with an axe in his hand. There is a moment in the movie where the slave trader clearly understands his plight when the youth briskly swings the axe down and cuts the rope holding the bag, which falls down the mountainside metal clanging against metal. His sins had been forgiven and now he knew it, too.

There is always a period of time after a disconnection or “sin”, even when fault is clear, which by the way is rare for fault is almost always shared, that wounds need to heal on all sides, but healing is faster when we can let the situation go and in many instances we can only do that by asking God to abide with us in the healing process.

Prayer: Lord, give us the strength to let go of the retention of sin, heal all involved and abide with us as we heal. Amen.

*The New Interpreter’s Bible: A commentary in Twelve Volumes, Volume IX Luke and John, Abingdon Press 1995, page 847.
**For more information about The Mission see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091530/
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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Curing the Sick

Living in the Spirit
August 2, 2014

 Scripture Reading: Matthew 14:13-21 

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. —Matthew 14:13-14

Because we get so caught up in the story in our scripture today regarding the feeding the masses, we may miss this excerpt about curing the sick. Jesus was a healer. While most of us could recite a list of nuisance health related complaints from sinusitis to headaches to backaches and some are dealing with more serious life impacting and limiting illnesses, we often overlook the healing of our souls. It is interesting that even science is more and more linking our physical ailments to both our mental and spiritual health. I just read in the paper yesterday that people who give of themselves live longer, more productive lives. Perhaps this whole scripture is about healing.

Yesterday, the news showed a woman protesting the care of Central American children at the Fort Sill Army Base. She did not want her tax dollars wasted in such a manner. Some in our Congressional delegations are fearful that the continued use of Fort Sill as an interim place to house these refugees might lessen its ability to train soldiers. It is my understanding the facility was selected because the dorms being used were vacant. The Oklahoma Governor is demanding that the federal government keep its projection of only using the facility for 120 days. I wondered, if our political leaders have thought what might happen to Fort Sill, if we really stopped fighting wars. The dorms are empty for a reason. Could we actually be nearing a point when we will be beating our weapons into plowshares? What would the closure of such facilities do to the economy of our state? And what better use of these facilities could we make than protecting children from the ravages of the world?

People of faith have been ministering to refugees all over the world for years. Many of the countries surrounding the fleeing people have limited resources themselves. I take great satisfaction in knowing that my country, using my tax dollars, are providing the basics of life: food, clothing, shelter, and medical care for these children and youth. People of faith are also there for them, but so is our country. People of faith are still in harm’s way in the homelands of these children working to make their country safer and more self-sustaining but in the meantime we can at the very least see that these children survive.

Prayer: Heal our souls, so fill us with your love that we cannot help but love our neighbor. Amen.

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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.