June 9, 2013
Healing and Wholeness
- 1 Kings 17:17-24
- Dr. Teri Thomas
About three months ago the members of the worship staff were sitting around a table in the choir room planning worship for the next quarter. I don’t remember the exact discussion but imagine we looked at the readings of the lectionary for today and noted that both the Old Testament and the Gospel were stories of healing. Then someone probably asked when we last had a healing service and eventually the decision was made to do it again.
We hold these services every so often because we hear from so many of you that you appreciate them and find them meaningful. We also hold them because we believe that the church is in the business of healing.
In biblical times it was commonly accepted that God had the power to heal. Health was a sign of God’s blessing and sickness meant God was unhappy with you. It is only in fairly recent history that we have come to understand germs and viruses and diseases and medicines and cures and it seems that the more we learn about the science of healing the more we try to distance it from God.
Healing is now the business of doctors and nurses in hospitals and clinics. Cures come from sterile laboratories filled with test tubes and white coats.
This service reminds us that healing is still the activity of God. We don’t deny the role of medicine and medical professionals in healing, but neither can we deny God’s part. So we pause and pray for wholeness, for healing from whatever is broken.
When we planned this service however many months ago we did not have any idea what would be happening in our lives or in the life of this congregation. I have to believe that God did. Many of us come here today broken and yearning for some healing.
Some are hurting deeply from the death of a family member or a dear friend. They need healing of their hearts and their spirits. They need some remedy for the sorrow and the grief that is overwhelming them.
And I know God can bring that healing. I know because I can look out here this morning and see evidence in so many of your lives. I see faces that once filled with heart wrenching sorrow and sadness now reflect a peace that only God can give. Spirits once contorted by the pain of loss now stand tall and move into the future.
Some are here this morning suffering from a sick relationship. The bonds of love that once held you together have grown weak or have been entirely destroyed. God can heal relationships. I know that because I see those who have weathered vicious and destructive storms and are preserved by forgiveness and grace. Where relationships have already died I have witnessed God’s healing with the gift of new life and fresh starts.
There are people we know and love who this week are breaking under the weight of addiction. A cunning, baffling and powerful disease has taken control of their lives and they beg to be restored to health. God can heal. God can grant serenity and peace. I trust that promise because I have been privileged to watch God’s power take hold in lives and bring new freedom and new happiness.
Some of you this morning hear these stories from a position of strength and health.
These issues remain hypothetical for you.
But others of you are listening with the anxiety of a recent diagnosis or the dread that comes when a dream has been broken, a hurt of hope dashed or a future damaged.
Others are listening with skepticism which says that such stories come from the imaginations of unscientific minds.
I wish I could explain how God heals.
I wish I could understand why God heals.
I wish I knew when God would heal.
I can’t tell you any of that. All I can tell you is that God does heal.
Our part is to trust in God, to trust in God for ourselves – and for those who cannot yet trust in God. Then open yourself to the possibility of healing. Open yourself to the possibility of God making you whole. Open your heart and your mind to the mystery that God can touch you and you will never be the same.
If you choose to come forward this morning for anointing you simply need to let the oil touch your forehead imagine it seeping into the places in your body and in your spirit where there is aching or brokenness. Trust that God is at work in you.
If you choose not to come forward (that is OK) open yourself to healing in your prayer.
God’s healing can be quick, changing our intentions, our mood, our feelings and health. But it can also happen so slowly that it is only in hindsight that it becomes clear. In any case never give up expecting healing.
Our part is also to participate in healing to do those simple things, those necessary things, that help to answer the prayers we make...
if we pray for bread for the poor, it is also for us to share the bread on our table,
if we pray for a healing for cancer it is also for us to tend to our way of living and to support the healers among us.
Our part is to do what we can do – and to come in trust and in faith to God
and to ask God to bring healing and wholeness – confident that God will do just as God chooses.
Thanks be to God
Amen.