February 12, 2012
Healing Miracles
- 2 Kings 5:1-14
- Dr. Teri Thomas
Naaman went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan. His flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy and he was clean.
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the man. Immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean.
Healing miracles have a tendency to make us uneasy.
They violate natural law. They don’t sit well with our understanding of science and medicine.
We have a tendency to try to rationalize most miracle stories. We find a way to explain them. The sharing of the loaves and fishes sparked generosity in the crowd and everyone produced food to share. Lazarus was in a coma and woke up when Jesus called him. The man’s paralysis was psychosomatic and Jesus’ encouragement helped him overcome it.
But today the healings are from leprosy.
That is not something that comes and goes.
It is not easily mistaken for anything else.
Leprosy is a nasty, disfiguring disease.
It doesn’t just disappear with a touch or a dip in the river.
And leprosy was more than a physical problem.
In Bible times lepers were social outcasts.
They were kept away from other people, untouchable.
Ostracized, demonized, ridiculed, stigmatized.
The scripture says Jesus was moved with pity.
Another version of this text says Jesus was moved with anger.
Is Jesus angry with the man for bothering him?
Is he angry with the disease which makes people suffer?
Is he angry with the society that divides people- clean from unclean and labels those who are different?
This is a healing story with passion in it.
Jesus is frustrated and upset.
So he reaches out and touches the man.
This simple action broke all kinds of religious and cultural taboos.
“He dares to do the unconventional, in fact, the unlawful, so that he may accomplish the unlikely.” (Jon Walton)
When Jesus touches the leper he heals more than his skin.
He heals family relationships. He heals a community. He heals religious and social customs
He heals the man’s spirit.
While questions about Jesus making leprosy disappear remain for many of us,
most modern and ancient minds would agree that there exists a very real-
but not understood- relationship between the body and the mind, belief and health,
the spiritual and the physical.
I do not even begin to understand any of that.
But I have to believe in healing miracles.
I have to believe in them because I have seen them and you are making them happen.
I met Rose at the Maseno Miracle Church in Chulaimbo, Kenya. Rose was born to a single-mother and grew up in poverty.
She attended school when she was able
but could not always afford the uniforms
and often had to work to help support herself and her mother.
When Rose was in class 5 her mother died and she was left alone.
The staff of the Umoja project, which we help support, helped Rose locate her grandfather
and she went to live with him.
Umoja provided Rose with school uniforms, shoes, a lunch at school every day,
supplemental food for weekends and holidays, and even a blanket to sleep with on the dirt floor.
Now Rose has completed primary school.
She took the national exams
and scored well enough that she will attend a Girl’s Secondary Boarding School.
There is no question in her mind that she will finish school and go on to University. Rose told me- “I had no father. Then I had no mother. I was an orphan. But I am not an orphan any longer. Jehovah God is my father. Jehovah God is my mother. Umoja has given me a family here.”
It is a miracle of healing and you helped make it happen.
I met Diannah at Bar Union Primary School where she is a student in class 6.
It took us about an hour to walk the 3 miles to her home.
We talked about school and her interest in science. She wants to be a doctor.
She told me about her brothers and sisters and how they divide up the household chores.
She said her 7 year old brothers who are twins would be very excited at having a mazungu visit their home. (Maungu is a white person walking around Kenya). She wasn’t sure if her parents would be there or not since they both had to work.
I wondered why Diannah was on our list as an Umoja student. She was poor, but most of the kids in this part of Kenya are poor. She had family and parents with jobs.
When we arrived at the home my questions were answered. Diannah’s father had come home from work to meet us and thank us for all Umoja has done for his family.
His brother and sister-in-law were actually the parents of the twin boys and one of Diannah’s sisters.
They died four years ago and the children were left alone.
All three of them are HIV positive.
Diannah’s father wanted to help
but did not have the resources to support even his own family. But he brought the children into his home and he prayed.
Now Umoja helps with school uniforms and lunch at school. They were given mats and blankets.
Umoja helped the family build a new stove
that uses 70% less fire wood-
saving money and helping the environment.
The children who need it are on antiretroviral drugs and getting regular medical treatment.
The Dad says that Umoja is the only way his family survives and it is an answer to his prayers.
This is a healing miracle and you support it.
I want to tell you about Peter – and the chiggers
and Joseph getting a new home
and Chrisborn going to university
and Priscilla escaping abuse.
I want to tell you about all the lives that are being touched,
the schools being transformed,
the communities being strengthened,
the social and religious taboos being broken.
I want to tell you about all the healing.
I want to tell you why I have to believe these crazy stories in the Bible.
I have to believe Jesus can heal- because I have seen it happen- through you.
Thank you.
And thanks be to God. Amen.