Message 01-29-06

Series: Lectionary [traditional]

Scripture: Mark 1:21-28

Title: Healing

Intro:

Tony Campolo, the Christian author and professor, tells the story of speaking at a college when he was interrupted by a woman carrying a little boy. The boy had braces on his legs. In the middle of a lecture to the entire student body, Tony stopped and asked the woman what she wanted. She said she wanted to have her son healed.

Tony said, "Well, I don’t really do that kind of thing."

But the woman persisted. Tony wasn’t sure what to do and it was then that the chaplain came up alongside of him and asked what was wrong. Tony explained that the woman wanted her son to be healed and he wasn’t sure what to do. The chaplain said, "What’s wrong with you, Campolo? You just do what the Bible tells you." So the chaplain asked that if there were people in the room who didn’t believe the woman’s son could be healed that they would please leave. Everyone except for 3-4 Pentecostal students who were already praying in the front row and a couple of others got up and left. The chaplain looked at Tony and said, "The Bible says not even Jesus could heal with unbelievers around him."

So they took the few students who were left and they went into a back room. Tony asked, "Now what?" The chaplain said, "Campolo, don’t you read your Bible? We have to anoint him with oil, we lay our hands on him and then we pray." They got some oil from somewhere Tony says and they anointed the little boy.

And then they prayed. The Pentecostal kids were praying in tongues and the chaplain prayed and then Tony prayed. And Tony says that as he felt the Holy Spirit in the room. He was praying and he just felt God’s presence fill him up, fill up the room and he was sure that when he opened his eyes that boy would be healed. He finished praying and he opened his eyes. Nothing happened.

Wouldn’t it be great to know that we could just bow our heads and say a prayer and when we opened them everything would be better? When you read the stories of Jesus, like this one today, don’t you have this wish that it worked this way? I do. I know that this story is about a demon. A demon has hold of a man, a demon recognizes and challenges Jesus. But within the next few sentences we read that others with demons and those who were sick came to Jesus for healing and just like in this moment – the demons and the illnesses were removed. The people were healed. I want that. I want to be able to bow my head, close my eyes, talk with God, ask for healing and for healing to come. I want God to work that way. Wouldn’t that be great?

Study:

I’ve been part of those kinds of moments. I’ve seen healing.

In one of the churches where I used to work we had healing services on the fourth Sunday of every month. It was a simple procedure. In the last 10 minutes of the service on those days the pastors invited some of the elders to come down and gather at two kneeling benches. All those who were in need of healing or were seeking healing for someone else would come, share their concern and then the elders and pastors would pray together, laying their hands on the head and shoulders of the person.

One day a man stopped me and asked if anyone ever came back to share what happens after these prayer times. I told him that no, no one had ever come back.

He said, "I was wondering about that and I was thinking I should really say something." And then he told me that he was healed. He reminded me how he came seeking healing because he had to have his hip operated on some weeks before. He told me that as I started to pray for him that day he felt a warmth that began where my hand lay on his shoulder and that it traveled right down his side and filled up his hip. He said "I knew I was healed the moment I walked away." He went to his doctor who did a final check up before surgery and who then told him things had changed. Whatever had happened had cured his condition. He wasn’t going to need surgery after all. The man said to me, "I thought you should know."

I said, "Well, clearly then, this wasn’t me. You know that, right?" And we laughed together and he said, "Oh, yeah, but you were there."

I was there. I was there and I prayed as earnestly as I ever pray, but I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t have any experience except the memory of him coming forward. I didn’t feel any warmth coming from my hand.

I’d love to think that it would happen every time I pray, but I’ve prayed since then. I flew up to Pennsylvania just a couple of weeks ago to participate in the funeral of a woman from another church where I worked. I visited with that woman a few years back when she was diagnosed with a tumor in her brain. I prayed with her when she went through her operation. I prayed as she went through chemo. I prayed in thanksgiving as things seemed to get better. I prayed when I learned that she’d had a relapse. I prayed when I heard that things were going down hill fast. And finally, a couple of weeks ago, I prayed as her body lay in a casket behind me.

Wouldn’t it be great to just bow your head and pray and open your eyes and everything would be better? Wouldn’t it be great to be in moments like the one in the synagogue that day? Wouldn’t it be great at times when the chaos of reality breaks in on our order that there was someone who would just give the word and order would be restored, wholeness would abound? Don’t you have a wish for that? I do. Some of you know that my dad was diagnosed with cancer of the liver a short time ago. I wish I could just bow my head and pray and open my eyes and healing would take place.

But I’ve learned that isn’t God. I learned that what I’m wishing is that God was magic. There are days when I wish God was magic. There are days when I wish I could just put in my request, do my little religious ritual, and God would grant it. There are days when I wish that God wasn’t someone. There are days when I wish he was some thing, some force, and that he wasn’t someone who knew the big picture, knew creation, knew life. There are days when I wish that wasn’t the way the world worked, when I wish that God was some idol – just some stone statue I could bow before or do my little dance before or bring my offering to or burn my incense for and that whatever I asked would be given to me. There are days when I wish God was magic.

But then I realize that something else is going on. I realize that if God was magic and my wish was granted and my dad was fine then I wouldn’t have to think about my dad. I could just get back to doing my own life. I mean, I’d love to think that I’d treasure my dad more, that I’d spend more time with him, that I’d be calling him more. But the truth is that it is because of the ache in my heart that I’m calling my dad. It’s because of the ache and facing it that I remember how much I treasure my dad. It’s because I don’t have limitless power and so can’t afford limitless neglect that I spend time, as much as I can, with him. And I also realize that as I walk with him during this time that I’m already feeling God’s presence and touch. I’m so glad God is someone and someone who knows me.

There’s something else going on with healing. There’s something that God’s doing that may not be what I’d choose, but it is there nonetheless. I get a glimpse of it in the story of the healing of the paralytic man. You remember this story, right? This is the story where Jesus is teaching in a house and a group of friends come, carrying a paralytic friend to Jesus. They can’t reach him because of the crowd that’s blocking the doorway, so they get up on the roof and dig a hole through and lower the man down. I get a glimpse of the truth of God’s work, of something else God is doing, when it says that Jesus, on seeing the faith of these friends, looked at the paralytic and said, "My son, your sins are forgiven."

No one expected that. No one was looking for this man’s sins to be forgiven. They were looking for their friend to be healed. The people around Jesus began to complain that he was over stepping his bounds there. Only God forgives sins, they grumbled. Jesus knew what they were saying and said, "Do you think it’s easier to say ‘your sins are forgiven’ than it is to say, ‘rise and walk’?" Jesus knew what else was going on. Jesus knew about healing. And he’s got us pegged doesn’t he? Don’t we think it’s easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven," than "Rise and walk"?

But is it easier? How easy it to forgive sins? It must be bigger. I’ve been reading the story of Carolyn Manosevitz, a Jewish artist who refers to herself as a "second generation" survivor. Her story is about healing and her healing has come from facing and dealing with the forgiveness, the reconciliation needed following the Holocaust or Shoah – catastrophe – as she calls it. She speaks of the silence in her home regarding the death of 6 million Jews. She tells how no one ever spoke of the 40 people from her own family who were killed in the Ukraine during the Nazi regime. They just lived in silent grief.

She tells how difficult it was her to deal with her own son going to live with his German girlfriend in Germany or to speak with the young, German theology student who came to her seeking reconciliation after seeing some of her paintings. "Not in my lifetime," she told him, but then let him stay, listened and spoke with him and discovered some healing. She discovered healing in that her pictures were being seen and discussed in seminaries. She discovered healing in being asked to speak to seminarians who were willing to face the failure of the Christian church in response to the Holocaust. She found healing in being able to talk about the overwhelming pain of the Jewish people, her own pain. She calls this process of forgiveness and reconciliation Tikkun Olam, which means "mending the world." This is not an easy thing. It’s so hard to forgive, truly forgive.

And that’s what God’s about isn’t it? Isn’t that what our Bible tells us? God isn’t about being magic. God is about the true mending of the world. God knows this world and all its tragedy. God knows our pain. My Savior wept when his friend died. The prophets cry out for pages and pages of the heartbreak of God in the world’s separation from him, in Israel’s separation from him.

Jesus knows our pain and he knew about healing. He knew that there was something bigger going on. He knew that reality is not something God sniffs at or dismisses, but it is where he is actually dealing with the pain and suffering of the world. God is dealing with the real world we live in. Jesus knew that healing was something that could begin with him doing the things that proved God was here, saying words like "Rise and walk", touching leprous people, telling a blind man to wash his face so he could see again. Jesus knew that healing the world began with simple actions like that. But he knew that the forgiveness of sins was going to require everything. It wasn’t going to be just a touch of God’s power. It was going to take the full expression of God’s power. Forgiveness was going to require everything of Jesus.

Tony Campolo tells the story of a mother bringing her little boy in his braces for healing and how he prayed and he felt God’s presence and how he opened his eyes and nothing happened. But then he goes on to tell how a year later he was at another speaking engagement when a woman approached him and introduced herself. She was the mother of the little boy. "Oh," said Tony, "How’s it going? How’s he doing?" And she said, "Wonderful! There he is now." And a bright, sparkling boy came running up to her without any braces. She told Tony how everyday, from the time of the prayer, how his braces became more and more uncomfortable and how they had to keep adjusting them and adjusting them, loosening them up, until they just weren’t needed anymore. He was healed. Tony wanted to be in on it. He wanted his wish to be granted, but it belonged to God. Healing belongs to God.

Our God is not magic. God is love. And God walks us into the healing we need if we trust in him. Some days I just want magic. But most days I want my friend Jesus. Jesus… the one who comes with authority, the one who knows how the real world works, the one who knows healing – real healing, the one who gave everything. That’s why I come here. That’s why I sing here. I come and I sing because he gave everything for our healing, for the healing of the world. That’s why I leave here determined to bring his healing touch and his authoritative words to others. That’s who we are, right? We are people who are determined to bring his touch and words to others.

We come together because we want to be the people God uses to mend the world. That’s what why we have a church here. Because here we remind ourselves of the resources we have to draw on as we go out to be people who mend the world. Tikkun Olam. You know the pain. You know the need. You know the resources. Go mend the world.