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Redford Aldersgate
United Methodist Church
Sermon
Today, we complete the sermon series on Healing. We have dealt with healing of relationships, healing of the soul and healing of the mind. Today we are looking at Healing of the Body. Certainly, lots and lots of the healings that Jesus did, were physical healings. The song we just sang mentions several people that he healed of physical ailments. What ones do you remember? Who can name a person Jesus healed - either mentioned in the song or not? Let’s just list some of the people? (Have people mention ones they remember.)
Do you remember how he went about
healing them? We usually associate touch with healing. We think of Jesus
laying hands on people as he healed them. Certainly he
did do that. Here’s a list of people that he touched in some way. Some
it says he laid hands on them. For the deaf man, he put his hands in his
ears. The high priest’s slave had his ear touched. He took Jarius’
daughter and Peter’s mother-in-law by the hand and lifted them up. He
put mud on the eyes of the man born blind and spit in the eyes of the
blind man from Bethsadia before he laid his hands on his eyes. So he
touched in various ways. Then there was the woman with the flow of blood
who touched him. It doesn’t say that Jesus ever touched her, but touch
played an important part because she touched him. So physical touch was
important, but it wasn’t always necessary because there are almost as
many healings that took place without the mention of any touch.
Here
is a list of those healings where Jesus just said a word and they were
healed without any touching. There was the official's son and the
officer’s servant who weren’t even physically in the same place with
Jesus, yet when Jesus said they were well, they were. He didn’t go into
the tomb when he raised Lazarus from the dead. Instead, he stood outside
and called to him and he came out of the tomb. The man with the withered
hand was told to stretch out his hand and when he did, he was healed ..
which brings up another category of healings and that is those who were
instructed to do something either before or after or as they were
healed.
For
example, the man with leprosy was to go and show himself to the priests.
Two different paralyzed men were told to pick up their mats and walk and
when they did, they were healed. The man born blind had to go to the
Pool of Siloam and wash, when he did, his sight returned. Blind
Bartimaeus was told to go on his way and as he did, his sight was
restored. That was also true of the story I want us to look at in
particular today: the story of the ten lepers. Notice what they do, how
they are healed and what one of them does that brings an even greater
reward. This will give us some clues as to what we need to do to be
healed as well.
Luke 17:11-19
What did the ten people with leprosy do? They asked Jesus to have pity
on them. So what is a good thing for us to do when we need healing? Ask
Jesus to help us. It seems elemental but there are times we need to be
reminded of the most elemental things. There are people who just don’t
ask God to help. Let’s not let that be us. When we need help, we’ll ask.
Then what did Jesus do? He told them to go show themselves to the
priests. At first we might think that was rather silly. Shouldn’t they
go to a doctor? They did have physicians even then. But, you have to
realize that there were certain rituals that were prescribed by
scripture that people were to do when they had been healed of various
diseases. So Jesus was telling them to go and take part in the ritual.
And as they turned to obey, they were healed. So, the second thing we
can learn from this story is to take part in the ritual. Maybe it makes
no rational sense, but do it because the scripture says to do it.
In a few minutes you are going to have the opportunity to take part in
the ritual of a healing service. It has been part of our Book of Worship
since 1992, yet many churches have never had a healing service. I
remember how hesitant I was the first time we had one here. Our former
Music Director, John Potter, had been part of such a service at a
national convention of church musicians. I think it was around 1996 or
so. He thought it was wonderful and wanted to have one here. I was
hesitant. I had all these rather negative images in my mind from my
childhood of faith healers who would come to town and rant and rave and
lay hands on people and supposedly people were healed. Only later people
found out that the people who were cured weren’t really sick after all.
Then my own father who was blind went to a faith healer one time. The
preacher asked my dad, “Do you believe that God will heal you?” My dad
said, “I believe that if it is God’s will, God will heal me.” That
wasn’t the answer the preacher wanted to hear and he asked him again. My
dad held fast to his answer. So finally, the preacher prayed for him
anyway. My dad did not receive his sight. The preacher said it was
because he didn’t have enough faith. That never seemed right to me
because I knew my father to be a man of great faith.
So I wasn’t sure about a healing service. But John kept after me and
told me to read The Book of Worship. Here are some of the words in the
introduction to the Service of Healing:
Healing is not magic, but underlying it is the great mystery of God’s
love. Those who minister spiritual healing are channels of God’s love. A
Service of Healing is not necessarily a service of curing, but it
provides an atmosphere in which healing can happen. The greatest healing
of all is the reunion or reconciliation of a human being with God. When
this happens, physical healing sometimes occurs, mental and emotional
balance is often restored, spiritual health is enhanced and
relationships are healed. For the Christian the basic purpose of
spiritual healing is to renew and strengthen one’s relationship with the
living Christ.
I liked that. I agreed that the basic purpose of spiritual healing was
to renew and strengthen a person’s relationship with Christ. That is the
really important thing. And I liked the statement that it wasn’t magic
but was part of the great mystery of God’s love. And the sentence about
it not being a service of “curing” but a service which provides an
atmosphere where healing can occur fit in with my father’s experience.
For while he remained totally, physically blind, he always said he had
been healed of glaucoma. For when he went blind, he had terrible
headaches that were so severe that it put him in the hospital. He had
gone to many doctors telling them that he was concerned about these
headaches which would make him temporarily lose his vision. He was
afraid that one day he would get a headache and his vision wouldn’t
return. They said, “No, that wouldn’t happen.” ... but, of course it
did. And when it did, they diagnosed it as glaucoma and said that even
though his vision was gone, that didn’t mean that his headaches would
stop. And they didn’t ... until he went to that healing service. After
that, he never had one of those terrible headaches again. So he felt his
glaucoma had been healed. More than that, I know his spirit was healed.
That all happened when I was 3 and 4 years old. So I wasn’t really aware
of all the trauma that was going on with my mom and dad. But what I saw
as I grew up were two very spiritually healthy individuals who had an
incredible relationship of mutual support. They were both healed
spiritually which in the long run was infinitely more important. So this
Service of Healing, which wasn’t necessarily a service of “curing” but
one which provides the atmosphere in which healing can occur, was
looking better and better to me.
However, there was still the matter of anointing with oil. Again that
seemed a little “kooky” to me. What’s the big deal about the oil? After
all, Jesus never anointed anyone with oil. When we look at the list of
all those healings, not one had him anointing the person with oil. He
spit on a few ... anointing would have been better than that! ... but
still Jesus never anointed with oil, so why should we? Then as I was
stewing about that, I remembered this story in Mark. It takes place
after Jesus has done a lot of teaching and preaching and healing, then
he sends out his twelve disciples to do the same, without him. And it is
described this way. Let’s all read it together. So they went out and
proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and
anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. (Mark 6:12-13) So,
even if Jesus didn’t do it, that’s the way he had instructed his
disciples to do it. Besides there was the verse in James which says: Are
any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should
sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the
elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with
oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and
the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be
forgiven.
So, even though, it didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to anoint with
oil, that’s what the scripture said to do. And, back to those ten people
with leprosy... Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priests.
Maybe it didn’t make a lot of sense to them, but they obeyed. They
turned to go follow the ritual and do what the scripture told them to
do... and they were healed!
All this is to say that after a lot of stewing and praying with God,
discussing with Bob and struggling with John, Bob and I decided that the
scripture I was preaching on seemed to lend itself to a healing service.
So even though I had told John Potter on Thursday night that I wasn’t
comfortable doing it, on Friday, we put it into the bulletin. I was
still hesitant. Bob was a little more positive about it than I was, but
since I happened to be the preacher that day, he had left the decision
mainly up to me. I was afraid that no one would come forward and it
would be very awkward. However, it was an amazing service. Many, many
people came forward and I couldn’t believe how moved I was as I put the
little sign of the cross on the forehead of people I loved ... people
who I knew had various illnesses .... people who had various kinds of
problems. As I anointed them, put my hands on their heads and prayed for
them, I truly felt God’s presence in a way I had never experienced
before. After that, we had healing services 2 or 3 times a year.
However, for the past several years, we haven’t had any. It’s not that
we intentionally decided not to have them, it just didn’t seem to come
up. That’s why I decided to do a whole series on healing before we
actually had a healing service again, because I realize that there are
quite a few of you who may have never experienced a healing service
before and you may be having some of the same feelings I had before the
first one I participated in.
And as for the anointing of oil, I’ve really changed my mind about that.
A couple years ago when I had thyroid cancer, I read in a book about
Biblical Herbs that frankincense helped with the thyroid balance in the
body and that Myrrh helped in the body fight cancer (or maybe it was the
other way around, I can’t remember) but I had both issues AND I also had
some anointing oil that had both frankincense and myrrh in it. So I did
what the book suggested. Every morning I put a little oil in the palm of
my hand and I anointed myself, putting a little cross on my forehead.
Then I cupped my hands together and put them over my nose and mouth and
took three deep breaths, breathing in the vapors. Then I rubbed my hands
together and rubbed the rest into my hair. Now, I didn’t have chemo,
instead they made me radio-active which meant that I had to stay at
least 10 feet away from all adults and even farther from children. I had
to throw away any utensils I used to eat and a whole bunch of other
stuff. It made you feel a little like those lepers felt in today’s
scripture. But, what I wanted to tell you about was that the doctor told
me that I might not go totally bald, but that I should expect to lose
most of my hair. However, I lost very little. When I finally was allowed
to be close to people again, I went to the hairdresser and she was
amazed because she said that she couldn’t tell the difference. My hair
still was thick and healthy. Did the frankincense and myrrh do it? I
suppose I can’t really prove it ... but, I know all the prayers that
were coming from everywhere and my morning anointing ritual filled me
with a great calm and a blessed assurance that everything was going to
be all right ... and it was. Here I am! I am very grateful to God!
Which brings us back to the story about the 10 people with leprosy. They
asked for help. They went to take part in the ritual and they were
cleansed of their leprosy. That horrible disease that eats away at your
skin was gone. They were well! But what did one of them do? He returned
to give thanks. And when he did, Jesus said, “Your faith has made you
well” or other translations say WHOLE. The Greek word is SOZO. It means
complete health ... being delivered from any danger... having all the
blessings that God can bestow on us. It is not just being so-so... It’s
being SOZO. It’s a great word: SOZO. You don’t want to be so-so, you
want to be SOZO! The leprosy left all of them, but only the one had all
the blessings that God could bestow. What did he do that was different
from the others? He returned to give thanks. It is that thankful spirit
that opens us up to all the blessings that God has to give to us.
So
let us come to God with a thankful spirit, knowing that God does not
promise that we shall be spared suffering, but God DOES promise to BE
WITH US in our suffering and to give us many blessings. Let us open our
hearts to the great indwelling spirit of Christ that heals us from all
illness ... whether it is an illness of the body, an illness of the
mind, an illness in our soul, or an illness in any of our relationships.
As we look at our worship setting with light streaming from the cross,
let us image ourselves surrounded by the healing light of Christ. I
don’t know if you can all see where those lights surrounding the word
healing come together. But they are in a decorative bottle representing
the anointing oil and then they spill out onto the altar
representing the many ways God’s healing brightens up our ordinary
lives. So let us come into this atmosphere in which healing can take
place. Let us be made whole - Sozo! ... and receive the blessings God
wants to give us on this day.