Healing Service and St.Luke’s Day

(Philippians 4: 10-14; Luke 10:1-9)

May the Spirit of God, gentle and unseen, open our hearts and our minds now, to show us the Father’s love, and to help us hear his invitation to us - to be made whole. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Do you remember holding a kaleidoscope to your eyes and watching as you turned it round and the different pieces of coloured glass formed into never-ending patterns! Picturing them in my minds eye took me back to my childhood – a long time ago! There was a beauty and harmony about the symmetry of every pattern created. But it was a very different story if the section at the end containing the coloured pieces got broken – then everything was fragmented and the beauty was lost.

That is our world today, and it has been the same down the ages. God created a world that was ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31), full of beauty and harmony, but the perfect-ness of that was lost when human beings chose to go their own way. Wherever we look, whether to our families and friends, to work colleagues, or to international leaders, there is much that is good, but we see too broken relationships, wounded emotions and sick bodies. And because we care, and want things to ‘be made better’, we pray for healing, for peace and harmony to be restored, and for people to be made well again. I would hazard a guess, most of us do that – it comes with the territory of loving - which means we are all involved in the healing ministry. When we offer friendship; when we listen to someone; when we have people round for a meal; when we support someone receiving medical treatment: when we weep with those who are weeping; in all these ways, and in other ways too, we are channels for God’s healing love.

In lots of ways we seek the ‘well-being’ or the ‘wholeness’ of another, and that is what healing is. The words health, whole and holy all come from the old English word hal which means complete. Sometimes I wonder why I did Latin ‘A’ level as I think I’d have enjoyed French much more! But as a result, I can tell you that ‘salvation’ can mean ‘healing’. Barry Preece, a former vicar here, in his course “Journey to Wholeness”, says “salvation is the process of healing, and the process of becoming whole.” (page 9 of Leader’s Manual)

And the church helps us ‘become whole’ through worship and prayer – and through social events. And maybe above all at Holy Communion each week, as we hold out our hands to receive the bread and the wine, we receive into ourselves the life of Jesus, and we do that in part to receive his healing power. Similarly, if we receive God’s blessing.

So why have a special service when prayer for healing is offered to anyone wishing to receive it? That is a very good question! My answer is that if we were offering the ministry of healing as Jesus envisaged, there wouldn’t be any ‘special services’, because prayer for healing would happen every day of the week and every Sunday, as the need arose. As Andrew has written recently in the Bulletin ‘healing should be part of the normal business of the church and nothing out of the ordinary.’ That is my view, and the view of Christine and Helen, and others at St.Mary's.

But surely, someone asked me in the week, God heals all the time? What reason can you give me for St.Mary's to have a more dynamic and public ministry of healing? There are two main reasons. One, because Jesus said so: healing is an essential part of the ‘good news’ we are told to share. Two, because healing plays a central part in Jesus’ ministry (Mark 1:32;Mark 5:21-43; John 5: 8-9, 6:2 and 9:7 ), and we are seeking to follow him and do as he did.

If you spend some time going through the synoptic gospels you will find that Matthew, Mark and Luke all have Jesus linking ‘proclaiming the good news’ with ‘curing the sick’. It was true of himself. In Matthew 9:35-36 we read ‘Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.’ (Other e.gs. Matthew 7:7-8; Mark 6:12-13; Luke 9:1-2 ) and it was true when he sent out the twelve disciples. Luke tells us ‘Then Jesus called the twelve together…. and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.’ (Luke 9: 1a and 2), Also when he sent out the seventy others, which we had in our gospel reading, Jesus says to them ‘Cure the sick who are [in the town you are visiting] and say to them ”The kingdom of God has come near you.” (Luke 10:9) Jesus’ mission strategy is ‘Don’t just tell the people that God loves them - show it.’ So the first reason for developing our healing ministry is a matter of obedience.

The second reason is a matter of love. Because of God’s love for us, and our love for him and our desire to become more like Jesus. In October 2006 I went to Denver to a conference about healing, where a couple of friends of mine were leaders. Francis MacNutt said that as Christians ‘Our glorious destiny is to become more like Jesus, and healing is about getting rid of what is in us that stops us becoming more and more like Jesus.’ St Teresa of Avila wrote that we are Christ’s hands and feet today.

‘Who, me?’ The seventy ‘others’ whom Jesus sent out didn’t have degrees. They hadn’t done three years training to become ordained or be a Reader! Some manuscripts say the number of people sent out was 72. It doesn’t matter, the principle is the same – they were ordinary people revealing God’s love to his people. They went in the name of Jesus, whose name, derived from ‘Joshua’, means God saves, or God heals. We are ambassadors for Christ today. (II Corinthians 5:20)

Another question put to me recently was ‘Do numbers matter [when praying with someone], surely the healing doesn't get stronger the more people that are there?’ Of course we can pray with someone on our own. But when the church offers prayer for healing, ideally we follow the model set by Jesus, to pray in pairs with people. That has the practical advantage that while one person is praying, the other can keep an eye on the person being prayed for and pray for the prayer, and can also listen to discern if the Holy Spirit is giving a picture or words to say.

So we all have a responsibility to be healers, to pray for the sick and those in distress, and for ourselves, and to believe that God will act. Sometimes people are healed in a physical way – think of Rod and Suzy. I can still remember vividly the Sunday morning after Rod had his hockey accident and we had the news that he would probably lose his sight in one eye. How we prayed for healing! And I can picture too the whole church in silence praying for Suzy when Robin was called to Epsom Hospital during a 10am Holy Communion service. Then at a later stage a group of us prayed for her healing after Morning Prayer one day, and she was anointed with holy oil, to symbolise God’s nurture and protection. Suzy and Rod and other members of St.Mary's, and other people we have prayed for, have received physical healing – not always complete healing, but significant healing to their bodies. And I have heard of tumours disappearing, arthritis gone and fractures mended. Sometimes the sick person had faith; sometimes not. Sometimes healing takes a time; Jesus taught we should persist in prayer. (Luke 18:1-8)

But others we pray for continue to be in pain, or sick, or depressed. Has God ignored our prayers? No: never. Sometimes healing takes place, but it is not physical healing: healing happens because the person who is ill, or facing great hardship, is given grace by God to cope, against all the odds. I know people like that at St.Mary’s as well.

I find some words of Brother Ramon very helpful - ‘In acceptance lies peace.’ That is partly about acceptance of the situation. That’s why I chose our first reading, where Paul says ‘I have learned to be content with whatever I have.’ (Philippians 4:11) But it is also about accepting that there are some things we shall never understand – in this life. It is about surrendering ourselves and those we love into God’s hands, knowing that healing is the very nature of God. It is about trusting that the power of God is at work among us. It is about praying each time with expectation, when we don’t understand the mystery as to why, sometimes – so far as we can tell – nothing seems to happen.

It’s very appropriate that our Gospel reading today is written by St Luke, because today is the day the church celebrates his life. In one of Paul’s letters Luke is called ‘the beloved physician’ (Colossians 4:14), which is why we have chosen today to focus on the healing ministry. Later on you will have an opportunity to have prayer for healing. The healer is always God, not the person praying for you. Bring to God your longing for healing, for yourself, or for someone else, and come expectantly. Jesus says to everyone ‘Come to me……. (Matthew 11: 28) Anyone who comes to me I will never turn away.’ (John 6:37) AMEN.

We all need healing – to be ‘made whole’. I know I do. So why not take a risk and ask for prayer today after you have received Holy Communion or God’s blessing? The prayer that Andrew and I will be praying is –

‘’May the Spirit of the Living God, present with us now,

fill you, body, mind and spirit, heal you and give you peace.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.’’

That prayer will be for you, or the person for whom you are asking prayer. Each one of you – you are God’s beloved son: you are God’s beloved daughter. Jesus is the good shepherd and He longs for you to be made whole. Come to Him. Amen.