Three Weeks of Healing... Part 2

Three Weeks of Healing… Part 2

(Homily at Trinity Church / February 5, 2012 / Rev. George Pell)

Our gospel reading for three of the last weeks leading up to Lent focus on Jesus’ early public ministry… and each of these stories is about healing

Mark 1:21-28…. Healing of a man tormented by the demons of his life

                                  Resistance to healing (What have you got to do with us?)

Mark 1:29-39…. Healing of Peter’s mother-in-law + others

                                 (At Peter’s home in Capernaum)

Mark 1 :40-45…. Leper (to Jesus ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.”

                                 (Initiative by the man desiring healing)

Last week I mentioned the work of a University of Toronto professor,  Patricia Klassen, who has recently studied the understanding and practice of healing in what she describes as ‘liberal protestant churches’ (that means US). She discovered that our churches focus on ‘wholeness’ and a balance of our body-spirit-soul more than ‘cures’.  The focus is less on present restoration, rather than future wholeness. That ties in well with our teaching on life being a journey with God, and into God.

After looking at the man’s illness and even resistance to being healed, we then looked at Jesus, then healer.  It wasn’t a matter of Jesus seeking a person to heal; it was Jesus responding to the need for healing and wholeness of this man that he likely had never met before.

Today’s story moves us just a few steps from the synagogue in Capernaum to the home of Peter and Andrew.  Peter’s mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever.  When Jesus heard of this (and remember he hadn’t come there in order to heal her) he went in to visit; and something in his presence caused her fever to leave. A case of healing presence.  Perhaps you have felt yourself, or others may have said that a visit made a difference.  (‘I feel much better now.)

Ironically, in one sentence we hear of her healing, and also of cultural expectations.  It says… “Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.” (back to the kitchen…. Food is needed for the men.)

Then at sundown, others were brought to Jesus, and he continued his ministry of healing.  It must have been exhausting, for we hear that early in the morning Jesus got up early, and sought out a quiet place outside the village, where he prayed.  This quiet was broken by his disciples, who found him, and said that many more people were looking for him, seeking healing.  In this case, and that that time, Jesus didn’t say.. OK, let me put on my stole, and let’s back to it.  He could not spend all his time with the people one small village, even if they were sick.  He needed to move on, to share good news, and to being healing to women and men and children in other places.  Jesus knew he had to manage his time and energy.

Let me finish with a reflection on our personal readiness to be healers.

First… a  little theory….  

a)If God’s will for people is wholeness and way of life that confirms that the ‘Kingdom of God’ is near, and…

b) if we are baptized people, adopted sons and daughters of God, called to be co-workers with Christ for the kingdom; then…

c) we need to pray for and work to become more like Jesus… to be men and women who have heard the gospel, and a church which embodies the gospel… to be ready and wanting to be a healing presence and healing force in our community.

We need to pray that we are able to respond when it is the ‘kairos’ (the right time).  We also need to recognize our humanness, and like Jesus, know when it is time to be alone, and time when God calls us to other places and people.

 (When I lived on the Québec-Labrador coast, I would visit people, enjoy our time together, but then feel it was time to leave.  However, when I made an effort to excuse myself, people would say “You’ve got time.”  So, I would stay a bit longer before I was again bold enough to say I needed to leave.  It was only later that I discovered that the phrase ‘you’ve got time’ wasn’t a request for me to stay, but a local expression meaning… ‘I’ve enjoyed our visit, and you are most welcome to stay’… but no sense of an obligation to stay.)  

Jesus must have felt like that in Capernaum, and so many other places and times in his ministry. His presence was welcome and sought, but from time to time, he needed rest and quiet and prayer… and then to move on.

   

I know I want to be that sort of person.  I also know that I cannot do everything, be everywhere, and have infinite energy, compassion, patience and focus.

So the question is before us…

Is our church ready and wanting to be a healing presence in this community?

Are you ready and wanting to be a healing presence in this community?

So I do spend time in asking, reflecting, and responding to this  question in my position as a pastor as well as a baptized Christian.

Recently, there have been a variety of pressing needs with which I have been presented.  In one, I had been visiting with a woman, who then died.  Her daughter, from another church, phoned immediately upon arriving at her mother’s bedside.  I was there within five minutes, no questions asked. Was it because I had grown to love and care for her?  I think that certainly made a difference.  It was also early evening, just having finished my meal, and I was not ‘busy’ about other things.  Perhaps that made it easier.

Then, in another case, I had ‘booked off’ work, had begun my post-Christmas break, had been packing all day, and needed to leave early the next day.  I was also just at the beginnings of a cold that would stay with me for weeks, and sap my energy and ‘life’.  A call came late in the evening from a friend of a person who had just died.  I felt overwhelmed.  I was not able to be present with the friend or to make concrete suggestions, since I would not be around.

In God’s grace, provision for the pastoral care needed did emerge.  I have been able to spend time with the parishioner who made the request, and express my regrets that I was not able to provide the care she needed.  Perhaps our care for each other will be even stronger now that we have passed through this experience.  

Then, just two weeks ago on a Sunday… twenty minutes before the service…  I got a call from the hospital.  A person, whom I did not know, was dying, and the family had asked for a hospital chaplain, and I was the one on call.  What to do?  I nearly panicked, and said that I could do nothing, as I had other religious commitments (almost like the priest on the road who saw the Samaritan who had been attacked and passed by on the other side).  I tried to call Catherine, who shares hospital chaplaincy care with me.  I couldn’t get her.  Finally, my ‘preferred spiritual instincts’ kicked in, and I said ‘yes’… then arranged for someone to take the first part of the service.  In the end, all they wanted at the time was a pray, and I returned shortly.  Later, Catherine spent the afternoon with the family.

Finally, just this past night, as I was typing out my homily, a call came in.  A woman was being transported to the hospital, and wondered if I could give her a ride home afterwards.  Again, this time my focus and presence was good, and I was able to respond quite easily to the request (which nonetheless took me from my work and quiet evening).  The added grace was that we were able to have a good talk on the way to her home, which we had not been able to do for a month or so.

So, reflecting on this readings of healing, and my readiness and action as an agent of God’s healing… I recognize two things.  Healing and care is not just about going out and finding someone to heal, but ‘being ready’; though that doesn’t mean always being able to respond to each request.  Opportunities such I have described help me to recognize my humanness and imperfection, and I need to remember that God does not expect me to be perfect.  But all situations can become tools for learning… for prayer and for reflection, and for readiness.

It is the same for each of you… God’s people.. part of a healed and healing community.  We need to grow into the likeness of Jesus, to ask God that we may be a part of the healing of our world and its people.

Thanks be to God.