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| "Ephphatha!" |
In my congregation, the ever-expanding prayer list includes people who really need some healing.
(I could use some myself.)
How do you talk about healing? Do you pray for it? For others? For yourself? What did the healings in yesterday's stories touch off for you?
Share your thoughts in the comments, or if you post something on your blog, leave a link we can follow.
It is a question I have been struggling with for the past month or so. I have a PTA friend who is dying of cancer and will leave her three teens and husband very soon. When I visit and pray with her, I pray for that "peace which passes all understanding" as she plans and prepares for her last days. We've talked about the ultimate healing that comes in death - and that there is pain and suffering worse than death. Our Christian hope depends on a promise of something better, even if we don't know what it is specifically.
ReplyDeleteI continue to pray for a miracle healing but I don't really believe it will happen. How's that for faith?
I didn't preach yesterday, but when I pray for healing, or pray with those who are hurting, I focus on restoring wholeness - Spirit - more than physical health. Part of that is acknowledging that the body is finite and limited and not being afraid of death, in as much as it is part of life. Part of it is acknowledging that time isn't ours. Part of it is acknowledging that we cannot understand why of every situation, as much as we'd like to - admitting what we don't know, what we can't know. Part of it is acknowledging that 'health' isn't identical for every person; I have heard stories of people who are not physically able but live life with much greater compassion and love than the most physically gifted among us.
ReplyDeleteThe healing of the man in yesterday's Gospel reminded me again how carefully the stories of Jesus' healings preclude our identifying and, of course, marketing, any sort of Magic Jalap "exactly as used by our Lord and Saviour in his healing ministry"...
ReplyDeleteThat, and the ways our mothers and grandmothers rectified disorder of various kinds by means of spit.
What would you think of this...that there is a dimension of healing that means restoring to the sufferer all the parts/aspects of her/himself that AREN'T frightened, or in pain, or grieving? A kind of healing that stands between the suffering self and the threat that suffering will simply consume the whole person?
I'm asking because I knew a priest who could do it. I would walk into his office just disappearing down the drain-hole of my own woe, and come out feeling interesting and knowledgeable and etc. -- with some woes, true; but "there's more to me than that." AND I NEVER CAUGHT THE TRICK. I know he didn't tell me to cheer up and count my blessings and he didn't argue with me and he didn't CHANGE THE SUBJECT. But life somehow looked possible again.
Jonathan Miller wrote an essay on how we take on the scripted role and rituals of The Patient when we get sick...it's really quite ceremonious (or ceremonial, or both)...maybe there is a matching process for healing?
Yes, for me it's the distinction between cure and healing. I'm thinking of a family whose adult daughter, a partnered lesbian, was dying of pancreatic cancer. Cure? No. None of us get ut of this world alive. But healing? The loving care that they gave the dying woman, after being estranged for many years, and the kindness they showed to her partner...that is a kind of healing, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteAnd as CR mentioned, trying to avoid that sense that there is something magical happening - "if I say the right prayers, my loved one will be cured" - seems an important response to the gnosticism of a secret way of getting God to do what you want...
Yes, for me it's the distinction between cure and healing. I'm thinking of a family whose adult daughter, a partnered lesbian, was dying of pancreatic cancer. Cure? No. None of us get ut of this world alive. But healing? The loving care that they gave the dying woman, after being estranged for many years, and the kindness they showed to her partner...that is a kind of healing, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteAnd as CR mentioned, trying to avoid that sense that there is something magical happening - "if I say the right prayers, my loved one will be cured" - seems an important response to the gnosticism of a secret way of getting God to do what you want...
This was very personal for me this weekend. I found myself in an awkward spot, where the people who needed my care were also aware that I was functioning way under 100% due to an RA flare. As I sat praying with them, I realized the conflict between my heart (I want healing for them! And I want it for me, too!) and my mind (Healing means more than actual physical healing, etc.). And in that moment, when we were all tearful, I didn't hedge in the prayer. And I'm not sure how I feel about that now, except uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteMartha, thanks for your candor with the people you were serving, and here. I think the most powerful pastoral care I've ever seen was someone sitting with a person who didn't know why they weren't getting better, or if they would, and being fully present to them, and saying, "Yes, that SUCKS." and briefly sharing that she had been in a similar situation with her spouse.
ReplyDeleteThe loneliness of illness can be utterly consuming. People need to know that their pastors have been/are there. (I know that's a fine balance, but I believe it.)
Jesus sent the apostles out to heal the sick and raise the dead in his name. He and His word are alive today, and we need to be asking him into today's hurts and pain and lifting ourselves up for his healing. His word describes 26 plus healings during his earthly ministry as training and example for us.
ReplyDeleteCheck out Order of St. Luke International Healing Ministry. Lots of healing there; and lots of training in healing ministry for all of us. Abundant blessings!
I think that in both of the healings we see something sort of different than what we do today...today we surround those who are sick with loved ones...when I was sick in the hospital my parishioners and friends wanted to come and surround me...I wanted to be alone! In the healing stories, the mother comes to Jesus and returns to her daughter...and the man is taken in private with Jesus...alone...with the Savior..the Messiah. For me it seems that the healings that take place have to do with the relationships with Jesus and the one being healed...it is what the Gentile woman said that was good...her tenacity and insistence...her prayer...and it was the man's time alone with Jesus...for me, death is inevitable and part of life. We talk about it...Acknowledge it...talk about the fear, or the blessing...whatever feeling is present at that moment. And if the body heals for a moment in time, then we give thanks for that moment in time...but that isn't forever..I believe the healing comes in the heart and soul of who and whose we are as a child of God...the shalom of our being...the peace of who we are right then and there...knowing that we have been made right and that we can turn and face God knowing that we are loved, forgiven, and embraced tightly for life. So how do I talk about healing...I talk about it everyday of my life...how it takes prayer and conversation with God the CreatorRedeemerSactifier daily for me to remember that I am not alone...even though God is always there, I need to recall the healing power of the presence of the Spirit...I talk about and offer prayer of the healing and imprint of the cleansing waters of our birth and the freedom of the resurrection...I also share just how important and how much I covet the prayers of others for me...and how blessed I feel that the Spirit intercedes for us when we cannot find words ourselves for prayers of healing or for what we need or for what others' need. As much as I get it wrong...the Spirit must be exhausted! And as for the healing of the body, I do pray for that as well. I do believe that all things are possible. I do watch though that not only the person but also I don't begin to use language that would even invite a whim that God is blessing them by healing them and therefore "not" blessing them if they are not physically healed...that healing comes in all forms and ways...realtionships, spiritually, physcially....so many different experiences come to mind....
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking about this, in a way, connected not to this previous Sunday (during which I preached about creation), but toward an upcoming Sunday during which I will have to preach about Hannah and the birth of Samuel. We get Hannah's story because her prayers were answered. What about the women who prayed next to her, who prayed in their houses, who grieved without children for the entirety of their lives. In thinking about healing (and about answered prayer), I'm considering what it looks like to not to get the answer for which you are hoping. The heartburn it causes. Many times, I've found people my age didn't want to say anything to me about missing their spouse who was gone for a week or two because my husband and I have experienced two lengthy deployments apart. I always say everyone's pain is their own and is valid. Everyone's pain in illness, disquiet, or healing is their own. And all mixed up in that is what they think about God. This doesn't actually answer the question except that I think it's worth sometimes laying our faith up on the operating table and seeing it up close, personal, and (occasionally) stinky.
ReplyDeleteHere in Australia we have a groundbreaking woman Prime Minister. She is an incredible negotiator, and has worked with a hung parliament for two years and achieved significant climate change legislation among other things. A major human rights lecture has just been delivered focussing on the gender based abuse directed at the Prime Minister by her political opponents. I had been preoccupied by the horrors revealed in the lecture until late in the week and decided to preach about it. Mostly, I preached about openness, and the way in which the Syrophonecian woman confronted Jesus about his lack of openness to her. I really felt that the healing of the deaf man story demonstrated the earlier pericope, much like the story of the blind person being healed reflects the disciples' metaphorical blindness. I think radical openness to other people, and especially to people who are different, is a preoccupation of the early church. I think its reasonable to say that increased openness of spirit is a sign of healing. I hope that all makes sense!
ReplyDeleteUsually when I preach about healing I talk about the way that praying for healing changes us and makes us more open to God, and to the range of possibilities for healing that God might have in store. I also talk about the way that Jesus' healings restore people to their community life, and the way in which our inclusion of differently abled people can have the same effect as ancient healings. Rev R in Oz
Such a hard one. I'm ruminating on a sermon some day on Mark 1:32-34, when people bring lots of sick people to Jesus and he heals many of them. As others have said, healing goes beyond physical healing, but I'd want to affirm that it can include it - and we need to get past being worried/embarassed by this...
ReplyDelete(I've seen people recover from illness when the doctors said there was no hope. I've also seen people not recover. Holding those two facts in tension is not easy.)
I confess that I really struggle with praying for healing; I believe in it and I do it, and yet I am very aware that I have doubts and/or what may be termed as "low expectations." And maybe it has to do with that difference between being healed and being cured, which I get. But I also worry about the way *some* healing ministries imply that if one has enough faith and prays enough, a cure will be forthcoming. And that just seems wrong to be, and turns into victim blaming. I really like what Amy+ says above about praying for the peaces that passes understanding.
ReplyDelete