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Healing and Wholeness

Psalm 111<= /p>

Mark 1: 21-28<= /i>

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In his book Loaves, Fishes, and Leftovers, pastor and theologian Ted Loder say= s:

“. . . clearly God cares about healing, yours and everyone else’s. Look = at Jesus and his ongoing work of healing people. So, I think . . . prayers for healing are good, honest, and faithful prayers. I also think they are answe= red in some way by a God whose wisdom and love outrun our own.

I also believe we need to be mindful, and heartful, of the difference between healing and curing. Healing refers, I think, to an inner peace and wholenes= s, an ‘underneath are the everlasting arms’ assurance that is deep= er than physical cures. I believe some prayers result in miraculous cures, but such cures are temporary at best.

They do not eliminate our mortality. Healing can involve a cure, but not necessarily. Healing refers to a deeper, more lasting state than a cure. I believe healing is a greater answer to prayer than a cure. Healing is somet= hing to pray for whether or not we have an illness or injury. (p.181-2)

In Mark’s gospel, the presence of God’s kingdom is often manifested through Jesus’ power to cure and to heal. Before all of the original disciples had been called, in Mark’s telling of the story, Jesus is in the synagogue teaching and is recognized as someone who really knows what he’s talking about. Although no details are given as to what he taugh= t, his hearers were astonished. But the details of the story are saved for wha= t he did: he cured and healed a man. The power and authority of his words were n= ot described but demonstrated. He ‘exorcised’ an unclean spirit fr= om a man whose quality of life, as we’d say today, was likely compromised = by epileptic seizures. In the Hebrew understanding of life, body, mind and spi= rit are inextricably joined together and what affects one affects the others. Physical illness often leads to the diminishing of our mental and spiritual health --- that’s the demonic element.

It’s tempting for us in the 21st century to look condescendingly at our forebears who thought people were “possessed” by “demons” when exhibiting symptoms that in our day would be diagnosed as illnesses. Yet, we still have diseases in our time that many refuse to name for what they are.= “Depression” is still considered by some to be a failure of spirit --- even a moral fail= ure --- on the part of those possessed by an inability to get their act together and get on with life like the rest of us claim the ability to do.

Military culture, possessed by its own demon of disdain for anything resembling human weakness, currently struggles to name post-traumatic stress for what it rea= lly is: the price paid for doing violence to others and having violence done to= us. We do get reminded from time to time that there are ways in which we have n= ot come all that far from what we consider ignorance in first century folk.

The passage which follows today’s gospel reading tells not of feeding the multitudes but of healing them. Later in the first chapter a leper is clean= sed of his dreaded disease. Before the first parable comes from the lips of our Lord, according to Mark’s narrative, a fever is cured, a paralytic is healed, a man with a withered hand is made whole again, and the multitudes = who had experienced the healing of many by the Sea of Galilee walk some distance along the shoreline to be in his healing presence again where they assume t= he boat carrying Jesus and his disciples will come ashore. Echoing a line from this morning’s Psalm, we’re told in that his ministry of healing the sick and infirmed is what first caused Jesus’ fame to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

I spent most of several days this past week visiting members of our congregat= ion who are coping with serious health issues and looking for a blessed healing= , if not a cure. Along with one of our Congregational Deacons, I was at Friendsh= ip Village to see four of our parishioners who are in the Health Center and several more in their apartments who have lost the integrity of a healthy b= ody, one of whom has Hospice care. Another of our members we didn’t catch = up with there was in the process of being moved from her apartment to assisted living.

Having made those visits, we went on to Rose Arbor, the peaceful Hospice residence where two of our members were nearing the end of their lives. That end has since come for one of them and is probably not far away for the other. With= all these visits having been made, we ran out of time before we could get to another nursing facility where other members enduring various health challe= nges are living.

I’d been to Bronson Hospital that same morning to visit with a long-time member, the mother of some of the very first kids I had the privilege to work with = in the earliest years of my ministry here. She had fallen and was awaiting sur= gery to repair a broken hip. When all the visits of that afternoon had been completed, I went back to the hospital, hoping to see the patient back in h= er room, all mended and enduring only the pain which would abate as healing pr= ogressed. I found her still awaiting her trip to the operating room, and she blessed = me with an example of gracious patience --- much more than I’d have had!=

Accompanied by one of our Parish Nurses, I made follow-up visits the next day to see th= ose at Rose Arbor and then to see how the friend who’d finally had surgery was doing. We discovered that one of those in the Hospice facility had been healed into eternal life during the previous night. Our visit with the other was timely, as they often led to be. In the midst of talking with family members present concerning end-of-life issues, two granddaughters who’= ;d been involved in our youth ministry programs years ago arrived from Chicago= and Los Angeles.

In some ways, pastoral care is easier to do with those whom we’ve been privileged to share the good times and bad over the years, and perhaps those relationships make a particular pastor’s presence more comforting. Because of who and what pastors are --- on your behalf --- however, hopeful= ly any of us can be used by God to bring the healing presence of Christ to a bedside or wherever the ailing or dying and their loved ones may be. But a faith community has a much broader interest in health and healing than simp= ly sending its pastors to visit and pray with those whose health and wholeness have been stripped away.

Many of you have been personally affected by the ministry of our Parish Nurses in recent years --- or you know someone who has. They have provided a kind of pastoral care that goes far beyond what your ministers have the knowledge, training or time to do. I can think of the myriad occasions when our members --- especially those who have no family nearby --- were given rides to a doctor’s appointment by a Parish Nurse who provides a familiar and trusted presence, knows questions that should be asked of medical personnel, can help translate information and advice the doctor may give --- and then = help the person follow-up on a course of health maintenance or recovery.

I reflect on some of the roles played by the Parish Nurse who accompanied me = on pastoral calls this week. A patient needing some weeks of physical therapy following surgery consulted with her concerning the relative merits of plac= es where that rehab might take place. I’m aware from other experiences t= hat similar conversations have gone on by phone with family members who may live some distance away and need advice to help with such decision-making. =

There was conversation with the family of the dying, reviewing the stages of what= is and will be happening, answering questions that involved a mix of the spiri= tual with the medical. There was the offering of prayer --- which I somehow think means much more to folk when it comes from someone who didn’t spend t= hree years in seminary learning how to do it! And all of these ministries came f= rom one who had, some months earlier, been helpful to the family in making info= rmed decisions concerning the appropriate time to begin Hospice care.=

The Parish Nurse program in our church has been carried out primarily by three volunteers who received training from the national network of parish nursin= g. They have been very generous with their time and energy while educating and caring for our congregation, and have on many occasions made real the heali= ng power of Christ in our midst. Especially to a congregation with many senior citizens (or whatever the “PC” label is these days), the value = of a health-care ministry has been demonstrated over and over again. For a varie= ty of reasons, however --- including time and energy --- this ministry was not going to be able to continue in its present form for very much longer.

It is the wisdom of the Session that we continue this program and even expand = it by hiring a “Health Ministry Coordinator” to be a part-time mem= ber of our staff. This past Wednesday the Elders approved a recommendation from= the Personnel Committee to fill that position created by Session action several months ago. The recruiting and training of new Parish Nurses and the coordination of their ministry with that of our pastors and Deacons will be= a large part of the responsibilities of this position.

Visitation to the homebound and hospitalized may be one of the more obvious ways you w= ill see this person in action, but hopefully you will take advantage of educati= onal opportunities they will develop for all ages to help us understand and make healthy choices affecting our lifestyle and the world around us. Some of you will hopefully feel called to join the health ministry team by responding to volunteer opportunities this new staff member will be providing and coordinating to help meet the physical, mental and emotional health needs of our congregation.

Of the applicants interviewed for this position, I’m happy to say it was= one of our current Parish Nurses, Jane Givens, who clearly stood out as the rig= ht person to do the job.

You’ll be hearing a lot more about this expansion of our much-valued health care m= inistry in the days to come, so my comments this morning in the context of today’s scripture lesson are meant merely to communicate that this congregation’s leadership has made a commitment on your behalf to ins= ure the continuing ministry of our Lord’s healing presence which was so boldly proclaimed in the opening pages of Mark’s gospel. <= /span>

As we contend with the demonic inadequacy of a broken health care system in our nation; and as we confront a world --- not so far from our doors --- in whi= ch the myriad effects of poverty destabilize families and marginalize far too = many lives, we have much we need to learn about the relationship between faith a= nd health. Reflecting on the connections between values, beliefs, behaviors and well-being is crucial to living out our faith in responsible ways. “G= reat are the works of the Lord,” today’s Psalm declares; but those works, it notes, need to be “studied by all who delight in them.̶= 1;

I close with the words of Frederick Buechner, who in his novel Brendan gives = us insight on the nature of healing --- and of our need for it:

Pushin= g down hard with his fists on the table-top he heaved himself up to where he was standing. For the first time we saw he wanted one leg. It was gone from the knee joint down. He was hopping sideways to reach for his stick in the corn= er when he lost his balance. He would have fallen in a heap if Brendan hadn’t leapt forward and caught him.

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“= ;I’m as crippled as the dark world,” Gildas said.

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“= ;If it comes to that, which one of us isn’t, my dear?” Brendan said.

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Gildas= with but one leg. Brendan sure he’d misspent his whole life entirely. Me t= hat had left my wife to follow him and buried my only boy. The truth of what Brendan said stopped all our mouths. We was cripples all of us. For a momen= t or two there was no sound but the bees.

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“= ;To lend each other a hand when we’re falling,” Brendan said. “Perhaps that’s the only work that matters in the end.” (p.76, Listening to Your Life)