AN OPPORTUNITY FOR HEALING AND WHOLENESS
FEBRUARY 15
Dear Friends in Christ,
During the month of February, some of the texts suggested by the lectionary schedule emphasize the miracles of healing by Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Mark. I will be preaching on those texts on February 8 and 15, and will take advantage of those sermons to explain what I see to be a healthy modern approach to healing. Then, after the second of those sermons, on Feb. 15, I will lead a brief service of healing for anyone who wishes to remain after worship and participate.
Through the centuries of the Christian religion, different approaches to physical and emotional healing have been exhibited. Accounts in both Old and New Testaments clearly record miracles of healing, as when a foreign general beset by leprosy washes in the Jordan and comes forth from the water clean, or when a woman cursed with an incessant flow of blood is relieved from that stigma by the words and touch of Jesus. The disciples, following in Jesus’ footsteps, heal a lame man and work other wonders. So in the apostolic age, such acts of healing seem commonplace. But in other centuries, the expectation of cure by spiritual miracle essentially disappeared. Our own founder of Presbyterianism, John Calvin, thought that such miraculous acts had stopped after the original apostles died. In recent decades, though, “faith-healers” like Oral Roberts or Benny Hinn seem to demonstrate again the possibility of physical healing through prayer and acts of the Holy Spirit. I say “seem to demonstrate” because other observers of these healers attribute their supposed success to sleight of hand and carefully staged theatrics.
What do you believe about healing through prayer and spiritual means? Do you side with the medical research that claims people who are prayed for get better more quickly, even if they don’t know they are prayed for? Or do you side with the medical research that claims no such prayer effect exists? What is healing, and should the church encourage people to seek non-medical cures for diseases?
It is questions like these that I will address in the sermons. I obviously cannot simplistically offer answers to them, but three primary ideas will guide my thought: 1. Healing, wholeness is not necessarily the same thing as cure; 2. There is a spiritual, emotional dimension to healing and illness; and 3. God works through the physical means of medical techniques to heal, even if God also works outside of those medical means.
Guided by those themes, and with the approval of the session, we will offer a service of healing and wholeness for any individual in the congregation who wants to come forward that day and receive the laying on of hands and anointment with oil. An individual may have a burdened relationship from which he or she wants some relief. Or he or she may have a stubborn sin needing to be silently confessed and absolved. Or perhaps there is a genuine physical ailment which can be alleviated through a proper attitude and prayer. I do not promise miracles. I do not want people to come for healing instead of seeking relief through medical means. And I do not want people to feel that their weak faith is to blame if they sense no relief or reconciliation through this service. Such expectations or conclusions misunderstand the process whereby God offers healing.
The service will begin after the regular worship hour ends, at 9:30 and 12:15, because I feel this should be a more intimate service and that not all will care to remain. After the benediction, I will greet people at the back of the sanctuary as usual. If some wish to remain for the service of healing and wholeness, it will begin after others have left. I invite you to consider your need for a service dedicated especially to reconciliation of our minds, souls, and bodies, and join representative elders of the congregation and me for this opportunity to experience the wholeness of God.
Shalom,
Rev. Duane Hix