Faith, Healing, and the New Creation

Sermon delivered on the second Sunday before Lent, February 12, 2012, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Columbus, OH.

Lectionary texts: 2 Kings 5.1-14; Psalm 30; 1 Corinthians 9.24-27; Mark 1.40-45.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Not too many years ago, I would read stories of healing like we find in today’s OT and gospel lessons and wonder about it all. I never doubted that God has the power to heal. After all, if we are ready to declare God to be omnipotent, we have to allow for (and expect to read) stories of this kind. And if God is omnipotent, then there is no such thing as a healing “miracle.” This is just business as usual for God and his kingdom, even if it sometimes violates our understanding of anatomy, physiology, biology, chemistry and all the rest. No, what I wondered about is why God chose (and chooses) to heal some while others he apparently does not.

Now if you are hoping I am going to preach a sermon that answers this question, you are going to be greatly disappointed because I don’t have the answer. I have not been let in on the joke. None of us have. God will do as God will do. As Job learned, we must develop the wisdom and humility to be content with this truth because the Bible is quite reticent in explaining to us why God allows evil to manifest itself, in part, through insidious diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, and a host of others. Instead, Scripture assures us that God has done and is doing something about the evil that bedevils his good but fallen creation. It promises us that evil and all the wrongs of this world have already come under God’s righteous judgment and will one day be banished forever (cf. Psalms 37, 73; Isaiah 55; Colossians 2.15; Revelation 21-22). As a result, we are invited to put our whole hope and trust in God and live in faith that God is indeed in charge, despite occasional appearances to the contrary. Scripture repeatedly assures us we are headed somewhere, and for the good. This is not unlike the message that Fr. Eric preached about last week when he shared with us his story about the trials and grace of faithful waiting.

I have become persuaded that this hope of new creation is the right approach to help us understand stories like the ones we read in today’s lessons as well as our own struggles with the various evil that confronts us and those we love. And so this morning I want us to put on our glasses of faith, along with our thinking caps, to see what these stories can tell us so that God might form in us ears that hear, eyes that see, and minds that understand so that we can turn to God and be healed (cf. Isaiah 6.10). But I am also going to suggest to you there is more to be had from these stories than just the hope of our own healing. Yes, it is natural for us to want to be healed. But if we are going to be followers of Jesus, these stories also suggest that we are called to be healers in his Name.

We all need healing, of course, because human sin has resulted in us being alienated and exiled from God, our source of life, health, and wholeness. God created us to have a relationship with him, one in which we reflect his glory out into his world and in which we are good stewards of his creation. But human pride entered the picture and we decided we weren’t content with being God’s creatures. We’d rather play God, and in doing so we cut ourselves off from our life support system, which, of course is not only bad for our health but also for our very survival! We see this dynamic illustrated poignantly in today’s OT lesson. Joram, Israel’s king, demonstrated the effects of being alienated and exiled from God when he misinterpreted his counterpart’s overture to him. Joram knew he didn’t have the power to heal Naaman and sadly he didn’t know God. Otherwise, his reaction would not have been one of fear and anxiety in which he thought the king of Aram was trying to start a war with him. Instead it would have been more like Elisha’s: So what’s the problem? Is there anything too big for God to handle? You cannot have that kind of faith without really knowing God. And when, by God’s grace, and your own efforts to develop your relationship with God through regular prayer, Bible study, worship, and intimate fellowship with other of God’s people you do know God as well as Elisha and countless other saints, you will discover (if you have not done so already) that your anxiety level will be dramatically and noticeably lower, if not gone altogether.

That is because God has both the power and needed mercy to heal us so that we can be agents of his healing love to others. I am not necessarily talking about physical healing here, although the Bible is full of stories about that kind of healing and we all know stories of folks who have experienced the wonderful and gracious healing power of God. Instead, I am talking about the kind of healing that Joram needed and we all need, the kind of healing that results when we are reconciled to God so that our separation and exile from him are ended forever. God made that possible for us when he became human in the person of Jesus and died a criminal’s death on a Roman cross so that God’s holy justice could be satisfied and we, his stubborn and rebellious human creatures, could be rescued from our exile from God. As Paul reminds us in Romans 8.3, it was sin in the flesh that God condemned on the cross, not humans. Without being redeemed and washed clean by Christ’s blood shed for us, a fact that is powerfully symbolized in our baptism, we have no hope of ever enjoying the kind of healing, life, and power over evil that God intends for us (cf. Romans 6.3-7).

This gift of healing and life is ours through faith and thankfully God has given us signposts along the way to help us develop and strengthen that faith. This is where the today’s stories of healing (and others like them) come into play. In Naaman’s case, his healing did not occur until his nascent faith was made manifest in his obedience, which in turn strengthened his newly formed faith. At first Naaman came to Elisha in pride and with a full set of expectations on how his healing was to be effected. By his hissy-fit reaction to Elisha’s command, it is clear that Naaman put more stock in human ritual and magic incantations than he did in God. And when those expectations were violated, he went away in a huff. If not for the courage and good sense of one of his underlings, Naaman never would have found the healing that was available to him.

By contrast, in today’s gospel lesson we see that the leper approached Jesus in faith and humility. He knew Jesus could heal him and he wasn’t about to tell Jesus how to do his work. He just asked Jesus to heal him so that he could be made clean and reintegrated back into society. What is even more astonishing than the healing is the fact that Jesus would touch this man in the first place because doing so would make Jesus unclean and an outcast like the leper. But Jesus didn’t care one lick about that. God’s love never turns anyone away who approaches him in faith, humility, and expectation, no matter who we are or what we have done.

Again, we need to be careful here in how we interpret this story because I am sure almost everyone in this room at one time or another has prayed in faith, humility, and expectation for healing for ourselves and/or our loved ones, only to have our prayers apparently denied. I cannot tell you why that is because as we’ve seen, none of us can understand fully the mind and purposes of God (cf. Isaiah 55.8ff). Instead, we are invited to see these healing events as tangible signs of God’s kingdom breaking in on us, not completely as it will be when Christ returns to usher in fully God’s promised new creation (even those Jesus healed and raised from the dead eventually died or died again), but rather as previews of what God has in store for those who love him and put their whole hope and trust in him. In the new creation all God’s people will be healed permanently and for all eternity, and we get glimpses of this in these healing stories.

This is our hope and promise as Christians and we are called to do something about it. If we really believe that in Christ God has ended our exile and alienation from him and that the promised new creation both awaits us and is breaking in on us, it means that we have work to do right here and now because this world and its people are important to God. And so we are called to deny ourselves, take up our cross each day, and follow Jesus. Doing so allows Jesus to work in and through us to use us as his agents of healing, as signposts of his promised new creation, even if we are not all called to be physicians, counselors, or other professional healers (although some of us are called to serve in this capacity).

We can bring God’s healing love to others in the context of our daily lives by the way we treat them. We do so whenever we show patience and mercy to others when none is deserved. We can bring God’s healing to others when we choose to forgive them rather than to exact revenge when they do us wrong, or when we work tirelessly for reconciliation between estranged parties, especially if we are one of those parties. We bring God’s healing love to bear when we show compassion and concern for folks and their lives, just like we are doing by supporting Fr. Eric’s and Shirley’s future campus ministry, or when we brave cold weather to gather food for W.A.R.M. to distribute to those in need. We bring healing to others by bearing their faults and foibles with good cheer and charity. I see you do that all the time when you put up with my idiosyncrasies and foibles. We bring healing to others simply by being there when they need us. And of course we bring God’s healing love to bear on others when we pray for them on an ongoing basis, especially when they are our enemies. If you are still skeptical about the ability of God to use you to bring about signs of God’s healing and new creation, and since today is President Lincoln’s 203rd birthday, pick up Jay Winik’s masterpiece, April 1865, and read about how Lincoln’s humility, compassion, and willingness to forgive his enemies and be reconciled to them was critical in saving our nation at the end of the Civil War.

God will not call most of us to be an Abraham Lincoln. Instead, God calls us to bring his love and healing to bear on others in the most common and unremarkable ways. But that, of course, is the way of the cross. Never underestimate how God can use you to bring about healing, hope, and signs of his new creation to others, even if you are never aware of what God accomplishes through you! There are literally countless ways we can bring Christ’s healing love to bear on others. We simply have to be willing to embody Jesus in our daily living and allow him to give us a heart and a passion for whatever it is he calls us to do.

Whenever we are willing to deny ourselves in the name of Christ for the sake of others—not in an unhealthy manner, of course, but in a truly self-giving way—we open ourselves up to be channels of God’s great healing love, both for ourselves and others. Did you know the main Greek word for healing used in the NT, therapeuo, means to serve as well as to provide a cure? This implies that we can find our own healing whenever we serve others selflessly in the name of Christ! Is that just not way too cool and full of hope?

But let’s also be honest and approach our calling, whatever it may be, with eyes wide open. None of what I have been talking about is easy and this is where Paul’s epistle lesson comes in because following Jesus will take a lifetime of strenuous effort, precisely because we are so profoundly broken. Our faith will be challenged regularly and on multiple levels, and we have no hope of prevailing without the Spirit’s presence living in and among us. When we decide to follow Jesus we will immediately make multiple enemies, both human and spiritual. The powers and principalities do not want us to succeed and that is why we can only stay the course with the help of the Spirit. But as Paul reminds us, if we are willing to work hard for a crown of dried celery, i.e., for things that are temporary and of no lasting consequence, things like money, power, and prestige, why would we not be willing to work that much harder for the things that have such enormous and eternal consequences, for things that serve as signposts for God’s promised new creation so that others can believe the Good News and be healed? It just doesn’t make sense.

Do you have the kind of faith, hope, and love necessary to deny yourself, take up your cross each day, and follow Jesus so that he can use you as his agent of healing, hope, and new creation? We know new creation is coming because we have seen God at work among his people in Jesus and his prophets to introduce signposts for us to help us grow in our faith and stay the course of faithful obedience to God. If you have these fruits of the Spirit you really will find healing that transcends your mortal body as well as your deepest hopes and fears. And if you don’t see these signs of grace growing and maturing in your life, stop now and ask God to bless you with them so that you too can learn in full measure what life is all about. In the process, you will discover what it is like to have Good News, now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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