Healing - February 22
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm [120], 121, 122, 123; PM Psalm 124, 125, 126, [127]
Prov. 4:1-27; 1 John 4:7-21; John 11:30-44
The death of a loved one can shake a person’s faith. Sam Wells, vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, England, visited with us at Saint Stephen’s earlier this month. In his talk addressing the question, “Can God Heal?”, he shared a personal story of his mother’s illness and death when he was a teenager. The cancer in her body was not going to get better. Sam revealed the tension he felt in prayer during that time. Was he to have prayed to God to heal his mom? Did he trust God enough to ask that question? Did he believe that his mother could and would be healed? How would he respond if his prayers did not bring the desired result?
These questions are so direct and yet complex – and they resonate so deeply in the life and faith of those who have lived in loss. We see similar tensions in the miraculous healing of Lazarus in John 11. Knowing their friend Jesus is a healer, Mary and Martha send a message to him to advise him that their brother Lazarus is very ill. Jesus is not expedient in his travel and Lazarus dies before he arrives. The sisters are heartbroken and weeping. Each says to Jesus that if he had been there, Lazarus would not have died. Jesus uses this time to build their faith – so that they will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the divine promised one. They weep together, sharing in the mourning. As tears fall, the love for Lazarus is apparent. Healing begins in this quiet, shared space.
Jesus brings a miraculous healing to this scene, praying to God, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” Sam Wells might say that this is a scene of “loud healing”, where Jesus calls into the cave and demands that Lazarus emerge, healed of the bonds of death as the burial cloths around his body are stripped away. Jesus as the Messiah is also bringing salvation into this story and the world – and so corporal healing is just one piece of the all-encompassing spiritual wholeness that is the gift of God’s Son.
There is no easy way to sit with this healing story, especially when we do not want our beloved friend to die from breast cancer, or our dad to slip away from dementia, or our classmate to contemplate suicide because the depression is just so heavy. We want Jesus to call our loved ones out of the tomb. These spaces are hard, and they are also holy – for as we weep with and for our friends who are struggling or have died, the tears of Jesus are intermingled with ours. The Holy Spirit is there as the Holy Comforter, holding us tightly as we crumple to the floor or sit stoically in silence because there are no words.
If you are going through a space of loss or heaviness, know that you are not alone. There is a grief support group that meets at Saint Stephen’s on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month – and February 23 at 3pm is our next date to meet. To experience all of Sam Wells’ presentation “Does God Heal?”, you may watch it on YouTube.
- Katherine+
Questions for Reflection
What loss do you grieve today? How does this loss shape your prayers?
Do you ask for God to heal or resolve spaces of pain and illness? In these prayers, what feelings are you offering to God, and what emotions are you hiding from God?
Daily Challenge
Below is a reflection on grief. Read through this piece. Spend a few minutes reflecting in silent prayer. Write down the word or phrase that sticks with you. Who needs to hear these words today? Pass them along.
I had my own notion of grief.
I thought it was a sad time
That followed the death of someone you love.
And you had to push through it
To get to the other side.
But I am learning there is no other side.
There is no pushing through.
But rather,
There is absorption.
Adjustment.
Acceptance.
And grief is not something that you complete.
But rather you endure.
Grief is not a task you finish,
And move on,
But an element of yourself –
An alteration of you being.
A new way of seeing.
A new definition of self.
-- from Mindful Christianity