Good morning, Friends! Thank you all for coming here to worship today!
This morning our scripture is one of the many stories in the gospel about healing. And before I read the gospel, I want to share something personal with you.
Last Thursday I went in to the hospital for a routine test. It was a colonoscopy, and everything turned out perfectly OK. I go in for one of these a little more often than most people, because there’s a history of GI problems in my family.
Some of you here at Springfield remember meeting my mother. She had a GI blockage which turned out to be cancer, about 45 years ago.
Some of you may also remember meeting my older brother. He had colon cancer, which they discovered during a routine exam. It was stage 4 when they caught it, and our whole family prayed for him. He’s been cancer-free for several years now, and we’re all very grateful that he’s still with us. He enjoys a very active life. But he wouldn’t be with us, if he’d put off that test.
When our son was in his 20’s, he found out he has Crohn’s disease. He had to have surgery, and he’s been doing fine now. We thank God for his good health, and for all the great care he’s had.
So, I get a colonoscopy a little more often than most people do, because of my family history. As I said, the test came back normal this week, and I’m 100% OK.
People always make jokes about colonoscopies – they’re an easy thing to laugh about. I don’t remember anything about my test, because I was sedated for it. It’s actually the prep for the test which isn’t much fun. But it wasn’t that difficult. It’s the fastest way to lose five pounds that I know about!
I spend a lot of time, talking with many of you about your health. And I listen, when you talk about all the tests you have to have, and the medicine you take, and how hard and painful it can be when you have to do physical therapy.
My point is, and I want you to listen to this – sometimes tests save your life! Don’t skip them. Don’t put them off.
I’ve heard every complaint there is about doctors and hospitals. But basically, they’re here to save lives.
I take pills, every day, for high blood pressure. Many of you do, too. Those pills help to protect us against strokes, which can be devastating. They also help to protect people against heart problems, and other illnesses. Those medicines can save your life. Don’t skip them!
Learn all you can, about how diet and exercise and not smoking can help you be healthy. Ask questions. Read all you can, and make changes in your life if you need to. A lot of the time, eating better, and moving around more, and not doing things which are unhealthy, can really help you. They can save your life, and make you much more comfortable.
But if your doctor tells you to take some medicine, take it. They want you to be healthy!
Go ahead and pray – we’re going to talk some more about that in a minute. But do the test, take the medicine, don’t skip, don’t put it off.
This is a public service announcement. Now, let’s read the gospel.
Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.
In the synagogue there was a man who was possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
“Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” And the news about Jesus spread throughout the surrounding area.
Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.
- Luke 4:31-40
Healing is a really important subject. We don’t talk about it nearly enough. At one point or another in our lives, everyone needs to be prayed for. And all through our lives, we all know people who need prayer.
Jesus prayed for people all the time. You can’t read the gospel, and not come across stories like the ones we just read today.
Jesus was a preacher. He shared good news with people, everywhere he went. People came to Jesus by the thousands, because they wanted to hear what Jesus had to say.
But Jesus was also a healer. His words, his prayers, his touch brought healing.
Many people who never heard Jesus preach came to him, because they heard that Jesus had healed other people. They hoped that he would help them, like he’d helped others. They hoped and believed.
In today’s reading, it says that one day, in a synagogue where Jesus was teaching, there was a man who was tormented by an unhealthy spirit of some kind.
We don’t really know what it was. Today, we would probably say that this man had some kind of mental illness. Mental illness can be just as debilitating as physical illness. Sometimes, even more so.
Not everyone who lives on the street has mental illness. But many, many people who live on the street, or who are in prison, have a mental illness which needs to be treated. They didn’t choose their lives. This is something which happened to them. It was a disaster, which destroyed them. Many of them try to treat it themselves, with street drugs or alcohol, which usually makes their problem worse.
I’m not going to try to unwrap all the issues here. I just want to highlight the fact, that Jesus reached out to people who struggled with this. And however Jesus did it, he helped them.
I can’t say this often enough – whatever Jesus did, he told us to do, too. Following Jesus means doing what Jesus did.
- If Jesus forgave people, we are called to forgive, too.
- If Jesus fed people who were hungry and thirsty, that’s our business.
- Jesus washed people’s feet, at the last meal he ate, and he told us to do the same.
- Jesus welcomed strangers and foreigners. That means that people who follow Jesus need to do it, too, in his name.
That’s not my opinion. That’s what Jesus said and did, sometimes at the risk of his own life.
But let’s talk some more about healing.
People back then believed that evil spirits were everywhere. The very air was filled with them. If you weren’t careful, you could breathe one in. That’s why, when somebody coughs or sneezes, people nearby say “Gesundheit!” which means, “Good health!” Or they say “Bless you!” It’s an ancient tradition, to protect a person from accidentally getting an unhealthy spirit inside them.
There are all different kinds of mental illness. And only the people who experience it, or maybe their families, have any idea what it’s like. Doctors and counselors who treat mental illness have a whole thick book, which describes hundreds of different problems.
In today’s reading, it says this poor man felt so bad, he was screaming and yelling. It was like torture for him. But Jesus was able to help.
Then, it says Jesus went to a house. And the mother-in-law of the family was sick in bed. The description says she had a very high fever. Maybe it was malaria or some other kind of illness. But it was the kind of fever where the person’s in a coma, or raving and delerious. It was life-threatening, and chances were she was going to die.
Jesus came and stood by her bedside, and prayed for her. And in a little while, she was up and around again. She felt so much better, she served supper to everyone!
Now, I’ve known a few women like that. They’d get up off their deathbed if company was in the house! They’d cook a full dinner and three kinds of pie rather than lay sick in the bed. This part of the story is totally believable!
Then it says that, along towards sundown, everybody who had any kind of illness came to Jesus, or their family brought them, and Jesus laid his hands on them and healed them.
There’s something interesting about this story, which would have been obvious back then.
Jesus healed all these people on the Sabbath – the man in the synagogue, the woman at home, and all the other people who came to Jesus for healing.
For people who were strict back then, the Sabbath was the holiest day of all. No work was allowed then. You couldn’t cook on the Sabbath, or light a candle, or do any kind of work at all. You couldn’t even tie or untie a bandage, because that was work.
And God commanded, back in the Ten Commandments, that no one should work on the Sabbath. Everyone should rest, even servants and animals and foreigners, because even God rested on the seventh day.
Now, you’ve heard me say before, that rest is important. We would all do much better, we would be healthier, both physically, mentally and spiritually, if we rested for a full day, every week.
So, people who were strict got angry at Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. I think they were probably being too strict, because Jewish law makes an exception, specifically for this. Jewish law says that you not only can, but you must do anything, if it means that you save a life. So, there’s an overlap, between the commandment to rest, which is very serious, and the commandment to save lives, which is also important.
There are a lot of things for us to take away from today’s gospel. First thing is, Jesus prayed for people who were sick.
Let me put that more strongly. In all the Bible, there isn’t one recorded instance, where Jesus refused to pray for someone. Jesus did it all the time. And like I said, if Jesus did it, we need to pray for people, too.
Second thing: there is no illness that Jesus was afraid to pray about. Not just mental illness, but people who were untouchable and cast out from society, like leprosy, because everybody else was terrified even to touch or come near them.
There was no stigma, no infection of any kind, where Jesus held back or was afraid to touch someone. Today, we may wear some kind of protection, which is only being wise, but no one is untouchable.
Third thing to take home: ordinary people – you and me – can always pray! Jesus didn’t appear to have secrets or use special words when he prayed. Many times, Jesus simply said, “Be healed!” Sometimes he said, “Your brokenness is forgiven!”
I love the traditional Jewish prayer for healing, which says, “May the one who blessed our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, bless and heal those who are ill [and then give their names].
May the Blessed Holy One be filled with compassion for their health to be restored and their strength to be revived. May God swiftly send them a complete renewal of body and spirit, and let us say, Amen.”
My point is, we pray. In words, or quietly, we pray.
We all know that sometimes our prayers aren’t answered right away. Or sometimes, the healing comes in a different way than we ask for.
Sometimes a group of people can help to pray. Sometimes, the whole congregation can help.
A special point I want you all to take home is that you don’t have to be good enough to pray. Sure, we can all be better people and lead better lives. But God listens to us, no matter who we are. Never let that make you hesitate to pray.
Sometimes I think that people who have more problems or who have suffered more, can pray more deeply, because they’ve been there. They know what it’s like.
I want to finish today with kind of a funny story. One time, years ago, I was praying for a woman from the meeting I was serving, out in Indiana.
She had a stroke, and the doctors didn’t expect her to make it. She wasn’t able to speak or even squeeze your hand. Her eyes would blink now and then, but she didn’t seem to track anything.
She was like this for two full weeks. And I went to the hospital, every day, sometimes twice a day, to pray for her and to be with her family, who never left her bed side. She couldn’t swallow, but we all took turns, putting a cool washcloth on her forehead, or keeping her mouth and lips moist, or just holding her hand.
A lot of the time, in a situation like this, the person dies, but this time it had a happy ending.
I was there that afternoon, visiting and talking with her family. And I saw her turn her head just a little from side to side, as if it hurt her. She’d done this before.
And I don’t know why, but I said, “Evelyn, you look like your neck hurts. Is your neck bothering you?”
And she made a small noise. She kind of said, “Mmmh. . .” which she hadn’t done before.
I said, “Evelyn, are you in pain? Or is your neck just stiff and uncomfortable?” And again, she made a small noise.
We had known each other for many years, and we always used to tease each other. So I asked, “Evelyn, is you neck stiff because you’re a stiff-necked old Quaker? Is that your problem?”
And she smiled. It was a great, big grin. And she opened her eyes. It took a few more days, but soon she was able to talk, and eat, and sit up. Within a couple of weeks, she was able to walk. We were all amazed.
I don’t know why our prayers were answered that day. But there are many other stories I could tell about prayer for healing. We don’t always know. But always – be ready to pray.
Every time I go into a hospital room, or a nursing home, or visit with someone, I pray for them. Sometimes I’ll pray out loud. I usually ask first. Sometimes I just pray silently – outside the room, before I go in, or during the visit, or as I’m leaving. But I always pray.
And ask I pray, I often imagine seeing Jesus’ hands – lifting them up, holding them close, or resting on them and healing them.
That’s all I do. I’m not very good with words, when it comes to praying. I always keep it simple. But I always pray, because Jesus did it, and his friends did it. And I encourage you all to do it, too.