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February 11, 2018

A Healing Miracle

Carol-Ann Chapman

Mark 1:40-45

40 A leper[a] came to him begging him, and kneeling[b] he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity,[c] Jesus[d]stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy[e] left him, and he was made clean. 43 After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44 saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus[f] could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

Need a Healing Miracle…Follow these Instructions…Say this Healing Miracle Prayer Daily-It Will Change Your Life…Amazing Miracle Healing of an Arm in India… 5 Stunning Medical Miracles That Doctors Can’t Explain. All titles of articles that you can find on the Internet, but what do we make of all of this stuff…do modern day miracles really happen?

A leper came to Jesus, begging him, and he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

We don’t know the name of the leper, but we can surmise that this particular man was not the only one the Jesus met on his travels to be suffering from leprosy…so why this particular man…why not one of the others? Some might say it is because he asked…”ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find”…but what about those who asked and didn’t receive…was it something they did? Something they didn’t do? Was it something they said? I can only say I wish I had a definitive answer…but I don’t.

In this world there are thousands if not millions of people who believe that miraculous healings can occur. And though I cannot testify to the miracles on the internet you might be surprised for me to say that I believe that I have experienced miraculous healing in my own life. These healings have occurred both somewhat spontaneously and others over time, but miracles aren’t always a simple quick fix, and sometimes the miracles we are praying for don’t occur, when we want them or how we want…and sometimes no matter how hard we pray the miracle we hope for never happens. The problem I see with some modern day faith healers isn’t that they believe in the power of God to heal, it is that they believe that God will heal in their time…miraculously like in the story. Some faith healers make one feel that if they aren’t being healed, it is because the person hasn’t prayed long enough, or authentically enough or that they haven’t loved God enough and somehow that it is the person’s fault that God hasn’t granted a healing…no wonder so many people in the world are angry at God, or choose not to believe in God. What kind of God would expect you to get an A+ on the “How to Get a Healing” test before a miracle was granted. No, I don’t know why some people experience the healing they hope for and others do not, but I can’t believe it has anything to do with being “good enough” for God, because you are always enough. Theologian David Forney writes about healing; “Ideally we would like to control when and in what ways relief comes, yet true healing lies in God’s providence and not in our schemes.” In other words…we cannot manipulate God to do what God will do as the caretaker of the world.

So what could it mean if we don’t experience the miracle in our lives that we hope for and what can we do when that healing never occurs? Maybe there is healing happening but in a way you have never considered…maybe it is not the time for healing but healing is yet to come.

What if the healing of Leper from his leprosy in the healing story of Jesus is not the true miracle? Maybe healing goes beyond the elimination of physical sores and pain.

In Jesus time, “The lepers suffer from social illness; they are impure, unclean; they are sources of danger and contamination for the family. For that reason, when the priest discovers their impurity, he must expel them from the civil and religious society, according to the sacred code in Leviticus. They could not pray in the temple or go to the synagogue, or share with their healthy relatives their tables and beds. Their illness converted them into solitary persons, separate species.”[1]

Jesus touches the leper…it was forbidden…condemned… and yet Jesus offers this healing contact. This act of mercy disrupts the social norm, and reinforces his desire to form a church that is filled with outcasts. Did Jesus heal the man from his Leprosy…perhaps, but what Jesus really freed him from were the ties that bound him as one who was unwanted in society. So it is no wonder that the man went out and told others about Jesus and his healing. Perhaps this had more to do with his new found ability to interact with others in a way that he hadn’t been able to before…no longer was he outcast by everyone he knew. Now he could be accepted…Jesus liberated him from a life of being socially ostracized, this is where the true healing occurs.

Maybe in those times when we think that God has ignored our prayers to offer healing, there are other miracles happening but we are so tied up in our own pain, waiting for what we want, trying to manipulate the situation with our own wants and desires there are other healings happening and we just haven’t taken note. Probably one of the most difficult things for us to grasp is this idea that if God can heal, and is a loving God, why wouldn’t they heal a suffering child? I think of the thousands of parents who have grieved the loss of a child, and had wondered why God didn’t let that child live. It’s a difficult question and one I won’t even try to pretend to understand, but I do know that healing can be happening even during suffering and pain. Maybe the healing happens after death, when we put our trust and hope in an afterlife where pain and sorrow are no more…a place where complete healing occurs. Maybe for the parent who has lost, healing may take place in other ways. Healing may occur when such a parent does not let a life perish in vain, but instead it motivates them to fight a cause that will help to bring relief or healing to future sufferers. Healing may be in play when a friend or family member opens themselves up to care for the person suffering, and grieving. Maybe, when it may look like nothing is happening, there is healing taking place that we could not possibly understand. We can pray and ask for healing, and maybe the miracle will happen, but we have no control over what God will do or even understand why, but we do have control over our own actions; how we react to situations of suffering, how we can be agents of healing ourselves and others.

Healing can occur in many different ways. Sometimes healing may be needed by an individual and other times healing needs to happen for a group who has been hurt and marginalized. Last week we highlighted Black History Month in our service and one of the reasons we do this is because for generations, black people have been ill-treated and many of their contributions to our society have been swept under the rug. One of the ways we try to help heal the wounds, is by giving those who have been offended a platform of acknowledgement and honour.

Another group that our denomination has focused on to help heal, are the Indigenous people of Canada. The Aboriginal people who inhabited this land long before Colonial settlers and whose culture and way of life was stolen. There are ways that we can help to restore, to heal this group. Here is one of the ways that the church describes how they have come together for the sake of Indigenous healing:

The United Church recognizes its historic complicity in imposing cultural and religious superiority, and—as Indigenous communities renew culture, language, and spiritual and traditional knowledge—its responsibility to tangibly support and accompany them.

The Healing Fund, established in 1994, offers financial support to grassroots projects that focus on healing, language learning, and cultural restoration. The Healing Fund Council, with representatives from the All Native Circle Conference, British Columbia Native Ministries, and Ontario/Quebec Native Ministries, seeks to represent the diversity of Indigenous communities across the country, determines the fund’s criteria, and evaluates applications.

Projects must be connected to the continuing need for healing from the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools system. Many name a need for mending, restoring, and celebrating—a sense of loss, along with hope for rebuilding identity.[2]

There were generations of Indigenous people in need of healing, and the miracle seems slow in coming, but through the support of others who want to outstretch their hands and place them on those who have suffered, healing is happening.

For those of you who are skeptical and wonder why we should even ask for God’s healing, for those who ask why we shouldn’t just do our best to provide healing and leave God and prayer out of the equation…there is tangible hope. An Article from Psychology Today tells us that “faith healing is unexplained, incomprehensible, and should not work” and yet it does, much like the placebo effect of drugs. Scientists recognize that there are placebo effects but have trouble accounting for them. So even to the scientists God is mystery, and though we cannot know when or why a miracle will occur, they do happen. So why not open up a dialogue between you and God and while you are praying for your own miracle, ask God to open your eyes to the healings that are happening around you right now. Ask God to show you how you can be a miracle in someone else’s life, how you can stretch out your arm and say I choose to be the healing in your life today. Amen.

[1] David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Feasting on the Word, Year B Vol 1, p356, 2008.

[2] The United Church of Canada, Healing Education and Development,