September 27, 2009
Are Any Among You Sick?
- James 5:13-20
- Ruth Moore
Today we are having a prayer service for healing and wholeness. That may make some of you uncomfortable and maybe wish you hadn’t come to worship today. But please don’t leave or get anxious about it. Instead I invite you to be open to God’s Spirit and to a different way of praying for ourselves and others. This will not be a sensational service by faith healers who try to take the place of good doctors, counselors, or programs. Bud and I are here as teaching and preaching elders to offer prayers for the wholeness that God desires for all of his children.
We know that God works in mysterious ways. We often can’t know or understand the hows or whys of the things that happen in our lives. We know that sometimes bad things happen to good people. Some of us have lost a child to death or a broken relationship. Some of us have a chronic illness or chronic pain. Some of us are unemployed. Some of us lead lives that we are ashamed of. Some of us have addictions that we just can’t break. But there are some certainties in this life. We know that God is the source of wholeness. We also know that those who are sick in body, mind or spirit are invited to call for the “elders” of the church for prayer, the laying on of hands and anointing with oil. “The prayer of faith will save the sick,” we’re told. This service of healing then is a specific response of obedience to this word from God. It is an opportunity for those who do not feel whole to take steps toward healing—and to leave that healing in God’s hands.
We as a church don’t spend a whole lot of time talking about sickness. We don’t want to talk about something that keeps us from being our best. We don’t want to talk about any dysfunction in our families. We don’t want to talk about anything that makes us look weak or not in control. But you know what—we all have sickness of one kind of another. Everyone has relationships they wish were stronger. Every family has arguments or broken relationships. Every one of us has demons in our lives that make it hard to claim the health and wholeness God wants for us. And if we are honest we know there is a correlation between our sinful actions and our physical and mental health. Sometimes our sickness stems from the fact that we either cannot or will not acknowledge and confess what lies within us.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said that “Love toward sick members should have a special place in the Christian congregation. Christ comes near to us in the sick.” I believe it is when we are most vulnerable that God’s power and love can become real to us. In illness and in brokenness we are vulnerable. The church that is present to provide the means of grace to those who are hurting is one that is responding to the call of Jesus to minister to those who are in need. We have these healing services occasionally to remind ourselves that sickness and healing are not just individual concerns, but the responsibility of the whole body of Christ.
Healing services are part of our Christian heritage and are a way in which Christians can minister to each other. We anoint with oil because in biblical times olive oil was considered to be the best medicine of the age. We remember how the Good Samaritan anointed with oil the wounds of the man who had been beaten. We remember how in the 23rd Psalm it says, “You anoint my head with oil.” We remember how the disciples anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. (Mark 6:13) The cure is not in the oil, but in the power behind the oil. In the healing service people are anointed so that they may fully experience the power of prayer and touch that works towards our healing and wholeness.
The laying on of hands was practiced by Jesus as he transmitted God’s healing power to those who were sick or disabled. When Bud and I lay hands on you today, it is to be a tangible expression of Christ operating in and through us as we minister in his name. Bud and I are not healers—Christ is the healer. The laying on of hands is another channel of God’s love and healing power.
James talks about people who are suffering, those who are sick, and those who are sinning. Sort of a cross section of a typical congregation don’t you think—the suffering, the sick and the sinful. James gives us one prescription for all of them—prayer. If you are suffering—pray. If there are sick among you—pray for them. If there is someone among you who has sinned—then pray for them.
What will bring wholeness to your life and to the lives of those you love? Who do you know who needs prayers to recover from an illness of body, mind or spirit? Who do you know who is struggling with the sins and demons of addiction or greed or power. Could it even be you? Who do you know who struggles to rebuild a relationship or to have the courage to say, “I’m sorry”? Who do you know who is struggling to find a job or a different path or a new way of living?
You may not want to come up to ask for healing for yourself or for a loved one. That’s fine. But maybe during our prayer and healing time, you will pray for the healing of others. Maybe you can also take the time to pray and ask God to work in your heart to make sure that it’s healthy and responsive to the needs of others. Maybe God can bring your attention to an area in which you might need a spiritual tune up.
We can not predict how God will answer your prayers today. Some of you will not receive the specific healing for which you pray for today. But I do believe that with every prayer healing of one kind or another does happen. In one way or another I believe you will experience the power of God’s Spirit in your prayers today. You may have to be salted with fire as Mark tells us to gain your depth as a person and a child of God. But God is working in spite of and through your pain and is right beside you in your suffering. Often God’s response to prayer is the gift of strength, so we can cope.
Queen Anne’s lace is a big and beautiful white flower with a red dot in the center. What is rare about this flower is that it can’t blossom unless it is first infested with bugs. It can’t be all that the Lord created it to be unless the bugs come and coerce the blossom to open. We’re like Queen Anne’s lace. We can’t be all that God has planned for us to be if we don’t allow the “bugs” in our life to help us blossom.
We come to this place to worship our risen Lord, who at the beginning of his ministry quoted the prophet Isaiah as a reference to himself: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the oppressed and to bind up the brokenhearted. May we continue to worship him in word, deed and in prayer. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Resources:
esermons.com: “Beginning a Healing Ministry,” by Eric S. Ritz.
esermons.com: “Let Us Pray,” by Mark Trotter
Homiletcsonline.com: “Any Among You Sick,” September 27, 2009
The Christian Century: “Living by The Word,” Sunday, September 27. Author is Christine R. Bartholomew