Healing Our Own, Healing the World

“Healing Our Own, Healing the World”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

June 2, 2013

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Texts:

Psalm 96

Luke 7:1-10

Today our reading from the Gospel of Luke leads us to ask the questions, “What is healing?” and “What ways of healing are we called to?” Let’s look deeper into the scripture and see what wisdom we can find.

In the previous chapter in Luke, Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, which was against Jewish law. Then a “great multitude” of people from the region came and tried to touch Jesus and many of them found healing. Then we read in the seventh chapter this story of the Centurion (a Roman soldier) whose servant was ill and close to death. The text tells us that this soldier was in charge of many men, so he was a higher official. He probably worked for Herod who was the Jewish/Roman hybrid King, given charge to rule Israel through his knowledge of Judaism but by authority of pagan Rome. This Centurion is said to have led the building of the synagogue there in Capernaum, which was a center of trade in Galilee. In line with Jewish law, the Centurion did not want Jesus to enter his pagan home because it would cause Jesus to be ritually unclean. He had witnessed the faith of the Jews and he had heard about the great miracles that Jesus had performed, so he had faith that Jesus could heal his servant as well. The Centurion told his friends to deliver a message to Jesus saying, “But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.” The Centurion loved his servant dearly and through this love he believed that his servant could be healed.

When Jesus receives this message from the Centurion’s friends, he is astonished because the Centurion doesn’t request typical ways of healing. Jesus was probably thinking, “This man gets it. He knows what healing is all about: faith.” In the Gospel of Matthew in the same story, Jesus speaks directly to the Centurion saying, “Go, let it be done for you according to your faith.” In both Matthew and Luke, as soon as the friends or the Centurion return to the servant, he is healed.

The critic’s response to stories like this is to say, “That was a nice story Pastor, but why can’t I be healed? I have been ill for a long time and as hard as I pray, I am still sick.” Some so-called “faith healing” churches would say, “You don’t have enough faith.” Televangelists like Benny Hinn would probably say, “You need to wait for your miracle to come.” These responses may be said with good intentions, but they can cause us a lot of guilt. They can make us feel like we are not good enough. They can even question our faith, leading us to wonder whether God is really listening.

I view their response as a half-lie and a half-truth. The lie is that all illnesses can be cured with prayer alone. Believe me, I have been a hospital chaplain and have prayed again and again with chronically ill people. Some have gotten better and others declined and others died. I don’t attribute their condition to my prayers or to their faith. I know that there are numerous reasons why a person’s body will heal or decline.

But I do know for sure that prayer is a powerful force. Prayer opens your whole being to the Divine, allowing you to rest in God’s healing womb. Prayer clears fear from the mind, allowing the Good to flow through a person. Science has proven that the stress of fear and worry causes negative effects in the body. Serious illness can be triggered by stress. Clinically, these symptoms are called “psychosomatic.” When the spirit is filled with poison, our bodies feel pain. I know when I am worried, my stomach hurts and I can’t eat. When some people are depressed, they overeat, and often eat junk food because the fat or sugar gives a temporary high. (Oprah has been talking about this for 30 years!) The phrase, “Worry yourself to death” is not an exaggeration.

In the early days of the Christian Science movement, they believed that all illness was caused by negative thinking. To this day, some fundamentalist sects refuse to go to the hospital or take their children to the hospital because they perceive doing so as a lack of faith. Many of them have died because they refused treatment. Their peers say after the death that it must have been God’s will. I certainly do not condone that kind of behavior. Modern science can be a great blessing that saves lives and allows us to live longer and fuller lives. But I also believe in holistic healing which includes both medical and spiritual elements.

Many of us know by experience that we sometimes have the choice of whether to live or not. Some people with terminal illness decide to tell their body to shut down because they simply cannot fight the suffering anymore. To them, death is a blessing, which I fully affirm. Others with terminal illness have an indomitable spirit that refuses to let go of life. The AIDS pandemic has shown us many cases where people with AIDS have held out with all their strength, often with the help of faith, and have gone from the death bed to running marathons after a few years of healing. Faith will not rid the body of HIV, or cancer, or MS, or any disease, but it will rid the mind and the spirit of crippling fear. Faith heals dis-ease, not necessarily disease.

There is also a queer twist to this story of the Centurion and his servant that we find in the Gospels. History tells us that in that place and time, Roman soldiers were not permitted to marry. This is because they needed to focus solely on their military duties and if they died, they did not leave a widow and/or orphans. So instead of having female companions, soldiers often had male lovers. Sometimes they were the same age and other times, it was an older man with a younger man. In fourth century BCE Greece, a famous army called the Sacred Band of Thebes was formed by the Theban commander Gorgidas. The entire army was comprised of 150 pairs of male lovers. The philosophy behind this army was that the men would fight harder because not only was their own life at stake, but also the life of their lover. And in my mind, who wants to face an army of 300 gay men?? (Or an army of 300 lesbians!) And remember, it was a group of hardy drag queens that fought against the police at the Stonewall Inn in New York City in June of 1969. They were fed up and fought back for once. And the event has gone down in history as the start of the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. That is why we celebrate LGBT Pride in the month of June.

Looking back to our reading today from the Gospel of Luke, we can be pretty sure that the Centurion and his servant were lovers. The text uses the Greek word doulos, which denotes a pederastic relationship of an older man and a younger man. Before I continue, please do not think that I am condoning pedophilia. We know that at least in our country, the age of consent is between 16 and 18. We consider a relationship between someone older than 18 and a minor to be nonconsensual. Minors can be easily coerced into consenting to sexual contact that may not be psychologically good for them.

In the ancient Near East, it was common and acceptable for an older man and a younger man to have a sexual relationship. It was even viewed as part of the natural process of growing up. With that said, we can view the relationship of the Centurion and his servant with ancient eyes. We can affirm their love for each other, not just because it was not unlawful or taboo, but because Jesus affirmed it too. Never in the Gospel texts does Jesus condemn the Centurion for his relationship with his servant. The only thing Jesus was concerned with was that the servant was suffering from illness and the Centurion was suffering from grief. So in affirmation of the love that birthed the Centurion’s great faith, Jesus sent healing words their way. MCC’s “Would Jesus Discriminate?” campaign put up billboards across the country, quoting this passage with the message, “Jesus affirmed a gay couple.” Oh, did that make some people mad! We can’t project the label “gay” onto ancient people because that construct did not exist at that time. But we can affirm same-gender love when we see it in our sacred texts. It is this kind of action that starts the conversations that lead to healing the Church concerning LGBT folks.

Do you need the touch of the Great Physician today? I can’t promise that your ailment can be cured, but I can assure you that if you put your health into God’s hands, God will do for you whatever is possible. I believe that God continues to work for our wholeness each and every day. I also believe that spiritual dis-ease is not our natural state. Our natural state is how we came into this world: seeing miracles every day. A Course in Miracles teaches that a miracle is not something to be surprised by. Rather, a miracle is a natural occurrence. It is a turn from fear to love within our being. It is a letting go of any grievances we are holding against our siblings in the human family. The agent of a healing miracle is forgiveness.

What do you need to let go of today? What stands between you and the open embrace of God’s Love? What unimportant thing is keeping you from the kind of happiness that God wants for you? Today, you have the opportunity to “let go and let God.” I will now be available to anoint your forehead with oil as a simple reminder of God’s grace and Unconditional Love that dispels all fear. If you do not want oil, you may also just receive a short blessing. Our Care Team will also be available to pray with you. Please come as you feel led, and remember: accepting your own healing is the first step to healing our world. Amen.