Sermon "Faith That Heals"
Sunday June 29, 1997
Mark 5:21-43
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Faith That Heals
"Your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healedof your disease."
"Faith Healing" was once the primary province oftelevision preachers, certain charismatic groups, the followersof Mary Baker Eddy, and those who called for the "sacramentsof the sick" within more liturgical denominations. For thelongest time the notion that one could experience healing throughfaith was given one of those polite skeptical nods -- both inscientific and mainline religious circles. Now interest in faithand healing, like that in spirituality, is spreading. In recentmonths there have been articles in Time, Life, Newsweek, Ladies'Home Journal, and Christianity Today, to offer just a sampling. Iput "faith healing" into the search engine for theinternet and was deluged with hundreds of sites dealing with"psychic healing," "faith healing," and"spiritual healing." Go to the bookstore and you'll seemultiple volumes dealing with 'alternative medicine' and healingon the shelves.
We live at the pinnacle of medical science, however.Physicians have more technology, more research, more expertise attheir disposal than at any time in history. Still people areseeking "alternatives" in medicine. So, one has to askif there is something to all this "faith" stuff or isit merely yet another search for the miraculous, easy way out(like the "take this pill and you'll never have to diet tolose weight" ads -- which send their siren song toward me ona regular basis!)? Well, I think there is something to it, andmuch more than looking after miracles.
Jesus said to the woman who touched him and was healed,"Your faith has made you well." To Jairus, whosedaughter was dying -- or already dead -- he said, "Do notfear -- only believe." What is faith that heals and gets ridof fear?
We read in the eleventh chapter of the `Letter to theHebrews': "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,the conviction of things not seen." I like what LinwoodUrban writes:
By the unwary, "faith" is often taken to mean merely "intellectual assent to a proposition not undisputably known to be true." In this usage to say, "I have faith in God" is to say, "I believe that God exists" in the way one would say, "I believe that it will rain tomorrow" meaning, "I think that it will rain tomorrow." But in the Bible and in Christian theology faith has never meant merely intellectual assent, but also trust, commitment, and confidence. Faith includes commitment of the heart and the will, as well as the mind.
The distinction Urban makes is between what we call"human" or "philosophical" faith and"theological" faith. Faith is part of human cognitionand existence, but "theological" faith is much more.Faith is ultimately integrative, it brings the whole persontogether. Thus, it is important for us to realize that faith isnot antithetical to reason (and by extension to knowledge or`science'), is not simplistic, and is not synonymous withnaiveté. "Faith", as Avery Dulles reminds us in hismagisterial work Assurance of Things Hoped For: A Theology ofChristian Faith, "in its full and integral reality is morethan a merely intellectual assent or an act of blind trust. It isa complex act in which assent, trust, obedience, and lovingself-commitment are interwoven."
Faith, then, is a response on our part to the generosity ofGod who has revealed himself to us and has invited us intorelationship with him. As we read in Paul's words to theCorinthians this morning, "For you know the generous act ofour Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for yoursakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might becomerich." That richness is the life of faith.
When faith becomes active within us it enables us to recognizea need for ourselves or for our loved ones, as did the woman withthe hemorrhage and Jairus. More than mere recognition, faithmoves us to act, to take a risk that the need, the hurt might beremedied. The woman's condition rendered her "unclean,"unfit to be in normal society. That she entered a crowd andsought to touch one she saw as able to help her was a risky --even a dangerous -- thing. Jairus risked his standing within thereligious community by coming to one who, some thought, got hispower from the devil. Faith opened the eyes of these two to seeGod at work in their midst and they moved toward where they couldfind help.
What faith does is to restore the `likeness' of God to us --remember Scripture tells us that we are made in the "imageand likeness of God." We may lose the `likeness' through ourself-centeredness, but the image, as Gregory Palamas tells us,never leaves. Faith brings the two together again and the"eyes of the soul" are opened for us. So I amconvinced, as are the great writers of the Eastern Church, thatChristianity is not so much a `belief system' as a therapeutic.Christian faith brings healing, wholeness and the ability to seethe created world as God originally intended it. Thus, all truehealing begins on the inside and works its way out. Physicalhealings, in biblical understanding, are only signs, indicatorsof something deeper and more powerful going on. As CharlesHefling, an Episcopal theologian quoted in Newsweek, said:
Healings are certainly healings, but if you take them as just the restoration of somatic {bodily} health, then you've missed the point. If one is sick, prays for healing gets better and then forgets about what's happened that's not a miracle. Even if the doctors can't explain why it happened, it's not a sign and wonder in the Biblical sense because it hasn't opened one's eyes to that Something Else.
Faith heals, but we have to understand that healing is morethan the taking away of the symptoms of disease. We're talkingabout the restoration of the human person -- that can come andthere can be healing even if the body dies. When Jesus healedpeople nowhere does it claim that they never got sick again. BothJairus' daughter and Lazarus had to face death again, but theydid so with a difference -- they knew salvation, wholeness, lifewhich transcends mere physicality. Faith alone allows us tounderstand and to help others understand what Jesus did when hehealed and raised in the Bible and now. Faith brings us intoencounter with the living God who walked in our midst, knew ourlife, knew our illnesses, our sufferings, and our deaths, tookthem on himself and transformed them into peace, life,resurrection.
Healing begins, then, with individuals and then moves tocommunities awakening that likeness of God within us. The healingbrings a generosity of spirit, not just in material terms, whichreflects on every aspect of life together in community. Our Godis generous and we who have received much are in turn to share --especially the good news of what God is doing in us.
All of us are in need of the healing effects of faith. Each ofus have hurts -- physical, psychological or spiritual. Thiscommunity knows hurt and so, too, does this faith community ofFirst Congregational Church. What I proclaim to you this morningis this: God can heal and restore. This faith allows us to behealed in such a way as to see the ourselves, each other, theworld as we never have before. Hear the words of Augustine:
People can tell you, too, "Whoever you are if you are in good health, you are at liberty to think of other things; but if the malaise you feel leaves you no doubt about the seriousness of your state, first of all you must care about your health." Your health is Christ. First of all, think of Christ. Take his saving cup: "He heals all your ills." If you want it, you may obtain this kind of health. You are seeking honors and riches: they will not come at your bidding. Here is something far more precious and it is yours for the wishing. "He heals all your ills." "He redeems your life from destruction." All your ills will be healed when this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility: your life has been redeemed from corruption; from now on be without fear. "He redeems your life from destruction." Showing by his example the reward promised to us, "handed over for our transgressions and. . .raised for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). Let the members hope for what has been realized in the head. How could he not heal the members when he has lifted their head up to heaven?
"Your faith has healed you." "Do notfear...only believe." Jesus stands before each one of ustoday and speaks those words to us, whatever our need. Now wemust open ourselves to the power, respond to the generousinvitation of an ever-generous God, and attend to the means ofhealing: prayer, spiritual disciplines and counsel. No therapy iswithout effort and Christian faith is no different. Reach out totouch his garment. Come, tell him of your need. "Do not fear-- only believe."
