Does God Really Heal?

First Presbyterian Church, Fort Scott, KS                                                                      

Psalm 38:1-11, 21-22
James 5:13-20

  

Our reading from James today continues to challenge us to put our faith into practice, to be active, energetic DOERS of God’s Word.  This final passage challenges us to share our lives with one another – our sadness and our joy, our sickness, our confession of sin, and our prayers.

I would like to begin on a slightly irreverent note.  This passage just assumes that God heals us.  But I want to ask – and maybe some of you do too – Really?  Does God really heal?  Should we expect to be healed when we’re sick or suffering?

Look, even when we read the gospel we have to admit: Jesus healed people, but only a few, as far as we know.  Most people living in Palestine who were sick or suffering were not healed.  Whatever we want to say about Jesus’ healing ministry, he did not eradicate pain, sickness, disease, and death – even during his ministry in the small region where he traveled.

Let me intensify this line of skeptical questioning in a couple of ways.

First, doesn’t real “healing” happen in hospitals?  What does faith, or prayer, or spirituality have to do with it?  Let’s be blunt.  If you have chest pain, or a knee that isn’t working, or a chemical imbalance that’s robbing you of energy – isn’t your FIRST thought – I should go see a doctor?  If your body is invaded by a virus or infection, you will want to see a doctor or a nurse.

So here’s my point.  Shouldn’t we just admit that our sickness is MORE likely to send us to Mercy Hospital than it is to cause us to call for church leaders to come anoint us with oil and pray for us?  Now of course often we’ll ask for prayer later.  But even then, haven’t we SHOWN by our actions that what we REALLY believe is that hospitals heal, surgeons heal, clinics and psychologists and therapists heal.  And if God is involved, and if our church family is involved, we’re not quite sure how?

There ARE people who don’t use doctors and hospitals.  Some groups – like the Christian Science movement – believe that faith and prayer is all you need.  You shouldn’t rely on standard medicine – that only shows that you don’t trust God enough.  However noble this approach to life is, most of us think they’re crazy.  And we would convict any parents of a crime if they refused to get their children some level of medical care in urgent situations.

When I was in the 5^th grade, we went to gym class in the early afternoon.  And our gym teacher asked us to run some laps around the gym.  I started out trying to run but had a terrible pain in my stomach.  I sat out for awhile, but the pain got worse.  I went to the nurse’s office and called my mom and asked her to pick me up.  And I went out and sat on the little step in the circle drive at Winfield Scott, waiting for my mom to come.  And I’m sure it was only five or ten minutes, but it seemed like an hour.  The pain was terrible.  She drove me to the clinic where we got in to see the doctor.  And I’ll spare you the details here by just saying that he put on a rubber glove and did some checking around.  And I went straight to the hospital and had an immediate appendectomy, because my appendix was just about to burst.

As far as I remember, no one prayed.  I may have shouted, “Lord have mercy!” during the part with the rubber glove, but I’m not sure that counts.  I’m glad I live at a time when there’s some accumulated medical wisdom about sharp pain in the lower right side of your abdomen.  And I’m glad my doctor knew what to check, and that the surgeon knew how to remove it.

And don’t you think the same way – whether it’s an appendectomy, or cancer treatment, or surgery, or a diagnosis and prescription relating to mental and emotional health?

So now let me ask you: what should we make of James’ connection of sickness with God’s healing through the faithful, expectant prayers of our fellow Christians?

But let’s continue with the irreverence for just a minute.  If the first problem is that our reliance on hospitals betrays our suspicion of God’s healing power; the second problem is that this passage might create false hope in those who are sick and suffering.  Listen to this and see if you don’t agree that this kind of talk leaves the door wide open for abuse and misunderstanding:

“Is anyone among you sick?  Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer offered in faith will make them well” (James 5:14-15).

Passages like this have caused a great deal of false hope for many people.  People have prayed fervently and asked others to pray fervently for healing, for safety, for protection.  And when the prayer is not answered, there can be crushing disappointment.  So at the very least, can’t we admit that this passage over-promises something that God often chooses not to deliver?  And if that’s the case, then maybe we should refrain from expecting any healing from God through prayer.

Of course there will always be people who refuse to ask and face these hard, irreverent, questions.  These are the people who always have something flippant and stupid to say in the face of sickness or tragedy.  These are the people who will just double down on their bet.  “You prayed and weren’t healed?  Well, obviously you didn’t pray hard enough.  You didn’t have enough faith.  You weren’t persistent enough.” 

By this point you may be wondering whether reading James 5:13-20 was even worth it.  If ALL we can say is that the practices it recommends are unrealistic and even dangerous, then of course we can dismiss it as irrelevant to our lives.

But in the oddness of this little paragraph, I think we can find light and wisdom –- and yes, even a renewed hope of God’s healing power in our lives.  Consider for a moment the cultural context in which this letter was written.

The average life-span in the first century Mediterranean area was 20-30 years.  Life was short, disease and sickness often incurable, and medical treatment minimal.  So it’s unlikely that this passage was meant to provide any false hopes for miraculous cures.  James and his readers knew well the brevity of life and the certainty of death.

And notice that Christians are counseled to call the elders of the church, who will come and anoint them with oil.  Olive oil was an important resource in ancient Mediterranean culture.  It was a food source, first and foremost.  But it also played a big role in medical approaches to health and healing.  Oil was used to rub wounds to soften the tissue and speed healing. 

(In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan “bandaged the wounded man’s wounds, pouring on oil and wine” Lk 10:34).  It also had some religious overtones for Jews and Christians.  But it appears that James’ advice involves both spirituality and medicinal treatment.

So maybe there is more wisdom here for us than we thought.

Take, for example, the very first line we read: “Is anyone among you in trouble?  Let them pray” (James 5:13). 

Now let me ask you, what KIND of prayer is here being recommended to people in trouble?  We don’t know.  But we should NOT assume that it is a sweetly worded petition for God’s help.  Maybe James is bidding us to pray out of our anger and frustration, to give vent to our complaint.  There is a rich tradition for Jews of angry complaint prayers – they’re called “laments.”  And Christians value this way of praying too.

But at the heart of James’ teaching about sickness and healing is that we are to share our lives with one another.

You may have been slightly confused when listening to this passage.  There are two themes that sit side by side:  sickness and sin.

Now there are some people who believe that all sickness is caused by some kind of sin.  If you’re sick, God is punishing you for something.  But that’s not what James believes.  He says, “IF someone has sinned, they should confess.”  And in the first chapter, he warned us not to blame God for temptation.  And the reason he gives hold true here as well: God is a perfect giver, and gives good gifts, and is full of light and doesn’t waver.  God doesn’t punish people with sickness.

But James does think of them as connected: we’re to share both our sickness and our sins with one another.  Why?  Because both things have the power to isolate you from the life and joy of the broader community.  And isolation in both cases is like a kind of lonely hell.  But there can be healing in sharing our sickness and pain with others. 

When you’re sick, and cut off from the fellowship of friends, it makes a world of difference if some from the church come to be with you, to pray with you and lay hands on you.  In a way that connection begins to overcome the isolation, whether the sickness is cured or not.  And maybe that says something to us about what God’s healing power looks like.

And there can also be freedom in sharing and confessing our sins with others.  It is absolutely wonderful to let go of the burden of carrying around the embarrassing secret of your sin, always afraid that someone is going to find you out.  Many people go through life working very hard to carry the secretive lie, hiding it from themselves and others, always defensive, too proud to let others see them in their weakness.  But that is a heavy burden to live with.  It comes with great cost.  But for those who share their sinfulness in an honest way, that burden is removed.

But let’s come now squarely to the question I began with: Does God really heal?

 It depends on what you mean.  If by “heals,” you mean fixes and cures, then God usually doesn’t “heal.”  But if you mean healing in the sense of wholeness, a life restored to meaning, significance, purpose, friendships, and hope -- then yes, God heals.

I want to tell you briefly about two people in our congregation who have wrestled with what healing looks like.  I’ve asked both for permission to share their stories.

Kevin Allen was riding his motorcycle in 1994 and was hit by a car.  The damage done to one of his legs was so severe that it had to be amputated.  Obviously, that has changed his life in important ways.  He’s dealt with anger at the person who hit him.  He’s dealt with lots of ongoing pain.  His doctor said to him bluntly: this pain you’re experiencing is phantom pain.  It is normal for those who’ve lost a limb.  It’s not going to go away.  You’ll have to find a way to deal with it.

What surprised me was that Kevin actually said, “You know, I wouldn’t go back and change it if I could.”  He said that because this accident has opened for him a new way of living that might not have opened otherwise.  He’s been through quite a bit, and yet he lives every day grateful to God that he’s even alive.  He is not grateful because God cured or fixed him.  God didn’t.  He is grateful because he has found healing that feels more like meaning, clarity, resilience, personal discovery, significance, support, and friendship.

Kathy Martin has stage four cancer.  She has chemo once a month, and will do this for the rest of her life.  Her doctors have told her that while she is stable with treatment, her cancer isn’t likely to be cured. 

She told me that she’s not giving up on life.  She wants a job to do and a place to fit in.  So I asked her if she wanted to go with me to visit some people in the hospital that week.  And she did.  She has volunteered to help cover the front office when we need it.  And she’s helping serve meals to our young people on Wednesday nights.  She would like to be cured of course.  But even with terminal cancer – she is finding God’s healing in terms of meaning, purpose, significance, and friends.

Does God really heal?  Yes, just as Jesus went about healing and doing good, so too God is among us as one bringing healing into our lives.  God is not always curing our diseases.  God is not always fixing our problems.  But God is filling our lives with love, connections, purpose and meaning.  This might strike us as less miraculous, but it is no small thing to those who find it.