When Does Healing Begin?

All of us have, at one time or another had some experience with disease, illness, and grief. Every one of us has at some point in our lives been not well. Our well-being just wasn’t what it should have been. Something was throwing things out of kilter. It might be said that our lives had lost meaning.
What do we do when we are ailing? What do you do when you are ill? What do you do when you receive a diagnosis that you have cancer? The meaning of our lives changes at that moment. Our lives have been given a jolt, knocked out of whack, maybe even pushed off the road that we’d been on.
So what do we do? Where do we go for help? How do we begin the healing? Is there a cure for what is ailing us?
When I’m not feeling well the first place I go is to the cupboard where we have most of our medicines. Surely I can find something there to make me feel better. And I’m sure that most of you are just like me, you want to be better now. We expect the drugs to take the pain away, to remove whatever is discomforting us, and maybe even cure us within a day or two.
When I don’t feel well I don’t want to be around people. And I’m sure nobody wants to be very close to me. I remember when I woke up a few weeks ago and I thought I had the flu or some other terrible ailment. I asked Linda, “What do you think I should do? I can’t go to church and expose everyone to who knows what I’ve got.” It turns out that I had shingles and even though I felt rotten no one was going to “get” what I had. The biggest thing for me was that I wasn’t feeling well. I had lost my well-being. And I wasn’t getting any better very fast.
It took me a few days to get a diagnosis for my problem and when Doctor Johnson confirmed that it was indeed shingles it took some time for the symptoms to go away. I’m not cured but I am well. My well-being has been restored. I feel like now I can get out of the house and be a part of the community again. I’ve learned that according to science being cured of anything is a rarity.
Isn’t it a lousy feeling to be cooped up in your room or your house and not be able to get out and visit with friends and family? None of us like that feeling.
So when does the healing begin? David experienced grief at the deaths of King Saul and his best friend Jonathan. It was like his very heart had been ripped from his body. He hurt because they were gone from his life.
But he didn’t want anyone to forget them and the good that they had done while they lived. The loss of family or friends certainly affects our well-being. We don’t feel well and we want God to make it all better. We feel like the psalmist when he said the bottom had fallen out of his life and he needed God to help him, now! He wanted God to hear his cry for help. Haven’t we all felt like that?
When our well-being suffers, whatever may be the cause, we want healing to happen. Our lives cease to have any meaning when illness and/or disease enter our lives.
So when does the healing begin? In Mark’s gospel healing occurred when Jesus touched a person or in the case of the woman with the bleeding disorder when she touched the edge of his robe.
The well-being of Jairus’ family was disrupted when his daughter became so ill that they feared for her life. In Jesus’ day when people were sick they were considered unclean and they couldn’t be part of the community until their wholeness had been restored.
Consider the woman who touched Jesus’ robe. She had tried everything. Whenever any of her family or friends heard of someone who even remotely might give her some relief they told her and she tried whatever remedy they recommended no matter the cost. But soon she ran out of money and since she was ritually unclean she could no longer be a part of the community. She couldn’t go into the temple to worship. She was cut off from her family and friends. And so she was willing to go to any lengths to be healed and restored to health.
And so she made her way through the crowd just so she could touch Jesus’ robe. As soon as her fingertips made contact with the fringe she felt a new energy within her very being. She knew she was healed.
Jesus knew it too but he didn’t know who had tapped into his energy. And so he asked who it was who had touched him. His disciples thought he was crazy to ask a question like that when he was being crushed by all the people pressing in around him.
Jesus knew there had been something different about this “one” person who had touched him. Not really touched him but touched just the edge of his robe. What made her touch different from the touch of every one else there? Why weren’t all those others who made contact with Jesus also healed of their ailments? What was special about her touch?
The healing began the moment her fingers touched Jesus. Actually the healing may have started when her faith in the power of Jesus brought her to that particular place in the road. No one else was healed at then but her. Was it faith that provided the catalyst? What do you think?
At that same moment Jairus’ some people from his house came to him and told him his daughter had died. There was no use to bother Jesus. There was nothing he could do.
What did Jesus say when he heard what people were saying? He said, “Don’t listen to them. Trust me.” When Jairus trusted Jesus the healing began.
Friends, the healing begins when we put our faith and trust in Jesus. I think that before we can be healed we must honestly believe with our whole being that our Creator God, our beloved brother Jesus, and our Comforter the Holy Spirit expect us to come to God in faith with all our joys and concerns. We first must believe, have faith in God, believe that he does exist, that he does care, and that hears our praise and our cries for healing.
When does the healing begin? It begins when we first come to God in prayer with just that little mustard seed of faith believing that he hears our petitions. It’s then that the mountains begin to move. Our faith makes us whole again.
And when our faith is waning the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with just the right words.
Friends, it begins with hope then faith and then love. Healing has begun because you have faith. Trust in the Lord with your whole heart and soul and being. Have faith. You will be healed. Your life will have meaning again.
Friends, God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Describe God, Your God

If someone asked you to describe God, your God how would you do that? You might begin to explain who God is as he is described in the Bible. He is the Creator of all that is. He provides for His whole creation.
You might describe God, your God as a parental figure, either as a kind and gentle Father or a caring and nurturing Mother. You might describe God as the Great Protector or as the One who heals our brokenness.
Or you might tell someone that he is your very own special Friend who listens to all of your joys and trials without making you feel belittled or weak. God, your God may be that special One who reveals his love for you and the world through the scriptures you read in your devotions and hear proclaimed in worship.
But what would you say if someone were to ask you about Jesus or the Holy Spirit? Now that’s where everything begins to get messy and confusing. God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What did you say? How can that be?
Who sitting in the congregation this morning can give an explanation of the Trinity that everyone will, after hearing it, nod their heads and say, “That’s it?” I’ve tried before and my explanation just doesn’t quite make it.
The best I can come up with is the Trinity is the different natures of God as he has revealed himself to us. The best explanation is that the Trinity is a divine mystery that is beyond all human understanding and imagination.
That being said, I believe that we all know and experience God in many various ways. For example I am known differently depending upon who you ask to describe me. Linda would give you one description, Chris, Amy, and Ben would give you another description, and they might vary a little from each other, and if my parents were alive they would describe me differently from everyone else. It’s because they have all known me at different times and in different situations in my life. Each has known me intimately but that intimacy has been different for each of them. So they would describe me in the terms that relate to that relationship.
So, for each of us, when we are asked to describe God, our God, our descriptions would all vary somewhat. There might be some similarities but they would all be a little bit different because God knows us and we know God in different times and different situations.
So rather than give you answers to questions I will give you questions and you will have to come up with your own answers. How do you relate to God in each of his/her personas? Do you give God equal time in each of his natures? How do you speak with God when you pray? How does God speak to you when you are alone with him? When you are alone with God in your quiet places, wherever they may be, how do you experience him?
Some of us won’t be able to find the right words to describe God but we may be able to create a picture of how we see God. Or maybe we could sing a song that tells how we know God and he knows us. Or maybe our description of God will only come out in the music we make, however we make it.
Who is God and how can we explain who he is? I think we would all describe our God in many different ways. The one sure and certain thing we can say about God is what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Friends, God loves you in all his different natures and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.

The Spirit of Truth

Peter went on to explain how Jesus, through everything he did here before he was crucified, raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven, was certainly the Messiah sent from God as witnessed to by the disciples who saw his miracles, wonders and signs. This was a deliberate and well-thought out plan of God as Eugene Petersen stated it. Jesus was betrayed by Judas and men who took the law into their own hands and handed him over to be nailed to the cross and killed. God was more powerful than death and he raised Jesus from the tomb. Death didn’t hold a candle to Jesus. David said it in the Psalms,
I saw God before me for all time.
Nothing can shake me; he’s right by my side.
I’m glad from the inside out, ecstatic;
I’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope.
I know you’ll never dump me in Hades;
I’ll never even smell the stench of death.
You’ve got my feet on the life-path,
with your face shining sun-joy all around.
Peter went on to say that everyone knew where David was buried because his tomb was where everyone could see it. But since David was a prophet of God he said that God has sworn to him that one of his descendants would rule his kingdom. The Messiah would be raised from the dead. Jesus was this man David spoke of. He stood before them healthy and whole. And then he ascended to sit at the right hand of God. He sent the Holy Spirit, who came from the Father, and that is what these people were hearing when they heard these men speaking in their own languages.
There was no longer any doubt; Jesus was the Son of God. This man they hung on the tree and killed was the Master and the Messiah.
Those who listened to Peter were touched in the deepest part of their souls by his words. They wanted to know what they could do.
Peter said, “Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites.”
He continued to preach and exhort them to change. “Get out while you can; get out of this sick and stupid culture!”
Because his speech was so powerfully filled with the words of the Holy Spirit 3,000 people believed and were baptized that day. They made the commitment to listen to the teaching of the apostles, share everything in common, meals and prayer, and maintained a daily discipline of worship in the Temple. Every day was an exuberant celebration that praised God. Every day the number of people who believed the Message grew as God added to those who were saved. That’s the rest of the story according to Luke in Acts 2.
The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, sent by Jesus is powerfully working in the lives of those who believe in Jesus as God’s Son. Many people don’t realize that the Spirit is doing anything because as scripture says it’s not about the Spirit but it’s all about God, the Father working through Jesus the Messiah.
Let me see if I can give you some of the things that the Spirit does that we heard from the scriptures this morning.
 Enables
 Creates and renews the earth
 Helps us in our weakness
 Intercedes for us
 Knows what’s in our hearts because Jesus knows our hearts
 Confirms Jesus
 Exposes the error of the godless world view of sin, righteousness, and judgment
 Shows us that refusal to believe in Jesus is the basic sin
 Takes us by the hand
 Guides us into all the truth
 Makes sense our what happened to Jesus, everything he did and said
 Honors Jesus
 Takes from Jesus and gives to us

Today we remember and celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world. Whenever we feel the wind and see its power we are reminded of the silent workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Whenever we see the flame of candles we are reminded how the Spirit warms our souls and lights the way for us as we strive to live our lives like Jesus.
Today as we witness baptism and reaffirm baptisms let us be reminded of the power of God’s Spirit working among us today in worship and as we are sent out into the world to continue the work we have been called to do.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

Sunday we confirmed five young people as new members of First Presbyterian Church in Walnut. One of these members was baptized and all were anointed with oil and blessed with the laying on of hands. It was an exciting and glorious day for God's church. I for one will miss having these young men and women in class with me on Sunday. It has been a blessing to learn with them and watch them grow as we worked together learning what it means to be a member of the Body of Christ, the Church.