Roger Ray, pastor
February 4, 2012 Epiphany 5
Mark 1:29-39
29As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." 38He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." 39And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
I visited a young couple in the waiting area right outside of the neo-natal intensive care unit at Cox Hospital several years ago. They were both ordained ministers, both were Harvard educated people who professed a very progressive and academic faith but they were in a crisis. The woman had given birth to their first child and there had been complications. They had spent nearly a month in that waiting room, seeing their infant son only for a few minutes a day.
As the days had past, any hope of the child's survival slowly evaporated and they young parents were left to wait for that inevitable event that is, in anyone's eyes, the saddest thing anyone on earth ever has to endure. I offered to pray with them, as I always do in such circumstances, and Micki began to weep softly.
You know, we are the kind of people who have set aside magical views of prayer. We do not believe that the Creator of the Universe sits enthroned in the heavens waiting for our supplications like a great Santa Clause in the clouds. We pray but we believe that prayer changes the one who prays and not the one to whom we address our prayers.
But Micki said, "You know, I thought I was so far past praying for miracles but I find in these days, that I cannot help myself." And so, that's what we did.... We prayed for a miracle because that was what was really in our hearts, even though we know that the universe really doesn't work that way.
That's not to say that miracles don't happen, nor would I limit the Almighty's ability to get into history and mix it up a bit with us but I do not believe that God needs either information or guidance from us. Their baby did die. The couple grieved for a couple of years before they decided to try again and they now have two very healthy children, though, of course, a dozen children would not replace the one that they lost..... surely we can all understand that nothing ever does.
So religious people often talk about miracles, hope for miracles, we pray for miracles and we defend the miracles recorded in our holy scriptures. And most of us have experienced what we call miracles..... a cancer that seemed lethal goes away for no medically explainable reason. Someone survives an accident that seemed too impossible to believe. I've seen my life flashing before my eyes in a couple of out of control automobile skids on ice that ended with the car right side up and even pointed in the right direction without a collision.
And so, sometimes, in spite of our relatively good grades in math, our experience in analysis and logic, we'll buy a lottery ticket and then spend a few moments putting our rational faith on the shelf while we dust off our superstitious faith and begin to pray like Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof,
"Oh, dear Lord! You made many, many poor people. I realize, of course it's no shame to be poor. But it's no great honor either.. So what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune.......Lord, who made the lion and the lamb, You decreed I should be what I am Would it spoil some vast eternal plan If I were a wealthy man?
But for the most part, those of us within progressive faith traditions just get a little nervous when the scripture reading recounts a healing miracle.... Maybe even a little embarrassed. The biblical critics of the early 20th century recounted healing miracles from other religions of the time. Most famously, we know of a contemporary of Jesus who was a traveling Neo-Pythagorian philosopher and teacher in Cappadocia known as Apollonius of Tyana, about whom there are healing accounts that are eerily nearly identical to gospel accounts about Jesus.
It was argued that gospel writers had to recount such healing events to give Jesus credibility in the ancient world. And, to an extent, that is probably true, as are a number of other honorific accolades in scripture intended to encourage faith in Jesus. But I think we would be mistaken to consign every miracle account to the category of literary embellishment.
There were healers in the ancient world and, believe it or not, I think there is reason to accept that they did successfully heal some people. The lines between our mind, our bodies and our spirits which we so often assume to be rather firm boundaries are, in my experience, rather porous.
When I was a young college student I had a particularly bad time with very painful plantar warts on the bottoms of my feet. I was attending Western Kentucky University which is built on a steep hill that required a great deal of walking and so I was regularly going to the doctor to have these painful viral warts cut off, or burned off with electricity or acid.
No matter what the doctor tried, the bad warts always returned and he eventually said to me, "Roger, if you are ever going to be free of these things you are going to have to believe that they won't come back." To which my father replied, "You tell the doctor to keep sending me a bill until he believes that it has been paid."
But, like it or not, there does seem to be a connection between mental health and physical health and there is a world of research to indicate that a healthy spirituality can contribute to both mental and physical health. In that sense, I, along with Marcus Borg and many other modern scholars, are unafraid to say that the historical Jesus was a preacher, a teacher and that he was also an exorcist and a healer.
But I want to go a bit farther with the topic because it seems clear to me that the gospels do not simply give us miracle accounts to bolster Jesus' credentials or to preserve a record of a few wonderful events. The New Testament tends to use the Greek words for "miracle," and "sign," and "wonder," fairly interchangeably. The miracles recorded in the gospels were not simply good news to frightened or grieving people nor were they just religious credentials for an important prophet.
The primary preaching theme of Jesus had to do with the Kingdom, the reign of God.... Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In that sense, I believe, and if I believe it, wouldn't it be polite of you to at least try to entertain the idea, that the miracles were signs of the Kingdom.
The gospels don't try to tell us that Jesus healed every sick person in Palestine.... He didn't cast out all of the demons, he certainly didn't raise everyone who died.... But the accounts recorded in the gospels are like sermons, they are like parables, they serve to give evidence, to teach what the Kingdom is to be like.
The real meaning of the word "salvation" in the New Testament, has nothing to do with going to heaven when you die.... I don't want to disappoint anyone but that is a meaning we brought to the word much later. The word means, "to be made whole." So when Jesus heals a blind man, he says, "Go, your faith has saved you," just like he says to the woman of ill repute who has been crying on his feet, "Go, your faith has saved you."
The woman's bad reputation cut her off from community and meaningful living. A blind man cannot work and support a family, cutting him off from community and meaningful living. In the Kingdom, people don't get tossed to the curb.... People aren't left out. The sick are not told to go get a job and insurance and try to come back before the cancer kills you..... as if a sick person can get a job or insurance.
I wish I could reach into every Sunday School class and Bible study and put a stop to the perpetuation of this notion that the miracles are tests of faith... you either have to make yourself believe in the impossible or your faith isn't strong enough.... Not believing in miracle accounts doesn't mean that you have weak faith, it means you have a strong orientation to reality, which is a good think in almost every case unless you are running for public office.... For that you need to be able to believe in myths and lies but for church, we're good with a commitment to reality around here.
Folks, hear me out on this, the miracles are not magical accounts to tell you what Jesus could do.... They are signs pointing the way towards what you can do.
You help the Kingdom to come. You are God's hands and feet.... You make it happen. As Alexander Campbell said, to get down on your knees and pray for something that you are not willing to then stand up and work and sacrifice to make happen is just a disappointment to yourself and an insult to God.
We will not save every sick baby, but if we try, if we work for it, if we demand it from our nation, if we are willing to sacrifice for it, we can heal most of them. We can't spit in the dirt and rub mud on someone's eyes to heal blindness but I will tell you this: I will be going to Nicaragua next month where lots of children are blinded due to malnutrition.... I will see children who are being carried or lead around by the hand because no one in their village has $600 to pay for the cataract surgery necessary to restore that child to community.... To save them... to make it possible for them to learn to read and write, to play with their friends, to marry and to have children of their own. I've not only seen it happen, I've paid for it to happen. And you can too.... It just depends on whether or not you are willing to meaningfully believe in miracles or if you just want to talk about magic. It's your choice..... but I tell you this, the Kingdom is not coming down from heaven, it is among you.
