Rev. Aisha Brooks-Johnson
(Mark 5)
- Healing is beautiful
- Healing … healing is a beautiful thing
- Healing stories in scripture are powerful
- And yet, the topic of healing can be a sensitive one
- Let’s be honest, it doesn’t always happen in the way we imagine it. And for some people it doesn’t happen at all or the struggle for wellness is a long and arduous one
- We categorize healing in BIG REQUESTS and SMALL REQUESTS
- We assume that God will take care of the common cold, a low-grade fever, a broken arm, routine surgery.
- But there is a risk involved when we quietly ask God to heal us from an illness that could be life or death or an illness that requires long term treatment
- There is the risk of being disappointed – what if the healing doesn’t happen? What if it happens differently than I would have imagined?
- The Risk of Asking for Healing
- In our text this morning, we have two healing stories intertwined with one another.
- Two different families, two different dynamics
- Both situations have led the people involved to come to Jesus desperate for a healing
- For the first person, it is synagogue leader, Jairus, who comes to Jesus requesting that he heal his daughter.
- The text tells us that this leader, this keeper of religious law, most likely a figure and leader in his community, he falls at his FEET repeatedly asking Jesus to come to his home.
- With compassion and understanding, Jesus makes his way to care for the man’s daughter
- Jairus took a risk but he had no other alternative
- Right in the middle of this story, we find the woman with the flow of blood, issue of blood,
- Sick with this illness for 12 years
- What we might not comprehend from this text is that there are hundreds of laws considering what women could and couldn’t do during the time she had these bleeding issues.
- THIS WOMAN was essentially UNCLEAN for years
- She ran through all her money with doctor’s visits
- She probably shouldn’t have been pressed so tightly against the people,
- But she said to herself, IF I CAN JUST GET CLOSE TO HIM, JUST TOUCH HIS CLOAK, or as I as raised just touch the HEM OF HIS GARMET…I CAN BE MADE WELL
- SHE TOOK A RISK and as soon as she did,
- The flow stopped
- The pain was gone
- She was healed
- It took enough out of Jesus that he calls her out of the shadows
- NOT TO SHAME HER
- NOT TO BLAME HER
- BUT TO RENAME HER AND REMIND HER that her identity was more than the illness
- He calls her daughter and affirms her healing
- This celebration for the newly healed woman is followed by news the Jairus’ daughter has died.
- But Jesus says, don’t worry, I’ve got this too.
- With more risky faith for Jairus, he leaves Jesus to it, as Jesus makes his way to the girl’s room
- With just one phrased, Little girl, get up – she is restored to new life!
- Modern day healing and everyday trauma
- When I read healing stories in the text, I think to myself, Lord we need that in this day and age, too
- I am convinced that collectively, we are in need of healing on a personal and community level
- We need healing from known and named sickness
- And we need healing in the hidden areas of our lives where we have been hurt, harmed, or even traumatized
- Steve and I discussed last night, that we are coming upon the three year anniversary of entering a global pandemic
- It is likely that we collectively have some trauma from the past three years and pain we don’t even realize
- In her book, entitled Trauma Sensitive Theology, Jennifer Baldwin invites people to be mindful that there are levels of trauma that people experience.
- Meaning some of us are carrying pain and don’t even know it, or have been taught to refrain from naming it.
- She talks about primary trauma, secondary trauma, intergenerational, cultural and societal
- She talks about the power of naming the pain seeking healing through theology that keeps this reality in mind. She talks about therapy, community, worship, and spiritual disciplines.
- I walked away from that book and from the class with a reminder that we all need a little more healing
- My testimony of healing
- When I think about healing stories, I can’t help but think of my late first husband, Carl,
- who died in 2018 from a rare and inherited degenerative neurological condition
- SCA7 – Spincocerebellar Ataxia 7
- Carl received this more accurate diagnosis in 2013 and I watched him decline from walker, to wheelchair, to a hospital bed, and finally to spending his last years in a nursing home with round the clock care.
- We prayed for healing a lot
- For us we had to come to understand that healing was going to look different for the both of us.
- I can remember sitting in the church sanctuary while some of our musicians were practicing. And I was thinking about Carl’s illness and where all of this was going
- I had this image in my head of two babies in two separate cribs, being pulled apart in different directions
- What I took away from that was a sense that God was caring for us two differently, Carl was being prepared to return to God sooner and I was being prepared to reimagine my life without Carl.
- Over those 5 years I learned a lot about healing
- I learned that gratitude in the midst of sorrow IS A FORM OF healing
- I learned that trust in the midst of uncertainty IS A FORM OF healing
- I learned that at acceptance IS A FORM OF of healing
- For me as caregiver and and for Carl as one being cared for – God was healing the both of us all along the way
- Carl’s healing was complete as was his baptism when he took his last breath on April 26, 2018.
- My healing is ongoing as I learn to discover and name past hurts, or post traumatic responses and take it to the One who can heal and make all things new.
- I believe Jesus is a healer
- Friends, from the biblical witness, the witness of my own life, and countless of others,
- I TRULY BELIEVE THAT THE LORD IS A HEALER
- Jesus understands our every needs – he sees, hears, intuits, removes stigma and shame, and offers compassion and hope to those in need of a healing touch
- Jesus is an expert street chaplain has the best bedside manner
- Jesus simply invites us to make the spiritual practice of healing, part of our life long journey with him.
- Jesus invites to be in dialogue with the divine, to open our hearts to the healing process, and to be ready to be transformed.
- Four Spiritual Practices of Healing
- As we consider what it means to practice our faith, I want to leave you with four spiritual practices of healing:
- Name it – Name the broken places in your life. Name the healing that needs to happen on a physical, emotional, or spiritual level.
- You don’t have to name it in isolation. Name it among church family, friends, and community that surrounds you.
- Name it – Name the broken places in your life. Name the healing that needs to happen on a physical, emotional, or spiritual level.
- Ask for it – don’t be afraid to ask for God’s healing hand and healing touch in your life. Don’t be afraid to call upon the elders and leaders to pray for you. I still get the prayer list from one church I served and I love they way they care for one another reminding us to pray no matter if we are near or far.
- Trust it – Trust the process. Healing is a process. It may not happen overnight. You may ask for healing from a physical area in your life and God works on your heart first. Trust the process as you learn to lean on God for strength for each day. There is healing within chronic illness
- there is the reality that the fullness of someone’s healing on hospice might happen once their baptism is complete and their earthly life comes to an end.
- Healing may happen with a clean bill of health! Healing is a process. And it is a process that transforms everyone along the way.
- Celebrate it – I know that sounds odd in Lent, but hear me out. Anytime a healing occurs, when you realize you made it through the day or through a difficult season, give thanks for every victory along the way.
- I will give you two snapshots of celebrating healing in own family
- As I said earlier, this April will be the five year anniversary of Carl’s death. Last week, my son Ellington and I had to fly up to attend his grandfather’s funeral, who was also named Carl. Both Ellington’s father and grandfather suffered from the same degenerative neurological condition. Ellington’s father’s illness was a more aggressive version than his grandfather
- But I watched my 17 year old son as he stood in front his grandfather’s casket, he was the last one there. He took a deep breath, raised his shoulders, brought them back down, and sat next to his younger cousins to encourage and console them.
- I thought, Lord, you are a healer. This boy is clothed in his right mind as my old folks would say. These deaths did not break him but have built in him a sense of compassion and empathy beyond his years. Lord you are a healer.
- Let me tell you what healing looks like, As a new wife to Alonzo Johnson, I have two beautiful bonus daughters, the oldest just had her first baby, Kalani. That’s my grannybaby and I am her Mimi.
- There are times when I hold her and I LORD YOU ARE A HEALER. You didn’t let Carl’s death close my heart off to loving again. I get to hold new life because you have healed me and continue to do so.
- Name the pain. Ask for the healing. Trust the process. And celebrate God’s miraculous healing touch in your life.
- May we become a church filled with healing and wholeness and inviting the world to come and see about the one named Jesus, who came to heal, redeem, and save.
In the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit,
And all God’s people said – AMEN