{"id":138,"date":"2012-02-12T22:58:44","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T03:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bendroth.org\/?page_id=138"},"modified":"2012-02-28T10:40:27","modified_gmt":"2012-02-28T15:40:27","slug":"%e2%80%9chealing-grace%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bendroth.org\/?page_id=138","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHealing Grace\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark 1: 40-45 \/ Sixth Sunday after Epiphany \/ February 12, 2012 \/ Norman B. Bendroth<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

David had an ice cream shop and general store in Lincoln, NH. When a lot of jobs left that area, he decided to run for the town council to try to attract some industry back to the depressed ski town. To his amazement, an electronics firm relocated there. After having been there, they approached him about working for them: he was a native, he knew the folks and their ways, he could recommend who to hire; he\u2019d be a great asset. He eventually worked his way up the ladder and over time traveled around the world for the company and ran the office in Hong Kong. \u201cNot bad for a NH country bumpkin,\u201d he told me when I met him in the hospital.<\/p>\n

David was on dialysis and was in for some complications. He was a stout, cheerful man, full of optimism and grateful for his life. But then like a used car with over 250,000 miles on it, one thing after another began to break down. He finally had a heart attack the week before Christmas followed with numerous complications and had had it. His wife called me in a panic. \u201cDavid refuses to go on dialysis,\u201d she told me. \u201cHe said he just wants to die.\u201d \u201cLike it or not Miriam,\u201d I said as pastorally as I could muster, \u201cThat\u2019s his choice.\u201d The conversation continued for a while and she asked me, \u201cWould you talk to him?\u201d Which really meant, would you talk him out of it?<\/p>\n

I went to see David. He was so weak he could barely talk. He had an oxygen mask on. \u201cSo you want to call it quits, huh, David?\u201d I asked him. He shook his head through the mask. \u201cI don\u2019t blame you and it\u2019s no sin. You\u2019ve fought the good fight. You\u2019ve had a good life. But are you really sure you want to do this right now? It\u2019s your choice, but I have to check, is there any unfinished business? Are there people you need to say good bye to? Would you be willing to hang on a little while longer for the sake of your family or are you just too tired?\u201d He said he\u2019d think about it. I prayed with him and went home.<\/p>\n

On Christmas Eve I was standing in the back of the sanctuary waiting for the 7 o\u2019clock service to begin when a lovely young woman came up to me and said, \u201cAre you the pastor?\u201d I said yes and she threw her arms around my neck.\u00a0 I thought to myself, I think this is a boundaries issue. When she let go, \u201cThank you for talking my grandpa into living.\u201d David had decided to go through one last round of dialysis. I assured her it wasn\u2019t me, but his decision and the help of God.<\/p>\n

David made it through Christmas; he did the emotional and spiritual work he needed too, and died shortly thereafter with his family around him. David was healed even though he wasn\u2019t cured. He left this world in serenity at peace with his family and with God.<\/p>\n

The story in Mark today is a healing story, not just physical healing, but on several levels. A leper drops to his knees and implores Jesus to make him clean. In the Greek Jesus answers with two short, powerful words: Thelo.\u00a0 Katharistheti. <\/em>The man said, \u201cIf you are willing,\u201d and Jesus curtly replies, \u201cWilling!\u201d\u00a0 The man said, \u201cYou can make me clean,\u201d and Jesus says \u201cCleansed!\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0And that\u2019s all it took for this miracle to happen.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a curious exchange in some ways.\u00a0 The man does not cry out<\/em> for mercy the way some people do in the gospels.\u00a0 He does not directly ask <\/em>Jesus to heal him.\u00a0 Indeed, his words to Jesus are neither plea nor question, neither imperative nor demand, but instead a simple conditional clause: If you are willing, you can heal.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s similar to someone\u2019s saying, \u201cIf you step on the gas pedal, the car will go faster.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, true enough.\u00a0 A simple statement of \u201cIf . . . Then.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, of course, in this case these are the words of a desperate man so there was no mistaking that this was no idle request or casual observation of facts. \u201cIf you are willing . . .\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 We know what the leper meant\u2014he was hoping like mad that Jesus would<\/em> be willing. \u00a0\u00a0And Jesus response is equally weird, \u201cReady, Willing, and Able, Sir!\u201d\u00a0Yes, Jesus is willing.\u00a0He\u2019s even eager.\u00a0And he is surely able.\u00a0If there is one thing the gospels make clear, it is that whenever someone approached Jesus for healing or cleansing or for most anything else, Jesus was indeed willing to extend his hand and bring some shalom back into their chaotic and broken lives.<\/p>\n

In fact, there is a sense in which all the goodness of the Gospel is contained in that little Greek word Jesus employed: Thelo! <\/em>Willing!\u00a0 There\u2019s more grace tucked in there than we may at first appreciate.\u00a0Yes, God is willing to heal, to save.\u00a0That\u2019s why God sent Jesus into the world in the first place.\u00a0Salvation is available.\u00a0The resources are there.\u00a0And God is willing\u2014more than willing\u2014to see the dream of our restoration realized.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s good to know because on any given Sunday I\u2019ll bet any number of you come to church wondering if God is willing to help you. Is God there for you or not?\u00a0 Is God on your side or not?\u00a0 Of course, I can\u2019t promise anyone instant healing or instant success. But this passage shows us Jesus\u2019 willingness eagerly and happily to heal this leper. But as we all know, even though Jesus walked around his whole life long with that kind of willingness welling up within him, not everyone in Palestine was healed while Jesus was on the earth.\u00a0 Not every leper was cleansed, not every blind person could see again just because Jesus passed through a given town or village, not every person who died during Jesus\u2019 ministry got raised back up but only a few that we know of.<\/p>\n

And we can no more know the whys and wherefores of all that in Jesus\u2019 day than we can know just why even today some prayers for healing in the church appear to get answered and others appear to go unanswered.\u00a0 Some cancer-stricken members of our congregation get better, others quickly die.\u00a0 Some rocky marriages get put back together and some end in bitter divorces that scar all kinds of people in the community.<\/p>\n

We know God is willing<\/em> to heal and to restore, but that willingness does not automatically translate into a world shot through with nothing but peace and happiness and shalom.\u00a0These are mysteries of faith the depths of which the church has never finished plumbing even all these centuries later.<\/p>\n

But what I can tell you on any given Sunday morning is that God is willing, God is on our side, God is ready and available.\u00a0 Even when we cannot know the ins and outs as to why specific people suffer in specific ways, what we can know is that none of that separates us from the love of our God in Christ. Willing? Yes,<\/em> willing indeed!\u00a0 And in God\u2019s good time, we will be healed.<\/p>\n

Reynolds Price was a prolific and well-loved American writer and was the James B. Duke professor of English at Duke University. His career spanned over 40 years; 35 books, plays, poetry, and essays. He died on January 20, 2011. He developed spinal cancer in 1984. After having a 10-inch tumor removed, but before radiation, he had an honest-to-God dream vision. He tells about it in his book, \u201cA Whole New Life:<\/em> An Illness and a Healing.\u201d<\/em> He found himself on the shore asleep with the other disciples. Jesus appeared. He invited Reynolds to come into the waters of the lake. Waist deep, he recalled: \u201cJesus silently took up handfuls of water and poured them over my head and back till water ran down my puckered scar. Then he spoke once\u2013\u201dYour sins are forgiven\u201d\u2013and turned to shore again, done with me. I came on behind him, thinking in standard greedy fashion, It\u2019s not my sins I\u2019m worried about. So to Jesus\u2019 receding back, I had the gall to say, \u201cAm I also cured?\u201d He turned to face me, no sign of a smile, and finally said two words\u2013\u201dThat too.\u201d Then Jesus turned and headed up the shore.<\/p>\n

Price became a paraplegic after the surgery and radiation treatment and needed attendants around the clock. He wrote that there had been many surgeries since then, and there was disabling pain, but the cancer did not return. Eventually using biofeedback and deep hypnosis, he managed the pain to the point of making it disappear. \u201cMy life is more rewarding and productive than before that [baptism] in Galilee,\u201d he said reflecting on his experience.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t fully understand what has happened to him, but he couldn\u2019t deny it. It was in his memory indelibly, the unstinting mercy in Jesus\u2019 face and in his eyes. In his book, he said, he now can understand the perennial appeal of Jesus\u2019 words, \u201cCome unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am lowly and meek in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.\u201d<\/p>\n

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