Introduction to Healing: Healing in Community

Luke 13:11-13
And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. ¹²¹³

I went in for an annual physical checkup. The nurse did the usual, first measuring my weight and my height. I saw that she wrote down, “5 feet, 7 inches.”

“I am not 5 feet, 7 inches,” I said.

She looked surprised and said that indeed I was. I resisted, telling her that I had never been taller than 5 feet, 6 inches, although sometimes I had been 5 feet, 51⁄2 inches. She began to be a bit irritated with the resistance I was displaying to her measurement. Finally, she stepped back and, holding her clipboard, shook her pen at me, saying with finality, “You may have been 5 feet, 51⁄2 inches at some point in your life, but you are 5 feet, 7 inches today!” She stalked off down the hall, then turned and came back. “I’ll tell you something else. Most people are taller than they think they are!”

Let me put the experience in context: For about a year, a spiritual friend had been responding to discouragements and anxieties in my life with the simple mantra, “Stand tall.” I had listened to her and without consciously doing so had begun to stand taller, literally taller.

Such is the interplay in health and wholeness. God beautifully intertwines all aspects of our lives and health. God created us for physical, mental, spiritual, and relational health. Health in any of these areas is life giving for us in a holistic way.

Jesus healed a woman who had been bent over for 18 years. We do not know the nature of the “spirit,” but we do know that she could not stand up straight.

Our incapacities, pains, illnesses, and addictions are all difficult reminders of our human frailty. We live in the midst of temptations and dangers. We look to God, who breathed life into us, for strength and help.

Like the woman in this Bible story, we are a bent-over people. Just as Jesus came to the woman in the Bible story, so Jesus comes to us as a Great Physician. When God touches us through the power of the Holy Spirit, we experience strengthening and healing. God in Jesus Christ is our constant companion through the temptations and dangers, the accidents and injuries of our lives.

We are painfully aware that all who turn to God do not experience instantaneous healing. Healing is complex and mysterious, most often taking time, prayer, patience, and perseverance.

We are healed most often in community, where we are loved and supported. Standing less than straight, we need the companionship and encouragement of others. We need to be connected to others who have also struggled in the journey toward health.

The church of Jesus Christ, from the earliest days, has been a community of healing. Jesus Christ began his ministry among us in Galilee, healing and casting out demons. People were amazed at the wonderful things that they saw Jesus do (Mark 1-2). Those who experienced the saving grace of Jesus Christ turned their gaze to a hurting world. The stories of the early church include stories of healing (Acts 5:12-16). The Bible contains instructions for us: when we are sick, we are to turn to the church and receive prayers for healing, along with anointing of oil. The promise remains sure: the prayers of the faithful will save the sick and the Lord will raise
them up, and those who have committed sins will be forgiven (James 5).

Christians in The United Methodist Church have deep roots in the ministry of healing. John Wesley was attentive to the physical needs of people, establishing ministries for caring for the sick and distributing medicine to those in need. He advised the people called Methodists to take care of their bodies through nutritious diet, exercise, and rest. He wrote a book called Primitive Physick that advised drinking water rather than tea, eating vegetables, riding a horse, or walking daily. Primitive Physick also listed ailments, alphabetically, with simple remedies. This book outsold the Bible on the western frontier in the United States in the 19th century. John Wesley had in his home an exercise machine that mimicked the movement of a horse, and he carried a medical bag with him for pastoral visits. Healing is a part of the character of the Wesleyanway of life and ministry.

It is essential that we live out of our heritage as faithful followers of Jesus Christ, the Great Physician. As we live with constant awareness and gratitude to God who gave us life, we experience healing power. As we live together with thanksgiving for our human family and our spiritual community, we experience healing power. As we encourage one another toward habits of healthy living, we experience healing power. As we give attention to food, drink, rest, exercise, and social interaction, we find that we become more whole, more free, more faithfully children of God.

It is essential that every United Methodist church awake to its calling and spiritual destiny as a center of healing. In every place, United Methodists can love God and one another, can live with intentionality in regard to healthy living, and can offer ministries of healing in their communities. When John Wesley wrote, “The world is my parish,” he meant, “Wherever in the world I am, that is my parish.” Let us reclaim our parishes, our world, in healing ministry. It is essential that we grow into our full identity as followers of Jesus, as apostles bearing healing power, as Methodists embracing the world in love.

Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, Mississippi Conference