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The Healing Legacy of the Church by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy During this Lenten season, we have shared in a series of presentations and discussions on "healing" from several perspectives - or perhaps better, through several "lenses." We have asked: what does healing mean in the field of medicine and in psychotherapy? How is it that our broken relationships in families can be mended? For those suffering with addictive behaviors, how can they find sobriety and even serenity? How do we mend our alienation from God, from other people and even from our own selves? Is there a difference between "healing" and "cure?" And where does God fit into all of this? What can be said with confidence is that Jesus was gifted at curing diseases and infirmities. He was also a gifted exorcist. And it is certain that the effects of his ministry in theses areas also enabled people to be restored to community - both their clan and the "People Israel." (e.g. lepers who formerly lived apart from their villages because they were defined by Torah as unclean- now healed - could return to their families and worship in the Temple again). Thus cured and restored, their lives had meaning and purpose again, which is what we often mean by "healed." The social component of illness is still prevalent today as those with lingering illnesses often find themselves isolated and alone, cut off (shunned) not from fear of contagion but from human awkwardness (not knowing "what to say.") What is clear is that the Church has a responsibility to carry on the legacy of prayer for healing both individuals as well as communities. In the midst of all the questions we bring, humbled by the sheer mystery of how healing/curing happens (or fails to happen), we nevertheless offer our prayers. What has been enormously helpful to me over the years is to think of God imminent as well as transcendent. The transcendent God is the God beyond the heavens whom we implore to transcend space (to "come down") and to act to make us whole. The imminent God is God within. It is the Spirit received in Baptism which is Emmanuel ("God with us".) It is the prayer to release those things in me which hinders the free flow of the Spirit to heal and make well. (To be "made manifest.") Prayer to a transcendent God feels presumptuous. Prayer to the imminent Spirit feels more like "integration." But these are but metaphors and images inadequate to encompass a God which is both wholly "Other" and yet completely intimate. And so, at a healing service, we bring our broken bodies, our burdensome pasts, our strained relationships, our self destructive behaviors and our alienation from God and others and we simply open them up to Spirit and ask to be "enabled whole." How or why that happens is beyond our understanding and we are content to simply acknowledge the mystery of that. Yet at the same time, we claim, trusting in Christ's example, that God desires us well and will deal with us with mercy and compassion and in ways to us unpredictable but right. The healing service will be held on the Wednesday before Holy Week, March 28th, beginning with a pot luck supper at 6:30 p.m. (optional) and the Service following in the sanctuary at 7. Copyright © 2007 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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