Mark Ch 1 v 29 – 39 8^th February 2009

We All Need To Be Whole

As we know from the Gospel’s Christ’s ministry began with healing; no sooner had Jesus called his disciples to his side than he cured a man with an unclean spirit in the synagogue. Then, leaving the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon and Andrew to discover Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever. Christ took her by the hand and lifted her up. The fever went and she recovered her health.

Whenever Jesus reached out to someone, touched them – and it didn’t matter who they were, they were healed, they were made whole. Christ’s healing touch brought relief, brought hope brought love. In that instant they were transformed not just bodily but also in mind and spirit.

Christ’s healing had a deeper meaning than just bringing individual help it was to proclaim the kingdom of God, to herald the coming of a kingdom that will transcend the earth and bring relief from suffering. This kingdom is not just for people who met Christ in the body but to all who meet him in the Spirit, to all who reach out to him and grasp his love, who take hold of it and don’t let go.

We are all in need of healing, for we are all frail human beings, not necessarily physically but spiritually. Physical achievement, academic achievement is no protector against spiritual weakness, of feeling alone in the world, or feeling dissatisfied with life, feeling we need to be perfect so that we can be competitive, or perhaps even more sadly popular.

I was hearing on television the other week that people may have less money but plastic surgery, makeovers etc are still a boom industry, and tragically I have a feeling that many people hope that by spending money on such things, they will be transformed will be able to face life with new confidence, that it will develop a new meaning.

But they are superficial - transformation in its fullest sense comes from within, comes from God, and if I dare say it - is free. I don’t quite know how to say this, but you may remember a couple of weeks ago I used the same phrase. At the end a certain gentleman came and said did you really have to say that God’s love is free, (it was the Sunday we talked about stewardship). So to, hopefully, make amends I will say God’s love is free but that it costs money to run the church, and we need the church to draw people to God, to teach the gospels, to show God’s love, to be able to worship God. But hopefully the church has come to a place where it no longer teaches that if we sin we have to pay for forgiveness.

But to return to the transformation that God’s healing love brings. It’s not a transformation which brings power, control over other people, it is a transformation which makes us aware of our own frailty, of our need for God’s love. When we are healed we will come to experience God at work within our lives, but it is because we recognize our utter dependence on God and the kingdom. We have no power to make ourselves whole.

Humans cannot heal, we may be channels for God’s healing grace but the power is Christ’s alone, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christ’s healing message would not have resonated with the people of his day, much less today, had he not first led them to embrace their own vulnerability and need for God’s love.

In our own English language the words healing, health,

wholeness, and holiness all share the same etymological root, meaning full or complete. At whatever stage

of life we may be - whether child, adolescent, middle-aged, or elderly - we can recognize implicitly our own deficiencies and lack of completeness. We experience our need for something or someone beyond ourselves. We need the Christ’s strength not only to make us well, but to make us whole.

Jesus ‘cast out many demons.’ But surely, people may say, no-one believes in demons, we are far too educated too sophisticated for that. But by demons we don’t mean something which is the opposite of fairies, we mean those things which can stop people when they try and find inner peace, happiness.

Today people are tempted by the contemporary demons of addiction, be it drugs, alcohol abuse, gambling; being too materialistic, or other problems which can lead to ruin and self-defeat, sometime even to death itself. But I think another contemporary demon is more insidious, in a way less obvious, and that is society itself, the way it allows the media to depict family life.

Last week, in one report on child behaviour, parents were called selfish and blamed for all the problems faced by today’s children. It is very easy to blame one section of society but to me it is the whole of society and in that I would include government who need to look at how they lead their lives, and how the media is allowed to portray life.

Our children were not allowed to watch TV adverts when they were little, not least because there was an advert, I am going back years, where some young children walked into their kitchen in muddy wellies. Mum chided them slightly, then got the mop and bucket out and lo and behold smiling sweetly, washed the floor to produce a sparkling floor, praising flash or whatever. Now let me be quite truthful that was not the scenario in the Webb household, it that happened I shouted, loudly. I didn’t want our children to think that because something could be remedied it became alright to do it.

I believe if we want to stop stressful things happening, we try to remove the initial problem not rely on something to cover it up. Like children have to learn to remove their wellies on the doorstep.

And I feel in a way the same applies in our spiritual lives. We need to encourage people to protect themselves spiritually, to find that feeling of wholeness, which leads to inner peace.

For over the centuries many have come to realise that

inner healing is an essential element of the Gospel message. Christians of all denominations have long treasured the scenes of healing found in both Hebrew and Christian scripture. The Lord hasn’t changed he will not reject those who come seeking his love, his power in their lives. Jesus’ healing wasn’t, and isn’t, about rejecting medicine, it is enabling people to discover and trust in the power of God to change lives and make all things new.

Jesus took Simon’s mother-in-law by the hand and raised her from her sickbed, and she was well. And she came to realize, at that moment, the meaning of the kingdom and oneness with the Lord.

How can we know we are healed – well, we have the joy of knowing that God is ready to take care of us. He’s there when we need help; he will comfort and give us the strength to help us through life’s troubles. We know that he is with us all the time. We come to understand that we need Christ’s love to enable us lead happy lives, that closeness and oneness with God is ours to have as well, and dare I say it – it is freely given. Amen.