Sermon preached on 8th May 2022 at Lichfield Cathedral as it launches as a Gold Healthy Healing Hub
Readings: Acts 9:36-43; John 10:22-30
May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son and the HS. Amen
There is something deeply personal about the story of Peter’s miraculous healing act that we heard in the first reading this morning. It is an astounding story, and one written and used to propagate the power of the Christian faith in the days following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It could have been written in all manners of ways, I imagine – the power of prayer, the great ministry of Peter, the universal nature of Christ now risen. But instead we have a intimate story snatched from the lives of people 2000 years ago in the back of beyond. It might have been told like this: “It was Tabitha, you know, also known as Dorcas, who was devoted to works of charity. Peter healed her, and he caused quite the kerfuffle, all the widows stood around weeping and showing tunics, you know, remember Dorcas, she was always making clothes. And then Peter stayed for a bit with Simon, you know, the tanner.” It’s a story with a touch a reality, a touch of how it would have been whispered around kitchen tables around the region in the days to follow. It is a story that helped to change the world.
In these Sunday’s following the great celebration of Easter day, we spend time with scripture that helps us to understand in deeper ways the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today, there is a focus on healing, which is great news for me as I have been invited to preach today as the Cathedral launches as a Healthy Healing hub, a project which is at the heart of the charity that I run.
Today, the church uses the image of Jesus the Good shephard to reflect on the meaning of the resurrection and how to live Christian lives.
Jesus says – My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.
So there we have it in a nutshell – Faith in the risen Lord, leads us to eternal life. And while we are waiting for that, we have to follow Jesus, imitate him, live lives a bit like him.
Jesus commanded us, in all four gospels, to heal and make new disciples. So, I really don’t think we can get out of it folks – if we want to follow Jesus, we need to offer healing.
Now if this sounds a bit dramatic, then let me explain a little further what I mean by healing, and in what way it relates to making new disciples. Because I want to present and invite you in to a vision of the healing potential of this building here today.
What do you think of when you recall one of the gospel healing stories? The woman with the issue of blood, the paralytic who was lowered by his friends through the roof, the Geresene demoniac? Miraculous, spectacular, powerful. They demonstrate the power of Jesus, they showed he was Lord. But they also did something else, something equally important and powerful. They allowed the ill person to connect back into the community, and be at peace….the women with the issue of blood – healed – could re-enter the temple and worship now that she was clean. The paralytic – could work and have freedom to move. The Geresene demoniac could enter back into the town and be with people again. The Gospel healings are powerful stories demonstrating who Jesus was, but as importantly they are stories of people finding reconnection with God and with their community – given back their lives – allowed to flourish – allowed to be fully valued and at peace…
I am fascinated about healing, I run a charity (The Guild of Health and St Raphael) equips churches to be places of healing and hope, and helps people to learn how they can find healing and offer healing to others.
In this season of our podcast I am chatting with christians who have faced suffering. And during each conversation I collect their story and listen to their wisdom. I always ask – what does healing mean to you?
Here are some of the answers:
First, Nick Thorley who runs the Nomad Podcast – His story involves addiction and loss, and refinding his faith through running and connecting with the reality of being blind. I asked him what healing means to him and this is what he said:
“I’m kind of realising like it’s in the whole thing. It’s when I’m sitting having a cup of tea with my kids.. it’s like we have a cup of tea after our meal and it’s like, Oh, this is God. When I’m cooking some food or I’m like sitting in bed having a coffee and one of my cats is like sitting next to me bed purring loudly…or when I’m walking the kids to school or when I’m drinking a glass of wine with a friend, it’s like that’s, that’s how I would describe God.”
I asked the same question to Brian Draper who is a Christian Spiritual writer and retreat leader, radio 4, suffered with Long covid. What is healing?
“I want to have courage, not just to hope that my journey of healing kind of progresses in a linear way towards better physicality. But at the same time, immediately, that I go on a journey of healing inwardly straight away, regardless of the outcome of my physicality. That takes me into a deeper and richer understanding of relationship with God through it.”
And I asked the same question to Claire Gilbert who runs a theological think tank at Westminster Abbey, and who lives with a terminal diagnosis of cancer – what is healing?
“Be present, be porous, be loving, be at ease as much as you can.”
Now, none of these people, and no one infact, has ever said to me that their experience of Christian healing is instant and perfect…it is something deeper, more wholeistic, and more peaceful than simple bodily healing..CHristian healing powerfully rejoices in the hope of the resurrection that there is no suffering that God doesn’t know about, that we can connect with God and with the world around us and find peace even when ill, and that we can flourish whatever the state of our body and mind…
This is the vision of healing and hope that we encourage churches to put at the heart of their mission in the Healthy Healing Hub project – because this is a powerful vision that our worlds needs more than ever today. The vision of the church as a place of healing is as old as the church. Our modern day hospital system emerged out of the work of churches and monastries offering healing to those who are suffering. The HHH vision encapsulates what the church has always done, cared and grown through hospitality and welcome. and I am delighted that the Catheral is launching this today.
Whether it is in the services, outreach, in prayer, in the new shrine, in the welcome, in the music, in the art…we can in so many different ways offer healing, connection, and human flourishing in this place…and this project will help to elevate the healing power of all of this, so that we can make new disciples, attract people to join the community, inspire people to reach out in the name of Christ…
If you are curious to find out more we have courses running and membership communities that can support the whole community. Please do stay after the service today to find our more – firstly it’s a chance to socialize and connect and then space to explore how you might play a part in this new vision. There is a session next thursday evening where I will be talking more about the project alongside Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries which is a Christian charity that equips the Church to support mental health and wellbeing. And we have a program of events coming up covering trauma, music and social prescribing.
But this is a vision that is less about programs and events and training. It is more about recognizing that this is something that we are all invited to play a part in.
You know, When we were coming up with the project, I had so many stories in my head of people and places I had worked in the past.
We there is two hat Pat in a church in London I worked in – we called her two hat Pat because she always wore two hats – she had severe mental health problems and a very interesting past that included prison, and abuse. But church was her home, every day, and she loved Jesus and she cared for all the other members of the mental health NHS group that met there on a Tuesday afternoon with the nurse. She liked to dance, and she’d pick a fight with anyone who didn’t like the Royal family. Two hat pat found healing in the church
There is the story of the very drunk business man who wandered into a different church that I worked in at evening prayer time. He still had his conference badge on his lapel. Those who were there for the service looked nervous so I approached him hoping he wasn’t going to cause trouble. And he slumped into the pew, burst into tears, and said: ‘My wife doesn’t love me anymore’. This man sensed that the church would offer him something that he needed, and he verbalised his pain.
So many stories, so many experiences…
I would love to be selling a project that dispensed miracles and easy solutions to difficult problems. But that would be a con, and deeply counter to the gospels.
In the gospel reading we find a key tension:
The Jews said – If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe
If the healing miracles were just about proof of who Jesus was, then everyone who witnessed them would have believed. Some did, but not all. But what always happened was that someone was healed and they were able to reconnect into their community and live in peace. The faith is not a head and knowledge thing – it is a heart and expereince thing… “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
This is why I have been telling you personal stories, because these stories are at the heart of the vision and at the heart of the faith. It is personal, our stories matter, how we live matters
This cathedral has been the setting for countless healings over the centuries. I wonder what stories could be told? Even in the two years I have lived here there have been profound stories of healing already – vaccine clinic, the singing outside on palm Sunday 2021, the light shows when people nurses hugged and wept. Powerful stories of mission and healing
What are your stories? Why are you here? What in you needs healed? How can you heal others, how can you be part of this HHH vision, how can you follow Jesus the good Shephard, how can you heal in the name of Christ?
Does that sound crazy – let me assure you and boldly say. You are all healers and can do amazing healing work in this place and beyond, if you have ever made a cup of tea for someone in distress.
Let me finish with a final story. I asked John Stackhouse what the church can do to spread healing – I said John, what can we do – the world has gone crazy – pandemic, traumatised, cost of living crisis, etc….what can the church do…and this was his reply:
“Give them a cup of tea and all that comes with it, because what comes with it is going to be fellowship, is going to be recognition, is going to be humanity. Do that and you’ll be blessing people in ways that the medical establishment is not set up to give them and that the public health establishment is not set up to give them. “
Give them a cup of tea
It’s not a bad place to start – we can all do that.
Come all who are weary and heavy laden, says Jesus the Good Shephard, and I will give you rest. This cathedral, but more accurately, each one of us has the potential to do great and vital healing work today. What stories of healing, I wonder, will this place tell in the years to come – well, that’s up to us.