Earlier this Autumn, in response to an appeal from our church leadership, I devised (and conducted in three churches) a Service of Lamentation and Healing for the Covid-19 pandemic; and those who attended found it helpfully restorative. For that service I chose bible passages that moved from lamentation and severe distress, through healing to wholeness; and they seem equally appropriate choices for today’s service, as we continue to live under the shadow of the pandemic. These stories help us to relate empathically to people who have endured prolonged social isolation, to those whose lives have been disrupted severely, and to those whose loved ones have died.
We see elements of disruption and despair in the encounter of the great Old Testament prophet, Elijah, with the widow of Zarephath and her son. The woman had provided Elijah with hospitality in her home during a period of devastating drought, relying on God’s promise, given through the prophet, that her scant store of meal and oil would not run out – they would suffice – until the rains returned, and the land was refreshed and productive once again.
We cannot help but wonder, however, if that very restricted diet had contributed to the severe illness that overcame her son; leading to the woman’s accusatory lament to Elijah – a lament to God that was reiterated by Elijah as he laid the dead or dying boy on the bed, before imploring God’s grace in restoring life to the child: a profound prayer that was answered with the recovery of the boy. I wonder how many of us wish our Covid-19-related prayers had been answered so convincingly!
In that wonderful story of Elijah’s healing ministry, we have a progression from desperate despondency, through prayerful appeal, to healing and restoration; and this prefigures the healing ministry of Jesus, who followed in Elijah’s footsteps several centuries later.
As we all know well, Jesus performed many miracles of healing. So, why did I select the passage about his healing of the woman with menorrhagia, for today’s service? The reason is: because St Luke makes specific reference to Jesus being aware ‘that power had gone forth from him’, as the woman touched his cloak, and she ‘felt in her body that she was healed of her disease’.
In the healing mediated by Elijah, the process involved profound prayer and the physical activity of repeatedly stretching over the boy’s body, as if to focus God’s response to prayer where it was needed, and maybe provide some physical aid to resuscitation. In contrast, in the healing mediated by Jesus, it seems that the woman’s profound belief in the healing power of Jesus was sufficient to attract the divine power to the place where it was needed, through the slightest physical contact with his cloak.
And it is that same power that we seek to invoke today, as we offer laying-on-of-hands, and anointing, with prayer for healing; guided by the instructions and assurance in the Letter of James, chapter 5.
In justifying his belief in the ability of Christ’s disciples to continue Jesus’ healing ministry, James’ letter referred to the power of Elijah’s prayer in preventing and then, eventually, restoring rainfall. Maybe he viewed that miracle as being more convincingly dramatic to his audience than restoring life to the widow’s ailing son. Even so, that does nothing to diminish the biblical evidence for the healing power of God being transmitted to those in desperate need, through the prayer of faith; bringing hope and joy out of sadness, despair and lamentation – a spiritual journey that we are pursuing in today’s service.
As we move towards the climax of our service, we will join, as a worshipping community, in the prayer that Jesus taught his first disciples – a prayer that pleads for healing in many ways: for aligning our wills with God’s will for us; for adequate nutrition; for forgiveness of past wrongdoing; for avoidance of straying from God’s will; and for protection from adversity.
It is my hope and prayer that, through participating in today’s events, online or here at St Paul’s, and especially through healing prayer and sacrament, we open ourselves to God’s will being worked within each and every one of us; and that the healing mission of the Guild of Health & St Raphael will prosper, through our faith in Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen