Just the hem

           As near as I can figure, not counting a couple of places where it says Jesus healed all, there are 31 individual healings in his three years of ministry. Physical healing. Running out demons I’m not counting. Getting folks back from the dead, I’m crossing out for the moment.

         I’m talking 31 there’s something wrong with the body and then it wasn’t.

         Today, as I prepare to have some sort of somethingtheheckother stuck down my nostril and into my lung (which I refuse to even give a lot of thought to because I will come unglued through they say I won’t feel anything which I think is something like the words, “Little stick now) I think of something fairly important.

         Jesus heals.

         Still.

         No matter what they discover in my lung, I shall praise the one who is ultimately guiding the somethingtheheckother. My understanding is they put that somethingtheheckother down there with a light on it and the light shines in the darkness and they get a picture of what’s what. Forgive me if that’s not technically on the mark. My medical degree came from Google (I thank my son, Jason, for that one).

         If it’s cancer, which is not the top pick from the doctors at this point, so be it. If it’s an atypical infection that has been highly resistant to the gallons of antibiotics that have entered my body since August 26, antibiotics that seemed to have worked and got me upright and back in the pulpit only to have another section of body malfunction, as one doctor thinks, so be it. If it’s COPD or scarred lungs or pneumonia that will continue forever so be it. 

         If it’s one too many cups of coffee, well, we need to talk.

         Whatever it is, I am ready for the result. Let’s fix this and move on.

         While sitting in my suite, uh, hospital room today, thinking these many deep thoughts, I got an email from my Bishop’s office that our trip to Israel had been cancelled. Too much fright and such. So be it.

         Here’s what I want people to get from my three month journey into disease. Forget the fright. Get rid of the worst and look to who truly, truly, truly is holding you in His big ol’ hands. 

It’s like everything else, you can’t fix yourself. Addiction? Can’t fix it. Pain? Can’t fix it. Depression? Can’t fix it. Finances? Can’t do it on your own.

         When God doesn’t give us the answers in our time on our schedule, or part the waters in the right spot we must continue to trust. 

         A quick note to close.

         In the Old Testament, there was a King of Judah who got some sort of disease in his feet. His disease was severe, but even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord but only from the physicians. He died two years later.

         Let’s provide contrast. In Luke’s Gospel, there’s a story of a woman with “an issue of blood.” Twelve years worth. Imagine. And the scripture says she had spent all her living upon physicians, and none of them could heal her.

         When Jesus came near her, she somehow crawled (since she couldn’t be touched by anyone lest they be declared unclean) just close enough to touch the hem of his garment. The hem. Just a touch. She is one of the 31 healings.

         Now, I’m not concluding anything with the contrast of these two stories. Believers all over the world die despite their faith. Non-believers all over the world are treated by physicians and they get better.

         But …

         “Heavenly Father, I ask today that every physician in the world who is doing some sort of procedure or some operation or simply treating someone in a clinic be guided by your knowledge, wisdom and understanding about us, the infirmed, the ill. Grant us both favor and wisdom that the persons who will be involved with our medical treatment be blessed by the Great Physician. Guide their hands. Guide their minds. Bless their training and their experience. We are yours Holy One, as always.”

         Today is the first day of December. Advent began last Sunday. Advent is about hope, about waiting.

         But there is hope in illness and suffering? That’s what this Advent season ultimately boils down to. There was darkness, and people couldn’t fix themselves no matter how devoted to religion they were. And God sent light. Just like the light at the end of the somethingtheheckother.

         The light was Jesus. We believe we receive our healing in Jesus Name. Whether this side of the River Jordan or the other.

         See you tomorrow.