Let’s See Part Five: Healing

Introduction- David After the Dentist

One of my favorite genre of video

I just absolutely love these post-surgery anesthesia videos.

Any time someone I know is going under for something routine, I always ask the person who’s driving to make sure that they get a video!

And one of my favorites is the one that I think started it all.

This is called David after the dentist.

Is this going to be forever?

Truth be told, this is a question I think so many of us on the journey to healing have.

This pain I’m experiencing…is this going to be forever?

This mental anguish I’m feeling…is this going to be forever?

This heartache that’s got a hold of me…is this going to be forever?

When our boys were little, they too would ask that any time they came across a new injury or illness or something like that.

Is this cold, or scrape, or whatever going to be forever?

Sarah came up with a phrase that helped them, and that has become common language in our family.

Our bodies were made to heal.

For today, I think I can add to that “Our souls were made to heal too.”

We’re going to take a look at a Christmas story of all places to explore what it looks like to see healing.

Simeon

We get this really interesting introduction to Simeon in Luke’s gospel:

The consolation of Isreal

I had to look up this word for “consolation” so that we could know what we’re looking at.

Words defined- Paraklesis

Consolation

Encouragement

Exhortation

Inspiration

Comfort

You can hear our Old Testament passage today going through that, can’t you?

Isaiah 40:1–2 “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

Isreal is waiting for comfort.

There’s a lot that’s weighing on Isreal right now, isn’t there?

The weight of sin

We talked about this last week, right?

This people Isreal is meant to be God’s chosen

They’re meant to be the embodiment of the Kingdom on earth.

And yet…

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

They’re still wandering.

They’re still hurting each other.

They’re still gripped by sin.

And since sin is death…

Sin is nothing but pain.

There is a tremendous amount of comfort and healing we need in the face of our sin.

The weight of politics

Not our politics…though there’s a fair bit of healing to be done there, isn’t there?

No, Isreal has for generations not been in charge of it’s own destiny.

They’ve been conquered by the Assyrians.

They’ve been conqured by the Babylonians.

And now they’re occupied and conquered by the Romans.

It’s bad enough when you don’t have control of your own political destiny, when you’re subjugated and dominated by another global power.

But these global powers have stripped Isreal of their right to worship as they please.

And for them, worship is uniquely tied to their identity.

So it’s like all of these countries came in and made a whole nation forget who they were.

And like I said…this has been going on for generations by the time Simeon rolls around.

So it’s not hard to imagine the question, is it?

Is this going to be forever?

Are we forever going to be in the grip of sin?

Are we forever going to be at the mercy of another global power?

Are we forever going to be lost among ourselves?

Is this going to last forever?

The Spirit Says No!

The Holy Spirit has told Simeon that he would not see death until he saw that comfort on its way.

That sometime in Simeon’s lifetime he’s going to see the Messiah.

That sometime in Simeon’s life, the tide’s going to roll back a bit.

That sometime in Simeon’s life, he’s going to see healing on its way.

And so imagine the day that the Holy Spirit prompts Simeon:

This is the day!

You’re going to get to see comfort!

And that comfort is…

That comfort is…a baby?

I would have been a touch confused with this sight!

Simeon knew exactly what to do!

He picks up the child and gives this remarkable prophesy

Luke 2:29–32 ““Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.””

And yet…

A question I wrestled with: did anything change?

When Simeon walked out of the temple that day, was anything even remotely different?

Rome is still in charge!

Odds are Simeon would have passed a couple of spear weilding centurions between the temple and his home.

He would have been reminded that Rome was still an occupying force.

Not much that a baby can do about that, huh?

Sin is still a problem!

I mean, clearly!

Sin is still a problem for us, so I imagine it was for Simeon when he walked out of the temple.

We still hurt each other.

We still wound each other.

We still cary the scars of sin.

Simeon is still an old dude!

Every painting of Simeon depicts him as a rather old man.

I’m only 41 and just about every joint in my body cracks when I stand up out of bed in the morning!

I’m guessing that there were ailments and infirmities that Simeon was struggling with before he met the child Jesus,

And I’m guessing they were still with him when he left.

And yet…just seeing Jesus is enough to bring that healing and comfort.

I think it is important to note something here, with a really really corny joke.

The past, present, and future went camping. It was in tense!

We’re talking about healing.

Which is way different than being cured, or being healed.

The difference between healed and healing:

To be healed indicates the end of the road, like everything is all said and done.

This is awfully rare, isn’t it?

I don’t know that I’ve had a whole 24 hour span in my life where absolutely nothing was wrong.

I don’t know if I have ever experienced complete and total shalom level cures in my life.

Or at least if I have they don’t last very long.

And that’s worth remembering because I think some folks beat themselves up when anything at all is wrong about them.

I’m not completely healed yet. What’s wrong with me?

I’m still carrying around that grief. What’s the matter with my faith?

The world isn’t as I would like it to be. What’s taking Jesus so long?

Instead of putting our focus on being healed, I wonder how things would change if we focused instead on being on the path toward healing?

If instead we were focused on being a little bit better tomorrow than we are today?

If we were on the constant lookout for whatever comfort we could find in the world?

If we were content with seeing Jesus, even if we know the healing that Jesus provides will be somewhere down the road for us?

I wonder how that would change our perception of healing?

I wonder if it would make it a bit more manageable?

Because the truth is, there are a bunch of folks who are in need of healing, aren’t there?

Healing in our world.

Physical Healing

Medicine has gotten crazy!

I have watched as procedures which used to mean a week or more in the hospital turn in to out patient procedures!

Modern medicine has advanced to the place where miracles are commonplace, though perhaps we should celebrate miracles when we see them.

Folks are living longer and longer as a result.

Listen to your doctors!

I think every sermon has a little bit of me preaching to myself, and well, that’s this part.

When the doctor says maybe cut back on the sweets, and hit the bike a little more: we ought to listen.

When the doctor says that we should take care of ourselves and get as much rest as these busy lifestyles of ours will allow: we ought to listen.

When the doctor says that they know what we need to find our way toward healing: we ought to listen.

These doctors, these nurses, these folks in the medical profession, they are a gift from God.

There is no battle between faith and science or medicine, these folks are straight from God.

And so in our prayers we give thanks for them.

Pray for those who need healing.

And yet…

There are plenty of people who have been struggling with physical pain for years if not decades.

There are plenty of folks for whom medicine has no answer.

There are plenty of folks who are dealing with frustration and disbelief when it comes to their physical health.

To them I say: You’re not alone.

First, I’m guessing that Simeon had a couple of days before he met Jesus where he was frustrated at the lack of consolation, frustrated at the Spirit’s timing, frustrated at how painfully slow it all seemed.

But secondly, we as a church community are commited to praying for each other.

And I believe firmly that prayer works!

So don’t be afraid to share what you’re struggling with.

Don’t be afraid to let us know where you are on the road to healing, because we will meet it with grace and compassion.

Don’t be afraid to let us know when you’re experiencing frustration, because we want to walk that road with you.

Don’t be afraid to let your Church community come alongside and love you through the healing journey, because that’s a big part of what we’re here for.

Mental Healing

Why make the distinction?

Alex is fond of saying that we don’t talk about it the other way.

Someone who comes down with COVID doesn’t say “I’m really struggling with my physical health today!”

In much the same way physicians have made tremendous advancements in healing because they understand the human body well, psychologists and therapists and mental health professionals have started to make tremendous advancements in healing our minds by understanding us better.

There is a perverse sense out there that to struggle with mental health is somehow a spiritual failing.

I’ve actually been at conferences and seminars where a speaker has shared from the stage that God doesn’t want us to take medication, because prayer ought to be enough.

Let me emphatically and outrightly say that’s not true.

Once again, we wouldn’t say that to someone who has Lupus or MS or something, right?

Stop taking your cancer meds and just pray?

Mental health is health, and struggling with it just means that you have come down with an incurable case of being human.

Taking care of your mental health is a spiritual imperative.

I have long held that Jesus Christ is our example in this life, and that we look to him when we want to sort things out.

Read through the gospels with me, you will very quickly discover that Jesus has this cycle of teaching:

He will teach a large crowd, like the sermon on the mount.

He’ll circle up his disciples, just the 12, for more private instruction.

Sometimes he’ll even split that 12 up and focus on the big three, Peter James and John.

And then, very frequently, we get lines like this:

Luke 5:16 “Meanwhile, he would slip away to deserted places and pray.”

Luke 6:12 “Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.”

Mark 6:46 “After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.”

Luke 22:41 “Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed,”

As a world class introvert, it makes me happy to see that Jesus would look after that mental health of his too.

He wasn’t always on, 100% of the time.

He took time to step away from the work, to pray, and to reset his own mental wellbeing.

Why would we do any less?

Prayer can impact your mental health too.

All of us have brains, no matter what you think about people in traffic.

In the front we have a pre-frontal cortex.

This is where logic, decision making, rationality all take place.

And in the back we have the amygdala, which sometimes gets the unfortunate designation of the “lizard brain.”

This is the fight or flight portion of the brain.

And between them, we have this awesomely named little piece of brain called the anterior cingulate.

The anterior cingulate kind of serves as a balance between those two parts of our brains, helping us regulate our response to stimuli between that lizard brain and our rational thought.

It turns out, the more developed side of the brain for most people will determine how we see God.

If your pre-frontal cortex is more developed, you’ll see God as logical, thoughtful, calm, and merciful.

If your amygdala is more developed, you’re likely to see God as wrathful, vengeful, justice oriented.

But…you can actually change and develop your anterior cingulate.

Research has shown that 8-10 minutes a day of singing (out loud) religious music, praying out loud, or having spiritual conversations with folks can strengthen and develop your anterior cingulate to be a better regulator between the two.

This is cool to a nerd like me on a couple of different levels:

The word can literally become flesh in our brains!

And…prayer can actually help us regulate our mental health.

Hear me, this is not to say that all we need is prayer.

No no.

But…still…in addition to therapy and medication and all of that…

Prayer can actually aid us in our mental health.

Spiritual Healing

The scars of sin.

Some of us still have the scars of sin that need healing.

Some of us need to work on our forgiveness, and some of us need to ask to be forgiven.

Some of us are struggling in deep ways to get out from under the weight of a particular sin or addiction, for which we need help.

There’s no healing out there that Jesus is more interested in.

We’re not going to get there all at once!

Last week we made it pretty clear that it’s unlikely that any of us can go even a single day without sin, let alone the rest of our lives!

Still, Jesus is interested in getting us on the road to healing.

It’s not going to be forever.

Church hurt.

When the Church as an institution that is full of broken people, it comes as absolutely no surprise that people would suffer church hurt.

I’m shocked…shocked I say to see that there’s gambling in this institution!

But still, it’s there, and it’s real.

For those who are carrying around the wounds of church hurt:

For whoever caused this hurt in you, let me stand in and say I’m deeply sorry.

I’m sorry that the Bride of Christ can sometimes leave a mark.

I’m sorry that your experience has led to this pain.

I’m so, so deeply sorry.

I wish I could promise you that it won’t happen here, but it might.

We’re all broken sinners around here, pastor very much included.

To those of us who are part of the church and have been all our lives,

Let’s go easy on those who are struggling with church hurt.

Sometimes I think that we are entirely too dismissive of situations we’re unfamiliar with.

Let’s remember that everyone is walking their own journey, and let’s commit to helping those around us struggling with that kind of hurt on the road to healing.

Set your eyes on God’s salvation.

The original version of this sermon tried to list every kind of healing we might be in need of, and was 13 hours long.

I probably didn’t cover everything, so if I missed the particular hurt your experiencing now, I do apologize!

But still…I know the way toward healing.

The way toward healing is to, like Simeon, behold the Christ.

The way toward healing is to see that Jesus cares about this world, including you and me.

The way toward healing is the same kind of forgiveness, mercy, kindness, and care that Jesus shared toward us. We ought to share it with each other.

The way toward healing is through the cross, the ultimate of ironies.

The way toward healing is through the resurrection and the empty tomb.

No, it’s not going to be forever.

Our bodies, our minds, and our very souls were made to heal.