Meditations with Pastor Tom (6/12/20)

"Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ ~ Luke 10:9

            No one lives completely whole.   We all have broken places.  We all do our share of floundering around looking for things to fill us and breaking things we should not have broken.  We are all incomplete and insecure in some way.

            But we shine as human beings when we live into our capacity to heal – to heal ourselves and to heal others.  When we are true followers of Jesus, we seek to do just that – be healed healers.

            Some of the most amazing stories in the Bible are the ones in which Jesus performs miraculous healings.  He is moved by someone’s need and he reaches out.  Then the lame walk, the blind see, and the deaf hear.  Cool stuff.  Important stuff.  But also perhaps a bit misleading.

            These stories can lead us astray if we don’t let these stories move us to our own healing work or if we begin to think that our own smallest acts of healing aren’t truly miracles themselves.  Standing alongside someone in their pain, showing someone love especially when that person isn’t used to receiving love and doesn’t really know to receive it, taking time to do the most thoughtful, simple acts of kindness, advocating for those who struggle to be heard, seeing the face of the Christ in the most undesirable, these are all miraculous acts themselves.

            Jesus didn’t heal everyone, which is a fact I don’t understand.  But, he did show us the way to heal others through our love.  He showed us that our own access to the bottomless well of His abundance springs out of our sacrificial giving of ourselves.  He showed us that stepping out in service and healing trumps - in a grand way - retreating into comfort.  He showed us that living as healed healers is the best way to proclaim the Good News.

The Sermon this Sunday:

Be moved; then move.