St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, October 1, 2006

World-Wide Communion Sunday

To Pray and to Heal – Rev. David Mundy

James 5:13-20 Mark 9:38-50

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I won’t come out and say I didn’t like him, because ministers are supposed to love all their parishioners, but there were times when he caused a pain in part of my anatomy I won’t mention in church.

He was and may still be the top lawyer for one of the world’s largest mining companies and he was in my congregation. Actually he could be quite an affable person at times and to his credit he was at worship regularly with his substantial family. But his position and his ability to express himself meant that he wasn’t shy about voicing his views at congregational meetings, and it was always about fiscal responsibility and running the church like a business.

One day I got word that he was in the hospital and about to undergo surgery. His doctor had been concerned about his heart and sent him for stress tests. While on the treadmill he collapsed with a heart attack and it was probably only because he was in the hospital at the time that he survived.

I went to see him just before his surgery and I could tell that he was shaken. I asked him how he felt and he said that he was fine and more concerned about his family. It’s my experience that no matter how frightened they may be, men tend to claim that they are okay, but it’s the wife and kids they are worried about. We chatted for a few minutes and then I offered to pray. I took his hand as I did so and he squeezed my hand so tightly I was tempted to make my prayer “

God, please make him let go of me!” I did manage to ask God to guide the surgeon and the medical team. I prayed that he be calm as he entered into surgery, and then for his family and for his recovery. I can’t say it was my best work, but it was a prayer.

Well, he came through the surgery successfully and he got better and he came back to church. I wish I could tell you that from this point on he wasn’t annoying. In fact, as soon as he was healthy enough he came back to meetings and gassed away about how we needed to run a tighter ship and blah, blah, blah.

What did change was his willingness to speak about the spiritual aspect of being part of the congregation. On several occasions he spoke to individuals and even to a larger group about the importance of our prayer and the peace he felt as a result. One time he actually put his arm around me and his eyes filled up with tears. He didn’t come right out and say “I love you man,” but it felt mighty close!

I can’t claim that what I offered on behalf of the Christian community made a particle of difference to what happened in the operating room. Perhaps it did, but there could be no empirical proof. It did make a world of difference to my parishioner’s sense that God was there.

This morning we heard a passage of scripture from a book of the New Testament we have been reading from for a month now. James is a very practical book which says that is we claim faith but don’t put that faith into action we are not really faith-full. So during the past few weeks we have been warned about honouring the wealthy and ignoring the poor in our congregation. We have been reminded that the tongue is like a match that can start a forest fire. It has been pointed out that conflicts between members undermine the health of the Christian community. The last instruction of the book of James is to pray for the suffering and the sick and the distressed. As they pray they are to anoint with oil because olive oil was believed to have medicinal properties and was a symbol of the presence of God.

Actually we know that one of the characteristics of the fledgling Christian movement is that members prayed for one another constantly and with conviction. In a time before any reliable medical care was available, it was the faith community which ministered to itself. There are bold and even disturbing claims in this passage stating that if we pray diligently enough and with sufficient faith people will get better. But what if they don’t. While some of this may seem rather murky, what is clear is that prayer for those who are ill in body, mind, or spirit is the imperative of the Christian community.

When we discover that members of our church family are suffering in body mind or spirit, do we pray for them? Do we let them know we are praying for them? Do we actually pray with them? Do we consider this to be an important part of our ministry?

We do live in a different world than that of the first century Christians and while we have our complaints about the delivery of healthcare we are grateful that we live in a time and nation where many of our health needs can be addressed effectively. Why bother with prayer when medicine now offers so much?

Yet prayer just doesn’t go away. We have probably all heard of the scientific studies that have attempted to demonstrate that prayer is effective for healing and a number of physicians and medical researchers have written books with titles such as Timeless Healing and Prayer is Good Medicine. They are fascinating reading but there is still no conclusive scientific evidence that prayer works, although many scientists argue that it actually demeans the value of prayer when we try to take it into the laboratory.

You might wonder whether I believe in prayers for healing. Well, yes and no. The “no” part of my answer is that I would never suggest for a moment that any person substitute prayer for proper medical care. I no longer expect that prayer will bring about a cure for people, although I never rule out the miraculous, and I have been a companion to those who have experienced unexplainable remissions and recoveries which may well have come from God.

The “yes” part is seeing individuals find strength, even in their fear and frailty, to combat ominous diseases. It is realizing that prayer does connect us to something and Someone greater than ourselves when we feel isolated. While modern medicine can often cure illnesses, the system itself and the technology it uses can be isolating and daunting. The healing comes from that deep and abiding awareness that we are not alone.

So I pray. In some respects I must pray whether I’m feeling confident about the efficacy of those prayers or not, because people ask me to pray when they are suffering or sick or dealing with guilt, the same areas of concern the earliest Christians addressed.

I’m asked to pray when a pet dies or when a grandchild is ill or when someone is about to undergo cancer treatment. I’m asked to pray for those who are in the throes of depression or crushed by the outcome of choices which have been destructive. Even though we can avail ourselves of radiation and antidepressant and psychological counselling we still want God to be part of the process which leads to wholeness. We also have a deep desire for the support of the community of faith to which we can belong.

Philip and Carol Zaleski have written an informative book on the history of prayer in which they point out that prayers for healing are found in most religious traditions. They make this observation:

Healing prayer . . . is a work of repair, reknitting the social fabric that is frayed by illness or ruptured by death. It is a divine work, but its natural medium is a flourishing religious culture with a robust sense of communion between self and society, between society and the transcendent.

This is an eloquent description of the purpose and value of healing prayer and it’s interesting that they use the term “reknitting the social fabric” because one of the ways we have been supporting one another in prayer in the last year is through our Prayer Shawl Ministry. If you haven’t heard about it, a group of women in the congregation have been knitting shawls to be presented to those who are in hospital or recovering from illness. Sometimes they are given to those who are celebrating the birth of a child but still need the assurance that God is with them. Each of the shawls is blessed before they are given away, the recipients are prayed for by the knitting group and a written prayer is included. Over and over again those who have been given a shawl have responded with stories of comfort and strength to meet their challenges. In this sense prayer is obviously effective.

In a way these shawls and the prayer box presented each week during worship are symbols of God’s healing touch akin to the anointing with oil in ancient times which we heard about in the book of James. I should tell you, though, that through my ministry I have anointed with oil those who were physically sick and mentally troubled as a sign of God’s healing presence.

Please trust that your prayers for healing matter and that we need to be bold in being people of prayer for those who are suffering and sick. When you write a note of condolence or support it is a form of prayer, but please take it a step further to say that you will pray, and then make sure you do it. Hold the hand of a friend in difficult times and be willing to say the words which will invite Christ’s presence.

I’ll leave you this morning with the encouragement that prayer for healing is not our “last resort,” what we choose to do when all else fails. We can begin with God and God’s loving intention that we become healthy and whole.

Patricia Brown says it so well in her book Paths to Prayer.

Healing prayer is our intentional cooperation with the medical community and with God. We open ourselves to God’s will as the Holy Spirit brings fresh options to a seemingly impossible situation. Think of healing prayer not as your effort to change God’s mind but as a way to make you more receptive to receiving God’s gracious actions. Our prayer of healing is, “O God, help and heal us, according to your yearning, and your loving desire.”