Healing ministry - Rector's Rambling for October 18, 2015

“Does God heal today?” is one of the lectures for The Alpha Course, which we have offered here at St. John’s.  It occurs the ninth week of a normal course, after dealing with questions about Jesus, the Bible, Prayer, Faith, and The Holy Spirit.

For many people healing is a primary question when it comes to the issue of faith and their relationship with God.  The gospels record for us many healings: palsy, leprosy, inability to walk, blind, deaf, and dumb.  Even possession is healed by the power of Jesus Christ.  These healings occur as a sign of God’s mercy, forgiveness of sins, reincorporation into the worshiping community (communicable diseases like leprosy got one banished from the synagogue), or are recorded for us to teach us something about the nature of God.

But Jesus doesn’t hold this power to himself.  He commissions 72 to go out and heal the sick, and announce the coming of the Kingdom of God (Luke 10:9).  And throughout the Acts of the Apostles, we read about the early church continuing in the healing ministry.

Here at St. John’s we have parishioners involved in the healing ministry, praying with parishioners for God’s intervention for healing.  The Order of St. Luke will be available today after Communion at the baptismal font to pray with you.

Yes, God does heal today.  As Alpha’s Nicky Gumbel states, “Not everyone we pray for will necessarily be healed.  Of course no human being can ultimately avoid death.  Our bodies are decaying.  This should not discourage us from praying for people to be healed.  The more we pray for, the more we shall see healed” and “ another man said to me recently that, although he had not been healed when he was prayed for, he had had his greatest experience ever of the Spirit of God, and his life has been transformed.”  Alpha Questions of Life, 3rd edition, pgs. 198 & 199

Let us pray and minister without ceasing, with faith that God is merciful and cares for us!