Healing Touch

Mark 1:40-45    2 Kings 5:1-14

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany    February 15, 2009

How interesting that I would be dealing with scriptures on healing during a week in which I needed it so much.  There is likely a message in this for me, if I can only unearth it.  The intersection between health and spirituality is one that really fascinates me.  Many cultures in earlier periods of history saw a powerful connection between spirituality and the health and well-being not only of the individual, but of the community as well.  In fact, in many settings, if one person was ill, they were seen as manifesting their illness on behalf of their family or even of the community at large.  Treatment would involve the entire group thought to be affected.  Entire families would come and support the ill person while he was being treated by the medicine person.  Communities would perform special dances and prayers as a part of the healing ceremonies for just one person, because they assumed that their well-being was tied up in the well-being of that one person.  

Some cultures have managed to hold on to this value even today, although it has been very difficult in face of the so-called "advancements" of modern medicine.  I have for the past few years been invited to speak at Green Mountain College's "Health and Well-Being" classes about how and where spirituality fits into the subject they are studying.  This year was especially wonderful for me, as there were students in the class from communities in which spirituality is still interwoven with health and well-being.  A young woman from Uganda said that before applying to come to college in the United States, she had never imagined going to a doctor unless something was truly wrong with her.  However, in order to come to college here, she needed to go through a series of immunizations.  Her family was hesitant and didn't want her to go through with it, but there really was no choice if she was to come and study here.  Ever since she was immunized she said, she has been susceptible to colds and flues which she never once experienced in her entire lifetime prior to receiving those immunizations.  She was curious about our culture's dependence on prevention of disease by actually introducing a form of the disease into our bodies.  It didn't make sense to her after having been brought up in a culture in which you focused on the fact that you are well and healthy in this moment, rather than fearing and acting to prevent what may or may not come in the future.

We are very separated from one another these days.  If I am sick, then I either stay home in bed or go to the doctor to get medicine and the care I need in order to get well.  No doctor has ever asked me to bring along my husband and children so that they could also be treated for the illness manifest in my body.  Think for a moment about the story of Naaman from this morning's reading.  Here is a powerful man, representative of the culture that has taken Israelites to slavery and is far more powerful than anything left to the Israelites at this time.  And yet, he is taken down by a disease that could finish him off.  Does Naaman represent all that is wrong with his domineering culture?  Are there metaphors to be found in imagining that the health and well-being of his people and all that they stand for is being literally eaten away?  Are the Arameans losing parts of themselves because they have turned their backs on God for too long?  Are things falling apart from the most powerful person on down because they have thought of nothing but conquering everyone around them?  

As a disease, Leprosy or Hansen's Disease is a powerful metaphor.  While it can be hidden for awhile, maybe, but keeping it a secret doesn't work for very long.  Leprosy often attacks very visible parts of the person leaving them disfigured and even frightening to see.  In this story, it functions as a powerful cautionary tale, serving as a part of the process of bringing Naaman into right relationship with God and everyone else around him.  Of course, it took the prophet Elisha and a few unnamed servants to finish the job.  Naaman could have chosen to continue on in the way he had been going for so long - rich, powerful, fierce - or he could examine himself a little closer (a whole lot closer, actually!) and maybe have a future that he could embrace.  It would have been easy for Naaman to walk away from Elisha's door, to refuse to wash in the river that he saw as a muddy sewer compared to the rivers of home.  

It would have been easier for Naaman to go home and rest on his laurels (of which there were plenty) until word got out about his disease.  And then he could have gone quietly away to live out the rest of his days knowing he had not succumbed to the ridiculous eccentricities of Elisha nor the God for whom the old prophet spoke.  But Naaman wanted a future, not just a past.  He wanted to be able to stay with his wife and family and enjoy their company to the ends of his days.  He didn't want to be forced to hide away somewhere as his body wore away bit by bit, suffering from the ravages of this awful insidious disease.

Sometimes this is what healing is really about.  It is about choosing a future rather than resting in our past.  It is about being willing to move forward, despite the frustrations and uncertainties associated with it.  Healing also means taking charge of your health and your life, as I have learned from those cultures in which healing is seen through more holistic eyes.  I ask myself plenty of questions whenever I get sick, wondering if I walked past some clue that was placed in my pathway.  Did I miss something - a turn, maybe that I should have taken?  Am I living in as healthy and balanced a way as I possibly can?  Jean Shinoda Bolen's book, "Close to the Bone: Life-Threatening Illness and the Search for Meaning" has helped me to understand the possibility that not all illnesses may be cured, and that this is not necessarily a bad thing.  Dr. Bolen examines the possibility that illness can be a teacher if we allow it.  And this can be true not only of life-threatening illnesses, although these certainly up the ante for anyone.  But even simple bouts of cold or flu can also give us an opportunity to think a little more deeply about the why's and how's  and meaning of our lives.  Sometimes the message is a simple one of "slow down!" or "pay better attention to taking care of yourself."  Sometimes the message takes time to sink in and it may elude us for awhile.  Sometimes we don't really know what an illness is trying to tell us, but if we trust the wisdom of our bodies to do the healing they need to do, we usually end up coming out of it in better shape than when we went in.  Of course, we could and often do, totally ignore our bodies and their need for slowing down or taking time, which leads us around again and again on the merry-go-round.

God wants to be in partnership with us in all manner of ways.  Taking care of our bodies is only one of them, but it is an obvious one for us to practice on, being right here in the flesh, so-to-speak, so it is a really great place to start.  And for us human beings, maybe it is the only one.

God of love, you created us out of the stuff of the earth.  You created us to be unique and amazing, whole and strong.  You created us in your image, so that we might relate to you in a special way, and we are not really sure what that might mean for us on any given day, under any given circumstances.  But we give thanks today for your having placed us in these human bodies.  We give thanks for all that we are and all that we have the potential of becoming, thanks to your love moving in and through us.  May we seek out health and wholeness in all that we do in this world, in our relationships with one another and most especially our relationship with you.  In the name of Jesus the healer we pray, Amen.