Mark 1:40-45Throughout my childhood, Ispent my afternoons after school working, playing, and studying at my father’stelevision store. One thing I always lookedforward to each day at the TV shop, was the arrival of the local newspaper butof course, I only read the it after my Dad and Mother both had perused he wholething. One day after reading aparticularly intriguing news tidbit, I remember my mother sharing with acustomer a quote from Dear Abby which she had read, “A church is a hospital forsinners, not a museum for saints.”The subsequent conversation about this quote,which she had with that customer was a heated dialogue, because the otherperson took great offense to it. “Howcould she write something like that,” she touted. “My church is no museum or a hospital,” she roared. Despite this little debate, there was somewisdom to found in this little passage which if properly applied, means thatthe Church is a community of healing following the great Healer Jesus Christ.
Thelectionary the past few weeks has been filled with stories of the healing activityof Our Lord. Last week we heard aboutJesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law, this week we hear about a man sufferingfrom leprosy. The lepor lived within asocial system that focused on excluding the sick, rather than bringing themclose to the community for healing and care. Those suffering from leprosy could not live amongst the rest of thecommunity until they had been healed (made clean). The priest alone was charged with declaring theritually unclean restored. In order tomaintain this social separation, the so called unclean were required to dressin torn clothes, and as they traveled and approached other people, they had to declaretheir condition by shouting, “unclean.” Can you imagine the shame and pain associated with that socialstigma? It would be like a teenagerwalking the halls of the high school shouting, “I have a big old zit on myface!” The estrangement, the socialexclusion, the detachment from being in relation to others, was really at theheart of this man’s suffering. Jesusnot only healed his skin ailment, but Jesus entered the dark places of his souland healed him there as well. Jesus riskedhis own ritual cleanliness by touching the man as he restored him. Jesus entered his pain, risked his own healthand social standing, and brought the man to wholeness. Jesus heals social outcasts, the brokenhearted, the estranged and that is our mission as the church.
Themetaphor of a hospital to describe the church used by “Dear Abby is quiteintriguing and has some merit. Ahospital is a place that exists for the purpose of bringing doctors, nurses andcaregivers (those who are gifted in the art of healing), together with folkswho are ill, hurt, or suffering (those who need healing). Jacques Matthay asserts, “Healing in thisencompassing sense includes a spiritual dimension (the experience of God’spresence and of a healing community) . . . a mental dimension (feeling well), amissionary or service dimension (living with and for others), and anethical/moral dimension (living in obedience and righteousness).1” Experiencing God’s presence, feeling a senseof being well, living with and for others, and living in obedience to and inright relationship with God and with each other, this is the mission of theChurch. We are a healing community, thechurch is a hospital for sinners, for the social outcast, for thebrokenhearted. We are a community gathered that engages in a ministry ofhealing that reflects Jesus’ ministry.
Oneof my favorite shows in the late 1990’s was the medical dram “ER.” Each week the show usually began with a patientarriving at the hospital in an ambulance, and the doctors and nurses would rushthem to a trauma room and with such passion and drama, they began workingfrantically to save yet another life. Theshow was a bit surreal though, because everything in this medical center wasclean and spotless, every caregiver was handsome, beautiful and emotionally andspiritually whole, and every patient was calm and rational. It was a great television drama, but it wasnot real life.
Ifyou have been in a hospital lately and you happened to visit the Emergency Room,you may be able to say that your experience was not like the one on television. You may have entered the waiting room and maybethings were a little chaotic, maybe nurses and doctors were impatient and alittle stressed out. Maybe the facilitywas messy and it lacked our expectation of perfection. Maybe it was devoid ofwhat we felt we needed, the care we deserved, or the healing we expected. We may have left this experience and withouthesitation we proclaimed freely to our friends just how bad things were. However messy and unruly the hospital, nomatter how imperfect it was, the question with which we must wrestle is, “were peopleactually experiencing healing?” Sometimeswe enter places, situations, or communities and at the subconscious level, ourminds have a tendency to focus on the optimistic while, at the conscious level,we have a tendency to focus on the negative.
“Achurch is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.” What has been yourexperience of healing in the communities of faith where you have lived,worshipped, served? - What was the musiclike? What were the people like, thechurch building, the pastor? What madethat place, that community, a place of healing for you? Sometimes the experiences of the past comealong with us wherever we go, and we tend to bring our own expectations alongwhen we enter a community of healing. Sometimesa healing community is just plain messy. We have to admit our human frailties and despite our best efforts tostrive for right relationships with God and each other, we make mistakes, wefail each other, and communal life is not perfect. Even so, healing does take place. There is great freedom in knowing that thehealing community, which we call church, really is imperfect. The Body of Christ is unlike the other communitieswe find throughout human culture. Businesses, social clubs, residential communities, and other humangatherings all operate in unique and different ways. Social engagement is based on expectations,cultural norms, and social systems that are very different from Church. The difference is that we are a hospital forthe brokenhearted, the social outcast, the people who need the spiritualhealing Jesus brings. We are both thoseneeding healing and at the same time, we are those who are the healers.
Inhealing communities where those who need healing are the healers, things canget messy, things can be imperfect, and things can often be challenging. We may arrive in the ER on Sunday mornings withcertain expectations; expectations that may not be satisfied, but the Spirit isworking, the Healer is present, and we will walk away transformed, restored,renewed. We will be healed whether werecognize it or not. The hope we have,the assurance we are given, the promise which is ours, is that our healing isnot dependent on anything we ourselves alone can do. We are healed by the grace of God alone. Each of us by virtue of our common connectionin community are recipients of a grace that is beyond anything we canimagine.
Ayoung boy asked his mother, “As you enter the church, why do you dip your handinto the baptismal font and touch our head and heart?” The mother replied, “It reminds me of mybaptism son.” As she sat down in the pew, she prayerfully pondered the symbolicact of crossing herself and suddenly she realized what it all meant. She thought, “despite my own expectations, failures,disappointments, and transgressions, when I enter this place, I leave theexpectations of how things should be, how the world outside sees things, andhere I am freed by the love of Jesus. Here in this place among these sisters and brother, I find myselfwelcome among folks who have passed through the same cleansing waters ofbaptism. By this shared experience ofcleansing, we are made one Body in Christ, one community, one family. We are one with Christ. However messy and unruly the hospital may be,no matter how imperfect it can sometimes be, we can know without a doubt thatby God’s grace “people are experiencing God’s presence in this blessed healing community.
WORKS CITED1Matthey, Jacques. "Faith, Healing And Mission --Santiago De Chile October 2003: Introduction And Summary Of Process."International Review Of Mission 93.370-371 (2004): 407-412. ATLASerials,Religion Collection. Web. 8 Feb. 2012.
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