Healing: Much More than Physical

In looking over the scriptures from the Lectionary for next Sunday, I see several different aspects of how our lives are changed by the touch of God. We tend to struggle with many things in life, including our physical health, but also with

The Blind and the Lame

In Matthew 21:14, we read "The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them." Most of the attention in this passage is on Jesus clearing out all the rubbish (that is, the merchants, sorry) from the temple, to make it once again "a house of prayer."  Then we read

Telling and Bringing Good News

The road was dusty and hot, but the crowd of people following Jesus to the next village didn't pay much attention to the environment. They were just excited to be around the rabbi who had been healing people and teaching a strange new thing, that God had sent peace and forgiveness of sins to people.. Some were looking forward to a

OUCH! guest post

Fellow pastor Bill Winn graciously agreed to let me share his marvelous post in which he writes about our hurts and how discovering their roots is sometimes painful.  Highly-recommended reading! Here it is:
http://trinityandhumanity.com/2015/08/20/ouch/

New Clothes, New Life

I just purchased a new pair of jeans and was surprised again by how dark blue they are compared to the old ones I've shredded in the last few years. New clothes always feel unfamiliar and a little awkward, but at the same time warm and special -- almost like a

Shame Is Defeated

Our culture is good at handing out shame. Some parents use it to control their children, and in the entertainment industry, shame is a common source of humor at someone's expense. We

Love WHO???

Sometimes I don't understand Jesus. He's just a little too 'out there' for me. He's famous for the Sermon on the Mount, but that is a challenging piece! I mean, he takes the old command "don't murder" which is fairly straightforward, and makes it impossible with "don't call anyone else an idiot." Is that fair? (Maybe he only said that because he didn't have to deal with the drivers around here.) Not only that, he tells us we should love, not only our neighbors and friends, but even our enemies. That can't be realistic, can it? Maybe he had something else

He Felt Our Sorrows

Is the Gospel relevant? It is as relevant to our lives as the newspaper or its online equivalents. Lately, we've been hit with the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, and the recurring Israel-Gaza conflict, with over 2,000 dead and no proper end in sight -- just to name two out of thousands of conflicts right now. How does the Gospel apply to all these? Here are a few

Marvel-ing at a True Super-hero

When I was a lot younger, I read the comics and watched TV shows like Superman and Batman (not always with the permission of my parents) and marveled at the strength of these more-than-humans and their ability to stay calm in almost any tough situation. Now I see Marvel(tm) comics or see the ads for movies with Hulk, Thor, Captain America and the others and I realize these fantasies

Make Up -- by a young girl

An amazing spoken-word poem by a young woman with a ton of insight and a great talent for wordplay. The message:  You are beautiful without the chemicals.
Fathers, let's give that message to our girls. Brothers, be strong in validating our sisters as the daughters of God. Husbands -- we validate our wives every day by the way we give them love and honor as our sisters in Christ, beautiful just as they are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YFylbO4-wc

"Ministry in the Spirit"

Lately I've seen several large churches advertising a "school of supernatural ministry" -- they even seem to have that exact title everywhere. I know people who have attended them, who report good results in their lives. And since this is Pentecost season, I've been studying and praying over the descriptions in the Bible of the Holy Spirit working in peoples' lives to do God's will. But after reading the life of Jesus and the book of Acts, in particular, I have to ask a question

Fruit, Part 1

The two plum trees in our front yard were only saplings when we planted them but now they're nearly ten feet tall, and have blossomed, so we may have some fruit this summer. There's a deep satisfaction in seeing fruit on a tree I've watched over. But how much deeper is

Compassion and Miracles

Jesus was the Son of God. He performed many miracles during his ministry, healing people and driving out demons, even raising the dead on several occasions. Some analyze these stories to discover the kind of faith that was needed, or how well people knew who he was. The detail that strikes me about all of Jesus' miracles is

Too Much Trouble?

Life has its share of trouble. Illness, injury, natural disasters, even something as simple as tangled fishing line, can make us wish life was simpler. I've told friends that the last few years have been hard on The Lovely Joanne, as she has experienced some kind of disaster every summer, and we want next year off! But what if God had been put off by the amount of trouble

The Prodigal Father and His Sons

Are there times you know you've really let someone else down? Do you sometimes refuse to let yourself off the hook for what others have long since forgiven? Sometimes you and I call ourselves "unworthy" to be loved

Do You Really?

"Do you want to get well?" That sound ridiculous, doesn't it? Jesus -- who in my estimation was never ridiculous -- asked that exact question of a crippled man. In John 5:1-15, Jesus encountered this man as he lay

Jesus Cleans Us Up

The woman following Jesus that day (Luke 8:40-48) was bleeding, and in Jewish society that meant, according to the purity laws God had given the Israelites through Moses, she was unclean and under  restrictions (see Leviticus 15).  She may have given birth or it may have been something else, but for twelve long years, she had continued to bleed rather than heal naturally.  Anyone and everything she touched became ceremonially unclean -- so it would have become very inconvenient for her to live in a home with her family.  She might have had to live on the streets, suffering the rejection of the public as well. 

Surely, she thought, if she could ask this great teacher, Jesus, for healing, she would be well.  But she was ashamed.  She had received only condemnation from her own people, as they would have concluded her disease was due to sin.  Her shame was so great she couldn't face anyone, let alone this powerful teacher and healer.  She saw her chance as the crowd thronged around him, reached out and touched his garment -- just the little bit of the lower hem that was in her direction for an instant.  Instantly, Luke tells us, her flow was stopped.  She was healed!  (Jesus, as God in the flesh, was not made unclean by her touch; his power cured diseases and uncleanness, showing he was superior over them all!)

Jesus knew his power had healed her, and demanded that she come out in the open so the Father could be given praise for her healing.  So now, all who knew her as a hopeless woman, trapped in her uncleanness, could know God's power. 

Jairus asked openly (v. 41) for healing, and Jesus responded willingly.  The woman was ashamed to ask openly, but she was healed regardless, because she responded to the love and power of God in faith. 

Here's the question:  What is in you right now that needs Jesus' healing power?  Are you ashamed of it?  Are you ready to ask him for healing?  His power is more than enough for your needs.  Admit your need, come close to him, and let his power pour through you.  You will never be the same again!

Jesus, the Good Samaritan

I'm preparing to speak this week from Luke 10.  The story there of the 'Good' Samaritan (the word 'good' is not in the text) keeps amazing me with its depth and breadth of meaning.  You'll find the exchange between Jesus and the lawyer, and the parable, in verses 25-37. 

One of many interesting points here is Jesus' description of the person who rescued the wounded traveler.  This man was a Samaritan, a member of a group hated by all Jews because of their history as foreigners imported by the Assyrians after the deportation of many of the northern Israelite tribes.  The Samaritans had more than likely intermarried with Israelites left in the land, and claimed to follow the true religion (see John 4:19-20 for a brief comment on this) which just made things worse of course.

But look at what the man, this half-breed who was rejected by the Jews, was like:

• He went out of his way to help another human being in trouble
• He risked his own safety due to the bandits in the area
• He used oil and wine to heal the man's wounds
• He paid for the man's care at the inn
• He promised to return and settle accounts

All these are just as well descriptions of Jesus himself.  He was of suspicious parentage, and was of mixed heritage, being both God and man; he greatly inconvenienced himself by becoming flesh (see Philippians 2:6-8) and was at risk throughout his ministry even before the Cross; he brought rescue and healing to humanity; he paid the price for our recovery; and promised to return for us.

So as a background to everything else going on in this parable, the true character of Jesus is brought out as the outstanding example of 'being a neighbor.'  Then he tells the lawyer, "go and do likewise."  What a challenge for all of us:  to selflessly give, going out of our way to serve others, including pointing them to the One who came to serve us rather than be served.  In what way can we "go and do likewise" today?  Who will we choose to serve as Jesus served us?