Service of Healing and Holy Communion
Homily by The
Rev. Timothy A. Leitzke
A Church
that is not into healing ministry is not a Christian Church. Healing is why we
are here. Healing is God’s work, and as God’s children we are called to carry
out God’s work in the world. That’s what Peter and John do. They see a crippled
beggar by the temple. They see a man, not a faceless opportunity to do good
deeds and earn points with Jesus, and they offer him real, effective healing.
Peter and John, as God’s faithful children, instruct him, “In the name of Jesus
Christ the Nazirite, walk.” They touch him, taking
him by the hand, and they set him on his own two feet. He is crippled no more.
Stories like
this one have, through the years, buoyed all sorts of fanatical evils such as
the rejection of science and medicine or the peddling of pay-per-pray faith
cures. Peter is quick to correct any such urge. He immediately ties this
miraculous event to the life and ministry of Christ. “Jesus Christ” is not a
magic word. Speaking it, exclaiming it in religious fervor, or growling it at
jerks in the roundabout on Route 35 is not going to make things go your way.
(It might make you feel better, especially if the jerk nearly caused an
accident, but it’s not going to do any good.) The power of Christ’s name rests
in its faithful use by Christ’s disciples in the furtherance of Christ’s
ministry. The name “Jesus Christ” is effective when we use it in faith to
continue Christ’s ministry.
Peter’s
speech to those who gather is not a clutch at personal gain. It is not a cry
for fanatics to go out and blow up the hospital. Peter’s cry is “Turn to God!”
Seek your salvation in Christ. Find your healing in Jesus. God raised Jesus the
Christ from the dead, and God daily raises you. Just look at the crippled
beggar. He’s been resurrected in a small way, in a dim reflection of the
resurrection that awaits us. The faith of Christ is powerful. When you get a
taste of it watch out because all heaven could break loose.
Friends of
Christ the resurrection—the power to heal—is the power of the Gospel, the good
news that God raised Jesus the Christ from the dead. We, the
This is a
Healing Service, and we are here tonight to receive healing from God through
Jesus the Christ. We are here to receive the Gospel, the Good News that God
loves us and has loved us since the foundation of the cosmos, that in Jesus the
Christ God was at work healing this world, and that when the world turned
against Jesus God remained faithful to Jesus—and to the world, though we didn’t
know it at the time—and raised Jesus the Christ to eternal life. By the power
of the Holy Spirit, the life that was in Christ, we have faith in this good
news, we are gathered as brothers and sisters in Christ, and we are given the
promise of the resurrection. God does not just speak these words flippantly.
They don’t spill out of the mouth as gibberish. They come to us personally.
God takes on
human form, in Jesus, in Peter and John, in doctors and nurses, in family
members, in friends, in enemies, in total strangers, in our brothers and
sisters, God’s children, and speaks, “look at us. I see you. I see your face. I
see who you are, and I love you for who you are. I don’t have magic potions to
give you. I have Good News. I have the story of Jesus the Christ, raised from
the dead. I give you life. I forgive your sins. I make you righteous. I am with
you in everything you do. Nothing, no matter how frightening or painful or
depressing, can separate you from me. When you are dead and gone and everyone
has forgotten who you are and who you loved, I will remember, and on the last
day I will raise you imperishable. You will be with me forever. Have faith.”
God talks
with us in prayer. God invites us to share our deepest concerns, to voice our
most nagging frustrations, and to air our grievances. God listens while we ask
for God to be with us in the midst of pain. God answers in ways, often
unnoticed, and too many and magnificent to be listed here. God comes to us as
light. In the darkest places, in the deepest shadows, in the most ominous
unknowns, and in the inky blackness of fear God shines. God overcomes the
darkness. God shines so brightly that nothing can extinguish the flame. We
light our candles as signs that even in the darkest corners of our lives God is
lighting the way for us. God touches us in oil. We cannot overstate the healing
power of touch. Peter and John touched the crippled beggar and lifted him to
his feet. God touches us in oil and lifts us to new life. At many times and in
many places we are down, but because of God we are never out; God raises us so
that we can walk through life.
God feeds us in Holy Communion. We
come to the table and God feeds us. We eat and drink forgiveness, healing and
the promise of resurrection. God fuels us for the challenges we face. Having
fed us, God sends us. We don’t have to go home but we can’t stay here. Our life
as Christians takes place in worship and
outside of worship. Worship shapes us for life. In a similar manner our healed
and resurrected lives take place outside of this Healing Service. Friends of
Christ you are healed; live as though you are healed. Live as people changed
forever by the Gospel, the Good News that God loves us, has always loved us,
and will always love us, and that God is still at work in the world, healing
us.
That Good
News is the power of God to make all things new. It is the story of God’s
involvement with people even before there were
people. It’s not just a story to tell to pass the time or pass on the values of
a bygone or imagined era. It is God’s healing power, made real in the telling.
Healing is God’s work. Healing is why we are here. Christ’s Church is a place of healing. Amen