June 10 , 2007
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I Kings 17:8-24
Psalm 146
Galatians 1:11-24
Luke 17:11-17
Any preacher who comes to this Sunday’s lectionary readings without fear and trembling or a sense of being caught in tightly-woven theological trap, has not read the appointed passages from I Kings and the Gospel of Luke! While we may “suspend our disbelief” in the spirit of encountering good fiction or drama, we must acknowledge that the original readers of these texts as well as Christians throughout the centuries have taken these narratives as factual accounts of God’s ability to revive the dead. We cannot entirely discount these stories as myth, metaphor, or fiction without accusing our spiritual predecessors of fabrication, delusion, or “bad faith” in their account these “events.”
Still, if we are to preach the lectionary, we must address the “strange world” of these texts, rather than explain them away as vestiges of the ancient world view, totally irrelevant to our own contemporary concerns. We must recognize in light of post-modernity that our own world view is also relative and subject to limitation and error in its own interpretation of reality. Some day in the future, persons will see our own medical diagnoses, language, and practice as primitive in nature.
I must confess that these passages are especially difficult for me as a progressive Christian theologian, committed to the importance of healing worship, complementary health practices, and spiritual formation in the life of Christians. I regularly participate in liturgical healing services and am a teacher and practitioner of reiki healing touch. As the author of several books on the healings of Jesus and spirituality and health, who is called to give workshops, retreats, and lectures on healing and wholeness, I struggle with passages such as these and the raising of Lazarus.
In lectures and workshops, I often find myself disappointing liberal Christians who are surprised that I believe that Jesus physically cured, as well as spiritually and socially healed and liberated, persons. I also disappoint more conservative and Pentecostal Christians when I suggest that curing and healing are not “supernatural” divine interventions, reversing the laws of nature, but rather occur within the dynamic, interdependence of life. Accordingly, I hesitate to affirm that persons today, or at any time in history, can be resuscitated after being clinically dead for an hour or for three days. And, yet, I believe that the resurrection of Jesus is a reality that transformed his first followers as well as persons today. As a progressive Christian, I am hesitant to claim that our understanding of the evolving laws of nature is complete or final. There may “deeper” laws of nature, reflecting the wisdom of the divine creativity that moves through all things.
Still, I am theologically and spiritually convicted by these stories as I struggle to make sense of them in my own life, in the healing ministry of our church, and as one of who will join you at the pulpit on June 10.
Progressive and mainstream preachers must struggle between believing “too much” and believing “too little” as they share their experiences of these ancient stories and their relationship to our world of advance directives, health care power of attorneys, clinical definitions of death, and physician-assisted suicide. On the one hand, we recognize that many of those who most ardently oppose physician-assisted suicide and who stood against withdrawing life-support in the case of Terry Schaivo hold literalistic understandings of today’s readings. They believe that the God who raised these widows’ sons can surely reverse any comatose state, revive those whose higher brain functions have been destroyed by oxygen deprivation, and grow a limb on an amputee! The honest preacher must raise questions about the pragmatic implications of believing in such resuscitations in our time!
On the other hand, those who find such “miraculous” narratives unbelievable and who recognize the theological problems inherent in divinely-initiated violations of the laws of nature must face the question of the limits and possibilities of divine power to transform our world – what are limits, if any, of God’s power? Can God be more effective in achieving God’s aims in some places rather than others? If so, on what basis can we affirm dramatic divine activity in one sector, when God seems utterly powerless or indifferent to changing the health, relational, or economic conditions of persons in another context?
Our struggle with these issues is complicated by the stark contrast between the dramatic healing claims of televangelists and our own more modest visions of God’s presence in our lives. Is this due to our lack of faith, or ability to evoke the placebo effect, in our prayers and healing services? Or, is our own theological modesty itself a hindrance to divine activity? If we believed “more,” would God be more active in our lives and congregations?
As a process-relational theologian, I ponder, without any clear answer, the nature and variability of divine power in our intricate, interdependent universe, in which God must constantly work with the created world in order to achieve God’s dream for our lives, the planet, and the universe. In the issue of health and illness, this means that God’s aim at shalom, healing, wholeness, beauty, and justice, must work in the context of – and within - many interdependent factors, including our beliefs and prayer life, our physical condition, the prayers of others, the environment, and the type of health care we receive. Within this dynamic matrix, God is not omnipotent, but God is certainly not impotent! God is constantly and universally at work in our lives and the world. Indeed, in the interdependence of life, our prayers and the prayers of others may create an environment in which God’s healing aims are more fully embodied in physical, emotional, relational, political, and spiritual transformation. We live in an abundant, open-system, in which divine energy and inspiration touches each moment of existence. In such a world, we can both expect and accept miracles, “lively and energetic acts of divine transformation and creaturely partnership that change our lives and the world.”
Elijah’s encounter with the widow of Zarephath starkly presents two ways of looking at the world: through the eyes of faithful abundance and doubtful scarcity. While there are significant problems - not the least of which relate to its linear and omnipotent vision of the power of the mind and disregard of issues of social justice - in the recent “new age” best-seller, The Secret, Christians can affirm The Secret’s recognition that positive visualizations and affirmations change our interpretation of life and may have a role in changing the events of our lives. Mind-body medicine has shone that our attitudes, prayer life, and faith can be the tipping point between health and illness and life and death. As Christians, we are called to affirm that God wants us to have abundant life and that God will provide for our deepest needs.
When the widow generously shares her meager meal with Elijah, she is connected with the bounty of the universe and, indeed, “her cup overflows.” In our own lives, we find that while generosity does not magically change our bank accounts or reverse the hands of the clock, open-hearted generosity opens us to experiencing a generous universe in which we discover we have more time, energy, and money than we previously imagined. In letting go of our strangle hold on our resources, we discover that we are connected with the resources of the God of the universe.
The reviving of the widow of Zarephath’s son is curious, to say the least, and – given the nature of today’s boundary training – should not be imitated by pastors! Nevertheless, the narrative presents an important theological insight – God listens and responds. While our prayers are not omnipotent and may be answered in ways far different than we initially imagined, God is touched by our prayers. God does not plan everything in advance, but responds creatively to the world. We live in a dynamic and interdependent realm of divine-human call and response.
As we read the story of the reviving of these two widows’ sons, we are invited into a world of wonder and surprise, a world of “radical amazement,” to quote Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. But, beyond the physical cures, these miracles also point to social nature of healing. These sons were revived so that their mothers would survive! The goal of all healing is not only to transform our bodies and minds, but to provide social well-being and wholeness for the human and non-human world. If you pray for a healing, you must also seek justice so that others might simply be well! Healing always has a social component. Healing is always personal, but it is never individual.
Galatians describes Paul’s own healing journey. Paul’s spiritual transformation from persecutor to proclaimer is an act of divine power that raises him spiritually from death to life. While we may have theological issues with Paul’s affirmation that he was “set apart” to be an apostle before he was born, this passage reminds us that the omnipresent and omni-active God has a moment by moment as well as long-term vision for our lives and that each one of us has a vocation for each encounter and many long-term vocations in the course of our lifetime. To say that our vocation is the place where our gifts meet the world’s needs is an affirmation of God’s lively and intentional presence in every moment of our lives. When we discover our deepest gifts and callings, we are transformed, new energies are released, and life becomes miraculous indeed as we live in accordance with divine abundance, generosity, and wholeness.
1. In particular, I would refer the reader to God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus (Louisville: Westminister/John Knox, 2002); Walking in the Light: A Jewish-Christian Vision of Healing and Wholeness (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2004), written with Rabbi Lewis Solomon; Reiki Healing Touch and the Way of Jesus (Kelowna: British Columbia: Northstone, 2005); Healing Worship: Purpose and Practice (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2006).
Bruce Epperly is Professor of Practical Theology and Director of Continuing Education at Lancaster Theological Seminary and the author of several books.
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