May 2, 2004; Fourth Sunday of Easter

An Extraordinary Power to Heal

Acts 9:36-43

Psalm 23

Revelation 7: 9-17

John 10:22-30

Any meal that you or I make or eat is only as good as the ingredients.

The “pot luck supper” at First Church on Thursday was absolutely delicious because of the tremendous richness and variety of the ingredients. As you know, the menu is not one person making one dish, or even where many people make one dish. The secret is that many people are making many dishes, so with all of the various ingredients being offered by many cooks with many different kinds of ingredients and choices of dishes, the result is stupendous.

Life is exactly the same way: the quality, quantity and the richer are the ingredients the more wonderful is the resulting “meal of life.” It is no accident that communion tables and altars sit at the front of millions of churches around the world. Communion is the goal; bringing all of the ingredients together is the vehicle of finding the result; the result being the sharing of the bread of life.

We talked last week about “free will” being one of the ingredients of life. Our lives are determined by our choices. While I can’t tell you why God gave us free choice, I can tell you that our lives are determined by our choices, and our lives take on significance when we accept that our lives are determined by our choices, and when we start taking creative responsibility for our choices.

The scriptures passages today tell us about two more of the ingredients of life.

The book of Acts, being a history book of the early church gives us this amazing story about a good woman by the name of Tabitha; (in Greek: Dorcas) one of those good women who everybody loved because of the great kindness and love that they had experienced from her.

Tabitha “was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her they laid her in a room upstairs.”

Since they were in a location close to Peter, two men were dispatched to get him immediately and he came. They took him upstairs. We are given a picture where all of the widows were standing round the body with Peter showing him the tunics and other clothing that Tabitha had made for them.

Peter had all of them leave the room. He knelt and prayed, and then he said, “Tabitha, get up.” Tabitha opened her eyes, saw Peter and got up. Peter then showed her to the rest of the people that she was alive. This act of calling her back to life had a great affect in the building of the new church.

Whatever we might believe or understand from this story, there is one thing for certain: the activities of the early church were characterized by an extraordinary power to heal.

On the subject of healing, the reading from the book of Revelation gives us a vivid description of heaven, and it is shown to us as a healing place.

We are given this picture of a huge multitude so large that nobody could count from every part of the world, all before the throne of God, praising God in one voice:

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour

and power and might be to our God for ever and ever. AMEN”

This is a picture of power and health… but there is more.

“Then one of the elders addressed me, saying ‘Who are these robed in white, and where did they come from?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you are the one who knows.’

Then he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.’”

Folks, this multitude are made of those who have suffered: those “who have come out of the great ordeal.” This multitude is made up of people who have been healed!

Healed by the blood of the Lamb…

“…the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;

The sun will not strike them,

nor any scorching heat;

For the lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd,

And guide them to the springs of the water of life,

And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

The image here is of our Lord as: ruler, shepherd, guide, and comforter!

While, the Gospel stories are full of healing stories, the passage today from John has Jesus talking about another one of those “life” ingredients: faithfulness.

The allegiance we choose (where out faith lies) determines our life.

“It was winter.” The text tells us that it was cold. Jesus was speaking but he had taken a kind of refuge that we might understand, to get away from the elements by speaking from the portico of Solomon’s temple. People would have had their heavy robes on and would have been standing close to keep warm. The atmosphere is tense.

Out of his frustration, Jesus says, “I have told you and you do not believe.”

He goes on to say, “The works that I do in my father’s name testify to me, but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and the follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.”

Jesus is simply saying, “I practice what I preach.” He is telling us that what we hear from him comes from our relationship with him, and our actions (how we live our lives) give evidence or witness to the commitment of what we believe.

The authorities tried to arrest him for blaspheming, but he seemed to escape their efforts.

So the ingredients for life highlighted in today’s scriptures are “healing” and “faithfulness.” In fact healing is really just the evidence of the faithfulness. Healing is a consequence of the relationship that we might have with Jesus.

As a church, if we are faithful, then it would be expected that we be a healing place. As a healing place we might spend time studying and implementing and exhibiting all of the various ways of healing.

As a church, as a faith community or family of faith, to keep ourselves on track, we might even use the word “healing” as an adjective.

People coming here might experience healing acceptance and healing welcome.

There would be healing prayers and healing music.

There would be healing people in the pews sitting right beside people who need to be healed.

There would be a healing atmosphere; the healing presence of our chief healer: Jesus.

As the word got around, people would be coming with an expectation of being healed.

People would be happy and grateful for healings experienced, hopeful and helpful for others in need of the same.

We would then know that the Lord is the source of all life and healing, and we…

we would continually “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

AMEN                     Rev. Alan Stewart