In
the Church Times it was reported that
Churches could claim that healing and miracles happen at their services if the
context is spiritual rather than physical. This was the ruling of the
Advertising Standards Authority.
Our
first reaction to this might be that clearly it is aimed at the more
charismatic churches where such strange things are claimed to go on, and that
though it is interesting it doesn’t really affect us here.
You
could be right on one level, but it made me sit up and think a while.
In
an age when effect is everything, and an age that if we buy something and find
it doesn’t work we claim our money back, then we do need to look again at what
we claim about Christian Faith and /or churchgoing.
Today
is St. Luke’s Day and he was a physician or doctor by tradition. Our collect
makes mention of the medicine of the gospel and a power to heal.
By
and large in many people’s minds the science of medicine, the skills of doctors
and medicines are very much part of our world, but are not usually seen as in
any way associated with the gospel. But this was not the case, and we know that
from the Old Testament one of the signs that the kingdom of God was near was
the healing of infirmities. John the Baptist if you remember asked Jesus if he
was the one they had waited for or was there another coming, and Jesus asked
them to look around and see the great things happening.
Today
the mission of the 72 recorded in Luke’s Gospel attests acts of healing as a
clear sign that God had come close.
So
should we be so surprised that even today the issues of healing are still
hovering around the church. Probably not... but we do get embarrassed about it,
and I am not sure we should.
Let
us start where we are... a reasonable place I often find.
Why
do we come to church? What is in it for us?
We
may feel we need to answer that we come to worship God, as though we were doing
this for God’s sake and not our own. I am not sure I could honestly always say
that myself.
We
may come because we have got used to it, it is an old habit of thinking and it
is hard to shake off.. and anyway it feels respectable. Sometimes that is
nearer to an answer 1 might give.
We
may feel that we come to offer thanks. Many people come to church because of
this motive. There is also the motive of suddenly feeling the need to pray for
something or someone.
It
may be that from time to time we might want to answer all of the above.
However
I suspect that deep down if we can be still enough to find it the reason we
keep coming back week in and week out is because it suits us to do it. We get
something from it. Some say it makes them feel better.
Finding
the presence of God here or anywhere has always and will always make us feel
better. This can happen whatever state we are in. The difficulty comes for us
however in finding this presence of God.
For
certain church is sometimes not the place where it is found for many people.
They need to find it elsewhere, at least to start with.
Nevertheless
unless we are able to say the presence of God is in this place, we may as well
pack up and go home, for that is the only reason I keep coming back to it.
We
need to be able to hear people attesting that they found God here. This will
make them feel better, it may even bring about a miracle in their lives who
knows, but God has to be seen to be here.
We
need to be careful, because in our pomposity sometimes we very carefully
conceal God, and we present other things instead.... Should we have a Nave
altar? Are we using the right words? Why is such and such happening? What happened
in that last hymn?
We offer the state of finance and our own
physical needs.
I
was at a clergy gathering recently and we were asked to write down one thing we
wanted to achieve in our church. Strangely two of us wrote identical things...
namely to offer true and real worship.
We
were asked how we would know we had achieved this?
I
said we would know because people would keep coming back. People would feel
that there was a real connection between what they did in their day to day
lives and what they did in church.
We
must aim to find this for ourselves, for then we will know that God has come
close to us.
The
medicine of the gospel is real, it is no placebo. Those of us who have found
this to be the case need to help others to find it for themselves.
We
do not have to got out of our ways to find God, for he greets us on our way,
and having found us and when we have recognised this we fell better.
So
let us all be willing to put on the notice boards that healing and miracles may
happen here, and not be ashamed to say that God makes us feel better. Let us
also be honest... sometimes the church might make us feel worse!
But
if God is able to heal the sores brought on by ousrelves, then all the better!
