Our
opening passage is one of those where many of us have the gut reaction (at
least when we’re in the secular world) of, “yeah, right.” What it recounts is the healing, literally
from death to life, of one of the good Christian women in the Mediterranean Sea
town of Joppa. Remember, at this point
in the Church’s story, Jesus has ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit has
washed over the believers of Christ, and the Apostles are now stepping out into
their world to proclaim the Divine message that was given to them by their
Master.
Peter
has traveled from Jerusalem to the west, northwest, to a town named Lydda. Peter is proclaiming the Word of the Lord,
but he also healing in the name of Christ.
The verses just prior to what we are about to hear speak of Peter
healing a man who had been bedridden for eight years.
Obviously,
news of such miraculous happenings gets around, and when the community of faith
in Joppa hears that Peter is, more or less, just down the road, they look at
their situation and see a glimmer of hope.
One of the pillars of their community, a woman named Tabitha, or Dorcus
depending on the language that you may use, is dying. They are hoping that Peter might be able to
have a miracle work through him again.
And, as we are about to hear, it happens: the healing takes place.
Where
our skepticism creeps in, however, is that healing, let alone miraculous
healing, is not something that we are all that accustomed to experiencing, let
alone on the magnitude of what we are about to hear. So we look at these sorts of stories through
the filter of the world of which we are very much a part, and think,
‘Yeah,…no. Miraculous healing: not so
much.’
I
am here to challenge that world view, and instead encourage you to view these
words, view your life, through the eyes of faith. When we do, what we will see is that the
miraculous still happens today: that the healing that is of God, as it is able
to be received in so many ways, can be there for each and every one of us. The scripture reads this way.
Acts
9:36-43
36 Now in Joppa there
was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was
devoted to good works and acts of charity. 37 At that time she
became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room
upstairs. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard
that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us
without delay.” 39 So Peter got up and went with them; and when he
arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him,
weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she
was with them. 40 Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt
down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she
opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. 41 He gave her his
hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be
alive. 42 This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in
the Lord. 43 Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a
certain Simon, a tanner.
Our
second passage reminds us who leads us to the place of Divine blessing: it is
the lamb who through his sacrifice became the shepherd for all. This shepherd, as we heard again in the 23rd
Psalm, will lead us through all the days of our life, and lead us to a place
where all is made well, where all is made right, where all is healed. The Shepherd that is spoken of leads us today
and will lead us to the place where we will be refreshed in the springs of the
water of life. Healing, in all of its
forms, comes when we are willing to be led by the Shepherd. The scripture reads this way.
Revelation
7:9-17
9 After
this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from
every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the
throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10
They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our
God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11
And
all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four
living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped
God, 12 singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and
thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!
Amen.”
13
Then
one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and
where have they come from?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you are the one
that 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.
15
For
this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night
within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter
them. 16 They will hunger no
more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;
17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes.”
One of the ways that scripture has become
real for me, is because of how I have been able to hear the lessons that have
been taught through so many passages in my own history and experience. When it’s appropriate and God led, then those
stories and pieces of that history become parts the sermons that you hear. This is one of those stories and it revolves
around my son, Austin, the little guy who was flopping around up front just a
few minutes ago.
Austin was born a couple of weeks after Jen
and my first wedding anniversary, and he was a big boy. About a month prior to his delivery, Jen’s
doc had guessed that the baby would weigh somewhere around seven pounds. Jen laughed because she knew better. I looked confused because it didn’t seem
possible that the little life inside her could possibly be that small. He wasn’t.
Austin’s 23 inches, weighed in at 10 pounds, 6 ounces. I was told he looked like a six month
old.
The reason, I bring up his size is that
newborn’s of that size have a greater likelihood of experiencing after birth
issues. He was okay for the first day
and half. The he turned blue. Blue is not a good color for babies, or anyone
for that matter, but especially for babies.
He was transported to the Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical
Center in New York. He was diagnosed
with Pulmonary Hypertension, and placed on oxygen for several days. Being in the NICU of a teaching hospital we
met every specialist under the sun. Once
we were able to bring him home, we figured we would never have to see them
again.
However, pretty early on in his life,
Austin had some issues. There were
hernias (not a big surprise with a child of his birth size), there was a curve
to his back (we were wondering if we had him riding in his car seat bucket too
much), and he wasn’t hitting his physical markers (he didn’t crawl, roll over,
or stand up on his own). At about 11
months old, his pediatrician said to us, “I think you need to see a
geneticist. I’m not sure, but all of his
issues could be explained by one prognosis, something called
mucopolysaccradosis.”
We quickly came to find out that this rare
disorder that results from both parents passing along a mutated gene, causes
degeneration in every system of the body.
This is due to the fact that Austin doesn’t naturally produce an enzyme
to break down the sugars in his body.
These sugars then flow wherever they want, and begin to cause the body
to fail. If left untreated, these kids
die by the age of 10.
Amazingly enough (aka: another one of God’s
miraculous moments), due to our time spent at Westchester, we had met a
geneticist. He was contacted and after
several tests, Austin’s diagnosis was confirmed and typed. Austin has the most aggressive type of the
disorder: type I, Hurler’s Syndrome.
There is no cure. But there are two
treatment options. The first was a bone
marrow or stem cell transplant. The
other option was something that had only been approved by the FDA maybe 18
months prior. It is called Enzyme
Replacement Therapy. What happens is
that every week the enzyme that Austin needs is put into his body
intravenously. We were told that this
treatment would slow the physical deterioration, but could not protect his
brain. We chose the later, thinking that
this would strengthen Austin physically, and would allow us to stay together as
a family. The transplant was still an
option, but not our first one.
At 14 months old Austin had a port
implanted under his skin on the right side of his chest. The next day he received his first dose of
enzymes. It was later that day,
literally hours after that first dose, when I saw divine healing as our son,
who had never stood up on his own, rolled over in his crib, grabbed on to the
railings, and proceeded to stand up. He
hasn’t stopped since. We weren’t sure if
he would ever walk. Now he runs. We didn’t know if he’d be able to talk, now
we can’t quiet him down. The mental
regression that we were told to anticipate still has yet to reveal itself.
The disease is still very much there. It always will be and he will always have
issues that ‘normal’ kids will, thankfully, never have to face. It is a degenerative disorder, and it does
not relent. But healing most definitely
took place.
Yes, some will say, “but all that is the
result of scientific research”. To this
I agree, and through the eyes of faith, what I am able to see are the blessings
of God working through those scientists, researchers, doctors, and families to
allow Divine healing to take place.
Austin was not cured, but he is experiencing healing.
Miraculous healing is not just something of
bygone era that that happened only in the pages of scripture when Jesus and the
Apostles walked the earth. It happens
today, and it happens in many different ways.
Yes, I absolutely believe in physical
healing. I’ve seen it. I’ve heard about it. And many times there isn’t a way to explain
away the miracle. Physical healing
through the Divine does happen.
But sometimes, the healing that is
experienced has nothing to do with a physical ailment being alleviated. Sometimes the healing that experienced is not
physical. Sometimes the healing that is
experienced is emotional, or spiritual.
Worry and stress are two of the greatest inhibiters to being able to
live a fruitful life, and that fruitful life can happen whether or not you are
physically ill.
However, emotional and spiritual baggage
can weigh down upon us in such a way that hope becomes impossible; that peace
becomes something left for t-shirts and bumper stickers. The healing of the God, the miraculous
healing of the Divine is there for you in this way as well.
Not too long ago I was able to talk with
someone who has a tough road in front of them medically. And yet, what they said to me was how strong
they felt, not because the disease was gone, but because of how spiritually
strong they have become. The number of
people who have held them up in prayer has been so great that God’s gracious
presence has been able to be understood in a way that they never understood
before. Miraculous healing has come,
even with the illness still there, healing has come.
Miraculous healing happens. It happens physically; it happens
emotionally; it happens spiritually. And
it happens when we are willing to be led by the shepherd. Following God, being a disciple of Jesus
Christ, does not mean that everything in your life becomes easy. Read the scriptures! What you will see are people who experience
pain and difficulty.
However, what we also hear in the
scriptures is that when those same people were willing to follow Jesus, they
were granted all that they needed, not necessarily what they wanted, but what
they needed in order to walk through the days that were before them allowing
the light of God to shine, and the love of God to reign. Again, healing was able to take place,
regardless of whether or not the ailment was cured.
Each of us have those places within us that
are in need of healing. Some of us do a
better job of making it seem that those places don’t exist…but if we’re honest
with ourselves, those places are there.
The question is, will you let go so as to allow the Spirit to move in
and allow the healing that is of God to begin?
Will you let go, and be led by the Shepherd? Divine healing comes in several ways: healing
of the mind, the body, and the spirit.
But the healing that we need is there for all of us when we let go and
allow ourselves to be led. Will
you?
After Sermon Prayer
O God of
restoration, Your healing Spirit is still at work in and through our world
today. It can be experienced physically,
emotionally, and spiritually. The
healing we need will be there when we are willing to follow the Shepherd. Lord, work in us, so that this is able to
happen and that our stories might become the next examples of Your miraculous
healing hand at work. It is in Jesus’
name that we do pray. Amen.