One
of the difficult things about moving is finding a good doctor. In 1995, when our family moved to Toledo, we
did all of those things that you do when you move to a new location.
We sent in our change of mailing address
to family members, to magazine subscriptions, and to bill companies. We checked out the schools in the area and
got our kids enrolled.
We checked out the grocery stores in the area,
where the post office was located, and began to subscribe to the newspaper.
I met with the church staff and met some
folks of the congregation.
We did all of these things. But, there’s one very important thing we
forgot to do when we moved to Toledo. We
forgot to find a new family physician.
And during my first Fall at our new
church, I came down with a really bad case of laryngitis. And Sunday was only a few days away. And that’s when it hit me that I had
forgotten all about finding a new doctor.
I was doctorless.
And it’s kind of hard to find a new doctor
in one day, especially when you can’t even talk. And so, I decided to drive an hour away to
see my doctor in Findlay. And he was
nice enough to see me on such short notice and was surprised to see me since he
knew that I had moved to Toledo. And not
being able to talk, I just kind of shrugged my shoulders.
Well, eventually, I did find a new doctor
in Toledo, although we didn’t get off to a very good start. For my initial appointment, I was reading a
book about visioning in the church. The
title of the book was “Vision 2000.”
Some of you might remember that book and that phrase because our West
Ohio Conference was using this resource to help churches in their visioning
process as we were approaching the year 2000.
And this new doctor who I had never met,
came into the examination room and saw me with this book. And to strike up a conversation, he said to
me, “I see you’re reading a book about
the year 2000.” And he said, “I’ve been reading a lot about preparing for the year 2000 myself, and
I’m hearing how computers all around the world might crash and important
records will be lost because of this change from one millennium to the next.”
And in response, I used a poor choice of
words and said to him, “Oh that’s
funny.” And thinking that I was
making light of this, he said to me in a very serious and stern voice, “Well, I don’t think it’s very funny. There’s a lot at stake.”
This was one of those moments where you wish
you had a do-over!
But fortunately things got a whole lot
better from that point on because during my examination, he said something that
led to a big change in my life. He asked
if I was involved in any cardio exercise to which I responded, “No.”
And he said, “That’s something that you should really
think about doing. You should really
think about making exercise a priority in your life.”
Because of that one comment made by this
new doctor seventeen years ago, I have been exercising on a regular basis. I can tell that it has made a big difference
in my life physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
It’s important to find a good physician. I’m so glad that I have a wonderful doctor
since moving to Lancaster. Finding a
good physician is so important.
Why? Because our health is
important. A good physician can point us
in the direction of health and wholeness.
They remind us to take care of ourselves. Not just physically, but emotionally,
socially, and mentally. All of these
important aspects of our lives kind of go together. They have an impact on one another.
But what kind of health and wholeness are
we looking for? Because I know of folks,
and no doubt, you do as well, who may be healthy on the outside, but on the
inside, they are hurting. They are
longing for love and acceptance.
And sometimes, the last place they think
of looking for wholeness is through the church.
For this reason, I am surprised a bit,
that the leper in our Gospel reading this morning, was willing to go to Jesus
for healing. In the ancient, world,
people who were sick or had a physical problem, were viewed as outside of God’s
love and care.
Sometimes we see this played out today
when we hear people say, including ourselves, “How can God accept me? I’m not worthy to be loved. I’ll never set foot in the door of a
church. The people won’t accept me.”
But notice what Jesus does for this man
who has the terrible disease of leprosy.
After this man begs Jesus to heal him from his physical disease of
leprosy, notice that Jesus gave him more than physical healing.
Jesus actually stretched out his hand,
Mark tells us, and touched him. Can you
imagine that? Jesus, who was God in the
flesh, was willing to touch this man who was considered unclean and an outcast by
religion and society. God touched him.
And immediately, the leprosy left this man
but notice the 2nd part of verse 42.
It says, “And he was made
clean.” “He was made clean.” This man didn’t just receive physical
healing although, how awesome is that?
But Mark is careful to tell us that this man also was included back into
the fold, back into community. He was
made whole.
Jesus as our physician desires for each
one of us to be made whole, to be included in God’s covenant of love and to be
included in God’s family.
I made an appointment with my doctor where
I previously lived before coming to Lancaster and he came into the room shaking
his head and I said something like, “Rough
day?” And he kept shaking his head
and he said, “When will people learn to
not do harmful things to their bodies?”
I would imagine that this is
probably the most difficult thing about being a physician. Here you are trained to treat people’s
ailments, only to watch people intentionally abuse their bodies. Or they refuse to do what their doctor tells
them to do and they wonder why they’re still not feeling well. People turn to all kinds of sources for their
healing and they don’t always make good choices. Drugs, alcohol, materialism, workaholism, -
you name it, we will try all kinds of ways to take away our pain, and yet we
sometimes forget to go to the ultimate source of healing.
That’s why I’m so taken by this man who
went to Jesus for healing. He went
directly to the ultimate source for his healing even though it would have been
so easy for him to give up on God and his faith.
Approximately 850 years before Jesus
healed this man in the Gospel of Mark, another man with a similar problem of
leprosy, was desperately looking for someone to heal him. This man was Naaman, someone who was very
well respected and who was high up in the army of Aram. And yet, he had this terrible disease.
A young Israelite girl who had been
captured and who served in Naaman’s house, informed him of a prophet in Israel
who would be able to heal him of his leprosy.
And Naaman, desperate to be healed, agrees
to go to Israel, and he seeks out the prophet Elisha. And Elisha ends up healing this non-Israelite
warrior from his leprosy.
This story reminds us that nobody is outside
of God’s reach. Not even an enemy
warrior like Naaman. God’s healing is
available to all.
Penny and I have been friends with a
couple who attend a Presbyterian Church in a community in northwest, Ohio. They are active in their church and they are
amazing people. Their love for Jesus
shines through in all that they do.
We got to know them about twenty years ago
and we served together with them in an ecumenical ministry. Their story as a married couple is one in
which Jesus brought healing and wholeness to their marriage and to their lives.
Jon & Debbie met at Bowling Green State
University, fell in love with each other and got married. They had a Christian wedding ceremony,
although they really weren’t thinking a whole lot about God at that time of
their relationship. But like many
couples, they wanted to have a church ceremony.
And so they got married.
Jon ended up having a successful job which
would often take him away from their home and from Debbie. They ended up having two daughters who are
now grown and living on their own. But
while they were raising their family, Debbie began to feel empty inside.
During the course of their marriage,
Debbie chose to have a relationship outside of their marriage to fill her loneliness. Miserable in her marriage, she contemplated
ending her marriage all together. In her
own words, she began to build a wall around her own heart.
But then something amazing happened. Through the love and support of people in the
church they were attending, God was able to bring forgiveness and healing to
Jon and Debbie’s marriage. It wasn’t
easy, but God’s healing came.
They made a conscious decision to have
Jesus Christ be at the very center of their lives. They realized that Jesus was the only person
who could make their marriage work. They
couldn’t do this on their own. They
tried to make it work on their own strength and had failed.
So
one night, they went to a cemetery near their home, and in this cemetery they symbolically
buried their old marriage. They forgave
each other and they invited God to take over.
From the cemetery, they drove over to their church. And there, in a dark and empty sanctuary,
beneath the cross in the presence of God, they committed themselves to each
other in a new way – to each live for God and to go to him first to fill the
emptiness of their hearts. Jon &
Debbie made a commitment to share their story of healing to other married
couples especially young people thinking about getting married, and anyone else
who will listen.
And while we celebrate how God has brought
healing to their marriage, we also know that some relationships have not been
restored. But God offers healing in
those moments as well. Nobody is left
out of God’s care and love.
And always know that no matter where
you’re from or who you are God wants to bring healing to you and to me because
He loves us - a healing that leads us to tell others about the One who has made
us whole.
Finding a doctor is one of the most
important decisions we can ever make. I
know of a good physician. And he invites
you and me to be made whole.
.
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