A Time for Healing, by Rev. Michael McGee, Nov. 13, 2011

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“A Time for Healing”

Yes, this is a place where people are healed, and we all need to be healed, don't we? In these pews right now there are people who are struggling with cancer, heart disease, and a catalog of other illnesses; as well as those who suffer from addiction, depression, grief, loneliness, and abuse. There are also those who have lost their jobs or their home and perhaps their hope. And all of us live with the fear of illness and death.

Our commonality is that we all suffer, and we need to be healed. And we are healers as well. And this is a place of healing. When each one of us walks through the doors of this church and share our stories, listen to each other's joys and sorrows, holds each other’s hand, give a hug, meditate and pray, we are healing and being healed.

I want to thank all the healers in our congregation but especially our Helping Hands volunteers who bring food and give rides and reach out to those who are going through a crisis. If you're a Helping Hands volunteer, or if you've helped someone in our congregation to get through a difficult time, can you please stand?
One of the primary purposes of religion has always been healing. The great religious leaders have all held up a vision of health, healing, and wholeness for people. In many scriptures we see prophets miraculously curing the sick and dying. For me those are metaphorical stories about the spiritual transformation of the individual from brokenness to wholeness.

Have you noticed how much fear there is around the issues of illness and health? I like the “Speed Bump” cartoon that shows a doctor telling his patient, “What you have is not serious. It would only be serious if I had it.”

It's natural that people are afraid of becoming ill and dying, but the fear often drives us towards self-destructive behavior. For instance, many people are terrified of germs. We spray disinfectants everywhere, use potent antibiotics for scrapes and colds, we wrap everything in so much plastic it takes a machete to cut through it. As the naturalist, Lewis Thomas, writes, “We live in a world where the microbes are always trying to get at us, to tear us cell from cell, and we only stay alive and whole through diligence and fear.”

It's true that health is viewed as a war that pits the human race against the organized, demonic, and invisible creatures we call germs. This fear causes us to over-test, over-medicate, and over-treat for minor and even trivial illnesses that often do better without interference, and in the process drives up our national health costs exorbitantly. Most of us fail to recognize, as Lewis Thomas writes, that “The great secret … is that most things get better by themselves. Most things, in fact, are better by morning.” By insisting on treating the illnesses, even though they do not require treatment, or certainly not a high level of treatment, the illness can be encouraged and our health diminished.

Perhaps we need to re-examine our definition of health. The common view is that we're healthy if there's an absence of germs and bacteria. A more holistic theory is that rather than declaring war on disease agents, we ought to worry more about strengthening resistance to them and learning to live in balance.

This terror of germs goes hand in hand with a deep fear of our bodies. We're afraid our bodies will become ill or injured or old and that eventually we will die. And it's true: we will! I like Woody Allen’s take on death: “It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

But this fear too often keeps us from listening to and respecting our body. The old model of the body as a machine keeps us in the grips of ignorance and denial. We're not ghosts in a machine, an intelligence within a non-intelligent entity. We are bodymind, one being, one wisdom.

Every organ, every muscle, even every cell in our body has an intelligence and wisdom of its own. They remember, they respond, and they seek health and wholeness for us.

Our bodies are incredibly wondrous. We are walking, talking miracles, living, breathing marvels. And yet we diminish our being when we think of ourselves as machines without spirit.

For instance, the current trend is to imagine the heart as a mechanical pump or just a muscle, which is a narrow and harmful way of envisioning ourselves. If we see our heart only as an object that we must exercise periodically, then we lose respect for the heart's intelligence and wisdom as an essential living part of each of us that represents the poetic values of courage and love.

We do need to exercise, but not for the sole purpose of fine tuning a machine so that it may last a few more months. Our purpose should be to bring healing and wholeness to our lives, to reconnect us with the essence of living. To do that we need to love our bodies even when they are broken and ill. A person with AIDS wrote that “I deal with this disease by looking at it as one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. I treat it with respect. I try to love it...”

To love our bodies requires a new vision of health that sees healing as being more than curing a disease or repairing our brokenness. To cure is to eliminate a disease. But healing is much different. Healing is bringing someone who is suffering back into a state of wholeness. The difference between health and wholeness is that you can be ill and still be whole. We may not be physically healthy, but we can have purpose and meaning in our lives.

My favorite prophet of healing is Rachel Naomi Remen, a physician who has counseled many patients, doctors, and nurses. She explains the concept of healing this way: "Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you--all the expectations, all of the beliefs--and becoming who you are. Not a better you, but a realer you."

To unleash our own healing power we must recognize that the mind and body are inextricably connected. Scientists now know that not only is the immune system influenced by the mind and body, but everything we do or think or feel impacts upon our health.

The most radical result of this discovery is the realization that we move towards health and wholeness when we reconnect to a deeper purpose and spirit in our lives. When we know our purpose in life, and when we are committed to that purpose, then spirit becomes a major factor in our health and healing. That doesn’t mean that by living spiritual lives we will never become ill, just as it doesn’t mean that if we are ill it's because we haven’t been living spiritual lives.

The purpose of life is to grow in wisdom and to learn to love ourselves and our world more fully. If our lives serve this purpose, then health serves these purposes – and illness serves them as well, because illness is part of life.
Cullen Ruff's story about the woman who insisted on praying before her procedure is inspiring to me. I admire this woman because she took responsibility for her healing by telling doctors what she needed.

When I had cancer surgery four years ago, one of the most important lessons I learned was to be a health activist not only in the hospital and in recovery but throughout my life. I made major changes following my surgery, such as exercising more and limiting my stress and becoming a vegetarian. If we truly value our physical health – and that means our life -- we must be willing to work for it constantly, not as an avocation but as a calling.

I also admire the woman for using prayer as a way to make a deep connection with the spirit. I do believe in the power of prayer, not as a petition to God but as a way for us to journey into our deepest selves in search for our purpose. “Health is not an end. Health is a means. Health enables us to serve purpose in life, but it is not the purpose of life,” writes Rachel Naomi Remen.

The prevailing attitude in our society is that without our health we have nothing. Just look at the people we worship in the media: they're young and beautiful and the epitome of good health. They resemble perfection as closely as possible, and that means to portray no impairments.

But the reality is that many people do have impairments, and as we grow older all of us become more encumbered by physical afflictions.

Does that mean we are any less human? No! The truth is that one can serve purpose with impaired health. And the deeper truth is that our impaired health can help us to serve purpose, and by doing so we might even regain health. We need to see illness as an opportunity for deepening our sense of purpose and our spirituality.

Research has shown that healing also comes to us through the power of community. There can be no doubt that we need each other to help us to be healthy and whole.

One study showed that people with cancer who were in a support group lived twice as long as people who were not in a support group. The reason is simple: people just cared about each other. No magic or miracles. The reality is that healing happens between people. The wound in me evokes the healer in you, and the wound in you evokes the healer in me, so that we heal each other.

Isn’t this what we all know in our hearts? When we show genuine concern for each other, whether it’s through prayer or sharing our stories or bringing a casserole, we bring healing to life.

I posted a lecture on our web site titled “Dean Ornish on Healing.” Ornish talks about the research showing that anything promoting a sense of isolation leads to chronic stress and, often, to illnesses like heart disease. In fact, loneliness, depression, and isolation increase mortality by 3-7 times.

On the other hand, research has established that intimacy is healing. Specifically, we are healed by healthy sexual activities, by friendship and family, by altruism and compassion, by service, meditation, forgiveness, and support groups. Anything that leads to real intimacy and feelings of connection is healing in the truest sense of the word: to bring together, to make whole.

Have I mentioned to you the study showing that people who go to church on a regular basis tend to be healthier than those who don’t? OK, have I mentioned it more than a dozen times? The religion, denomination, or church makes no difference. The reason is again simple: when we belong to a community of people who care about each other, we are healed and made whole. It does take a village – or a church – to mend our wounds.

So, let us be healed by being healers. Let us be healthy by being activists who take care of ourselves. Let us be made whole by living in deep connection with our world and with loving compassion for those who suffer. Come, and be healed, healthy, and whole.

Photos from the Service

Sermon Resources

• Dean Ornish on Healing, TED.com video
• Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen
• The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas
• My Grandfather's Blessings
• by Rachel Naomi Remen

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