Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth
The Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 25, 2007
CHRIST AT THE CENTER:
THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT – HEALING AND
MIRACLES
Scripture: John
2:1-11, I Corinthians 12
INTRODUCTION
When Paul wrote to the
Corinthians that God had given them “The Gifts of the Spirit,” including
healing and miracles, the apostle wanted those first century Christians to know
that there was a power greater than their own which could enable them to do far
more than they had ever imagined possible.
Remembering the healing
events and miraculous moments of Jesus’ ministry on earth, some of which were
also performed by His disciples after the Resurrection, Paul was telling the
Corinthians that they too could experience the same kind of power at work among
them.
Almost 2000 years later, the
question is: Do those miracles and
healings still happen today? And if they
do, then how can we tap into that power in our own lives as people of faith?
I
That was the question one
woman was asking as she followed Jesus through the crowd gathered by the
Why did she do that? Luke reports she had a flow of blood for twelve years and could not be healed by anyone,
(so) she came up behind Him, touched the fringe of His garment, and immediately
her flow of blood ceased. And Jesus said
“Who was it that touched me?” (Luke
8:43-45)
It is interesting to note
that both Matthew and Mark tell this same story in their gospel accounts, and
Mark reports that this woman had suffered
much under many physicians, had spent all her money and was no better but
rather grew worse (Mark 5:26). The
Scottish Bible commentator William Barclay suggests that Luke, who was a doctor
himself, did not include that detail because he didn’t like the jibe against
the medical profession! (The Daily Study Bible, “The Gospel of Luke,” William
Barclay, page 113)
Be that as it may, this woman
who was slowly hemorrhaging to death reached out to Jesus by faith, hoping that
He would heal her, and the Bible says that immediately,
her flow of blood stopped.
“Who touched me?” asked Jesus, for I perceive that
power has gone forth from me. And
when the woman came forward, fell to her knees and told Him what she had done
and why, Jesus looked at her with compassion in His eyes and said “Daughter, your faith has made you
well. Go in peace.”
Now I cannot explain how that
miracle happened, but I do believe that by faith, that woman was able to reach
out and touch the healing power of God.
The question is: “Do we believe that same power is available to us
today?”
I have heard doctors and
nurses say that when a baby is born, it is absolutely essential for that child
to feel the touch of human hands, to be embraced by open arms, to sense the
warmth of loving hearts surrounding them.
And so it is throughout all the seasons of our lives.
There is a sign on the front
door of a church pre-school up in
“HUMAN BEINGS HERE; HANDLE WITH CARE”
Which means that those boys and girls need teachers
who will hold their hands, wipe the tears from their eyes and help them feel
safe and secure in the world. And as
that happens, if we listen carefully, we can hear Jesus say Let the children come to me, for of such is
the
We adults need that same kind
of care. A married couple who were
having a hard time at home went to see a pastoral counselor. After a few minutes of hearing the husband
complain about the things his wife was doing wrong, the counselor got up, put
his arms around that woman and gave her a big hug. The wife, who was surprised, began to smile
and the counselor said “I think that’s what she needs.” The husband replied “OK, pastor, I’ll bring
her in on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
Now what that thick-headed husband
needs to know, and what all of us need to remember, is that grown up people,
just like children, want to be handled with care. And as we reach out and embrace those who are
closest to us and all those whom the Lord puts in our path, if we listen
carefully, we can hear Jesus say Love one
another as I have loved you. You
see, He can still touch us today as we reach out and touch one another in His
name.
But what about the healing
that happened to the woman by the
Eunice Karanja believes it,
and so do the members of her family and all the rest of us who witnessed her
miraculous healing three months ago.
Eunice and her husband Bobby who’s a student at ITC, they come from
But on the 10th of
November, when Eunice gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Caleb, her heart
failed and suddenly, she was facing a life and death situation. The emergency medical team hooked Eunice up
to a respirator and several other life saving machines as her family and
friends and pastors began to keep the vigil by her side – praying fervently,
talking quietly to her, and touching Eunice with hands of compassion and hearts
full of hope.
Four long weeks later, on the
15th of December, Eunice opened her eyes, began to smile and then,
with her family, they cried tears of joy, knowing that the healing power of God
was restoring Eunice to health and a renewed lease on life.
My friends, during the past
35 years of ministry, I have been privileged and sometimes amazed to see how
God’s healing power is at work in the lives of those who believe, or want to
believe, that it still can happen today.
And that is why it is the right thing to pray for God’s healing in each
and every situation.
II
But I have also witnessed the
painful reality for many people who hoped and prayed for the miracle of healing
that didn’t come through, either for themselves or for someone they loved.
My mother died of liver
cancer at the age of 51, and she and we as her family and friends had all
gotten down on our knees, asking for a different outcome. Looking around this sanctuary today, I am
well aware that many, if not most of you, have been there too. So what are we to do with that painful
reality?
Four years ago, Dr. John
Claypool, rest his soul, wrote a book entitled “The Hopeful Heart.” It was written just before he began his own
battle with multiple myeloma, and the book was meant to offer encouragement to
people facing hard times and difficult moments in their lives.
In the third chapter,
entitled “What Can We Expect of God?” Dr Claypool, who was a close friend and
dearly loved in this congregation, laid out three dimensions of God’s healing
and miraculous power that opened my eyes to the way that we can navigate
through the storms of life.
He describes the first category as
“Events of Intervention, Rescue and Miracle,” saying
that “There are times when…God chooses to break in from a transcendent
dimension and alter the circumstances in which we find ourselves” (page
40). He continues: “Thus, I do believe
in the possibility of miracles, those times when things happen for which there
is no human or physical explanation…
(But) “While I do believe in the miraculous, miracle
is not the only form of action that is worthy of the adjective ‘divine.’ I fear that today’s television evangelists
have talked so much about expecting miracles that they have given the
impression that spectacular healings are the only way that God works in our
world. This perspective sets the stage
for real disappointment. For as firmly
as I believe that God does choose to intervene miraculously on occasion, I am
equally convinced that this does not exhaust God’s repertoire of redemptive
strategies.” (Pages 43-45)
So Claypool goes on to describe two other dimensions
of how God proves to be our refuge and our strength in times of trouble,
calling the second one “collaboration,” when “God moves alongside us and
invites us to join forces with Him in bringing about a solution to our
difficulties” (page 45).
I happened to me three years
ago and I have never told this story from the pulpit before. It was a Tuesday morning and as I was walking
into this sanctuary to conduct a memorial service, my right side went
numb. I thought I was having a stroke
but I could still talk. When I later
described it to Barbara she said, “I course you could, you’re a preacher.”
I got through the service and
then went right to Dr. Bill McClatchey’s office at
I was talking to him on the
phone as he said those words at 10:00 at night, and I had a pipe in my
mouth. I used to smoke a pipe. I started at Princeton Seminary. Everybody there who was theologically minded
smoked a pipe. I took it up and became
addicted to it. Unlike Bill Clinton, I
did inhale.
That night as I heard Bill
McClatchey say that I was going to be okay but I needed to take better care of
myself, I literally put the pipe down and right then, right there, I promised
God I’d never smoke again. And by the
grace of God and chewing a lot of gum, I will keep that promise. It’s called collaboration. Sometimes God needs us to get directly involved
in our own situation.
That’s what happened to Norman
Cousins. Do you know about him? Back in 1964, while living in
So Cousins decided to
collaborate with his doctors and with God.
He studied medical textbooks, and discovered that one of the antidotes
to his disease was the release of chemicals in the endocrine system that could be
brought on by laughter. So he began to
watch Candid Camera videotapes, old Marx Brothers movies and to read humorous
books and magazines, all in collaboration with his medical treatments. And as Cousins recovered, he wrote a book
about his experience entitled “Anatomy of an Illness,” which can be summarized
with this single sentence: “I had enough love and hope and faith…and medical
attention…but what I needed was laughter and joy in my life” (page 43,
paraphrased).
You see, Norman Cousins
discovered what John Claypool knew was true – if we collaborate with God and
with others, we can often weather the storm and recover our health and hope in
life.
CONCLUSION
Now there’s one more
dimension in Claypool’s prescription for dealing with our physical, mental,
emotional and spiritual afflictions, and he calls it “the gift of endurance,”
when “God seems to be saying ‘There will be no solving of the problem, but I
will give you the strength to endure the unchangeable and to experience real
growth in the process.” (Page 53)
Such was the case for
Claypool and his eight year old daughter Laura Lue, who was diagnosed with
Leukemia. They and their family and
friends kept the vigil to the end, and this is how John described it:
“God did not do what I most wanted,
which was to heal Laura Lue; nor did God enable the medical establishment to
bring about a much desired recovery through their collaboration. But the Holy One was not absent in all the
travail. My brave young daughter and I
were given the gift of endurance and, along with it, an opportunity to grow
spiritually…She never became bitter or lost her love for life. And I myself have become a very different
person…
I had taken life for granted and
assumed that having a healthy family was precisely what I deserved. I see now what an astonishingly good fortune
even a single day really is. The
realization that life is a gift and birth is a windfall is more apparent to me
than ever before…And I am more humble, grateful and sensitively attuned to the
suffering of others than was the case before this ordeal.” (Pages 58-59)
And having written those
words from his “hopeful heart,” John Claypool believed them until the day that
he died on the 3rd of September, 2005. How about you? Do you believe in miracles and the healing power
of God today? For some of us our prayers
will be answered on this earth. For
others, we may have to wait, believing that “Earth has no sorrows that heaven
cannot heal” (Thomas Moore).
Either way, God’s miraculous
and healing power is available to us through the touch of His Son our Savior
Jesus. And that is a promise we can
trust completely, here and now and for all of eternity!
In the name of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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