SERMON
17 March 2002

Eerie and majestic. These two words are appropriate but barely adequate. Eerie and majestic. What else could describe these sentences from St. John’s Gospel: “The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped in linen bands, his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said, ‘Loose him: let him go.’“

Here are incredible “hopes and fears.” Here is careful, respectful Jewish piety: a body honored, a death respected. Here is the holy word of authority. Here is the end of grief. Here is revelation of new boundaries between life and death. A “huge voice” has commanded, “come forth;” now, a gentler tone requires other obedience: “loose him, let him go.”

“Loose him, let him go.” These words are addressed to people standing near Jesus: friends, relatives, neighbors, the crowds gathered from Jerusalem to offer sympathy. Still, these words of Jesus are also aimed at death and the processes of decay: “loose him, let him go.” All of this comes after the blunt realism of the dead man’s sister: “Sir, by now there will be a stench, he has been there four days.” Nonetheless, the words of Jesus are supreme: “The dead man came out.”

Eerie and majestic. This is a gospel story that is one-of-a-kind. True, other Bible stories tell of life being restored to the dead but no other story involves so much time in a grave, so much time in the process of rot. Eerie and majestic – never have matters seemed so set and final – four days is beyond all hope, four days is clearly absolute as a barrier and a closure.

The eerie and majestic story that we call “The Raising of Lazarus” is not really about Lazarus. It is a story about Jesus. If the story centered on Lazarus, surely we would be told what he did next, that he married his long-time sweetheart Nora, had eight children, founded a successful shipping company, and died at the age of eighty-three in his villa near Beirut. Instead, we are told nothing at all about Lazarus because we are being told so much about Jesus. The Raising of Lazarus shows what it means to say that Jesus Himself is “resurrection” and “life.” The miracle in the little village two miles from Jerusalem does not detail a biography, rather it illustrates a truth: “If a man has faith in me, even though he dies, he shall come to life.”

The eerie and majestic story does not mean some things. It does not promise some things.

We are not invited to despise medical help. We are not promised endless physical life in this world.

It is not just this week that a child has died because religion kept parents away from medicine. We have heard of this sort of thing again and again and again. I always respond to such reports with a mixture of anger and shock. How can parents allow their child to suffer and die in front of their eyes? How can Christianity be taught or learned in so perverted a form? The religious literature of the time of Jesus was not as hard and as anti-science as the medicine haters in our culture. Listen to the wise words of Jesus ben Sirach, words written down about two hundred years before Christ. Listen to parts of chapter 38 of Sirach. “Honor the doctor for his services, for the Lord created him. His skill comes from the most high . . . the Lord has created medicines from the earth, and a sensible man will not disparage them . . . . The Lord has imparted knowledge to men, that by the use of his marvels he may win praise; by using them the doctor relieves pain and from them the pharmacist makes up his mixture. There is no end to the works of the Lord, who spreads health over the whole world” (Sirach 38:l-8).

“The Lord . . . spreads health over the whole world.” I did not know those words ten years ago but I did experience their meaning. Ten years ago I had a painful left ankle. For a year I walked with a limp. For a year I had acute tenderness that never left. I did what reasonable people do. I saw my doctor, was X-rayed, saw an excellent specialist, learned that I had three of the twenty-one possible extra bones in my foot. I suffered and there was no relief or remedy. I was part of a healing service in my own parish. I limped around the sanctuary while another priest prayed for others. He noticed my problem and said, “May I?” I knew what he meant. I said “yes.” He placed his hands on my head, anointed me with holy oil and prayed. There was no sound, no good feeling, nothing dramatic or visible except that my ankle felt normal. Since that time of prayer, I had had neither pain nor difficulty. The problem ended. “The Lord . . . spreads health over the whole world.”

The New Testament is the source of what modern Christians call the Sacrament of Healing, “the laying on of hands with oil and prayer” in earlier language. This is what the Letter of James has to tell us about Christian healing: “Is one of you ill? He should send for the elders . . . to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer offered in faith will save the sick man, the Lord will raise him from his bed, and any sins he may have committed will be forgiven” (5:l4-l5).

The Bible was into “holistic medicine” long before the birth of the contemporary term. The Bible does not pit faith against science, doctor against priest, prayer against medicine. No, the Bible understands medicine as application of Creation to creatures, yet another connection between God and our lives.

More than ever, we know that the mind influences the body. We know that there is a strange way in which sick thoughts can harm the body. We have all experienced the impact of physical problems on our emotions and spiritual attitudes. Our religion deals with all of this, our Christianity does not say “you are a bad person and an inadequate believer because you go to a doctor and respect the use of medicine.” No, our tradition says “Honor the doctor” and “the prayer offered in faith will save.” There is a “web of life” and this web of life unites body and spirit, connects God and Creation, relates the seen to the unseen.

Go to the doctor. Come to the church. The doctor will help in one way. The Sacrament of Healing will help in another way. Together, doctor and sacrament will give blessing.

Do not feel inferior to those who refuse something that God has enabled. They are not dealing in faith: they are dealing in misunderstanding. Encourage greater understanding of prayer for health and deliverance. Encourage having the Sacrament of Healing on a regular basis here at St. Nicholas. I am eager to have such a service on a weekly basis or upon request in a private setting. Above all, remember that God’s will is for health and healing.

The Rev'd James E. Furman