Once every three months or so, the Worship Ministry Team mandates that a Sunday should be held on which we offer special prayers of blessing for healing along with anointing with oil for any who desire it.  It’s a long-standing tradition in the Church; not just this church, but the whole Christian Church for going on two thousand years now.  And from the looks of this congregation on a typical Sunday morning, what with our various walkers, canes, and crutches, it seems particularly appropriate.  Of course, it’s not just our elders who have needs for healing, especially as we consider healing in all its dimensions – physical, emotional, mental, spiritual.  Life takes its toll on us all; and we recognize by way of these occasional but regular liturgies that part of God’s interest in our life is for us to be blessed in the midst of the trials and tribulations that always come - also, it seems, on a regular basis.

One thing that’s abundantly clear from all four of the Gospels is that Jesus gained quite a reputation as a healer, which made him quite a popular figure with the common folk, and led them to see him as one with great authority.  I suppose it’s pretty clear that it was that authority that made the other so-called “authorities” of his day suspicious of him, or jealous of him, or maybe just afraid for their own standing in the eyes of the people – which led them to try to trap him in his own talk, like this morning’s gospel lesson illustrates.  Trick questions – that’s what some people resorted to in trying to protect their own status. 

But the common folk recognized Jesus as a person who was extraordinarily connected to the power of God, and so was able to rid people of illnesses and other things that sapped the life from them.  You could flip through the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John at random, and you wouldn’t have to go very far before you came upon story after story of Jesus reaching out to people whose lives were burdened by forces which they could neither understand nor control. 

In those days, illness was not very well understood; and the things they thought of as demon possession were frightening conditions which simply could not be cured.  Medicine was primitive; the concepts of genetic illness or viral infections were unknown; and sickness was more likely to be thought of as a curse from God, as some sort of punishment for wrongdoing, rather than understood as some sort of a biological process that might be diagnosed and treated.  And so those who were seriously ill, and those who showed signs of possession by demonic powers, were very often pushed off to the sides of polite society.  "After all," the people reasoned, "if it's God who has afflicted that person with some terrible illness as a kind of judgment against them, then it probably isn't too good an idea to let them get too close.  Who are we to try to reverse the judgment of God?"  And so throughout the Bible, we come upon people again and again who are sick and separated out from their community - blind and lame people begging from the side of the road; lepers living on the outskirts of town; the demon possessed banished to the graveyards or roaming the countryside.  It was a harsh reality for those so afflicted, to be not only physically sick but also socially cut off. 

One of the remarkable things about Jesus' ministry to those who were sick was that he would often reach out and touch them - people who were considered to be physically and religiously unclean, maybe even dangerous to touch - but Jesus touched them anyway.  Imagine what that must have been like, to be cut off from any human contact because of your illness, and then to have someone look you straight in the eye for the first time in a long time, and talk to you with kindness, and then lovingly touch you with a gentle hand.  It would be a powerful moment - made even more powerful by the physical healing that would take place.  No wonder that those who witnessed Jesus' actions were struck by what a strong sense of authority he projected - not only in the things he said, but also in the things he did.

And then, when Jesus sent out his disciples, he sent them out not only to preach and to teach, but also to heal.  The early church immediately picked up on that, and so you can read in the Book of Acts a number of stories about Peter and Paul engaged in acts of healing, just like Jesus had done.  And in the letter of James, we have his instructions to the elders, to the lay leaders of the early church, telling them to go to those who were sick, and pray with them, and lay their hands upon them, that God might bring healing into their lives.

If you look at the history of the church, you'll find that when the church has been at its best, it's often been when the church has understood that its place in the world is with those who have no place in the world; when it's understood that the church is called to be with those who are physically and socially and emotionally and mentally and spiritually cast out by the world.  That’s where the church belongs.  The church was never meant just to gather in safe little communities that would be insulated from the troubles of the world.  That's one reason why, as you go around the world, you'll find places like Queen of the Valley Medical Center right here in Napa, or Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem, or little Lutheran health clinics scattered across the face of Africa - places that the church has established to serve the physical, bodily needs of sick and struggling human beings.  The church has understood that part of its calling, at least, includes being involved in the health and well being of people, in all the dimensions of what it is to be human - and in serving those physical, bodily needs, to be serving the emotional and spiritual needs as well.

Jesus accepted, and touched, and healed those who were sick and outcast - and so also the church is called to do.  And so days with special prayers and blessings find their way on to the church calendar.  And we talk about the needs of people that the church, with all its varied ministries, might be able to meet; need-oriented ministry, as the Natural Church Development folks would remind us.

When Jesus went about healing people, as he did, the cure, of course, didn’t last forever.  Oh, sure, people got better - there's no doubt about that.  But even then it was only a temporary fix.  Even Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, eventually died again.  But that didn't stop Jesus, or his followers, from reaching out with the healing power of God, in whatever way they could, in whatever way was appropriate.  Because the meaning of those actions went deeper than just the temporary effects of new health and strength, as important as that physical healing might have been.  When a person was healed by Jesus, or when a person is cared for and prayed for by the church, these are all actions which point to a deeper and much more lasting reality - namely, the reality of God's promise that someday all that is broken and all that is in need in this creation will be set right; that in the end, God's power of life and love will triumph over all those things that trouble us now.  When we experience good health or healing in this life, that’s a blessing, to be sure, and something to be thankful for; but it's a blessing that also ought to point us to look even more joyfully ahead to that final fulfillment of all God's promises, which will be ours on that day when eternity dawns.

And so when we pray for those who are sick, or suffering in any way, for those who are bowed down under the stresses and burdens of life - as we do every Sunday here together and in our own personal times of prayer during the week; or when we have a special time of prayer and blessing as we're having this morning - we do so knowing that life and faith are much more complicated than we would sometimes like them to be.  Not everyone we pray for gets better, do they?  And even those who do get better will still have struggles to face in the future (as will we all.)  But we pray these prayers knowing that God will be at work in our lives - if not to bring health, then strength; if not to bring strength, then courage; if not to bring courage, then patience.  In some way and in every prayer, God is at work, because that is what God has promised to do.

These prayers, these blessings, this oil today stand as reminders that the world is still God’s world; that our times of physical illness or emotional pain or spiritual confusion are not signs that God has left us alone.  To the contrary:  times of struggle are times for us to know, now more than ever, that God is stretching out his hand to us in love, reaching out to pull us even closer, touching our loves with compassion and with power. 

Jesus calls to us today:  Come, he says.  Come with your burdens; come with your illnesses; come with your grief.  Bring them all to God, and let Jesus touch your life with his power and his love.  In the midst of what ails you, in the midst of what troubles you, in the midst of what worries you, in the midst of what drains you of life - in the midst of all the burdens you bear, let God hold you and let God carry you.  For only when we rest in God, only then do we find hands strong enough to renew our health and our hope.  Jesus feeds us at his table today.  He touches us with his blessing of love.  May we find in these things - may we find in him - the strength and the healing we need.

Amen.