Rambling is Good for the Soul

Partial thought on 1)

1) Throughout scripture, God promises to be with us and to hear us. God doesn't promise to meet our agendas or our schedules. People who are suffering greatly and praying for healing (but not seeing "results") might find some company in those in scripture who wondered how long but knew that God was with them in their suffering and that God promises to continue to be with us in suffering.

I’m preaching tomorrow myself, and so far have thrown out one sermon that turned out not to be about the readings for tomorrow. I’ll mull over your questions, but I may not get back to them till after I eke something out for Seabury’s congregation.

#1 is easier for me to deal with right now. You asked about praying for healing. I might counter that with, "Healing in whose eyes?" Last Sunday's readings were all about vision, and I thought Mark and Jane had some good thoughts on that. So with that in mind, is it possible that our definition of healing is too narrow?

The problem with "fixing the problem," is that the problem is fixed as we see fit -- thereby placing us in the role of God. This gets back to Margaret's comment, "God doesn't promise to meet our agendas or our schedules." I just had a parishioner break his neck in a car accident, and the writer of the newsletter wrote, "Please pray for a full and speedy recovery for Dan." I nixed that based on the above and changed it to "Pray for Dan and his family during this time" (or something similar).

Maybe we need to be praying for courage to face adversity, strength to carry on in difficult times, wisdom to discern God's presence, and comfort that God is with us always. Finally, if we (physically) die in the faith of Jesus Christ, isn't that the ultimate form of healing?

Enough of my rambling. End note to AKMA: If any of what I have said removes me from consideration of helping with your bib. theo. class, let me know.

Heather, I couldn’t get your question out of my mind as I prepared my own homily for today. I posted what ideas I have over at my place. . . .

I have a hard time with these questions too. But heres one thought I have in response to the Ref's comments: Why is it not okay to ask God for what we want? I'm not sure I like the idea of only praying for what I"m "supposed" to be praying for. What sort of prayer is that, if we aren't honestly bringing the desires of our hearts to God? Now, I don't think this is the same thing as thinking that God gives us everything we ask for, exactly how we ask for it - just as Margaret said. Prayer is a two-way street... its not just us asking for something, but it shapes us, it shapes what we ask for, and our very relationship with God. Can't our prayers for healing - including the specifics of what we'd like to see happen - open our eyes to how God is already healing the world - even if its not in the way we hoped for?

Since no one has taken a stab at #2, my answer is yes. We can be whole and human.

We're not pies or cakes. Slices of us can't be taken out and devoured. We might loose track of part of ourselves, but I chalk that up to compartmentalizing our lives so much. If the compartments get to be too numerous, each individual seems to be an island unto himself on the surface. On the inside, individuals are just searching for a way to decompartmentalize. Sometimes one or two compartments get lost, but they don't go away.

As to humanity and perfection, only one of us was ever perfect. We strive for perfection simply becaused we are taught to do so, with expectations of surpassing current boundaries by huge margins. I believe it's better to recognize our limitations, but push the envelope of those limitations. Incremental improvements, rather than drastic overhauls, are going to make us better as people by and by. Rehab is a good example.

In answer to Susie, I don't think it's wrong to pray for what we want. I think the problem is that prayer has been tied to just another form of society's instant gratification. If you look at the Lord's Prayer, there isn't anything in there about what we "want." It's about God's will, giving us what we need, forgiveness and guidance.

So what I'm getting at is that maybe we need to focus less on the "me first" thing and more on the other issues that widen our perspective and *hopefully* lead to a deeper relationship.

I'll take a shot at 2 also.

Picking up on what being shielded said, I'd say yes we can be human and whole because Jesus was certainly human and also whole. I think its our experience as fallen humans that makes it hard for us to see how one could be whole in the fullest sense of the word and still very much be human as well.

I would suggest, as these comments show, that these are questions confronting all of us through all time. One sidestep that interests me is our image/definition of God and I have been very intrigued by Bishop Spong's writings on this. Does God in fact directly become involved in human existence? Is He/She waiting to "do" unto us? Is this all too human image of God too constricted?

Thanks for your help. I'm currently writing the sermon and will post after it's preached tomorrow.

I need to spend some more time defining "wholeness" and what I mean...perhaps another post later...

I have also been unable to get these questions out of my head, since these had been questions I had to face recently on my own. It has taken me a little while to come up with my response here because these are subjects I often avoid, and I was trying to find THE right answer. I am sure there is none, so I am just presenting what I have learned, through recent experiences.

On #1, I recently faced a potentally life threatening situation. I was asking myself this very question. Fortunately I really did not (yet) have to answer it personally. I have cancer and wanted it to be gone. I just wanted to be healed. What instead I received for my prayers was hope. The terror and worry about the cancer I was facing was worse than the actual cancer. A good friend stepped in and told me not to worry, because she would do the worrying for me. This wound up having a remarkable effect on me. I don't think it had a physical healing effect, but the emotional lift was enormous. So I had to learn (AGAIN) the hard way that what I need and what I want are not always the same. So I think that an additional question to add is "Are you sure that your prayers were not answered?"

Reverned Ref, while I agree that we live in way too much of a "Me first" society, I think that there are times when it is ok to put yourself first. Wanting to be healthy is a good thing. Taken to an extreme, if you are praying for your own life, or healing from a life threatening disease I would certainly feel it is ok to ask for my life. There is already too many people in the world who believe there is more to be gained by dying than living, so asking to live seems to me to be a good thing. So while I understand your point about people being too selfish, I think a selfish need to heal is not so bad.