Walter WInk on Healing
Walter Wink: Jesus Heals
Provided through Trinity Wall Street at http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/multimedia/?thought
Forty million Americans have no health insurance whatsoever, yet no nation in the world spends more money on health. Behind that preoccupation with health is the frantic desire for immortality. We are afraid to die, and we will pay anything to avoid it. Yet we won't make health care available to anybody else. This is a fundamental injustice in our society and a kind of medical avarice. We dare not claim to be spiritual guides if we are not working to rectify this injustice. Yet we cannot avoid the clear imperative of healing in the New Testament either.
Fifty percent of the first 10 chapters of Mark's gospel deal with healing stories, discussions of healing, and commentaries about healing. Jesus declared, “If it by the finger of God that I cast out demeans, the Kingdom of Heaven has come upon you.” Thereby announcing that his ministry of healing and exorcism was not only central to his message, but a sign that God's reign was breaking into this world. If that is the case, we can scarcely afford to ignore what Jesus had to say about healing prayer.
Or, as David Cairns remarked, in Jesus' teachings on prayer, he gives us the secret of his own miracle working power. The title of this lecture is “Jesus' Way of Healing.” Curiously enough, Jesus doesn't seem to have had a way of healing, so I guess I can just end my lecture here. He apparently responded to each situation of need uniquely, as if he were listening attentively to what the Holy Spirit had to say.
Provided through Trinity Wall Street at http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/multimedia/?thought
Forty million Americans have no health insurance whatsoever, yet no nation in the world spends more money on health. Behind that preoccupation with health is the frantic desire for immortality. We are afraid to die, and we will pay anything to avoid it. Yet we won't make health care available to anybody else. This is a fundamental injustice in our society and a kind of medical avarice. We dare not claim to be spiritual guides if we are not working to rectify this injustice. Yet we cannot avoid the clear imperative of healing in the New Testament either.
Fifty percent of the first 10 chapters of Mark's gospel deal with healing stories, discussions of healing, and commentaries about healing. Jesus declared, “If it by the finger of God that I cast out demeans, the Kingdom of Heaven has come upon you.” Thereby announcing that his ministry of healing and exorcism was not only central to his message, but a sign that God's reign was breaking into this world. If that is the case, we can scarcely afford to ignore what Jesus had to say about healing prayer.
Or, as David Cairns remarked, in Jesus' teachings on prayer, he gives us the secret of his own miracle working power. The title of this lecture is “Jesus' Way of Healing.” Curiously enough, Jesus doesn't seem to have had a way of healing, so I guess I can just end my lecture here. He apparently responded to each situation of need uniquely, as if he were listening attentively to what the Holy Spirit had to say.
posted by Father Bob+ at 8:00 PM
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