Why do you need to read my humdrum paragraphs? 7 reasons below! By all means skim!
Introducing...
Justin Welby. The current Archbishop of Canterbury, has been taking social media by storm. I'm a fan of online technologies when they help Christians connect. Especially when that relationship is fruitful, and meets the needs of ourselves as Christ-followers. We all want to be encouraged in our faith, and Saul/Paul wrote letters. Scroll to the bottom to watch Justin Welby's bible study and read about my question.
Study text: Mark 8: 22- 30 read with the Venerable Liz Adekunle, Archdeacon of Hackney in London
Why is this study important?
1. We should care for the sick!
The simplest ideas are frequently crowded out by worry, distraction and demands. The message of Jesus was to live a pared down life, to be adaptable to the needs of the community and to learn to say no. The appropriateness of Jesus's yeses and nos occasionally cause a ruckus on the choir stalls at Holy Trinity, specifically the miracle of the wedding at Cana, when Jesus bent his will to the desire of his mother and reluctantly performed a miracle to produce fresh wine (from water).
Sick people often need better encouragement that is tailored to their realities. If you speak with a sick person they might say, people don't understand me anymore. They ask how I am. I say fine. They don't see what I don't tell, that I've rested inside for 6 months and this is my first step outside since Hogmanay.
2. Disease doesn't please & one day it could be you!
Change isn't easy to manage. Transition in life happens to everyone. But we know the world is filled with inequality and relative privilege,
What's new to the sick person is their constraints can be misunderstood, even by themselves. The famous wordplay goes: 'impossible' spells 'I am possible'.
While that is certainly true for the sick person, values can be put under strain when the functions and goal achieving that stem from who we are inside come under threat, because of what we can't respond to on the outside.
If you've ever tried that incongruence for yourself, you'll know that it's horrible. Living with health and toxicity in the same body can be really hard.
We find that not one area is safe because pain, like an oil spill on a white beach, seeps.
3. Sickness is pain. & pain causes sickness. But Jesus doesn't bring ONLY healing! But redemption.
The sick person reports pain. The blind man in Jesus' story perhaps did not have pain. But he may have suffered abuse or robbery because of his disability. Populations who are vulnerable to begin with are victimised with venom by people who have the inclination to harm them.
This factor appeared significant to me when Jesus instructed the man not to tell of his recovery. He denied him the opportunity to be a witness (at that time). Was this safety talking?
Prejudice towards illness is so prevalent I can imagine it would remain in place following the restoration of the blind man's sight. Knowing Jesus intimately was enough, as it happened, it was this man's daily bread.
In Jesus's world pain and sickness have meaning. They, too can be worshipful.
4. We see in this story that Jesus IS a pastor & friend!
If I were being less pessimistic about human nature, I might suggest that the experience of being blind happens day by day. Even if a person is blind from birth, their personhood and capabilities develop alongside their weakness. Therefore the experience of being unblinded was also a gradual revelation. Jesus was sensitive to the loudness of health.
We don't often talk of this in Christian circles. We like a story that cuts through the sameness that it takes to run an institution like the church. A story that shouts.
5. This account from Mark asks us to ?? for whom we do what & tantalizingly holds off the WHY!
Is one person running around and shouting helpful? Is it easier if everyone shouts together, as in a chant, a ritual, a worshipful profession?
When you are healed do you simply rejoice like a child who has long years of life ahead? Or do you wait for the next plague and pray prayers of protection that you might then also be saved from the burden?
God's faithfulness is new every morning. One day when you get up you'll be sick once more.
One day you won't get up. I could be flippant and say that Jesus got up for all of us, resurrected for all. This is what churches who don't meet sick people, because they're all ill at home and never meet christians, should be careful about.
6. Sickness is a cultural construct. We have a whole profession in the judge's chair. Where there is sickness, there is often power! Will God's miracles show up every time? This is a question that bugs the chronically sick.
Hopelessness doesn't discriminate. We at least have a system in place to deal with it, doctors, nurses, opticians, dentists, mental health teams, they are all healers, of sorts.
In parts of Africa or India though, where medicines are both costly and scarce, I would suggest the joy of sharing the hope could be part of the cure. That is not the position Jesus takes here, at this time when he is yet to be crucified for his claims of power. Miracles are usually the exception and not the rule.
Working men in the UK used to be prepared tinctures to ward off sickliness. They were given chicaned ointments by unlicenced chemists to cure themselves. And wives and mothers administered compresses at home to treat symptoms.
I wonder if that's why it is said as part of folklore that men are less likely to visit the doctor? Could this be the history that is at the root of the 'pooh pooh' expression 'man cold.' The chronically sick need one breakthrough after another with God.
7. What I asked Justin Welby:
Anyway, my question centred on the authority and willingness of leaders to test boundaries in a world that doesn't know Jesus as a healer.
I was grateful that Justin Welby affirmed the importance of the man as a spirit in his own body, however sick it was, who met with life that day.
From Jesus' point of view it must be abundantly clear that we are all sick.
I was glad to discover that the Son of Man was not asking what limitations he could clear from his ministry field during a healing session on a Israelite Thursday morning (for argument's sake). So that these God-forsaken people can just get back to work!
Jesus is rather asking how he can walk among us, and how we can exchange part of our identities for part of his.
You can watch the full study on Facebook. Follow the link below.
www.facebook.com/archbishopofcanterbury/videos/1039864912734321/