St Luke – Healing Ministry.

St Luke’s Day is very special as the whole healing theme tends to focus around Luke, whom St Paul describes as ‘the beloved

Physician’.

St Lukes’ gospel has its own particular flavour, and includes some miracles not found in the other gospels, which demonstrate

Luke’s fascination, as a physician, with our Lord’s ministry of healing. [In Luke’s case this healing emphasis embraces a special

emphasis on inclusion – so our healing focus could take up this Lucan lead as well].

The healing ministry of the Church is something which is fundamental to the Christian Gospel about fulness of life being found

in Jesus. “I came that they might have life and have it in abundance”, says Jesus.

The emphasis on healing is clearly seen in our Lord’s encounters with many ill and suffering people in the days of his earthly

ministry, and he met their needs in every case, restoring them to health.

Jesus urged his disciples to continue that ministry, saying “Heal the sick, cleanse lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons”. [Matthew

10.8]

We are told that the disciples were amazed, surprised and joyful to discover that their ministry too was accompanied by similar

mighty deeds of power [dunamis].

This aspect of the Church’s ministry was assumed in the New Testament writings.

In the Letter of James we read: [5.14 f]

Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in

the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins

will be forgiven.

This text alludes to the larger work of healing which Jesus brings about, through his Death and Resurrection, the forgiveness of

sins, the breaking of the power of evil, the restoration of humanity to original goodness.

The practice of praying for the sick is, of course part of what we do when we worship together, but also in our private personal

prayer life and it means more than seeking physical cures, it is about finding wholeness, life in abundance.

Holy Unction [ie anointing] with the Laying on of Hands for healing fell into disuse over the centuries and came to be confined

to use for people ‘in extremis’, ie the dying.

Thankfully, now this sacrament has largely been recovered and each year, during holy Week, the Archbishop celebrates the

Chrism Mass, distributing fresh supplies of consecrated oil to the clergy, both the oil for baptism and the oil for anointing the

sick.

Amazingly, when staying with my sister in Sydney, and chatting over the fence to the next door neighbours, a dear old Anglican

couple, I discovered that the lady was keenly interested and involved in the Healing Order of St Luke.

This emphasis in the Church’s life, has always been of special interest to me, since childhood. When I was a boy we attended a

church which was at the forefront of the restoration of the healing ministry, and I remember being anointed several times as a

child.

It is important to ask what we expect from the Church’s Healing Ministry.

There is what we might call a slightly whacky fringe who expect God to wave a magic wand and bye pass the laws of cause and

effect, you know, the old Deus ex machina principle, with God intervening like a puppeteer behind the world stage, pulling a few

strings from on high. I think that’s all a bit far fetched and off putting.

It is best fully to accept scientific based medical practice. As someone who was born prematurely, I’ve had a lifelong tendency

to respiratory illness and know full well that I’ve been saved many times by good antibiotics.

While boasting is not an appropriate thing to do in the pulpit, I take some pride in the fact that Nobel Prize Laureat, Sir Howard

Florey of penicillin fame, testified to his love of chemistry being awakened, during his school days, by the passionate teaching

of my paternal grandfather. So yes, by all means, the scientific method, but please see science and spiritual healing as going

hand in hand and bless God for medical help.

However, if we are to be “full bottle” about healing, I believe the spiritual dimension needs to be given proper

acknowledgement and that the links between spiritual healing and physical wellness or wholeness are profoundly significant.

The interface between medical science and spirituality is significant and not to be underrated.

Our Judaeo Christian heritage teaches that human beings are an indivisible unity of psyche and somatos, spirit and body/flesh.

That is to say, we are a psychosomatic unity, therefore our spiritual welfare and physical health are integrally linked.

I remember vividly when a chaplain, doing the rounds of Modbury Hospital, many years ago, being told by the staff about one

very bitter old man, that I should try to do what I could for him, because they felt his illness was not physically based but of a

spiritual nature. “The ball’s in your court, Father”, they said. And they were right for the poor man was all screwed up, quite

consumed with resentment over a failed relationship. He needed to learn to forgive and move on. His spiritual state was making

him ill.

That is why I believe prayer for healing is best offered in conjunction with the ministry of forgiveness, to help clear away any

obstacle of past sinfulness, resentment, hatred, envy, pride and all those things which can get in the way of our living whole

lives.

Confession of sin and absolution go hand in hand with reconciliation and peace and these in turn are wonderful precursors for

renewal and healing.

As you know, I belong to the Christian Meditation Community and enjoy attending their Community Days once a quarter. I

have heard people tell there how they have been delivered from crippling anxiety or from hypertension, through the daily

restorative prayerful practice of letting go and being still, allowing room for God.

On the day I penned these thoughts, I was very impressed to read the comment of the SA RSL President about establishing

links with former Vietnamese communist veterans. This suggestion had met with some stiff opposition. He urged the letting go

of past anger and said, Hatred just burns you out. In this he echoed the sentiments of the National RSL President who is quoted

in the same article as saying, “The country can’t continue with hatred. I think it’s about time some of these guys think to the

future”.

Bravo! I thought. This seemed a very helpful approach.

We find the self-same counsel in Psalm 37 : Cease from anger and forsake wrath.

Due to having some LSL earlier this year and then just recently some annual holiday leave, I have had the opportunity to

worship in a number of different parishes.

Here in several Adelaide city churches, including the Cathedral, I have noticed that anointing with the laying on of hands is

offered after Communion for any who feel the need to seek healing. This is administered, perhaps in a side- chapel or down the

other end of the church more privately and away from the main liturgical focus.

This was being done in the church where I worshipped last Sunday, quietly, unassumingly, prayerfully, lovingly.

In the front of each prayer book in that church, a lovely prayer had been printed, to ask for forgiveness and put oneself in a receptive

frame of mind to receive from God, the gift of healing.

I actually found myself spontaneously joining the queue for that ministry, when I worshipped in that church during my LSL

earlier this year, the day before hernia surgery. In seeking out that sacrament several years ago, when apprehensive before

surgery for melanoma, I sought absolution as well.

Of course any person is very welcome to request this sacrament of healing, at any time, but I suspect to have a regular slot for it,

built into the Service, would be a valuable reminder that it is an emphasis we wish to maintain and prevent it falling into disuse.

So I suggest that once a month, on the second Sunday, when we have a second ordained priest on hand, it would be wonderful to

be able to offer that ministry.

I have discussed this with our Parish Council and others in the congregation and think would be a good ministry to offer.

I know this practice is not unfamiliar to people at St Theodore’s. People do occasionally request Holy Unction with the Laying

[as also some request private sacramental Absolution]. Those of you who remember Fr Malcolm Lindsay, a former Rector of St

Theodore’s, will recall his active involvement in the Healing Order of St Luke, the Physician.

So every second Sunday, remember this ministry will be available at the 9.30am Eucharist.

The idea is that, as people return to their seats after Communion, they can go to the priest [the one who isn’t celebrating at the

altar that day] who is available then for anointing and the laying on of hands. There is a natural space in the liturgy at that point,

while the sacred vessels are being cleansed and put away [during the Ablutions].

This could perhaps happen at the west end of the church in or near the baptistery, a little out of the public gaze.

It need not be lengthy and would generally be concluded by the time we are ready for the post-Communion prayers.

It seems a specially good time for this ministry as we believe in the Presence of Christ among us during Communion.

[If the second priest isn’t available that day, people requesting that ministry could come up at the end of the queue for

Communion and stay at the altar rail for it].

In this way we can come quietly, unassumingly, humbly, to place our needs before Christ and be assured of his love and power

to heal and save us, this ministry can find its rightful and natural place in our worship and we can raise the profile of that gift

which is there for blessing to any who seek it.

I’d like to conclude with a favourite collect appointed for use on St Luke’s Day, [which I find especially pleasing in its older version].

ALMIGHTY God, who didst inspire thy servant Saint Luke the Physician, to set forth in the Gospel the love and

healing power of thy Son; Manifest in thy Church the like power and love, to the healing of our bodies and our

souls; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. P.S.T.