Does God Heal, pt. 3

The story begins rather strangely with a phone call from a man who lives in Georgia. I don't know the man personally. I knew his mother. She was the reason for the call: she was nearing the end, or the beginning, and he was calling to ask about funeral arrangements. Less than a week after our initial conversation he called back. She had died and it was time to finalize the arrangements and make preparations for her interment.

We agreed to a small service at a local funeral home where his mother had already pre-arranged her funeral. There would be no flowers--or at least very few, short calling hours, and merely a graveside service. I would conduct the service, which would be even shorter than my normal funeral services. There would be no music, no 21-Gun salute, no final respects. It would be simple, short and to the point: "I am gone, get on with your lives." Or, "Why are you looking for living in 6 foot deep hole in the ground? I am not here." Finally, after the funeral we would return to the church building for an early lunch consisting of sandwiches, beverages, and fa few other side dishes.

I only knew his mother for about a year and a half before she grew weak and was somewhat forced to move to Georgia to live with her son. She had four sons. One was killed in Vietnam, two live close by, and the third, an adopted son, lives in Georgia. I don't know that any of her sons are necessarily religious although I suspect that she taught them all and expected that they would grow in their faith. Time does funny things to people's faith. I suppose my own family is and will be no different, so please don't interpret what I just wrote as a cheap shot or criticism.

His mother, as a I said, had four sons. One is dead and the other three are still alive. One son, who lives nearby (and anyone who knows me knows who I am talking about), attends worship at a church in Akron called Grace Cathedral. It is at the Grace Cathedral that he, some time ago, 'got his miracle.' He was, if I recall correctly, having heart problems and one day the preacher at that particular church healed him of his heart problems. As I said, repeated his own words, 'he got his miracle.' Since he 'got his miracle' he has moved his family to Akron to be near the congregation and, presumably, the preacher who healed him of his heart problems. I don't know much about him, but I will pause long enough to say this: getting back to his ministry at the church was extremely important to him. So much so that he did not even stay for lunch with the family after the funeral. Everyone sets their own priorities.

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On Thursday of the same week, I hosted a meeting at my church office. For the last several months I have invited ministers from area churches to meet with me for prayer, Bible study and fellowship. This month we gathered and our assigned chapter for the month was Acts 4. Chapter 4 of Acts is the theological justification for the miraculous healing of a man more than 40 years old. The man is described in Acts 3 as a man 'crippled from birth.' After the healing, Peter and John were brought before the 'religious' leaders of the day and questioned at length, not necessarily about the miracle, but about the authority by which they performed the miracle. It was an, almost, condescending statement, "We are the religious leaders. We want to know when we gave you authority to do this? Why do you think you can do this without consulting us first. Why did you bypass our authority in favor of someone else's?" Then Peter very eloquently, in the power of the Spirit, says that Jesus is the power by which the man was healed and it was in his Name that authority was granted to heal. As such, Peter implies, we did not need to consult with anyone; Jesus told us to, and we did.

This past Thursday, I sat around a square table with a group of men who are obviously much more intelligent than I, and debated this very chapter. Most of our thoughts swirled around the prayer that the church prayed near the end of the chapter where they asked God to 'stretch out his hand and heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of the Holy servant Jesus.' I asked a simple question: "Can the church today legitimately pray this prayer?" That is, does it make sense for the church to pray this prayer? This is sort a roundabout way of asking, "Does God still heal?" We talked and talked and arrived at no, at least for me anyhow, satisfying answers.

One preacher said, "Yes, God does still heal. And we see his miraculous work every time a person comes to salvation in Jesus."

Another said, "Yes and no."

I said, "Yes, he does, but what the first preacher is saying is miraculous is anything but." So we arrived at nowhere and stayed there for a very long time.

Be sure to turn back to this page and read again about this delightful issue. I have a few more things to say on this matter and I will be happy to share them with you over the next several days.

DG