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The Good News Written

1 Kings 17.17-23 (NRSV)

¹⁷[A woman’s son] became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. ¹⁸She [turned to the prophet Elijah, who] said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. ²⁰He cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?” ²¹Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” ²²The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. ²³Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.”

Luke 7:11-17 (NRSV)

¹¹Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. ¹²As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. ¹³When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” ¹⁴Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” ¹⁵The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. ¹⁶Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favorably on his people!” ¹⁷This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, June 13, 2010.

y great-aunt Gladys had an angina scare. In the emergency room she looked over at my great-uncle Arthur and said, “Darling, you were with me when I fell and broke my hip. You were by my side when I burned myself frying chicken. You were with me when I had a car accident. Whenever things go wrong, you’re right by my side.” Uncle Arthur said, “Oh Gladys, you don’t have to thank me.” “Thank you?!” she said, “I’m telling you to get away from me; you bring me bad luck!”

Today’s readings deal with healing. The healings in these stories show people whose lives appeared to be over; and yet in spite of dire appearances, there was still more life to be experienced. Not only were people healed, but hopeless situations had hope reborn right in their midst. They are powerful stories.

In both stories today the prophet of God becomes concerned for a poor widow who has already lost everything, except for her one remaining hope of support…a son who will at least one day be able to work and care for her. And then, tragically, that child is taken by disease. And as heart-breaking as the situation is, in both versions of the story…one where Elijah is the healing prophet and the second where Jesus is the healing prophet, the son is somehow restored to a new experience of life.

Now…are the stories historically accurate? Are they factual in their details? Are they legendary, mythic, parabolic, allegorical? I honestly don’t know, but I do know that they get me to thinking about the possibilities that exist for healing in our lives.

Healing is a topic that means a lot to me. It is something that has occupied my thinking for most of my adult life. Healing is something I have witnessed and experienced time and again. I’ve seen people face loss, tragedy, disappointment, and rather than becoming bitter or hopeless, they exuded more grace and more joy and more strength of character than ever before. They are models of healing.

I’ve seen people outlive their prognoses by weeks, months, and even years. Sometimes, their disease surprisingly went into remission. Once in a while, the disease seems to have vanished…as if it had never occurred. These people are models of healing.

I’ve known people who hit rock bottom with addictions, who found their way to sobriety and their lives became a source of wisdom and encouragement for everyone around them. These people are models of healing.

I’ve known people who battled depression and who simply would not give up, because they knew they deserved joy in their lives and they would try therapy, self-help books, support groups, medication, and prayer all in attempt to lift themselves up to where they truly belonged. These people are models of healing.

I know people who lost more than one partner to AIDS, and who dared to love yet again; and I know people who have been living with HIV now for decades…even though once upon a time they were not expected to live long at all. I myself am a 19 year survivor. These people are models of healing.

I’ve known people who were given a diagnosis, and who died shortly thereafter…and who lived every single day of their remaining time with love and laughter and generosity and courage and peace. These people were models of healing.

The gifts of healing have been so evident in my observation and in my experience, that I can’t help but believe in the charism of healing; and I preach it, and I teach it, and I depend on it in my life. There are so many stories to share, but I’ll give you only three. These stories are my own, my personal witness and testimony; I share them in hopes that they might contribute to your healing, however you might need healing in your life.

First story – I was 19 years old. I’d prayed hundreds of times for God to strike me straight. Which would be quite a miracle, because on the Kinsey scale I’ve got be a 5 ½ (it only goes to 6). Then one evening, I attend a church service with a friend. This particular church believed in miraculous healing and people were routinely claiming to have been supernaturally cured of one problem or the other. So, I decided this was my chance. I went for prayer and during a time of intense communion with the God of my understanding, I received a message as clearly as one might recall an answer for a test or bring to mind a phone number…it was just “there”…an absolute knowing, a message as it were which I at the time attributed to be from God…and the message was very simply, “Not even God can heal what is not sick.” Was it the wisdom of my subconscious mind? Was it an angelic presence? Was it the divine omnipresence responding to my heart-felt pleading? I don’t know. But I do know that I have never forgotten from that moment to this that not even God can heal what is not sick, and my being in a loving, mutual, adult relationship is in no way sick or sinful regardless of the gender of my life-mate. My internal disdain for who I innately am was healed that evening. I was raised up from the life-denying experience of shame and brought into the life-giving light of celebration.

Second story – before Robert came into my life, the person I was closest to in the world was my grandmother. Oh, I have some wonderful friends and I cherish my family of choice. But before I was blessed by these wonderful earthly angels, there was Grandma. Grandma had never been well. She had been run over by a car when she was younger, and she had also been thrown from a horse that then stepped on her. She lived her life with frequent bouts of pneumonia and bronchitis, and migraine headaches. In later years she developed rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. When my grandfather had cancer, he wanted my grandmother to him his morphine shots. She became his primary caregiver, and during the stress of that time, she had a mild heart attack which wasn’t even detected until my grandfather died. Such a frail woman who had endured so many health challenges, the family assumed she wouldn’t live much longer. Well, she showed them…she lived another two decades. One day, I received a phone call saying she could go at anytime. We rushed from New York to Arkansas, with the hopes that I could be with her before she passed. I so wanted to be with her in her final moments. And, I prayed. And we made it. I got to spend her last hour in life with her, as she peacefully made her transition surrounded by people who loved her. Oh, and to the very end, her hearing was perfect, her mind was sharp, and she only ever needed glasses for reading, and a natural red head who never once put a drop of color in her hair, she died with maybe 10 gray hairs on her whole head. She discovered that she was stronger than she ever would have believed herself to be, and she outlived expectations by decades, but the healing for me was getting to say goodbye and facing my fear of losing the first, and for many years only person who ever really believed in me.

Final story – my father died in January after a lengthy illness. He had a heart attack 17 years ago and never really bounced back 100% More and more complications developed over the years, and the last 18 months of his life were particularly challenging. My father and I were never terribly close. In fact, there were years that were very difficult for us. I don’t remember him ever telling me he loved me; and I don’t remember ever telling him that I loved him. I got to be with him the last week of his life. I got help care for him and pray with him and hear some incredible stories about him that I never knew. I had an image of my father, but of course, there was another side, and I finally got to see that side.

Your heroes have flaws, and your enemies have noble characteristics. No one is perfect all the time, and no one is completely bad, ever. We like to imagine that people we don’t like or don’t agree with are simply monstrous, but there is more to the story of that person’s life. And our judgments hurt us more than them. Holding grudges is like us drinking poison and waiting for it to kill our enemies…the grudges really only hurt the one holding them.

Well, that last week with my father I was able to know to the depths of my being that all ill-will, all past mistakes, all resentments were finally gone. I was able to let them go and see him as God sees him…not as defined by this or that moment, but as he was in truth – a child of God made in the image of God filled with the spirit of God. And my last words to my father were, “I love you.” And some part of me was transformed, revived, healed.

Healing, I’ve come to learn, is about moving forward. It’s about releasing the past to the past, and allowing the future to unfold in wonderful new ways. I had to release my internalized homophobia and move forward as the gay man God created me to be. I wasn’t going to be straight and I wasn’t going to undo the prejudices that others had about same-gender loving people…but I could believe in myself and find my way and share my love with integrity. Healing means moving forward.

I spent my entire life dreading my grandmother’s death. But her death was inevitable. Luckily, it happened much later than some would have predicted, and perhaps that was her healing. Mine was knowing that my life would go on beyond hers, and that I could love someone fully without pretending that they weren’t mortal. Healing means moving forward.

And I will never have a better childhood. The past is what it is and I won’t be changing it; but neither must I repeat it or be limited by it. The past is not the future, unless we choose for it to be. Healing didn’t come to me because my father said I love you…it came because I said it, and I meant it. I had to take responsibility for my own healing; no one could do it for me. Healing can’t come in the past, but it can come now by releasing the past to the past and being open to the wonders that the future can still offer us. Healing means moving forward.

I can’t promise you a problem free life, a mistake free life, or even a cure for every malady. But I can promise that there are healing opportunities present for you right now if you will choose to embrace them. Release the past, release the pain, release the regrets, release the grudges, and release the fantasy that you can change the past. But you can have an amazing future, and it begins by accepting peace and hope and joy today. The prophets in our stories today didn’t undo the past; they just didn’t let the past events define how the future would unfold. The characters in the stories were raised up from their death beds; and we can rise above whatever has kept us from living with the joy and peace that God wants for us. That’s healing. And this is the good news. Amen.

The Good News Affirmed

The past is behind me.

I create the future with the choices I make today.

I am free to experience hope, peace, and joy.

I give thanks for healing possibilities.

I am willing to move forward into wholeness.

And so it is.

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100613_1.mp3)