Talking about disability and healing

Here are a few thoughts that I put together for a sermon at another local church. The idea was to choose a current topic of interest and link it to the Bible. I possibly went a bit off-piste on that one, but here is where I ended up.

I decided at the beginning of the week that I would say something to you about one of the major news items this week, and there have certainly been a lot to choose from. But if you have watched the BBC at all this week, the most important news item seemed to be related to the live week on Eastenders, So today I will be talking about the death of Lucy. But this is not the death of Lucy Beale, it's someone you have probably never heard of. This was a very small news item that caught my eye. Lucy's death was not widely reported because it was not violent, but it was very sad because when she died last month she was only 29.

Lucy Glennon had a genetic disease called  epidermolysis bullosa  which causes the skin and internal body linings to blister at the slightest knock or rub. The effect is equivalent to a third-degree burn and Lucy lived a life of constant pain. The disease was also progressive, so got worse as she got older.

Read more about Lucy here.http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/17/lucy-glennon-disability-activist-real-effects-of-cuts?CMP=fb_gu

You have to read the whole of the article to understand that this was someone who, despite all her problems, was witty and lived life to the full. Also, despite everything, she was a committed Christian. Her sister told of how Lucy was once asked how she could believe in God when she was in so much pain. “She stopped and thought about it,” says Sally, “then said that over the years she thought of all the people who looked after her, and nursed her, and she sees God and love in every one of those people.”

Lucy was someone who lived an almost disregarded life, despite her impressive qualities. I rather think she is with her Father now, healed at last. Jesus always had compassion on those in need of healing, even if they were people others ignored. Our Bible story is a case in point. It is one of the least quoted healing miracles and tells of a woman with a long term spinal condition. We are told she could not straighten herself up properly. Imagine what it was like living with that for 18 years. It was so long that probably people did not even notice this woman's problem any more. However Jesus noticed her. She may well have been elderly, and as a woman was not viewed as important, but we know Jesus always noticed the humble, the disregarded. She did not even seek healing – maybe she had given up hoping. But Jesus called her forward (as a woman she would have been at the back of the synagogue) and placed his hands on her and healed her. Sadly the synagogue ruler is more interested in upholding the letter of the law on the Sabbath than on rejoicing the fact that this woman is freed from her captivity to Satan. Jesus cared about everyone equally – think about the people he healed. He healed the son of a hated Roman centurion as readily as he healed Jairus's daughter. He healed Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles. Everyone is equal in the kingdom of God.

How did you feel about Lucy's story? It seemed a bit unfair that someone so obviously good and hardworking was afflicted with such a dire condition. Why wasn't she healed? We see people who get amazing healing – and we see people who do not get healed. In truth we all await the final healing in heaven. In a book I am reading called Becoming a true spiritual community By Larry Crabb the writer tells of how he shared with a group about he struggled with, his need for approval and to gain glory from his calling. But as he spoke he was worried that people would try to 'sort him out' whereas all he wanted was acceptance, because he believed that he would never be healed in this life, not because he did not believe in healing but because he knew it was too too deeply entrenched in his psyche to sort out in this life, and that also maybe because it was this sense of being a wounded person that kept him seeking after God.  

Sometimes people give us negative messages about healing; that God would heal us if only we believed, or confessed sin in our lives. But we're not put here to be turned into perfect beings in this life, rather to go on a journey with and to God. To do that involves being honest with God and with ourselves and acknowledging that we all have messy, unsatisfactory things in our lives because we live in a messy, unsatisfactory, broken, fallen, sinful world – call it what you will! And we know that we have a heavenly Father who loves us. We know this God loves the Coptic Christians who were murdered because of their faith. He also longs to reach out to their executioners. He cares equally for those on both sides in the conflict in Ukraine. God cares so much he sent his only Son into the world and Jesus says we can see him in everyone in this world who is in need. We can see him in the black man jostled off a train in Paris...and his Father seeks out the lost, including the Chelsea fans who abused him. God is alongside the Muslim parents desperately praying for their daughters to return home, and with Lucy's family as they mourn her loss. I hope you will take with you this knowledge that you are loved, and I pray that we can all take that love into the world either through our words or through our actions. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you always. Amen.