Wednesday, February 16, 2022                                 (today’s lectionary)
Will you pray over me?
Two women came into my friend’s store yesterday while I was visiting. The first, an attorney, bought a nice mattress and expects to be comfortable while sleeping for the first time in 10 years. She was excited and happy. The second was in pain, a tendon in her leg was hurting. She is almost always in pain, after an auto accident several years ago and then a surgery that made things worse. Now she lives on disability payments.
At Bethsaida, people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged Jesus to touch him. Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
There but for the grace of God. Every trip back and forth from Urbana I run risks. Just being on the highway means I might also have an accident. Being an attorney or a counselor or a pastor makes no difference. I love to drive, and watch sunrises and sunsets up and down the highway. I love listening to audio books and music, and also being silent in the car. Centering prayer seems easier when I’m driving. My life is filled with great times with wonderful and interesting people, and it’s good to have a long, introspective break.
I have been involved in a few accidents. About twenty five years ago we totaled our car and within minutes the firetruck and ambulance and police arrived. One young boy was hurt (not badly, as it turned out) and headed for the hospital. The fireman in charge of the scene, Brad, was our friend from church. We knew his family well.
Putting spittle on the blind man’s eyes, Jesus laid his hands on the man and asked, “Do you see anything?”
Brad asked us questions. He did not assume that just because we said we were fine, we were. I felt his eyes on me, and I also felt his love for us, for our family and for the family in the other car. Firemen must learn how to love at an early age; they are in love’s way over and over and over.
Looking up the blind man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.”
I met a man today, a 20 year old man, who was born blind. His eyes were fine, but his brain was not. When he was a year old, his parents brought him to church, where friends prayed over him. The next day his mother noticed that he was following her movements around the room. His eyes healed slowly. He got headaches after an hour or less of reading. He saw double and couldn’t catch a baseball. Now he can see normally, and he has better-than-average hearing. He is a gentle, athletic, outstanding soccer player.
Jesus laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.
My new friend’s brain did cause more problems. When he slept he sometimes had seizures. Occasionally his parents had to take him to the emergency room. The seizures began when he was eight, and medications were of minimal help. When he was thirteen his parents again took him to be prayed over. He slept through the night. He asked his mom if he could stop taking the meds. More healing. The seizures stopped and have not returned.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
But now my friend is anxious about school, work, friends, life … he had a panic attack which affected his hand and foot. He remembered the seizures, and the panic attack grew worse. Then he began writing down what was happening in various parts of his body, and the panic faded.
Jesus sent the no-longer-blind man home and said, “Do not even go into the village.”
And if he does? Of course he will, and he will share his good fortune with his family and neighbors. Some of them will be skeptical at his story. Can he keep himself “unstained by the world?”
Can my new friend? Can the woman who comes to the mattress store for comfort and prayer? Can I? We are all victims of that stain. Like the Sherwin-Williams paint logo. The paint pours out over the world and into our lives. We can’t get away.
Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
So it is good for all of us to be prayed over.  John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard, did a lot of that kind of praying. He talked about forgiveness (and by extension, healing) as a waterfall. “All you have to do,” he said simply, “is get under it.”
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to his call.
(James 1, Psalm 15, Ephesians 1, Mark 8)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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