Letting the Healer do his Work

We don’t have to look very far in the world or very deep into ourselves to see that there is something broken in us and in the world.  We don’t have it all together.  The problems in the world (economic disparity, mean-spiritedness in politics, racism, sexism, misuse of the environment just to name a few) get a start in our individual brokenness (lack of generosity, quick tempers, self-centeredness, to name a few).  No matter how hard we try to change ourselves we always come up short.  In Christian terms we call this deep brokenness, “sin.”

In this book, Breathing Under Water, Richard Rohr suggests that sin, like addiction, might best be understood as a disease.  It is not something for which we deserve punishment, but rather something for which we need healing.  And we cannot heal ourselves.  Admitting the we need God to heal us is our greatest stumbling block to wholeness.  As English poet W.H. Auden put in, “Apropos of Many Things”: We would rather be ruined than changed.  We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the present and let our illusions die.”

Jesus said that he came for those who need to be healed.  This Lent, join me in letting the Healer do his work.

Pastor Melissa Earley