Dear Friends,
I was talking to a young mother recently and, as usual, I asked about the pleasantries – the weather, the summer, the forthcoming holidays. As the conversation went on, I asked a few more gently probing questions and she started telling me some of the very serious health difficulties they were facing as a family. As I listened it became clearer that there was great pain and she was carrying a heavy burden. I said to her that, if she wanted, there was a home for her here in the Church, where she would be welcomed and supported. She said ‘Thank you’, burst into tears. There are so many people that carry pain and heavy loads in our parishes, and, while many may feel adequately supported by their friends and family, many others still feel isolated or alone.
This is the way it has always been. When Jesus wandered the highlands of Judea, or the shores of Galilee, great crowds gathered around him. Many came because they had never heard anyone speak about life and hope in the way that he did. But a huge number came because he offered healing, health, and restoration. People were desperate, lonely, struggling to cope. Some were looking after loved ones with great needs and long-term difficulties; others were in physical or emotional pain; still others had mental health conditions that crippled their ability to live normal lives. Everyone who came to him with an illness or disease found they were listened to, and healed. Everywhere he went, people flocked to him, and he restored them to lifer. So much so, that when he looked at them, his heart was filled with compassion and he said they were like a flock without a shepherd.
But Jesus didn’t do all this healing because he was a wonder-worker. Miracle-performing was not his concern or his focus. In fact one might say he had absolutely no interest in working miracles. So what, then, was he doing?
Jesus’ mission, his whole existence, was predicated on something completely different, and yet intimately related. Jesus knew that God didn’t create a broken world. And yet the world we live in is broken. It doesn’t take a genius to look around and see the madness of the so-called ‘leaders’ of the world, the anger and the rage that people demonstrate on our streets, and the insanity of the wars being waged against unarmed peoples, does it? And we look at the climate crisis that is growing before our eyes, as heatwave after heatwave batters our crops and water resources, as record after record is broken, as wild fires rip through countryside and dwellings, as ice caps and glaciers melt at worrying rates. The measures of ‘normality’ in our climate are literally disintegrating before our eyes.
And not just climate. Wildlife is disappearing as we watch. This year at Greenholme we had only one pair of swallows return instead of our usual four or five. They arrived late and all their babies died before they fledged. We had a nest of pied wagtails in our other barn, and all those chicks died before fledging, too. Through most of the summer there have been no swifts at Bewcastle church this year, where normally there are five or six pairs. These are anecdotal observations, but looking at the Government statistics for salmon and sea trout rod and net returns for 2024 (the latest available) tells the same story – the numbers of these fish returning to our rivers has halved in the last ten years, and is a third of fifteen years ago. These are terrifying trends if you think about them and let them into your spirit. And its ALL ultimately a consequence of our economic ‘development’ and activity.
So I return to topic. God did not make a broken world, but we have broken it. That’s the story of Genesis, where Adam and Eve, the representatives of the human race, turned their backs on God, and decided to follow a path of self-interest instead. The dire consequence, as laid out in those first chapters of the Bible, was the disruption of the whole of creation from its intended harmony.
Now at last we can talk about Jesus and what he was doing. His entire mission is to restore the wholeness of the whole of creation. That’s what all the healing and miracle-working is about. He’s not performing magic-tricks to amuse or seduce, he’s restoring the beauty and goodness of God’s glorious creation, and that includes each one of us. Each of us is unique, special, loved, and God’s will for each of us is to find the wholeness and healing that comes from being restored to a tender and gentle relationship with him. That’s why, when the cripple was lowered through the roof on a mat by his friends, Jesus said ‘Son, your sins have been forgiven,’ which was the same as saying, ‘Rise up, roll up your mat, and walk.’ But the cost of this restoration was his own sacrificial death on the cross.
And so on Sunday 16th August, 10am at Stapleton church, I will be offering a ‘healing’ service with anointing for anyone in the benefice who wants it. This may be healing for yourself, for someone dear to you, or for a situation that weighs heavily on your heart. It may be for something specific, or for something more general like ‘the climate crisis’. Or it may be that you can’t articulate it, but you just feel in need of God’s touch. Whatever it is, please come – there is a home for you here in the Church.
Your friend and priest,
Robert.
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