St Brigid: Healer

John 11:17-44

Healing. We all want it. Few of us understand healings power and complexity.

To heal from old wounds, we need to let go of old ways.  We know that medically.  After I suffered a concussion, the health care professional said, “you will not heal until you rest.”  No getting back to normal by staying in normal.

In the story of Lazarus, Jesus paused and wept. Jesus went to the tomb, the place of death.  Jesus didn’t just go poof and make it better. Instead, Jesus went to the place of death and suffering. It was from the place of death and sorrow that there was healing.

In these days of COVID, conventions, economic collapse, racial reckoning, and deep division, we are surrounded by death, heartache, hurt, grief and fear.

God knows we need healing.  Nerves are frayed. These are the times when we come face to face with so many truths. Perhaps these are times to turn inward and allow ourselves time to heal—to put own homes and relationships in order.

Healing work is transformational and is slow.  For most, the pandemic changes so many of the daily actions and assumptions. We are being formed and re-formed by a refiners fire.  We can resist the fire and focus on “back to normal” which is unlikely to happen any time soon.  Or we can go deeper and rest in God’s love.

Are there things we need to let go of in order to focus on what is most important?

Are there projects, that we no longer want to or need to complete?  Is it time to take them off the list? 

Are there projects that are really important to us?  Do we need to put them first?

Do our daily habits support what matters most? Do they support a sense of God’s presence in our lives.

Be gentle with yourself.  St Brigid healed with milk and holy friendship.  Be friends to one another, listening to where you see God in the eyes of another or in your own heart.

Jesus went to the place of pain and death.  And so must we—but gently.  What is it that is dying in us and what is being reborn?  What learnings are coming from this time of COVID? There are lessons to be learned. Individually and collectively, we’ve been challenged to re-think so many things.

Lives have changed. Some relationships have been strengthened.  Some have fallen away.

Always, God is calling us to places of healing and wholeness.  To let go of that which leaves us fragmented and hold on to that which helps us to sense wholeness.

We will always need to go to the places of death and sorrow.  And in those places, there is often light and joy when we take the time to focus on God and let the Holy Spirit in.

Look at your day.  Take time to grieve what is being lost and take time to rest and reflect. Take time to celebrate. Do the things in ways that sustain and heal your heart and soul.  This doesn’t need to be complicated.

It may be a sandwich eaten on the porch or by the water.  A pause to watch a child play, the birds chirp or the rain fall.  Enjoy the satisfaction of washing dishes, mowing the lawn, or writing a letter.  Find and do the things that feed your soul. 

Take time to say I’m sorry.  Take the time to laugh with another. Take the time to notice the humanity of a perceived enemy.

God wants healing for us. Amen.