July 8, 2012:

The Helping Touch

“Faith in the inclusive sense of trust and belief in God’s unmerited goodness is an integral cornerstone of the New Testament understanding of healing.  Individuals and communities of believers nurture each other in their mutual growth in faith.  God does not promise that we will be spared suffering, but does promise to be with us in our suffering.  Trusting that promise, we are enabled to bear the unbearable and recognize God’s sustaining nearness in pain, in sickness, and in injury.

Forgiveness of sin is often closely associated with healing in the New Testament.  The connection of forgiveness and healing affirms the psychosomatic unity of individuals recognized by modern health sciences.  It admits the importance of openness and honesty to every relationship of love.  It sets health in the context of relationships restored by confession and forgiveness.

In the New Testament, touch plays a central role in the healing ministry.  The power of touch is recognized, whether in the anointing with oil, the laying on of hands, or the less formal gesture of holding someone’s hand or touching a wound.  Jesus frequently touched others:  blessing children, washing feet, healing injuries or disease, and raising people from death.  Jesus also allowed himself to be touched, washed, embraced, anointed.  To allow oneself to be touched is an act of openness.  To touch another is an act of acceptance in which a person transfers something of oneself to another:  love, affection, protection, strength, power, acceptance.  Touch in the healing ministry embodies the embrace of God for the redeemed creation when in the mystery of last things God will make all things new.”

From the U.C.C. Book of Worship