Introduction
1.1 This morning's sermon will thoroughly identify me as a Postmodern Christian, as compared to being a Modern Christian.1.2 I have come to understand and express the difference as one of questions: Postmodern Christians ask different questions than Modern Christians.
1.2.1 Today's assigned lectionary readings provide a great example, as all the commentaries, that I investigated, identified the unifying theme of these readings as The Authority of Christ.
1.2.1.1 "Authority" is an abstract concept attractive to Modern Christianity, which arose as a response to the Enlightenment's elevation of reason over revelation.
1.2.1.2 Postmodern Christians pursue a balance between Reason and Revelation, and thus elevate experience.
1.2.2 A sermon on "The Authority of Christ" would be interesting, but would have little impact in transforming your faith and lifestyle.
1.2.3 I have chosen to instead focus on the practical implications of the assigned readings, which reveal a correspondence between faith and health, as well as between faith and healing.
Is There A Correspondence?
2.1 Research supports the assertion that those who nurture their spirituality through religious practice live longer, enjoying better health and relationships: 
2.1.1 People who regularly attend religious services have lower rates of illness and death than do infrequent or nonattenders.2.1.2 For each of the three leading causes of death in the United States –heart disease, cancer, and hypertension– people who report a religious affiliation have lower rates of illness.2.1.3 Older adults who participate in private and congregational religious activities have fewer symptoms, less disability, and lower rates of depression, chronic anxiety, and dementia.2.1.4 Religious participation is the strongest determinant of psychological well-being in African Americans –even more important than health or financial wealth.
2.1.5 Actively religious people live longer, on average, than the nonreligious. This holds true even controlling for the fact that religious folks tend to avoid such behaviours as smoking and drinking that increase the risk of disease and death.
2.2 Research also supports the assertion that religious practice effects healing, even when it is the religious practice of one person on behalf of another:
2.2.1 San Francisco cardiologist Dr. Randolph C. Byrd published findings, in the Southern Medical Journal in 1988, on a randomised, double-blind trial of 393 adult subjects in a coronary care unit. Patients who were prayed for by Christian prayer groups outside the hospital did better than patients who did not receive prayer.
2.2.2 In a study published in the Western Journal of Medicine, 40 AIDS patients were prayed for by healers scattered throughout North America, who had only received a name and photograph of the patient, whom they had never met. Prayed-for subjects acquired fewer new AIDS-related illnesses, had less severe illness, required fewer physician visits, fewer hospitalisations and few days of hospitalisation.
Health and Healing Are Separate Issues
3.1 But what of those who pray for healing and don't receive it?
1A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralysed man was lying on. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7“Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” He said to the paralytic, 11“I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” (Mark 2:1-12)
3.2 In this archetypal healing scenario, Jesus does not initially heal, but clearly considers the faith of a person to be primary.
3.2.1 In this case, it is the faith of the friends that is effective.
3.2.2 Healing, then, is one possible manifestation of witness.
3.3 It is bad theology to assume that God did not allow for the possibility of sickness and death in His creation.
31God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning —the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31)
17To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” (Genesis 3:17-22)8Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. (Genesis 4:8)
3.3.1 From Gen 1:31, 3:17-22 and 4:8 we can only deduce that humankind would enjoy immortality on Earth through the consumption of the fruit of the Tree of Life. 3.3.2 Therefore, our flesh was and is corruptible –that is, was susceptible to sickness and death.
3.3.3 Yet, from the beginning, God, by His grace and provision, makes it possible for us to live with him eternally.
3.4 Sickness, then, is a natural consequence of human existence on Earth –not to mention the presence of evil, whether natural or supernatural, and the implications of sin. 3.5 When we become sick, if our innate healing processes fail to restore our health, it is quite acceptable to solicit external sources (i.e. doctors and God).
When is Healing Appropriate?
4.1 Whether God heals or not is a bigger issue than His affection for us or lack thereof.
4.1.1 Our expectation of miraculous divine intervention must be tempered by the humility of an honest assessment of the human condition.
4.2 We desire healing, but "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" (1 Cor 2:11-16).
4.2.1 Is God being mean when He does not heal? Is God being unjust? Lazy? Is He unable?
4.2.1.1 If sickness is a natural consequence of living, then we must accept any outcome as natural and appropriate, without dismissing the power or grace of God.
4.2.2 Doesn't God always provide for our basic needs (Mt 6:25-34; Rom 8:22-28)?
4.2.2.1 Perhaps, despite our perspective, we don't need healing and what is best for us is something altogether different from healing?
Conclusion
5.1 Should we pray for healing? Yes, because faith and prayer are effective. 5.2 Is healing the only positive result of a prayer for healing? No, because as with all prayer, our spirits are strengthened when we pray, as are our bodies, our emotions, our thoughts, and our relationships.
