St David's Uniting Church, Canterbury
October
26, 2003
"CAN
FAITH REALLY HEAL?"
"Your
faith has cured you," says Jesus to Bartimaeus. There's an irony which won't escape you in a sermon about
healing faith on the day I step back from St David's to care for a seriously ill
wife. "What price healing
faith, then?" She and I long
ago dealt with that. Neither of us believe in a divinity who can be manipulated
to serve our ends, however good these ends may seem to us. Nor do we believe in a divinity who has favourite people,
however deserving some people may seem to us.
So, what do
we believe?
She
and I believe all healing is divine; that there is no healing that is not of
God. We see this involving human
agents like doctors and nurses and physios, and human artifacts like drugs and
surgical procedures and counselling. We
see the function of all these as removing 'obstacles', so to speak, to
wholeness. We believe in prayer for
the sick as part of the process of removing such obstacles.
We know there are situations where God does nothing; to tinker in the
situation would be to contradict God's own laws.
When two cars hurtle head-on, God does nothing, for this would be to
contradict God's own laws. God does
not grow a new leg on an amputee or turn a seventy-two year old man into a seven
year old – however hard they pray – for this too would be to contradict
God's own laws.
We
do believe there are close links between religion and health.
If we thought we could escape the fact, today's gospel brings us back.
Jesus' ministry had three elements: teaching and proclaiming and
curing. Whatever explanations we may canvass, it
is accepted by biblical scholars that he was a healer as well as
teacher/preacher. Although it ebbs
and flows, interest in links between religion and health won't go away.
Currently it's coming back. However,
it has tended to be played down in mainstream churches. It's left for others to
over-emphasise what we're seen as under-emphasising. Hence you get movements
like Christian Science in the 19th century and Pentecostalism in the
20th – both putting a big emphasis on healing.
But today some of the mainstream religious communities, not to mention
secular institutions, are looking at it again.
Let
me tell you where some interesting things
are happening. Not
surpris-ingly, in the United States. But
in very reputable places and under the direction of very reputable people.
One is the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Harvard Medical School, for
many years headed up by Dr Herbert Benson.
Benson has authored or co-authored more than 150 scientific publications,
and six books. Most of these,
dating back to 1975, deal with what he calls 'the relaxation response' – about
which we'll say more in a moment.
Another
place where interesting things are happening is Duke University Medical Center.
Dr Harold Koenig heads the Center for the Study of Religion, Spirituality and
Health. He too is widely published:
over 130 articles, 35 book chapters, 14 books to his name.
His latest is "The Healing Power of Faith: Science Explores
Medicine's Last Great Frontier." Koenig's
Center offers post-doctoral fellowships to medicos for research into mind-body
links.
Over
the last decade there has been growing attention in US medical schools to this
and to what's come to be called 'spirituality'. Over 40 percent now require units to be taken in these areas.
Generous help is coming from the Templeton Foundation.
This is the foundation which since 1972 has awarded an annual prize for
Progress in Religion. Recipients of
the Templeton Prize, worth $A2m, have included Mother Teresa, Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn, Billy Graham, Paul Davies, plus sundry Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and
Muslims. Sir John Templeton,
ninety-one this year, is a Presbyterian layman.
In the 1930s he began a very successful career as an investor.
About twelve years ago he sold out, and through the foundation bearing
his name gives away the equivalent of $A60m
a year – much of it to cooperation between science and religion.
So
to some of the things we already know
about body/mind links. Things
not strictly 'medical' which can help make you sick or help make you well.
Let me remind you first of some that can help make you sick – which
medicos at least have known for years.
Take
'spittle'. One of our lines of
defense against infection via the respiratory tract is in saliva; it's called salivary
immunoglobulin A. "Mummy, kiss it better" or Jesus making
ointment with spittle may have a medical warrant!
But note this. The response
level of salivary immunoglobulin A has
been found to be lower on days when we're in a negative mood.
In other words, "If you get out the wrong side of the bed, or have a
bad day when nothing seems to go right, your chances of succumbing to infection
are higher."
Or
take what we call 'stress'. We
know that stress in large or long-term doses is not good: not just because it
makes us feel tense and tired, but because it has an effect on body chemistry.
Links between stress and some high blood pressure, muscle tension and
especially suppression of immunity have been known for years. In simple terms,
this is what happens. Stress causes a reaction which releases hormones (called
epinephrine
and norepinephrine)
that have a double effect. They mobilise the body's reserves for 'fight-or-flight'.
But at the same time they suppress the immune system, and leave us open
to attack from other directions, like bacteria and viruses that are more likely
to be kept at bay when the immune system is working well. The Harvard Medical
School says that chronic stress contributes to an increased risk or worsening of
heart disease, migraines, asthma and other disorders.
It says that several emotions, when they go on too long, are not good for
your heart; these are anger, anxiety, bereavement and hostility.
They're all normal enough, indeed appropriate at times.
But when they go on unrelieved they can increase the possibility of our
getting sick.
Now
some things that are good for our health.
Just thinking 'optimistically' seems to be significant.
A couple of years ago the journal of the Canadian Medical Association had
a review of 16 studies, spanning 30 years, that had looked at patients'
attitudes after surgery. The article said, "In each
case, the better a patient's expectations about how they would do after surgery
or some health procedure, the better they did."
In other words, being confident of a good outcome seemed to assist the
process.
Barbara
Fredrickson, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, the year
before last received from the Templeton Foundation the biggest monetary prize
ever awarded in her field: the equivalent of about $A200 thousand.
She earned this with work on the importance of emotions in optimizing
health and well-being. Fredrickson's research led her to say the three emotions
which are most powerfully health-enhancing are contentment, joy and interest;
these can help make and keep you well!
It
is sometimes said that laughter's the best medicine. I doubt it's the best, but
it has been found to contribute strongly to positive emotions.
It helps counter feelings of anger, making us feel carefree, lighthearted
and hopeful. We might note that the great theologian Karl Barth said a key
qualification for the christian was a sense of humour – directed in the first
instance at oneself! Laughter has been found to stimulate the immune system,
countering the effects of stress.
Going
back for a moment to Harvard's Herbert Benson, you will recall I said his major
area of research has been on what he calls 'the relaxation response'.
In the 70s, when people were taking up the practice of meditation, a
group of doctors at Harvard's Thorndike Memorial Hospital and Beth Israel
Hospital in Boston studied the effects of meditation in people with high blood
pressure that was stress-related. As a result, Benson wrote "The Relaxation
Response", which has sold four million copies!
Benson, who is Jewish but not observant, speculates on whether we are
somehow 'wired' for God. It's to
this that we must turn.
Where, in your judgement,
does our own faith connect with all of this?
Is religion good for your health? Two
years ago the New York Academy of Sciences held a symposium on this, partly
because there is both sense and nonsense abroad.
I read recently that a survey had found regular churchgoers were fifty
percent healthier than non-churchgoers. That is meaningless. It doesn't prove
that going to church is good for your health.
It may point to the fact that if you're healthy you're more likely to go
to church than if you're sick! But
in light of what we've been saying, let me close with just three things that can
be profoundly health-enhancing.
·
First is the realisation that God
is the ground of all being. The universe is the work
of a dreaming, designing and creative intelligence; it is purposive and more
important – it is precious in the sight of God. That means you, as part of God's handiwork, are of
inestimable worth. Our faith puts
an end to feelings of insignificance, worthlessness, meaninglessness. We see
ourselves as co-workers with God. That's
a good way to see life and oneself.
·
Second is
that being Christian is fundamentally about the renewing of our minds,
as Paul puts it in the Roman letter. Paul
tells the Corinthians that the equipment we seek to cultivate is faith and hope
and love. In another place he refers to the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. Remember what Professor Fredrickson says about 'positive
emotions'?
·
Third is the
recovery of spiritual practices – notably
meditation. Benson called it 'the
relaxation response'. Early
christians, as far back as the fourth century, followed
similar practices. Today
christian meditation – sometimes called 'centering prayer' – has been
recovered as a way of connecting our minds with the mind of God, and restoring
an equilibrium which is deeply health-enhancing.
Meditation can help make and keep you well.
There
is much we have not touched; for instance, we have said nothing about the
prayers of the faithful for others. Nor
have we said anything about unanswered prayer – and why some get well and some
don't. It would be a thousand
pities if anything we have said this morning were taken as implying that if
you're sick, it's your own fault. I
don't want to leave you with that message.
You remember how Jesus scotched that in relation to the man born blind.
"Who sinned? This man or his
parents, that he should be born blind?"
"Wrong question," said Jesus.
What
I would love to see in my church is a renewal of interest in these
body/mind/spirit connections, a renewal of interest in the links between
religion and health. This would put
us in touch with an aspect of Jesus' ministry we have often skimmed over.
And we may come a little closer to understanding why he was said to bring
'salvation'. After all, that comes from the Latin word which means health!
Scriptures:
Hebrew
7:23-28. Jesus makes the old
sacrificial system unnecessary
Mark
10:46-52. Sight restored without medical intervention
An
address delivered by the Rev Dr John Bodycomb at St David's Uniting Church,
Canterbury on Sunday, 26th October, 2003.
MAY BE REPRODUCED WITH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.