Good Morning Friends,
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling fresco portrays God reaching to touch Adam with his finger as an act of creation itself and indeed the giving of life. Countless modern paintings depict angels touching people. The point is that touch has always been central to our spiritual life but has gotten more confusing of late. You see, the word touch conveys a lot of different meanings and in more recent years a negative one. To be touched can mean to be a bit crazy. Yes, it is a touchy subject in more than one way. But in the Bible, I think the connotation of touch is a bit saner and is one of healing and power. In the Bible, touch brings a clarity of communication. It is the universal language. When Jesus was touched by a woman washing his feet with her hair there was a clarity of communication. She did not have to utter a word. When Jesus was touched by a woman and power went out of him healing her, it was clear what had happened. When Jesus healed a leper, the communication was with a touch first then with words to back up the action. So, perhaps we are to hold each other’s hand on the subject. Perhaps we are to dream of a church that lays hands our soul and sends us into the world to make disciples of Jesus Christ having him speak through us while gently pressuring us to walk more closely with God. But maybe before we transform the world we first need to get in touch with our emotions. Friends, Jesus said he would never leave us. Being loved in spite of our flaws is really comforting especially during the social isolation required by the pandemic and the social unrest that challenges culture. So, Have You Discovered You Are Healthier And More Productive When Touched?
Scripture: On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, “My husband,” and no longer will you call me, “My Baal.” For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. On that day I will answer, says the Lord, I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth; and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel;
Hosea 2:16, 17b-18, 21-22 (NRSV)
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district.
Matthew 9:18-26 (NRSV)
And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Hebrew 11:6 (NRSV)
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NRSV)
Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one tenth to you.”
Genesis 28:10-22a (NRSV)
Message: Israel is a prime example of a people, a nation, who believed that they could do things on their own. Ironically, they were unable to free themselves from Egyptian captivity. God had to do it. They were unable to provide food for themselves, so God provided manna and quail for them to eat. When they arrived at the Red Sea, they could not cross it, so God created a way for them to cross. And yet, poor Israel still believed they did not need God despite the many signs and signals along the way. Now, the setting of Hosea, once the Hebrews had established themselves in the Promised Land is interesting to me for it echoes this same problem. Hosea began his ministry during the end of the prosperous but morally declining reign of Jeroboam II. The upper class was doing well, but they were oppressing the poor. The whole message of the Book of Hosea is God’s expressing his love for his people, his creation. Throughout this book we read of the great measures that God took to bring his people back into right relationship with him. It portrays God as the aggressor, and the pursuer and the seeker. Our text comes after God calls Hosea to marry a prostitute, Gomer. They marry, have three children, God gives them some very interesting names, and then explains the purpose of this calling to Hosea. They are given names all ominous of woe, perhaps designed for Hosea to sympathize with the Lord’s sorrow for those in his human family who live and die without God. Gomer leaves, just as Israel left. But Hosea seeks his wife, just as God seeks his people. Hosea finds her, welcomes her back as his wife, just as God welcomes back those who turn to him. The key to this message is found in the love of God for if people will humble themselves and pray and seek God and turn from their evil ways God will forgive and heal.
And So, we are healthier when touched in a positive way so that we might do together that which is impossible on our own. In marketing there is to goal of seven touches to engage people. And indeed, in the Bible there are many examples,
but somehow Jesus only needed one touch. So, let us contemplate some of those instances of Jesus touching and healing against the backdrop of heaven opening into our world through the life of the Messiah. There are several instances in the Bible of healings and many where someone sees heaven open and they all relate to Jesus. Healing and heaven are intertwined in prophecy as a sign of the Kingdom coming in the life of the Messiah. Today’s scriptures look at examples of each, one in the dream of Jacob and a couple in the healing of a young girl and an older woman. As with the baptism of Christ and the stoning of Stephen, the person describing the healing events has a vision that accords some greater divine reality and understanding of Jesus as Messiah and how Jesus goes about healing and opening the possibility of heaven for us all. In the story of Jacob, as with the stoning of Stephen and the Baptism of Christ and the transfiguration and resurrection we get glimpses of this new reality. Jacob says, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Such is the nature of faith and of miraculous healings…a little bit of heaven on earth. Such is the nature of Jesus’ divine and human touch that bring unity.
Pray we have an agenda that includes others. Pray we love with the heart of God. Pray we take refuge in God knowing that God’s love is always there, and that Jesus’ Spirit will never leave us alone. Pray we realize that it is God who will restore us if we are humble enough to ask. Pray
we are cleaned by the touch of Jesus. Pray we keep in touch with the Great Physician of us all. Pray Jesus touches our hearts with the Glory of God and His purifying Spirit. Pray we are touched by the plight of others and moved to compassion to work collectively for a solution.
Pray
that we share the gift of touch with those who need a healing hand. Pray the Holy Spirt through the Word caress us with a comfort and hope of God’s love. Pray we are touched by grace and extent it to others. Pray we experience love’s touch through kindness both given and received. Pray we get the point that Jesus not only wants us to be touched but to stay in touch with the reality of heaven. Pray we reach out and touch each other in love because we are divided and need to become whole and healed. Pray the fertility of God’s abundance create in us a better way…. the way of God’s promise of love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 