Eleven years of my ministry were spent serving a church that is about 1 ½ miles from Western State Hospital, the psychiatric hospital for the Puget Sound region. It was not uncommon to have patients from the hospital join us for worship or wander into the church during the week just to visit with someone or play the piano. Sometimes someone would talk at an inappropriate point in worship. At times the congregation would take under its wing someone who had become consistent in attending worship. The presence in church of persons with mental illness was just a fact of life. I can imagine though that some churches are not as comfortable as that church was with ministering to those with mental illness.
Also I just watched a movie entitled “Lars and the Real Girl” which is a beautiful movie about a man struggling with mental illness. Lars has such serious social anxiety problems that it causes him physical pain to be touched by another person. The movie is about the way that his church and his community surround him with love and support as he struggles.
Here in the scripture readings for this week we encounter two images: God calls out prophets in our midst and that the greatest of those prophets is also a man who reaches out to heal.
So I read these passages and wonder what does this passage have to say to our world concerning who Jesus was and who we are as the body of Christ? What does it say to us about God’s radical hospitality that reaches out to this one who is untouchable? What does it say to us about holistic healing of body, soul and relationships? What happens today if we accept this invitation to be God’s partners in practicing prophetic healing of persons and/or institutions?
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