The final healing was to be accomplished only through Jesus’ own death and by the power of his resurrection. The early works of Jesus like the healing of Simon's mother in law were signs pointing to this even greater healing

God wanted to heal the broken world. Jesus himself was the physical sign and cause of God’s work in the world. What Jesus did during his ministry and completed in his death and resurrection was itself a sign of that final completion of that work in all of us at the end of time when Jesus comes again. Scripture tells us that Jesus was the mysterion, the mystery which was largely hidden from the beginning of time, but now was revealed in him.

Mysterion translates into Latin as sacramentum and into English as sacrament. Jesus is Sacrament in the primary sense. He is the physical embodiment of God's healing grace in the world. He is the sign and cause of it all. But the mission of Jesus is continued in the church, so the church, what Paul calls the Body of Christ, is sacrament in the secondary sense. This presence of Christ is embodied in physical signs which we now call sacraments like Baptism and Eucharist. But the work of God requires our personal participation for its fulfillment.

We are called to continue the work of the Lord in our time and our place. Paul tells us to be "imitators of Christ." He also tells us to have that same mind in us which was in Christ Jesus. (1 Cor 11:1 and Phil 2: 5) Thus in a very real sense we are sacraments to the world of God's presence and healing.

The healings mentioned in this passage are physical healings of individual sick people, but the total healing of the world means the healing of societies and peoples. It encompasses emotional healing, social healing and spiritual healing. The expulsion of evil spirits is the forerunner of the victory over the demonic forces at work in the world, the total defeat of the principalities and powers.

In this broken world, we must remember that evil is rampant. What Paul called the principalities and powers are deeply embedded in the world. It would be simplistic to say that the present global economic crisis has a single root, but certainly greed, pride and their like are very much involved.

Yesterday at diocesan convention I had lunch with one of our priests who has spent the last ten years living and working in Jerusalem. He described the hatred, the lust for vengeance, the rage and the killing that takes place there. I call to mind as well the work I do with veterans at the VA. It is very clear that there is a demonic presence in war. Sometimes it does amount to commanding the unclean spirit to depart. Sometimes they do leave and remain silent. Sometimes they come back. But in any case, they have already been defeated by the healing power of the cross and resurrection.
The urgent question for each of us today is how are we--each in our lives--sacraments, signs and embodiments of the healing work of Jesus. This is not an abstract question. It requires an examination of conscience on how we are--or are not--living signs of God's healing presence to those around us. How is our home life? What is it that we embody to our spouses, our children, our parents? Can people in our work place look at us and catch some glimpse of power and presence of the One who healed Simon's mother in law?

We must ask ourselves serious questions about our personal and corporate response to the Gospel. Can it truly be said that the church is a public sign of healing in a broken, sinful and narcissistic world? Or are we just another undifferentiated part of the culture? We have healing prayer for the sick, but we must also act in their behalf. We try to act as healers of the emotional wounds we encounter. We must do our best to expel the evil spirits, the demonic forces at work in the world which cause enormous spiritual wounds. In all this we are followers of Jesus.

Brent has called this parish to a year of serious preparation to proclaim the Gospel in our time and place and to invite as many new members into our community as are now present. This is a call, as he has put it to 'tell our story." Yesterday the bishop asked the entire diocese to do the same thing Our story is really the story of the Gospel and of our place in it. It is the story of the young teacher who cured a sick woman of her illness and then began a journey that would bring ultimate, complete and absolute healing to the world.

The son-in-law in this story, Simon Peter was called to be a follower of Jesus and an active agent in this story. So are we called to be followers, signs and agents of this wonderful story. This is the good news.

It is a story that is ever ancient and ever new. For, as Scripture tells us "all things have been made new." We have been made new, we have been healed--and even though the wounds of sin and suffering remain, we are healed in principle. The victory has been won and we are those who now embody and enflesh the story to all we meet. We have been healed and together with him we are also healers.

Let us begin now, for the Gospel is always about the present moment. We look to the past, for in the past Christ has died and we look to the future for Christ will come again. But right now, Christ is risen, right now we are healed, right now healing is offered to the world. Let us be about this business with the fierce urgency of now.

Let us resolve to be exemplars in this parish in this community, in this time and place of a healing story that will end only when every knee shall bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.