Keys: Healing

1 Peter 2: 24, Psalm 147: 3, James 5: 14 – 15

Isaiah 53: 5, Proverbs 17: 22

November 16, 2025

I have had the experience of serving in a church that has been at the physical and spiritual center of the town in which is located snice 1729. The graveyard associated with the church has markers dating back to 1699. It played a primary role in warning its citizens about marauding British soldiers during the Revolutionary War. The Session of that church served as the criminal court for the town until the late 1800s; and still – until very recently – every mayor that has ever served that town came from the membership of that church. It has been the gathering point for every great joy and heartache of the town.

While I was there, a several block section of the neighborhood surrounding the church was damaged by a rare and significant tornado that went through the town. Massive trees were uprooted. Cars were flattened; homes were destroyed – it was eerie to look at a house that seemingly had experienced no damage but every door and window in the home no longer worked right. The house had literally been twisted by the massive circular forces of the tornado winds. Those hoes had to be destroyed and rebuilt. The Church Sanctuary itself had over a million dollars worth of damage inflicted on its tall steeple.

In many ways it was heartbreaking. But what was stunningly beautiful was the way the neighborhood became united in ways that they hadn’t been before the disaster. Oh, they were friendly enough, but neighbors moved in with neighbors while repairs were made. Vehicles were shared and those with intact kitchens cooked endlessly for those without. Strangers, or passing acquaintances suddenly, by necessity, became family.

In the face of brokenness, love brought about healing – emotional, physical, relational, and spiritual healing.

Friends, we have been thinking together – for the past several weeks – about those things that make the church different, those experiential keys that makes the church – or, let’s be honest – can make the church a place like no other. So, we have talked about worship, relationships, hospitality, and generosity. We have talked about being a place of welcome and inclusion instead of a country club where membership is earned or paid for. We have talked about transformation, discernment, grace, and generosity.

In a time when the value of the church is being questioned; in a time after a pandemic when the church was closed down and people were forced to question whether or not it even mattered; in the midst of a stewardship season when the material needs of the church ha never been greater we have been thinking together now since September 14th about those keys of the church that make it worth our time, make it worth our commitment.

I have come to believe that when the church is willing and able to reject a self-image that has the church as a museum of the perfected and instead can embrace an awareness of itself as a hospital for the broken – it is then that the church becomes its highest possibility. The church has never been meant to be a parade of the notables, but instead a place of healing for the fragmented.

The church needs to be experienced as a place of healing and restoration. In a world of brokenness, the church needs to be the place, maybe it can be the only place, where the broken places of our lives are brought back together like a beautiful piece of stained glass. In doing so, in that kind of healing and restoration work, we then individually and collectively become the masterpieces that we were designed to be.

The church can be – should be – a place of emotional and relational healing. In a world of high fences, boundaries, and gated entries, the church can be a place where we can belong, be known and be valued. We live in a world where inclusion often feels earned. The church is a place to belong – not because of who we are, but because we all share the same Creator and Redeemer. The church is a place to belong and be known as the unique combination of gifts and talents, of skill sets and passions that God has infused within each of us. The church is a place to belong, to be known, and to be valued because we are each infinitely and unconditionally loved and, each of us, created in the image of God.

Being known, being loved, and being valued allows us to be a part of a family that prays, plays, sings, and hopes together. There is strength and the capability for resilience that is present when we are members of this community of believers.

The church can be, and should be, a place of relational healing. The church draws people into a spiritual rhythm of life that is both comforting and restorative. We get reconnected to a life that is larger than ourselves. We receive and offer forgiveness and reconciliation in a world that demands its pound of flesh for every perceived slight. The church can be, and should be a place where grace abounds as we seek to offer the same grace that we receive from God so abundantly every day.

The church is a place of physical healing as well. As someone who has experienced 24 different surgery episodes, 30 different procedures in those surgeries, and just recently had a heart stent placed, I can speak to you of the healing power of the church. The prayers offered on my behalf and for my family have brought a comfort and strength that I firmly believe has made it possible for me to endure and move beyond physical brokenness. The prayers, support, and variety of pastoral ministries of the church has made it possible for me to experience reduced stress and longer, restful periods of recovery.

Emotional and relational healing, physical healing – the church is a place unique in its purpose that can bring these healing ministries about.

But most importantly, the church is a place of spiritual healing that brings life and vitality to all the other possibilities. Worship, prayer, Scripture and Godly fellowship remind us of who we are – the beloved of God and created in his image; and to whom we belong. Knowing that we are God’s own; knowing that we have been redeemed and reconciled through the gift and Sacrifice of Jesus himself; knowing that we have not been left alone and in fact have the Holy Spirit alongside us and within us is a profound and healing alternative to the loneliness, to the despair, to the fear, the lack of purpose that plagues so many outside the church. The church gives to us – or at least should give to us – a place to voice our strongest questions, to face our most demoralizing doubts and fears, a place to regain the hope and purpose offered to us in Jesus Christ.

The healing that the church offers is not only something that God does in us; the healing that God offers is something that God does amongst us, in the family, in the church. That healing is unique, priceless, and available to us when we show up, enter the family and open ourselves up to the faith community.

The world’s brokenness can feel overwhelming. But the Church heals one life, one family, one act of mercy at a time. Faith doesn’t wait for big solutions—it does the next right thing. It picks up the pieces and creates mosaics of infinite beauty and purpose. May we be a church family that offers….. healing. Amen.