This past Sunday we looked at two stories of Jesus healing people with very different maladies. We learned that John Wesley - one of the founders of Methodism and inspired by the love of Jesus - cared deeply about people’s physical health and worked to remove barriers for people to experience healing. The sermon concluded with three questions:
1) What healing are you currently in need of? Have you asked God, the Great Physician, to come and heal you today?
2) Who are your neighbors in need of healing? What are the barriers preventing them from receiving the healing they so desperately need?
3) How is God inviting you, like the four, to help break down those barriers, so that health and healing and wholeness might be available to all God’s children?
Monday morning I was reading the Anchorage Daily News with these questions still swirling in my own mind when I came across an article (you can access the article here) about a man I know named Alec Kay. Alec runs with me at The Dome on Wednesday mornings with the Alaska Endurance Project. He is a physical therapist here in town. In the article, he is quoted as saying, “In Alaska, there’s a clear, financial barrier for a lot of people to accessing care, and I’d say the health of the community is less than optimal because of that.”
Recognizing the barrier, Alec acted to make a change in the community, and began a no-cost physical therapy clinic in multiple locations in the state. Because of his efforts, more than 200 Alaskans have had access to health care they otherwise might not have had. Alec said, “We have the tools to help people. And I’d just like to get more people in the door that we can help.”
This is just one example of a person identifying barriers to health for our neighbors, and doing something to remove the barrier. Perhaps you are not a medical professional who can begin a new clinic, but God has given you gifts, and talents, and resources. How can you use those to bring about healing to our Alaskan neighbors? May God grant you the grace to make it happen.
~ Pastor Andy
Betty Hertz, Lay Leader, writes:
On Sunday, Pastor Andy delivered the message about Jesus as the healer. He ended by asking us, “Who are your neighbors in need of healing? What are the barriers that are keeping them from receiving the healing they so desperately need?”
Those words echoed in my heart as I helped our unhoused neighbors at Cuddy Park on Tuesday.
I saw our friends without hats, gloves, and some even without coats or socks. All around me, I felt their survival mode. The barriers are many.
Pastor Andy next asked, “How is God inviting you, like the four, to help break down those barriers, so that health and healing and wholeness might be available to all God’s children?”
Friends, we all have closets with items we rarely use. Perhaps you have a gently used winter coat that has fallen out of style, or you just haven’t donned in years. Perhaps you have a larger rotation of winter socks you never get through before you do the next load of laundry. Perhaps you have a blanket that you just don’t need anymore. Consider bringing those items to the church this Sunday for distribution to our neighbors who desperately need these items for survival.
My prayer: God, you share your love, grace, and forgiveness with us abundantly. Help us to respond by sharing the abundance we enjoy with our neighbors. Help us to continue to work to not only respond compassionately to our neighbors without shelter, but to work to reduce and ultimately eliminate homelessness from our city. Amen
~ Betty Hertz
Tell us, how is God moving in your heart to eliminate barriers to health for all?
