No sorrow on earth that heaven cannot heal
I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy reading Church notice board bloopers. Some I have read recently include:-
A notice board which read instead of “evening message at 6:00pm; evening massage at 6:00.”
Another read “Due to the rectors illness Wednesdays healing services will be cancelled until further notice.”
The final one “The minister will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing “break forth into joy.”
Mistakes make good reading, but occasionally you can also see some interesting notice boards, and one which appeared recently in Bridgend, I think relates to our readings today:-
“There is no sorrow on earth that heaven cannot heal.”
The readings this morning record some incredible things, they record moments when the sorrows on earth are healed by heaven.
We saw in the reading from the first book of Kings that through Elijah God helped a widow by restoring her child to life. In the reading from the gospel of St.Luke we heard of Jesus helping the widow at Nain by raising her son to life.
To say help though, does not fully describe what was happening on these occasions. To each of these women, God was not only giving the life of the Son back but He was giving them life as well.
In that period, a woman’s wealth and social standing rested completely on the life of a male. For these widows their sons were responsible for them having money. Their sons enabled them to be treated as human beings in society and this included not only how people treated them, but also their admittance to worship even. To have no male support would have meant for these women that they were social outcasts and this in turn meant that they could not go and worship God in the same way as everyone else.
To these women whose sorrow was not just for their son, but also for their own life and well-being, God stepped in.
To the sorrow of earth God brought healing - the type of healing that only heaven can bring. A healing that we could never achieve on our own, but for the knowledge of the love and power of God, to transform seemingly hopeless situations and bring something new.
There is a collect which says that Christ can transform the poverty of our nature by His grace, it goes on to say in Christ all things are made new.
This reminds us that God heals, he breaks into our World and brings us back to Him.
Last Sunday was Trinity Sunday, the day when the Church turns into mathematics experts !! I have never been very good at maths but one thing I do know is that for some reason that I cannot explain, God is One and in three persons. The discussions of the Trinity only seek to convince me that God is greater than us, and we cannot always understand everything about Him.
It is wonderful then this week, to think about the great Almighty, All-powerful, all-living God stepping into our world, stepping into our lives and making something new - Bringing the healing of Heaven to all our sorrows. Bringing the joy and love of heaven into seemingly hopeless situations.
We have seen and know God who heals earth’s sorrows with heavens joy and love. Helen has said about being on a Christian conference when she was 15, and there were two people from Bosnia there. These people spoke of the impact of racial genocide in their land; they spoke of the pain and the problems that people were facing. They spoke of one of their favourite hymns, which started with the words, “there is hope for the world in your hands.”
These words are really powerful, and as I have considered the impact of heaven healing earths sorrows, I have been more and more convinced that this world is in desperate need of hope. We only need to think about the news we have heard this week, about the killings in Cumbria, the continued problems in the Holy Land, the continued problems of Iraq and Afghanistan and we can see quite clearly that the sorrow of this earth is huge.
We only need to read the papers and we can hear of people hurting one another, of people living in poverty, of people living in what seems to be a situation with no clear answer out.
The band Queen recorded a song, called “Is this the World we created ?”, some of the lyrics of this song remind us of the sorrow of this world, this world in need of the healing of Heaven.
Just look at all those hungry mouths we have to feed
Take a look at all the suffering we breed
So many lonely faces scattered all around
Searching for what they need
Is this the world we created - we made it on our own
Is this the world we devastated - Right to the bone?
If there's a God in the sky looking down
What can he think of what we've done
To the world that he created
We know that God did create the World, and we know that God does not just look down, He steps in. Into our world of despair, we believe that God can bring healing, but what can we do to make this happen?
The answer is for us to pass the needs of the world over to God in our prayers. However, it does not end here. We have to expect that as we pray for heavens healing to come to Earth, so we need to be prepared for God to use us to help in that healing.
Prayer is the vital ingredient…, God is an almighty God, but we need to remember that He has stepped down to earth and will continue to do so. This is through our lives as mirrors of Him, and also through our prayers. As the Bible says the power of prayer is living and active, sharper than any double edged sword.
As we pray lets be ready for great things to happen, as heaven brings healing to Earths sorrows. To the people in Cumbria let us bring prayer and hope… Without trying to get into the rights and wrongs of the situation may we bring prayer and hope to the people of Gaza, the people of Afghanistan, the people of Iraq, the people who live in war torn situations, the people for whom life is one big struggle, may we pray for Gods healing to bring life into a seemingly hopeless and shocking situation. Into our communities, into our lives may God bring His hope.
For the women that we have heard about into a seemingly hopeless situation God brought hope and new life. Into any situation that seems dark to us God can bring new hope and new life. In the account in the gospel of Luke, people were amazed. Just think what could happen in our World today if, through our prayers, every hopeless situation, every situation filled with sorrow, Heaven healed.
Someone once said “there are no hopeless situations, only people who are hopeless.” I wonder whether these words can act as a challenge to us, a challenge that reminds us that we can have hope because we can turn to the one who can heal all the earths pain.
There is indeed no sorrow on earth that heaven cannot heal. AMEN
A notice board which read instead of “evening message at 6:00pm; evening massage at 6:00.”
Another read “Due to the rectors illness Wednesdays healing services will be cancelled until further notice.”
The final one “The minister will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing “break forth into joy.”
Mistakes make good reading, but occasionally you can also see some interesting notice boards, and one which appeared recently in Bridgend, I think relates to our readings today:-
“There is no sorrow on earth that heaven cannot heal.”
The readings this morning record some incredible things, they record moments when the sorrows on earth are healed by heaven.
We saw in the reading from the first book of Kings that through Elijah God helped a widow by restoring her child to life. In the reading from the gospel of St.Luke we heard of Jesus helping the widow at Nain by raising her son to life.
To say help though, does not fully describe what was happening on these occasions. To each of these women, God was not only giving the life of the Son back but He was giving them life as well.
In that period, a woman’s wealth and social standing rested completely on the life of a male. For these widows their sons were responsible for them having money. Their sons enabled them to be treated as human beings in society and this included not only how people treated them, but also their admittance to worship even. To have no male support would have meant for these women that they were social outcasts and this in turn meant that they could not go and worship God in the same way as everyone else.
To these women whose sorrow was not just for their son, but also for their own life and well-being, God stepped in.
To the sorrow of earth God brought healing - the type of healing that only heaven can bring. A healing that we could never achieve on our own, but for the knowledge of the love and power of God, to transform seemingly hopeless situations and bring something new.
There is a collect which says that Christ can transform the poverty of our nature by His grace, it goes on to say in Christ all things are made new.
This reminds us that God heals, he breaks into our World and brings us back to Him.
Last Sunday was Trinity Sunday, the day when the Church turns into mathematics experts !! I have never been very good at maths but one thing I do know is that for some reason that I cannot explain, God is One and in three persons. The discussions of the Trinity only seek to convince me that God is greater than us, and we cannot always understand everything about Him.
It is wonderful then this week, to think about the great Almighty, All-powerful, all-living God stepping into our world, stepping into our lives and making something new - Bringing the healing of Heaven to all our sorrows. Bringing the joy and love of heaven into seemingly hopeless situations.
We have seen and know God who heals earth’s sorrows with heavens joy and love. Helen has said about being on a Christian conference when she was 15, and there were two people from Bosnia there. These people spoke of the impact of racial genocide in their land; they spoke of the pain and the problems that people were facing. They spoke of one of their favourite hymns, which started with the words, “there is hope for the world in your hands.”
These words are really powerful, and as I have considered the impact of heaven healing earths sorrows, I have been more and more convinced that this world is in desperate need of hope. We only need to think about the news we have heard this week, about the killings in Cumbria, the continued problems in the Holy Land, the continued problems of Iraq and Afghanistan and we can see quite clearly that the sorrow of this earth is huge.
We only need to read the papers and we can hear of people hurting one another, of people living in poverty, of people living in what seems to be a situation with no clear answer out.
The band Queen recorded a song, called “Is this the World we created ?”, some of the lyrics of this song remind us of the sorrow of this world, this world in need of the healing of Heaven.
Just look at all those hungry mouths we have to feed
Take a look at all the suffering we breed
So many lonely faces scattered all around
Searching for what they need
Is this the world we created - we made it on our own
Is this the world we devastated - Right to the bone?
If there's a God in the sky looking down
What can he think of what we've done
To the world that he created
We know that God did create the World, and we know that God does not just look down, He steps in. Into our world of despair, we believe that God can bring healing, but what can we do to make this happen?
The answer is for us to pass the needs of the world over to God in our prayers. However, it does not end here. We have to expect that as we pray for heavens healing to come to Earth, so we need to be prepared for God to use us to help in that healing.
Prayer is the vital ingredient…, God is an almighty God, but we need to remember that He has stepped down to earth and will continue to do so. This is through our lives as mirrors of Him, and also through our prayers. As the Bible says the power of prayer is living and active, sharper than any double edged sword.
As we pray lets be ready for great things to happen, as heaven brings healing to Earths sorrows. To the people in Cumbria let us bring prayer and hope… Without trying to get into the rights and wrongs of the situation may we bring prayer and hope to the people of Gaza, the people of Afghanistan, the people of Iraq, the people who live in war torn situations, the people for whom life is one big struggle, may we pray for Gods healing to bring life into a seemingly hopeless and shocking situation. Into our communities, into our lives may God bring His hope.
For the women that we have heard about into a seemingly hopeless situation God brought hope and new life. Into any situation that seems dark to us God can bring new hope and new life. In the account in the gospel of Luke, people were amazed. Just think what could happen in our World today if, through our prayers, every hopeless situation, every situation filled with sorrow, Heaven healed.
Someone once said “there are no hopeless situations, only people who are hopeless.” I wonder whether these words can act as a challenge to us, a challenge that reminds us that we can have hope because we can turn to the one who can heal all the earths pain.
There is indeed no sorrow on earth that heaven cannot heal. AMEN
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