I found myself waiting for a friend to finish up some business. As I waited I picked up a copy of National Geographic that they had in the lobby. There was a really interesting article about a man who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2004. He was only 42 years old, and the doctor was telling him that within a decade he wouldn’t be able to even feed himself. For the next seven years he would deteriorate, though not as much as the doctor had predicted, but even simple things such as talking and writing had certainly become harder.
By 2011 a company had developed an experimental procedure that had some promise. Essentially they had found that in monkeys a particular protein called Neurturin could halt the progress of Parkinson’s and even undo some of the damage to the dopamine secreting neurons. For humans they created a procedure to actually drill two holes into the skull so they could inject the protein directly into the target regions of the patient’s brain.
The patient showed almost immediate improvement. Where he was struggling to get around before the surgery, he was no longer. His speech had become slurred to the point that if you didn’t know it, you’d have thought he was drunk. But no more. His doctor was astonished. Parkinson’s had never before been reversed. Halting it was the best hope, but reversal? Absolutely unheard of.
In 2013 the company announced the findings of the trail: Neurturin had failed. What?! How could that be? Well, as it turns out, this particular patient had not received Neurturin. He’d received a placebo.
People have known about the placebo effect for over 70 years now. While treating wounded American soldiers during World War II, Henry Beecher ran out of pain-killing morphine. Desperate, he decided to continue telling the soldiers that he was giving them morphine, although he was actually infusing them with a saline solution. Amazingly, 40 percent of the soldiers reported that the saline treatment eased their pain.
The mind is a powerful thing. But it seems that many of us choose to limit the mind’s power and opt for what we call “rationality.” Now, what I’m about to say is completely speculation on my part, but my speculation is that because the New Church does believe in the usefulness of science, we have over time given our “faith” to science when it comes to matters of the physical world. Some of this is well founded… we don’t want to be turning to the Bible like it is a science book, because it isn’t. We aren’t to believe that the universe was literally made in 6 days. For some people the belief that the universe was more than 6,000 years old was a belief that called for rationality within religion.
Yet as the scientific world learns more about how things work, it seems that we have ceded that all happenings can be explained in merely mechanical or biological terms. Even Christianity seems to have adopted this basic view, believing that there’s a spark from the Lord that gives life in the universe… and then it just goes.
But that isn’t the picture that the Writings actually give us. In fact, I would argue that in fact every moment is an amazing miracle. Without God’s life, everything ceases to exist. That isn’t some abstract philosophical statement. The Writings state that at every single moment, God is creating this reality. There is no continuous reality, but a re-creation of reality every moment. In these moments God works in our lives, closing some doors, opening others. He’s shielding us from danger in one moment, but allowing us to experience our own stupidity in the next. All done to bring about a good end for us. He’s in every single detail, and these details are being created constantly.
This idea where the universe is constantly being recreated is what allows the space for miracles to happen, and still happen within the Lord’s laws for the universe. I’ve heard New Church people say, “The Writings teach that God doesn’t do miracles anymore!” Nonsense I say! It is true that the Lord doesn’t perform miracles like He did in the Old Testament times. But He certainly does perform miracles. As a pastor, I’ve had many people come to me and tell me their story of being miraculously healed by God. This wasn’t 2000 years ago! Some have been healed from a physical disease, others from mental problems, and others from addictions. Oddly enough, most of those stories have come from people who aren’t involved with the New Church, which makes me wonder if we have actually closed our minds to God’s possibilities because we have become so focused on being a rational church.
So let me ask you this: Do you believe that God can heal you? Physically? Or do you believe that isn’t rational? Have you been struggling for years with some issue, and feel that it is impossible to change? Or that change can only come through a slow, gradual process of change? Or do you believe that your life can change in an instant? Do you believe that God can come over you so completely that those nasty habits can leave you forever in a moment? Do you believe that God can heal your physical problems? Bottom line: do you believe in miracles? I image many of you saying, “Yes, I do believe in miracles, but…”
My guess is most of you are having trouble with your intellect jumping in and overriding that part of you that believes miracles can happen. I think we’re missing out on God’s power in our lives at times, only because we don’t let it in. We want to believe, but then our intellect gets in the way saying, “That’s not possible.” Then we fail to give all power over to Him and let him do His work. Peter has initial faith in Jesus, and walks on water, but his rationality comes forward and he loses his faith in the miraculous, and sinks. I think this is usually who we are as a church. We start to walk on water at times, then sink. It’s the downside of putting all our effort into understanding the mysteries of faith. That’s what I see, and I’m willing to admit that I see it in myself too. But I’m trying. I want to believe. I want to see the miracles. I want to experience religion. I don’t want to say to others, “Join the New Church because it makes sense.” Frankly, I don’t think people are looking for “a church that makes sense.” I want to say, “Join in with us. You’ll see a miracle every day.”