The Church Hospital

 

It seems as though hospitals have been around forever.  As long as people have gotten sick, they have needed care during those periods of their lives.

It turns out that hospitals are actually a pretty recent invention.

Up until 300 years after the death of Christ, all care of sick people was given to them in their homes -- or the homes of their family members.  With the exception of soldiers on the battlefield, doctors visited patients in private dwellings and the treatments, such as they were, were administered to them there.

In AD 325, following the Council of Nicaea, hospitals began to be built across the Roman Empire.  Every town large enough to have a Cathedral also got a hospital.  Over time, these facilities for healing spread and are now present throughout the world.

The church is a hospital.

The church is a place where hurting, ailing people can go to receive comfort and healing.

Everyone in the church has a role in this endeavor.  Everyone is either someone who is providing healing or receiving care.  Many of us, have found ourselves at various times in both roles -- encourager and one who desperately needs uplifting words.

Churches must have a primary goal to meet the needs of those in need.  Regardless of who they are, what needs they have, and what they look like, our aim must be to minister to those needs as Jesus would have.

If there are two roles in the church -- those who need healing and others who provide that restoration, there are some who have decided to introduce other occupations.

In a hospital in the United States, you have no sooner walked through the door of the ER with your arm dangling by a thread when someone descends on you to get your insurance information and have you sign a bunch of forms (with your good arm).  In just this way, I am afraid there are some that see their purpose in the church as "gatekeepers."  These are not healers, but rather they are people that identify those that are unworthy to receive care in this particular church setting.

I have been particularly impressed lately with the Google Doctors that show up to critique the care that their friends and family are receiving in a hospital setting.  They don't actually have a medical degree, but they certainly are able to see all the things that are being done wrong.  These same people are present in the church too.  They don't do a whole lot of healing there either, but they are exceptionally good at critiquing the programs the church offers, the ways in which things could be done better, or simply how the church is ignoring the needs of their "core members."

Our goal as Christians is not to identify people who are not worthy of care.  Our desire must be to identify people who need loving and give them what they need most.

Hospitals should be a place where hurting people can receive healing with the knowledge that people who are filled with care are exerting every effort on their behalf.

Churches should do no less for the people in their communities who have needs.  Not all will be healed by our efforts, but Jesus did much more for us, we must do the same for others.