Are miraculous healings real?

Someone asked today about miraculous healings. She grew up in a church were prayer was used as a primary "therapy" for any and all diseases but has grown skeptical as she has seen people from her own faith tradition suffer and even die in spite of their beleif in the power of prayer. This was my response:

My concern with dramatic "faith" cures is the depression and regret that result when the magic doesn't work for someone. Still, I believe in prayer. I also believe in medicine (which doesn't always seem to work either). I believe in the body's wisdom and resiliency. I believe that complementary therapies often help. Attitude, environment, genes, diet...so much goes into our experience of health. 

I have seen people recover when no one thought they could; and I've seen people who should have had a fighting chance not make it. I've expereinced blessings of recovered health for which I was very grateful...and other times, conditions remained or returned. 

Life is complex. We do what we can to be happy and vibrant and productive...medicine, diet, prayer, lucky charms...whatever we can hold onto in a moment. Lots of things help, and nothing seems to work 100% of the time; but isn't that life? Prayer helps us feel connected to God, and when we feel connected to God we have less anxiety, more peace, more hope, and that all can contribute to an improved experience. 

I just met someone who swears that after only a couple of visits to a mystical healer he has experienced dramatic remission of disease in his own body. Who am I to doubt it? He feels better so I rejoice for and with him. But even Mary Baker Eddy (who built an entire movement around healing prayer) said, "We've all known the disappointment of unanswered prayer." 

It works when it works, and even when it doesn't, there may be other blessings or other experiences of healing that took place. I wouldn't give up on any practice that gives you hope or encouragement, but I wouldn't think of it as a zero sum game. The all or nothing, it's 100% or it's BS mindset seems to do more harm than good. 

I say try whatever seems worth the effort, rejoice if it works, look for how it helped even if it didn't work the way you wanted, and know that life is full of ambiguities and unanswered questions. We do, after all, live by "faith" (trust) and not by "sight" (proofs, guarantees, etc.).

Jesus might have been...

Does the idea of gay Jesus, married Jesus, Black Jesus, Brown Jesus, Jewish Jesus (this one’s not really up for debate), seditious Jesus, revolutionary Jesus, bi-Jesus, gender fluid Jesus, doubting Jesus, poor Jesus, homeless Jesus, illiterate Jesus, victimized Jesus, ethno-centric Jesus who might have grown past that, feminist Jesus, taboo smashing Jesus, generous to a fault Jesus, justice seeking/justice demanding Jesus, Jesus who never even heard of the Trinity, day laborer Jesus, philosopher Jesus, run of the mill healer/exorcist Jesus, mystic Jesus, kind of funny Jesus, storyteller Jesus, Jesus so buried in myth as to be practically unknown/unknowable...bother you? 

If so, why? What about the Jesus others have encountered, considered, wrestled with, played with, prayed with, journeyed with that threatens your experience? 

Is it possible Jesus was more than or other than what you’ve heard, believed, or so far experienced? And what if the others are completely wrong and you are completely right? Does that delegitimize their journey? Does that deny their right to explore and discover for themselves? 

We can discuss why our Jesus experiences differ. But if you come at me with insults and rage, not only will I probably be done from that moment, but I will also wonder why your experience of Jesus was so fragile that you couldn’t imagine that other experiences might also be possible.

I'm Interested in Jesus' Love Life BECAUSE I Love Jesus

I love Jesus (not in the imaginary friend way of my childhood, but I love searching for him in history and I love how I come to life when I make certain discoveries...my christology is rooted in a 1st century flesh and blood revolutionary more than in a cosmic Olympian type figure). 

Because I love Jesus I am very interested in his revolutionary, anti-imperial politics, in his work as a healer/exorcist/lay philosopher, in his risk taking, in his intimate/personal connection with the God of his understanding, in his insistence on flouting cultural taboos, in his willingness to rethink and dialogue with interpretations of his inherited scriptures and traditions, in people coming to believe he might be the messiah (and his possibly coming to agree with them), with people’s continued experience of him (or his memory or his values) beyond his execution, and I am interested in his personal relationships...
his closeness to a beloved disciple, his friendship with Peter, his place in a chosen family in Bethany, his interesting relationship with a woman from Magdala, his repeated encounters with a mysterious young man in Mark’s gospel, what it meant for him to look at him “and love him”, what it might mean for him to be called “son of David” (whose love for Jonathan was notorious)...

Because I love Jesus I love exploring his life, his intimacies, his sexuality. Like his ancestor David, he might have been bisexual, or he may have been gay, or he may have been straight, or he might have flowed up and down the continuum. 

Because I love Jesus, I want to know more about him. Just as those who love me must love the Queer me (because that’s the me there is), to love Jesus is to try to know him, and the him there is to know might be gay or bi...its definitely Queer (regardless of the attractions he felt). 

My soteriology is about “wholeness”...and since Jesus is part of the way that I found my path to wholeness (which includes my sexuality), I want to know the whole Jesus (as much as is possible with the years and myths that lie between us) which includes his sexuality. I don’t care if he was celibate or not, that’s none of my business, but he had human feelings and connections and covenants, and those do matter to me a great deal.