Mission as healing

Mission as healing” is our topic this morning, and I would like to begin by posing some questions about the topic at hand. Let me say from the outset that I will not purport to define mission, as that is a much deeper exercise. We will brush up against that exercise, though, as we progress this morning and encounter aspects of mission. My initial questions have to do with the “healing” side of the equation. Some of the questions we will need to address are, What does healing mean? Who participates in the healing process? Who heals and who is healed? I will attempt to provide some possible answers to these questions in the context of mission, and want to begin by reading a familiar story from the Gospel according to John, which I think is a helpful paradigm for our discussions. It is the story of Thomas. From John 20:19-31, we read,