Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare Visit (Week of June 25)

Isaiah 65:17-25

New Heavens and a New Earth

¹⁷ “See, I will create
    new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
    nor will they come to mind.
¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever
    in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
    and its people a joy.
¹⁹ I will rejoice over Jerusalem
    and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
    will be heard in it no more.

²⁰ “Never again will there be in it
    an infant who lives but a few days,
    or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred
    will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach a hundred
    will be considered accursed.
²¹ They will build houses and dwell in them;
    they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²² No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
    or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
    so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
    the work of their hands.
²³ They will not labor in vain,
    nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
    they and their descendants with them.
²⁴ Before they call I will answer;
    while they are still speaking I will hear.
²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
    and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.　

　

What did I do at MLH (see) (hear) (touch)?

I saw people coming from all over the country to learn about an interesting partnership between the hospital, the place of health care, and the congregation and church, the place of soul care. How interesting that this hospital started out as and is still in some ways a church related institution. Have we forgotten in the church that we are to be places of wholeness care, that body and spirit are not separate, but two sides of the one coin that is our being? Perhaps not, perhaps we always knew. Maybe the hospital just caught a glimpse of how community works from the church. Whatever the case, I am encouraged by the near 500 congregational communities I saw pinpointed on a map that are in the steps to taking vested interest in their people’s health and wellness, both body and soul, as well as the diverse and interesting group that to learn more about CHN.
I heard in our meeting with Gary and Harry a real passion for the church and the hospital. Sometimes I feel like I have grown up at the hospital, played under its desks, hugged its employees, cried in its rooms where family have been patients, shared in its journey. To put a number with the amount of charity work I knew the hospital did was amazing to me. But the story you didn’t necessarily hear was the love, care, and patience I know many of the employees provide to every patient, whether they are homeless, uninsured, or an incarcerated individual stationed with guards. To hear the passion behind the voices at the hospital was very special to me. It was also very interesting to hear this lay person’s passion for the church. I felt that he was very committed to helping the church change in order to better serve and minister with the world.

What challenged me? What inspired?

I was inspired by the wholeness approach I heard as Gary talked. I’m not sure about all of the hospital’s efforts in South Memphis, but as he talked about that area, I was encouraged that he was talking about the hospital helping in ways in the community that effect "the place" (or non-genetic) factors of health, the majority of why people end up in unhealthy states. At the same time, I am challenged and wonder how much the hospital views the people in that community as a resource for changing the "place" factors. Do they have a mentality of shalom, or do they see themselves as parent, coming in to "fix" the situation, in the end saving themselves time and money?
　
　

What did I learn through my time with MLH that I didn’t know before?

In the Shalom document, there is a quote from the World Health Organization that reads, "Health is the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease." I did not realize how much Methodist (or at least the people we talked to) had moved to language reflecting this wholeness of health, rather than absence of disease. I have spent a lot of the last two years of my life in a hospital with my fiance Adam when he was sick with ulcerative colitis complicated by his diabetes. I don’t remember always feeling this emphasis on wholeness. For a lot of his initial trips, I remember talks from doctors that sounded a lot like the language of scarcity. Statements like, "As soon as we get this episode calmed down and your blood sugar under control, you can go home." The absence of his flare up was going to what determined healthy. But after we left our Christmas stay in the hospital, we were back on Valentine’s Day, and then Easter through Mother’s Day, when he finally was starting his trio of surgeries that lasted through November. Each time, it felt to me like the mentality was fix the problem, now, not how do we help you create a wholeness of health for your life when you leave and go back home. If Methodist is really committed to viewing health with this wholeness, that involves making sure a patient has a community of care when they leave the hospital, I am very encouraged about the impact this focus on wholeness will have on individuals, how much more cared for they may feel, how their lives in quality of whole health might be improved.

How does the scripture reading for the week speak to me in light of this experience?

God’s view, God’s plan is for wholeness.
In the scripture, I hear the prophet’s words speaking at several levels.
First, very literally, I believe God really does have designs for the health of God’s children. Like a mother, God wants her children to live out their days in health and does not desire that infants should only live a few days or adults not live out their days. To eat fruit and plants. To live in homes and communities. This is all part of God’s vision--physical, mental, social, and spiritual well beingThe wolf and the lamb will feed together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
    and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.　
At my church in West Nashville, our second grader Owen wrote and delivered his Children’s Sabbath sermon on this verse. When our pastor Sherry first read it to him and asked him what he thought it meant, he answered, "It’s about peace." So much of this Scripture is about peace, the harmony that comes from wholeness, Shalom. I see how the Methodist healthcare system is trying to do their part of Shalom, though they may not put it in that language, in the entire Memphis Metropolis, but especially in the downtown neighborhood that touches a lot of the poverty in Memphis.

　

What will I do with this?

I believe that the church should be in the business of wholeness, health, spirit, mind, body. Though I am encouraged that Methodist CHN has started to get churches to think about health within the walls, I am excited that CHN has realized and started to change trajectory that their goal for churches is to really invest in the community outside of their walls and bring a message of health and wholeness there. The church should never forget how much it has to offer to its neighborhood, and because it has this good news, it has the responsibility to share it. And the church should never forget, that the community has gifts to bring into the church that will help us on our journey to shalom. From all I have experienced, I resolve to look into churches, neighborhoods, and even institutions like MLH with an eye for abundance and assets, not the kind of eye that sees problems and deficiency and thereby breeds distrust and fear. Instead of this distrust and fear, let’s till the earth and grow up peace, harmony, and wholeness.