Friday, December 12, 2008

Of holy oil and Epi-pens

We started a new healing service on Wednesdays at St. Luke's Episcopal in Baltimore. Last week it was just me and the Senior Warden. This past week, it was the two of us, our organist and one member of the congregation ... a 100% increase! Woo hoo!

I opened the pocket of my purse to get out my holy oil for the sacrament of unction and it hit me that right next to my holy oil was my daughter's Epi-pen. What an interesting juxtaposition between this ancient healing symbol of anointing oil and our modern technology of a self-injecting mechanism for delivering epinephrine to someone experiencing an anaphylactic allergic reaction.

The beauty is my faith isn't an either/or proposition. Each healing tool has its use and both work in their own ways. I don't have to accept one and reject the other. Instead, we accept both as an integrated approach to healing.

No comments: