'Common Ground' Song 75 ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Lover of All’
Words & Music: John Bell  © Wild Goose / Iona Community
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpTacRtQKQ8
Featured image: from a Spanish language website with prayers for healing

This is one of those simple chants, to be sung simply, repeatedly and peacefully. The rubric suggests use with prayers for healing, with the first part (‘Lord Jesus Christ, Lover of All’) being sung solo, and the response is in four parts. None of the recordings I found online were actually by four-part choir, they were either a soloist throughout (as linked above), or one person recording all parts superimposed, but I did not feel that worked with this piece.

The words ‘trail wide the hem of your garment’ presumably reference the woman who in faith touched the hem of Jesus’ robe, and was healed of inner bleeding (Mark 5:25-34). It reminds us that we do not have to be ‘face to face’ with the Lord, or do anything before we encounter him, to receive his healing. The last words ‘bring healing, bring peace’ remind us that ‘healing’ does not necessarily mean a disease or injury is ‘cured’, sometimes it takes the form of enabling us to be at peace with ourselves as we are (injury or illness included). For we are whole persons in God’s sight, even if we feel that we are less than whole because of some pain or limitation in our bodies or minds. And the concept of ‘healing’ is tied up with that of ‘wholeness’ or in Hebrew ‘shalom’ a word more often translated ‘peace’.

The whole question of how ‘faith’ is required for spiritual healing is a complex one. A couple of books that I have on my shelf that address this question are ‘Healing Then and Now’ by Martin Scott, Nelson Word 1993, and ‘Gifts of Healing’ by Michael Fulljames & Michael Harper, Canterbury Press 2005. Scott suggests that the woman who was healed 'in faith' may have started with only a vague hope of healing, but the nearer she got to Jesus, the stronger her faith grew. The authors of the second book suggest that encouraging faith in God in someone else’s life is, in itself, a form of healing for them.

So as we bring before God individuals who are suffering in whatever way, let us sing this gently as a blessing to them. ‘Bring healing, bring peace’. Amen.