The Healing Ministry of the Church in the Second Decade of AIDS
Focus Paper # 19 is adapted from keynote addresses delivered
during HIV/AIDS workshops of the Kansas East, Eastern
Pennsylvania and Northern and Southern New Jersey Annual
Conferences.
As in the time of Jesus, the healing ministry of the church today
must be grounded firmly within the context of the lives of the
people. No form of human need, no area of suffering fell beyond
the purview of Jesus who through ministries of healing and the
forgiveness of sin established the more just and merciful reign
of God at those points where God's creation was most in anguish.
More than one hundred people die each day in the United States
from the complications of AIDS--one every 15 minutes--and the
pace is accelerating. Though the majority of new AIDS cases have
been from metropolitan areas, there has been a significant
increase in new cases in municipalities with populations of less
than 500,000. Lack of access to adequate health care has denied
the benefits of advances in treatment to many in these smaller
cities and rural communities and failure to acknowledge the
dimensions of the crisis has resulted in insufficient attention
to AIDS education and prevention programs.
The number of African-American and Hispanic cases of AIDS and HIV
disease, owing to all modes of transmission, grows steadily.
Infections among women and children, particularly within the
communities of color, are increasing dramatically, with reported
AIDS cases among women growing faster than those among men.
As the National Commission on AIDS reports, AMERICA LIVING WITH
AIDS: TRANSFORMING ANGER, FEAR AND INDIFFERENCE INTO ACTION,
highlighted "large numbers of individuals diagnosed with AIDS in
their mid to late twenties were infected during their teens. HIV
disease has a devastating impact on those who are already
marginalized members of society"1 with growing numbers of
infections and diagnosed cases appearing today among the poorer
residents of inner cities.
So overwhelming are the larger social and political realities
confronting us that we are tempted to focus on the AIDS crisis in
relative isolation from the multiple problems which are its firm
foundation. We do not diminish the significance of the AIDS
crisis, but rather put it in proper perspective, by being aware
that the main thing which is new and different in the HIV
epidemic is the virus itself. Beyond the virus "most of what we
are experiencing represents old problems that have been poorly
patched and bandaged or ignored entirely." 2
The executive summary of the AIDS Commission's report states
clearly: "the HIV epidemic did not leave 37 million or more
Americans without ways to finance their medical care--but it did
dramatize their plight. The HIV epidemic did not cause the
problem of homelessness--but it has expanded it and made it more
visible. The HIV epidemic did not cause a collapse of the health
care system--but it has accelerated the disintegration of our
public hospitals and intensified their financing problems. The
HIV epidemic did not directly augment problems of substance
abuse--but it has made the need for drug treatment . . . a
matter of urgent national priority. Rural health care, prison
health care, access to health care for uninsured and underinsured
working men and women" 3 are all pieces of the mosaic which
form the larger picture.
The matter of HIV prevention education and the content of that
education remains a pressing problem. Persistent absence of
frank talk about sex and drugs has claimed countless lives
already and will result in needless infections and deaths in the
future.
As church persons concerned about those who already are HIV
challenged or who have been diagnosed with AIDS, we must be aware
of the many contexts within which these individuals are fighting
for their lives and well-being. "Ideally, care for people with
HIV disease includes a broad range of health care and social
services designed to enhance the quality of life, maximize
individual choice, and minimize hospital and institution-based
care."4 In reality, the health and human service systems in
too many municipalities are already overwhelmed or are ill
prepared to deal with the crisis.
Ideally, "services should be rendered with compassion in a manner
that allows people with HIV disease and their loved ones to act
as partners with their care givers."5 In reality, there are
still too few physicians outside of the major impact cities with
adequate experience in diagnosing and treating HIV disease.
Fear of persons with HIV disease persists and acceptance of co-
decision making regarding the treatment of choice (even when
options are readily available) is not always understood,
respected or honored.
Those who have cared for persons with HIV and AIDS know that "HIV
disease, especially in its later stages, presents complex
challenges. . . . The host of opportunistic infections that
characterize AIDS may attack virtually any part of the body. HIV
disease stubbornly refuses to be limited to any single organ or
treatment strategy."6
"Care needs vary also among different populations. HIV disease
in women is manifested quite differently than in men; HIV disease
in children is manifested quite differently than in adults.
Intravenous drug users often suffer from extensive concomitant
health problems that are exacerbated by HIV disease.
Neurological complications of HIV disease may pose unique
challenges. Individuals with HIV disease also have unique social
and psychological needs as a result of the dire nature of the
illness and the stigma that accompanies diagnosis."7
As has been mentioned above, the epidemic of HIV infection "is
widening most rapidly among poor people in inner cities--a group
that historically has had difficulty in gaining access to and
finding payment for primary care services. The epidemic also
primarily strikes young adults, whereas systems of care for the
chronically ill or disabled tend to be tailored to the needs of
the elderly. The sheer volume of people who have HIV disease or
are at risk of HIV infection in certain hard-hit cities
complicates care strategies still further. There are many in the
early stages of HIV infection who could benefit from treatments
designed to retard the onset of symptoms, as well as benefit from
social and mental health services. Unfortunately, many of these
persons have no point of entry into the health care system.
Millions of Americans have no health coverage, and even those
people living with HIV disease who have some form of public or
private insurance may still face formidable barriers in gaining
access to needed care."8
In 1993, we are twelve years into an epidemic which has shown
itself to be stronger than our precious resources or resolve to
deal with it. The silent insidious spread of the virus
continues. The unresolved issues of prevention education and
service delivery which troubled us in the past are killing us in
the present. The epidemic of HIV infection, nationally and
globally, cannot be addressed properly without putting it in this
larger context. We have gotten to where we are today, step by
step as a nation, owing in large part to a national inability to
address profoundly important and difficult questions regarding
the human community and our ability to live with, to care for and
to love one another.
There are days when I have thought that Jesus would have found
himself at home in this untidy landscape which is bordered on all
sides by rather strict norms regarding what is right and what is
wrong, what is proper behavior and what is sinful behavior, and
who the people are who are welcomed or shunned at the doors of
our churches and temples.
In the New Testament we are presented with the flesh and blood
Jesus who finds himself embroiled in controversy over his healing
ministries and the teachings of the temple. Imagine for a moment
this Jesus whose touch is the healing touch of the Most Holy One.
He is born into a world in which disease and suffering are
rampant. Very early he realizes that the temple's mandates
regarding holiness will stand in the way of his works of healing.
Jesus will have to decide whether to observe the laws of Torah
and the temple or to be obedient to God.
In thinking about the healing ministry of the church, let's think
for a moment about this man Jesus who in doing God's work would
redefine the meaning of holiness. It is this Jesus whom the
church must understand and follow in AIDS ministries. In an
article I wrote titled, "Relearning the Meaning of Holiness: The
Church's Role in AIDS Ministries," I said the following about
AIDS and Jesus and the times in which he lived.
The purity code contained in Torah was based on the
theological conviction that because YAHWEH was holy,
YAHWEH's chosen people were to be holy also.
Purity codes established external boundaries delineating the
holy from the unholy: the clean from the 'unclean.' The
most pure, holy and clean were priests and Levites: those
associated with the service of the temple. At the other end
of the spectrum was the leper. Stigmatized as the one in
whom impurity ruled, the leper was the one most to be
feared: the one to be announced by the words, 'unclean,
unclean.'
Into such a world Jesus came and touched the leper. Into
such a world Jesus came and brought an image of holiness
defined not by its distance from what was considered to be
unclean, but by its proximity to it. Into a world so
divided and separated within itself came Jesus, who, with
the touch of a hand, restored human community.
Into a world, so fascinated with the notion of affliction's
sinful cause, Jesus entered, giving attention to illness and
affliction as opportunities within which one could
experience God's compassion and love. Into a world which so
clearly judged some as sinners and made outcasts of others,
came this man Jesus who, in forgiving sin and in cleansing
the leper, gave a preview of God's more just and merciful
kingdom."
Jesus redefined the meaning and activities of holiness. In
Jesus, holiness included entry into the lives of others:
holiness became an act of engagement, not a state of
separation. In Jesus, holiness took on the suffering of
others; holiness associated with what was meek, lowly,
despised. In Jesus, holiness' healing touch was the touch
of inclusion and participation; the touch that said 'you
belong. '
The healing miracles of the New Testament present us with a
Jesus who broke down barriers, who took risks which challenge us
today. Jesus risked unconditionally for the neighbor; risked
without fear of reputation; risked for the sake of the Kingdom;
risked his life and lost it and returned to reveal the promise of
the scriptures for life eternal. Jesus' challenge is ever
present with us. Have you looked into the face of a person who
has HIV or AIDS and not found the face of Christ there -- look
again. Have you worked closely with a person with HIV/AIDS and
not come to a deeper understanding of what love is really all
about.
I had the honor of delivering the Words of Witness at the
memorial service for Fred Mutti, one of Bishop Mutti's two sons
who died of AIDS. At that service in celebration of Fred's life
I said that the remarkable thing about love is that it is full of
surprises. Every time we think we have a fix on it, the terrain
shifts a bit as if to test us, to force a reality check on us, to
make us look at it from a different angle, to see if it is really
love at all. In a sermon delivered on the subject of AIDS, Dr.
Donald Messer, President of Iliff Theological Seminary included
this quote about love: "So in the end love comes down to this .
. . not some Clark Gable appraisal of Vivien Leigh or some sex
symbols' seductive pose, but 'Help me sit up.' In the end love
is not a smoldering glance across the dance floor, the click of
crystal, a leisurely picnic spread upon summer's clover. It is
the squeeze of a hand. I'm here. I'll be here no matter how
long the struggle. Water? You need water? Here . . . drink .
. . let me straighten your pillow."
AIDS has taught us things about love that transcend all the
debates of all the churches of all the centuries about sexuality.
The AIDS epidemic has given us an opportunity to learn about the
character of the love that sustains one and upholds one in
sickness and in health. In learning to care for one another and
to love one another in the best and the worst of times, AIDS has
brought to us experiences of love that are larger than anything
we have ever experienced, larger than anything we have ever
understood, larger than anything we have ever asked for, larger
than anything we can ever forget. In the midst of all the pain
and agony, in the midst of the fear and the loneliness, the
uncertainty and loss we are captured by a love such as this.
In October, I had the pleasure of addressing the National
Affirmation Fall Gathering in Washington, D.C, on the occasion of
the unfolding of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt made up of
23,000 individual panels. That Washington weekend held the same
importance and significance that this day holds for me. This
opportunity to be with you is CHURCH in the deepest and most
profound sense of the word. I'm not talking about church as
institution, structure or denomination. I'm talking about church
as Koinonia: about church as the ageless human response to Jesus'
invitation to "come, follow me." I'm talking about church as
community--the communal witnessing to the ever present love of
God in our lives as we attempt to serve Christ in a world that
every day sees the human family taunted, torn and tortured in one
way or another. I'm talking about church as the communal
gathering of those who remember, and follow, and serve the Christ
who in the majestic words of the Messiah was a man of sorrow, who
was rejected and despised.
Remember the radical, defiant Jesus I mentioned earlier.
Remember the Jesus who violated the purity codes. He was
rejected, forced out into the countryside for his association and
physical contact with the leper. He was scorned by the temple
because he took it upon himself to forgive the sins of the
people. This Jesus of the healing miracles is the Jesus many
people lost touch with early in the AIDS epidemic.
Early in the '80s, shortly after we began hearing about a strange
new disease initially referred to as GRID (gay-related immune
deficiency) the pretender christs rose up: those who felt it
incumbent upon themselves to preach God's wrath, to speak God's
words of judgment and condemnation; to proclaim that AIDS is
God's punishment for sin. I thought frequently about the Jesus
who broke the purity codes and forgave sins as the pretender
christs took to the pulpit. I thought of the pain that the flesh
and blood, sensitive son of God would feel in this world today.
I thought of the boundless ability of those who bear Christ's
name to inflict endless suffering on the remembrance of Him: the
Jesus of the healing miracles, present always with those who were
sick and suffering. The Jesus who always located himself and
God's unconditional and unmeasured love precisely at the point
where God's creation was most in anguish.
I suggested at the National Consultation on AIDS Ministries in
1987 that if the historical Jesus were physically present with us
today he would present himself wearing the visible signs of
Kaposi's sarcoma: so complete, so total, so inescapable would be
his identification with all who are living with HIV disease and
AIDS.
Not only has AIDS robbed us of our family members, our loved ones
and friends, AIDS has robbed the churches of their collective
memory of the compassionate Jesus, the messiah of the
marginalized, the prophet most at home among the people pushed to
the periphery.
Why do I care so deeply about the healing ministry of the church
in the midst of the AIDS epidemic? Why do I care so deeply about
the idea of churches making a Covenant to Care, a concept which
is so simple, so deeply grounded in the Old and the New
Testaments? My passion for the church's healing ministry and to
see churches develop Covenant to Care statements and to be
involved in AIDS ministries developed in part in response to a
question raised by a 24-year old man at our National Consultation
in 1987. George was Hispanic, he was living with AIDS, Kaposi's
sarcoma was visible on his arms and face, he was also gay. Half
way through the consultation he took up the courage to go to a
floor mike and ask: "Would I be welcome in your local church?"
A 24-year old man cut to the quick of the matter and asked the
most profound theological question of the consultation.
George died a few years later in New York where I had gotten to
know him after he moved to the city. When George died, I decided
that he and all others like him deserved an answer to the
question he had raised. I knew that one way of answering his
question would be for churches to make Covenant to Care
statements letting it be known in their communities that" if you
have AIDS or if you are the loved one of a person who has AIDS
you are welcome here." It has been my hope that churches would
go on to take seriously the challenge set forth in the final
paragraph of The United Methodist Church's 1988 Resolution on
AIDS AND THE HEALING MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH which reads:
As members of the United Methodist Church we covenant
together to assure ministries and other services to persons
with AIDS. . . . We ask for God's guidance that we might
respond in ways which bear witness always to Jesus' own
compassionate ministry of healing and reconciliation; and
that to this end we might love and care for one another with
the same unmeasured and unconditional love that Jesus
embodied. (BOOK OF RESOLUTIONS 1992)
The healing ministry to which our churches continue to be called
in this second decade of the AIDS epidemic is a ministry of truth
and revelation. The pretender christs focused on God's wrath
forgetting perhaps that Jesus looked at those who suffered and
saw therein the face of God's creation. If we aspire to be the
faithful disciples of the crucified and risen Christ and the love
he exemplified, then it becomes our task and holy duty to
proclaim that:
- the face that AIDS wears is always the face of a person
created and loved by God;
- the face that AIDS wears is always the face of a person who
is someone's mother or father, husband or wife, son or
daughter, brother or sister, loved one or best friend;
- the face that AIDS wears is always the face of a person who
is the most important person in someone else's life.
Across this nation, in churches large and small, pastors and
laity continue to ask: "What can my church do?" My answer is
always based on what many churches are doing so well already.
These acts of faithfulness include:
- Making a covenant to be a place of spiritual nurture and
uplift;
- Making a covenant (a promise) to affirm the sacred worth of
persons with HIV and AIDS;
- Making a covenant to be harbingers of hope. We all need
hope in our lives: things to look forward to. We all need
to celebrate life in whatever form it is given to us today.
Covenant to be a place of joy and celebration.
- Making a covenant to be a companion to one who is ill and
alone. How long the hours are in a hospital. Making a
covenant to visit: to not be afraid.
- Making a covenant to provide care when loved ones need a
break. Lend a hand. It's one of the gestures of Christ's
healing touch.
- Making a covenant to take time to be there. You are the
presence of Christ in the midst of suffering, doubt and
fear. No greater commission was ever given to the followers
of Christ than to be the presence of Christ in the lives of
others.
- Making a covenant to work with other churches and community
groups to address the larger context of AIDS which I
mentioned earlier.
- Making a covenant to see that AIDS prevention becomes a
reality.
- Making a covenant to take care of yourselves. Remember,
Jesus withdrew from the disciples to pray, to be alone with
God, to care for his spiritual needs. Perhaps there were
times when Jesus wept over the burdens he carried. It's
o.k. to cry. Perhaps there were times when he felt
uncertain, unsure, not up to the task of establishing God's
reign on earth. God understands our unbelief, our lack of
confidence. As in the life of Jesus, God moves us from
prayer to action. God is with us always in our covenant-
making and our covenant-keeping.
Work faithfully with your church that it might covenant to be a
nonjudgmental place of openness where persons whose lives have
been touched by AIDS can name their pain, can reach out for
compassion and consolation.
Work with your church that it might covenant to be an
outstretched hand, a welcoming shoulder, a comforting breast
where pain finds Christ's mercy and the love and companionship of
those who bear his name.
Make a Covenant to Care filled with the awareness that persons
with HIV and AIDS have so much to offer your congregation and
that your congregation is not fully representative of the Body of
Christ so long as any person with HIV or AIDS is excluded,
barred, kept out.
Make a Covenant to Care fully realizing that AIDS is a disease
which is relentless and brutal, which racks the body and tears
the spirit, and leaves gaping wounds in the lives of those who
have lost the ones they loved the most.
Make quilt panels to remember those you have loved. Hang then in
your church. Remember always that to be in the presence of the
quilt is to be in the presence of the Holy, to be upheld and
sustained by the knowledge that God's mercy has no end, that
God's love endures, that God has received those who have died,
and that the wounds of the living will be healed.
In your healing ministries be a covenant-keeping people of a
covenant-making God.
Be the visible followers of the Christ Jesus who redefined the
meaning of holiness; who with the touch of the hand established
the merciful and just reign of God among those whom temple and
society believed to be "unclean" "unclean"; those judged to be
sinners; those who were cast out by others who deemed themselves
to be holy.
Make a covenant to follow him. Break down barriers. Risk for the
sake of a new heaven and a new earth. Covenant to follow him:
the Son of God, the Christ of the journey, the Jesus who knew
what it was like to be lonely, rejected and despised. Covenant
to follow. Covenant to care.
