Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Miracles?

Brian McLaren (foreground) and Tony Jones, Yal...Image via Wikipedia


On Brian Mclaren's blog he answers a question regarding miracles:



Thanks for your questions. I spent many years in charismatic/Pentecostal circles, and although I saw a lot of prayer, I can't say I saw physical, visible miracles. Through my years in ministry, I prayed for many people with various diseases, but again, my track record for seeing clear, visible physical miracles was not very impressive at all.
When I've seen God at work in powerful and visible ways, it has almost always involved people acting in compassion, people using their skills and gifts (including medical skills and gifts), people become the "hands and feet" of Christ to love and serve others.
I never shut down the possibility of more dramatic miracles occurring, but I do doubt any claim that they are available on demand. (BTW - if you can point me to a bona fide case, with sufficient evidence, of an amputee whose hand was miraculously restored, I'll gladly report it here. Sadly, through the years, many reports I've heard from a distance turn out not to be real when you track them down.)

I'm a probably a bit more optimistic than Mclaren. The strange thing is that I've seen miricles outside of Christianity and the Church than inside. When it occurred in the Church I'd say it was one of those statistically rare one in a couple of million, not an improbability. Working inside palliative care I've seen people taken off our books because they seem to be cured. It was rare but happened once or twice. 
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