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God heals.
That might sound like a contradiction of reality to us who are here, at this time, in this place, who are gathered to commend ____________ to God, ____________ whose illness struck so suddenly and who sickened and died so rapidly. But let me read you a gospel text, one well--known to us all. The evangelist Matthew tells us:
Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ''Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.'' And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, ''This man is blaspheming.'' But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ''Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ''Your sins are forgiven,'' or to say, ''Rise, and walk?'' But that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins,'' - and he then said to the paralytic - ''Rise, take up your bed and go home.'' And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
God does heal. And he does so in more than one way. He does heal physically. Every one of us has been healed physically

by God, over and over. Sometimes, through the natural course of healing that God placed in the natural order of things: broken bones mend, colds run their course. Some of us have been healed through the wisdom God has imparted to medical science of our time; from pneumonia, heart attacks, premature births. Perhaps you or someone you know have even been healed in ways we still consider real miracles of healing by God, because we as yet do not know how they happen: remission from cancer, or awakening from a long--term coma. All these healings come from God. And we are all healed by God again and again by one of these, his methods. ____________, too. Over and over during her life.
But the time is going to come for each one of us when God is simply not going to heal us in the physical way. Nothing in God's creation was created to last forever in this physical state: not stars, mountains, rivers, insects, birds, and not us. How often we forget that for all those people Jesus healed from illness during his ministry, that healing was not forever; it was a one--time healing, and all those people would get sick again sometime in the future. And even die sometime in the future, from something God deigned not to cure.
But in Matthew's gospel text, Jesus said something else besides ''Rise and walk'' to that sick man. He also said, ''Your sins are forgiven.''
Physical healing is not the only healing God provides. There is also spiritual healing, the forgiveness of sin. Physical healing of illness leads to continued life on this earth. Spiritual healing of sin leads to life in heaven. Physical healing is temporary, because we all will die eventually, no matter how often God heals us before that time. Spiritual healing is forever. In fact the word 'salvation'' means ''to heal,'' from the same root word as the English word salve, a healing ointment. Salvation is eternal healing. And, it is the only healing that Christ died on the cross that we might have; therefore, it is the most important of all healings.
At the time of a funeral, we gather to celebrate God's healing. Obviously we are not celebrating the physical healing,

for the final illness that brings us here is always the one that God has ordained not to heal. But rather we gather to celebrate God's healing us of the sickness of sin through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And ____________'s Lord. The Lord of life. ''For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.''
Some healing is better than other healing. ____________ was healed many times by God in the natural course of her life, over and over, I'm sure; otherwise, she would not have been the strong, healthy woman she was up to a few months ago. But that was not her most important healing. Most importantly, her sins were forgiven by God, and the healing of salvation was hers. And that's the healing that counts now. As eventually it was the only healing that counted for all those whom Jesus cured in person during his ministry. And it is the only healing that will count for you and me in the end.
And so we thank God for his healing ____________, as she joins all those whom God has healed before her. And we pray that through Jesus Christ we may join them in that eternal healing when our time comes. Thanks be to God!