A Curious Christian

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I am a Reiki III and have been using Reiki in the nursing home where I work on residents who want a 15 minutes rapid REiki session. We also have been incorporating message, essential oils, and reiki into a time we call Nameste for late stage dementia residents. Our observations have shown improvement and relaxation for the residents. We were recently featured in our weekly news paper. An area Lutheran minister – Wis Synod – contacted our administrator and very kindly expressed his disapproval of Reiki. I’ve found a Theological evaluation of Reiki prepared by the Missouri Synod Lutheran church and am confused with their 3 pertinent points but especially when they say “nowhere in the scriptures give command or promise to the church of all ages that God will perform healing miracles as He did in the days of Jesus and the apostles”. Discussion is appreciated.

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KS Richter | April 6, 2015 at 8:34 pm

It sounds like you have a great ministry happening within your position at the nursing home. It sounds like you are finding the Reiki to be a healing practice within the work you do. Is that the case? Just curious — where is the home located?

I don’t know what the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod teaches in their “3 pertinent points”. Can you tell me more about that? Or say more about the evaluation that you found? It sounds like the statement is creating a parallel between Reiki and healing miracles. In my experience, Reiki does not offer miraculous healing as a guaranteed outcome of treatment.

As far as I know, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) does not have any policy statements with regard to Reiki. At least, I have never found any such statement, so I cannot offer any help from that angle of churchly insights.

Everything that I have seen about Reiki says that it is NOT a religious practice and that it is NOT affiliated with any religion. Certainly, that is what I was taught as I learned the practice of Reiki. There are many non-religious practices that are used by faithful people. Meditation and counseling come quickly to mind. These are not “religious” in nature, but they can be used in connection with faith-based understandings of life and can incorporate “religious” practices like prayer in order to be very powerful healing tools.

I imagine that for some people there is fear associated with the idea of “energy healing.” For me, this is not a problem because of what I understand about the nature of the human body … and creation in general. The human body generates energy. Electrical impulses travel along nerves. Heat radiates from every cell. Energy can be used for healing purposes. Electrical energy has been used as part of physical therapy for many years, for example, as has heat (or cold). I have no doubt that God created the human body and designed it with this energy production as a part of the design. After all, the energy is being created just because the human body is alive, so it must be part of the original design/plan of God. The same is true of other living things, including plants. To me, learning about this energy and learning to harness it in healing ways does not seem contrary to God’s ways of healing.

Following the LC-MS statement about miracles and miraculous healing …
As far as I know, it is true that Scripture does not specifically state that “God will continue to perform healing miracles throughout the history of the church in accord with the miracles that Jesus has done” or “in accord with what the apostles have done”. However, I also cannot think of any place where scripture specifically states that “God will NOT continue to perform healing miracles throughout the history of the church”.

What is your experience with the teaching of Scripture?

I do not want to take any verse of scripture out of its broader context, so I’ll have to do some looking to be sure about what Scripture says or doesn’t say about miracles happening through God’s power and through people of the church in the post-apostolic future. Passages that might be relevant that come quickly to mind are …

John 14 tells us that Jesus said, “the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (John 14:12-14 NRSV). On the surface, it seems that Jesus is saying his followers will be doing some powerful things in Jesus’ name and through Jesus’ power. We must keep in mind that the powerful things do not happen through the followers, but through Jesus and Jesus’ power. And, I don’t want to assert that this is what is going on without checking the full context of the passage.

1 Corinthians 12 & 13 talk about a variety of God-given spiritual gifts among church members. In 12:28-31, there is a list of gifts that various people have received from God. Healing is among the gifts. In 13:8, some of those gifts are described as ending – prophecy, tongues, and knowledge. Healing is not in the list of gifts that end. Again, I don’t want to take that verse out of context or say that it means “these gifts won’t be given by God once the apostles are all gone” without doing a more close reading of Paul’s letter.

Do you have other scriptures in mind as you respond to the LC-MS statement?

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- Larry Valin (@lcvalin) | January 15, 2016 at 1:45 pm
  
  I am skeptical of reiki. Did not know what it was till now. It seems related to “laying on of hands” in Bible.
  
  Pastor did not say why he objected.
  
  I am skeptical of all denominations. Recently have had issues of conflict with LCMS over Bible Chronology. Think there is relationship between supposed loss of “miraculous” and institutionalization of church.
  
  As a Christian I also have questions about medical system healing. Is this also a form of “spiritual adultery” as related in this week’s Augsburg Study based on Hosea?
  
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