Henrietta United Church of Christ

2Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed, [footnote:] waiting for the stirring of the waters. 4 From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease that person had. 5One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” 8Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” 9At once the man was healed, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Sermon:

Let’s imagine walking through Jerusalem 2000 years ago. The streets are full of makeshift market stands and the commotion of people hawking their wares and bargaining for a better deal. Then we come to the Sheep Gate, where an ancient pool and stony ground are enclosed by high stone walls. The pool is used to wash the sheep that are about to be sacrificed at the Temple. There are five open porticoes, or roofs supported by stone pillars. We can see people sitting and lying down under their shade . As we look at them more closely, we can see that some are blind, some are crippled, and some are weakly lying on pallets.

A heavy pall hangs in the air. About everything they could talk about has been talked about. Nothing is really happening here except waiting. Waiting for the water to be stirred by what they thought was an angel, but what we now know was an underground stream that would sometimes bubble up and disturb the water.

The people here believe that the first one into the water can be healed of whatever ails them. But there’s a slight problem. Each of them has a handicap that makes it hard for them to be that first one. The worse their condition and the more they need the healing, the less chance they have of beating the others into the water, and the longer they stay there, waiting and hoping. And maybe after a long time of waiting and hoping, it just becomes waiting. And then waiting for what? Maybe just waiting for it all to end.

So Jesus comes onto this scene. And he seems to find the person who has been sick the longest–for 38 years.

What would it be like to be sick for 38 years? Imagine that you have been an invalid since 1971. Imagine all of those years going by, one after another, without your feeling able to really participate in life and do the things almost everyone else can do. How many times would you have asked, “God, why me? What did I do to deserve this?” But you don’t get an answer. How many times would you have wondered how your life would have been different, if only...? But it’s not different. How many times would you have dreamed about being like everyone else? But you wake up again in your same disabled body. How many times would you have felt yourself being pulled down into a deep dark hole of frustration, jealousy, blame, worthlessness, depression, helplessness, or despair?

Most of us haven’t been sick for 38 years. But we know that it doesn’t take much to put us into the vortex of that dark hole where we feel like a powerless victim in an unpredictable world. Battling cancer, having chronic pain, or getting macular degeneration can draw you into that hole. So can having a loved one who is chronically sick or disabled. So can losing your job. So can losing a loved one you really depended on. Or being treated unfairly. Or being in a relationship where judgment and blame have edged out respect and understanding. Or just feeling like this world is out of control, things are on the wrong track, and there’s nothing of any significance you can do about it. I suspect we all know something of what that invalid in the story was feeling.

So Jesus finds this man has gotten lost in his feeling of helplessness. “Do you want to be healed?” Jesus asks him. That seems like a dumb question. Why else would the man be there by the pool. But have you noticed that hanging out as a victim of life has some hidden rewards? Not as much is expected of us. We can get sympathy and attention. We can blame other people or God for the unpleasant things in our life. We can complain without doing anything. We can feel justified in feeling sorry for ourselves There are the perks of powerlessness.

So Jesus asks a “dumb question” that is really a very insightful question: “Do you want to be healed and whole and strong?” And what the man gives Jesus isn’t an answer to the question, but an excuse as to why he is still an invalid. “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” I’m a powerless victim here, he’s saying. There’s nothing I can do. Why are you asking me if I want to be healed? You should be feeling sorry for me.

I imagine that Jesus let his question just kind of linger in the air for awhile, echoing in the man’s mind “Do you want to be healed?”

What if Jesus slipped into this sanctuary today, looked around, walked over to you, and quietly asked, “Do you want to be healed–be made whole? Do you want to stop feeling like a victim of your circumstances, and begin creating the life that God hopes that you will live? Do you want to shed some of your emotional insulation, and start living your life wide open--taking in life’s joy and being touched by its pain? Do you want to learn the life lessons that you came here to learn, even if it means losing sometimes and failing sometimes, so you can find the Source of strength that’s deeper than loss and failure? Do you want to stretch yourself into giving fully all you were put here to give? Do you want to be so fully alive and free that your life inspires other people’s courage and compassion, faith and hope?

We’d probably have to think about that, wouldn’t we? Part of us would be saying, “Wait a minute! Sure, I often feel constricted, powerless, and small. I know some things in life are passing me by, and I know I’m not all that I can be. But this little life of mine feels familiar and safe. I have too much to lose. Changing myself or changing my life is too risky.”

But might there be another part that would stir at Jesus’ questions? Might there be a deep yearning for something more? Might some part of you whisper, “That bigger you is who you really are. That fuller life is what you’re here to find. These days you are living right now are your chance to discover all of that. If not now, when?”

Imagine that Jesus is looking into you and seeing the place that is most stuck and where you feel the most powerless. Imagine him asking, “Do you want to be healed? Do you want to be whole? Do you want to be all that God created you to be?” What dormant seed is stirring in you that wants to grow but doesn’t know how?...

Before the man in the story was ready to be healed, he had to shift his image of himself from being a helpless victim of life, who couldn’t do anything but wait, to being a healthy, active participant in life, able to make decisions and do things and take on new responsibilities. It would have been a big shift. But something inside him said Yes to this new vision of who he was created and called to be.

And Jesus sensed this man’s new vision of himself, and Jesus joined his healing power to the power of this man’s new vision, and told the man to take the first step into his new life. “Stand up, take your mat and walk,” Jesus told him. Jesus didn’t give him a list of all the places he should go or map of how to get there. Jesus knew the man’s new vision of himself as a person who was healthy and able would guide him step by step into his new life.

As I was preparing this sermon, it became clear to me why Jesus so often told people he healed, “Your faith has made you well.” It was their faith in their vision of who the healthy, whole free person that God had wanted them to be that made their healing possible. Jesus added the power of his spirit to their vision, to be sure. But their belief in their own God-given potential was the seed that Jesus brought fully to life. That’s why Jesus tells us, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” The Greek form of those verbs here–ask, seek and knock–imply continuous action. Spiritual teachers from every major religion have all said the same thing–it is our intentions, our attitudes, and our faith that greatly influence what we receive in our lives. That’s what’s behind the power of prayer. Prayer isn’t so much about persuading God to give us what we want, as opening our will to God’s will for us and preparing ourselves to receive it and to bring it forth. That’s how we move from being victims to being visionaries who co-create our lives with God.

When you think about it, Jesus’ ministry was almost entirely to people who saw themselves as victims–victims of diseases and disabilities, victims of political oppression, victims of economic exploitation, victims of religious judgmentalism, and victims of social ostracism. Almost everyone he ministered to knew about that dark hole of powerlessness, frustration, shame, and depression that victims get drawn into. Time after time, Jesus called people out of their view of themselves as victims, awakened in them a new vision of who they were as children of the living God, and helped them tap into their spiritual power to live into that new vision.

All that helpless victims can do is to react to their circumstances with anger, blame, shame, hatred, revenge, resentment, bitterness, depression, or despair. But people who believe in their vision of who God has created them to be meet their lives, not with reactivity, but with response-ability. They have the ability to respond creatively to their life’s circumstances, based not on the way things are, but on the way God intends things to be. They ask for God’s highest will for themselves and those around them, and they receive all they need. They persistently seek the fulfillment of their vision, and they find what they are looking for as they are ready to receive it. They knock, and the door of new opportunities opens to them, as they are ready to enter it.

God gave us the ability to move from victims to visionaries, to move from reactivity to creative response-ability. Don’t you think that God hopes that we will develop these spiritual abilities as we face all the challenging circumstances of our mortal life?

Is there a part of your life where you feel like a victim of your life’s circumstances? If Jesus were next to you, sensing a place in your life where you feel victimized or stuck, and asked if you want to become whole, healthy, and fully alive, what vision of yourself as God’s beloved child might stir within your soul? What does your soul most deeply want? Can you work on discerning that vision? Can you then claim that vision, hold it in front of you, stand up, and take the first steps into a fuller more abundant life that you and God create together?