Test SErmon

John 5:1-9

    When I was a child taking piano lessons, one year our teacher gave us a “round to it.”  It was a wooden circle prettily decorated with the words “round to it” that we could hang on our door knob or wall.  My piano teacher cleverly said, “Now you can practice piano every day, because you have a round to it.  You don’t have to wait anymore until you get a round to it!”
    We’re all familiar with the habit of procrastination.  Some of us are more habitual procrastinators than others – some people seem to be extremely motivated by procrastination in fact.  One of my husband’s friends wrote almost three-quarters of her dissertation in six weeks prior to her oral review because she simply can’t “get around to it” unless she has high pressure stakes.  In our gospel for today, we have a story of a man who has been ill for a very long time:  thirty-eight years.  I’m not sure that he is a procrastinator exactly, but it does seem like an extraordinarily long time for someone to get to the pool for healing and always have someone else going in front of him.  So Jesus asks him a simple but powerful question, “Do you want to be made well?”  What is preventing him from healing?  His own reluctance, deep down, to change his situation, even if it’s just subconscious?  Has he been sick for so long that he’s forgotten that he is still a human being, created in the image of God and therefore of worth and value to God, despite his illness?  What is wrong with the other people around him, that no one has seen his situation and tried to help?  Jesus sees that healing for this man does not simply mean his ability to walk like a “normal” person, but to be healed emotionally and spiritually as well.  Jesus isn’t taking procrastination for an answer anymore – “Do you want to be made well?” Then, he says, “Stand up, take your mat, and walk.”
    Today, let’s ask ourselves that same question.  Do we want to be made well?  Talk to Jesus about what you would like healing from or for, and then ask yourself what might be getting in the way of experiencing the healing that Jesus wants to offer.  Do we want to make more time for prayer “when we get around to it?”  Do we want to donate more generously to the work of faith-based organizations, when we get more money at some undetermined date in the future?  Do we want to get back to the basics of better physical or spiritual health, but only have a fuzzy plan?  Have we been meaning to see a mental health therapist, but haven’t gotten around to making that phone call?  There is healing that only God can bring – this is true.  But we can also ask ourselves how we are welcoming and participating in the healing of our selves and our society, or sitting back and hoping someone else will take care of it.  We can examine our subconscious reluctance to see ourselves as people with free will and positive agents for change.  Jesus reminds us also that despite our struggles, we also are children of God with yes, worth, but also agency and freedom to do something about our situation.
    I’ve told this story before, but I find it powerful, so I apologize if you’ve heard it before.  There is a legend that when the Romans were Christianizing the Gauls, soldiers were baptized by immersion in the river, but they held one of their arms up out of the water.  Then when these newly baptized soldiers went into battle, they held their swords with their “unbaptized” hand saying, “this arm has not been baptized!”  Sometimes we do the same thing as Christians today.  We hear Jesus’ call to wholeness and wellness.  We want to follow him more faithfully and more fully.  But there’s an “unbaptized” part of ourselves that holds us back:  our fears about finances or failure, our reluctance to forgive or to trust God in a particular area of our lives.  Jesus wants to heal all of us.  Jesus came, lived, and died to save all of us.  Jesus is asking us to stand up, take our mats, and follow him, leaving our past behind.  Today, we can reflect on what we are struggling to leave behind so that we might trust and follow more faithfully.
    The pool that Jesus comes to find the invalid man, “Beth-zatha,” means “House of Mercy” in Hebrew.  Isn’t that lovely?  The man comes looking for mercy, and he finds, finally, wholeness, salvation, and healing when Jesus sees him and challenges him to stand up, take his mat and walk.  Jesus doesn’t let even the fact that it’s the sabbath get in the way of this man going another day lying in this house of mercy helpless and hopeless.  Jesus ends procrastination and excuses so that “at once” the man is made well.  God’s mercy and healing has been close at hand this entire time, and Jesus brings his hope to fruition.
    It is still Easter!  The phrase Jesus uses, “Stand up” can be translated “rise up.”  It is the word connected to “resurrection” in the gospels.  This is the third sign or miracle in the gospel of John.  In chapter 4, just before this, Jesus heals a soldier’s child in Capernaum without even setting eyes on the boy, the second sign.  In the seventh and last of Jesus’ signs in the gospel of John, Jesus will raise Lazarus from the dead.  We know that Jesus has the power to heal and even raise people from the dead.  In this particular third miracle,  Jesus shows us the kind of power and agency we can have when we fully trust in him.  In this Easter season, Jesus is asking us to stand up and leave behind the labels that lie to us telling us that we are helpless and hopeless.  The man once known as “invalid” becomes a Jesus follower.  Jesus does not want us to be known primarily by negative labels, whatever those might be:  “a procrastinator,” a “perfectionist,” an “anxious person” or “chronically ill.”  You name it.  Instead, we are also children of God, resurrection people with agency to stand up and walk, following Christ our Lord and Savior, who wants to lead us into life.  Christ’s resurrection power is also ours!  Do you want to be made well?  Why not, because Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia.  Take up your mat, walk, and follow him. Amen.