Last week when we handed out the Time and Talent Survey, several people filled with self-deprecating humor announced that they had no talent. I know it’s a joke and I also have the privilege and honor to get to see the tremendous talents that you all have, so it’s hard for me to laugh along with the joke. I get to know your story and see you working both at church and in the community. Humility is good as long as it doesn’t turn into helplessness and claiming and naming your gifts and talents is good as long as it doesn’t turn into arrogance. So we walk this line where we claim what God has given us and put it to work and also claim vulnerability and our need for Jesus and each other.
Today’s Gospel story is one of the
most interesting healing stories of the Bible.
Let me go over what isn’t surprising, first. It’s not surprising that the man has been
sick for a long time. We get a lot of
stories of people sick for ages, the man blind since birth, the woman with the
hemorrhage for 14 years, for example.
The pool where he waits is said to be visited by an angel who disturbs
the water. The first one in after the
water has been stirred up is said to receive healing. I also don’t find it surprising that people
have concocted a story in which healing is scarce and limited. Humans often fear there isn’t enough, whether
it be food, money, healing or anything else that we want or need. In our supply-and demand world, when there is
less of something it is more valuable, we can charge more for it and make a
profit off of it, enrich ourselves if we have access to it.
So here’s what is surprising. This man does not ask for healing. His parents don’t ask for healing. No one asks for healing for him. The question Jesus asks is surprising, “Do
you want to be healed?” Here is a man
who has been sick for a long time, waiting by supposedly healing waters. The question could be taken as insulting,
that the man isn’t interested in being healed or could be blamed for his
illness. But Jesus asks this question
maybe to prepare the man for what is next or to make him consider what healing
and walking really would mean as far as how his life would change after 28
years. In other words maybe Jesus is
preparing him for a complete upending of his life and expectations.
Finally, I don’t know if it is
surprising or not, but the man does not answer Jesus’ question, “Do you want to
be healed?” Instead he gives reasons why
he can’t get to the water in time to get the healing. This man has one idea of how he might be
healed. He’s been pursuing that one path
year after year. When you’ve been told
that something is scarce and that it’s too much to hope for and year after year
you’re stuck, it’s hard to imagine another way, or that movement would be
possible again.
We see this world hurting, hungry
people, lonely people, people losing their jobs. We all carry our pain. We all need healing. We all need Jesus. And sometimes we sit and think about all the
reasons why healing probably won’t happen for us, we believe that what we need
is scarce and rare, we are not ready for the new life Jesus offers. And sometimes we just keep trying that one
way over and over again that we have our heart set on, not realizing that Jesus
is inviting us to move. Maybe it is kind
of a pool of Siloam situation where everyone is waiting for the time to be
right to move forward, but it is hard to picture what life will look like going
forward and what it will mean to pick up our mat and walk.
In these times we are all becoming
aware of our vulnerability. Many of our
retirement accounts took a hit, our investments have been all over the
place. We don’t know how much things
will cost or if we will have access to medicine, vaccines, and things we want
or need. There are so many
unknowns. And people are getting
creative, helping each other, figuring out homemade gifts for the holidays
since we don’t know what tariffs will do to the supply chain. It is a good time
to remember that we need Jesus and each other and also that Jesus has given us
many gifts and talents to cultivate and share.
As a church, recently we have been following Jesus’ instructions and
picking up our mat and walking.
Lately I have seen you moving
Trinity, walking. I saw you walking at
the state capital building on Advocacy Day.
I saw you cramming yourself in that little room at Covenant Presbyterian
for Maundy Thursday. I know you
volunteer at your grandkids’ school. I
know you show up at candidate’s forums to make your voice heard and to become
informed. I know you go and visit people
who need you and that you take your faith with you into the community every
day. I see you walking up to visitors,
people you don’t know, introducing yourselves and asking caring questions. I see you inviting people to church and into
your lives. I see you giving of
yourselves for the good of others and putting other’s needs before your
own. How else might God be inviting us
to take up our mat and walk? How can we
release our ideas of what life would be and what path we would take and how do
we embrace the new life Jesus is offering right now, and move, get up, and have
faith in his abundant grace and overflowing new life.
Sometimes churches can either have
low self-esteem and think of all the reasons they are not good enough, or too full
of themselves to connect with others.
Either way it can be paralyzing.
But Trinity, I think we are finding our way in that zone of action, that
pick up your mat zone that Jesus invites us to, empowered but humble, helpful
but learning, moving and evaluating, putting Jesus at the center, and
moving. When Jesus asks the question,
“Trinity, do you want to be healed?” We
can be self-deprecating and joke that we have no talent, but we have time. So Jesus commands us to walk, to move, to go
forward, empowered by the Holy Spirit to leave this place, and to take that
Holy Spirit with us to the store, the library, the garden and park, the ball
game, the family reunion, the soup kitchen, everywhere. We are empowered to walk, to move, not to
stay put, but to reach out beyond these brick walls and find out what healing
looks like.
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