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Preaching at Saint Mark’s Church
The Sixth Sunday of Easter
1 May 2016
“More than the
Sabbath”
Acts 16:9-15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
St. John 5:1-9
INI
John wants his
readers to be acutely aware of the sign and symbols that are scattered about in
his Gospel. They are not placed there by him as a literary or mythogenic
device, but rather they are perceived by him and he asks us to be aware of them
as well. There are seven signs of
particular note, the changing of water into wine at Cana, the healing of the
officials son, the feeding of the 5,000, the walking on water, the healing of
the man born blind, and today’s Gospel about the paralytic at Bethesda.
Sometimes these events are placed within the embrace of important liturgical
festivals in the Jewish Year, and so it is today, where the story takes place
on the most common of them – the Sabbath. In these settings John wants us to
understand the depth of Jesus’ ministry and meaning, and intends that these
days, symbols, and events give comment not only on who Jesus us, but what Jesus
wishes to teach us as well. The days themselves point to Jesus and his presence
in the everyday nature of things. In this case, the Sabbath becomes more than
anyone really understood.
This particular
healing takes place at Beth-zatha with its pool that was occasionally stirred
up. Already John is getting us ready to understand something significant about
Jesus by pointing out these details of the setting: the gathering of invalids
(in themselves a sign of messianic potentiality) and the waters of the pool
(which minds us of Creation where God orders the chaos and divides water from
land), and finally the stirring up (an implicit reference to the Holy Spirit
who hovers over the face of the deep. Thus we are led to the first lesson.
Lesson One: God’s continuing creative
activity
It is
particularly easy for us, living when we do, to understand the on-going nature
of Creation. If there is one thing that the Hubble Spacecraft has made evident
to us it is that creation is being renewed every nanosecond at an astounding
rate. All about us is change and decay and recreation. This is not just a scientific
observation but a theological one as well. Later in the Gospel, Jesus will
teach the disciples “My Father is still working.” This challenges our sometimes
rather static view of God as Creator. It is more than function, or a
description of what once was. It is a declaration about the present and the
future. God is yet about the business of making us and the cosmos we live in.
Hold on to that thought, because it will become important in the third and
final lesson this morning.
Lesson Two: Jesus and Creation
In the story the
man is waiting for the water to be stirred up, and is frustrated in his
attempts to get to the water to receive the cure. Jesus, as we shall soon see,
virtually ignores the water, and asks the man to do something entirely
different. The water didn’t matter to Jesus, or to the man seeking it, for that
matter. What did matter was what was working with the water. Let me complete
the verse that Jesus spoke to the disciples, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” This whole
sequence and passage reminds me of Martin Luther’s commentary on Baptism (Oh,
and by the way, the ewer is there filled and ready should anyone want to be
washed in Baptism.) Luther said, “It is not the water that does these great
things,” and then goes on to connect the water with the Word and Spirit, or in
this case with himself. Creation is being actively renewed through the activity
of Jesus as well. We see that when he feeds us in the Eucharist, or forgives us
in the words of others, or teaches us with sacred words. But there is more –
and this finally lesson is intimately related to us and to our living.
Lesson Three: Creation within
“Stand up, take
your mat, and walk.” It is almost rude in its abrupt nature, but here Jesus
points to the simplicity of all that has been done on this day. The man was
expecting something from outside of himself to save him. He expected that he
needed to touch or move to that thing in order to be healed. It was the same
impulse that led the woman with the issue of blood to touch the hem of Jesus’
garment. But, as Jesus points out, it was her faith, and the man’s self action
time after time (perhaps this is faith) Jesus teaches the man that he already
has the power of creation within him to take action, to “get up, and to walk.”
Are we waiting
by the pool of Beth-zatha here? Are we waiting for someone or something outside
of ourselves to move us on in our ministry? Do we think of ourselves as flawed
in some way because we have been usable to get to the water (or whatever the resource
is) soon enough? Please don’t hear this as a scolding, but rather as a lesson
in practical theology, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
If we believe
what we confess about the power that Christ gives us, and the partnership that
we have in the Holy Spirit – if we believe these things, then there ought to be
a thoroughly invigorating conversation going on around here. Jesus points to
the innate gifts that the man already has – living in creation, under the care
of a creating God, and invited by the incarnate One. Such gifts could be used
for great purpose. For the man, they were enough to get him out the gate and
back on the street of life. He simply got up – and that was the gift of that
Sabbath, and Jesus’ understanding.
I wonder what
would happen around here in terms of ministry to ourselves, to one another, and
to the community that surrounds us if we all had the simple understanding that
“I have to get up – and move!” The directions that we might go, and the streets
that we might return to will lead us in a thousand directions – each of them a
moment for recreation, for seeing God active in the world through us. So, “get
up”!
SDG
