"Stirring Up the Water"

John 5:1-9 (from a sermon preached at the First Presbyterian Church of Brockport, while Rev. Aaron Doll preached at Byron) What a wonderful opportunity this is to worship with my friends at the First Presbyterian Church of Brockport. Over the years that I have been a pastor I have had many opportunities to work closely with some of you in the work of our presbytery. To my friends, it’s good to see you again. To those who I haven’t met yet, I hope we will be friends after today! Thank you for inviting me to preach from the Word of God today. And, of course, my church in Byron is in great hands with Aaron leading worship there. Has anyone here ever had to wait for something? When I was a little boy, waiting for the school bus on a cold winter day was hard. Even five minutes seemed too long when my toes were starting to freeze! The biggest wait, though, was that it seemed like it took almost forever for my birthday or for Christmas to arrive each year. What are some of the things you remember waiting for in your life? One friend, in the 7th month of her pregnancy told me she had waited enough; she wanted to have the baby right now, because even seven months had been too long time to wait. But that’s nothing. In today’s story we meet a man who has been waiting for 38 years. 38 years! Waiting, waiting, waiting. I think he was pretty miserable about all of that waiting. What made it most difficult was that what he was waiting for was right in front of him, as close as I am to the first row of seats in the church from where I am standing. It would be like having to wait all year long for Christmas, but with all of the beautiful, wonderful gifts, spread out right in front of you. It would drive you crazy to see all of those gifts, but not be able to touch them. And now multiply that feeling by 38 years and you get the idea of how desperate the man was. Here’s what he was waiting for – a miracle, a healing, a cure! You see there was something terribly wrong with his legs. It doesn’t say exactly what was wrong, but we can guess that his legs didn’t work, he couldn’t stand on them, he couldn’t walk on them. And maybe they hurt all of the time, too. It meant that he couldn’t work and had no money. He was probably a beggar. His only hope was for a miracle to happen. In those times, there were no doctors like there are today, and especially not for poor people. But there was one chance he had to get cured, for his legs to work again, and that was to go to this special pool in Jerusalem, the pool of Bethsaida. People who would enter the water of the pool could feel that soothing, healing water, and whatever didn’t work in their bodies would be fixed. Can you imagine what it would be like to jump into a pool like that – all your aches and pains washed away? Aaaahhhh! But the problem was that only one person at a time could be healed at the Pool of Bethsaida: the first one to get into the water when the time was right. At certain times, you see, little bubbles would rise up out of the water, which everyone believed happened because it was Almighty God stirring up the water. So everyone looking for healing would sit on the edge of the pool waiting for the bubbles to rise, proof that God was close by and ready to do a miracle. And when the bubbles appeared, the first one in was cured. (jump!) Yippee-dippee! Now our man who had been waiting for 38 years had a big problem. In all of those 38 years, because his legs didn’t work, he was never fast enough to get into the water first. No one would help him get to the water, and no one would carry him to the edge of the pool. How would you feel if you were that man? (at font) I’ve been working with members of your church’s Stewardship Committee – not for 38 years, only two. We’ve been working on a strategy called Natural Church Development. In case you haven’t heard of Natural Church Development, the simple purpose of it is to help your church, and my church, and all of our churches get healthier in our ministry. So this story about the man lying by the side of the pool relates to my situation and to yours. He wanted to get healthier and we want to get healthier, too. In your case I’m not talking about all of your aches and pains as individuals, I’m talking about becoming a healthier church that is more eager to be immersed in the word of God, more excited about diving into mission, more enthusiastic about inviting others to jump in, soaking up even more of God’s love, and to splash it into the lives of others. That’s what a healthier church would be, it’s what my church hopes for, and what your church hopes for. A couple of years ago some of the leaders of your church took a survey that revealed the strengths of your ministry, but the survey also revealed your weakness. In your church and in my church the weakness, is the same: Passionate Spirituality is in low supply. To get healthier, we have to address this weakness. I don’t mean that this congregation lacks spirituality, it only means that our spirituality is more hidden than it should be. More hidden to the world around us and even to our own selves. So your Stewardship Committee has been working on ways to allow the spirituality of this congregation to become more visible to yourselves and to the wider world. Next Saturday, a retreat has been planned by the Stewardship Committee that you are invited to attend. I am looking forward to it, because it promises to be an experience like that of the man at the pool, whose wait will soon be over. The retreat will be a day when we help each other get our toes in the water. Not really, of course, because it’s still a little chilly yet for swimming in May! But we will talk about water a lot. Come to the water, the water that cleanses and renews as the flood came in the time of Noah. Come to the water, the water that relieves thirst as the Israelites wandered in the desert. Come to the water, the living water that Jesus offered the woman at the well, the spiritual water Jesus offered to Nicodemus in the night. Come to the water, the saving water of baptism that an unlikely man from Ethiopia discovered. As we touch the water, as we touch God in Jesus Christ, our spiritual health grows. So there’s that poor man on the edge of the pool, unable to get into the water on time. Everything changes when Jesus arrives. I love how this conversation unfolds. Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be healed?”. You’d think he would give a quick answer: “Yes!” But he doesn’t say “Yes”, instead he gives all of the reasons why he can’t get to the water fast enough when God stirs up the bubbles. He’s a lot like us, when Jesus offers us a way forward, we think of all the reasons why we can’t - the water’s too cold, too deep, too far away, too many waves, my bathing suit doesn’t fit, I’m not ready, I’m scared, I’d rather hug the shore where it’s safe and then wonder why God hasn’t been helping . Of course, we’re not really talking about water at all, we’re talking about all of the ways that God invites us to be passionately spiritual people, and how easy it is for us to hold back. God, you are so patient with us, but we hope and pray you will give us the pull or the push we need to experience more fully the hope and joy you have prepared for us in Jesus Christ. Move our toe to touch the water, move our legs to wade in, move our lungs to take a deep breath, and draw us more deeply into your love. Jesus told us all about this, and now we’re ready. This is a day to say yes to what Jesus offers, and it works whether you’ve been waiting 38 minutes, 38 weeks, 38 months, or 38 years! So let’s practice, using the question Jesus asked the man at the pool. Do you want to be healed? Yes! Yes! Yes! Friends, this is the hope and the power of the Gospel, the water of life, long promised to you. Amen!