The text we have received today is one in which we see a movement from competition to a greater union, or at least we have the potential for it. Before digging any deeper into that, I want to acknowledge the good and global competition going on in China right now with the Winter Olympics. Most specifically I want to lift up the Women’s Slopestyle competition.
For those that do not know about it, Slope Style is like a combination of a skateboard park, downhill skiing, and snowboarding on an obstacle course made of ice on the side of a mountain. Not only do competitors hurl themselves down a sheet of ice while strapped to a board but they also must perform tricks with names that sound like trigonometry problems, defy gravity, and could easily send them to the hospital – and they must perform them with style.
The cool thing about the women’s event is that it is clearly the result of several generations of openness and inclusion and incredible respect for the prowess of these women athletes. They use the same track, equipment, and tricks as the men and the Silver Medalist for this year’s women’s event trained with the Gold Medalist from last year’s men’s event. We sure have come a long way.
The thing that I really want to lift up about these women is the spirit of unity that these games attempt to produce and the way they exhibit it. In the opening ceremony the typical Olympic creed of “Faster, Higher, Stronger” was followed by “Together.” Nice sentiment, I thought, then the women came out to play. It was down to the last run. The US and Australia were locked in for medals (Gold and Silver up til now) as they watched a competitor from New Zealand knock them down to silver and bronze. What do you think they did next? They cheered like they were at a concert – because they took joy in her triumph – and they ran out and dog piled her! Then all of the competitors came out and mobbed all three of them in a giant huddle – including the one she knocked off the podium who would’ve gotten Bronze!
I wonder if the men will be strong enough to do that at the end of their competition? We’ll see.
Now, that was certainly an Olympic event of joyful competition demonstrating the best of what we can do and be as humans, but what we have in scripture today is an Olympic event of suffering that shows us what life is like when we turn to God (in Psalm 40) and what it is like when we turn from God, like the “lame” man Jesus healed. Keep those women in mind while we talk about this lame guy. Also, I would suggest that he remained lame, even though he could walk.
Don’t take it from me, though. Let’s look at the text. The first thing I want you to notice is that Jesus is an observant Jew. 5:1 says he went back to Jerusalem because there was a festival. The text doesn’t bother with a route through Samaria this time, though he probably went that way again. John’s gospel has already made the point in chapters 3 and 4 that Jesus has come as God’s offering of Grace for the world, which includes people we don’t think deserve it and even those that may be actively oppressing us. In 4:46 Jesus heals the son of a Roman Official and sends him off with nothing but a promise.
In Chapter 5 we find a different situation entirely. First we learn that there are a number of people with different infirmities waiting at the pool at the Sheep Gate. Scholars believe this was a pool for ritual bathing, and while the King James version inserted the idea that an Angel troubled the waters, the NRSV does not because that is not what the original Greek texts say. It just says that the waters get stirred up and they bring healing. Archeologists tell us the pool was fed by a cistern, possibly when it overflowed, but what matters is that the expectation of this man was that healing might come through a strangely competitive action that seems devoid of grace and mercy – especially the mercy of those who may clearly see his need.
Jesus sees him and hears him and has compassion on him and tells him in v.8 to take up his mat and walk. He doesn’t try to correct the man’s belief system. He doesn’t try to compete in this unfair system that then punished the man for walking and carrying his mat on a Sabbath day (5:10). Incidentally, this is the part where we see that the man is still “lame”. In 5:14 Jesus finds the man, presumably hearing that he has told the Temple Authorities that someone else was to blame for his sin against the law, and says, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
Let’s pump the breaks here for a second and acknowledge that sin in the Gospel of John is not a quid pro quo. Sin is about alienation from God and from one another, and we see this here and again in John 9 with the question about the person born blind and whose sin caused it. With that in mind, Jesus is not saying that the man will be even more physically infirm. Jesus is telling the man that choosing the law over grace is what kept people from helping him in the first place.
“Look,” he says, “don’t contribute to the same system that caused your suffering in the first place.” Yet the first thing the man does is to go and tell the Temple Authorities about Jesus, which fills them with anger – and probably some fear – that boils over into violence. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty lame to me.
Contrast that with Psalm 40:4, and what do you hear? “Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.” Yes. Happy are we when we realize, as it continues in v5 that the providence of God is greater than we can even imagine. Happy are we if the idea of oppression is a foreign concept. Happy are we if our sorrow is not too great for us to even see (let alone rejoice) in the success of our neighbors – even our competitors – and happy are we if we can embrace them and shout for them like the Olympic athletes we support.
Happy are we if we can see this table and the gifts it brings us as a foretaste of the unity that goes beyond our imagination and rests in the providence of God.
Happy are we if we can see the systems that keep people waiting by the pool of business and commerce as though it does not require us to consume toxic chemicals and promote toxic relationships. That is not to say that one ism is any better than the other, but it is to say that we are often as blind as the devout Jews, apart from Jesus, who walked by the pool ignoring those poor suckers who were waiting on some clean water to pour in upon them.
See, we have been made well. I don’t mean that we don’t have those among us with chronic pain or other diseases. I don’t mean to say that we should deny the science of vaccines or the common courtesy of masking during surges of new strains of COVID. What I mean is that faith in Jesus is what enables us to see those places of suffering between us, so that we can contribute to one another’s wellbeing as children of God.
That means celebrating the achievements and sharing the burdens of those who have historically been ignored or denied – like women athletes; like black history month (which is actually just filling in the blanks for our shared history that we’ve left out in the past); like historically black communities in Louisiana and Alabama (and other states I am sure) that have higher rates of cancer due to documented chemical spills; like the indigenous tribes in Louisiana whose land is still being grabbed for to make fishing peers for corporate magnates while offering to relocate those who have fished the shore for generations to landlocked developments.
How is all of this still happening in 2022? Perhaps it is because we still need some healing after all. Thanks be to God that this table is the table of mercy. This table is the place where we join – winners and losers and all those in between – in a great huddle of love for all the world to see! This is the table that keeps us from being lame. It keeps us from denying others the love and mercy we have received. Maybe we can’t fix racism or reform our political and economic system overnight, but we can at least recognize hatred when we see it. More than that, we can recognize love when we see it.
I want to tell you about a place where I saw love flow like the question of Jesus, who simply asks, “Do you want to be made well?” This week, on the first few days of Black History Month, more than 20 HBCUs (Historically Black Campuses and Universities) received bomb threats. One of them was Southern University, which is near First Presbyterian Church of Scotlandville, a member congregation of the Presbytery of South Louisiana that has recently begun steps to start a campus ministry at Southern.
To say they were upset about this – these, our brothers and sisters in Christ – would be putting it mildly. In response, they have submitted a statement of condemnation for these threats that will go to our next Presbytery meeting. Affirming it is the least we can do. Statements are easy. The real question is whether or not we actually want to be healed. It’s no question as to whether we have been healed because Jesus doesn’t compete.
The good news of this table is that we have been made well, and because we have been made well we can see all the weird things people do to make themselves feel better – and we can choose a different path…and we can invite them to this same table where we celebrate and taste and see that Jesus is the bread of life and the offering of salvation.
That’s where we’ll pick up next week, but today, as we approach the Table of Mercy, let us hear the voice of God say to us, “See, you have been made well. Now do not sin – do not separate yourself from God and from your neighbor – so that nothing worse will happen.” Amen.
For those that do not know about it, Slope Style is like a combination of a skateboard park, downhill skiing, and snowboarding on an obstacle course made of ice on the side of a mountain. Not only do competitors hurl themselves down a sheet of ice while strapped to a board but they also must perform tricks with names that sound like trigonometry problems, defy gravity, and could easily send them to the hospital – and they must perform them with style.
The cool thing about the women’s event is that it is clearly the result of several generations of openness and inclusion and incredible respect for the prowess of these women athletes. They use the same track, equipment, and tricks as the men and the Silver Medalist for this year’s women’s event trained with the Gold Medalist from last year’s men’s event. We sure have come a long way.
The thing that I really want to lift up about these women is the spirit of unity that these games attempt to produce and the way they exhibit it. In the opening ceremony the typical Olympic creed of “Faster, Higher, Stronger” was followed by “Together.” Nice sentiment, I thought, then the women came out to play. It was down to the last run. The US and Australia were locked in for medals (Gold and Silver up til now) as they watched a competitor from New Zealand knock them down to silver and bronze. What do you think they did next? They cheered like they were at a concert – because they took joy in her triumph – and they ran out and dog piled her! Then all of the competitors came out and mobbed all three of them in a giant huddle – including the one she knocked off the podium who would’ve gotten Bronze!
I wonder if the men will be strong enough to do that at the end of their competition? We’ll see.
Now, that was certainly an Olympic event of joyful competition demonstrating the best of what we can do and be as humans, but what we have in scripture today is an Olympic event of suffering that shows us what life is like when we turn to God (in Psalm 40) and what it is like when we turn from God, like the “lame” man Jesus healed. Keep those women in mind while we talk about this lame guy. Also, I would suggest that he remained lame, even though he could walk.
Don’t take it from me, though. Let’s look at the text. The first thing I want you to notice is that Jesus is an observant Jew. 5:1 says he went back to Jerusalem because there was a festival. The text doesn’t bother with a route through Samaria this time, though he probably went that way again. John’s gospel has already made the point in chapters 3 and 4 that Jesus has come as God’s offering of Grace for the world, which includes people we don’t think deserve it and even those that may be actively oppressing us. In 4:46 Jesus heals the son of a Roman Official and sends him off with nothing but a promise.
In Chapter 5 we find a different situation entirely. First we learn that there are a number of people with different infirmities waiting at the pool at the Sheep Gate. Scholars believe this was a pool for ritual bathing, and while the King James version inserted the idea that an Angel troubled the waters, the NRSV does not because that is not what the original Greek texts say. It just says that the waters get stirred up and they bring healing. Archeologists tell us the pool was fed by a cistern, possibly when it overflowed, but what matters is that the expectation of this man was that healing might come through a strangely competitive action that seems devoid of grace and mercy – especially the mercy of those who may clearly see his need.
Jesus sees him and hears him and has compassion on him and tells him in v.8 to take up his mat and walk. He doesn’t try to correct the man’s belief system. He doesn’t try to compete in this unfair system that then punished the man for walking and carrying his mat on a Sabbath day (5:10). Incidentally, this is the part where we see that the man is still “lame”. In 5:14 Jesus finds the man, presumably hearing that he has told the Temple Authorities that someone else was to blame for his sin against the law, and says, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
Let’s pump the breaks here for a second and acknowledge that sin in the Gospel of John is not a quid pro quo. Sin is about alienation from God and from one another, and we see this here and again in John 9 with the question about the person born blind and whose sin caused it. With that in mind, Jesus is not saying that the man will be even more physically infirm. Jesus is telling the man that choosing the law over grace is what kept people from helping him in the first place.
“Look,” he says, “don’t contribute to the same system that caused your suffering in the first place.” Yet the first thing the man does is to go and tell the Temple Authorities about Jesus, which fills them with anger – and probably some fear – that boils over into violence. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty lame to me.
Contrast that with Psalm 40:4, and what do you hear? “Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.” Yes. Happy are we when we realize, as it continues in v5 that the providence of God is greater than we can even imagine. Happy are we if the idea of oppression is a foreign concept. Happy are we if our sorrow is not too great for us to even see (let alone rejoice) in the success of our neighbors – even our competitors – and happy are we if we can embrace them and shout for them like the Olympic athletes we support.
Happy are we if we can see this table and the gifts it brings us as a foretaste of the unity that goes beyond our imagination and rests in the providence of God.
Happy are we if we can see the systems that keep people waiting by the pool of business and commerce as though it does not require us to consume toxic chemicals and promote toxic relationships. That is not to say that one ism is any better than the other, but it is to say that we are often as blind as the devout Jews, apart from Jesus, who walked by the pool ignoring those poor suckers who were waiting on some clean water to pour in upon them.
See, we have been made well. I don’t mean that we don’t have those among us with chronic pain or other diseases. I don’t mean to say that we should deny the science of vaccines or the common courtesy of masking during surges of new strains of COVID. What I mean is that faith in Jesus is what enables us to see those places of suffering between us, so that we can contribute to one another’s wellbeing as children of God.
That means celebrating the achievements and sharing the burdens of those who have historically been ignored or denied – like women athletes; like black history month (which is actually just filling in the blanks for our shared history that we’ve left out in the past); like historically black communities in Louisiana and Alabama (and other states I am sure) that have higher rates of cancer due to documented chemical spills; like the indigenous tribes in Louisiana whose land is still being grabbed for to make fishing peers for corporate magnates while offering to relocate those who have fished the shore for generations to landlocked developments.
How is all of this still happening in 2022? Perhaps it is because we still need some healing after all. Thanks be to God that this table is the table of mercy. This table is the place where we join – winners and losers and all those in between – in a great huddle of love for all the world to see! This is the table that keeps us from being lame. It keeps us from denying others the love and mercy we have received. Maybe we can’t fix racism or reform our political and economic system overnight, but we can at least recognize hatred when we see it. More than that, we can recognize love when we see it.
I want to tell you about a place where I saw love flow like the question of Jesus, who simply asks, “Do you want to be made well?” This week, on the first few days of Black History Month, more than 20 HBCUs (Historically Black Campuses and Universities) received bomb threats. One of them was Southern University, which is near First Presbyterian Church of Scotlandville, a member congregation of the Presbytery of South Louisiana that has recently begun steps to start a campus ministry at Southern.
To say they were upset about this – these, our brothers and sisters in Christ – would be putting it mildly. In response, they have submitted a statement of condemnation for these threats that will go to our next Presbytery meeting. Affirming it is the least we can do. Statements are easy. The real question is whether or not we actually want to be healed. It’s no question as to whether we have been healed because Jesus doesn’t compete.
The good news of this table is that we have been made well, and because we have been made well we can see all the weird things people do to make themselves feel better – and we can choose a different path…and we can invite them to this same table where we celebrate and taste and see that Jesus is the bread of life and the offering of salvation.
That’s where we’ll pick up next week, but today, as we approach the Table of Mercy, let us hear the voice of God say to us, “See, you have been made well. Now do not sin – do not separate yourself from God and from your neighbor – so that nothing worse will happen.” Amen.
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