Pick up that mat: May 25, 2025

 Year C, Easter 6                                John 5:1-9                                                                                                   Thirty-eight years is a long time to be ill.  One of the most sacred and profound parts of my job is visiting people when they are sick. Sometimes it’s a temporary illness that they will get through.  Sometimes it is an illness which will inevitably end in death, either imminently, or years later.  Often people don’t know where this illness will lead them.  When I visited people in hospitals and their homes, I never fully appreciated what they were going through. I was sympathetic, but I didn’t actually understand.  I was always amazed at how positive some people seemed to be and I thought, surely I would be just like that if I was hospitalized.  I would certainly find the humor in it…somehow. 

When I was in the ICU for a week and then the regular hospital for 3 more weeks, I was a wreck. At one point a chaplain came by and I started crying. She said, “It’s good to cry.” I said, “Well, I hope so, because I do it daily.”  She responded, “Well, that’s not good. You might be depressed.” I wanted to say, “Do you think? Do you think almost dying and then being stuck in a bed, unable to walk might make someone depressed?” I didn’t say that, because the truth was, I just didn’t care.  What that experience taught me was that I was not nearly as strong or hearty as I thought I was.   I was only sick for a few months.  38 years…that’s a terrifying prospect.

            The first several hours I worked on this sermon, I found myself regretting choosing this text to preach on. Because this nameless man who was the recipient of Jesus’ healing and love is one of the least sympathetic characters in the Bible. Usually when Jesus healed someone, they asked for the healing and displayed some measure of faith or worthiness. Then when they were healed, they showed gratitude or joy.  Some even became evangelists telling everyone what Jesus did for them. Yet we see none of that from this man. He doesn’t even ask for the healing nor does he know who Jesus is.   In other healing stories, people scrambled to get Jesus’s attention.  They begged him.   This guy doesn’t know who he is.

            Today, we only heard half of the story. The last line was, “Now the day was a Sabbath.”  Because of that, the man who was healed got in a little trouble.  Jesus told him to “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” That is what he did, but you are not supposed to work on the Sabbath. You are not supposed to carry something…like a mat.  A few people questioned the healed man and he immediately blamed it on Jesus. He said, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” 

When those questioning him asked who had healed him, he said he didn’t know his name.  How do you not find out the name of the person who just miraculously healed you? Why would you then throw that person under the bus? It gets worse. Later Jesus found the healed man in the temple and told him to sin no more. Then this healed man found those who had questioned him and told them Jesus’ name.

Some might say, well all he did was tell them Jesus’ name. He could not have known this would have gotten Jesus into trouble.  Of course he knew. He knew that people weren’t supposed to work on the Sabbath.  He knew they were questioning him so they could find the source of the healing. If you are not supposed to carry a mat on the Sabbath, you are definitely not supposed to heal on the Sabbath. He had to know this would have gotten Jesus into trouble and it did. Afterwards, it says Jesus was persecuted. 

          Why of all the sick and desperate people lying around that pool, why did Jesus choose this man?  The only explanation the text gives is that Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been there.  When Jesus asked, “Do you want to be made well?”—the man didn’t say, “Yes!” He just gave an excuse. 

The pool that he was lying next to was supposed to have healing properties.  It was believed that when the water was stirred up, it meant that an angel was present. Whoever was first to get into the water would be healed.   When Jesus asked if he wanted to be made well, he said that he could not get to the water and there was no one to help him. Yet, despite the man’s inability to express a desire to be healed… Despite the man giving no indication he believed Jesus could help him….Despite all of that, Jesus healed him anyways. He told him to stand up, take his mat and walk. 

          Here is the amazing thing, the man did it.  He did exactly as Jesus asked.  Remember, there is no indication that he knows anything about Jesus.  Why didn’t he just ignore him?  If someone told me when I was hospitalized just to get up and walk out, I would have told them to get out of my room.   We don’t know what this man’s ailment was but moving was clearly difficult.  If it has not been, he would have found a way to get in that pool before everyone else, even without help. 

          Obviously, we can’t know what was going through that man’s mind, but this is what I think. I think he saw something in Jesus’ face or heard something in his voice that gave him hope.  Or maybe, it was simply the first person who had bothered to talk to him in all those years of waiting by that pool.  In that moment, Jesus gave him the courage and strength to try something that he had been convinced he could never do.

          Did he deserve this opportunity? It doesn’t look like it to me.  Fortunately, it’s not up to me to determine who deserves healing or another chance.  It’s not up to any of us.  Jesus’ love and compassion does not depend on our worthiness to receive it. 

That is what grace is…it’s love that is in no way merited.  It’s love that comes with no strings.  It’s love that comes as a result of Jesus’s sacrificial love.  Did Jesus deserve to get in trouble for healing someone on the Sabbath? No, but he did it anyways.  Jesus knew the repercussions for his actions. He knew who did and didn’t deserve his love, but he gave it to all of us anyways.

          I was a horrible patient. I was nice to the people who came and helped me as well as the few who were allowed to visit.  My husband, he saw the worst of it all.  And he still washed my feet when they were covered in bacteria and gross hospital germs. He put my socks and shoes on when I was finally able to leave the hospital. He did that every day for months.  I couldn’t appreciate it because I could not see past my own pain.  Maybe this ungrateful man who was ill for 38 years was in the same place. Perhaps he could not see past his own pain to find the words to just say thank you.  Here is what he did, he got up and walked when Jesus told him to. He found whatever courage and strength he had left, to do something that he not have been able to do.

          Most of us are not dealing with an illness that lasts our whole lives.  Most of us are capable of getting up from these pews and walking.  Yet I would bet that there is something that each one of us longs for that we don’t think we deserve or we don’t have the courage to ask for, or try for.  We are stuck in a cycle of saying, “it’s just not worth it.” It might be something very small. It might be something big.  Whatever it is, I want you to know, it doesn’t matter whether you are worthy or strong or grateful.  What matters is that God loves you deeply and God is telling you to stand up, pick up whatever excuse you have been resting on, and walk.

Who are we to hinder God: May 18

 Year C, Easter 5                                                             Acts 11:1-18                                                                   Visions, trances, angels, the Spirit---Acts has just about everything that makes most Episcopalians a little uncomfortable. Yet if we are to believe this story is true, which I do, then these visions, angels, and the Holy Spirit are the main reason that we know the story of Jesus today.

          This reading from Acts may seem a little confusing because it’s summarizing what happened in the previous chapter.  I hope you will stay with me as I try to summarize it all. When Peter returned to Jerusalem, he was challenged by the circumcised believers for eating with gentiles.  It would be natural to assume the people challenging Peter were Pharisees.  This was something that the Pharisees questioned Jesus about. 

But these circumcised believers were followers of Christ, disciples of Jesus. In indicating that they were circumcised, the author of Acts was saying that they were most likely Jews who were now following Jesus, but still following the laws and traditions of the Jewish faith.  A lot of Jesus’ followers didn’t believe they were starting a new religion, this was just more like an evolution of the Jewish faith. And those people didn’t think you could be a real follower of Christ until you took on the traditions of the Jewish faith, which included circumcision.  These followers of Christ asked Peter: “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?”

          Some of us might think, well what’s the big deal? He had a meal with people who were not circumcised.  The problem was that in eating at the home of a gentile, Peter was almost surely breaking the purity laws of the Jewish faith.  He would also have been undermining the boundaries between observant Jews and non observant gentiles.  This was a very important distinction at the time. It would be like Eagles fans and Cowboys fans getting together for a potluck.

          Peter responded in a way that Jesus often did in these situations.  He told a story.  However, while Jesus often used parables in his story telling, Peter relied on his own life experience.  This story, was kind of wild. He fell in a trance and saw a big sheet descend from heaven and there were animals on the sheet, animals that Jews were not supposed to eat.  But then Peter heard a voice that said “kill and eat.” Peter argued with the heavenly voice, which finally replied: “What God had made clean, you must not call profane.” The detail that Peter skipped in retelling the story was that this whole vision left him very confused. He had no idea what this all meant.  But then three men showed up and the Spirit told him to go with them to visit the home of Cornelius. 

          These three men said that they were sent my Cornelius, a God fearing man who had spoken to an angel.  Saying that someone was God-fearing was a way to describe a gentile who was devout, but still a gentile.  When Peter arrived, he acknowledged that he was not supposed to be there as a Jew, but the Spirit led him and he followed. Then Cornelius told him the story of the angel visiting him while he was praying and asking that he send for Peter, a man he had never met.

          It was at this point, when all the pieces came together and Peter said, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” This would have been mind blowing to hear at the time, because it meant that there didn’t have to be a division between the Jews and the gentiles. It also meant that God’s love was available to everyone, not just the Jews.

          That was the story he summed up in the text we heard today. That was the story he told in response to the criticism he received from those followers of Jesus who didn’t think God’s message could be brought to the gentiles.  He added that when he had shared this good news with the gentiles, the Spirit descended and they were all baptized. He concluded “If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?”

          One of the things that I love about this story is that it’s both simple and complicated at the same time.  On first glance it seems that Peter came to this revolutionary understanding quickly and easily.  But that was not what happened.  So much had to happen for his eyes to be opened. First of all, the vision came to him when he was praying. He took the time to talk and listen to God. He then followed the guidance of the Spirit.  Meanwhile, another person was also praying, listening and following the guidance of the Spirit.  It required two people who had entirely different backgrounds to find this new way of being. Two people who should never have been in the same room together.  Two people who listened to God and were willing to be open to the movement of the Spirit.

          Does this mean that Peter then gave up all the traditions and rules of the Jewish faith? Christians often assume that but it never said that he did. What changed was that Peter was able to see that those who didn’t follow the same rules and have the same background were no less worthy because of it.

          During college I took a fair amount of religion classes, not because I expected to make it a career, but because I found it fascinating, especially the classes that focused on scripture.  Armed with this scriptural knowledge it was easier to deviate from the beliefs that I was raised with.  My brothers are all older and they had a major influence on me.  My oldest brother became an evangelical Christian and I had listened and not argued for many years.  After college, I started stating my opinions more boldly and talked about how the Holy Spirit had led me to some of these beliefs.  He said, “Yeah, but couldn’t you say that about anything? Does that mean anyone can say something is correct because they have been led by the Holy Spirit?”  I don’t think I had an answer for him then, but I do now. 

          Episcopalians often talk about something called the three legged stool.  The idea is that our faith is formed in three ways: Scripture, tradition and reason. Yet I would add that our understanding of those three things depends on the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  I love traditions. I even like rules.  What I have to continually remind myself, especially as I have more and more years as an ordained priest, is that traditions and rules shouldn’t bind us. They can guide us, but not bind us. 

Does that mean that we throw out the 10 commandments, the Nicene Creed and our beloved Book of Common Prayer? Of course not. But let’s not act like the Holy Spirit has stopped moving, stopped communicating.  Let’s not act like we have it all figured out, because we don’t. We can follow the example of Jesus, but also the example of Peter.  Peter who denied Jesus and left him to die on the cross. Peter who learned from his sins and then gave up everything to spread the message of Jesus.  He prayed and opened his heart to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  He acknowledged that even though he was one of Jesus’ chosen 12, he still had much to learn.  Because of his openness, we gentiles have this message of love to share with anyone and everyone. 

It is unlikely that you will be thrown into a trance or visited by angels, but the Spirit can still speak to you.  She might come in the form of someone who is different than you and tells you something or shows you something that challenges your preconceived notions.  She might come in the form of a realization that you might want to check out a church for the first time.  She might come in the form of a gentle breeze or even a heartbreaking moment. It’s shocking how many ways the Spirit can speak to us.  The question is, how can we be open to the Spirit?  As Peter says, “Who am I to hinder God?” Who are we to hinder God and who could we be if we got out of the way and let the Spirit move?