If you did not make it to church on Sunday, you missed an awesome potluck lunch, and you have a little homework. Read John 5:1-9. It’s short. There is a pool with great healing powers, when it is stirred up by an angel of God. Many try to get to the water. What was going on with the poor man lying by the pool with whom Jesus spoke? He was crushed by the myth that he had no personal power. Maybe Jesus said something like this: “Dear friend, you have been lying there for years, dependent on handouts of food and affirmation. Yes, you have some impediments, we all do. Don’t define yourself by that, nor make it another’s problem that you haven’t moved. The angel to stir up that water is within you. The angel to stir up that water is within you.
“You’ve sat here for so long because people told you couldn’t move – or shouldn’t, because it would be pushy and unseemly, ad you believed them. Don’t forget what you are capable of. Know that asking for help is also an act of power. Claim your right to get to that healing pool. It’s not weakness or begging. That is you declaring in your own voice, “Sisters and brothers, I need to get to that pool, to that goal, to that job, to that sense of myself. I am worthy of healing; I am worthy of assistance and I shall claim what I need.” You are worthy, beloved, empowered and by the grace of God, whole.
Peace,
Pastor Carol
