Sunday Worship
Welcome to our Worship on the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Our services are at the usual times of 9.15 am at St Agnes' Church (Service of the Word), and 11.00 am at St Thomas' Sung Eucharist). If you are unable to be with us in person, you can find a Bible reading, a short reflection and some prayers below.
Our first hymn this morning is "Abba, Father, Let Me Be"
Today's Gospel
John 5:1-9 The Healing at the Pool
After Jesus healed the son of the official in Capernaum, there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. In these lay many invalids-- blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me." Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. Now that day was a sabbath.
Reflection
Let me start with a question - When you read the Gospel passage above, what did you first think about?
On the face of it this is another story of our Lord’s ability and miraculous power to heal the sick and show his love for others. But take a minute to read though the passage again and this time try to see yourself as the sick invalid. What thoughts go through your head as you think about what it must be like to endure almost forty years of being sick, incapable and suffering. But that’s not all, because there within a few feet of you is a possibility of being cured in these magical waters – if only you could reach them in time.
We are told that the sick man needed to get to the pool when the waters were stirred. We suspect that the pool was above an intermittent spring which would at times force up healing minerals into the pool causing it to bubble and become agitated. Quite like people nowadays who may go to health spas with natural minerals hoping to get some relief from ailments, aches and pains or even chasing the illusion of eternal youth. For the people back Jesus’ time, it would however, have been more shrouded in superstition and myth than science and some believed that there were spirits of angels in the water that would cure illness of all kinds.
So, putting yourself back in the shoes of the sick man, how do you think you are feeling being so near yet so far from a possible cure? Are you frustrated? Annoyed? I would suggest that your feelings might be much stronger even than that. Maybe despondency or even total despair. To make things worse you are surrounded by dozens of other sick people who are also despairing, your companions in woe, probably feeding each other’s sense of futility and gloom.
But Jesus’ attention fell upon this one man. Why this man out of all the many who are there? We don’t know. But Jesus asks what seems a strange question - "Do you want to be made well?" I think Jesus is really asking him, are you so despondent that you have given up all hope of being cured or do you have faith? We know from later verses in the passage, that the sick man had no idea of who Jesus was. So, when he replies to Jesus’ question, he is probably hoping that maybe this stranger will physically help him by assisting him to the waters. However, in a roundabout sort of way, he has given Jesus the response he wanted to hear which could be paraphrased as, “I am helpless but not hopeless”. The sick man, despite all he has to bear, still has faith and still has hope and because of his faith and hope Jesus heals him.
There are many times when things don’t go right for us. Whether that’s illness, loneliness, troubles at work or in our family lives or just ongoing stress. And sometimes these can drag on. At times like these, our morale can dip and then the devil will be waiting with his favourite weapons; the tools of discouragement and despair. But if we hang on to our faith and continue to have hope, we will open the door for Jesus to work his wonders in our lives. We need to remember that Jesus loves us and wants to work through us and with us if we only give him the chance. His way is way of love and His tools are the tools of encouragement and hope. Paul
