"Do you want to get well?"

Wednesday, January 9, 2013 -- The Epiphany and Following (Year One)
Julia Chester Emery, Missionary, 1922

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
     (Book of Common Prayer, p. 942)
Psalms 121, 122, 123 (morning)       131, 132 (evening)
Isaiah 63:1-5
Revelation 2:18-29
John 5:1-15

For thirty-eight years this unnamed man in John's gospel lay by the Bethsaida pool.  You get used to a way of life if you continue in it for thirty-eight years.  Imagine back to 1974.  How old were you?  Where were you living and what were you doing?  Imagine your life today being consistently the same as your life in 1974.  Same place; same circumstances; nothing changes for thirty-eight years.  You'd be adapted and comfortable with that life, even if it's not optimal.  Would you react with eagerness if someone said, "I'll change all of this"? 

"Do you want to get well?" Jesus asked the man.  Whoa.  Just a minute.  He doesn't even go there.  He explains to Jesus, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up..."  He understands the situation.  He explains.  He makes excuses.  He's grown accustomed to it.  It's not so bad.  Obviously he has food, shelter, companionship, a familiar life that is comfortable enough.  He is so used to this situation that he doesn't even think about its changing.  Thirty-eight years.  It's been this way a long time.

"Stand up, take your mat and walk."  He does so.  We might think, "He is healed!  It's a miracle.  How wonderful!"  Whoa.  Not so fast.  There are a couple of problems here.  We have regulations.  We have rules and customs here.  You can't do that on a Sabbath.  Carrying a mat on the Sabbath is not allowed.  Immediately the man gets in trouble with the authorities.  "Why are you carrying the mat?"  "The man who made me well told me to."  "Who is he?"

Now his life has become really complicated.  He knows what the authorities might do to a troublemaker who is sabotaging the Sabbath laws.  If he tells them who healed him, he knows they'll go after Jesus.  It won't be pretty.  But if he doesn't, he's in big trouble.  He becomes an informer.  He tells the authorities.

And there are other new problems to consider.  Tomorrow, the first day of the week, he'll have to go looking for a job.  When he was lame, others had a responsibility to look after his basic needs.  Now he'll have to take on new responsibility for himself.  It's going to be harder.  He's not going to get the same kind of help he used to.

Yet, his life is immensely richer.  He can walk.  He has new possibilities for living more expansively.  It was the right decision, though a hard one, to take up his mat and walk.  But he had to overcome great inertia and some powerful vested interests to make this change.

We Americans spend a lot more on health care than any nation on earth, yet by most metrics of health, we aren't in the top ten among other nations.  We've got a sick system.  But if someone asks, "Do you want to get well?" there are plenty of excuses, complications and vested interests to be considered.  It's been this way a long time.  There are regulations.  Who's going to take responsibility if you change what we're familiar with? 

Some people live in homes or relationships or jobs that appear pretty miserable and dysfunctional.  But after thirty-eight years, you learn to adapt.  You get pretty comfortable with the pathology.  It's easier to live with it than to change, you think. 

If someone comes and says, "Do you want to get well?" will we make excuses, or will we do the hard work of taking new responsibility?  It's a tough question.

Lowell
___________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location

-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church

is to explore and celebrate

God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 

We aspire to...

    worship weekly

    pray daily

    learn constantly

    serve joyfully 

    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Fayetteville, Arkansas