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Thank you to your Rector for the invitation to worship with you and for the opportunity to share the good news of God in Christ with you this morning. My name is The Rev. Glenna Huber have been a priest in Dio of Md. for the past 7yrs. Before that I was in the Dio. Of Atl. Most recently I served as the Vicar at Church of the Holy Nativity.
Over the past year I have done congregational development in a ecumenical context serving urban congregations. Over the past year there has been some urgency around the need for church’s to be responses to the needs of the city. As you are aware, the month of April last year saw the death of Freddie Grey while in police custody and the response from some in the community resulted in unrest which gained national attention. Over the past 3 weeks I have had a variety of interviews from around the US and inevitably that ask – is there any hope for Baltimore City? – Well, you're asking a Christian and a believer in a God who says I will redeem all things, Of Course there is hope for Baltimore city. But, the injustices that the city has endured will need to be named and the people will need to own the desire to be healed before any substantial transformation can take place. (I think). It is from this urban perspective that I want to explore the Gospel with you this morning.
Jesus has gone up from Cana of Galilee to Jerusalem to celebrate one of the great religious feasts. It’s interesting that he enters the city through the Sheep Gate, the entrance to the city through which the sheep for temple sacrifices were brought. Once inside the city, he comes to the pool of Bethesda,“house of mercy.” Lying all around the pool are sick and paralyzed people. They are there because there is a legend that an angel would on occasion come and stir up the waters of the pool, and the first one to enter the pool after the angel stirred the water would be healed. For many this there was the last hope for healing. It not unlike what is still found in many parts of the world today. Lourdes, in southern France, has a spa which many believe has healing capacities. The shrine of Guadalupe, in Mexico City, is another such place were thousands have gone hoping for a healing. For so many these places of reported healing offer a type of last hope.
Jesus moves into the midst of such a group but Jesus does not indiscriminately heal everyone at that the pool that day he moves among the blind and the lame, and is drawn to one particular man, a man who had been ill for 38 years.
Jesus approaches him but doesn't ask his name or condition instead he says simply” Do you want to be healed?” Umm, Do I want to be healed, I’ve been sitting by this pool for 38 years, I can't move, nobody will help me - do I want to be healed, does the city want to be healed, being are dying in the streets on a daily basis, the schools are falling apart, seniors are afraid to even sit on their porch for fear of getting shot.
I think many of us have had an experience not unlike this man or like the Baltimore city. For years sitting yearning for some help. Sitting in hope for some type of cure. Maybe you were in desperate need of a word of encouragement, a renewed sense of peace, you needed healing in your body, your marriage, your family, a friendship, or on the job, or you just needed someone to come around you and lift you up either figurative or physically. And maybe the healing just didn’t come. And you waited and prayed and waited and prayed, things didn’t change or maybe they got worse and at some point maybe you just gave up, hope came crashing to the ground. It wasn't necessarily intentional, you didn't say to yourself I'll stop trying, it just happened, became routine. Sometimes many just get comfortable with the dysfunction. It becomes easier to live in a dysfunctional system then to take the necessary steps to make healthy healing choices. One reporter called me a few weeks ago and said she had been interviewing people for her story Freddie Grey a year later. She said people have been so negative, so hopeless. I'm calling you because I would like to add something positive, something that offers hope, can you say something hopeful?
Well, yes in fact I can. Over the past year we have been able to secure 375 local jobs for residents in low income zip codes, we have secured jobs for returning citizens and youth looking for year long employment. We have worked with over 26 employers who have agreed to set up their own accountability around local hiring. We are putting people back to work. This is slow, hard work.
The present dysfunction in the city, in our own experiences, is the result of generations of neglect or divestment or just poor choices. All of this will take time to transform and its going to take some work. There comes a point where there is no benefit in pointing out how every one else is to blame for our problems. There comes a point where there is no longer any gain from being the victim of circumstance.
Do you want to be healed, Yes! Well then get up and walk.
I hear this as Jesus saying fine – you can no longer blame others for not taking care of you. You can no longer afford the luxury of waiting for someone to take pity on you and come and fix it for you. You can't wait for the water to bubble up. You must do something that you haven’t done before, you must take a risk, and in the midst of that risk trust that God will work it out for you, and sometimes that risk involves stepping outside of what everyone else has put their faith in, stepping outside of the trusted system and having faith. "Stand up, take your mat and walk."
“At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.” Before the man ever took his first step Jesus had already healed him. You know the man could have just sat there and said these legs have nothing left I’m not taking a chance on standing up and falling on my face. I have fallen on my face to many times in the past when I tried and I’m not making a fool of myself again. But that isn’t what he did. he believed he was healed or maybe he took a risk knowing he had nothing left to lose, either way he took action having faith that Christ might be the real deal, he had faith that maybe he had been healed. We are made well by taking action rooted in faith. It’s risky, it requires that we step out of those comfort zones, especially the dysfunctional comfort zones. The 1st steps may even be a bit tricky or painful, but We are Easter people. We know the whole story, we know God redeems all things, even the darkest scariest things that we can image, can can and will redeem - the psalm 30 expresses this sentiment by stating pain or weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
How do we “ stand up, and walk, how does a city so mired in depression and defeat shout with authority Baltimore is rising, how do we as people who have become comfortable in our own dysfunction stand up and walk, how do we individually and collective say and show the world that we are Easter people?
Early in my ordination years I had a therapist who was really tough. We were, I thought, working through some things and one day he said Glenna, do you want things to be different? Really, I come every 2 weeks and pay you to reflect and analyze so that things are different. Right,meh calmly responded but you keep doing the same things, your re enacting the same behaviors in different situations, you need to make some changes.
Portia Nelson
“I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place.
But, it isn't my fault.
It still takes me a long time to get out.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in. It's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault. I get out immediately.
walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
I walk down another street.”
So that's it. Do you want to be healed, Yes? Then live differently, walk down a different street, take a risk and trust that God will redeem.
The good news is that Jesus comes to us with mercy and grace and does not see as we are, but what we could be. We are all holding on to past hurts, grievances, holding onto pain that prevents us from being wholly who God has created us to be. The good news is that the divine approaches us and does not see us as we are but as we could be.
On this 6th Sunday after the resurrection of Christ, May we the accept the healing invitation that is again offered to us, may we as Gods Easter people be made perfect in every good work to do Gods will, may our efforts rooted in faith be pleasing in Gods sight, may we accept that we have already been healed and be empowered to stand up, take our mat and walk.
Church of the Good Shepherd
5/1/16
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