THE POOL OF BETHESDA
John 5:2-9

A sermon given by the Rev. Richard H. Taylor
July 31, 2005 / 10th Sunday of Pentecost

When it was time to come out again and be by the fountain here in Abbott Park, I began to think of how much this place reminded me of Jerusalem pool of Bethesda (or Bethzatha). This is a place of healing. People come here for healing prayer. In this park we have had prayer services for peace, and prayer services for justice. We have had memorials for those hurt by hate crimes, and just common everyday prayer for people one at a time.

And some how, just like the pool of Bethesda, the people in need come here. Maybe because the Social Security office is over there, or Crossroads just up the street, I don't know. John tells me the grass is yellow over there because someone's sleeping blanket is on it most nights. In the porticos around the Jerusalem Bethesda, the other John tells us, "lay many invalids - blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years." This week was the fortieth anniversary of the passage of the Medicare Act. I think it healed many. But not everyone. So still some people have ill for thirty-eight years. And they came here to wait out the days.

Jesus comes to this place. It is good to remember the kind of places Jesus comes to. Now there was a tradition in this place, the Jerusalem one, that if the wind, if the spirit stirred up the waters, the first person to enter the waters would be healed.

Jesus says to the man - the one who had been there thirty-eight years - "Do you want to be made well?" This is a telling question. Most sermons on this text that I have ever heard concentrate on this question, "do you want to be made well?" After all, this man has been here for thirty-eight years. If all these miracles have been taking place, why hasn't he gotten himself first in line, at least once? Why doesn't he pull himself up by his boot straps? Many of these sermons that I have heard deliver this question with psychological power. The real reason some people aren't healed, they boast, is that they don't want to be! It's all internal they suggest. It's all your own fault! It's popular preaching to those who are healthy. And, no doubt, sometimes it is true. Sometimes people are ill because they want to be.

But the sick man offers Jesus a real answer. He says, "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 ahead of me." Now more than once I have heard preachers make fun of this answer. "An excuse from a lazy man," they have said. But the man is an invalid, lame or paralyzed. And maybe he doesn't have a friend caring for him.

Jesus does not condemn him or his answer, but instead invades his life with a long awaited miraculous power:

"Rise! Take up your bed and walk!"

Jesus does not go around condemning those who have been ill for thirty-eight years. When he knows they want to be healed, and he knows what has held them back, he steps up in power and says "be healed!"

Oh! How I wish Jesus were walking in our Abbott - Bethesda today!

But I see this pool and fountain all over America. In America today it is really true that millions of Americans have no friends ready to put them into the fountain of health. When they try to get healed someone steps in front of them. The rich step in front of the working poor. The elderly step in front of the child.

If I were Jesus, I would say to America today "do you want to be made well?"

Do you know that 45 million Americans lack health insurance?¹ And what friends do they have to carry them to the pool, or the lower them through the roof? America, do you want to be made well?

Do you know that America spends more money per capita on health care than any other nation, and yet the World Health Organization says the health care provided by our system ranks 37th, behind almost all other industrialized nations.² America, do you want to made well?

Did you know that a recent survey found that the most significant reason for American families to fall into bankruptcy was because of a major health emergency that swamped them into poverty?

Unfortunately some of us still want to be social Darwinists and blame the sick for their own sickness and resultant poverty. We believe in "the survival of the fittest," and like to think that those of us surviving are the most fit. I rather think what is really true is what the late great paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould says about evolution: It is not the "survival of the fittest," but the "survival of the luckiest." Don't think you are so fit. You may have just been lucky.

Take for instance: you are a shelf stocker with two children. You work at Wal-Mart. You work hard. You have no health insurance.

Now you get near minimum wage. Its hard to feed your kids. So you cancel regular check-ups. You make due through what seems like minor illnesses. But don't get really sick.

You see, the health care system in Rhode Island and America is designed to take advantage of the 45 million people without insurance.

Now, I get health insurance through the Church. Recently my plan changed the way they report our bills, so that I can see what they would charge a person without health insurance. These are real numbers. I recently had a medical test at Miriam Hospital. My insurance company said that the reasonable agreed upon cost for that test for people with my insurance was $213.44. But, if I had no insurance the same test would be $1,185.00! $213.44 for those of us with insurance, $1,185.00 for the working poor!

I also had some laboratory blood tests. My insurance agreed the pay amount was $21.74. But if I was uninsured I would have had to have paid $304.00! People with insurance pay only 7.15% of what people without insurance pay!

America, do you want to be made well? Or do millions of Americans lack friends who will speak up for them and help them out? America, do you want to made well, or do you have the rich and powerful stepping in front of those who have been waiting for thirty-eight years? Is it acceptable to let 45 million Americans perish without any helping friends?

I found it interesting that they shortened those terrible traffic jams we used to have getting out of the Providence Place Parking Mall by giving everyone the same cost and card. They used to have to read each card. When all are the same things move much quicker. Think of all the money and time we would save if we had universal health care. America, do you want to be made well?

What's the Gospel all about?

Jesus said he came not for those "who need a physician, but for those who are sick." When John asked him if he was the Messiah, Jesus responded, "the sick are healed, lepers are cleansed, and the poor have good news preached to them." When Jesus describes those who know him, he says "I was sick and you visited me."

So much of the reason Jesus came was so that the sick could be healed. America, do you want to be made well?

In Central Park in New York City, there is another Bethesda fountain. That one has a large angel with outstretched wings. Our fountain only has little cherubim, and, like many cherubim, you can't see their wings. But the idea is the same.

Playwright Tony Kushner came here and spoke for peace at Beneficent a few years ago. His most famous play, Angels in America's final scene takes place around the Bethesda fountain in New York. Many of the characters in the play have had AIDS or other illnesses; lost friends to illness. Some are nurses. Let me read to you some of the dialogue that comes near the end of the play.

(Because of copyright issues, this reading is not printed here. For the text see, Kushner, Tony, "Angels in America Part Two: Perestroika," Theatre Communications Group, New York, 1992; p. 147, from "This angel..." to the end of the page. )

Amen.

1 - Harrop, Froma, "Between restrictions and chaos," The Providence Journal, June 15, 2005, p.B5.
2 - Ibid.