SERMON ~ 05/05/2013 ~ “Healing”

05/05/2013 ~ Sixth Sunday of Easter ~ Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5; John 14:23-29 or John 5:1-9 ~ Communion Sunday.

Healing

“Jesus said to the one who had been ill, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ Immediately this person was healed, picked up the mat and began to walk.  Now that day was a Sabbath.” — John 5:8-9.

Most of you, I think, know I am a graduate of Bangor Theological Seminary, Bangor, Maine.  What you may not know is Stephen King lives just a block from the Seminary.  King is, of course,... and this description is from the write up in Wikipedia... Stephen King is (quote) “an author of contemporary Horror, Suspense, Science Fiction and Fantasy.”

In fact, I met King in a casual way several times while I was attending seminary.  Once we stood in a line next to each other in a local pizza joint.  I am quite sure he deeply appreciated it that I simply nodded as a sign of recognition and made no fuss over him.

I have described King as a down home, good old boy from Maine.  Of course, that comes with a caveat.  Stephen King is a down home, good old boy from Maine who has made out quite well since he is both a multimillionaire and a world famous author.

King has said of himself that most people pay psychiatrists a lot of money to listen to their nightmares.  King writes the nightmares down and publishes them.  In short, people pay him a lot of money to read his scary dreams.  He likes the arrangement.

All of that is by way of saying a year and a half ago, a friend give me a present: the Stephen King novel 11/22/63.  At the time it was a newly published work.  Now, a year plus later, I finally caught up with it.

Most of you will immediately realize the significance of the title 11/22/63.  That’s the date on which President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated.

This is a work of Science Fiction since the book tells the story of a person living today who is shown a time portal.  Walk through this crack in the fabric of time and on the other side it always opens up to a day in 1958, in Lisbon Falls, Maine— Lisbon Falls, the place where King attended High School.

On top of that, no matter how much time this time traveler who walks through the crack spends in the past, on reentering the portal just two minutes will have elapsed here, today.  Anyway, this main character gets it in his brain to go back, wait five years and then try to prevent the assassination of Kennedy.  Hence, we get the title of the book.  And no, I won’t release any more plot details in case you want to read it.

Now, I’ve probably read more Martin Luther King than I have read Stephen King— slight difference.  But I will always maintain King is a good author.

As I read the opening pages of this book I was reminded of that.  What makes King a good writer?  I believe it’s his ability to create a fictional world, an illusion so real you both believe it and buy into it.

As a writer, myself, I admire this.  But, as a writer, I recognize something else.  The audience has to buy into the illusion or the illusion does not become believable.  That’s true whether it’s Les Misérables by Victor Hugo or Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain or 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  The audience has to collaborate with the writer in creating a fictional world, since that world does not really exist.  (Slight pause.)

I suspect one of the problems we have when we read Scripture is we read it like a novel.  As we read we create a world that does not exist.  In fact, King did more research before starting to write 11/22/63 than he had for any other book.  And that research was to write about something which happened just 50 years ago.

The Gospel stories happened 2,000 years ago.  What was the reality of the world in New Testament times?  And who among us really knows what that reality was?

Not may of us, I think.  Indeed, I have studied Scripture and the times in which it was written on a graduate level and I would not make the claim that I know enough to really understand or to recreate what it was like.

Hence, I would suggest that we should never read Scripture like a novel.  To do so would mean trying to recreate what the world was like 2,000 years ago.  It simply can’t be done.  (Slight pause.)

And these words are from the work known as John: “Jesus said to the one who had been ill, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ Immediately this person was healed, picked up the mat and began to walk.  Now that day was a Sabbath.”  (Slight pause.)

So, rule number 1: never read Scripture like a novel.  Rule number 2: see rule number 1.

On the other hand, that does not mean we should ignore all factual data.  We do know something about those times and that knowledge can be helpful as we strive to unpack meaning.  (Slight pause.)  So, what do we know?

Here’s one place to start: miracle stories were common in the literature outside of Scripture in New Testament times, especially as miracle stories referred to some divine person.  Caesar, for instance, was considered divine.

In fact, to call Jesus “Lord” was to mock Caesar.  And there were stories about Caesar healing people.  Hence, if there were no such stories in the Gospels, these narratives, in the era in which they were written, would have been thought of simply as strange stories.

But therefore, a significant question needs to be raised.  Is this a story about healing or is there sometime else going on?  Is there a theological point being made?

Interestingly, the one who was sick may give us a clue about an answer.  (Quote:) “Rabbi, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; by the time I get there, while I am making my way, someone else has gone ahead of me.”

Put another way the one who was sick is really saying this: “Don’t you know, Jesus?  Didn’t anyone tell you?  These are the instructions you need to follow to have a healing take place.”  Put yet another way the one who was sick is reciting the modern mantra of the church: “We’ve never done it that way before.”

Jesus pays no attention to any instructions, no attention to what people expect.  Jesus takes the one who was sick and moves this one outside of any preconceived notions about what should happen.  Thereby Jesus takes us and moves us outside of any preconceived notions what should happen.

How does Jesus do this?  Jesus simply says: “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”  (Slight pause.)

This story warns us against the persistent temptation to make God too small.  The love God offers us is cosmic, infinite in scope.  The love God offers us goes beyond what we can possibly imagine.

Indeed, there is an old slogan that says ‘faith works miracles.’  That concept utterly breaks down with this story.  It is God who works miracles.  Faith, our faith, is not a precondition for God to act.

We are indeed and often invited to have faith.  But it is not our action that creates anything.  It is God Who acts.  It is God Who creates.

Of course, this way of seeing the passage is reenforced by the last sentence in today’s reading.  “Now that day was a Sabbath.”

People do not get healed on the Sabbath in this place.  Why?  Healing on the Sabbath does not follow proscribed ritual.

But this story tells us following ritual is not something imposed by God.  It is something we might read into the reality, something we might impose.  But not God.  (Slight pause.)

For a moment, let me come back to Stephen King.  As I suggested, any good writer will rely on the audience to fill out the story.  It is the detail we already know that helps us fortify the story and King understands that and uses it.  That’s what makes him a good writer.

But Scripture is about theology, not about fiction.  We don’t need anything except theology when reading Scripture.  And this is the only theology we find in Scripture, so it’s the only theology we ever need: God loves us in ways we have yet to imagine.  Amen.

05/05/2013
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction.  This is an précis of what was said: “When I was a seminary student in Maine, I would go out to preach at different churches.  Never did peach at Stephen King’s church— he’s a Methodist.  Congregationalist— we don’t cross the isle— I don’t know why.  In any case, I learned that I had to put titles on my sermons so I put a title on this sermon— Healing.  It has occurred to me that the more appropriate title might have been: Oh, No, Jesus.  Your Healing People the Wrong Way!  But certainly one other possible sermon title might have been God Is in Charge and We Are Not— a hard lesson.”

BENEDICTION: We can find the presence of God in unexpected places.  God’s light leads us to places we thought not possible just moments ago.  God’s love abounds and will live with us throughout eternity.  The grace of God is deeper than our imagination.  The strength of Christ is stronger than our needs.  The communion of the Holy Spirit is richer than our togetherness.  May the One Triune God sustain us today and throughout the infinity of what is commonly called tomorrow.  Amen.